Ch.648Episode 23 – The Spy Who Returned from the Cold Country

# Military Truck Arrival

The military truck screeched to a halt with a sharp wail.

It was the sound announcing that the defense forces had finally arrived at the hospital.

Fortunately, contrary to our concerns, these were indeed people sent by the Crown Prince.

However….

“Why did only slightly more than two squads of troops come?” I asked with a puzzled expression as I surveyed the troops jumping out of the truck.

The priest who had arrived at the scene earlier delivered rather unpleasant news.

“They were attacked on their way here. The commander and a few others stayed behind to engage in combat, but they still haven’t made contact.”

“Which unit are they from?”

“Eleven from the 21st Battalion of Petrograd Defense Command. Six from the 33rd Independent Special Operations Regiment. Don’t ask me what kind of unit that is. I’ve spent half my life in the Citadel, you know.”

He’s telling me to figure out the imperial military structure on my own since he doesn’t know.

It doesn’t matter. The military organization was information I already knew inside and out anyway.

But I honestly hadn’t expected to encounter a special operations unit here.

After letting the Crown Prince’s forces inside and leaving the priest to complete the protective barrier, I retreated to a secluded spot.

“Sir, this is Frederik Nostrim.”

I connected a call to the military attaché office of the embassy, which was operating with greater urgency than ever.

“The hospital defense unit just arrived, and there are troops from the 33rd Special Operations Regiment mixed in. What’s going on here?”

-“…The special ops guys showed up there?”

“Yes.”

-“The ones we couldn’t even locate until now?”

“That’s why I found it strange and called you.”

The 33rd Special Operations Regiment is the Crown Prince’s personal guard unit that left their garrison and entered Petrograd long ago. This happened around the end of last year, just before Camilla and her colleagues entered the northern conflict zone.

Until recently, the Military Intelligence Bureau had assumed their mission was counter-insurgency. They were a suppression force the Crown Prince had called to the capital in preparation for a potential rebellion. That was what the Abas intelligence department had predicted as the special ops regiment’s mission.

The problem was that when the succession struggle between Valery and Elizaveta intensified behind the scenes, these guys disappeared.

The Abas Defense Ministry was in an uproar when these troops, who had been stationed in the capital until just a few weeks ago, suddenly vanished overnight.

Ironically, when the rebellion actually broke out, the special ops regiment, contrary to expectations, didn’t launch any attacks against the rebel forces entering the capital. Instead, they acted as if the situation at the front had nothing to do with them, disappeared, and maintained radio silence.

And now, these guys had reappeared in Petrograd after just a few hours.

“Did the Crown Prince order the 33rd Special Ops Regiment to deploy?”

-“Nothing has been confirmed. There’s no evidence of communications between the Crown Prince and the 33rd Regiment.”

“Then why did they show up now? Surely they wouldn’t betray the Crown Prince. They’re his core loyalist unit, after all.”

-“If they had decided to side with Elizaveta, the special ops regiment wouldn’t have disappeared in the first place. If an entire unit stationed in the capital for a major operation suddenly vanished, Valery would have been suspicious and wouldn’t have allowed them to disappear without intervention.”

“……”

My mind started spinning rapidly.

It seemed that neither headquarters nor any branch fully understood the situation in the Kiyen Empire.

How could the embassy or headquarters have a complete grasp of the frontline situation when neither the suppression forces nor the rebel forces could properly assess each other’s strength? That level of intelligence would require the CIA.

The important question was why Valery had mobilized the special ops unit now.

Why had the Crown Prince turned a blind eye to the special ops unit’s disappearance?

What was the real order he had given to the special ops unit?

“……”

While I was thinking with the map of Petrograd spread out on the situation board, the background noise of the busy office cut off.

The military attaché seemed to have moved somewhere else. With the sound of a door being locked, he began to speak.

-“Since you’ve provided information about the special ops unit’s movement, we’ll share some intelligence that just came in. You’re a staff member who has served in Petrograd before.”

It was an instruction to help with analysis of the battlefield situation in exchange for intelligence.

I quickly took out my notebook and wrote down the intelligence the military attaché provided.

-“We’ve confirmed that for the past few hours, someone has been sending wireless reports to Petrograd from one of the offices at the Western Fleet Command. Without the naval infantry noticing.”

“Encrypted communication?”

-“Yes. Our side assumed Elizaveta and the rebel command were communicating, so we intercepted it, but… the report was being received by an unexpected unit.”

“Which one…?”

He added:

-“The Kiyen Army Counterintelligence Command Headquarters.”

# Episode 23 – The Spy Who Returned from the Cold Country

War and rumors are inseparable.

At least that’s been Camilla’s experience.

《…This is a warning from the Kiyen Defense Ministry General Staff. Naval infantry, lay down your weapons and surrender immediately. Your actions are treason against the Empire and His Majesty the Emperor, and constitute clear military rebellion.》

《…The Ministry of Internal Affairs has established the ‘Committee for Sovereign Recovery and National Reconstruction’ and does not recognize Valery Nikolayevich, who has caused a national crisis, as Crown Prince, and publicly declares that only Princess Elizaveta Nikolayevna is the steadfast successor to His Majesty Nikolai VI…》

Large speakers and radios continuously spewed voices. After static-filled echoes spread, announcers with trembling eyes read scripts prepared by the rebels through TV screens.

《Citizens of the Empire! The proud army of His Majesty the Emperor has risen to drive out the Crown Prince who has revealed his treacherous heart. But this is only the first step announcing the beginning of a new imperial history…》

《The citizens of Kiyen are masters who can determine their own destiny. However, some military forces that disrupt the national flag and uncontrollable power have finally plotted treason, testing the patience of the members of the Kiyen Empire…》

《While the committee established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that figures from various sectors of society and civilian figures have expressed support for Princess Elizaveta, fighting continues along the Reyevsky riverbank between marines who succeeded in landing and military units trying to stop them…》

A precariously hanging CRT TV supported by a tilted shelf beyond a broken storefront window. A foreign journalist who somehow hadn’t been captured was broadcasting the situation with a cameraman, wearing only a shirt.

Was there still a functioning broadcast line? That was unknown, but what was certain was that propaganda between the rebel and suppression forces was being conducted very passionately.

The rebels who had invaded Petrograd were especially serious about propaganda.

They consistently justified their actions, broadcasting propaganda with the message that “Valery will soon be brought down by our heroically struggling forces and the angry masses.”

Of course, most of it consisted of unverified one-sided claims—such as naval infantry being on the verge of breaking through the second defense line, or numerous dignitaries unanimously supporting Elizaveta.

“Hmm…!”

And in Camilla’s opinion, having experienced her fair share of propaganda in Africa and the Middle East in her younger days…

Most of the broadcasts currently being aired by the rebel forces were nothing but outright lies.

“Let’s see…”

In the command post filled with soot and in complete disarray, Camilla crouched in front of the remains of a collapsed desk, tucking her cumbersome hair behind her ear as she adjusted various frequencies.

《Can’t break through the St. Andrew-Bukhov defense line. The 2nd and 3rd battalions have suffered severe casualties…》

《Call for more troops, damn it!》

《Enemy anti-tank strongpoint identified at T-junction road, 500 meters northwest. Our forces’ movement is restricted due to direct-fire artillery and enemy tanks.》

《Are you saying we should clear out enemies entrenched in the middle of the city with small-caliber mortars? Setting aside that shells don’t even scratch them, how are we supposed to deal with constantly moving tanks—》

“My child, what are you listening to there?”

“The naval infantry’s radio transmissions, ma’am.”

Camilla put down the receiver she was holding in response to the question from nearby.

Alexandra Petrovna, who had stepped over the debris of the building, wore a somewhat puzzled expression.

After extinguishing the blue flames that were still fiercely burning the command post with a single gesture, she glanced at Camilla crouching in front of the radio and spoke with curiosity.

“I see you know how to operate an imperial military radio. Where did you learn that?”

“In the north. I had to use it several times.”

The northern territory, where the Kiyen-Mageong conflict was raging, was a land of opportunity for various special experiences.

It was an environment where one could encounter and freely handle various weapons and assets used by the imperial military. That’s where she had learned how to use the radio, bit by bit.

To be precise, it was an experience that Frederik had forcibly imparted to her with the reasoning, “When else would you get to use this?”

But now she was putting those skills to good use, so it had been a rather positive experience considering she had learned it while getting her knuckles rapped with a ruler by Frederik.

Of course, the professor didn’t need to know that much. Anyway.

Camilla organized the radio and stuffed the rolled-up bundle of papers she had been examining intently into her pocket.

The source of those papers was a naval infantry communications operator she had encountered earlier. It was a kindly laminated document, formatted like a spreadsheet, listing unit names, code words, and frequency bands—quite an extraordinary item.

Even to someone like her who didn’t know exactly what it was used for, it seemed like something unusual, and Frederik would certainly be delighted to see it.

“Ugh… Before we leave, could you send this to the hospital?”

“Alright.”

Camilla, shouldering her bag, handed the transcribed document to the Grand Duchess. Alexandra Petrovna burned it without even examining its contents.

Magic that bordered on an art form only a grand magician could perform. Camilla watched the magical power floating in the air with a curious expression before gathering the radio and hurrying her steps.

-Tap. Click.

The scene of the naval infantry command post building, with lingering traces of flames, could only be described as completely devastated.

Machine gun mounts with sagging barrels. Barracks collapsing with cracking, rupturing sounds. And corpses lining the corridors.

“……”

Camilla carefully moved her steps, avoiding the bodies, silently taking in the sight of the dead naval infantrymen. She had no intention of staring, but she couldn’t help her gaze being drawn to them.

Especially since these were the very people who had been blocking her way just minutes ago.

Splash, treading through pooled firefighting water, Camilla heard a familiar voice. It was the Grand Duchess.

“I’ve definitely destroyed the relay, so you don’t need to handle it separately.”

“How many does that make?”

“Six.”

Alexandra Petrovna answered in an extremely businesslike voice.

In fact, considering the structure of the relay that Frederik had explained, even Camilla, who was ignorant of the magical engineering technology in this neighborhood, could easily destroy it. The problem was knowing exactly where the relays were located and how many existed.

“That was faster than I expected. There probably aren’t many relays left.”

Thankfully, Frederik had provided the approximate location information estimated by the Abas Embassy, and the professor, being a grand magician, had helped with the search.

If she had been searching the city alone, she might have only destroyed three by now.

So she should rightfully express gratitude to the professor for readily offering help, but…

“……”

Camilla’s worried gaze turned to Alexandra Petrovna. Lost in thought, she had fallen into silence, appearing somewhat dazed.

Tired from fighting more than six battles?

That probably wasn’t it. Would a grand magician who had recently annihilated hundreds of werewolves with wide-area elemental magic feel fatigue from mere combat with humans?

Camilla knew better than anyone the level of her professor. How powerful a magician she was, and how strong a person she was.

That’s why seeing the professor’s vacant expression for the first time filled her with concern.

“…Professor?”

“……”

“Are you alright, Professor?”

“…I’m fine. Take care of yourself before worrying about your teacher.”

In response to Camilla’s concerned question, Alexandra Petrovna broke her silence and gave what amounted to a rebuke. It was as if she was asking who was worrying about whom.

Camilla reflexively smiled at that familiar response, but the disciple’s gaze at her master, who was avoiding eye contact, conveyed a somewhat uncertain atmosphere.

The moment they exited the burning building.

The Grand Duchess, who had taken the lead, spoke first.

Still with her back turned, not showing her face to Camilla.

“The next relay seems to be quite close. Let’s go find it.”

*

After destroying eight relays and engaging in fourteen battles.

The longer they operated behind enemy lines, the more intense the combat became.

She thought it was only a matter of time before they were discovered, but the naval infantry that had assaulted the islands seemed to have noticed her identity earlier than expected. They had put away their toy-like firearms and instead began deploying all sorts of combat weapons and magicians.

《Communication with the reconnaissance team was just cut off. The enemies encountered were two individuals, an adult woman with red hair and an adult woman with silver hair, both magic users.》

《The identity of the two women who attacked the battalion headquarters has been confirmed. ‘Hero’ Camilla Rowell and ‘Grand Magician’ Alexandra Petrovna Smirnov.》

One, set fire.

Two, fulgor.

《Jester-76 communicators on standby in the current network will immediately block Route 51 and intercept the enemy. Repeat. Vyatka-33, Ka-94, Serniye-82 will immediately…》

Three, spread the curtain.

Four, ánĭma.

《I don’t care if she’s a Grand Duchess or what, she’s the enemy now! Go and stop her!》

《Do you think an amphibious armored vehicle can be torn apart by wind?! Is a magician just for show?! If they shoot lightning, you should counter it somehow!》

Five, cuspis.

Six, fulgor again.

《33, 33! Respond! Is anyone there?! Quickly respond…》

Static-filled radio transmissions came from under grotesquely torn metal plates.

A tire consumed by flames rolled toward a roadside tree, and a handful of blood that soaked a robe gathered in a ditch. Lightning finally struck the relay they had just found.

It was the ninth one.

“……”

She let out a deep sigh while sitting on stacked sandbags.

“…What are we even doing.”

Alexandra Petrovna silently looked up at the sky. Her face was more tired than ever, and her eyes held a distant look.

How much longer would they have to keep doing this?

Elizaveta, who had finally pointed her gun at Valery, had split the empire in two. The two armies were still engaged in combat along the city streets of Petrograd, and gunfire had been continuous for hours.

They had even aimed their guns at her and her disciple to stop them.

Avoiding the naval infantry that unhesitatingly poured out shells and magic, they had now destroyed nine relays, and the number of battles fought had exceeded twenty.

“……”

Sitting on the trench of the naval infantry who had been guarding the relay, Alexandra took out a communication crystal.

The jade-colored crystal with a glossy sheen briefly caught her expressionless gaze. Then the crystal’s color inverted, and a familiar voice began to emerge.

-‘I see you’ve removed another relay.’

“That’s right.”

-‘Well done, Your Highness.’

Frederik, who had received the Grand Duchess’s contact, let out a sigh of relief.

Even to her ears, his tone sounded extremely tired.

-‘Are you injured anywhere?’

“Fortunately not.”

-‘That’s good. I have some new information that just came in, so I’ll share it right away.’

After briefly asking about her well-being, he quickly relayed several pieces of information.

-‘The rebel forces’ communication network and electronic warfare system are collapsing. Before losing the relays, they were holding their own, defending against attacks from the central command’s magicians while attacking the suppression forces’ communications, but now they’re barely managing to defend.’

The Grand Duchess could easily understand what that meant.

Unlike the direct combat between magicians who exchange attacks and defenses with opponents right in front of them, military magicians’ battles take place tens of kilometers away, invisible to the eye.

They might use tracking magic to calculate the trajectory of fired artillery magic and determine the firing point, or send out high-purity magical illusions in all directions to neutralize the enemy’s detection magic.

And it’s also the duty of military magicians to disrupt enemy communications with high-output magic while protecting friendly communications from interference.

Of course, Alexandra didn’t know exactly how they disrupted and protected communications. That was probably military classified information.

However, because she had provided formulas and consultation for communication technology research 70 years ago at the earnest request of the Imperial Magic Ministry and War Ministry…

She could easily understand what Frederik meant.

“When I followed my master to the north, I was inspired by the sight of magical power emanating from the Great Rift, covering the sky like the Milky Way. That was the first time I realized that magic doesn’t function properly near rifts, and after decades of research…”

-‘Ah, yes. I’m aware that Your Highness saw the rift, got inspired, and turned the Imperial Magic Ministry upside down with a few scribbled formulas. I learned about that in ‘History of Magic’ during my 5th semester at the Academy.’

“……”

-‘Grand Duchess?’

“…You would do well to learn the art of silence rather than speech.”

*

To summarize a long story, the naval infantry that had previously dominated in communications and magical warfare was now completely screwed.

This was all thanks to her and her disciple diligently destroying relays.

Alexandra rubbed her shoulder, which wasn’t even sore, and suddenly began to grumble.

“To think I’d have to lead my old body to the battlefield at this age… You made quite a shameless request.”

-‘Should I have gone instead?’

“No, it wouldn’t be right for you, not being a magician and an outsider, to step in, but…”

Alexandra, who had been muttering quietly, suddenly frowned.

It wasn’t wrong, so why did it feel so unpleasant?

It was truly vexing.

-‘Anyway, now that they’re losing in communications and electronic warfare, the rebel forces are really struggling. And with the long-range teleport that supplied ammunition, fuel, and reinforcements cut off, their combat effectiveness is rapidly declining too.’

Long-range teleport.

She had already noticed that Elizaveta’s army was continuously receiving supplies from somewhere. After all, an army fundamentally needs a constant supply of ammunition and manpower to fight.

She had even suspected that the unusual flow she felt in the city, quite far from the front line, might be a teleportation magic circle.

“But that’s strange. Such an important magic shouldn’t be cut off so soon…?”

Alexandra lowered her gaze with a puzzled expression.

It’s not like the military doesn’t use potions, so magicians shouldn’t be complaining about magical depletion. Why then?

Frederik’s answer to this question was extremely calm.

-‘Where do you think the combat magicians who tried to stop Your Highness more than ten times came from?’

Those magicians who maintained the supply line with long-range teleport. They had all been deployed for combat and were now gone.

-‘The magicians at the front line couldn’t be pulled away since they still haven’t broken through the defense line, so when enemies appeared in the rear where the supply network was located, they must have temporarily deployed the closest magicians first.’

Initially, the command must have thought it was a special operations team infiltrating the rear.

They didn’t even consider pulling magicians from the front line until after the third engagement.

They mistook them for just a common special forces unit.

Whether “common” and “special” can coexist as terms is debatable, but magicians were beings that couldn’t be defined by such words anyway.

The rebel command, thinking they could easily crush the infiltrating enemies and reopen the supply line, only realized the truth after many of the essential personnel needed to maintain the long-range teleport magic circle had already been killed.

-‘This is good news for us. With the supply line cut off, time is now the key factor.’

Will Elizaveta’s army cross the Reyevsky River before they run out of ammunition?

Will Valery’s army hold the defense line until reinforcements arrive?

Frederik explained that either way, it wouldn’t be an easy problem.

“Why is that?”

-‘Both sides have been engaged in continuous combat for 12 hours. It’s not a matter of supplies anymore; people can’t endure, people.’

Humans are not machines.

Even 12 hours of continuous labor would cause considerable fatigue, so what about uninterrupted combat?

Inevitably, some would die, and even survivors would be physically and mentally exhausted.

In a normal battlefield, rest would be guaranteed through rotation, but this was the heart of the capital. No one could retreat, and no one should retreat from this place.

That was the problem.

-‘The situation is serious due to troop depletion from continuous battles. For both sides.’

“…How serious specifically?”

-‘The Crown Prince has sent part of his guard to the front line, and the Princess has brought in internal troops to block the suppression forces entering the capital. That’s not enough, so I’ve heard they’ve even armed mess hall workers and communications personnel from both headquarters.’

The situation was much more serious than she had imagined.

Both Valery’s forces, which had miraculously maintained the defense line for nearly 12 hours after losing most of their troops in a one-sided surprise attack…

And Elizaveta’s forces, which had ambushed the islands in an unexpected way and cornered the Crown Prince…

Now they were both trapped in the city, unable to repel the other’s attacks or drive the other out.

Of course, Alexandra had anticipated this much. However, Frederik’s subsequent explanation exceeded the imagination of the grand magician who had dominated a century.

And it was a very bleak reality at that.

-‘Valery’s side has decided to hold the defense line until reinforcements arrive, while on Elizaveta’s side, there’s talk of breaking through the defense line right now by filling the numbers with volunteer forces, even if it means distributing weapons to citizens who support the Princess.’

“……”

-‘They call it volunteer forces, but it’s essentially using them as cannon fodder for the defense line. Both the Petrograd Defense and the Naval Infantry are elite units in terms of skill… How could people with just a gun in hand possibly fill those gaps?’

And if things go wrong, they could also spread propaganda calling Valery a butcher who killed innocent citizens.

After Frederik finished speaking, Alexandra closed her eyes tightly.

How did the imperial family, the empire, end up like this?

How much longer would this madness continue?

Even though humans are beasts that repeat the same sins by following the mistakes of their predecessors, is power really something worth burning the empire for?

It was truly lamentable—

-♪

As the signal tone suddenly cut through her thoughts, her blue eyes sank colder than ever.

The grand magician couldn’t take her eyes off the number that appeared on the crystal, nor could she bring herself to speak.

When her finger finally traced the jade-colored crystal…

-‘It’s been a long time, Grand Duchess.’

A familiar voice began to flow from beyond the crystal.