SEM 09

Joel paid no attention to Ryan treating him like a lunatic.

That wasn’t what mattered right now.

“Hand it over.”

“Good grief. You really are an irredeemably ill-mannered brat.”

Joel snatched the binoculars from Ryan’s hand.

Ignoring the scolding coming from beside him, he kept his eyes fixed on Nina through the binoculars.

Inside the room beyond the balcony across the way, Nina was carefully cleaning her magic gun.

She had disassembled it, meticulously inspecting each component before spraying it with cleaning solution and wiping it down.

I didn’t provide her with anything like that separately. They must be her personal supplies. As expected, she’s worthy of using my magic gun.

Nina looked peaceful and delighted as she cleaned the weapon.

Something had gone awry from the moment Nina visited his house.

Originally, he’d planned to take her straight to the second floor, have tea with her while extracting information, then return her handkerchief belatedly and send her on her way.

There’s no point in keeping her for too long and interrogating her from the very first tea session. That wouldn’t produce good results.

Yet, when she displayed the perfectly normal and entirely appropriate reaction of recognizing how magnificent and impressive the magical devices he’d designed and built were, he ended up showing her his workshop as well.

It was something he wouldn’t ordinarily do, but it wasn’t as though it would cause any serious problems.

That must be why I didn’t feel any reluctance about taking Nina down to the basement, either.

He’d thought that was the reason……

But now, he thought he understood why he’d acted that way.

Someone capable of recognizing that magical device development was his calling.

A magic gun itself, perfectly designed in the form of a human being embodying spring.

A being whose existence could rival even the magical devices he’d created.

It was because I’d instinctively sensed that she was a human-shaped magical device well worth researching.

After lowering the binoculars, Joel began to feel that he rather liked this intelligence operation.

Ryan rested his arms on the railing and asked,

“How much does Nina Bones know?”

“Unless she’s pretending to know nothing at all, probably only her grandmother’s name and the fact that the inheritance she’ll receive is quite substantial.”

“Tsk, tsk. Poor girl. She doesn’t even know that her entire family is fake.”

“I don’t think an intelligence operative who married a target for an assignment and then pretended to die in an accident three months later is in a position to say that.”

At Joel’s deadpan remark, Ryan bristled.

“Hey. I was the only fake one in that marriage. Nina Bones’s entire life is fake right now.”

“……”

“Well, what can you do? She might be a spy from somewhere, just like her grandmother. And that somewhere might even be a covert intelligence agency from a defeated nation. It makes sense to keep an eye on her.”

“……”

“Rikiyta Bones was an excessively extraordinary spy. Calling her merely outstanding doesn’t do her justice.”

“……”

“The Kingdom of Dochen really was stupid, wasn’t it? To train a spy like that and still……?”

Ryan had been rambling on by himself for quite some time when he noticed that Joel’s eyes, which he’d assumed were quietly listening to him, had grown even more focused than before.

“……You little bastard. You’re not listening to a damn word I’m saying again, are you? You’re just thinking about magical devices, aren’t you?”

At Ryan’s drained voice, Joel finally returned to his usual state, with about half the light disappearing from his eyes.

“I’ve thought this for a while, but you seem to be rather perceptive, Senior.”

“At least pretend you’re not, you punk.”

“Why would I lie to you when you’re not even an intelligence target?”

“Good grief. Just shut up.”

Joel promptly closed his mouth, as though he’d been waiting for permission, and returned to the blueprint he’d been imagining in his mind.

Seeing the golden eyes that had just regained their light, Ryan shook his head in bewilderment.

Then, just as he raised the binoculars to observe Nina Bones one more time,

Joel snatched them from Ryan’s hand and shoved them into his pocket.

“She has sharp instincts. If you watch her for too long, she’ll look out onto the balcony. Don’t create unnecessary variables.”

“What? Hey. I’ve got years of experience in intelligence work. You think she’d catch me?”

“Regardless, stop looking. She’s my target.”

Ryan stared in disbelief at his junior, who had no respect for seniority and was ridiculously arrogant, then pressed a hand to his forehead.

What a piece of work. He’s acting like he’s claimed some magical device he found first.

Whether Ryan thought that or not, Joel remained absorbed in the magical device—and in Nina herself.

Nina, who was like a perfectly engineered magical device.

And the perfect magical device he’d designed himself.

He was certain that when Nina held the magic gun custom-made to suit her, a perfect magical device would finally be born, its gears meshing together without the slightest deviation.

Joel smiled darkly, utterly convinced.

Ryan, watching him, became equally convinced that the man was, without a doubt, completely insane.

That Night

A small scrap of paper slipped through the crack in the door to Nina’s room as she slept soundly.

A tiny ember clung to one corner of the paper. It gradually burned away, spreading a soporific fragrance throughout the room.

How many minutes passed?

At last, Exi, wearing a gas mask, entered Nina’s room.

I need to find the magic gun.

After much deliberation, the four fake members of the Bones family had decided to steal and dispose of the magic gun Joel had given Nina without consulting them.

The operative assigned to carry out the mission was Exi, an expert in poisons.

After confirming that the soporific fumes had spread all the way to the bed, he walked comfortably toward the wardrobe.

I used a particularly potent sleeping fragrance, just in case. She wouldn’t wake up even if I danced around in here.

No sooner had he thought that than—

“Mmm……”

Nina stirred in her sleep and rolled over toward Exi.

Startled, he immediately flattened himself against the floor and suppressed his presence.

“Mmgh……!”

At the same time, he barely managed to stifle a scream that nearly burst from his throat.

W-what the hell?! Someone’s here?!

There was someone beneath the bed.

A woman dressed in black, with wire wrapped around her hand, was fast asleep with her eyes wide open.

It seemed she’d sneaked in quietly, only to succumb to Exi’s soporific fragrance.

The other spies never mentioned anything about this. Who the hell is she?

Exi struggled to calm his pounding heart as he slowly dragged the sleeping intruder out from beneath the bed.

It would be troublesome if she woke up and made a sound, so he also gagged her and secured her wrists behind her back.

He needed to search her clothes to uncover her identity, but there was no suitable place to do so.

In the end, he had to leave Nina’s room without even properly searching for the magic gun.

But getting out of the room was a problem in itself.

Every time he tried to stand up and take a step toward the door, Nina stirred as though she might wake up at any moment.

In the end, Exi had no choice but to tuck the intruder under his arm, flatten himself into a crawling position, suppress his presence as much as possible, and inch his way forward.

Even a turtle would be faster than this. Nina keeps stirring every time I move, even after inhaling the sleeping fragrance. How the hell did this intruder manage to hide beneath her bed in the first place?

Despite his grumbling, Exi felt a chill run down his spine.

The intruder was no ordinary operative.

The Following Morning

Early the next morning, the four fake members of the family, excluding Nina, gathered in the dining room and sank into deep contemplation.

They’d ultimately failed to find the magic gun, but that wasn’t the problem.

The real issue was the unfamiliar intruder Exi had discovered beneath Nina’s bed the previous night.

They hadn’t managed to extract any worthwhile information from the woman, either.

She had taken her own life by pricking her palm with a fingernail coated in pre-concentrated poison.

It had happened before they could even begin interrogating her after she’d awakened.

“We’d put a blindfold on her, but before she could even identify the location or the people around her…… The moment she regained consciousness, she immediately…….”

Natalisha murmured in disbelief.

It was common for intelligence operatives to be sent on missions carrying poison for suicide.

Even so, they would usually take a moment to determine whose hands they’d fallen into, or whether they could send even a trivial piece of information to their allies before dying.

For someone to commit suicide before even getting their bearings was exceedingly rare.

“Whoever she was, she must have been incredibly loyal to her master.”

“Then her master isn’t a country.”

At Katahari and Chayson’s remarks, Exi nodded in agreement.

“She must have someone she owes a great debt to, or someone being held hostage. If not, then brainwashing.”

Natalisha, who had searched the intruder’s body, also spoke up with a grim expression.

“There wasn’t a single trace on her clothes or belongings that could identify her affiliation. If we’d at least heard her accent, we might have been able to make a guess.”

Then, after hesitating for a moment, she continued.

“But are we even sure she was an intruder?”

“What do you mean?”

At Katahari’s question, Natalisha replied uncertainly,

“I mean, are we sure she wasn’t one of Nina Bones’s people?”

“……We can’t be certain of anything right now. For the time being, I’ve installed a detector in Nina Bones’s room. If another intruder comes in from outside, we’ll receive a signal.”

Exi sighed as he answered.

Just then—

“Oh my. You’re all up early, aren’t you? Good morning.”

「Did you sleep well? The weather is absolutely lovely today. Just open the window and you’ll be greeted with imme. Di. Ate. Ad. Mi. Ra. Tion.」

Nina came down to the dining room.

“Come on in, Nina. Did you sleep well?”

“Good morning.”

The family instantly donned peaceful, languid expressions and greeted her.

However, Nina didn’t immediately take a seat at the table. Instead, she stood there, looking rather serious.

“Everyone. After spending a few days in this townhouse, I’ve come to realize something……”

The family’s attention, which had been focused suspiciously on the plates Jugeo No. 4 was bringing out, shifted toward Nina.

“I think someone is spying on this house.”