Ch.107Episode 6 – The Omniscient Spy’s Perspective

As soon as I answered Veronica’s call, the thought of wiretapping crossed my mind.

Wiretapping aside, there were too many ears listening here.

I needed to get to a safe location first.

“Let’s end the call. I’ll contact you again.”

I was about to press the end call button as I left the hotel room.

-‘I don’t think that will be necessary.’

“Pardon?”

I asked back with a dumbfounded voice, but Veronica’s voice didn’t come through the prepaid phone.

Instead, a vivid voice pierced my ear.

“Hello there.”

A woman wearing sunglasses suddenly appeared and thrust her face close to mine.

It was a familiar voice.

I stared at her face, unable to speak, and seeing me like that, she giggled.

“Why are you looking at me like that? As if you’ve seen a ghost.”

After laughing for a while, she slightly lowered her sunglasses and grinned.

“Want to step out for a bit?”

Episode 6 – Betrayer of the Revolution

Oddly enough, I met Veronica at the Magic Tower.

Yes, THE Veronica I knew.

The 58th Saint of the Order, politician and lobbyist, orphan from an imperial baronial family, former Imperial Guard intelligence officer, the audacious woman who screwed over the Imperial Family, alcohol and tobacco enthusiast.

There are many descriptors for her, but I called her this:

Crazy bitch.

“…How on earth did you get here?”

“Hmm, warp gate?”

Veronica playfully patted my shoulder and giggled. I couldn’t see what was so funny.

“…Sigh.”

Anyway, Veronica was a lunatic.

Unpredictable and gutsy to a fault. She was the type of person impossible to pin down.

As a friend, she’d be amusing and entertaining, but as an intelligence officer or operative, she’d be the worst—that kind of person.

In short, she was difficult to manage.

“Did the Imperial Guard teach you to show up unannounced?”

“No? I’ve always been like this.”

She’s proud of it.

How she managed to get into the Magic Tower wasn’t important. She was capable of taking care of herself. What mattered was why she came and what her purpose was.

Thinking about it suddenly drained all my energy.

“……”

I wonder what sins I committed in my past life to get entangled with this woman. All I did was take down a few commies.

No matter how I look at it, that wasn’t a crime, but God or whatever fucking entity apparently took issue with it.

“…Lord, would my death truly satisfy you?”

I lamented, banging my head against the car seat.

“Lord? What’s this? Has our Major found religion?”

“Being in a car driven by a Saint makes me pray. A little longer and I might start speaking in tongues.”

That’s right.

I was now sitting in a car driven by Veronica.

I don’t know where she got it, but it was an impressive vehicle. It looked exactly like something a wealthy person would drive.

“You must be rich. Driving something like this. Is the Order collecting more donations these days?”

“Why are you like this? This is all private property. The just rewards of my labor.”

“Does the Order really provide things like this?”

“I don’t know about the Order, but the Empire does.”

She meant she got it from the Imperial Guard.

A gift for an intelligence officer. Something like that. Considering Veronica’s position as a Saint of the Order, such gifts would make sense from a cost-benefit perspective.

I thought only the cookie factory folks did this, but it seems the Empire has plenty of money too.

I looked around the car interior and nodded.

“The Imperial Treasury must hate this.”

“You should see how vicious it gets when the Treasury and the Guard fight over budgets. The Deputy Minister of Finance always throws a fit about receipts not being processed…”

“What intelligence agency in the world issues receipts? That’s all classified. By the way, where did you get a passport? The Magic Tower wouldn’t have accepted an Order passport?”

“I still have one from way back when I was with the Guard.”

A Saint carrying a forged passport. Is this really fantasy? Fuck.

I sat in the passenger seat, looking out the window and sighing deeply. Beyond the heavily tinted glass, the sparkling night sea reflected back.

“…So, where are we going now?”

“Hmm~?”

Veronica smiled broadly and let her words trail off.

“Our honeymoon house?”

“You’re talking nonsense.”

*

We drove along a deserted mountain road toward a villa.

It was called a villa, but it was closer to a mansion. Located on a coastal cliff, the mansion overlooked the sea, with a dense forest spreading out behind it.

Listening to the distant sound of waves, I asked Veronica:

“Did you get this from the Imperial Guard too?”

“I bought it with money I got from the Guard.”

“You’re proud of that, aren’t you.”

I sat in a rocking chair, letting Veronica’s words go in one ear and out the other.

Meanwhile, Veronica kept chattering away.

“Since it’s under a nominee contract, it’s not listed among my assets, so the Magic Tower probably doesn’t know about it? The Guard probably doesn’t either.”

“No wonder it didn’t show up when I investigated your assets.”

“Oh my.”

Veronica covered her mouth.

“Did you investigate me?”

“Of course I did.”

Uncovering all information about a target is the first step in recruitment operations. You need to know something to either blackmail or negotiate, right?

So I dug up everything about Veronica—her assets, relationships, even her childhood—but I didn’t know about this house.

Veronica pretended to cry and said to me. Of course, she was only making crying sounds with her mouth.

“How could you do this to me…”

“Like you didn’t investigate me.”

“Ah, busted.”

We sat facing each other, exchanging light banter. Mostly she would throw out comments and I would respond. I knew this was just her personality, so it was merely pleasantries.

Veronica said to me:

“Don’t feel too bad. I hid it well.”

“No, are you actually bragging about hiding assets…?”

“Hey, I pay my taxes regularly!”

“How do you pay taxes on hidden assets that aren’t even registered? That’s tax evasion…”

“Ugh, this person doesn’t get it. Anyway!”

Veronica kept defending her asset concealment (tax evasion) and explaining how clean a person she was. It was practically propaganda.

Still, compared to the church officials who embezzle donations, this was minor. Even without going to the Order’s central authority, the tax evasion by clergy operating in the Abas diocese is already under surveillance by Abas investigation and intelligence authorities. It’s quite a spectacle watching the National Tax Service (under the Treasury Department), the Cabinet Security Office, and the Special Investigation Bureau tracking down assets diverted by Order personnel every day.

That issue often causes conflicts with the Inquisition, and both the Imperial Guard and the Central Intelligence Bureau have had considerable friction with the Inquisition over clergy tax evasion. The corruption in the Order is one of those issues that diplomatic and intelligence circles try to keep quiet.

To this, the Saint, a power player in the Order, passionately defended herself:

“I’m clean enough. Have I ever touched the donations or evaded taxes by tying up assets in the diocese? Why make such a fuss about property contracts under nominees…?”

“Your lamentations are getting rather long. Feeling guilty, perhaps?”

“Oh, come on! I’m just saying! Why do you keep prying?”

She really must be feeling guilty.

Someone once said absolute power corrupts absolutely. Now I see Veronica was the very embodiment of corruption. I don’t know how much she’s gotten away with, but one bad news article could end her political career.

Of course, as a Saint of the Order, a lobbyist, and former Imperial Guard intelligence officer, this was an issue that those in the know kept quiet about.

There was too much dirt on everyone to kill her.

But human affairs are always unpredictable.

…Perhaps I should cut her off before problems arise.

I put aside my thoughts and returned to reality.

“Well, when you handle dough, some of it sticks to your hands. I understand.”

Fancy car, expensive mansion, forged passport, hidden assets, tax evasion.

None of that matters.

She was an intelligence asset under my management. Now.

“What brings you here this time?”

Veronica sat by the magically lit fireplace, brushing her hair to one side as she began:

“Do we always need a reason to meet?”

“Just get to the point.”

“Tch.”

Veronica clicked her tongue briefly, pouting and grumbling.

After a moment of sulking, she stopped complaining and got to the point.

“Remember when I told you something interesting would happen at the Magic Tower?”

“Yes. I heard it on the train.”

When I was taking down Raoul and 16 Imperial Guard reactionaries and heading to Abas from the Order, Veronica called me to say something interesting would happen at the Magic Tower.

I tilted my head and asked my asset:

“But wasn’t that issue already resolved? There was that independence uproar that got shut down.”

“No, that wasn’t the interesting thing—that was an unexpected accident. I didn’t know about that either.”

Is that so?

“So you’re saying there’s something else interesting besides that?”

“That’s right.”

Veronica nodded in affirmation.

When this woman called something “interesting,” it was certainly not something trivial, but unfortunately, I had already weathered a storm.

Hadn’t I witnessed the diplomatic confrontation between allied nations just days ago, with talk of severing ties? I even saw the Magic Tower’s independence movement—the first in a hundred years—shattered before it could even begin.

So even if I was intrigued by Veronica’s topic, I didn’t think I’d be particularly surprised.

I pressed my temples gently and replied:

“Just tell me what it is quickly. The fact that you came all the way here to build suspense suggests it’s not an ordinary matter.”

“What? Not interested? I thought this would get a more varied reaction, given how intriguing the subject is.”

“Who gets interested just by seeing a movie title? You need to watch the trailer or at least see the actors’ faces to get interested.”

“When you put it that way, you’re right.”

“Good grief…”

As I was wondering how to handle this asset, Veronica suddenly leaned her upper body forward.

The blanket covering her fell to the floor, and the rocking chair tilted precariously backward.

We faced each other in an awkward posture that defied description, exchanging glances.

“……”

“……”

Silence fell.

The magically operated fireplace burned silently, and from far below the cliff came the sound of waves crashing, while I could hear Veronica’s quiet breath as her lips approached my ear.

Veronica said:

“I told you something interesting would happen at the Magic Tower, right?”

“…Yes.”

The Saint said:

“The Magic Tower’s been quite turbulent lately. Bombs going off. Suspicious people coming and going…”

“I wouldn’t know. The embassy doesn’t get involved with terrorism or intelligence operations.”

She leaned her body forward. The distance between us narrowed, and her violet-scented hair brushed against the tip of my nose.

“Then would you get involved with this…?”

“Let’s hear it.”

Former Imperial Guard intelligence officer and 58th Saint of the Order.

Current politician and lobbyist.

And my intelligence asset.

She said to me:

“A coup d’état.”