Ch.611Episode 22 – The Kazinsky Test

# When Veronica was on the verge of collapse after realizing the shocking truth that her beloved siblings had been living with such a deranged human scum as their colleague.

While completely ignoring Camilla’s request for help, I was slurping my iced tea when I suddenly expressed a doubt.

“I understand the general plan. Dismantle the terrorist organization, naturally return some members to their daily lives, and track down those who remain and cause trouble. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“Just as I suspected.”

I chewed on my straw while nodding.

Typical Western style. It’s the method intelligence agencies like the CIA and SIS use when dealing with Middle Eastern terrorist groups.

How did Camilla know about this method? Obviously because she had worked as an intern at SIS.

“You said you did counter-terrorism work during your internship, right? Analysis, was it?”

“That’s right. My professor, ugh! Recommended I try that field…!”

Camilla kept responding affirmatively while dragging the unconscious Veronica. So that’s why she was able to analyze Middle Eastern terrorist groups so easily.

Good.

I tapped Veronica’s cheeks to wake her up. Huh? Heh? Unlike a cleric blessed by divine favor, she regained consciousness with strange, incoherent moans.

“Slurp, where am I…?”

“Your home, I presume.”

Leaving the saint wiping drool marks with the back of her hand, I approached Camilla, who was anxiously looking at Veronica.

“Veronica, pull yourself together. Camilla, we don’t have much time, so quickly explain what your future plans are.”

I’ve grasped the situation, and it seems she has the plan. What happens next is crucial.

Suddenly, the girl faced forward and squeezed her eyes shut.

Then, after lightly patting her cheeks a couple of times, she spoke in a crawling voice.

“I can do it by myself! That was my plan from the beginning.”

“You? How exactly?”

“It’s nothing special… My professor who used to work at MI5 said something about counter-terrorism.”

“What did your Cambridge professor say?”

“Finding terrorists hiding in a city is not much different from finding codes hidden in seemingly ordinary sentences. No matter how well disguised or encrypted, with statistics, science, and enough time, they will eventually reveal themselves.”

No matter how well they hide, no matter how well-crafted.

There’s no such thing as an unbreakable code in this world, nor a perfectly secured organizational secret.

And there’s one absolute commonality between codes and secrets.

Once broken, they become useless.

They become known to both enemy and ally, eventually degrading into mere rumors floating around on stock message boards.

“What I need to do isn’t fundamentally different.”

“…”

“So, to use an analogy…”

After a brief silence.

Lost in thought, Camilla suddenly spoke.

“It’s a kind of Kasiski test.”

## Episode 22 – Kasiski Test

The village at sunset was a pale green.

The exhausting day had disappeared with its long tail, and the commuter tram returned to the communal residence area like a hamster wheel, releasing the workers.

A tall ferret beastkin with sparse scars on his head. He was clearly one of the many workers moving mindlessly through the crowd.

“Hey, Quill!”

At the call of his mole friend carrying a pickaxe, he looked up while adjusting his suspender straps.

“Mylo? Well, look who it is.”

“You’re alive, my friend!”

On the platform with barely any room to step, the two beastkin embraced each other, unable to contain their joy.

Quill laughed as he hugged the much smaller and nimbler mole.

Due to their size difference, Quill had to stoop down, but there was no time to worry about such things. Only the joy of seeing a friend again after several years prevailed.

It was a reunion of childhood friends who had shared hardships in this residence area since difficult times, so it was only natural.

Quill stroked Mylo’s soft back of the head and looked over his friend’s entire body with sympathetic eyes. His eyes were already filled with moisture.

“You’ve aged a lot since I last saw you.”

“It’s been so long, what did you expect?”

“No, but your fingers…”

The ferret beastkin, who had been overjoyed, suddenly pointed at his friend’s forearm and trailed off.

Two of his fingers—those of a master digger—were missing. As if something had cut them off.

His shiny black fur had also become noticeably dry and rough.

“Oh, this?”

The mole beastkin scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.

“I was so hungry. Snipped them off and ate them at the zerodium mine.”

“Oh, Mylo… You should be careful. Did you get compensation?”

“Well, it was my carelessness… Accidents like this are common. It is what it is.”

Mylo didn’t add anything more. So Quill couldn’t say anything either.

The streets were filled with cherry trees.

The nature that had sprouted pale green leaves on every branch was loved by all sentient beings regardless of species, and it gave back as much as it received.

On their way home from work.

The two beastkin, nostalgic for their childhood, walked along the main road, eating cherry flesh picked from the trees.

The difference was that back then they had walked this path as students with backpacks, but now they were traversing it as breadwinners carrying heavy pickaxes and toolboxes.

While chewing around the cherry pits, Quill and Mylo watched the children of different species playing on the roadside and engaged in various conversations. The topics were as old as the time that had passed.

“Is your father well?”

“He’s fine. He’s busy taking care of Lulu these days since my wife is working too.”

“I haven’t seen Lulu since she was born… I wonder how our princess has grown… Are you still working at that company?”

“No. They stopped hiring beastkin, so I recently moved. To the 3rd Pioneer District. What about you, Mylo?”

“Well, the zerodium mine was closed after being attacked by GWP rebels… Just getting by.”

“Living as life goes on?”

The beastkin asked casually, and the other beastkin chuckled self-deprecatingly and replied.

“Living because I can’t die, because I can’t die.”

“…”

-Thud, roll roll.

A kicked stone fragment rolls around before disappearing into a dark sewer beyond the alley.

Quill’s gaze followed the stone’s path for a moment. Soon, he resumed his paused steps and began matching his stride with Mylo.

A brief silence fell. It was a silence as if contemplating something, as if searching for words.

And a moment later.

Quill spoke in a low voice.

“…Friend. Since we’ve met after so long, shall we have a beer?”

With his sparse hands missing a few fingers awkwardly interlocked, supporting the back of his neck, the mole Mylo slowly turned his gaze toward Quill. It was a look that said this was welcome news.

“Oh, I’d love to. Where are we going?”

“I know a beer hall.”

“Great. Let’s go, friend!”

There was nothing more to hear. The mole beastkin heartily put his arm around Quill’s shoulders.

The two beastkin leaned on each other’s shoulders.

A single shadow began moving toward a shabby beer hall.

*

It was night.

The streets, where magic lamps flickered sparsely, were littered with dust, dry leaves, and scraps of old newspapers. Shabby signs hung crookedly at every corner.

Among the signs, a crude metal one stood out. On a slate that looked like it might shed iron powder in the wind at any moment, the faded name “Blaze’s Beer Hall” was written in crooked lettering, informing passersby that this was a beer establishment.

Considering that 99% of the humans in the Rushan Federation worship Al Yabud.

And considering that Al Yabud’s precepts strictly prohibit drinking alcohol, the sight of liquor being openly sold was quite peculiar, but here, questioning it would be the more suspicious act.

The Rushan Federation, unlike many “brother countries” on the Mauritani continent, was a region where alcohol sales were legal.

The scene of Al Yabud believers, who shouldn’t drink, secretly traveling to this country to drink all night and turning into beasts who couldn’t recognize their own parents, shaking their buttocks like beastkin in clubs, had long been a hushed custom and an open secret.

However,

“Blaze’s Beer Hall” had a unique characteristic that differentiated it from other liquor vendors in the Rushan Federation.

-Ding~♪

Upon opening the door and entering, the pungent smell of beer mixed with animal scent immediately stings the nose.

The noisy interior was filled with numerous mixed-race customers.

Some customers were already drunk, patting shoulders and laughing fiercely, while glasses full of foam and broken bones rolled around on tables sticky with dried oil. But no one seemed to care about that anymore.

Passing through walls covered with old graffiti, carefully navigating around framed pictures, the creaking sound grows louder.

The source of the loud noise from under the shoe soles was the grease stains that this beer hall had embraced for decades—the traces of time.

“Welcome, find a seat if you want to drink!”

A waitress with rabbit ears shouted while passing beer glasses with busy hands.

Her apron had indelible stains, and the corners covered with fur were carelessly folded.

Despite the late hour, there were quite a few customers, so Mylo bumped shoulders with a passing customer, but it wasn’t a problem. The good-natured pig beastkin just smiled broadly with an “oops” and rubbed his pants pocket, saying it was fine.

Thanks to this, Quill and Mylo secured a fairly good table.

An empty spot near the window.

“Two beers.”

Seated, Quill ordered beers for himself and his friend without making a fuss.

He didn’t order loudly. That’s just how this place was.

“…”

Mylo was looking around with melancholic eyes. Out the window, and inside the beer hall.

He occasionally watched residents passing by on the street or customers clinking their glasses.

Quill, glancing at him, asked casually what was so interesting that his eyes were wide like a rabbit who had just arrived in the city.

To this, Mylo, pretending to be nonchalant, wiggled his shiny fur and replied.

“Well, just. It’s all new since I’m back home after so long, you know?”

“You really are like a child sometimes.”

“What can I do? It’s my first time back here in decades. First time since graduating from the Academy.”

The mole beastkin said with a low laugh.

The drinks they ordered arrived. Two glasses of beer were roughly placed on the table. Foam dripped down the glass and seeped into the wood grain, and Quill took a sip.

A bitter taste went down his throat. It was cheap beer.

Mylo also grabbed his glass but didn’t drink right away. He began to slowly savor the faded memories and the old space while looking around.

“I really am back.”

The beastkin communal residence area in the outskirts of Bahar. The scene before him didn’t seem much different from his childhood.

Dirty streets. Rusty streetlights. Thick singing and loud voices. The smell of urine—whether from fur balls or greenskins—that one inevitably encountered when kicking a ball in the alley.

The customers tapping the table with forks to the heated rhythm and singing were the same as ever. Some were orcs, some were goblins. The unknown fishy smell and the burnt smell of rat meat wafting from somewhere were also the same.

Quill shrugged his shoulders as if familiar with it all and brought the beer glass to his lips.

“This place hasn’t changed. It never does.”

Mylo nodded and quietly took a sip of beer. Then he let out a deep sigh. The mole beastkin’s small, delicate eyes lost their light for a moment before returning to normal.

“How’s work?”

Quill asked.

Mylo, drinking his beer, hesitated to answer for a moment. How should he define it? The life of a mole beastkin living deep in the mines.

After contemplating for a while, the mole finally let out a short, sigh-mixed lament.

“The same. Every day, digging in the ground under rocks that could collapse at any moment. If there’s an accident, you just get buried.”

Quill quietly rolled his glass. His black fingers, stained with industrial oil, rubbed the wood surface covered in grease. Quill knew all too well what those words meant.

Because he too was a beastkin.

So he asks.

“Mylo.”

“What?”

“Do we have to keep living like this?”

He laughed casually.

“Come on, Quill. We were destined to be like this from birth, friend.”

Whether Mylo really thought that way was unknown. Similarly, whether it was a genuinely casual laugh was something even he himself might not know.

Quill asked again without picking up his beer glass.

“Our parents were like this, and our ancestors were too. I work to death in the factory every day. Even if my tail gets caught in the machinery, I can’t rest. The meager salary, far less than what humans get, is half gone every month to ridiculously expensive rent. For that single room in a communal housing where sunlight barely enters. What’s left is just a pittance each month.”

“…”

“I’ve struggled to live for Lulu, but nothing changes. At this rate, I’ll die in a home worse than a communal cemetery.”

Mylo silently stared at his glass. Quill caught his breath and continued.

“Isn’t it the same for you? Working in mines where you could die at any moment, and no one takes responsibility when accidents happen. It’s not that we’re afraid of hard work, you and I. What ultimately pushed us to the edge?”

“Are you already drunk? Suddenly talking nonsense…”

“Isn’t it because of humans?”

The conversation stopped. Mylo’s shoulders flinched. Quill didn’t miss that reaction. He gripped his glass firmly and looked at his friend with straight eyes.

“If we don’t do anything, nothing will change.”

The beastkin whispered quietly.

“If this is the life given to us, we need to break it.”

The mole’s small, delicate eyes quietly trembled. He didn’t answer. Instead, he looked around as if glancing at his surroundings.

An orc staggering from excessive drinking, goblins clinking glasses while giggling loudly, a beastkin leaning against the wall drinking alone.

They were all here.

In the same space, the same air, the same anxiety.

Quill waited. He hoped Mylo would realize something on his own. But Mylo’s lips wouldn’t open easily, and eventually, it was the ferret, not the mole, who spoke again.

“You haven’t changed. Still as cautious as ever.”

Mylo chuckled.

“And you’re still as bold as you were when you were young.”

“I was the gang leader after all.”

“…I’m asking just in case, but is this it?”

The mole beastkin quietly made a gesture under the table. Three fingers brought together to form a single root.

The symbol of the ‘Canine-Feline Symbiotic Alliance.’

Quill silently took a drink. Mylo exhaled what might have been a sigh and followed Quill, gulping down his beer. Despite the lukewarm temperature, it seemed necessary.

The noisy sounds flowed between the two. The air in the pub was both heavy and light. A familiar yet strange heaviness.

“Mylo.”

Quill’s lips opened. The beastkin’s eyes didn’t waver.

“We shouldn’t live like this.”

Mylo slowly turned his gaze, and the conversation didn’t continue.

This memory wasn’t very old.

In terms of time, it was barely a week ago, a moment from the past that was not even a full week from now.

So to put it differently…

It was enough time for a beastkin who had returned to his hometown to change his mind,

And a week later.

It was an appropriate interval to attend a certain meeting following his friend.

*

A week had passed. “Blaze’s Beer Hall” was still shabby and boisterous. But the air inside was subtly excited.

Fists pounding on tables. Conversations with raised voices. Crowds gesturing and explaining something with perked ears.

It was a gathering of the ‘Canine-Feline Symbiotic Alliance.’

As the name suggests, the main members were beastkin, but they weren’t the only ones present.

Orcs and goblins were also there, and rarely, even humans were mixed in.

They occupied a corner seat and exchanged quiet conversations.

There was no sign of tension or intimidation. Far from avoiding gazes, they didn’t seem to hide their presence even in this melting pot of species.

Mylo was so fascinated by them that he couldn’t help but look at them with curious eyes, shaking his long whiskers.

“What are you staring at?”

“The humans. Why are they here?”

“Humans? Ah-“

Quill, glancing toward the corner of the beer hall, rubbed his nose and casually put his hands in his suspender pants as if it was nothing.

“They come occasionally. The editor-in-chief and reporters from the local newspaper.”

“Newspaper? Why would they come from there?”

“To help. There are people working at the newspaper. We work together, and while they can’t publish articles due to censorship, they can at least distribute posters. But how could we secretly print in bulk? We need the newspaper’s help for that.”

“Ah, I see…”

“They also come to share interesting news. And we share what we know too. Mutual benefit, you know.”

Quill nodded and added.

Occasionally, humans come to help the alliance. From religious, social, labor sectors, and so on.

There are humans who provide help in legal areas and those who provide help in somewhat illegal areas.

“Even if it’s illegal, it’s not that dangerous. At most, it’s illegal immigration or identity forgery? Those are essential if you want to earn money outside. Employment brokerage is in a gray area between legal and illegal, so leaving that aside, those two are definitely illegal.”

Mylo understood Quill’s words. He had heard rumors about operators specializing in illegal immigration and identity forgery for beastkin. However, he hadn’t known that such individuals were active in the alliance.

By the way, the ferret, who was the mole’s old friend, was said to be an executive of the ‘Canine-Feline Symbiotic Alliance.’

Since Quill wasn’t the type to reveal much, he couldn’t find out the truth, but alliance members who recognized him all treated him as an executive.

As far as Mylo could tell, Quill had probably been involved with this organization for quite some time.

Quill avoided a waitress who was precariously running with a tower of stacked beer glasses. In fact, rabbit beastkin were overwhelmingly faster than ferret beastkin, so the waitress avoided him even more quickly.

Amid the customers cheering and pounding the tables at her dazzling movements, Quill smiled gently and nodded to Mylo.

“Follow me, our seats are this way.”

It was a staircase leading underground. A path in the corner of the beer hall leading to an underground storage room, as inconspicuous as the humans.

When asked why they were going down here, Quill gave this answer.

“Although the alliance is nominally a legal organization and can meet openly like today, it’s difficult to do anything properly in a place like this.”

“I guess so?”

The beer hall was no different from a week ago.

In other words, it was still noisy and chaotic.

When Quill gestured with his head, the hesitant Mylo also began to descend the landing.

He expected a pungent smell of mold and dust to sting his nose, but fortunately, it wasn’t as dirty a space as he had thought.

As the old hinges creaked open, a steep staircase was revealed. Quill went down first, and after hesitating, Mylo followed him.

“Does your family know? That you’re involved with the alliance.”

“No. They don’t.”

“I saw your father upstairs earlier…”

“Probably Mr. Wendel brought him. He’s a dog beastkin who lives next door, a regular here. ‘For now,’ both of them are also in the Symbiotic Alliance.”

The stairs were long and dark.

At least there were candles sparsely stuck on the walls, emitting a dim light.

After a few more steps down, a faint noise could be heard from below. It was too many voices for a simple underground storage room. And as he stepped on the last stair, Mylo’s eyes widened.

There was another beer hall underground.

It was lower and darker than the upper floor, but that made it feel like another world.

Inside the brick-made space, people were sitting around round tables drinking. It wasn’t simple drinking for pleasure. It was a snack for those whispering something in low voices.

Those gathered here seemed to be wary of each other, yet they appeared to have the same purpose.

“This is…”

Mylo muttered inadvertently.

The two beastkin headed toward an old sofa on one side. The sofa had several occupants, but among them, the most notable was an old cat beastkin.

Gray fur and sharp eyes.

Wrinkled fingers slowly rolling a glass, and a tongue with protrusions grooming shiny fur.

Quill referred to that old man as ‘our former leader.’ He said he was an old man who had connections from the local newspaper upstairs to the underworld. The praise that he was a truly remarkable beastkin was a bonus.

Of course, to Mylo’s ears, it sounded no different from ‘red-listed criminal’ or ‘Most Wanted.’

Seeing his noticeably frozen whiskers, Quill massaged Mylo’s shoulders and smiled good-naturedly.

“Don’t be nervous, friend. We haven’t done anything wrong yet.”

“Y-yeah, that’s right.”

It was when the two beastkin were about to head to the sofa.

Footsteps were heard from behind. Mylo tensed momentarily. Turning around, he saw a figure approaching.

His fur blended well with the surrounding shadows like a dark shadow, and his face revealed sharp contours that stood out even in the darkness. A dog beastkin? Maybe even a rare wolf beastkin, Mylo thought for a moment.

“Quill.”

The unexpected visitor opened his mouth.

It was a very low and hoarse voice.

“So you’re here too.”

Mylo looked closely at the man’s face. He was very tall and large, but his movements were surprisingly fast and flexible. His sharp eyes that shone even in the darkness immediately turned to Mylo, but that seemed to be the extent of his interest as his gaze quickly returned to Quill.

He whispered something to Quill. His voice trembled as if swallowing his breath.

“…got it. …escalated. …dramatic. …leaks are serious.”

“…”

Quill didn’t react. More precisely, he seemed to be watching Mylo’s reaction.

Quill, lowering his voice as much as possible, put his mouth close to the big man’s ear. Although Quill was no small figure himself, comparing the two made Quill look as small as a puppy in front of a tiger.

“Have you told Mother Felasia?”

The man shook his head. It was a clear gesture of denial.

Quill nodded with a slightly darkened expression, and the man lowered his posture and retreated toward the stairs. What could it be? Mylo stared for a long time in the direction where he had disappeared.

“Did something happen?”

Mylo, barely taking his eyes off the dark space, asked his friend about the situation. Quill brushed it off as nothing.

They resumed their journey and soon reached their destination, where they could pay their respects.

The matriarch of the Canine-Feline Symbiotic Alliance, representing the beastkin of the Rushan Federation.

The spiritual leader who had led the communal residence area.

The cat lady, Felasia.

“It’s been a while, Matriarch.”

“Oh- Quill. Good to see you!”

Felasia straightened her body that had been lying on the sofa and warmly welcomed the two. As if to prove that they had known each other for a long time, she shared a hug with Quill before shaking hands.

The ferret beastkin, who had been trying to politely greet her, could only smile awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

After being embraced by Felasia for quite some time, Quill was finally able to introduce his friend to the old woman with graying fur.

“And this is your friend? It’s so nice to meet you too!”

And another enthusiastic hug followed.

Mylo, who had been preparing for a human-style handshake, could only cough dryly at the suffocating, intense welcome.

“Oh my. Why is our mole friend suddenly like this?”

“That’s because you’re choking his neck, Felasia. I told you to be careful when hugging…”

“Kuh, kuhuk… It’s fine. Yes, I’m fine…”

“Meow…!”

A sad cry escaped from the old beastkin’s mouth. It was also a cry mixed with worry.

Felasia, who bought two expensive drinks as an apology, naturally seated Quill and Mylo beside her.

“So… Your name is Mylo, cute mole boy. You two have been friends since the old days, right?”

“Yes. We grew up on the same street.”

“Where do you live now?”

“Until recently, I was working in another city, but I returned here about a week ago. It was also the first time I heard about this from Quill… back then.”

“…Ah, I see!”

While Quill had involved Mylo in ‘this’ because they were close friends, to Felasia, Mylo was just a newly joined subordinate.

However, Mylo’s talents were too diverse to be treated as a mere subordinate, making him quite useful.

For example,

“Quill told me. Three days ago, you managed to get dynamite from somewhere, and in large quantities… That was thanks to Mylo!”

Felasia, clapping her hands in a manner unbefitting an old woman, smiled faintly. Recently, thanks to Mylo’s connections, they had been able to secretly bring in a considerable amount of industrial explosives and electric detonators.

Both Quill and Mylo had to leave the city for several days to bring them.

Fortunately, they were able to complete the transaction without being caught by the police and had just returned to the communal residence area this evening.

Quill, pushing his glass aside, spoke to Felasia in a serious voice.

“It’s all ready now. Both ‘we’ and ‘they’ have completed all preparations. There might be some issues, but this is a golden opportunity that won’t come again. We must proceed now! Right now!”

Thump. The ferret beastkin, who had hit the table with his fist, emphasized “right now” with force. Due to his fluffy fur, the table wasn’t damaged; it only made a sound like being hit with a squeaky hammer.

But for the beastkin’s ears, that gesture was enough.

“We will no longer live like slaves. Not me, not Mylo here, not Tikrina, Linesa, Hobart, Oswald, Sedric… All of us, for the freedom and rights of all species living under this land and sky. We are ready to fight against humans who oppress and plunder us, destroy nature, and extort resources.”

The conversation gradually subsided.

Many were still talking, but the gazes were slowly converging on one side. At the end were Quill and Felasia. The two beastkin.

Despite the calm, burning appeal, Felasia gave no response.

Only a strange smile, difficult to read her thoughts, appeared on the old cat lady’s face.

Felasia opened her mouth during a brief silence that followed.

“You’re coming to an old retiree with this request, Quill. You know better than anyone that your actions, which seem like requests, might not be viewed favorably by ‘Rager’ the leader… Right? Coming to me, who’s retired, with such words is overstepping.”

“…”

“Unless something has happened to our leader Rager and that soft-headed leader on the other side.”

Quill’s whiskers twitched slightly. The vertically slit eyes didn’t miss that moment and sparkled instantaneously.

“Oh- Quill. You have a knowing look.”

Just as the lady was about to let out a sigh, not really a sigh, while ruffling her fluffy fur with her claws.

A waiter standing at a distance approached and began whispering in her ear. Saying that a guest she had been waiting for had arrived.

There was no way to know who this guest was, but judging by how the lady’s cat ears fluttered, it seemed to be a very welcome guest. Or perhaps someone beyond imagination.

Quill carefully observed the woman who appeared with the waiter. Mylo also gave her a glance.

“Welcome- Have you been waiting long?”

“Not at all! Everyone has been so kind that I didn’t even notice the time passing!”

“How lovely you are. Oh, look at me. Let me introduce you. This is our Quill and his friend Mylo. And this noble lady has generously donated throughout our city today and will be joining our alliance in the future, um…”

Felasia suddenly shook her whiskers with a complicated expression.

To this, the human woman standing still continued the introduction with a confident expression.

“Gigione Il Magico Gatto Ciccione.”

“…She says. Everyone, please welcome her warmly.”

The lady, with a stiff face from either awkwardness with the foreign language or bewilderment, barely managed to clap her hands.

Quill and Mylo, who had just returned to the city this evening, sat dumbfounded, not understanding what was happening, but began clapping along with Felasia.

The surrounding beastkin began to stand up one by one and applaud. It was a much more fervent support than that of the two beastkin.

Amid some whistling, others raising their voices while pounding tables.

“…Hmph!”

Camilla, who had infiltrated with her hair color and irises disguised by magic, proudly put her hands on her hips and raised her nose, showing no shame.

*

After a few days had passed, the atmosphere of the quadrilateral talks had not only heated up but was heading toward its climax.

As promised, I was continuing my auxiliary duties for the quadrilateral talks while waiting for contact from Camilla.

In my heart, I wanted to abandon the talks and everything else to go hunt down the werewolves with her.

‘Ah, please trust me and leave it to me!’

But since Camilla strongly insisted that I stay out of it, I had no choice but to return to my main job. Instead, I presented her with one condition.

To produce tangible results within a limited time.

If there were no clues to prevent ‘werewolf terrorism’ or no counter-terrorism intelligence from within the ‘Canine-Feline Symbiotic Alliance,’ I declared that I would intervene in this matter by any means necessary.

Whether it be the Grand Magician, the Royal Intelligence Agency’s operation team, or the Holy Knight Order.

It was a threat to mobilize any armed group I could and turn all of Bahar into a wasteland to crush the werewolves.

Of course, with the additional clause that the anger of the Grand Duke, whose anger stack had accumulated to its limit, would be entirely Camilla’s responsibility.

“Sigh…”

Even while organizing the defense meeting materials, I couldn’t help but keep tilting my head.

To be honest, I was half-doubtful.

Regardless of Camilla’s personal abilities, producing visible results in a few days isn’t as easy as it sounds. Squeezing out something to meet a tight deadline is a challenge even for seasoned intelligence agents.

Thinking about it again, it seemed a bit too harsh.

But what’s done is done. Once water is spilled, it can’t be gathered back.

Having declared it, Camilla’s retreat was already cut off.

Why?

“…Where the hell has this damn disciple hidden?!”

Because the Grand Magician, Alexandra Petrova, whose anger gauge had broken through the ceiling and was flying toward Mars, was going berserk.

After hearing about the fireworks Camilla had set off in the middle of the night, the Grand Duke, who had been having breakfast in the northern part of the Kien Empire, flew like an arrow to Bahar, thousands of kilometers away, using expensive teleport magic.

And with bloodshot eyes rolling in all directions, she was thoroughly searching the entire city to find Camilla, who had hidden somewhere. For days, without even sleeping.

“Damn it! Bring her to me right now!”

“Ah, yes…!”

She even mobilized all the Kien intelligence officers stationed in Bahar by wielding her power as royalty.

I had to (unpaid) double as a counter-intelligence agent to hide Camilla.

But whether our trail was discovered, or the Grand Magician’s excellent intuition was activated.

Or perhaps she thought she should use the civil servant who sticks around her disciple again this time.

Surprisingly, Grand Duke Alexandra Petrova came to find me during my lunch and started shaking me by the collar, shouting ‘Hand over Camilla!’

“Where have you hidden her? Speak before my patience runs out.”

“Ah, wh-what, are, you, talk-ing, a-bout-“

With my collar grabbed, I was shaken back and forth, but I managed to protect both my scrambled eggs and the truth.

Meaning I hid Camilla’s whereabouts.

The problem was that this was inside the building where the talks were being held. So all the passersby were either Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials assisting with the quadrilateral talks or dispatched officials from the four countries.

“Your Highness! Your Highness, please calm down!”

“Kyaaaak-“

“Get the Vice Minister, quickly!”

“Air Force!”

“It’s a disaster, a disaster.”

An imperial diplomat running by and trying to stop her was just the beginning. A defense attaché in Kien military uniform and a high-ranking imperial commerce department official who had been having coffee with our Vice Minister in the corridor were holding onto her arms and legs and resisting.

Laying hands on a royal body was a serious crime, but with this mess during a ‘multilateral talk,’ there was no time to worry about such things.

From people pleading everywhere to please let go, to brave souls (an achievement even the great Inquisitors wouldn’t dare attempt sober) trying to physically detach the Grand Magician, there were quite a few.

Quite a spectacle indeed.

Of course, to the Grand Magician whose eyes had rolled back, none of that mattered.

The funny thing is that the Grand Duke’s tantrum was actually true. I really was hiding Camilla. So I was genuinely scared. Afraid she wouldn’t let me off if she found out.

In the end, I could only prostrate myself on the ground and plead to the heaven-like Grand Magician.

“Your Highness! Please stop making a scene and show mercy!”

“What? Hey, what did you just say,”

“Now, Sasha? Let’s not make a scene here and go play outside~”

Thankfully, thanks to some kind-hearted Grand Thaumaturge who happened to be passing by, I was able to preserve my life.

The Grand Magician was snugly held in the Grand Thaumaturge’s arms, flailing her limbs and shouting something, but strangely, her voice was muted as if someone had pressed the mute button.

I wondered how she could carry her out without being able to see, but looking closely, someone was holding Jainab Eskander’s hand and guiding her. So the High Priestess was moving the Grand Duke using just one arm.

…I firmly resolved never to get on the High Priestess’s bad side from now on.

“Whew-“

After finishing my half-disappeared lunch that I had to eat while prostrating myself, I returned to work and kept thinking.

I kept doubting whether this would actually succeed.

How long could I hold out?

Could Camilla really prevent the terrorism as promised?

Could she really catch the werewolves as she guaranteed?

As I was finishing a day filled with such worries and concerns.

-♪

While lying face to face with Francesca and exchanging idle chat as usual, I took out my secure mobile phone at the sudden ringtone.

“Yes, this is Frederick.”

-‘It’s me, Camilla!’

“Oh, what’s the matter?”

-‘I’ve got the results I promised. Can you come here now?’

“…There’s no reason I can’t. But why so suddenly?”

-‘There are people who want to meet you. Some are beastkin, and there’s one human. Should I call them human now? Anyway.’

I prepared to go out while asking various questions.

Who I needed to meet, how she came to know them, and so on.

And the answer Camilla gave me.

Was surprisingly quite interesting.

-‘Remember I told you about a murder case near the resort? Where a whole family died.

I met someone who was there at the scene but recently escaped from the organization.

But this person isn’t an ordinary human.

…Yes.

It’s the person we’ve been looking for.

A werewolf.’