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“Alright, so where are we going first?”

I asked while chewing on the end of my glasses, seated in the passenger seat.

“Anywhere you’d like,” she replied.

“Home.”

As I voiced my heartfelt wish, Veronica chuckled softly and started the engine.

It was obviously a mockery, but I didn’t have the strength to retort. I tossed the cheap sunglasses I had bought to hide my eyes into the glove box and asked Veronica, who was gently stepping on the accelerator.

“So, where’s the stuff you wanted to show me?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t bring me here just to rummage through all these containers for a busy person, did you?”

At my words, Veronica shot me a sly smile.

“You can’t actually think that’s what I’m doing, right?”

“…No way.”

“I can see right through your thoughts, Colonel. That’s probably how it is.”

“……”

The lobbyist grinned and pointed at the mountain of containers.

“We’re going to look through all of those today.”

—

Episode 6 – The Omniscient Spy’s Perspective

It wasn’t a joke that we were going to check every container today. Veronica was truly intent on opening every single one in the Magic Tower.

“These are cigars made from tobacco leaves grown in Kamatra. Kamatra cigars are famous for their deep brown color and subtle flavor. And this one… it seems to be leaves grown in Bonet. The old folks love them, but they don’t suit my taste.”

Cigars, tobacco leaves, smoking goods.

“Verdin chocolate! It’s my favorite! The one made with cocoa butter mixed with milk is the best! But there’s a shortage because of the recent drought that has made all the cows die.”

Chocolate, snacks.

“Patalia wine. It’s the most expensive wine sold in the world. Abas wine is good too, but this place has more unique wines than Abas. However, due to the poor grape harvest lately, the prices have skyrocketed. I ordered some two months ago, and the fact that there’s still no stock means that even affluent people can’t easily get them these days.”

Wines, liquors from various countries.

“Here we have a lot of clothes and shoes? They’re all factory-made… but they seem to sell well thanks to the brand names.”

“……”

“Oh, this is a limited edition! I tried to find just one by deploying my investigators to search the entire cult but couldn’t get my hands on it.”

Veronica hugged the obviously expensive shoes and beamed with delight.

And then she confidently announced.

“Should I take one?”

“…Are you really a priest? This is outright theft.”

“What’s the big deal? I can just confess it later.”

I couldn’t believe this was happening.

“…Saint, please cut it out with the nonsense.”

“I’m just joking, joking! Can’t a person even joke anymore? Why are you so uptight…?”

“……”

I covered my face with my hands and hung my head low.

I couldn’t bring myself to look up at the totally brazen Saint.

Clearly, it was Veronica who was being shameless, yet for some reason, I felt shame.

“Veronica, don’t you have any conscience?”

“Oh come on. I’m officially a representative of God! Can you say that to a Saint? This is totally a religious trial!”

“…You became a Saint with money.”

“Whether it was a vote-buying scheme or ballot rigging, I secured my position, didn’t I?!”

No matter what, Veronica continued to rummage through the containers for a while.

Some containers had items that were standard-priced, while others held art pieces or crafts that were hard to price.

Veronica wandered around like she was at an exhibition, admiring the items.

But this wasn’t a prestigious museum; it was a mountain of stacked containers, which meant I had to follow her around without a moment’s rest.

And when Veronica found a luxury watch in a container and pretended to be an amateur golfer swinging a club, I couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Veronica.”

“Yes?”

“Are you messing with me right now? You said you’d show me something, but you’re just showing me all this weird stuff. Are we here for shopping or what?”

To be honest, I was annoyed.

No matter how much of a saint she was, I was an official diplomat who couldn’t afford to humor her antics.

Yet Veronica looked at me with a bright smile as if nothing was wrong.

“I already showed you everything, didn’t I?”

“Everything?”

“What do you mean, everything?”

She lightly tapped the watch on her wrist and said.

“It’s all smuggled goods.”

*

“So you’re telling me this is all smuggled goods?”

“Yep.”

“……”

I glanced at Veronica, who was nodding, then at the piles of containers stacked before me.

“……”

All of this is smuggled stuff, huh.

“Though there are a few fakes mixed in, most are properly produced goods.”

“……”

“I may have bent the rules a bit.”

I forced myself to nod and looked at Veronica.

“…They must have been surplus from the factory, right? The leftover stock that the workers smuggled out and sold.”

“Oh, how do you know that, Colonel?”

“Why wouldn’t I know?”

I couldn’t not know.

“Well, um… I once sent some cigars to an official as a little grease for what they needed. It’s a very expensive item if bought at regular price….”

“And?”

“But since it was in a socialist country, even if they worked hard, they only got paid a set amount, so workers would smuggle goods as a side income. They could buy in bulk for much cheaper and deliver them to the officials.”

“Oh, so you’ve tried using the black market. But which country are you talking about?”

Cuba.

“Anyway, the Saint wouldn’t get that.”

“What’s with that? That’s not fun.”

As if to show that she was sulking, Veronica puffed her cheeks and mumbled something silly.

I tried to calm the chaotic Veronica and focused back on our conversation.

“Right, I get that all of this is smuggled goods, but why are you showing me this?”

“You’re from the intelligence department, right? Isn’t tracking this kind of thing what the intelligence department does?”

“That belongs to the Royal Intelligence Department or the Imperial Guard HQ. Why would the military be concerned with smuggled goods?”

Tracking smuggled goods certainly fell under the realm of international crime investigations that intelligence agencies managed. However, the international crime investigation should be handled by the National Intelligence Service, not military intelligence.

Honestly, why would the military care about crime? Military intelligence only concerns itself with military-related matters.

The Royal Intelligence Department or the Military Intelligence Agency might keep an eye on organized crime, but if they received intel on smuggled goods, they’d pass that on to the Cabinet Security Office or the Special Investigation Bureau.

The same goes for South Korea.

The National Intelligence Service and police coordinate to track down smuggled goods; military intelligence and similar agencies wouldn’t bother if they weren’t North Korean contraband.

In other words, this was not an issue I needed to worry about.

“You’ve got the wrong address. It’s not my business to be concerned with smuggled goods—”

“I don’t handle drugs in the military.”

“Yeah, I know that much too.”

“Then why did you show this to me? How did you even know these were smuggled goods in the first place?”

How did the saint know that smuggled goods were here?

Assuming she knew where the smuggled goods were located, that’s one thing. But knowing the exact region, precise location, and the containers loaded with the smuggled goods felt a bit off.

As if someone had pointed it out to her directly.

Curiously, I watched her, and Veronica lightly smiled.

“Am I not allowed to know about this kind of stuff?”

“Whose cargo is this?”

“It’s all owned by private enterprises. Specifically, it’s a shell company. There are several companies, so it’s hard to pin it down to one, but the one with the most cargo is La Cardinal, a company from Alandirus.”

“La Cardinal?”

“It used to be a Patalia company, but they moved to Alandirus midway. Well, they went bankrupt before, so they’re just using the name now.”

So it’s cargo owned by a ghost company.

“Saint, I’m asking you seriously—do you have connections to a criminal organization?”

“No! Colonel, what do you think of me? Do I look like the kind of woman who associates with that sort of thing?”

Yes.

“…You really might be that type. Yes.”

“…You just stuttered.”

“I did not.”

“Look me in the eyes and tell me. Did you stutter? Or did you not?”

“Ah, that’s not important right now.”

I pushed away Veronica’s glaring face.

What mattered right now wasn’t this.

“Where’s the person you said you would introduce me to earlier?”

Veronica was someone who gathered information through her connections.

If a lobbyist like Veronica had a contact in the Magic Tower, it was likely that they would have slipped her information about the smuggled goods. And from what I could gather, the person she was supposed to introduce me to seemed to be that contact.

“From what I’ve heard, the person you want to introduce me to sounds like your information agent.”

“It’s a bit too friendly for me to call him that…”

“Then what is he?”

“Um, a close younger brother…? Anyway, he seems to be busy right now.”

“What could possibly be so busy that your close sister calls, and he can’t even show his face?”

“He’s a civil servant.”

“Oh.”

If he’s a civil servant, that makes sense.

“Things at the Magic Tower have been noisy lately. I get it. With the current state of affairs, civil servants can hardly leave work…”

“I’ll definitely arrange a meeting next time. I’m sorry.”

“Could you please refrain from reaching out if you know? And don’t just apologize with words; try showing some expression.”

Looking up at the sky, I realized the sun was already disappearing beyond the horizon. Aside from finding the smuggled goods owned by ghost companies, there wasn’t much to show for today.

If I returned to the hotel now, I felt I would just barely make it in time for dinner.

“Then, we’ve seen everything for today, right? I’ll be on my way.”

I tried to stretch my sore body as I headed back to the hotel.

“Ah, wait a moment…!”

…And got caught by Veronica.

Veronica urgently grabbed my hand and said, “What is it? Are you saying there’s still something left to see?”

“Yes.”

“……”

“Oh, Colonel, I know you’re annoyed, but I really only have a little left to show you….”

“…I just want to rest for a bit.”

“Fine… just this one thing, okay? Please, just this!”

Veronica led me to a container. It was a rusty red container with patches of rust here and there.

As I stood there, dragging my weary body, Veronica placed her hand on the thick iron door.

“Alright, we’re here.”

As she swung open the distinctive iron door of the container, a cloud of dust rushed out.

That was the difference between this rusty red container and the ones I’d seen earlier. It was so poorly maintained that dust was piled high on the wooden boxes and throughout the container. It clearly hadn’t been taken care of for years.

However, Veronica didn’t seem to care; she whistled and entered the container.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming in?”

“…Do you want to breathe in this dust pit?”

“My lungs will heal with one heal spell! Now, come in quickly before someone sees us.”

I followed Veronica, covering my mouth and nose with my sleeve and waving my hands as I entered the container.

While Veronica carefully closed the door after glancing around, I squatted down and scanned the wooden boxes stacked inside the container.

By the size of the boxes, it didn’t seem like anything particularly massive was loaded. The quantity was also low.

However, the boxes had no markings or symbols, making it impossible to tell who owned this cargo or what was inside.

“What is all this?”

“Want to take a guess?”

Here we go again.

Worrying about inhaling dust, I let out a deep sigh internally, while Veronica smiled as she always did and opened one of the wooden boxes. Then she started touching something inside it vigorously.

“What are you doing?”

“Just a moment… Ah, found it!”

Veronica exclaimed and quickly raised her upper body, pointing a finger in front of my eyes.

“Give it a taste!”

I stared blankly at the finger that was thrust forward.

“…You want me to suck on your finger?”

“Yep.”

“…….”

She’s really out of her mind.

I could just take out whatever was in that box and try it directly, but with the dust pit around, everything felt like a bother. All I could think was how I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Eventually, I grabbed Veronica’s wrist like the president biting into a Fukushima cucumber. And closing my eyes tight, I licked her finger.

“…….”

The first thing I felt was a salty taste, gritty dustiness, and then a delayed rush of strong bitterness and sourness.

With a grimace, I rolled my tongue, savoring the unique bitter and sour flavors filling my mouth. The bitterness and sourness felt oddly familiar, as if I had tasted it somewhere before. I endured the throbbing pain while slowly retracing my memories to figure out what this taste was.

And finally, as I recognized what the taste was from that long-lost memory.

“…What the heck!”

I spat out the powder that remained in my mouth in shock.

“This is meth, isn’t it?!”

It was drugs.

 

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