Chapter Index





    Before I knew it, dawn had arrived as I was reviewing the basic information received from headquarters. I only realized this after hearing Camilla, who had just woken up.

    “Aren’t you sleepy?”

    Camilla, who had been lounging on the bed, half-raised her upper body and rubbed her drowsy eyes.

    “Did I wake you?”

    “You’re not disturbing me… *yawn*… How many hours has it been already?”

    “About 9 hours, I’d say.”

    “Don’t work too late at night… You’ll ruin your health that way…”

    In response to her mumbled reply, as if talking to herself, I paused while rubbing my face and closed my eyes briefly.

    It had already been three days since we entered radio silence for anti-eavesdropping measures.

    Still no contact from Leonie.

    During this time, I had reviewed various materials to understand the priest’s intentions, but her true motives remained completely obscure.

    Why had she made such a request of me, and what did she truly want? Questions cascaded like fractals, one after another, yet clear answers remained elusive.

    I could have sought help from the analysts at headquarters, but Leonie’s orders for radio silence meant I couldn’t communicate with them. Similarly, consulting Veronica was also impossible.

    It would take her at least five days to reach Ashtistan anyway.

    So I had no choice but to idle away in the hotel room.

    “……”

    I had just carefully placed my terminal in my cover bag and was about to catch some sleep on the sofa.

    -Ding dong.

    The doorbell sound shook the hotel room.

    Episode 20 – Who Threatened You with a Knife

    No one underestimates the importance of real estate. Even I, making a living through espionage, was no exception.

    Field offices, bureaus, safe houses. The importance of safe houses in particular couldn’t be emphasized enough, even if the East Sea dried up and Mount Baekdu wore away.

    Of course, even a safe house doesn’t guarantee 100% security.

    Accidents tend to occur in the most unexpected ways.

    That’s why, when the doorbell rang, I didn’t look through the peephole.

    “……”

    Needless to say, there were no visitors expected in the dead of night. Even the hotel staff didn’t move around at this hour.

    It could have been another guest who confused the room numbers, but I dismissed that hypothesis without a second thought. I knew that the Kiyen Empire’s Foreign Ministry had reserved three entire floors of this hotel before we even entered Ashtistan.

    That meant all the rooms on this floor, as well as those above and below, were completely empty.

    -Clatter…

    Hiding my body against the concrete wall, I used a hand mirror to check the peephole.

    There was one man standing outside the door.

    As expected, he was definitely not a hotel guest or staff member.

    With semi-rimless glasses and a neat suit, he looked more like an accountant than a hotel employee, and the luxurious watch on his wrist was an expensive model beyond what an ordinary tourist or hotel staff could afford.

    “……”

    “…Phew.”

    I gestured to Camilla, who was standing tensely, and her hidden hand lowered with a sigh of relief.

    She fluttered her fingers to disperse the smoke that had formed at her fingertips, and I naturally opened the door to face the uninvited guest.

    The man with semi-rimless glasses and a stoic expression looked up from checking his wristwatch and met my gaze.

    “Are you the one who sent the letter?”

    Before I could even ask who he was out of courtesy.

    He abruptly started the conversation with a question, pulling out a familiar envelope and overlaying it with his identification card.

    The emblem of the Security Committee gleaming under the dim light was sufficient to represent the man’s affiliation. I nodded, confirming that ‘the letter was indeed from me.’

    Then, the man spoke.

    “You’ll need to come with me.”

    *

    I was asked to accompany a counterintelligence agency representative who arrived at dawn.

    I decided to comply without resistance.

    The Security Committee employee waiting outside the room was just the accountant-looking man. I couldn’t spot any investigators, not even a shadow of a person, in the corridor or near the elevators.

    Typically, arrest operations conducted by intelligence agencies would assign at least 5 people per team, sometimes more than 40 personnel, to ensure successful arrests and the safety of investigators.

    If arrest had been the objective, a corridor packed with intelligence operatives and tactical units should have greeted me.

    And above all else.

    “Can I come along too?”

    “I don’t mind.”

    The Security Committee employee didn’t stop Camilla when she said she wanted to come along. Rather, he permitted it without much consideration.

    Of course, from my perspective, it was an absurd situation.

    “Why are you coming with us?”

    I couldn’t understand her decision to come when there was clearly no issue, but her stubbornness was unmatched.

    Camilla, draping her coat over her arm, answered.

    “I’m worried they might take you somewhere cold.”

    She seemed to think we were going somewhere cool for questioning.

    “The ice storage might be a bit chilly.”

    Unfortunately, her prediction was completely off the mark. There was only one vehicle waiting in front of the hotel.

    The driver opened the door and guided us to the back seat, while the Security Committee employee climbed into the passenger seat, adjusted his semi-rimless glasses, and murmured our destination.

    *

    The car cut through the darkness of Shizya. No one spoke during the drive along the desolate road. Neither us nor them.

    Camilla just stared out the window endlessly. Her expression was a masterpiece—seemingly anxious yet strangely excited.

    While the driver steered according to the Security Committee representative’s directions, I rested my head against the seat and caught some sleep. After a brief nap, the vehicle had reached its destination.

    -Vrrrrrr…

    The sensation of cool air creeping up my ankles was distinct. Looking around after exiting through the door the driver opened, I found a barren landscape surrounding us.

    It was an empty lot.

    Based on the position of the moon and stars, the direction from the intersection near the hotel, and our travel time, this was somewhere to the south. The abandoned, half-constructed buildings suggested we were on the outskirts of Shizya.

    “Yaaawn…”

    As I yawned pathetically while feeling the cool dawn air, Camilla slid up beside me and poked my side, chiding me.

    “You’re yawning right now?”

    “What’s wrong? You’re embarrassing me.”

    “Look around.”

    Following her words, I slowly began to survey the surroundings.

    The abandoned construction site was brightly lit with unexpected lights.

    Cars with their headlights on were scattered around, and local men in suits who clearly looked like company people were surrounding the area with rigid postures.

    The Security Committee representative who got out of the passenger seat signaled to the suited men with a hand gesture.

    When two of the suited men guarding a van opened its door, a hand from inside pushed someone’s head, forcing them out of the vehicle.

    I felt a certain familiarity with the figure being dragged out of the van. A familiarity like I’d seen them somewhere before.

    The identity of this inexplicable familiarity soon revealed itself.

    “Hmm…”

    As the figure held by the suited men was dragged into the light, Camilla’s eyes widened like saucers.

    “Oh. That person from earlier today…?”

    “……”

    The man who emerged from the van was that Security Committee “bastard.” The shameless one who had demanded a bribe from me and ended up causing a scene.

    I had been wondering when he’d get caught, and now he had been apprehended by the Security Committee just hours after the letter was submitted.

    I turned my gaze away from this pathetic fellow and looked toward the bespectacled man.

    “I have a few questions.”

    The Security Committee representative, presumably an inspector, adjusted his semi-rimless glasses and began.

    He held up the neatly folded letter. It was the same letter he had shown me earlier.

    “You stated that you were asked for bribes twice—on the day you entered Ashtistan and yesterday. Is that correct?”

    “Yes.”

    “Is this the man?”

    The accountant-looking Security Committee representative pointed at the man with the letter as he asked.

    The man who had been dragged out with an irritated face glared at me fiercely. As if I had caused him trouble.

    It was truly an astonishing response, so brazenly shameless that I wondered what drugs he might have taken.

    I looked him up and down several times.

    “Yes. That’s him.”

    “Please briefly explain the circumstances.”

    The Security Committee representative asked, and I listed the facts as concisely as possible.

    From his attitude, it seemed he had already grasped the situation roughly.

    It meant they had called me out to check if there were any facts they hadn’t discovered before punishing him. His intentions were transparent in his tone and gestures.

    So I gave him a brief summary. I don’t know if the Security Committee found the answer they wanted, but at least the man didn’t ask for additional explanation.

    When my short explanation ended, the accountant-like man who had listened with an expressionless face waved his hand toward the suited men. A gesture indicating they should take him away.

    “Hey, how much investigation did you even do…?”

    “Come along.”

    The man who had gotten indigestion from trying to take bribes seemed genuinely indignant, but his excuses were cut short as two suited men pulled his arms.

    Restrained by the suited men, he was forcibly put into a vehicle.

    However, the vehicle he boarded wasn’t a van but a sedan. A very old and shabby 60s model at that.

    “……”

    As I observed him and the suited men, with him constantly grumbling with a disgruntled face, I whispered quietly to Camilla who was watching the scene.

    “Camilla. Could you look somewhere else for a moment?”

    “Why?”

    “I’ll tell you the reason later. Hurry.”

    “…?”

    What on earth is he talking about? Camilla began to look at me as if she was seeing something bizarre.

    While her gaze lingered on me, the Security Committee employee implicated by the letter got into the sedan with the suited men.

    Even from a distance, it was clear he was complaining as he opened the passenger door and inserted his backside, and the two suited men who had put him in the car took the driver’s seat and the back seat respectively.

    The shadow in the back seat reflected in the glass aimed something taken from an inside pocket toward the passenger seat.

    -Bang.

    A bright flash sparkled in the pitch-black darkness.

    Camilla, who had taken her eyes off me, witnessed the scene in its entirety. Her shoulders momentarily tensed with the flash, proving it.

    Most unfortunately.

    I muttered with a slight sigh.

    “I told you not to look.”


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