Ch.120Episode 6 – The Omniscient Spy’s Perspective

The assailants dragged me out of the vehicle and took me somewhere.

Judging by the floor texture, noise, and sound echoes, it seemed to be a corridor inside a building.

This reminds me of SERE training.

“.دلته کښېنه”

One of the assailants muttered something. It was a language I’d never heard before. It sounded slightly similar to Pashto. Probably a tribal language from the Moritani region.

It was a deep voice, likely belonging to a man in his forties. The voice came from a slight distance, and moments later, the assailant who was holding me sat me down in a chair. I didn’t understand the exact meaning, but it probably meant “sit him down.”

Now what’s going to happen?

“……”

Perhaps the people who kidnapped me are from a Moritani intelligence agency. Or they could be an armed group acting on orders from the Imperial Guard or Reconnaissance Command. They might even be terrorists who took me hostage simply for ransom.

If they’re the type who behead people in front of a camcorder, that would be disgustingly unlucky.

Any hypothesis is entirely possible.

The issue isn’t who kidnapped me, but how quickly Military Intelligence can locate me and send a rescue team.

From what I could tell, the vehicle didn’t travel very far, so tracking shouldn’t take more than three days.

“……”

I heard voices.

One seemed to belong to a much younger man than before, and another was a much thinner, more hesitant voice that likely belonged to a woman.

“.خپله خولۍ لرې کړه”

“.ہهو”

Whoosh.

Someone removed the cloth covering my head. My vision suddenly brightened, and under the soft lighting was Francesca Ranieri—

“Administrator?”

“It’s been a while, Military Attaché.”

She greeted me.

Episode 6 – The Spy’s Perspective

I have no idea what’s going on.

I was kidnapped on my way back to the hotel after clocking out from the delegation office. I was stuffed under the back seat of a vehicle and dragged around for 48 minutes. Then I was brought to some unknown place.

And there I met my colleague.

“It’s been quite a busy day, hasn’t it, Military Attaché…?”

“……”

Let me correct myself.

Not a male colleague, but a female one.

*

Francesca Ranieri.

Administrator of the Economic Management Department of the Tower’s Secretariat Bureau and an Alchemist.

She looked at me with a melancholic smile.

“You look surprised. Not as much as I expected, but…”

The cape she usually wore was nowhere to be seen. Francesca Ranieri was wearing a bathrobe, sitting comfortably in a chair as she looked at me.

“…When people are too shocked, they often can’t speak.”

“That’s true…”

The alchemist chuckled and nodded.

I turned my head to see who had brought me here and where I was.

What I saw were luxurious chairs and tables. In the distance, a bartender was polishing glasses at the front bar, and right next to it was a swimming pool. And within arm’s reach stood men who appeared to be from Moritani. With guns.

The assailants and the alchemist exchanged words in a language only they understood. After a brief conversation, the assailants cut the rope binding my wrists and left through the door.

I have no idea what kind of absurd situation this is. Just when I was thinking that I’d like someone to explain what’s going on…

The alchemist spoke with perfect timing.

“Your journey here was a bit… tumultuous, wasn’t it?”

…A bit?

“You seem quite comfortable for someone who’s blatantly breaking the law, Administrator. I’m sure you’re aware that kidnapping and detaining a diplomatic envoy is a serious crime.”

The current situation was clearly suspicious. I didn’t know the exact details, but since this woman was the first person I met after being kidnapped, she was clearly involved in the abduction.

And kidnapping a diplomatic official is a serious crime that would receive severe punishment in any country.

“Me…?”

However, Francesca Ranieri, without losing her smile, glanced around and then said:

“It’s just you and me here now. The people who kidnapped you are gone. It doesn’t seem like I, who just happened to run into you while swimming, have anything to do with it…?”

“The police might think that, but Abas won’t.”

“Abas… As long as you stay quiet, Major, he won’t make an issue of it…?”

“Do you think I would?”

Do you?

Francesca Ranieri calmly smiled and walked to the front bar. She picked up a cocktail shaker from the shelf and began to shake it gently as she continued speaking.

“I heard you don’t like alcohol, but… I recently learned how to make a new punch, so I’d like you to try it today.”

“……”

I don’t know what this crazy woman is up to. She kidnaps someone on their way home from work, displays a show of force with armed men, and now she wants me to try her homemade drink.

She’s a different kind of crazy.

Why are there no normal women around me? I just don’t understand.

“Drink your damn punch yourself.”

“If you wish, you can return to your hotel anytime. It’s quite far, but I won’t stop you.”

“Of course you shouldn’t.”

I tried to get up from my seat.

But although I stood up, I couldn’t turn around and head back to the hotel.

What stopped me was none other than the alchemist’s voice.

“But if you leave now, you’ll never hear the answers you want.”

“What nonsense is that?”

“La Cardenal.”

“……”

“……”

“…What do you want?”

Screech.

The alchemist pulled out a chair and smiled at me.

“Let’s sit down first, shall we?”

*

Francesca Ranieri guided me to the table. Under the soft lighting, she even served me an elegant cocktail she had made herself.

“You’re not drinking?”

“I’ll pass.”

I didn’t touch it. Why would I trust a drink made by an alchemist? Who knows what tricks she might have played.

Of course, it wasn’t just the questionable ingredients that kept me from drinking. There was a more fundamental reason why I refused the drink she offered.

“What did you bring me here to talk about?”

“Kidnap? This is an invitation.”

“I don’t recall accepting it.”

“You never declined it either.”

Francesca Ranieri calmly sipped the punch she had made.

“Who were those people earlier? Mercenaries? Criminals?”

“They’re people with whom the Tower has contracted to maintain public order and streamline administrative procedures.”

PMCs, she said. Private Military Company contractors.

Contractors, elegantly speaking, are heavily armed paramilitary personnel, or less charitably, mercenaries who handle dirty, troublesome, and miscellaneous tasks for money.

Their employer is the Tower government. The official reason for hiring them is to assist the Tower police in maintaining social order, but in reality, it’s to share the burden of the police’s limited human resources and blur the lines of responsibility. That’s all I knew about PMCs operating in the Tower. More precisely, that’s how Pippin explained it during the basic information briefing based on data from Military Intelligence and related agencies.

Local governments, foreign governments, and private companies hiring PMCs is common in the third world, so I didn’t think much of it.

What was important was that Francesca Ranieri had mobilized PMCs.

“The Tower must really dislike me, assigning mercenaries and all.”

While PMCs will do anything for money, that’s only when they’ve formally signed a contract and received payment.

And from my experience, even hiring a bottom-tier company in the industry costs a substantial amount. No matter how mercenary they are, they’re still people, and people get paid for their work. Whether it’s labor costs or expenses. Add in additional allowances, hazard pay, and company premiums, and the price skyrockets.

Governments hire mercenaries primarily to reduce political pressure from domestic public opinion and the international community, not to reduce economic burden.

So I concluded that it wasn’t Francesca Ranieri who mobilized the PMC, but the Tower government. After all, she wasn’t just a simple alchemist but an administrator of the Secretariat Bureau.

“The Tower knows nothing about this, Military Attaché.”

She says that’s not the case.

“Hiring the mercenaries. Bringing you here. It was all my decision.”

“You’re quite bold.”

“So if you just keep quiet…”

“……”

“Can we keep today’s events just between us…?”

I deliberately didn’t answer. Ignoring her question, I looked for a different topic of conversation.

“Where did you hear about La Cardenal?”

Francesca Ranieri didn’t answer and instead raised her hand to call the bartender. The bartender silently approached the table, left a brown envelope, and departed.

I suddenly worried if he could hear our conversation from that distance.

As I was roughly gauging the distance between the bartender and us, Francesca Ranieri, seemingly noticing my concern, slowly tore open the brown envelope and said:

“The bartender is deaf. He can’t hear.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“You seemed worried. Hehe.”

Francesca Ranieri laughed out loud, which was unpleasant to hear, and placed the object she took from the envelope on the table.

It was a cassette player.

She pointed at the player and raised the glass next to it.

“Listen to it. The answer you want is there.”

“……”

I looked at the cassette player with suspicious eyes, then at Francesca Ranieri’s face.

But the alchemist only showed a strange smile without revealing any emotion. So, with an uneasy feeling in my chest, I pressed the play button.

-Click!

As the button was pressed, the tape began to roll,

And soon, the voice recorded on the tape flowed over the table.

[Hey, what’s up, Merlot?]

[Are you still in the Empire?]

It was my phone conversation.