Ch.124Side Episode – Spy Game

In the dark night, I faced Camilla in a hotel room dimly lit by moonlight.

Camilla was looking down at me.

Her face in the moonlight was terribly pale, and at a glance, she looked as wan as a gravely ill patient.

She stood motionless, looking down at me with cold eyes.

As I gazed into those coldly settled eyes, a thought suddenly struck me.

Intuition or instinct? An indescribable sensation flashed through my mind.

Yes. Perhaps this too is a kind of supernatural ability. Or maybe a habit honed by decades of espionage.

And so, looking at Camilla’s eyes in the moonlight, I think this:

She knows something.

Side Episode – Spy Game

It was dawn. Only the sound of the air conditioner filled the silent room. The rain had considerably lowered the temperature in the magic tower, and the humidity had reached its peak, making it difficult to breathe even while standing still.

I inhaled deeply the damp air that was gradually drying. Just breathing felt like being underwater.

That stuffiness made my mood strange, so I pressed my voice with confusion and frustration as I spoke to Camilla.

“What do you mean?”

Camilla looked at me with a bright smile.

“I’m asking if you’re hiding something from me.”

“……”

Her smile became slightly enigmatic.

It seemed like she was smiling. Or perhaps sneering. Looking closely, it might be mockery, but at a glance, it could be anger.

Normally, Camilla’s smile was as warm as her vermilion hair, but her face in the moonlight was so pale that it was difficult to find any warmth in her expression.

Feeling uneasy, I sat in the single sofa and fumbled through my memories. What did she know? Where had I made a mistake?

“……”

To be honest, I hadn’t always told Camilla the truth. Therefore, the things I was hiding from her were countless.

For instance, the truth about the past bomb terror and assassination attempt, or Cardinal Raoul’s true identity.

All those incidents were fragments of fierce intelligence warfare centered around intelligence agencies, but Camilla was directly involved. She had experienced a bombing shortly after arriving here and even watched me nearly die from a poisoned needle right before her eyes.

Of course, this was information she didn’t need to know. At the same time, it was information she shouldn’t know.

Because it was classified.

Everything that happened in the Order was kept strictly confidential by those involved, and all documents, memos, recordings, videos, and photos produced in the process were classified, and those who knew the truth signed non-disclosure agreements. I knew this well since the first thing I did upon returning to Military Intelligence was to sign an NDA. The same applied to the subsequent operation to capture spies at the Advanced Military Magic Research Institute and the covert operations at the magic tower.

I didn’t know the exact classification, but they were all military secrets classified at least as Level 2 or higher. Perhaps even Level 1. Level 1 information was produced by intelligence agencies, and Military Intelligence was clearly a military intelligence agency.

So this wasn’t something Camilla needed to worry about. She wasn’t interested in such things to begin with.

But that wasn’t all I was hiding from her. I was hiding many other things from Camilla.

That I wasn’t just an ordinary army major or defense attaché, but an operative from military intelligence.

That the Order attendants she greeted every morning were intelligence agents from the Inquisition.

That the police officers always sitting in the same spot on the first floor of the hotel weren’t ordinary police but police intelligence officers.

That Veronica, who saved my life and had spoken with her several times, was not only a saint but also a collaborator helping intelligence agencies.

That Francesca Ranieri, whom we newly met at the magic tower, was actually a dissident, a rebel.

That I wasn’t actually from this place.

Some information I could have revealed but chose to hide, and some I had to hide because it shouldn’t be revealed. Perhaps ignorance was bliss. I had seen many people get dragged into a quagmire after becoming entangled in these affairs.

I had hidden countless pieces of information or truths, and Camilla was unaware of them.

So this is what I said:

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Hiding something? What am I supposed to be hiding?”

Even at this moment, I was telling lies, but sadly, that was my profession.

Lying as easily as breathing, manipulating and controlling people through provocation, and presenting forged passports stolen from China or Japan to immigration officers instead of my South Korean passport with my real name.

Deceiving and exploiting people was what I did for a living. In fact, I was doing it right now.

As I confidently offered a plausible denial, Camilla lowered her head with a faint smile. Though she had lowered her head, she was still standing, looking down at me.

She opened her mouth.

“People have characteristics. Not just in appearance, but in speech and behavior too. Me, Lucia…”

“……”

“The same goes for you, Major.”

Camilla quietly caressed the hand she was holding. It was my hand.

A woman touching an unrelated man’s hand was somewhat strange both here and on Earth. Looking closely now, Camilla wasn’t simply holding my hand but touching my wrist with her index and middle fingers.

“Your characteristic is that you always give examples to make explanations easier to understand.”

She continued slowly.

“For instance, when I first tried to ride a broom, you said I should wear protective gear to avoid scraping my knees like on a bicycle, and practice in a safe place.”

I waited for Camilla to finish speaking, and after a slight pause, I opened my mouth in a calm voice.

“Isn’t that obvious? When starting anything new, you should do it in a safe place. When you first ride a bicycle, it’s difficult to balance on something with just two wheels attached.”

“Why is that obvious?”

“Is there anything more important than safety? If you rush too much, there’s a risk of injury—”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

Camilla said.

“Why is it obvious that a bicycle has two wheels? It could have three wheels, or even four.”

She spoke as if something was strange. Her voice was normal, but I could instinctively detect something sticky underlying it.

“……”

But I didn’t know exactly what it was. I didn’t know which part had made her suspicious. The question itself was strange, asking about something so obvious.

So with an odd feeling, rather than awkwardly trailing off and buying time to think, I quickly opened my mouth, thinking it better to make something up.

“That’s a strange question. What’s so important about how many wheels it has? A bicycle is ultimately a means of transportation where people move by pedaling, regardless of how many wheels it has.”

“Is there a reason you think of a bicycle as a wheeled means of transportation?”

“When you walk down the street, you see people riding bicycles. Do I need to think about it?”

Camilla said.

“That’s here.”

The British college student said.

“Where I come from, a bicycle might not be a wheeled means of transportation.”

*

For a moment, I felt like I’d been hit on the head with a hammer.

My mind went blank, and finally, all the puzzle pieces started fitting together, forming a picture. Where I had made a mistake. What she had noticed.

As soon as I finished thinking, I knew I was screwed.

Of course, even in the midst of this, my mouth was moving instinctively.

“There’s nothing more to hear. This is pure paranoia bordering on delusion.”

I instinctively pulled out a method I had often used before. Charitably speaking, it was the devil’s advocate verifying an analyst’s judgment; less charitably, it was the typical rhetoric of a nitpicking asshole.

“It’s just an example, but assuming a bicycle isn’t a wheeled means of transportation is an exaggerated guess. Of course, a bicycle might not be a wheeled object where you come from, Camilla. But I, living here, know bicycles as wheeled means of transportation.”

“……”

“The same goes for everything else. All my explanations are based on here. Of course, where Camilla lived and where I live might be very different. But if my explanations to help understanding happen to resemble something from where Camilla lived, that’s purely coincidental.”

“……”

“Right now, you’re psychologically unstable, Camilla. I understand. Suddenly falling into a different world, it’s understandable.”

I tried to find logical flaws in her reasoning and overturn her core judgment.

But Camilla still stood quietly with her head lowered. The smile on her lips remained unchanged.

“So you see my thoughts as delusions? Delusions stemming from psychological factors.”

“Since ‘delusion’ is too negative a word, let’s call it fantasy.”

Without a word, she quietly curved her lips. That behavior, different from usual, was so strange, bizarre, and at the same time, ominous. It couldn’t be because of her two fingers on my wrist.

The damp air had dried up and a cool breeze was blowing, but I still felt the suffocating sensation of being underwater.

“……”

Suddenly, I remembered the psychological warfare training I had received.

Voice reflects a person’s psychology. When stating accurate facts and firm opinions, one speaks in a stable voice with little variation in frequency. But when uncertain or lying, the frequency becomes unstable and fluctuates. Also, speaking speed increases, breathing becomes shorter, and the tone of voice changes slightly.

This is because blood pressure and pulse quicken. Breathing and skin conductivity are related. Even the nostrils flare.

So to beat a lie detector or deceive an investigator, it’s important to maintain a stable state as much as possible. Or think about something else. And of course, what you say needs to be consistent.

A lie detector detects breathing, skin conductivity, blood pressure, and pulse to comprehensively analyze and determine the presence of lies.

And all four elements were related to heartbeat.

Camilla’s voice cut through my thoughts.

“I have one more question.”

She slightly bent her knees, crouched in front of me, and looked up at me.

Our eyes met, and I could read a strange emotion in them.

“You said before that elves love nature tremendously, right? Remember?”

“…Yes.”

Her two eyes were,

“Then you’ll remember this too.”

filled with certainty.

“How did you know what Greenpeace does?”