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“What’s been going on around here?”

With a look of disbelief, Camila scratched her head sheepishly.

Suddenly, a breeze blew through, and the sound of a crinkling plastic bag reached my ears.

Camila awkwardly smiled while holding the plastic bag.

“…Was it a chemistry experiment?”

**Episode 6 – From the Perspective of a Spy**

Upon returning to the hotel, I was able to listen to the full story from the Information Officer of the Magic Tower Police in charge of Camila’s protection.

Camila, who went missing during her protection detail, a loud explosion echoing in the downtown area during broad daylight, and when I hurried to the scene with the backup troops, there she was, covered in soot.

The cause was,

“You said you shoved a bomb into the sewer?”

Child’s play.

“Rather than a bomb, it would be more appropriate to call it fireworks—”

“Why on earth did you shove something like that into the sewer?”

Camila clamped her mouth shut at my question.

Fresh from a shower, her wet hair topped with a towel, she gazed at me with a gloomy expression.

“It wasn’t a joke. I happened to hear there was a Ratman on the way, so I just….”

“You mean you threw a bomb just to catch some vermin?”

“Uh… does that sound like what I said?”

This is ridiculous.

“…Sigh.”

I let out a deep sigh and plopped down onto the suite’s sofa.

It was outrageous enough to escape the watch of the Magic Tower Information Police, but now I was caught playing with a bomb. And it was the police—specifically the Information Police.

“You really bring chaos wherever you go. What on earth were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry….”

Camila bowed her head with a rather despondent look.

I thought things had calmed down recently, but now it seemed she created trouble if there wasn’t any!

Horrified to see her covered in soot, I confronted the police Information Officer, but when they explained that Camila was playing with a bomb and got filthy, I had nothing left to say.

At least they neglected to inform me first, so I managed to get off with just a warning. I could have been arrested by the police! If that had happened, the media would have swooped in to feast on the story.

“Sigh….”

I sighed deeply and posed another question.

“Where on earth did you get the bomb—no, how did you know there was a Ratman there?”

Camila pulled the towel away and replied.

“Well… I was walking down the street when I saw some armed folks, and when I asked them, they said there was a report of a Ratman sighting….”

“And then?”

“When they asked if I was a magician, I said yes, and they asked if I could help….”

“…So you made a bomb and threw it?”

“Pueh-!”

“……”

“Ah, ahem. I’m sorry. I caught a cold.”

“What a boast.”

I raised the room’s temperature and placed a warm towel on her head while I listened to her explanation.

Camila’s claims matched the sequence of events I heard from the police Information Officer, meaning the Information Police.

She had been requested for help by the armed folks (adventurers, nearby PMCs) who responded after receiving a report of a suspected Ratman sighting, and she shoved a bomb into the sewer.

According to the police Information Officer, since the Magic Tower is full of magicians, curious magicians or those with an overactive sense of justice sometimes provide assistance in such manners.

I heard it was mainly residents of the area who do this. There are those who personally hunt down vermin like vigilantes, and some even organize militias to hunt for a small reward from the government. Or, like Camila, they casually help out when they get bored.

“Did you know that hunting vermin without a license or permission from the local police station is illegal?”

“No! Please, just this once!”

“I’m not a police officer, so what could I possibly forgive you for….”

I was a spy, not a cop.

For now, given the situation, and since Camila was from another world, and magicians are generally known for causing trouble, I decided to just give her a warning and wrap things up nicely.

Of course, there wasn’t a single member of the Magic Tower police who could scold her. In fact, when you think about it, there was hardly anyone in this world who could chastise her. At most, it would be Lucia or myself, but Lucia was a religious figure. A saint from a cult that had a strained relationship with the Magic Tower.

So what could I do?

It looked like I had to handle this myself.

“Ugh….”

I let out another sigh. Lately, it felt as though my life was just a sequence of sighs.

“The Magic Tower Police have decided to overlook this incident. Thankfully, because this is a town with many magicians, they’re lenient. In other countries, it would be a whole other story. Even if the magician wouldn’t get formally charged, they would usually spend at least a day in a holding cell.”

“…Okay.”

“Please be more careful. I beg you.”

Leaving behind the gloomy-faced Camila, I rummaged through the plastic bag I had seen earlier to grab a drink.

It was a beverage I had never seen before in my life. The design was peculiar but somewhat resembled that of a cola bottle.

Well, since it was a snack Camila had bought, I might as well have some.

Just as I thoughtlessly raised the bottle to my lips to take a big gulp—

“…Ah, ah!”

“……?”

Suddenly, Camila jumped up and started flailing her arms in a panic.

“You’re not supposed to drink that!”

But it was too late.

The smell of some caustic chemical rose from my throat, and I ended up spitting out the liquid I had just held in my mouth.

“Pu-uu-uup-!!”

Right onto Camila’s face.

*

To cut to the chase, what I had drunk was citric acid.

In other words, it’s a well-known chemical often used to add sourness to food, but it’s also one of the main components in explosive manufacturing, making it a banned substance in many countries.

That was the case here too, but in the Magic Tower, where alchemy and all sorts of chemicals are used for magic experiments, such regulations didn’t exist. Just walking into any store, you could find a chemical aisle right next to the beverage section.

Anyway, in the Magic Tower, anyone could easily obtain chemicals, and Camila had bought various chemicals to try the alchemy she read about in a book. I mistook it for a beverage and drank it without realizing.

The outcome was predictable.

I collapsed.

With the noxious chemical smell so overpowering, as I was falling, I worried whether I would die right then and there.

“Do you have your wits about you?”

Luckily, the best healer in the continent happened to be in the next room, and I was saved.

“Ah. Ahh. Urgh.”

“You seem to be awake.”

As I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, a familiar face was looking down at me. It had a mix of concern and exasperation.

“…Gah! Ugh, Lucia?”

“Yes.”

“Where am I?”

“This is a hotel. Please, rest comfortably.”

I found myself in a room adjacent to the suite. Specifically, it was Lucia’s room.

The only two saints in the continent and hailed as one of the best healers was looking down at me with a curious expression while wearing blue surgical gloves, as if I were in an operating room.

“Poison and chemicals involved. It seems you don’t have the best interaction with chemistry or alchemy.”

“Because I’m naturally from the humanities….”

“You seem to be joking, so it looks like you’re fine now.”

I sat on the bed, placing my hands over my face. Lucia scanned my mouth once and pulled up a chair.

We each took a seat—a spy and a saint. It’s a combination you don’t see very often.

With her squeezing out the water from the towel, she suddenly broke the silence.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Ah, yes.”

I reached for a cup of water sitting on the side table. As I was sipping the lukewarm water, Lucia pulled on her gloves and said,

“How’s your shoulder?”

“…….”

“I was told you injured your left shoulder.”

Caught off guard by the abrupt question, I couldn’t find the words.

Lucia glanced at me for a moment before turning her gaze away and continuing her thoughts.

“I heard you hurt your left shoulder.”

“…Who said that?”

“Camila said so when she brought you in while carrying you.”

“Camila?”

“Yes.”

Lucia nodded as she methodically organized her tools. Given the distinct sensation of the stitches still fresh, it didn’t seem like it had been a gunshot wound.

However, Lucia didn’t ask me why I was hurt, nor where I got injured. She added nothing more.

Instead, she changed the subject as if it didn’t matter. It was hard to tell if she genuinely didn’t care or if she was just pretending not to know.

As she cautiously organized her tools, she locked her bag and casually blurted out,

“I heard you had a fight with Camila.”

“No, it wasn’t quite a fight…. It was just a bit of an issue….”

“I also heard you scolded her for messing around.”

I paused, sitting on the bed to tidy myself up as I cocked my head.

“Is blowing up bombs on the street considered messing around in your cult?”

“Magicians are naturally quite curious. Especially in the Magic Tower. It’s best to think of it as just some harmless play when someone blows up a bomb in this town.”

“Isn’t Camila someone who has lived in another world? She can’t help but be curious like a child.”

“Still, this time it went too far.”

“Please understand. It couldn’t be helped.”

Setting off bombs in the streets isn’t a trivial joke, even in England.

As I was about to say something along those lines, it suddenly occurred to me that Lucia might not know what kind of place England is, so I sealed my lips.

“…You’re quite soft-hearted. If you keep indulging her like this, later on, she might cause a serious incident. Shouldn’t we talk it out like this and smooth things over?”

“It seems like you, Colonel, have a lot of worries yourself.”

Lucia quietly smiled and took a seat.

Her expression wasn’t one of disbelief or playfulness but rather a kind smile that reminded me of an icon I had seen in Eastern Europe a long time ago.

“Camila is quite worried too. Because of you, Colonel.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I saw her crying earlier.”

She calmly recounted what had happened after I had collapsed. Apparently, someone had knocked on the door, and when I stepped out, there was Camila, running around barefoot, worriedly pulling me along. She had been crying the whole time I was being treated, too.

“Actually, she didn’t cry that much, just shed a few tears.”

“Where is Camila now?”

“She just returned to her room. More precisely, I sent her back. She looked quite tired.”

I listened to Lucia’s story as if it were a behind-the-scenes tale from a movie.

Lucia brought over a kettle from a corner of the room and poured some tea, continuing her story while sipping lukewarm black tea.

“Now that I think about it, she cried back when you suffered from nerve poison as well.”

The saint mentioned that someone else had cried so casually.

It was so natural that I couldn’t help but ask this question.

“Were you not surprised?”

“Well, I’ve seen many people cry. I’m used to it.”

“At the prayer room?”

“No. At the field hospital.”

“…….”

The field hospital referred to here was located near the Empire-Magic conflict area. It was the very place where patients crowded in the wake of frequent local provocations happening almost every week.

The field hospital near the conflict area was a place of interest cautiously monitored by the information officers dispatched by the Empire, and it was also the place where 17-year-old Lucia had served for two years.

The reason a spy would take an interest in something as simple as a field hospital was to gather intelligence on the various medical systems newly developed by the Imperial Army. The Empire-Magic conflict area was indeed a place where a lot of people died or were injured.

After a flippant question was met with such a heavy answer, I had nothing more to say. Discussions about someone’s death always carry a weight that transcends time and place.

“…Tsk.”

As I fell silent, Lucia couldn’t help but chuckle lightly, acting as if nothing was amiss.

“Anyway, don’t be too hard on Camila. She picked up something strange and got hurt, but look at how she cried for your sake.”

“Crying doesn’t change anything. Whether someone helps her or she tries herself, that’s what really matters.”

“So, are you saying you won’t pick up anything strange from now on?”

At her playful question, I awkwardly licked my lips. After a good amount of pondering, my response turned out to be a rather weak excuse.

“It’s not my fault I mistook that for a drink. It’s the manufacturer’s fault for packaging it like a beverage….”

Lucia looked at me and gently smiled.

“Please be more careful from now on. Take care of your health too.”

Lucia suggested that I take a rest, but sadly, there was no chance for that.

Telling me to reduce my work and get more sleep sounds easy, but realistically, could that ever happen? Moreover, I had already taken a day off.

Taking a day off as a civil servant and then suddenly asking for another day off was basically asking my workplace to fire me. And I absolutely had no intention of quitting.

In the end, I returned to work after that eventful leave.

I thanked Lucia for her treatment with a gift. I reassured the timid Camila that I was alright. I exchanged information with the Magic Tower Police information officer and Priest Rebecca from the Inquisition. I checked in at the representative office and received overdue information reports from Pippin and Jake.

Reading documents, signing, sending off reports.

That was basically how my day flowed.

A hotel bar with a great view overlooking a resort and famous spots? A lovely time spent at a tailor shop with a rich history and pubs? A normal life of sipping martinis shaken—not stirred—while enjoying time with women?

I can assure you that there is none of that.

As an information agency agent, the job’s nature is predetermined. While the work might be somewhat special, initially appointed to thrilling and exciting tasks, that thrill wears off after one or two years of service, and it quickly becomes mundane after four or five years.

You can’t even go home; working late is the norm, international travel is conducted under tight scrutiny, and the salary is meager despite the workload being immense.

On top of that, romance and marriage aren’t easily allowed. If you date or marry a foreigner, you’ll be fired from your job. Even if you date or marry a local, you have to undergo a thorough background check first.

Ultimately, employees in the information agency must always be cautious. You could phrase it positively as ‘conducting oneself well,’ but negatively, it translates to looking out for one’s self-preservation.

Of course, most employees work diligently, but frankly, everyone lives with a certain level of awareness. Nobody wants to get fired from their job.

I was no exception.

What makes me any different? I was even on the brink of being dispatched somewhere. So nowadays, I just did as I was told, gathered what came to my attention, and handled what was within reach.

Thus, I thought today would be no different than usual…

“Damn….”

Today was evidently not going to be an easy day.

“You have a knack for stealing someone’s time, don’t you, Saint?”

“What? Why so cranky?”

“It’s creepy, so please stay away. Let’s keep a distance of about five meters.”

I elbowed away the clingy Veronica and pressed at my temple.

After finishing my morning shift and while having lunch, I got an unexpected call, and it was Veronica again. When I asked what was up, she abruptly dropped an address and told me to come quick without further explanation.

“Am I your pet dog? Asking me to drop everything and rush over while I’m in the middle of work?”

“You don’t answer calls when you’re off work, do you? These days, when I call, it’s always ‘the phone is turned off.'”

“That’s because you call me at dawn!”

Veronica pouted her lips and pushed her chic sunglasses slightly down.

“I only have time in the early morning, what else can I do?”

“Then what do you do in the evening?”

“Umm… Hair of the dog?”

“What the hell.”

I opened the car door roughly and stepped outside. Half of my motivation was to breathe in some fresh air to ease my headache, and the other half was to escape from being stuck to Veronica.

Of course, I couldn’t exactly run away anywhere.

“Alright, we’ve arrived!”

Dressed extravagantly like a nouveau riche, Veronica grinned brightly as she spoke.

“Why exactly are we here?”

In response to my question, Veronica, who had snuck into the Magic Tower with a fake passport, casually draped her arm over the steering wheel and flashed a grin.

“I’m here to introduce you to someone I meant to present you last time.”

I surveyed the surroundings, questioning Veronica. It was my first time in this area, but it resembled a port’s marshaling yard.

We had arrived at a container terminal. A place where all sorts of goods from around the world pass into and out of the Magic Tower.

So, to put it simply,

“…Here?”

“Yup.”

This was a port.

“…….”

With sunglasses perched on her head, Veronica glanced down at her wristwatch.

“Well, my brother is terribly busy, so I don’t know if we’ll actually get to meet today….”

“….”

“For now, let’s check out the goods first!”

She pointed toward a heap of containers.

“Shall we?”

 

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