Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 16
The next day.
Nina gazed at the red circle she’d drawn on the Calendar, then let out a soft laugh.
It was the date she’d promised to help with Joel’s research.
‘I’ve never drawn a red circle for a reason like this before.’
Until now, she’d only marked the Countess’s important errands on the Calendar—never a date set to meet someone, to remember a promise kept just between the two of them.
‘I’m not sure how much help I can be, but I’m really looking forward to it. I hope Joel’s condition improves soon.’
Nina sighed as she pictured Joel, nosebleed dripping pathetically, and shook her head.
The more she thought about it, the sorrier she felt.
‘I have to do my absolute best to help with his research.’
After setting down the Calendar, Nina swept her gaze slowly across the room.
Her bright eyes traced past the wardrobe and the space beneath the bed, then moved on to the desk drawer and her bag.
The atmosphere of the room had shifted slightly. Or rather, it wasn’t just the atmosphere.
It was natural enough—several people had moved through this room yesterday.
‘It must feel strange to the family that this place has become my room. After all, I’m a Rolling Stone.’
The family who’d originally lived here had all been kind and generous to her. But…
‘Perhaps I can’t hide the mark of having been an errand-runner, a maidservant.’
Nina swung open the wardrobe door wide.
Behind the few clothes hanging there, she drew back a black cloth to reveal the space hidden behind it.
Along the wardrobe’s wall, a maidservant’s essential tools were arranged in neat rows.
‘So they looked all the way in here.’
Nina’s expression drooped as she pulled a dried leaf from the edge of the cloth.
The fragile leaf would crumble naturally whenever the cloth shifted, making it clear someone had secretly looked inside.
‘…The Countess might not like having maidservant’s supplies in the room she once used. I shouldn’t let something like this hurt my feelings.’
Though Nina longed to grow close to her family quickly, such things weren’t within her power to make happen.
‘Is it because we grew up in such different worlds? Even though we’re family, we seem so different from one another.’
Nina reflected on the peculiar qualities of her relatives.
Uncle Cheison was a warm and affectionate family elder, yet he didn’t seem interested in drawing the others together or keeping them united.
Aunt Natalisha had a gracious and aristocratic bearing, but her gaze when she looked at family held no warmth.
Sister Kathari was active and full of energy, and yet strangely, a fragile quality stood out in her.
Brother Eksi seemed attentive to the family, and yet even in their presence, he sometimes gave the impression of watching them darkly from the shadows. Most distinctive of all was his peculiar manner of speech.
‘Every household has its own variety of family dynamics, but I’ve never seen a family where everyone feels so much like strangers to one another.’
Nina had encountered many different people since leaving the Orphanage.
She knew all too well that people who were once close could become enemies the moment property disputes arose.
And if something went wrong within a family as unusual as this one…
‘It mustn’t happen.’
Shuddering at the mere thought of it, Nina closed the wardrobe door.
‘I hope the family can stay close and happy together.’
It was a second wish, newly formed alongside her first wish to have a family.
‘How long does Will Notarization usually take?’
She longed to resolve the difficult matter of the Inheritance quickly and then look forward to growing closer to her family, but no word had come.
She didn’t dare ask the family about it, afraid they might misunderstand her as wanting to monopolize the Townhouse and all its Estate quickly.
Nina placed a small stone from inside the Cactus Pot into her palm and recalled the Countess’s wise words.
“Nina. A Rolling Stone is bound to cause trouble. So it must be kicked far away before it can take root here.”
“But what if a Rolling Stone wants to take root in this place?”
“Then you must first kick away the stone that came to kick you out and claim the empty space it left, or you must dig up an embedded stone to create a new space for yourself.”
“Can’t a Rolling Stone dig out an entirely new space of its own?”
“That method exists too. But in all history, no Rolling Stone has ever successfully dug out a new space. In the end, it’s still a stranger.”
Not long after arriving at the Count’s Estate, Nina had tried to dig out a new space for herself.
In the end, just as the Countess had said, the Rolling Stone had failed to carve out a new place.
‘That was because I was a stranger then. But the Countess said so herself—here, I can do it.’
Nina grabbed a shovel, one of a maidservant’s essential tools, and rushed out into the Garden.
There, she began to dig up the wildflowers that had grown by chance rather than by deliberate planting, carefully working through the soil.
Just then, Natalisha came out onto the Terrace and approached, asking in bewilderment.
“Nina? Are you going to plant flowers? Why are you digging up the ground?”
Nina lifted the shovel and smiled with a hint of melancholy.
“Oh, Aunt. Because I can’t possibly dig up my precious family.”
Natalisha flinched back, opening her Fan to hide her face.
The shovel’s edge was unusually sharp, and the memory of yesterday’s inspection of Nina’s wardrobe came flooding back.

The arsenal hidden behind the black cloth was staggering.
The cramped space was packed with Joel’s Magic Gun and a Net Gun modified with peculiar ingenuity.
She’d rummaged through the wardrobe hoping to pilfer a Magic Gun, but the moment she spotted the blue-circuited devices affixed to the arsenal wall, she withdrew her hand immediately.
It was clearly a Theft Alarm System.
‘What sort of maid knows how to construct a hidden arsenal inside a wardrobe?’
Natalisha’s head throbbed as she pondered how to contend with Nina.
‘Cheison lacks composure. Kathari lacks patience. Eksi lacks social grace. Joel lacks humanity.’
Five nations were cooperating, yet not a single person proved genuinely useful.
‘There’s no one I can trust. I’ll have to handle this myself.’
Oblivious to the chill that crept over Natalisha as she watched Nina smile radiantly while wielding her practiced sabotage skills with such ease, the girl entered the house carrying flowerpots with practiced efficiency.
Nina wanted to establish herself as a new family member in this household.
But since she couldn’t simply kick the existing ones out, she had to carve out a new space for herself.
‘I’ve been too preoccupied to give this proper thought, but yes—this method is unquestionably the best way to stake a claim in unfamiliar territory.’
Nina’s destination, carrying her array of flowerpots, was the Kitchen.
“I made these flowerpots because I wanted to give you all flowers!”
The servants loitering in the Kitchen jumped at the sudden appearance of their mistress.
“How touching—such fresh, beautiful gifts! We’re truly grateful. Really, truly grat—”
Only Jugger Number 4 accepted a flowerpot first, spinning it round and round in his hands.
Nina, beaming brightly while posing as a servant among the operatives disguised as household staff, pressed a flowerpot into each of their arms.
“Th-thank you very much.”
They held the pots awkwardly in their embrace.
For Nina, the servants of the Townhouse remained more comfortable to be around than her own family—there was no helping it.
Those who labored in service felt more kindred to her than those who had lived their lives as the family of a nobleman.
Nina wanted to recognize the servants too as members who had tended this house longer than she had, and to get along well with them.
“Would you like me to share a few tips I picked up during my time as a maid?”
“We’re curious. What might those be?”
One of the servants set down the flowerpot on the windowsill and asked.
Nina squatted to move the Cookie Jar from the shelf to a low cabinet she could reach comfortably.
“If you keep the Cookie Jar here, you can sneak a cookie or two each time you’re plating the dishes, you see?”
Nina mimed the motion of stealing a cookie and grinned mischievously.
It was rather charming advice. The servants unconsciously lifted the corners of their mouths, following her lead.
“And it’s good to keep at least one Butter Knife in the utensil holder.”
They began to anticipate what clever tip she’d offer next.
“You see, maintaining the Townhouse’s cleanliness sometimes requires one to produce a sharp object the moment a drawer is opened.”
“Y-yes. ……Yes?”
“Guest Emergency Sleeping Draught is best kept in a separate jar mixed with sugar rather than stored in its original bottle—that way, discovery is unlikely.”
“……?”
“Place a small pouch of Flour on the windowsill, and when your hair stands on end, sprinkle it outside the window—you’ll easily spot a sniper’s laser pointer. And—”
“…….”
The tips that tumbled from Nina’s lips were genuinely useful to the spies stationed in the Kitchen.
The operatives exchanged bewildered glances awkwardly before setting down the flowerpots they’d tucked under their arms and producing notepads.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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