Ch.554Episode 20 – Who Threatened You with a Knife?

The sudden loud noise made the girl stop in her tracks. Without anyone telling her to, she halted and reflexively lifted her head, scanning ahead two or three times.

“…Gunshots?”

The noise that buried the gentle sounds of wind and fluttering birds in the park was definitely gunfire. And quite indiscriminate shooting at that.

She heard the single screams of fallen citizens. The forceful pressing of brakes, honking horns, and the friction of tires filled the roads.

Citizens fleeing and police officers rushing somewhere. As the girl observed the movements of those escaping and those responding, she heard several more gunshots and let out a faint sigh.

“…Bloody hell.”

She tightened her ponytail and rotated her sneakers in circles to loosen her joints.

“What on earth is happening…?”

The British girl with a bewildered expression, Camilla, calmly began running toward the direction of the gunshots.

Episode 20 – Who Threatened You with a Knife?

If asked about her favorite movie, Camilla would answer without hesitation: “The 007 series.”

On the third day of its first week in theaters, after watching Daniel Craig’s passionate performance with her family, she immediately decided to become a pirate—no, a spy. The girl possessed quite an extraordinary mindset.

From Cambridge’s Department of Conflict Studies to the SIS student internship program, and even a summer internship at a private intelligence consulting firm.

She had a brief but legitimate background in the intelligence field.

That’s why, despite the sudden gunfire, she calmly assessed the situation first.

“……”

In terrorist attacks targeting “soft targets” like public places, civilians are usually the first to recognize the situation.

Right after an attack begins, it’s typically ordinary people who encounter the terrorists who first identify them visually and respond.

But while this might be true immediately after a terrorist attack occurs, if even a little time has passed, the civilian response capability drops significantly.

People who flee without even understanding the situation after seeing others run, rumors endlessly amplified and reproduced by attention-seekers obsessed with likes and retweets, and so on.

As time passes, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify the attackers and assess the exact damage using only OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) or information available in the civilian domain. This has been sufficiently confirmed by the “heroic tales” from the 2015 Charlie Hebdo-Paris shooting and the “Tajikistan citizen involvement theory” from the 2024 Moscow concert hall attack.

In that sense, what needed to be observed now wasn’t civilians but counter-terrorism agencies like the military and police.

“Gunfire at the fountain area! Everyone move to the fountain!”

“Reinforcements from the Guardian Corps are on their way!”

“Block the roads! We need to prevent them from leaving the park!”

Voices calling for support and reporting the situation echoed from all directions.

It was the Moral Police who had been checking people at the park entrance.

Camilla glanced at the citizens rushing to flee the park and the Moral Police trying to stop them, then followed the police officers running toward the fountain.

If Alexandra Petrova the Grand Duchess had seen this sight, she might have clicked her tongue and said, “As expected of a magician, the child is slowly going mad.” But Camilla wasn’t mad; rather, she was moving based on rational judgment.

“…Whoa!”

Camilla leaped over the collapsing crowd with a magical jump, flapping her arms to regain her balance when she nearly lost it.

“What kind of trouble did he get into to deserve being shot at?!”

In her assessment as an aspiring spy and intelligence officer, Frederick was definitely at the location where the gunshots came from.

An intelligence agency employee encountered a suspicious woman. The location: the heart of an enemy nation’s capital.

Though she hadn’t heard the specific background, she roughly knew why he had come here today. It was because of the letter that the professor had delivered to him. And in Camilla’s thinking, the person who sent Frederick the letter was very likely the High Priest.

Why would a political-religious leader of an enemy nation contact an intelligence agent? Camilla couldn’t explain that part with confidence, but there was one fact she could answer with certainty:

The recently fired gun, Frederick, and the suspicious woman he mentioned meeting were definitely connected.

-Over there!

As she was busily traversing the park, a sudden shout caught her attention, and soon a woman and two young children caught her eye.

The three females, clearly a mother and daughters, were running somewhere while catching their breath. Just as Camilla thought they looked like they were fleeing from pursuit, Moral Police with gray armbands appeared, shouting commands like “Stop!”

“Waaah…!”

Camilla urgently stopped her sprint and began chasing after the mother and daughters. There was no particular reason. She simply moved as her instincts guided her.

The Moral Police asked the suddenly appearing unfamiliar woman, “Who are you?!” demanding her identity.

But Camilla didn’t even turn her head and instead brazenly responded to them with, “Just keep chasing!”

That bold and brazen remark must have seemed like an intimidating bark.

The Moral Police didn’t even ask about Camilla’s identity anymore; rather, they responded with, “Ah, understood-!” in loud voices.

The chase continued for a long time.

Over bushes, up and down gentle slopes, along winding walkways.

The mother and daughters persistently fled, nearly getting caught several times, while Camilla and the police tenaciously pursued them.

The sight of people running non-stop through the vast park was truly spectacular. It was a magnificent scene comparable to the escape sequence that opened “28 Days Later.”

However, their stamina couldn’t match the performances of the extras in that film.

“Haaah… Haaah…”

Camilla, barely expelling the breath that had risen to her chin, glanced sideways to check the positions of the Moral Police.

The police officers who had been chasing with intimidating shouts had already fallen behind one by one. Initially, there were Moral Police who tried to get ahead and intercept the three, but now there wasn’t even anyone following behind her.

She wondered if they might have formed a cordon around the park’s perimeter, but when Camilla suddenly checked her surroundings with a sidelong glance, she realized she had left the park quite some time ago.

That was why she suddenly let out an indignant cry.

“No, where did they go after making me chase them…! Who are those women anyway?!”

She raised her voice in frustration as she ran down an unfamiliar alley.

She had been enjoying her rest! Frederick was nowhere to be seen, and here she was chasing after strange women!

She had been running desperately in the hopeful thought that she might encounter Frederick while pursuing these women. But her inconsiderate colleague hadn’t even contacted her to let her know what he was doing or where he was.

“Gaaaah…”

Looking at the back of the woman who was fleeing with children like a national athlete, Camilla began to consider whether it might be acceptable to use magic.

Of course, if she were to use magic and be charged with espionage, she would undoubtedly be in violation of the Nastasiya Treaty. But she thought it might not matter in an alley where no one was watching.

Just as the woman ahead was about to reach the light at the end of the alley.

Flames began to envelop her upper body, emerging from jade-white hands.

“Peek-a-boo-!”

The air, which had been like a calm wave, began to ripple, and Camilla revealed herself, pushing through the wildly scattering sparks.

“…Ah?!”

The woman fleeing with her children opened her eyes like a rabbit and let out a sound close to a scream.

The woman turned around, holding her child tightly. Camilla, who was about to tackle them like an American football player, made a confused “Huh?” sound.

Just as she was about to plant a firm kiss on the ground, the woman who had barely avoided the lunging magician looked flustered and bowed.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t dodge on purpose, I was just so startled…!”

“……”

At the sight of the mother repeatedly bowing, trembling hands waved on both sides. It was a gesture saying not to worry about it.

If she was sorry, Camilla would have preferred if she’d just let herself be caught. Unfortunately, the mother and daughters didn’t seem inclined to be caught quietly.

The woman, who had been anxiously bowing until the end, walked out of the alley with her children, looking around cautiously. Camilla pleaded pitifully, “Please don’t go…” but her voice didn’t reach them.

Of course, it wasn’t Camilla’s fault. The people who didn’t hear her plea were the mother and daughters.

Likewise, the mother and daughters hadn’t done anything wrong either.

Her thread-like voice simply never reached their ears in the first place.

-Vrooooom!

The heavy engine sound, clearly audible even from the end of the alley, was accompanied by the intense noise of rapid deceleration.

As the door of the noisily arriving van flung open, people who had been kneeling on the ground rushed out onto the street.

“W-who are you?!”

“…Kyaaaah!”

“Mom! Let go of my mom!”

“Stop it! Help, someone please help… mmph…!”

The assailants grabbed the mother’s wrists and the daughters’ shoulders, forcibly separating them. They restrained them by pulling their wrists and covered their heads with earmuffs and hoods.

Camilla, sprawled on the ground, witnessed it all.

Though she didn’t understand the situation, she felt she needed to stop it.

“…Eek!”

She staggered to her feet and quickly prepared a spell.

And then.

-Grip!

An assailant who had exited the vehicle grabbed Camilla’s wrist and pushed her against the wall.

Simultaneously, the magical energy that was transforming into flames became suddenly disrupted.

Camilla punched the assailant’s face, but her thrown fist was easily blocked.

“……”

At that very moment.

Two gazes became entangled in mid-air.

With her blocked fist still tensed, Camilla glared and asked:

“…Who are you?”

-Woong…!

A barrier tinged with yellow light resonated once with blue magical energy.