Chapter 06
Nina lowered the corners of her mouth sympathetically, sensing the somber mood.
“Oh dear, that’s too bad…… He must have been terribly tired yesterday.”
Exi must have been troubled, too. After all, a younger cousin he hadn’t even known existed had suddenly appeared, and now she was supposedly going to inherit the entire estate.
Nina felt a pang of guilt, as though she were the cause of Exi’s distress.
She wanted to discuss her grandmother’s inheritance with her relatives, but Nina herself didn’t know exactly how much there was.
An elderly gentleman who claimed to be Rikita Bones’s notary had brought part of the will to the count’s estate in Illite. However, he had said that the full contents still needed to be verified.
Grandmother was from the now-defunct Kingdom of Dochen, so he said the procedures would be complicated.
Nina didn’t know much about inheritances or notarization, but she did understand how greedy it would be to take the entire inheritance for herself, leaving nothing for her family.
Why did Grandmother leave everything to me? Once I receive the complete will, I’ll be sure to discuss it with my family.
While Nina was chewing on a thin slice of carrot, the others seated around the table were also lost in their own complicated thoughts.
She deliberately threw the sleep dart out the window, then closed it at exactly that moment. As expected of Rikita’s granddaughter……
Katahari, too.
She doesn’t seem to have figured out who we are completely. Did she instinctively sense something suspicious?
Natalisha, too.
Yesterday, she looked down at us after we got kicked out, and today she immediately asks for Exi first? Is she mocking us?
Chaison, too, swallowed a groan as he recalled the events of the previous night.
What had the masters of their respective intelligence agencies told them?
“Even if she seems clumsy and innocent, never let your guard down around Nina Bones. She once took down a thief fleeing on horseback with a slingshot.”
How many maids on this continent could subdue a criminal with nothing but a slingshot?
And the thief had been riding a horse, no less.
Aiming at and hitting a fast-moving target was harder than most people realized.
Natalisha, a master sniper, silently reached a firm conclusion.
She’s a sharpshooter.
Katahari, a master of disguise, recalled the things she had learned from the former head maid, whom she had impersonated.
“Nina? Well, she was good at getting things done.…… She did learn her work frighteningly fast, though.”
“She seems like her head’s full of flowers, but that’s not entirely true. It’s like she has a switch that makes the flowers bloom and wither. She’s all smiles, but she’s not someone you can take lightly, you know?”
“I shared a room with her, and goodness. She had a terrifying scar on her shoulder, I tell you!”
Every account was confusing—ordinary in some ways, yet not quite ordinary in others.
So she’s not someone we can underestimate.
The count’s family where Nina had supposedly worked was suspicious to begin with. There was far too little information about them for an ordinary noble household.
And now Nina herself was acting in ways that only deepened their suspicions.
Chaison, seated across from Nina and watching how she handled her cutlery, was also puzzled.
She was quite skilled at cutting roasted vegetables with a knife.
Her movements were smooth and precise, making him wonder whether she had only ever cut vegetables and meat.
But Chaison, a master of explosives who was also highly skilled at bomb disposal, wasn’t someone she could fool.
She’s been trained to use a knife. And judging by how quickly she recognized the sleeping poison last night, she must be knowledgeable about toxins, too.
He was certain that Exi, a master of poisons, would agree with him.
Just as the peculiar meal was drawing to a close, Nina asked something she had been curious about since the previous day.
“By the way, are there no pictures of my mother left in this house?”
Katahari responded smoothly, as though she had anticipated the question.
“Your great-aunt was so heartbroken whenever she saw your aunt’s portrait or photographs that she had them all put away. Even the things she used as a child.”
“Ah……”
Nina hadn’t considered that. She quietly set down her fork.
Seeing how quickly her spirits sank, Chaison joined in with a follow-up.
“But if you look in the mirror, you’ll be able to see your mother, Sain. You’ve seen your aunt’s portrait, haven’t you? Both you and your mother look very much like her.”
“……I see.”
That should ensure Nina never asked about her mother’s belongings again.
Natalisha smiled wickedly to herself.
Sain Bones, the daughter of Rikita Bones?
That was made up, too. They hadn’t even been able to find any information about Rikita’s daughter.
She never took a break from spying. When on earth did she have a child?
They had considered the possibility that Nina might be a relative rather than Rikita’s direct descendant. However, they had obtained a sample of Nina’s hair in advance and tested it with a magical tool.
The result had confirmed that she was unquestionably a direct descendant.
Which meant Nina’s mother—the woman who was supposedly Rikita’s biological daughter—did exist.
If we couldn’t find her after searching that thoroughly, she must already be dead.
Thinking that she had resolved yet another issue for the day, Natalisha smiled and changed the subject.
“By the way, Nina. What are you planning to do today?”
“I’m going to visit the neighbors.”
Katahari dropped her fork with a clatter.
“The neighbors? The house where that sickly young mas— I mean, young master lives?”
“That’s right! I’m supposed to get back the handkerchief I lent Joel.”
“You’re already on a first-name basis? And what handkerchief? You haven’t even left the house since you arrived yesterday.”
“We met on the balcony. I even met Joel’s pet pigeon. Isn’t it fate?”
Nina’s innocent, guileless reply turned all three of their stomachs.
Joel Smiler.
What had he been like during the preliminary meetings and the entire intelligence operation’s joint training?
A thoroughly inhuman fellow with no interest in people and no expression on his face.
He never listened to a word anyone said, yet when someone merely dropped a magical tool, he’d charge at them as though he intended to kill them.
He’d apparently only recently come of age, but he was already buried in magical tools—a fellow even more machine-like than a wind-up doll.
If that lunatic wind-up doll they’d encountered last night ever saw Joel, it would probably mistake him for an intricately crafted machine and spare his life.
And on top of all that, he was a sly fellow from Soltum.
When did those fox-like Soltum bastards make their move?
Chaison’s blood boiled whenever he thought about Soltum’s intelligence agency.
They were a despicable bunch who used the fact that Rikita’s townhouse was located in Soltum to subtly throw their weight around over the intelligence agencies of other nations.
Now they’re approaching Nina Bones behind our backs, without even sharing the situation with us? They intend to monopolize Rikita’s information!
Just as Natalisha clenched her fist beneath the table in anger, Nina suddenly exclaimed—
“Oh, right!”
She clapped her hands, remembering something she’d forgotten.
“I thought the servants’ workload might have increased since I moved in.”
At that, Katahari hid her momentary unease and smiled gently.
“Do you think so?”
Of course not. The servants in this house were also spies’ subordinates who had never actually worked as servants before.
I see……
The intelligence agency had been supposed to take care of the remaining household chores. But since Nina had worked as a maid herself, she had probably found the small number of servants strange.
We should assign a few more, if only for appearances.
As Chaison silently noted the necessary improvements, Nina stood up and smiled proudly.
“But everything should be fine now. I found something wonderful.”
She hurried out of the dining room, then returned with something in tow.
“I found a residential wind-up doll in Grandmother’s storeroom!”
The thing Nina had brought was a mechanical wind-up doll with wheels beneath a maid’s uniform that dragged along the floor.
Chaison and Natalisha froze. Their eyes met, trembling as though an earthquake had struck.
「Hello! I’m Residential Wind-Up Doll Jugeo No. 4. Please leave all the housework—cleaning, cooking, laundry, and the like—to me. And this is my best friend, Mossbergie!」
Jugeo No. 4 held up a wok with a handle that looked unusually thick and heavy.
Natalisha swallowed hard and glanced at the wok’s handle.
“Mossbergie? Not Remington?”
Jugeo No. 4’s face creaked around toward Natalisha.
「My. Good. ness. You’ve already met Security Wind-Up Doll Jugeo No. 3? Remington is a wonderful friend, too, but for me, there’s only Mossbergie!」
Chaison and Natalisha’s shoulders trembled.
Deliberately averting their eyes from the wok, they came to the same conclusion.
That’s definitely a Mossberg 5900—a shotgun from Hollich, too.
That afternoon.
Nina was about to ring the doorbell at the neighboring house when the door opened by itself. Her eyes widened like a startled rabbit.
Standing just inside was Joel, her sickly neighbor, his face expressionless.
“You’re here, Nina.”
“A-ah, hello, Joel.”
Nina still hadn’t gotten used to Joel’s stiff yet somehow mysterious demeanor, much like Jugeo No. 4’s.
Joel, meanwhile, stared at her as though observing her, then soon grew indifferent.
As expected, he simply had no interest in people.
I joined because they said I could just stay in the magical-tool development lab. Why am I doing this sort of thing, too?
Even so, Nina Bones, the girl standing before him, was a nationally important target.
In exchange for monitoring her, the agency had authorized him to use an entire townhouse as his magical-tool development workshop. So he intended to do his assigned job properly.
“Please come in, Nina. The wind is cold.”
The weather was warm and the breeze pleasantly cool, but Nina remembered that Joel was sickly, so she hurriedly followed him inside.
As Nina stepped into the lobby, her eyes widened in astonishment.
