Spy Classroom - Volume SS3 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Qulle’s Case

“The Discourse on Decadence senior leadership managed to give the Executioners the slip.”

When Vindo gave them the news, Avian gasped.

It was night, and he’d ordered them to gather in the lounge without the Lamplight girls noticing. That had been ominous in and of itself, and when they learned what had happened, they were despondent.

The Discourse on Decadence was a criminal organization made up of former academy students. Avian’s efforts had led to the capture of the majority of their members, and only three people remained at large. A team called the Executioners that specialized in killing their own compatriots had taken over the mission…but apparently, the Executioners had failed.

Vindo crossed his arms in annoyance. “The group wounded two of the Executioners when making their escape. The brass believes they’re trying to flee the country.”

His tone was detached.

“Avian has new orders. Our job is to kill the Discourse on Decadence leadership.”

A series of sighs came from across the room. Their reactions were an equal mix of frustration and sadness.

“So in the end, this is what it cooomes to.” Pharma’s shoulders slumped as she sat with her legs sprawled across the couch. “Killing our own. I’m really not feeeeling it.”

“They don’t know a lot, but it still constitutes Din state secrets,” Vindo replied coldly. “We can’t let them cross the border.”

If nothing else, they knew the locations of the spy academies, the contents of the curriculum, and key details about the top students who went to their schools. It was relatively minor information about their intelligence organization, all things considered, but they still couldn’t let it get out.

Perched on her sofa’s armrest, Lan raised her hand. “Can we not take them alive?” she asked. “’Twould bring me scant joy to slay a classmate of mine from but a single year ago—”

“Nay.” Standing in the corner of the room with his arms crossed, Queneau shook his head. “They’re too strong for that.”

Beside him, Vics let out a grim laugh with an equally sour expression. “Yeah, I don’t see any reason to capture them if it just means we’re more likely to get ourselves killed. ♪”

If they had been dealing with people on the level of those Avian had apprehended earlier, then capturing them might have been feasible. Now, though, they were dealing with opponents skilled enough to escape the Executioners. It would be a sad joke indeed if Avian underestimated them and ended up going to their own deaths.

There were three survivors—the leader, “Thunderclap”; the chief advisor, “Hermit”; and the instructor, “Madfest.”

Vindo had been in the same class as Thunderclap, and while he hadn’t been on Vindo’s level, he had some impressive assassination techniques at his disposal. Avian couldn’t afford to give these people any quarter.

“All right, Vindo. ♪” Vics gave him a taunting wave. “Sounds like we’ve gotta bring our A game here. Surely this is no time to be stubborn. What do you say we start really giving this teamwork thing our all so we can—?”

“That’s not happening.”

Vindo’s reply was brief.

He was so completely uninterested, he didn’t even turn to look Vics’s way.

“I’m going to do my thing. Come along if you want.”

The smile vanished from Vics’s face. “…Are you seriously stupid enough to forget the way Lamplight conned us?”

“That was an anomaly.”

“Man, how many more times are you gonna have to lose to Klaus before it beats some sense into your head?”

“I’ll win eventually. And I’ll do it my way.”

The tension in the air between them was palpable.

Over to the side, Qulle buried her face in her hands in abject frustration.

Ugh, this again…

It was far from the first time that particular scene had played out. There was some major antagonism between Vindo, who flaunted his abilities and carried out one-man operations, and Vics, who had serious reservations about how unbalanced the team was becoming.

The two of them duked it out constantly, but Vindo was the team’s boss, and Vics had no choice but to fall in line.

No change on the Vindo front, huh? And here I was, thinking there had been signs of hope…

Naturally, Qulle was on Vics’s side. Vindo had been downright unbearable lately. The strategy he’d forced through in their fight against Lamplight in Longchon—the one where he’d taken on five of them solo—had been absurd. They had ended up winning that battle, but it was hard to say what role his plan had actually played in that. Vindo had gotten captured, and it was Vics who had ultimately made the winning move.

Qulle had thought their interactions with Lamplight had sparked a change in Vindo, but it looked like that had been wishful thinking.

Lan spoke up, hoping to change the mood in the room. “Should we inform Lamplight of our mission?”

“This stays strictly under wraps. The Discourse on Decadence has people from the same academies as them. Things could get messy if Lamplight tries to stick up for them.”

Pharma and Queneau agreed with Vindo’s verdict. “Plus, it’s not exactly the most cheeeerful of conversation starters.” “…Aye. We have a duty of confidentiality.”

“I have visual confirmation on them from a contact. We know their location,” Vindo said to sum up the situation. “All that’s left is to make our attack tomorrow night and put them down.”

“………”

Vics bit down on his lip. Vindo was ignoring him like he wasn’t even there.

The meeting wrapped up in much the same manner. Vindo delivered the plan as an edict, then dismissed them without so much as asking for their opinions or input. “I’m feeling peckish,” he muttered as he left the lounge, not sparing a glance at the others on his way out. He was doubtless planning on rummaging through the kitchen for food.

Qulle glanced over at the resentment on Vics’s face.

I get how you feel, Vics.

She didn’t say it aloud. She knew a show of pity would only wound his pride.

Secretly, though, she sympathized with him.

Times like these make me jealous of Lamplight from the bottom of my heart.

It felt like the girls had spent their whole time together showing off. Despite the gap between their skills and their boss’s, they had a spy team that trusted and believed in each other. They trained with the intent of pushing each other to improve, and during missions, they banded together and worked as a group.

That there was the source of Vics’s anger.

Lamplight had everything Avian was lacking. What’s more, they evoked an image of the warmth Avian had once had. Looking at them made it impossible not to remember how Avian used to be back when it had first been founded.

What would Adi say if she were here today?

Time and time again, everyone’s thoughts turned to her—to the woman Avian had lost who’d served as the soul of the team.

Back when “Sky Monk” Adi had still been alive, she’d earned herself some sort of scolding on the daily.

“Dammit, woman. How long is it going to take you to quit poking your nose into things that have nothing to do with the mission?”

“Sorry about that. I promise I won’t take my eyes off the target again. It’s just, there was this old woman who passed by carrying tons of luggage. She looked like she was really struggling. I couldn’t not help her. But look, stuff like that doesn’t happen all that often, so would you mind letting me off the hook this time, Vindo?”

Vindo crossed his arms and looked at her with disdain. As he did, Adi apologized so vigorously she nearly banged her head on the table bowing.

Adi screwing up during a mission and having to apologize was no laughing matter, but from an outside perspective, the situation was positively primed for someone to poke fun at it. “…Which one of them is in charge, again?” Queneau joked, feigning puzzlement, while Pharma did her best to mollify Vindo. “Vics was there to pick up her slack, so there’s no harm dooone.”

Avian was in the middle of their mission in Longchon, and currently, they were gathering information about the intelligence organizations in and around the Far East. Nearly half a year had passed since their graduations, and the team had settled into a rhythm.

Now the team spent much of their time trying to get a handle on Adi.

She was a good person, but her skills as a spy left a lot to be desired. She’d been put in charge of the team due to her wealth of experience, but she often got distracted and lost focus during their missions. Each time she did, Vindo would fly off the handle at her.

Given how regular an occurrence it was, though, he soon simmered down. “Well, whatever. I swear, though, this had better be the last time—”

“Oh hey, that reminds me!” Adi cheerfully dug around in her pockets. “The old lady gave me some oranges, and I’d be happy to share them if you’d— MY EEEEEYES!”

Vindo took the orange she offered him and hacked at it with his knife. Juice sprayed everywhere, splashing Adi in the face and causing her to drop to the floor and writhe in pain.

“Next time this happens, you’re fired.”

“But I’m the boss here!”

“Then start acting like it.”

Without waiting for a response, Vindo left and went to his room.

Qulle had been watching the whole thing play out from the side, and she sighed and handed Adi a towel. “Are, um, are you okay?”

“Thanks, Qulle. Oh hey, you want an orange?”

“I’m good.”

“More for me!”

Adi snatched up the mangled orange and dug in.

It was unclear if she was an idiot or merely a ditz, but either way, she certainly marched to the beat of her own drum. She was blessed with a rare personality that made it impossible to hate her even as she followed her whims, consequences be damned.

“I’m sorry about all that,” Qulle said. “Not even we can stop Vindo when he gets mad like that.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. It was my fault, after all.”

“I mean, you are technically our boss…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Adi replied, chuckling in amusement with a mouth full of orange. “Him getting mad at me feels like the only time Vindo’s actually enjoying himself. It’s important to give him chances to let off steam.”

Naturally, the comment earned her a round of ribbing from the others—“…Nay. That’s not for the person being scolded to say.” “Thy heart is so big, I fear it may burst out of thy chest”—but Adi just laughed it off.

A moment later, a serious look crossed her eyes. “I really am worried about him, though.”

“Huh?”

“It’s like, he takes himself a little too seriously for his own good,” Adi explained. “No matter how rational he tries to be, it’ll never fill that hole inside him. He can shove all the inconvenient bits aside to make this big show of how logical he is, but all that’ll do is make his impatience hit him that much harder.”

“…………………………”

The others were unsure how to respond to that.

That right there was classic Adi. She didn’t ever use her powers of observation during their actual missions, but every so often, she would make an offhand comment that cut right to the core of her teammates’ psyches. She never brought them any proper intel, but she would occasionally blurt out something with several layers of meaning.

The rest of the team paid her little heed, but Qulle took those words to heart. “What hole?”

“The one he’s got inside him. Can’t you see how hungry he is? If I had to guess, I’d say he’s one of those people who was driven to spy work for the sake of vengeance.”

“…………”

“But logic is no good for filling those kinds of holes.” Adi turned and looked out the window. “Even a quarter moon can become a full circle if you’re willing to change your point of view.”

Qulle had no idea what Adi was talking about, but she repeated back, “A quarter moon…,” all the same.

Adi grinned. “That’s right. In fact, I’m gonna go tell him that.”

“He’s going to get mad at you again, you know.”

It’d only been after “Sky Monk” Adi was gone that the truth had dawned on them.

They could make up for losing her as a spy, but none of them could fill the shoes she had as a person.

Those pleasant days were never coming back.

All of them had depended on her. The time they had spent complaining about her was time they had spent baring their true feelings, and that had served as a springboard for further discussion.

Losing her had left a hole none of them knew how to fill yet.

After the meeting, Qulle headed for the courtyard garden to take a breather.

She gazed idly at the stars and sank into thought.

Heat Haze Palace was surrounded by walls so as to avoid being seen from the street. That generally led to poor airflow, but that night, a humid wind rushed over her.

………? Where are the Lamplight girls?

All of a sudden, she realized how quiet the building was. She didn’t hear a single set of footsteps in the hallways. Normally, at least one person would be loudly tromping about.

However, that worked out just fine for her.

She pulled back her hair and exposed her ears.

Sorry, everyone… I know this is a little impolite…

That was Qulle’s special ability—Ultrahearing. Her auditory perception was leagues beyond most people’s, giving her an uncanny ability to eavesdrop and get a read on situations. It was a powerful skill, and one perfectly suited to espionage work. She steadied her breathing and focused her attention on her ears.

Right now, I want us to learn from you.

Qulle believed in her heart that it was Lamplight that would spark a change in Avian.

Can you give us a hint about how we can reinvent ourselves?

And so, she strained her ears and closed her eyes as though in prayer.

At the moment, the Lamplight girls were divided up into rooms.

Several of the girls were assembled in a bedroom on the far side of Heat Haze Palace.

There were four of them: Annette, Lily, Sybilla, and Monika.

Annette’s room was littered with tools and unidentifiable machines of all kinds. It was clear one wrong move could lead to a major accident, so aside from Annette, who was sitting in her hammock, the other three had all taken great care to secure places to stand that looked safe.

“I’ve got an important announcement, yo!” Annette said, swaying back and forth as she broke the ice.

Sybilla and Lily offered a pair of amused comments.

“Hot damn, it ain’t every day Annette gets us together.”

“What do you have cooking? I can see you’ve called for the team’s most athletic members.”

Everyone but Annette had been dragged there with little explanation, but the three of them all belonged to a group called the Operations squad. They were the ones who often stood on the front lines and fought enemies when the situation got ugly.

Monika scowled in irritation. “I’m gonna be honest, I don’t see any world where this ends well.”

She wanted to leave, and she tapped her foot on the ground to make sure everyone knew it.

The thing was, Annette was the biggest troublemaker on Lamplight. Whatever she was about to suggest, there was no way it was a good idea.

That was something they were in consensus about, and Sybilla and Lily exchanged some hushed whispers. “Eh, I get where she’s comin’ from.” “Let’s make sure we’re ready to flee at a moment’s notice.”

With expectations low, they all waited to hear what their summoner had to say.

Annette gave them her brightest smile.

“I want to get revenge on Avian, yo!”

“““SIGN ME UUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!!”””

That was enough to completely change their minds.

“Yeah, those punks have been gettin’ too goddamn comfy around here!” “It’s high time we got us some payback!” “I couldn’t agree more. I like where your head is at.”

As soon as Annette proposed the idea, all three girls flung up their hands to signify their approval.

Avian had been stealing their food and interrupting their time off. In Lamplight’s eyes, they were a menace. Sure, there might not have been any serious animus there, but the girls couldn’t help but want to get at least a little bit of retribution.

On top of that, the Lamplight girls were always quick to mobilize when pulling pranks was on the agenda. Monika normally shied away from such nonsense, but this time, not even she had any objections.

“Then without further ado, let’s put together a strategy!” Lily ordered, and they immediately got to work discussing their options.

In order to prevent any leaks, they decided to keep their plan a secret from everyone but the four of them.

Meanwhile, everyone who wasn’t involved with the prank scheme was gathered for different reasons.

There were four of them: Thea, Erna, Grete, and Sara.

All of them had been called to Thea’s bedroom. Thea had gone around to her teammates’ rooms and asked, “If anyone is free, would you mind coming with me?”

Sara was the final person she had asked, and when she had arrived, she’d found a large banner hanging from Thea’s wall.

LAMPLIGHT EMERGENCY INVESTIGATION HEADQUARTERS: THE CASE OF THE FLOATING “FOOL” ERNA

By the look of it, Erna was at the center of yet another bizarre incident. Considering the fact that she’d once been appointed as the leader of a nascent religious group, there was no telling what she’d gotten herself wrapped up in.

Thea was standing boldly at the center of the room with Erna at her side. Across from them, Grete was sitting down with bated breath. Sara went over and sat next to Grete.

“Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I brought you here tonight,” Thea said loudly. “As you can see, something strange happened to Erna at dawn today. Our duty is to unravel and comprehend this event.”

This was all coming a little out of nowhere. Sara blinked in confusion, and Grete tilted her head in puzzlement. “I…see…”

Undeterred, Thea thumped Erna on the back. “We’ll start with testimony from the victim.”

“It’s me again. I’m the victim!” After giving an anguished introduction, Erna explained. “Early this morning, back when I was still asleep, I woke up to find myself shaking. That’s when I realized I was floating in the air over the courtyard. I was wrapped up tight in a mattress, so I couldn’t move.”

“What…?”

“That’s when I fainted, so I don’t remember anything after that.”

That was less to go off than they’d been expecting.

They couldn’t help but wonder if Erna had simply dreamed it all up, but looking at the despair in her face, it must have been real.

“Are you hurt?” Sara asked worriedly. Meanwhile, Grete nodded in comprehension. “Ah, so that’s why you called it the Floating Case…”

The good news was, Erna had woken up back in her room with nary a scratch on her body.

“Thank you for your testimony,” Thea said sympathetically. Then her expression stiffened. “Now, to be honest, I do suspect that Annette is our culprit.”

“I think I agree,” said Sara.

“But don’t you think we have other suspects we need to consider?”

The implication in Thea’s words was profound. Sara didn’t understand what she was talking about at first, but when she did, she gasped. “You mean, Avian?”

“That’s precisely what I mean.”

“I-I’m not so sure…”

True, Avian had started staying at Heat Haze Palace nearly every night. It would have been technically possible for them to sneak into Erna’s room early that morning.

“I find it difficult to imagine them doing something like that.”

Grete had her doubts as well, but Thea shook her head.

She must have had hard evidence against them.

“Avian’s been acting suspiciously. Suspiciously enough that it makes me think they have ulterior motives. As a matter of fact, I’m absolutely certain that they’re plotting something.”

Her expression was dead serious.

“After all, there are three men on the team, and not a single one of them has tried to make a move on me!!”

“…That’s a much stupider reason than I was expecting.”

Despite Sara’s icy quip, Thea just trembled, aghast. “They’re clearly trying to get us to lower our guards so they can carry out their nefarious plot! I mean, it doesn’t make sense! Teach was one thing, but this is three whole men who don’t seem the slightest bit interested in me!”

“Maybe they’re just being professional.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. Have you already forgotten what they demanded of us?”

“Huh…? Oh, sure, there was that thing with the boss, but still.”

It’d taken Sara a moment to remember what Thea was talking about.

Avian had once tried to appoint Klaus as their boss. After winning him fair and square, though, Avian themselves had renounced their claim on him. That was all in the past.

Sara let out a big sigh.

There Miss Thea goes, being irrational again.

Thea didn’t have much in the way of mental fortitude, and every so often, she descended into outright hysterics.

Plus, this was Thea they were talking about. She’d probably been over the moon. Avian and Lamplight living together?! Oh, I can just imagine the salacious encounters we’ll have! Hee-hee, I’m getting fired up already! From the sound of it, though, none of the male Avian cohort had come after her. That had dealt a heavy blow to her pride, and now she’d been reduced to spouting conspiracy theories.

“I think you’re being unreasonable, Miss Thea,” Sara said, realizing it was up to her to talk some sense into her teammate. She began calmly laying out the facts. “Even if they did still want the boss, they wouldn’t try to steal him like that. You can’t really believe they’ve spent almost a month tricking us, all so they could perform ridiculous floating experiments behind our—”

“It isn’t impossible!!”

“Miss Grete?!”

All of a sudden, Grete spoke up from beside her and agreed with Thea. Grete’s face was pale, and her eyes were wide. “Two or three years would be a small price to pay if it meant getting the boss… And developing new technology would certainly be on the table… It all lines up…”

“……………………”

Sara gazed mournfully at her teammate. Whenever Klaus came up, Grete’s IQ immediately plummeted.

From there, things gradually devolved into a formal investigation into Avian’s behavior.

From out in the Heat Haze Palace courtyard, Qulle heard everything.

Annette, Lily, Sybilla, and Monika were planning to play a prank on Avian.

Thea, Sara, Grete, and Erna were conducting an investigation into their groundless suspicions toward Avian.

Qulle wasn’t able to pick up the details, but she did manage to get the broad strokes.

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

The whole reason she had been eavesdropping on them was in hopes of finding a clue as to how to make some changes in her own team. However, all she had heard was inexplicable excitement and people working themselves up over nonsense.

“THEY’RE ALL DERAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGED!!”

Qulle’s scream of horror got swallowed up by the night sky.

The next morning, there was an unusual duo sharing a conversation in the Heat Haze Palace courtyard.

Lily had a garden she grew plants for her poisons in, and Queneau had gone in without asking and carved out a little kitchen garden. It was full of vegetables he’d either purchased and transplanted from a nearby farm or things that could grow in a single month like radishes.

The garden was his way of thanking Lamplight for their hospitality, but they hadn’t gotten the memo and found the whole situation unnerving.

As he was doing his daily watering, Klaus came by to see him. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while, but I never found the right moment.”

“…Aye. What is it?”

When Queneau stopped and turned around, Klaus went on. “We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

“……………”

“If I’m misremembering, then don’t worry about it. I just get the feeling that we have.”

“…………Aye. I’m impressed you noticed through the mask. My physique was a lot different back then.”

“I thought so. So you wear the mask because—”

“Nay. I’m just shy.”

“…? Well, if you say so. I’m happy to leave the past where it is. Also, it sounds like someone’s coming.”

As the two of them exchanged their hushed conversation, a young woman came rushing into the garden.

“Mr. Klaus!!”

It was Qulle.

She came in shouting, and without offering them so much as a “good morning.” She’d been running around at top speed since the crack of dawn; her breathing was ragged, and her shoulders were heaving. Her face was red.

Klaus found it all rather odd. “What’s wrong? You’re out of breath,” he said.

“Your subordinates are out of control, and you need to stop them!!” Qulle cried.

“I’m sorry. Can’t be done.”

“But I haven’t even told you what happened yet!!”

Klaus shook his head, uninterested in even hearing her out. When the Lamplight girls went on their rampages, keeping them in check was beyond even him.

Qulle frowned in frustration. “I’m begging you to get them under control. At this rate, they’re liable to interfere with our mission.”

She went on to explain the plans to prank and investigate Avian she’d overheard. Queneau looked exasperated. “…Aye, what an unruly lot.”

Klaus let out a small exhale. “Understood. I’ll order them to quit messing around.”

“Would you mind using stronger wording than that? We’re in the middle of a pretty sensitive mission right now.”

“The one about the Discourse on Decadence?”

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Qulle replied. She gave him a haggard smile. “Anyhow, I really appreciate it,” she said with a bow, then dashed back over to the Heat Haze Palace entrance.

Despite being outranked, Qulle knew her request was reasonable, and she hadn’t hesitated to make her position clear. Klaus found himself pleased with her initiative, and after bidding Queneau a short adieu, he stepped away. When he went looking for Lamplight members, he spotted one of them watering the garden.

“Hello, Lily. I understand you’re plotting some tit-for-tat against Avian.”

Lily was holding a watering can in both hands, and her eyes went wide. “Hweh?! Dang, Teach, you’re as sharp as ever. I can’t believe you figured us out so fast.”

Klaus sank into thought for a moment.

Now, how best to get through to her…?

The girls had a habit of taking things too far, but if Klaus admonished them in earnest, he was confident they would call off their plan. At the end of the day, they were reasonable people. When he told them to quit doing something or to cut something out, the girls were willing to do as instructed.

Klaus’s ability to communicate was dubious at best, so he always made sure to deliver his most important points in simple terms to make sure they got through.

This time, though, he’d specifically been asked to use “stronger wording.”

Normally, I would just tell her to quit messing around, but here…

After waffling back and forth, he settled on a turn of phrase.

“What you’re doing is like swimming one-handed in a raging stream choked with mud.”

“Gotcha…”

With a look of unsurety on her face, Lily nodded and tried to digest Klaus’s words.

She could tell he was alluding to danger and recklessness in some capacity—

Huh? …Is he telling us to do it, just carefully?

—but unsurprisingly, his message failed to get through to her.

As the sun began setting, Avian got to work.

There was an area that sat just between the company housing for longshoremen and the slum where orphans and homeless people gathered, an area not too far from where the gang war a few days ago had taken place. The space was filled with shoddily constructed concrete apartment buildings, and the air stank with the smell of rot.

Once night fell, the whole region quickly cleared out. The people who lived there didn’t have the money to pay for electricity, so they went to bed as soon as the sun set. Also, they had to be up early so they could loiter along the harbor looking for work. Not even gunshots would wake them from their slumber.

Amid the neighborhood’s darkness, Vindo and Qulle rendezvoused.

“I asked Mr. Klaus to get the Lamplight girls to stand down. They won’t bother us.”

“Got it,” Vindo said with a nod, largely uninterested in Qulle’s report. Their assassination op had already begun, and the rest of the team was in position. Lamplight was the furthest thing from Vindo’s mind.

“Queneau and Lan disguised themselves as illegal immigrants and snuck in this morning,” he explained in brief. “The targets got in touch with a smuggler. The three of them are slated to take off for Tolfa tonight. The down payment they gave the smuggler had our mark on it.”

The mark he was talking about was the one Avian had planted. They’d confiscated most of the Discourse on Decadence’s operating funds after their fight at the metalworking factory, but they’d intentionally left a little bit behind. If Avian had completely cleaned their foes out, they might have resorted to attacking civilians. Instead, Avian had placed a transparent mark on the money and made sure it would fall into the survivors’ hands.

Qulle nodded. “Then we have confirmation.”

“Yeah. When they come to the meeting point, we hunt them down.”

The two of them were up on the third floor of an abandoned building. It had been built some twenty years prior, and while it had once belonged to a food import business, the business had gone bankrupt due to the Great War, and the building was now derelict and occupied solely by the homeless. Avian had paid off its residents to let them take over part of one of its floors.

The window gave a full view of the area, allowing them to confirm the meeting spot the smuggler had set.

“I will say,” Vindo said out of nowhere, “they’re a nuisance.”

“What are you doing?!”

Qulle was too slow to stop him.

After leaping out the third-story window, Vindo kicked off the billboards extending from the building to slow his fall as he descended to ground level. The moment he landed, he dashed behind the building.

Qulle gave up on trying to track him by sight and relied on her Ultrahearing to get a read on the situation.

There were three children in front of Vindo, all of whom screamed. They were part of the local homeless population. The kids’ voices were young and terrified.

“Who are you?” Vindo snapped at them. “What are you doing here?”

“W-we, uh…,” one of the children stammered. “We—we were hired…to report if we saw anyone…”

“Well, get lost. And don’t you dare tell anyone about me, you got that? Now scram.”

“Yes, sir!” the children squeaked as they ran off.

Vindo gave a small nod, then returned to the dilapidated building.

Presumably, the orphans had been hired by the Discourse on Decadence. They were wary of the Executioners and had hired some local children to run recon for them.

It would’ve been better to pretend not to notice them, you know.

From Avian’s perspective, it would’ve been in their best interests to simply ignore the scouts and have them report back that they hadn’t seen anyone.

However, Vindo had sacrificed that potential advantage in order to ensure the children didn’t get caught up in the conflict. His methods could be ruthless at times, but he always put the good of the nation first.

Comforting as Qulle found that, it sent a chill down her spine all the same.

These Discourse on Decadence people might be a nuisance…

She gulped.

…but with the way Vindo is now, I find it hard to imagine them walking away with their lives.

It felt like he was supremely confident in his ability to slay his foes no matter how much caution they exercised.

The speed at which he’d closed in on those children was beyond anything Qulle remembered him being capable of. He’d taken his already brutally efficient movement and honed it even further. His training with Klaus was paying off.

Right when Vindo returned to the third floor and asked Qulle, “Any movement?” the radio she was holding buzzed.

It was a message from Vics, and an urgent one at that—one so grave it made Qulle gasp.

“He said Lan’s gone missing…?!”

Lan had been operating solo when all of a sudden, she’d disappeared.

Vindo scowled. “They’re making their move.”

Avian weren’t the only ones operating near the Arranq harbor that night.

The puppy’s nose twitched as he scampered down the road. Sara ran along after him, and Thea, Grete, and Erna followed a few steps behind her.

The four of them were conducting their investigation into Avian.

Thea had arbitrarily become suspicious of them, and she’d given the order for part of the team to begin tracking Avian. Grete and Erna had been oddly enthusiastic about the whole thing, and on their request, Sara had begrudgingly tagged along.

“It looks like Avian is gathering by the port…,” Sara said tentatively.

One of her specialties was using her puppy’s nose to track people. Thanks to that, the Lamplight girls were able to tail people from far enough away that their marks had no idea they were there. It was a skill she’d developed during their training with Klaus.

After following Avian’s scent, they arrived in a seedy part of town.

“How odd. What could they be doing here?” Grete said, her expression darkening. “The mission dealing with the Discourse on Decadence is supposed to be over. I can’t imagine any reason they would have for coming somewhere so remote at such a late hour… Could they truly be plotting something behind our backs?”

The four of them put up their guards and looked around.

They were surrounded by abandoned buildings, rotting wood houses, and apartment buildings and criminal firms that positively reeked of corruption. The farther they went, the sketchier things got.

Eventually, they spotted an office belonging to the water department. There was someone visible through the blinds on its window.

“Hey!” Thea cried. “That’s Vics there!”

A familiar-looking young man was standing inside disguised as an office worker. And the woman next to him was likely Pharma.

The four Lamplight members sprang into action.

“We’re too exposed out here. We need somewhere safer to observe from.” “I see a roof I bet we can get to on the next building over!” “Sara, would you mind planting a listening device on Johnny and sending him over?” “O-on it!”

With excellent coordination, they got to work conducting their wiretap operations.

Sara would have preferred to just call the whole thing off and go home, but she fought back the urge to say that aloud.

Unaware of the Lamplight team’s surveillance, Vics let out an anxious sigh.

He and Pharma were disguised as water department employees. By going around to nearby buildings under the pretense of investigating a leak, they tried to root out where the Discourse on Decadence was. Midway through their search, though, Lan had stopped reporting in, leaving them no choice but to abort their task.

After getting Vindo’s reply over the radio, Vics’s shoulders slumped. “We’ve got new orders. Vindo says that finding Lan is on us. ♪” His voice was chipper, but there was a faint irritation lurking just below its surface. “Looks like he’s not interested in sticking his neck out, even when his own agent is in danger. ♪ It’s not like he has Qulle with him and she’s the perfect person for conducting a manhunt or anything.”

Qulle’s Ultrahearing was a handy tool for finding people. Surely, the most efficient deployment would have been to put Vics and Pharma in charge of watching the exfiltration meetup site while Vindo and Qulle went and looked for Lan. Apparently, though, that wasn’t on the agenda.

Vindo wanted to be the one to battle and defeat the Discourse on Decadence himself. That was probably why he was so loath to leave the spot where the fighting was most likely to occur.

“That’s just the kind of guy Vindo is,” Pharma offered nonchalantly. “It’s fiiine. Let’s go rescue Lan. Them abducting her probably means they won’t kill her just yet.”

That said, they could be taking her to a secondary location to torture her. There was no time to waste. With the water department employee cards in hand, Vics and Pharma left the office to check Lan’s last known location.

As they sped off to save their teammate, though, Vics brought up a different topic altogether. “Now that we’ve got a minute, I’ve been meaning to ask you…”

He gave Pharma a discreet look.

“…what do you make of it? Of Avian’s current situation?”

“Hmm?”

“I’d say we’re in big danger. ♪ You see, me, I don’t understand what’s going on in that guy’s head. How is he dense enough not to change after all that time he’s spent losing to Mr. Klaus? ♪”

Vics was well aware this was no time to be talking about things that were unrelated to the mission.

However, he had to ask.

He knew they didn’t have long left in their exchange period with Lamplight. The time they’d spent with the girls had influenced Avian in major ways. This might be their last chance to change themselves.

The thought made him restless, and the restlessness stirred his heart.

Still charging forward, Vics put Pharma in the hot seat.

“You’re someone who’s good at looking at the big picture. ♪ I’d love to get your thoughts on all this.”

The girls listening in on Vics and Pharma scrunched up their faces in concentration as they hid on the rooftop and stared at the walkie-talkie.

The voices on the other end crackled in and out.

“You’re………picture. ♪ I’d love…your……this.”

The audio quality wasn’t great, and it was quiet, too.

Vics and Pharma had been in the water department office, so that was where Sara had sent her walkie-talkie-laden puppy, but they’d rushed out of the office with little forewarning and made it all but impossible to pick up their audio.

What could they have been talking about?

“Eavesdropping on them seems to have failed,” Grete said calmly.

“Th-there’s not much Mr. Johnny can do when they run away from him like that…,” Sara stammered.

However, there was one person utterly unperturbed by the way things had played out.

Thea gave them a confident smile. “Heh-heh, I know exactly what’s going on.” She brushed back her hair in a show of pride, and it danced in the night wind. “And if you take a look through your binoculars, you will, too.”

On her urging, the others did just that.

They could still just barely see Vics and Pharma. The two of them were hurrying, yet they were having a conversation with oddly tense expressions.

The girls weren’t sure what to make of it, but Thea loudly filled them in. “I’ve seen it a thousand times—they’re a couple on a date!!”

Erna cocked her head. “They are?”

“Oh, yes. Those two are proactive when it comes to matters of love. With them all alone in a sketchy alley, something is bound to come of it! I have no doubt he was stealing her heart just now! You’re as lovely as any picture, he probably said. I’d love to have your company on an evening such as this.”

It was a bold theory, but when you started viewing things through that lens, Vics and Pharma could certainly pass for lovers. After all, they were heading into an alley with serious looks on their faces and no one else around.

Maybe they really were out on a date.

Thea nodded. “It all makes sense now. If they were having passionate affairs within their ranks, it’s no wonder they didn’t hit on me,” she said to convince herself. At least she was happy.

“S-so in other words,” Sara said, tilting her head in bewilderment, “you’re saying this has nothing to do with Miss Erna’s floating incident?”

“You know, that might just be the case.”

“Then that means we can call off the investigation here—”

“Oh, but this dalliance of theirs is interesting in and of itself. Wouldn’t you agree, Sara?”

“……………”

Sara froze up for a few seconds.

After thinking it over for a bit, she raised her binoculars.

“Y-you’re right. This is for educational purposes.” “We have so much to learn from them!!” “Y-yeep!”

At the prospect of amorous developments, the entire group continued watching.

The situation had no relation to Erna’s predicament—but they were fascinated all the same!

Through their binoculars, they saw Vics and Pharma finally come to a stop. Both of them closed their mouths, pursed their lips, and gazed at each other.

Could they be about to kiss? Their expressions certainly suggested as much.

The four girls on the roof waited with bated breath. Their faces reddened, and they clutched their binoculars ever tighter. Sweat trickled down their faces as wordless squeals escaped their throats. ““““………!””””

Then someone snapped at them from behind. “Hey, you lot. What’re you doing here?”

““““Huh?””””

The door to the roof swung open, and three people stormed out of it.

They looked to be similar in age to the girls. All of them were probably in their late teens or early twenties.

Standing at the front of the trio was a fierce-looking man wearing a large pair of glasses. He stared at them with his intense, icy-blue eyes. He was dressed in a pale-blue shirt and positively radiating hostility.

However, it was the girl beside him who drew Thea’s attention.

“Oh? Do my eyes deceive me?”

She couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re Canary, aren’t you? Do you remember me? We were in the same class back at the academy.”

The young woman she was looking at had dark hair so long it nearly covered her eyes. Her code name during her academy days had been Madfest. Unsettling as her appearance may have been, she was a talented spy with the talent necessary to disguise herself as a person belonging to any one of over twenty skilled professions.

“Ah,” said the man with icy-blue eyes. He smiled as understanding dawned on him. “So you people are the next group the Executioners sent—”

“I’m sorry, can this wait?”

“…What?”

“I assume you all graduated, too. Congratulations! There’s a million things we could chat about, but I’ll need to take a rain check for the moment. We’re just getting to the good part!”

After carelessly brushing her counterparts off, Thea raised her binoculars and went back to observing Vics and Pharma. The rest of the girls had long since shifted their gazes back off the rooftop as well.

The newcomers’ eyes went wide at how completely and utterly they’d been ignored. It was almost anticlimactic, and they all made the same mumbled comment in unison.

“““…Who are these people?”””

It was at around that time that “South Wind” Queneau found a bizarre object.

Avian generally let Queneau operate solo, and he hadn’t been paired up with anyone for their current mission. After concealing his bloodlust, he’d quietly hunted for clues that might lead him to the Discourse on Decadence.

That was when he’d run into something rather peculiar.

Upon arriving at what was supposed to be a vacant lot, he’d found it surrounded by a suspicious plastic tarp that had been hung up to prevent anyone seeing inside. Construction sites in the capital often used such tarps to soundproof their work sites and protect against dust, but as far as Queneau knew, the practice hadn’t caught on in Arranq.

When he headed inside, he was greeted by a humongous apparatus.

Its base was the shape of a triangular prism that had been knocked onto its side, and there was a tree sticking out of it. The device was over fifteen feet long in all, and there were heavy chains connecting it to the trees being used to anchor it down.

Queneau knew what it was. Weapons like those had been used in the trenches during the Great War.

“Query. Is that a catapult?”

“Hmph. It’s the killer.”

There, behind the catapult, stood Annette.

Seemingly displeased at having been caught, she puffed up her cheeks. “Yo, go away. There’s someone I wanna give the business to.”

“…Nay. I don’t understand.”

“I’m busy right now. I need to stabilize the base.”

In her hand was a wrench.

Annette was clearly the one who’d built the machine. She’d designed it for easy assembly and disassembly, which was how she’d gotten it there in the first place. When she’d put it back together, though, it had started warping under its own weight.

Queneau sighed and took a seat beside her. “…Aye. I’ll help you.”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t know what your plans are, but this ridiculous device of yours is liable to cause collateral damage.”

“Bleh to that!”

Annette stuck out her tongue, but Queneau ignored her and pulled out his tools.

His fingers weren’t as nimble as hers, but what he lacked in dexterity, he made up for in raw strength. That allowed him to help reinforce the catapult in a way Annette had been unable to.

The two of them continued their work in silence.

Right as Queneau resumed wondering what Annette intended to do with her catapult, some other Lamplight members popped into the tarped-off area.

“Dang, you’ve really got that thing fixed down.”

“Oh hey, if it ain’t Queneau.”

It was Lily and Sybilla. They must have just finished some sort of work, as their brows were slick with sweat. When they finished cooing at the newly fixed catapult and spotted Queneau, their expressions soured.

“Hmm… I mean, he is technically an Avian member…”

“Sure, but we can leave him outta the prank. He at least gave a shit about not messin’ up our lives.”

After a lively exchange, the two of them came to some sort of consensus.

Queneau cocked his head at one particularly worrisome word he’d caught. “…Query. What prank?”

“The special Human Hurling Apparatus I made, yo!” Annette said, laying a hand on her chest and explaining with great pride. “We’re gonna send those Avian bastards flying!”

Apparently, this catapult would be throwing more than just rocks. What’s more, it sounded like they were planning on targeting Avian with it.

As Queneau gawked in horror, Sybilla and Lily went on in amusement. “If we chucked rocks at ’em, they’d just dodge.” “Yeah, but if we threw a live human being, then they would have no choice but to take the hit.”

Queneau might have been a murderer, but that was enough to make even his blood run cold. “……Nay. You’re going to kill someone.”

“It’s fine. I tested it out on Erna yesterday morning!”

With a broad smile, Annette laid out her findings.

As long as the victim being thrown was swaddled in a mattress and the shock-resistant pad Annette had designed, they would be fine. And as long as the victim being thrown at was an Avian, they were positive—well, pretty sure—well, deeply unsure—well, hopeful…?—that they wouldn’t die, either.

Queneau had a million different concerns, but he started by asking about his biggest one. “Who exactly are you planning on throwing with your—?”

“The person the three of us just captured.”

The reply to his question came from Monika, who ducked under the plastic tarps while pushing a dolly.

Atop the cart, there was a girl bound from head to toe.

“Prithee…”

It was Lan. The dolly shook and toppled onto the ground.

Lan had been helpless against three attackers at once. On top of that, Lily had poisoned her. Her muscles spasmed as despair swelled in her eyes.

“Brother Queneau, these people are out of their minds…”

“…Aye. I agree.”

All the while, the Lamplight girls continued briskly getting their preparations in order. After wrapping Lan up in the mattress and shock-absorbent pad, they loaded her into the Human Hurling Apparatus, then added in weights until it was ready to launch the moment they severed its cord.

Queneau looked on, unable to do a thing. There was no way he could take all four of them on his own. He prayed Lan would survive.

Monika used her mirrors to keep track of their targets. She was also the one in charge of calculating their angle and distance of attack, while Sybilla used her strength to keep the device steady. It seemed almost a shame for them to be in such perfect harmony over something so stupid.

“And hey, what’s the harm?” Lily said playfully. “The Discourse on Decadence mission is over, right? A little surprise every now and then never hurt anyone.”

Before Queneau had a chance to tell them it wasn’t over, Monika gave the order. “They’re in position.”

It was all too late.

With a grand cheer of, “““FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!””” they sliced through the rope.

Vics and Pharma stopped and exchanged a look.

What do you make of Avian’s current situation?

It was an important question. The team’s future hung in the balance.

Vics’s ever-present handsome smile had been replaced by a pair of tightly pursed lips, and the look of nonchalance Pharma normally wore was gone, too. Her eyes were open all the way.

Pharma said nothing for a good ten seconds, and Vics made no move to rush her.

A stray dog with some kitchen scraps in its mouth came right up to their feet before walking away. A piece of oil-stained glass skidded across the ground, practically crawling, then vanished into the darkness of the night.

Unconcerned by any of that, the two of them stood in silence.

Then Pharma spoke.

“Honestly, I’m not too wooorried about it.”

“Really?”

“Like, apologies to Adi, but if anything, I kinda like the way things are.”

She covered her mouth with her hand and swayed from side to side. Her smile was conflicted and contained shades of self-deprecation.

Unable to make sense of what she was saying, Vics let out a small groan.

Pharma went on, her voice gentle and placative. “Look, Vics, the thing about us—”

The rest of her sentence got cut off by a scream from overhead.

“PRITHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!”

“______?!”

The two of them looked up at the sky.

There was something massive hurtling toward them at a tremendous speed—a bundled-up mattress.

They reflexively moved to dodge, but when they heard Lan’s voice coming from within, they stopped in their tracks.

Pharma barked out a quick order. “Vics!!”

Vics had already gotten started before she’d even said it. He knew he couldn’t stand by and let Lan get dashed against the ground. He had no choice but to catch her.

By his estimate, though, the mass he was dealing with weighed something on the order of 110 pounds. Taking a direct hit from something like that would be fatal to the average person.

Vics knew that, yet he didn’t flinch. He had his strength, and his strength was anything but average.

He saw the mattress coming at him like a bullet, and he faced it down with a grim determination. Every muscle in his body was operating at full throttle. Pharma pressed her arms against his back to brace him.

Then came the impact—and the two catchers got sent skidding backward.

However, the force was too much for them to take.

““HURRRRRRRRF!””

With that, Vics and Pharma got blasted away.

Over at the vacant lot…

““““THAT’S A DIRECT HIIIIIIIIIT!!””””

Annette, Lily, Sybilla, and Monika all cheered. Their pent-up frustration had finally been released, and they exchanged a round of high fives.

Queneau was too aghast to say a single word.

Over on the third floor of the derelict building…

“Huh?! Did I just hear Lan scream?!” “……!”

Qulle and Vindo had been waiting on standby, and they too sensed something was amiss.

Vindo acted fast and checked his radio.

“No response from Vics and Pharma… We need to split up and investigate.”

It was the logical order to give. The two of them scampered off, not liking one bit that their allies were vanishing like flies.

Up on the nearby roof…

““““Was that a mattress that just went flying by?!””””

Sara’s group had been watching Vics and Pharma through their binoculars the whole time, and their eyes went wide in disbelief.

Vics and Pharma had been staring into each other’s eyes, but just when it had looked like they were about to profess their love for each other, a rolled-up mattress had come flying out of the sky and blasted them away. The girls couldn’t even begin to make sense of it. All they could tell was that something bad was happening.

They pulled themselves together and started taking the situation seriously.

“Wh-what’s going on?! Avian just got attacked!!”

“But who did it?! The Discourse on Decadence group they were fighting already fell apart!”

“…I imagine there may have been survivors.”

“I agree, and now they’re out for revenge. The academy dropouts must be somewhere near—”

Sara, Erna, Grete, and Thea analyzed the situation one after another, then turned around in unison.

Over on the other side of the roof, there was a trio of people standing idly.

““““—by?!””””

“…Okay, seriously, who are you people?”

The man with icy-blue eyes gave his head a weary shake.

He and his compatriots were the exact people in question—the last of the former academy students who’d formed the Discourse on Decadence criminal organization.

After shaking off the Executioners, they’d made one last-ditch gamble and come to their former headquarters in Arranq. Their plan had been to stay hidden right up until their overseas departure time, but that had been thwarted when a group of shady-looking girls had shown up on their roof. That there was the full story.

“All I can tell…”

The man with the icy-blue eyes—that was to say, “Thunderclap” Garrack—drew his gun.

“…is that we can’t afford to let you walk out of here alive.”

The Discourse members hadn’t known about Lamplight’s existence, but now that the girls knew who they were, they had to die.

The Discourse members had no reservations about killing to save their own hides, and back in their academy days, they’d boasted some of the best grades around. Sure, they’d given up before even trying the graduation exam, but if they’d attended it, they would have given the top six a run for their money.

That much was becoming obvious to Sara from the raw pressure they were exuding.

A bead of sweat trickled down her back. “I can’t believe they took out Mr. Vics and Miss Pharma in a single—”

“We literally didn’t have anything to do with that,” Garrack corrected her.

The feeling of imminent peril helped Thea get her thoughts back in order. The excitement from their earlier horseplay drained from her body like it had never been there as she began analyzing the situation. For starters, she casually slid over a bit to put Erna and Sara behind her.

They were on a rooftop, and falling wasn’t an option. None of them had the physical acumen required to survive a five-story drop unscathed.

This is all coming out of nowhere!

She made sure not to show it on her face, but internally, she was screaming.

Their three adversaries shared a hushed exchange and assumed a formation. By the sound of it, the man with the icy-blue eyes was named Garrack.

If this came down to a brawl, Lamplight was at a serious disadvantage. According to Avian, the male academies devoted more of their training time to combat than the female ones. There was little doubt in Thea’s mind that they were no match for that Garrack guy.

None of the four of us specialize in combat, either…

To make matters worse, they hadn’t even brought their guns.

“How unlucky…,” Erna mumbled from behind her. Now that Thea thought about it, it was Erna who’d picked the building for them. Her choosing the exact one the Discourse on Decadence had been hiding in was a classic stroke of Erna bad luck.

Thea steeled her resolve and took a step forward.

Her only option was to use her talent for negotiation to convince their opponents to let them go. Considering the Discourse members were planning on killing the girls right then and there, though, Thea had little confidence in her ability to get through to them.

Thea raised her arms in surrender, and Garrack drew a bead on her. Right as he was about to squeeze down on the trigger, the door to the roof swung open once more.

“Wait, Qulle?!”

Sure enough, it was Qulle who came rushing in with her gun at the ready. The shot she fired as she raced across the rooftop grazed Garrack’s right arm, and the sound echoed through the night.

The Discourse trio braced for a fight, and Qulle used that opportunity to plant herself in front of the girls. “Thank goodness,” she said. “You aren’t hurt.”

She gave them a relieved smile, then turned and sent the Discourse members a steely glare.

Qulle had been aiming for Garrack’s hand, but he’d managed to narrowly dodge that. A thin trickle of blood ran down his arm.

He licked it off and winced. “Hmph, you sure got here fast…‘Clever’ Qulle. I guess that’s your Ultrahearing at work.”

“Well, aren’t you well-informed? I do go by a different code name now, by the way.”

Qulle didn’t flinch, not even after having her name and special ability identified.

The Discourse on Decadence was made up of academy enrollees. They knew all of Avian’s personal details. Some of their members must have been Avian’s classmates.

Garrack grinned triumphantly. “Oh yeah, I know everything. Back as a student, you made quite a name for yourself. That’s how I learned all your intel.”

He stowed his gun and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“Like how you’re no good in a fight!!”

He barreled across the roof and bore down on Qulle. After dodging another of her shots, he fired a high kick directly at her defenseless face.

Qulle got sent tumbling.

Sara screamed and tried to rush over to give Qulle a hand, but Grete held her back.

It was the right call for Grete to make. Even if they pitched in, they still wouldn’t be any match for Garrack. That wasn’t even accounting for the other two high-ranking members of the Discourse on Decadence waiting in the wings.

The girls needed to help, but there was nothing they could do.

Qulle wiped the blood off the side of her head and rose to her feet. “You’re right. I really am nothing special.”

“Huh?”

“Leaving the academy has shown me that over and over. To be honest, it’s kind of crushing my confidence,” she said in the face of Garrack’s overwhelming might. “It wasn’t the woman we met at the joint training exercise. My group of elites has someone in a league of his own, and I’ve even been outclassed by people on a team of supposed washouts. I’m kind of just a nobody.”

“…Maybe you’re right about that,” Garrack said with a nod. His mouth curled into a self-mocking sneer. “There’s always a bigger fish, and there’s always a bigger pond. It’s so self-evident, we end up forgetting it. That’s why the Discourse on Decadence I built got taken down so easily. I’m…I was such an idiot.”

“How the mighty have fallen.”

“But it wasn’t always like this, you know. When I first realized that working as a spy would mean walking to my death, I started gathering allies right there in the middle of the joint training exercise. All we wanted was to be able to live free. So we fled from our academies and became a team. It felt like we were invincible. We were living life to the fullest. We conned the police, screwed over gangs, and spent every night laughing shoulder to shoulder about how easy it all was.”

“…But then you ran into a bigger fish.”

“That’s the way it goes.” Garrack’s shoulders slumped. “If you want to laugh at us and call us morons, now’s your chance.”

Qulle shook her head.

“Your loss,” Garrack said with a sigh. “And hey, no hard feelings. But you have to die. It’s the only way we can be reborn.”

Thea felt a knot tighten in her chest. It was hard to breathe.

Even just from that short snippet of conversation, it was all too clear these really were people who’d attended spy academies just like they had. It was like looking into a mirror. They had shared joy and laughter with each other just like the Lamplight girls had at Heat Haze Palace.

That said, she was hardly in any position to be offering them sympathy.

She could feel Garrack’s bloodlust prickling at her skin. He had every intention of killing them.

“If you want to start over, be my guest. I’m just doing my job here.”

Qulle was undaunted.

She used both hands to comb back the hair hanging over her ears, then went on.

“I’m code name Glide—and I’m going to make time for honorable pride.”

After boldly announcing herself, she took off at a dash.

She wasn’t charging at the Discourse members. She wasn’t moving to protect the girls. She was running toward the door—toward the north side of the roof.

Her bizarre movement completely stole the Discourse members’ attention. They were afraid of her escaping to call for backup. That was the one outcome they absolutely couldn’t afford, and Garrack quickly drew a bead on her with his gun. The other two Discourse members continued keeping an eye on the girls. The coordination was impeccable.

A thin smile played on Qulle’s lips.

There’s that blind spot, just like I was looking for.

Even with her Ultrahearing, picking out a distant conversation when she was atop a building with the wind buffeting her was no easy feat. However, those voices carried so well that neither distance nor wind could stop them from reaching her.

“Hello, ladies of Lamplight. What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

““““Ack!””””

“Three of my teammates just got knocked unconscious, you know.”

“G-gosh, I wonder how that could have happened…”

“…Nay. Don’t try to deny it.”

“You ladies want to pick a fight with us that bad, huh?”

“What? No! Of course not! We would never—”

“““It was all Lily’s idea.”””

“Et tu?! …Wait, huh? Were those gunshots?”

“Look, it doesn’t matter. Give me a hand here.”

““““Huh?””””

“Seems you’ve got something there that might be useful.”

It took everything Qulle had to contain her laughter.

You’re such a weird team. This honeymoon has been a blast.

On some level, she could sense it. Once Avian finished their current mission, they were going to be sent abroad, and so she felt a twinge of sadness upon realizing her victory was imminent.

The Discourse members weren’t focusing on anything outside the rooftop. Qulle running off at an odd angle had completely captured their attention—enough so that they didn’t notice the threat approaching them from behind.

Tell me, Vindo, she asked him silently. With a surprise attack like this, surely you can spare their lives, right?

She heard some gleeful whoops from off in the distance.

““““Round two! FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!!””””

Their aim was flawless.

Thanks to Queneau’s stabilizations, the Human Hurling Apparatus Annette had built had become a proper weapon. After using Monika’s calculations and Sybilla’s strength to lock onto their target, Lily let out a grand shout and cut through the restraining rope.

This time, the person they were hurling had forgone the shock pad and mattress.

Like a majestic cannonball, Vindo soared through the air.

Thanks to his exquisite sense of balance, he was able to adjust his posture in midair with perfect precision, allowing him to land on the fifth-floor roof without a hitch. He made his silent descent on the building’s south side—the exact place where the Discourse members’ blind spot was.

It took them precisely 1.3 seconds to realize he was there. That lag proved to be their undoing.

All at once, the three of them got battered against the floor.

The swift knife strikes Vindo smashed into their necks sent them spinning like they’d just been headlock thrown, and they all fell onto their backs. Unable to break their falls, they hit their heads on the ground and blacked out.

The girls had gotten front-row seats to all of it, and they stared in blank shock.

The pace at which Vindo had switched between stopping and starting had been unbelievably sharp. They knew he’d inherited his footwork from a member of Inferno, but it was clear his training with Klaus had honed his movement even further.

Vindo had just taken out all the Discourse on Decadence survivors on his own.

“……………”

Garrack was still just barely clinging to consciousness. He was lying on his back with his eyes wide, unable to comprehend what had just happened to him. The force of the impact must have left him stunned, as he made no move to grab the gun he’d dropped.

Vindo towered over him.

He offered no words to Garrack, but he didn’t avert his gaze, either.

“…Must be real nice being you, huh?” One glance at Vindo was enough to tell Garrack everything. “You’ve got talent, you graduated less than a year after enrolling, and you’re already making a name for yourself as a spy. Shit, man, I’m jealous. I really am.”

The two of them must have attended the same academy.

“If I could’ve just been like you, then everything would’ve been—”

“…You’re right. If our circumstances and environments were a little different, you might have been up here, and I might have been down there.”

At long last, Vindo spoke.

Garrack twitched and let out a surprised groan.

“But still—everything you just said is insipid.”

The indifference in Vindo’s voice was biting.

He walked off like he’d lost all interest in Garrack.

“I know a couple people who never gave up on their own potential, even when everyone else called them washouts.”

Thea couldn’t see what sort of expression he was making as he said that.

The one thing that stuck in her head, though, was the quiet smile Qulle wore beside him.

As the Discourse on Decadence problem got officially resolved, Lamplight found themselves rather busy. While Avian enjoyed their short four-day break, Lamplight had to spend all their time tracking down a spy who’d infiltrated the country. Not even Lamplight could get away with slacking off forever.

In the end, the only time Lamplight and Avian’s breaks actually lined up was on the final day of the honeymoon.

Avian told Lamplight about how the Discourse on Decadence situation had played out from their usual spot in the lounge. All the members they had captured were going to be detained for the time being. Their lives were safe, at least for now.

“So if you really think about it…”

Lily nodded in satisfaction.

“…the whole reason you were able to capture them alive was because of all the chaos we sowed!”

“Like hell it was ♪,” Vics snapped, throwing a seat cushion at her in rage. Despite taking their human cannonball head-on, he’d somehow emerged without a scratch.

“She’s not wrooong, though,” Pharma drawled as she stepped in to defuse things. “Our original plan was for Vindo to kill them all. All’s well that ends well, right? Better this than having to murder our own countrymen.”

Queneau and Lan crossed their arms and gave her a pair of assured nods.

“Hmph,” Vindo scoffed. “Not like there’s any hope for them anyways. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got dragged before the firing squad tomorrow.”

“There’s still a chance they’ll make it, and that chance ain’t zero.” Sybilla crossed her hands behind her head and grinned. “They had talent, right? If they end up seein’ the error of their ways and choosin’ to become spies for real, all that’ll do is make Din stronger. Even if there’s only a one percent chance they survive, that’s miles better than nothin’.”

Klaus had explained how things worked to them.

Spies were loath to kill someone who might be useful. The academies had a rule where they would eliminate anyone who used their skills for crime, sure, but that mostly existed as a deterrent.

People had absolutely been victimized by what the Discourse on Decadence had done. While the gang war was as much the gangs’ fault as anything, the punishment awaiting the Discourse members was steep. The death penalty was still a very real possibility. On top of that, Annette had declared she would “hunt them to the depths of hell, yo” without a hint of jest in her voice.

What the Discourse members had was a single ray of hope, nothing more.

Now their fate was in the hands of the Foreign Intelligence Office’s leadership.

Once Avian was done filling them in, Lily rose to her feet. “Then with that, let’s get this show on the road!”

With great vigor, she stretched one of her hands all the way up in the air.

“Go home, Avian! It’s time for your Lamplight-sponsored farewell party!”

A round of cheering and applause rose up in assent.

Avian’s overseas departure date had been set.

Despite it having been less than a year since the team had been founded, in light of their successes in the Longchon and the Discourse on Decadence missions, they had been assigned a very special mission.

Their task was to uncover the reason behind “Firewalker” Gerde’s death.

Inferno’s fall was the greatest mystery the Din Republic’s Foreign Intelligence Office spy agency faced. Much as they wanted to investigate it, though, they had their hands full just filling the hole Inferno had left. “Bonfire” Klaus was their most reliable asset, and they needed him elsewhere.

Thus, they had selected Avian.

The team’s boss, “Flock” Vindo, had a history with Gerde, and the Foreign Intelligence Office had ordered them to search her last known location in the Fend Commonwealth.

That information was all highly confidential, so Lamplight wasn’t briefed on any of it.

All the girls knew was that it was time for the two teams to temporarily part ways.

The revelry continued all through the night.

They ate and shouted, drank and fought, chased each other around, chatted and cried and laughed, then ate some more and shouted into the night sky for no reason at all.

All the lights in Heat Haze Palace were on, and they brought tables and chairs out to the courtyard and piled them high with food and drinks. Naturally, that included alcohol for Avian and Klaus. The girls were forbidden from drinking any, yet some of their faces ended up quite red nonetheless. “It’s odd how that happened when they weren’t supposed to be drinking,” Klaus said, but he decided not to give it too much thought.

Klaus and Vics conversed about the state of international politics with wineglasses in hand. Lan and Lily tried out all the food, then started playing chess while Sybilla helped facilitate some cheating. Over in the kitchen, Queneau worked hard cooking additional food as Sara and Erna jotted down his recipes. Pharma made some virgin cocktails of her own invention in an attempt to win Annette over, ultimately managing to pique the girl’s interest. Qulle was the first to get plastered, and she griped and moaned while Thea consoled her. Vindo and Monika bickered about the teaching methods the latter was using with Sara in an argument that grew increasingly heated.

Deep in the night, Qulle began her third round of vomiting.

She’d had too much to drink.

Grete rubbed her back and made her drink water, and eventually, Qulle’s head started clearing.

After downing far too much alcohol, she’d started fondling Thea’s chest, causing Klaus to leave in genuine displeasure. “Don’t be indecent in public.”

Qulle had then moved to hugging Sara with all her might, and Vics and Queneau had been forced to peel her off. Then she’d topped it off by barfing all over Monika, earning her a full-power punch to the stomach before she got carted off to the far end of the courtyard.

“…I’ll go look for some medicine,” Grete said and headed into the building.

As feelings of guilt and regret washed over her, Qulle realized there was a man standing beside her.

“Enjoying ourselves, are we?”

It was Vindo. He had a large hunk of camembert cheese in his left hand and a wine bottle in his right.

“…I really have no excuse.”

“You really are an obnoxious drunk, you know.”

“Oh, shut up… Did you come to look after me?”

“In your dreams. I’m just here ’cause it’s nice and quiet. You didn’t come along until later.”

Vindo took an unimpressed bite of his cheese, then a hearty swig of his wine. He was drinking it straight from the bottle, and the wine splashed loudly as it poured through the bottle’s mouth.

“I can’t stand all the racket.”

Qulle turned to look and saw the Lamplight and Avian members gathered around a table and having some sort of meeting. All their faces were flush, and it wasn’t just because of the alcohol.

Vindo had no intention of going and joining them.

Qulle turned back to look at Vindo. Filled with a feeling she couldn’t quite put her finger on, she let out a long exhale.

…Did he change? Did he not? In the end, I’m still not sure.

She’d been so hopeful. She’d really believed their time with Lamplight would change Vindo—and in turn, Avian. However, there weren’t any definite transformations she could point to. Vindo still obstinately refused to communicate or cooperate with the rest of them. Training with Klaus had sharpened his skills, but his attitude toward his teammates showed no signs of improvement.

Hmm… What’s really going on in that head of his?

If she asked, would he tell her?

She suspected he might, but what ended up coming out of her mouth was a different request altogether. “Hey, lemme get in on that wine action.” She reached out for it, but Vindo slapped her hand away. “You’ve already made enough of an ass of yourself for the night.”

As she rubbed her smarting hand, she flopped onto her back and chuckled.

I shouldn’t be asking that while my brain is addled with booze, she laughed to herself.

The moon hung high in the sky. It was the kind of moon so bright she could make out the ridges and valleys on its surface. It had an oblong roundness to it not unlike a lemon.

“It’s waned a bit too much,” she murmured, “to really call it a full moon.”

“Nah.” Vindo lowered the wine bottle he’d been drinking from. “Any way you slice it, it’s clearly full.”

“Huh. Really?”

“Sure looks that way to me.”

His words stirred up a pleasant memory from the depths of her mind, but with how drunk she was, the memory took too long to coalesce.

As the two of them stood there in quiet tranquility, Lan came running over to them. “Sister Qulle, Brother Vindo, thou should come, too.”

“Huh?”

“’Tis been decided we’re all going to paint a mural on the wall.”

In her hand was a red spray can.

When Qulle looked over, she saw the rest of the group walking along the Heat Haze Palace outer wall and looking for a spot to paint their picture.

“…Won’t Mr. Klaus get angry at us?”

“Verily, he seemed mortified at the thought.”

“Then we shouldn’t do it!!”

“But in the end, he gave us his leave through gritted teeth.”

Qulle was surprised to hear Klaus had signed off on this. From what she’d heard, the man was pretty attached to Heat Haze Palace.

Lan tugged her by the arm, and Vindo reluctantly followed along, too.

The group had settled on using a patch of wall right beside the entrance as their canvas. They were going to paint a creature straight out of myth, and the plan was for them to take turns painting a single feather each.

“Yeep! It’s my turn next!” “I’d better make sure mine sticks out, huh? ♪” “I’m gonna draw it real big, yo!” “All my spaaace… You’re so meeean…”

Unimpressed by the gaggle of his allies swarming around the wall, Vindo snatched the spray can, said, “Outta my way,” and leaped up onto Queneau’s back.

The line he drew was so sharp and red it was like he’d etched it out of the wall with a knife.

““““Ooooh!””””

An odd cheer rose up.

Upon landing next to Qulle, Vindo tossed her the can. “Your turn.”

“Right, okay…”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. I’m just surprised to see you joining in, that’s all.”

Vindo frowned and narrowed his eyes. “…What kind of wet blanket do you take me for?”

It almost seemed like he was pouting, and Qulle couldn’t help but grin. “You know, Vindo, this painting’s probably going to fade in about a month or so.”

“…It is? Then why are we even putting it up in the first place?”

“We should get together and repaint it. All of us.”

“………………”

Vindo opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, and Qulle turned her gaze away from him and over at the finished mural.

There were two reasons Klaus had given them his permission. The first was because the paint they were using would fade away in about a month anyway. And the second was because it was more than just a piece of graffiti.

It was a bird of fire—a unified symbol of the teams, Lamplight and Avian, coming together.

Everyone knew the legend.

That was why they’d drawn a phoenix—as a prayer that everyone would make it back there alive.