Ch.64Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

# Spies deployed overseas are broadly classified into two types.

The first is the official undercover agent, known as “White,” and the second is the unofficial undercover agent, known as “Black.”

My status was closer to White. While Black would be more suitable for proper operations, since my face was already known worldwide, there was no better position than a diplomat to ensure my safety.

That’s why the Military Intelligence Agency placed me in the position of military attaché to provide me with protection under international law. After all, military attachés enjoy the same diplomatic immunity as diplomats.

As long as I maintained my diplomatic status, I could avoid arrest and detention.

However, for me to be dispatched overseas as a diplomat, I needed to obtain the consent of the other party.

In diplomatic circles, this procedure is called “agrément.”

Agrément was typically a procedure reserved for dispatching high-ranking diplomats like ambassadors, ministers, or consuls general, but since I had a somewhat special status (as a hero’s companion), Abas broke convention and formally requested agrément from the Magic Tower. The higher-ups hadn’t given any particular indication, and based on precedent, approval was guaranteed unless there were special issues, so neither I nor anyone else was concerned about this matter.

The problem was,

-“At today’s emergency press briefing, the chief spokesperson for the Magic Tower delegation announced that they had rejected the agrément for Major Frederick Nostrum. They stated they would not prevent him from entering the country as an individual rather than as a diplomat, but diplomatic experts have expressed serious concerns about this situation…”

-“The Church has expressed deep regret over the Magic Tower’s announcement refusing entry to Saint Lucia. Meanwhile, the visiting delegation, including Saint Lucia, has canceled all scheduled official events and gone into seclusion…”

-“According to government officials, an emergency meeting has been convened at the Prime Minister’s residence, and they plan to summon representatives from the Magic Tower delegation…”

The Magic Tower had rejected the agrément.

## Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

“Give it one good blast.”

“Where?”

“There. From that forest all the way to here.”

At my gesture, Camilla Rowell breathed fire. Bright red flames rose from her hands, and the fire that engulfed the trees spread with enough force to devour the forest.

A moment later.

“SCREEEECH!”

“ARRRGH!”

Unable to withstand the heat, monsters burst out from the forest.

And at that moment.

-WHOOSH!

A massive flame pierced through the monsters’ mouths and burrowed into their insides. As the scorching heat tore through their soft flesh, the monsters went berserk, thrashing wildly.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in from somewhere. The smoke from the burning trees enveloped the monsters. The tough skin of the monsters that had withstood bombardment and the tender flesh protected beneath it were roasted in the blink of an eye. Crispy outside, tender inside.

Watching the monsters rolling on the dirt ground, I pulled back with Camilla, who had been enthusiastically casting spells. Then I grabbed the radio and gave an order.

“Hey, it’s me. We’re clear of the range, so fire away now.”

With those words, a shell dropped to the ground, and soon countless shells rained down on the monsters’ heads.

The artillery unit had begun to show its prowess.

Looking at the rain of shells pouring down with enough force to plow the ground, I smiled lightly while holding the tactical map.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes!”

“Let’s move to the next area. We need to head east from here.”

In an uninhabited area slightly removed from the border region. A den of monsters, vagrants, and refugees.

In this no-man’s-land, with the burning mountains as a backdrop, a soldier and a magician on a broomstick crossed the sky.

It was just another afternoon in this now-familiar, ordinary dark fantasy world.

*

With the continent stirred by the Magic Tower’s official announcement, a battle of pride between the Church and the Magic Tower had begun.

The Magic Tower made the first move.

When the Magic Tower delegation officially denied entry to the Church’s saint, Lucia, controversy over the entry ban began to heat up the continental political scene.

The Magic Tower, which had always been wary of the Church; the Church, which couldn’t resist killing magicians; the first-ever birth of two saints in continental history; the creation of a security state sweeping the entire continent; the demons pushing down from the north; the heat of civil war rising from the south; poor harvests and epidemics.

In the current situation, where two saints had emerged for the first time, the international community, which had been playing a game of caution, was shaking.

As the thin ice broke, numerous pending issues began to raise their heads, and people representing their respective positions appeared on camera, fanning the flames of an already burning house.

It’s a bit complicated to explain in detail.

It’s easier to just say the continent has been turned upside down. That’s not an inaccurate description anyway.

In any case, as the Magic Tower applied persona non grata to Lucia, the confrontation between the Magic Tower and the Church began to materialize. The Magic Tower, usually plagued by controversies about being heretical or behind black magic, vented their accumulated anger by taking the microphone and rapping about how the Church was slandering them. Conversely, the Church defined the Magic Tower as an immoral and corrupt den, labeling them as the embodiment of collective selfishness that goes against the current urgent need for peace.

Honestly, I don’t know what’s right. Politicians probably don’t know either.

With events unfolding so rapidly one after another, everyone from seasoned politicians to high-ranking diplomatic officials has lost their bearings. Intelligence agencies are in the same boat.

While everyone is scrambling to grasp the situation…

The one thing that’s certain is that no one anticipated this crisis, and both the Church and the Abas government have expressed displeasure at the Magic Tower’s decision.

The Church suspended all official schedules for Lucia and her entourage.

The Prime Minister, who had been scheduled to hold talks with Church officials on the third day regarding a trade agreement, was furious (to be precise, he was about to ruin his economic policy) that a significant agreement had been derailed.

According to domestic media reports citing “government officials,” the Prime Minister personally summoned the Kien Empire’s ambassador and the Magic Tower delegation representative to his residence. Since the Magic Tower wasn’t a formal nation but an autonomous region of the Empire, this was appropriate both by diplomatic convention and political calculation.

However, the fact that the Prime Minister himself, not a minister, summoned diplomatic envoys to reprimand them showed how seriously the government was taking this crisis. It meant the current situation was no ordinary matter.

I don’t know what the diplomats said to the Prime Minister (it wasn’t mentioned in the articles), but judging by the unchanged government position, it didn’t seem like anything nutritious enough to make them change their stance was discussed.

Anyway.

Whether in politics, business, or operations, truth isn’t particularly important.

What really matters is timing. From that perspective, the Magic Tower’s surprise move was quite appropriate. They provided an opportunity for the serpents lurking beneath the surface, waiting for a chance to bite at the Church’s ankles by breaking the thin ice themselves.

While many politicians and diplomats are still holding their breath, government position statements on the current situation are expected soon.

How do I know this?

-“Lushan and Fatalia will issue statements this week. They’ll lean toward supporting the Magic Tower and attacking the Church.”

“A declaration of support?”

-“Not quite that far. It seems they want to announce their position first and then see how things go.”

Veronica leaked high-level information to me.

A former high-ranking intelligence officer of the Imperial Guard and current lobbyist, she was closer to a politician calculating her own interests than a benevolent and righteous religious saint.

And her abilities were proving their worth in the current chaotic situation.

I transferred the intelligence she provided into my notes.

“What about the Empire?”

-“Officially, I heard they’ve only given principled responses.”

“And unofficially?”

-“It’s a shit show.”

Veronica said the Imperial Guard and the Foreign Ministry were playing hot potato.

-“Nominally, the Magic Tower is an imperial autonomous region, and even though they guarantee sovereignty, this action crosses a line, doesn’t it? It’s essentially a failure of imperial management…”

“So they need someone to take the blame for the management failure?”

-“Yes.”

“Alright. Let’s talk again later. Let me know immediately if you get anything new.”

I wrote down all the intelligence from Veronica’s mouth on a notepad. I was worried whether I’d be able to read it later given my poor handwriting, but there wasn’t much I could do. At times like this, I really miss having a smartphone.

As I was awkwardly taking notes with the communication device wedged between my neck and shoulder, Veronica suddenly asked a question.

-“Wait, where are you that your voice is echoing?”

“In the bathroom.”

-“…Why are you taking my call in such a place? That’s disgusting.”

“What am I supposed to do? I’m outside right now.”

-“Are you out on field work?”

“No. I’m on an official schedule.”

Veronica asked again in a suspicious voice.

-“I thought Lucia had no official schedule today? Are you with the hero?”

“Yes.”

-“What are you doing?”

I slightly opened the bathroom window and looked outside. Acrid smoke was rising, and a red-haired magician was roasting marshmallows over a burning tree. I gave Veronica my answer.

“Campfire.”

Today’s schedule was burning down a forest.

*

Suddenly, a passage from a novel I read a very long time ago came to mind.

It was a pleasure to burn.

Reading a novel about a man whose job was to burn books in a future where books were banned was a small pleasure I could find in my hectic overseas life.

I was so happy when I discovered a first edition in an old bookstore. Finding a first edition locally had only happened once before, when I found Yasunari Kawabata’s “Snow Country” during a trip to Japan, making it a rare experience both then and now.

The reason I recalled that passage from the novel I read long ago was none other than because of Camilla.

“Hehe.”

Camilla Rowell, former Muggle and current magical girl, smiled like a child as she showed me a perfectly roasted marshmallow.

“Camilla, do you find burning things enjoyable?”

“No? Why are you talking to me like I’m an arsonist?”

You are an arsonist.

I was about to say something but just closed my mouth. Camilla was using the trees she had completely burned down as firewood, grilling all sorts of snacks over the fire, chewing, tearing, tasting, and enjoying them.

When she touched a marshmallow shaped like a salamander, it pretended to flee by flailing its limbs.

Camilla skewered the salamander marshmallow with a wooden stick and, without a moment’s hesitation, thrust it into the flames.

Then she tore off one of its legs and, with a bright smile, offered it to me.

“Would you like some?”

“Ah, no thanks.”

She popped the golden-brown marshmallow into her mouth and chewed.

I asked her with a disgusted expression.

“Does that… go down well?”

“It’s food!”

“No, you’re just arson—”

“There’s no Greenpeace here, so what does it matter?”

Camilla boldly spouted nonsense as she tore off the salamander’s leg.

It’s okay to set fire to a perfectly good forest because there’s no environmental group to complain? That was truly miraculous logic. The French people who bombed the Greenpeace ship would applaud if they heard this. Probably.

I was truly dumbfounded, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything and just let out a deep sigh.

“Haah… The elves will have something to say. About burning down another forest.”

“…Elves?”

“Yes. A race that loves nature.”

More like eco-fascists who love nature too much.

As we exchanged trivial words, we looked around the forest we had burned.

“By the way, what is this place?”

“…Are you asking that now? Not before burning it?”

“Well, I just thought it was some training ground when you said it was a place to practice magic. But if it’s a training ground, it must be state property, right? Is it okay to burn it like this?”

She asks so quickly.

I grabbed a dried-up twig and tossed it as I explained.

“This is a no-man’s land. It’s not state property.”

This place is a no-man’s land.

Land where no country exercises ownership or effective control. In short, a no-man’s land is ownerless territory.

Of course, people do enter no-man’s lands for reasons like railway development, natural resource extraction, or pioneering. There are actually people living here, so the term “no-man’s land” is somewhat misleading.

However.

“Except for a few areas, the entire no-man’s land is a monster habitat, so even the military doesn’t enter if they can help it. Major corporations with national projects enter with military escorts, and private developers push in by hiring adventurers.”

“Is that so? Then why are we setting fire to this place?”

“Well, you know… winter is coming soon.”

Winter is a difficult season for all living creatures.

That’s why homeothermic animals stockpile food like stock ants waiting for a bull market, enduring until spring arrives, while poikilothermic animals enter a state of suspended animation and sleep throughout winter.

The same goes for monsters.

They’re living creatures too, and they need to eat to be active.

“So around this time, as winter approaches, monsters always come down and harm civilians. It’s similar to how animals occasionally eat crops from fields. The problem is that they eat people, not crops.”

“Ah.”

Camilla nodded as if she finally understood.

“So you brought me here to practice magic while saving on the budget!”

“Well… that’s not wrong, but you don’t have to put it quite like that…”

With the country in such an uproar, it was hard to go out freely, and she was tired of going back and forth to the library, so she wanted to practice magic with me.

So while I was looking for an empty military training ground, I heard that an operation was underway in the no-man’s land wasteland, and I brought her here to practice magic and save on labor costs.

There were a few unfortunate accidents (fainting), but fortunately, there were no major problems, and we burned a much larger area than expected, making the Defense Ministry people happy about saving their budget.

An entire battalion’s worth of work done by one person—they were absolutely stunned. They said they would allocate budget if she would continue to come out until the operation was over; if I said yes, they’d probably do backflips in unison out of joy.

I had no particular intention of hiding anything, but when such words came out of Camilla’s mouth, it felt somewhat strange.

“…”

“Frederick.”

“…Yes?”

As I was lost in thought, she suddenly addressed me.

Camilla was smiling brightly as always.

“Please be honest with me.”

“…About what?”

“Don’t hide it.”

About what?

As I tilted my head at her puzzling words, she leaned her upper body forward and spoke to me in a small voice.

“This… I don’t have to pay compensation, right…?”

“…Pardon?”

“For burning the forest.”

“Well, that’s…”

“What if I get sued when I don’t even know who the owner is…!”

She let out a small scream.

“I don’t want to face another lawsuit for damages even here…! I once accidentally burned a cornfield and had to pay the farmer thousands of dollars…! The legal team gave me such a hard time then…!”

I stared blankly at Camilla, who was whining with tears welling up in her eyes, apparently overcome with emotion.

And I thought earnestly:

This woman doesn’t seem quite normal either.

“I would have the right to appoint a lawyer, right…?”

“…”

“Don’t tell me I don’t…?”

It took about 15 minutes to calm her down as she worried about lawsuits.

Taking care of people doesn’t seem like a worthwhile task either.

*

The next day, Camilla and I participated in the no-man’s land wasteland operation again.

And there, I met an unexpected visitor.