Ch.108Episode 6 – The Omniscient Spy’s Perspective

“A coup d’état…”

A few words flashed through my mind.

Mohammad Mossadegh and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet. Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal…

All names of heads of state eliminated by intelligence agencies and the puppets those agencies installed.

“…You don’t seem very surprised?”

“Why would I be surprised by something like this? I’ve been around the block.”

When you’ve worked in intelligence for over ten years, you see things far worse than coups quite regularly.

Veronica across from me began to elaborate.

“I don’t have detailed information yet. But it’s certain that a coup will happen soon.”

The intelligence is somewhat vague.

At least with the Magic Tower independence issue, there was some concrete intelligence, but this is practically at the level of gossip.

“Is it that you don’t know, or that you’re hiding something?”

Veronica silently smiled and leaned back against the sofa.

I stared into her pitch-black eyes.

“Which intelligence agency is involved and who are they planning to eliminate?”

“I can’t tell you that. I haven’t gotten what I want yet.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I wonder?”

Veronica vaguely trailed off and turned her head. She gazed at the flames burning in the fireplace, and reddish shadows flickered across her face.

“You should at least tell me the region and the main actors. If an intelligence agency is involved, the situation becomes serious.”

“The region is the Magic Tower. No bloodshed is expected, and it’s not a matter the intelligence agency is involved in. Not yet.”

In other words, this meant they could get involved at any time.

Veronica gazed at the fireplace with a forlorn smile.

“I don’t know the details either. They haven’t told me yet.”

“Is that so?”

“What’s certain is that something big enough to change the Magic Tower’s regime will happen. Whether it’s a revolution or a coup, I’m not sure.”

“Does the terminology really matter?”

Either way, the leadership changes.

After all, isn’t a coup called a revolution if it succeeds and a rebellion if it fails? If the regime changes later, they’ll be treated as rebels anyway.

What matters is that the leadership is changing right now.

Assuming it succeeds, that is.

So it doesn’t matter whether what’s about to happen in the Magic Tower is a revolution or a coup. It doesn’t even matter who’s behind it. It’s probably whoever told Veronica, but she clearly had no intention of revealing that now.

What a fox-like person.

Instead of struggling to take control of the conversation, I decided to ask a more productive question.

“Who benefits from the coup? The Empire? The Church?”

“That depends on who extends their hand first.”

“…You mean I should go and extend a hand first?”

“Well, if I may offer my opinion.”

Veronica smiled, her face tinged with a reddish glow.

It was a very typical politician’s smile.

“Whether you extend a hand or not, it means we’re in the same boat, doesn’t it?”

Episode 6 – Betrayer of the Revolution

The news that a coup was brewing in the Magic Tower was shocking, but honestly, it didn’t feel very real.

Because Veronica’s words had no evidence to back them up.

Of course, Veronica was a saint of the Church and an international lobbyist, a fine source of information, but that didn’t support the reliability of the information she provided. How could I trust information without evidence? Veronica’s intelligence was, in common parlance, just gossip.

‘A coup will happen, but I don’t know who will start it, when, or how.’

If I reported this as intelligence to my superiors, I knew exactly what response I’d get.

‘Collect additional intelligence.’

Such a mechanical response was inevitable.

So I had to keep quiet about the coup issue until more accurate intelligence came in.

This was only natural. A spy’s duty and an intelligence agency’s reason for existence is to collect meaningful intelligence and produce information. What would they say if I collected intelligence that couldn’t even be classified as “meaningful”?

I’d heard enough of that already.

Well, that’s all in the past.

“Section Chief, today’s reports have arrived.”

“Thank you.”

Anyway, I plan to deploy informants soon to collect additional intelligence on the Magic Tower coup issue. The report can come later.

So, I went to the embassy as usual to receive intelligence reports.

The first document on my desk was, of course, about the Magic Tower.

“The cover-up was successful? They’re tracking an anarchist group?”

“Yes.”

The Magic Tower police and Public Order Protection Bureau identified the anarchist group “Black Fire Conspiracy” as being behind the bombing. More precisely, it was a conclusion drawn using the misinformation I had leaked.

However, I was genuinely surprised that the Magic Tower had targeted an anarchist group rather than the Reconnaissance Command.

“I thought they would naturally pin it on the Reconnaissance Command. Things are taking a strange turn.”

“They were already a terrorist group. Their leader was executed and the organization was dismantled once, but some members who weren’t arrested are still operating in cell structures, so they haven’t been caught yet.”

I leaked misinformation to the Magic Tower for two reasons.

One was to hide the fact that I was behind the bombing, and the other was to make it appear that the Reconnaissance Command was behind the kidnapping, causing the Magic Tower’s counterintelligence agencies to strike at the Reconnaissance Command’s operative network.

In other words, killing two birds with one stone.

With the Royal Protective Service’s overseas division, which had lost in the power struggle, now destroyed, if the Reconnaissance Command’s operative network in the Magic Tower was damaged, the Royal Intelligence Service and Military Intelligence Agency would fill that void. It was also a good opportunity to expand my own room for maneuver.

But,

“I went through all the trouble of leaving fingerprints at the scene and doing all sorts of crazy things. This is maddening.”

These idiotic magicians couldn’t eat the meal even when it was served to them.

I even handed over the fingerprints found at the Reconnaissance Command’s fake office and the bodies of their special operations team that raided the hotel, but seeing them poking around in the wrong places made me sick.

I could have dealt a significant blow to the Reconnaissance Command’s operative network in the Magic Tower. It seems things don’t always go as planned.

“They can’t even eat what’s given to them. I set the whole table, and where the hell are they going with their spoons?”

“But at least the cover-up was successful, right? We got our money’s worth.”

“What good is getting our money’s worth when the Reconnaissance Command agents are still walking around freely?”

I didn’t realize the Public Order Protection Bureau’s counterintelligence capabilities were this pathetic. Considering they took down the Royal Protective Service’s Magic Tower branch, they should be able to take down the Reconnaissance Command too.

I continued my train of thought, nervously tapping my pen.

“Should I just poke at the fruit they can’t eat?”

“Why risk raising suspicions by trying to pin the bombing on them? Better to just let it go.”

Jake’s words made sense. Stirring up the wrong hornet’s nest could lead to serious trouble.

Typically, damaging foreign operative networks involves leaking misinformation and targeting information assets rather than directly eliminating agents. Killing agents is essentially like saying “let’s take off our ranks and fight.”

Why else would the Military Intelligence Agency risk killing those Royal Protective Service reactionaries? It all happened because they messed with our personnel.

Anyway.

Since the operation’s source is hidden, stopping here is the right move.

Still,

“…Ah, damn.”

I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.

I closed the file and opened the next report.

This intelligence document was about the Reconnaissance Command’s activities. The same agency whose members died putting bullets in my shoulder at the hotel.

“Unusual activity detected from the Reconnaissance Command?”

“Yes, their confidential communications have increased. Over the past three days, there have been at least 30 communications.”

The volume of communications from the Kiyen Empire’s Ministry of Defense to the Empire’s representative office in the Magic Tower had increased.

Considering that the Reconnaissance Command is directly under the Ministry of Defense, and that all defense attachés sent from the Empire to diplomatic missions are Reconnaissance Command personnel, it’s accurate to say that Reconnaissance Command communications had increased.

It’s probably because of the special operations team that died during the mission. Not only did they engage in gunfire in a foreign country and die, but their bodies were also handed over to the Magic Tower, so they must be panicking.

For reference, the bodies are in the morgue of the Magic Tower Police Hospital. When the Magic Tower police requested our attendance, I went to the hospital with the military attaché’s staff and confirmed it with my own eyes.

“Also, several identified Reconnaissance Command operatives have left the country.”

“I’m looking at that now. Different destinations, but the gathering point is probably the Magic Tower?”

“That’s the analysts’ assessment, with high probability.”

If the analysts say so, I should believe them.

Anyway, the Magic Tower still hasn’t figured out who was behind the bombing, and Reconnaissance Command agents are gathering in the Magic Tower.

I mechanically closed the file and opened another intelligence document.

“Jake.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t wander around outside without reason for a while.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Hmm, nothing serious.”

Just.

“Need to be careful for a while.”

*

Despite my advice to be careful, I was someone who had to move around everywhere.

It wasn’t because of a mission assigned by the Military Intelligence Agency. The operation was over, and I needed rest because of the gunshot wound to my shoulder, so the Military Intelligence Agency wasn’t giving me any work.

So what I was doing now was more like volunteer work than a mission.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you.”

“Next person, please. Don’t push, those of you in the back.”

I spent most of my time helping with Lucia’s medical volunteer work.

Over the past few weeks, Lucia had been traveling all over the Magic Tower, determined to help everyone in welfare and healthcare blind spots.

Watching a blind person open their eyes or a cripple stand up straight with just one healing spell felt like witnessing a miracle. In fact, research on divine power was prohibited regardless of reason (anyone other than clergy who researched divine power would be subject to religious trial), so it was no exaggeration to call it a miracle.

The person I spent the second most time with was Camilla.

“This area is done. Now fire one over there.”

“Where?”

“There, can you see where I’m pointing?”

Camilla practiced magic in a place assigned by the Magic Tower for her magical cultivation. I’ve always called this practice, but in the Magic Tower, they collectively refer to meditation, training, and learning to enhance magical abilities as “cultivation.”

I didn’t even know such terminology existed. I had never seen anyone use the word “cultivation” before—not in academies, universities, the military, or even my sister who lived like a hermit in her room.

Anyway, my knowledge expanded.

“You have to aim well. If you mess up, you’ll destroy everything around.”

“Will I have to compensate for damages?”

“Of course not. The Magic Tower will take care of it.”

I didn’t know if the Magic Tower would really compensate residents for damages.

Actually, I didn’t care. The responsibility was unclear.

Despite living here for 28 years, I’ve never seen anyone tell a person who came from another world with nothing, “You caused damage, so you must compensate!”

If the Magic Tower demanded compensation from Camilla, I could label them as “shameless magicians,” and if they demanded it from the Abas representative office, I could simply say “there is no legal obligation to compensate for damage caused by a foreigner.”

Whatever claims the Magic Tower might make, it doesn’t matter. If they’re upset, I can tell them to bring the law and precedents. That’s the rule of law. It’s somewhat petty and dirty work, but this is what intelligence agencies do. The Foreign Ministry is similar.

Of course, the scenario of Magic Tower officials crying their eyes out in front of destroyed buildings never materialized.

“You seem to have gotten used to magic?”

“I’ve become familiar with it through practice!”

Camilla demonstrated skills that were hard to believe for a newbie who had only awakened to magic three months ago. Moreover, her control over flames had become much smoother and more delicate than before.

If the old Camilla was recklessly throwing flames around without restraint, now she showed the demeanor of a magician who knew how to handle magic.

I couldn’t help but be amazed at her abilities, which were growing by the day. Even though I knew nothing about magic.

“Wow. That’s no joke.”

“Do you smell the sewer? Or are you talking about my skills?”

“You seem confident in your abilities?”

“I’m always overflowing with confidence!”

Camilla confidently smiled and mounted her broom.

I naturally sat behind her, and the broom began to float up toward the sky.

Of course,

“Here we gooooo!”

“Aaaaaahhh!”

“Kyaaaaa!”

-BOOM!

She occasionally had accidents like crashing the broom into walls.

*

Time passed, and three days went by.

The past three days were a continuous cycle of routine. Morning at the representative office receiving intelligence reports, helping with Camilla and Lucia’s errands, meeting with intelligence police to exchange information about protests and terrorism…. That’s roughly how I spent my time.

During such monotonous days, I focused on collecting information.

First, the cover-up of the secret operation was successful. The Magic Tower had not realized that the Military Intelligence Agency was behind the bombing and kidnapping, and investigations into the bombing and Fabio Verati’s disappearance were stagnating due to intense protests.

Military Intelligence Agency analysts concluded that the cover-up had achieved significant results, and thanks to the perfect follow-up measures by the remaining personnel of Project 73, there was almost no possibility that the truth would surface.

The Magic Tower will never know who carried out the bombing and kidnapped Fabio Verati. Even if the truth is revealed, it would be months or years later, so the political and diplomatic fallout would be “less than expected.”

This conclusion was possible because the protests in the Magic Tower had intensified.

With the police announcement that an anarchist group was behind the bombing, the protests in the Magic Tower became even more intense. Incidentally, internal divisions also occurred within the protest camp.

The bastard children of Chancellor Jjak-bural strongly criticized the anarchists. As everyone knows, Nazism despises socialism, and anarchism is a branch of socialist thought, so this was a natural progression. Anyway, the Nazis in the Magic Tower launched political offensives against the anarchists. And the anarchists, who were misunderstood to have engaged in armed struggle, split into two factions.

The moderates claimed the police announcement was a smear campaign, while the hardliners, who had been suppressed by the security forces, rose up, arguing that only revolution through struggle could bring true freedom to the Magic Tower. On top of that, communists within the Magic Tower also split into moderate and hardline factions and began tearing each other apart.

Thus, splits and internal conflicts occurred one after another within the protest camp.

This was a result I hadn’t anticipated at all. It wasn’t an intended outcome either. I just picked a random terrorist group to use, and somehow it turned into this mess. The events unfolded so suddenly that even I was surprised.

As the leaders split into factions, the protests lost both direction and control, and it was the Magic Tower police and Public Order Protection Bureau who were panicking because of these unbridled colts. With the media foaming at the mouth and crying that “the Magic Tower is doomed,” the police and counterintelligence agencies put aside everything else and focused all their efforts on suppressing the protests.

Protests erupted throughout the Magic Tower, creating gaps in public security, and various crimes continued to occur, taking advantage of these small gaps.

Still, thanks to the Magic Tower’s efforts in suppression and the protest groups’ self-regulation, the protests didn’t escalate into riots. But that doesn’t mean it was entirely peaceful either.

Anyway, I know nothing about it. I know absolutely nothing.

“Hmm….”

I closed the Magic Tower police report that was delivered through the foreign affairs police. In the corner of the document was written: “Sudden divisions have occurred within the protest camp. Need to collect related information.”

This was all the information I had collected over the past three days.

“……”

I couldn’t track the movements of the Reconnaissance Command.

Intelligence and operations officers operating in the Kiyen Empire failed to track the Reconnaissance Command agents who had left the country, and intelligence and operations officers operating in the regions where the Reconnaissance Command agents arrived failed to collect additional intelligence.

The Military Intelligence Agency had failed to detect them.

That was the conclusion of the intelligence document I received this morning.

The Reconnaissance Command’s operative network within the Magic Tower hadn’t been damaged at all, and no one knew where the departing Reconnaissance Command agents were heading. The highest probability was that they would come to the Magic Tower, but that was only 40%. There was a 30% chance they would go to the Mauritania region, and about a 15% chance they would go to neighboring countries.

That wasn’t the only problem.

Veronica, who had said that either a coup or a revolution would break out in the Magic Tower, still hadn’t provided any intelligence. Even when I urged her to speak before it was too late, Veronica only replied that she would “tell me when the time is right.”

I tried to collect coup-related intelligence by mobilizing my connections. Military Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Heresy Inquisition, media, Foreign Ministry…. But nothing came up. The Royal Intelligence Service might know something, but the only person I knew there was Leoni. And Leoni had gone off the grid, so I couldn’t find her anywhere.

Time was passing, and I had no idea what was going to happen.

I can only delay reporting for a day or two, and with a coup-related issue, I can’t delay reporting any longer.

But there’s nothing on the Military Intelligence Agency server, Dmitri failed to collect intelligence, and Leoni has disappeared. Sophia’s contact has been cut off.

There’s no source for information.

I sighed deeply and looked up at the office ceiling.

“……”

Klevins won’t work, neither will Pipin and Jake. If the Military Intelligence Agency moves to collect information now, it’s obvious that would cause problems. Politically or diplomatically.

I couldn’t discuss this issue with relevant agencies either. Whether it’s the Foreign Ministry, Military Intelligence Agency, or Royal Intelligence Service, if I send an official document saying I’m collecting information, it will be recorded.

So in the current situation, the conclusion is that I must collect information in a way that “leaves no record.”

Not through official routes but unofficial ones,

An agency or organization that can easily obtain information about the Magic Tower,

Someone who has considerable authority there and is on good terms with me,

Someone I can trust.

As it happens, there was one such person.

“…Phew.”

I took a small deep breath, picked up the receiver, and dialed.

The distinctive Abas connection tone sounded, and after a brief wait, the other party answered.

“…Hello?”

-‘…Frederick?’

It was a voice I hadn’t heard in three years.

“Yeah, it’s me. Long time no see.”

I rubbed my face, wiping away cold sweat, and continued in a crawling voice.

“…Sister.”