Ch.600Episode 22 – The Kazinsky Test

Camilla held back her hair that was fluttering in the breeze and suddenly asked me a question.

“…Did you just hear something?”

“A sound, you mean?”

“Yes.”

Despite her meaningful gaze, I tilted my head in confusion. A sound? What kind of sound could she be talking about?

I bit back the words I was about to say.

The sound had stopped.

The rustling of leaves rubbing against palms, the chirping of insects—everything had vanished in an instant.

An eerie silence fell.

The sound of breaking branches echoed bleakly through the silence.

Without any signal, Camilla and I stopped walking simultaneously.

The gray clouds covering the night sky slowly parted, revealing a mysterious full moon that emitted a blue glow.

– Awoooooooo!!

A rough, sharp beast’s roar echoed over the walls.

Episode 22 – The Kazinski Test

With her gaze fixed on the road stretching toward the hills and night sea, Camilla spoke in a low voice.

“It’s probably a stray dog, right?”

I stepped forward, watching beyond the wall.

“No.”

A faint groan escaped my lips.

“That’s not a dog.”

The sudden howl was definitely a terrifying sound that only a beast could make. It was on a completely different level from a dog’s bark.

A ferocious, savage howling that captured the raw essence of wilderness.

More like the roar of a wolf or jackal that no mere dog could imitate.

“……”

A small spark flickered where our fingertips met. Camilla stood beside me with somewhat unstable eyes. It was almost an instinctive action.

“…Then what is it?”

“It might be a monster. There are often territories between cities that are left abandoned, almost like no-man’s-lands. Perhaps it came from such a place.”

But this is the capital, isn’t it? Her gaze seemed to ask exactly that.

I quietly took out my mobile phone.

It was already past 3 AM, but the person on duty answered without any issue.

-‘Yes, Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahar Abbas….’

“This is Frederick Nostrim. Just one question. Has any alert been issued in Bahar city right now?”

-‘An alert? No, there’s no problem here.’

“……”

-‘Um, may I ask why you’re inquiring?’

As the embassy duty officer’s voice came through the line,

I silently surveyed the surroundings.

For quite a while, for a long time.

“…It’s nothing. Excuse me.”

Nothing had happened.

*

Morning arrived as ordinarily as any other day.

A refreshingly blue sky and a vast bay visible below the open landscape. Birds’ chirping announced the start of a new day, and the city was bustling with people going about their business as usual.

I went outside the resort before the morning began.

I wandered around wondering if anything had happened at dawn, but there was nothing particularly noteworthy.

Only the scenery, seemingly oblivious to the night’s disturbance, greeted me.

I bowed slightly to the security officer as I held my authentication key against the magic scanner.

“I’ll be passing through.”

“You’re early today? Even the ambassador hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Yes, I have a lot of work today.”

I received my belongings back from the security staff member wearing a black hat, along with words of encouragement to keep up the good work.

It was my usual commute.

After passing through security, I went up to the military attaché’s office, swinging my commuter bag.

I tossed my bag under my assigned desk and turned on the terminal.

“Let’s see… what was I supposed to do today…”

I muttered indifferently, but in reality, there wasn’t much to do. It was just an extension of the intelligence work I’d been doing routinely, both domestically and abroad.

Of course, there were some unique differences at the embassy.

For instance, the terminals in the military attaché’s office.

Here, there was one terminal connected to external lines that could be used freely, and another connected only to the internal network exclusively for official duties.

Terminals with external line access are also available in domestic offices, but those are rarely used. You need prior approval from the supervisor before using them.

Well, as is often the case in the military, you could cut corners if you wanted to.

But if the audit office caught even the slightest issue, it would be incredibly troublesome.

From the operations chief glaring with bloodshot eyes saying “Just let one person get caught,” the entire unit would turn into a minefield.

And if the auditor happened to be enemies with the unit commander and operations chief?

Need I say more? They’d just wreak havoc and leave.

From that perspective, an embassy where you could freely use external networks without issues wasn’t a bad place to work.

-Click, click.

As I tapped the screen, documents that had arrived overnight popped up.

Work instructions, diplomatic cables, and so on.

There was no need to look at regular cables first. “Regular” meant documents transmitted in plain text, and diplomatic documents in plain text meant they contained nothing particularly important.

The first things to check were the encrypted cables.

Decrypt them using the cryptographic materials and confirm the contents,

Organize urgent matters and place them on the military attaché chief’s desk,

After briefly scanning through regular cables and work instructions, it was time to monitor the host country’s media outlets.

Freshly printed morning newspaper scans, morning news with poor anchors and announcers who took the microphone at 7 AM, latest breaking news headlines, and so on.

There were mainly three things to look out for:

Articles related to the Kingdom of Abbas, major articles about the Rushan Federation, and reports on international affairs.

By the way, the secret to how the embassy can scan morning newspapers every day without fail is simple.

The junior secretaries just take turns coming in early and running the copier.

After going through eight daily newspapers stained with the tears of young diplomatic officials,

Setting up the documents to match the arrival times of the ambassador, consul, and minister,

The “preparation” for the embassy’s morning work was finally complete.

“Nothing special today.”

At exactly 8:30 AM,

After moving the approval document files to the military attaché chief’s desk, I leaned my head against the chair with a relieved smile.

“I already want to go home, damn it.”

*

While embassies handling diplomatic affairs in host countries are always known to be busy, I had never seen a place as hectic as the Abbas Embassy in the Rushan Federation recently.

The reason was obvious.

The Four-Party Talks.

This historic event bringing together the diplomatic heads of the Kingdom of Abbas, the Rushan Federation, the Republic of Ashtistan, and the Kiyen Empire in one place was receiving intense global attention.

Professors and high-ranking officials were naturally keeping a close watch, and even ordinary people eating at restaurants were showing interest.

It’s a natural phenomenon.

Even people who claim not to watch the news would pause their internet browsing to pay attention to world affairs when events like inter-Korean summits or six-party talks are held.

Even if it’s just through shorts that eat up data or popular posts with a few recommendations.

The situation here wasn’t much different.

“Is the fighting finally going to end?”

“It’s been going on for so long. Already decades.”

The unexpected détente atmosphere had filled people worldwide with anticipation.

Renowned newspapers seated experts they had invited from somewhere, and intellectuals who transformed into peace heralds as soon as they received their payment notifications began enthusiastically filling viewers’ lungs with air.

And amidst this festive atmosphere, the protagonists who willingly played the role of clowns appeared.

They were the diplomatic heads leading the Four-Party Talks.

“Look over here!”

“Foreign Minister! Is it true that the record-breaking 11th round of sanctions is about to be lifted?!”

“Could you comment on whether you intend to raise the Empire’s human rights issues at the talks…?”

“There are predictions that military dialogue with the Rushan Federation, suspended since the Republic’s founding, will resume…”

The well-dressed gentlemen gathered in the land of heat appeared before the press without even wetting their lips, as befitting diplomats.

The four countries’ foreign ministers stood side by side on the steps of the conference hall, exchanging good-natured smiles.

“Of course. We have come here to Bahar to restart the dialogue that has been paused for so long.”

A massive figure standing over 190cm tall. The man with sparkling sky-blue eyes towering like a giant answered.

He was the Foreign Minister of the Kiyen Empire.

He gave a slight eye-smile to reporters asking about the results of the talks.

“We confirmed each other’s sincere positions.”

The Empire’s Foreign Minister politely rephrased what could have been said as ‘Everyone just kept insisting how great they were.’

The Kingdom of Abbas’ Foreign Minister, who was listening beside him, burst into a hearty laugh and lightly touched the Foreign Minister’s shoulder.

“We exchanged opinions that we hadn’t been able to share for a long time. I’m concerned we might have kept you all waiting too long. Haha.”

‘This greedy bastard who doesn’t know the meaning of compromise has been dragging things out since day one.’

Harsh yet smooth criticism poured from the Kingdom’s Foreign Minister’s mouth.

The elderly gentleman tapped the ground with his cane and moved half a step forward, making the keffiyeh wrapped around his head flutter.

The Rushan Federation’s longest-serving diplomat, the Minister of International Development, respectfully placed his hand on his chest.

“There is an old saying: Do not rush, but go slowly.”

‘We must make this negotiation succeed, so don’t ruin the atmosphere and just stay quiet.’

The elderly man, whose wrinkles seemed particularly deep today, was giving a dignified lecture.

In response, the final man standing on the opposite side began to look at the old man with his bright yellow eyes.

“Yes. Our Republic of Ashtistan will respect and consider the opinions of Abbas, Rushan, and Kiyen.”

‘Fuck off.’

A gentlemanly insult directed at the Federation across the sea, their mortal enemy.

The atmosphere was harmonious.

At least, that’s how the diplomatic heads appeared on the surface.

From my perspective, with a diplomatic translator implanted in my brain, it was an absolute mess, but what could I do?

In front of the crystal ball broadcasting the vibrant détente scene to living rooms worldwide, one couldn’t blurt out their true thoughts like, ‘We spent 7 hours just saying whatever we wanted and accomplished absolutely nothing. These bastards ruined the atmosphere from day one, and the negotiations might fall apart. I’m not in a good mood today either, so turn off the cameras and get out of my sight right now.’

Thus,

From day one of the talks, meant to gauge each other’s intentions, there were local provocations rather than exploratory moves.

It was only natural that the embassy supporting the talks became incredibly busy.

Intelligence agencies were no exception.

“This is an urgent cable sent by the Kiyen Foreign Ministry yesterday evening. It focuses on northern magic stone export regulations and the suppression of non-human races within the Empire…”

“As our Foreign Ministry predicted, to make the Empire’s military’s indirect support and the Law Enforcement Corps’ foreign activity restrictions effective, we need to refer to the 61st summit…”

“The Rushan Federation wants to normalize military dialogue channels with Ashtistan as soon as possible. However, our country’s position is firm that allowing this is unacceptable…”

A meeting was in full swing within the military attaché’s office.

There was no need to explain the purpose of the meeting.

If a meeting was being held now, the purpose was clear.

The Four-Party Talks practitioners who visited the embassy early in the morning, namely the defense sector negotiators, were engaged in all sorts of verbal battles with the local military attachés.

While they discussed various agenda items, I was continuing my work outside the conference room. To be precise, I was handling the issues assigned by Clevins.

“……”

As I was carefully reading the decrypted cable and taking notes of important information, the timing was perfect.

Clevins, who had been dispatched as a practitioner for this Four-Party Talks, appeared in the military attaché’s office.

“Frederick.”

“Ah, you’re here? I was just about to come see you, so this is perfect.”

I stood up from my chair and greeted him warmly.

I needed to give an interim report anyway, so this was good timing.

“Let me brief you on the progress first. As you instructed, I received the list of Law Enforcement Corps deputy commanders, and Kasem is currently in Baha-“

Just as I was about to quickly recite the information I had summarized,

Clevins, who had suddenly entered the office, cut me off.

His voice was resolute.

“No. We’ll talk about that later.”

I looked up from my notes with a seemingly surprised expression.

It’s not unusual for a superior to interrupt a subordinate, but stopping a report was behavior that didn’t match Clevins’ character.

The actions that followed were also the same.

After entering the office, he calmly looked around and then abruptly called me to the emergency stairwell, citing that there were too many ears in the military attaché’s office.

He looked somewhat urgent.

His outward appearance was no different from usual, but if you watched carefully, you could notice subtle differences.

“I apologize. A sudden emergency came up.”

After checking the stairs above and below, Clevins caught his breath and first apologized to me.

I, on the other hand, asked a question.

“What happened?”

“You could say that.”

He shrugged his shoulders lightly, then slightly raised his chin and let out a sigh.

“Did you make a phone call to the duty officer at dawn today?”

“At dawn? Yes, about 2 minutes with the duty officer in charge.”

“What was it about?”

I answered honestly.

There was nothing to hide, and I was rather curious why he was asking about this. Anyway.

I just explained it as it was.

“Around 2 AM, I heard an animal sound near our accommodation. I remember it happening about twice, but it didn’t sound like something a normal wild animal would make. More like a monster, if anything.”

Suspicious sounds kept coming, so I called the embassy just in case.

If a monster had appeared somewhere, there would surely be an official document or news about it.

However, the embassy duty officer confirmed there was no problem. When I woke up in the morning, nothing had actually happened.

So I thought I might have misheard due to fatigue and forgot about it.

“After sunrise, I walked around the perimeter of the resort but found nothing unusual. I also confirmed that the barrier set by the Archmage was intact.”

The question itself was so sudden that I didn’t have time to organize my thoughts, but fortunately, Clevins picked out the key points.

Crossing his arms, he stroked his chin with one hand and muttered softly.

“The atmosphere was eerie, and fatigue might have confused you. You think you misheard or misunderstood something. Is that what you mean?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

There was nothing more to add.

I nodded casually.

-Thud, thud.

In the emergency stairwell with a slightly gloomy aura.

The sound of footsteps echoed in this place with lights but no windows.

“Monster, monster…”

Clevins, seemingly lost in thought, paced around the landing for a while. He also repeated something three or four times under his breath.

The aimless silence ended when I, who had been staring at him, opened my mouth.

“Um, why are you suddenly asking about this… It wasn’t a big issue and was just a misunderstanding.”

The pacing footsteps stopped. Clevins’ lips, which had curled inward, released a complex and subtle groan.

“This isn’t a topic to discuss here…”

He naturally let his words trail off and gestured for me to come closer.

As I approached,

After lowering his voice dramatically, Clevins cautiously began to speak.

“It’s a murder case.”

A chill ran through my heart.

With one hand in my pocket, I stared into space for a moment, and his voice continued.

“You said your accommodation was a resort. Built on the hill of Bahar Bay.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“A family was killed in a house near you. Quite brutally. There are several strange aspects to it…”

“What… Is it some kind of bizarre case?”

“No. It’s different from that, but anyway. I think you should know this much.”

Pulling my shoulder lightly, he whispered in my ear.

In a volume lower than ever before.

“Some of the murdered victims were women, and they all had something in common. Red hair, blue eyes.”

Red hair, blue eyes.

“Don’t you think they resemble someone we know?”

…Camilla.