Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 22

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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 22
This was only the second time she’d wandered through the Townhouse in the dead of night.
‘I didn’t mean to poke around this late.’
Nina had just finished pulverizing a pillow in her room moments before.
Overwhelmed by sensations she could barely contain, she’d simply gnawed at the pillow in frustration.
‘They genuinely wanted to know about me. Good heavens. I’m supposed to be the protagonist? Could I really become something so remarkable?’
It had been strange when her uncle Cheyson asked what she thought, but for Joel to care about her with such apparent sincerity too—
It felt as though her family and Joel had conspired together to deceive her.
Nina glanced down awkwardly at what she was wearing.
She’d originally planned to move about in a Maid Outfit again tonight.
But the moment she stopped tormenting the pillow and grabbed the Maid Outfit to get to work, she wondered if she really needed that particular garment.
‘I ended up coming out in what I was already wearing.’
Nina, who had been fidgeting with the pink frills on her shoulders and the light green ribbon at her neckline, puffed out her full lips slightly.
It was the Light Green Dress, made from the finest material among her clothes, which she’d put on for her first outing with the family.
‘Here I am, walking around the house in such a dress. I really do seem like the protagonist.’
The moment she thought that, Countess Sejack’s words came rushing back.
<Nina. Everyone is born with a Role.>
<Just as I have the Role of Countess, you have the Role of maid.>
<Remember this well. A maid is a Supporting Character by design. One who seeks to become the protagonist cannot remain a maid. It would be useless.>
<I’m relieved that you understand your place as a Supporting Character. Now come down from the rope. Be careful not to step on the mines beneath your feet.>
Then, contradicting the wise and prudent words of Countess Sejack, another voice echoed in her mind.
<I’m curious about Nina. More than anything in this world.>
Joel’s earnest words kept circling through her mind, threatening to make her head explode.
The Countess had been right, after all.
‘Madam. Thanks to quitting as a maid, it seems I was able to become the protagonist.’
Nina took great pride in her profession, but she could have set aside her maid’s position without hesitation if it meant being with her family.
She truly believed she’d made the right choice, and touched the Light Green Dress tenderly.
Whether it was just her imagination or not, this elegant dress seemed to suit her even better than before.
With light, silent steps, Nina paused in the hallway outside Exsi’s room on the same floor.
From inside came the sound of something bubbling vigorously and the sharp sizzle of something burning.
Worried that something dangerous might be happening, she was about to knock—
“Hehe. Successful. Now I’ll mix the Arsenic into this.”
Exsi’s cheerful voice carried through.
Nina let out a silent laugh of relief.
‘So Exsi really is someone with such scholarly passion. How admirable.’
She couldn’t possibly disturb him when he was studying at this late hour.
Nina quietly extracted the hidden antenna and wires from the door frame and moved on.
Next was Kathari’s room at the end of the corridor.
Even in the dead of night, that room was a bit noisy.
Thud! Thwack!
“Solar plexus. Solar plexus. Jaw. Shin. Vital point!”
Through the crack in the door came determined murmurs and the crisp sound of rhythmic striking.
Nina recognized it well—the sound of someone working the Punching Bag.
Moved to tears, Nina covered her mouth as her eyes glistened.
‘Kathari has finally acknowledged her delicate weakness and started training her body……!’
She couldn’t have been happier or more proud.
While adequate rest was important, Kathari seemed too fired up to disturb her now.
Nina removed the Listening Device hidden beneath the door and headed downstairs.
‘This is the floor where Grandmother’s room is. Uncle and Aunt have their rooms here too.’
When she passed Natalisha’s door, it was perfectly quiet. As it should be at this hour.
‘Aunt must be sleeping. I’ll tiptoe past so I don’t wake her.’
She disabled the Camera disguised as a wall fixture and slipped past like a ghost.
Next came Cheyson’s room, from which she heard voices.
Nina tilted her head curiously and lingered before the door.
‘It doesn’t sound like he’s talking to himself. Is he having a conversation with someone?’
And following Cheyson’s voice came that of someone familiar.
“-that you do it for only that reason?”
At Natalisha’s voice, Nina froze in surprise.
It wasn’t particularly shocking that Natalisha, whom she’d thought was asleep, was in Cheyson’s room, but hearing her speak with such a cold edge was something entirely new.
‘Could the two of them be fighting?’
While Nina fretted, Natalisha cut in coldly.
“You were in Ilite, yet you noticed neither Nina’s whereabouts nor even her existence.”
At this, Nina assumed her uncle must have taken a trip to Ilite.
“This is absurd. You’re going to blame me for something nobody knew about?”
Cheyson let out a hollow laugh, as if bewildered.
“So you’re going to throw me out of this house? Who decided such a thing?”
Natalisha did not answer.
Cheyson exhaled deeply, as if understanding something.
“The decision’s already been made, then.”
“……So leave quietly. Tell Nina directly that you’re off on a long journey. The rest of us will handle the excuses.”
“No. I have no intention of leaving.”
At Cheyson’s words, Natalisha drew in a sharp breath, as if caught off guard.
“What?”
“Didn’t I prove useful during our last outing together?”
“That outing itself was an unplanned situation. It wasn’t in the original scheme!”
“This matter is crucial to me. I cannot leave this place as things stand.”
“……Even knowing full well what will happen if you refuse?”
“Yes.”
“I will—”
“Wait.”
Cheyson cut off Natalisha’s words and abruptly yanked the door open.
“…….”
“…….”
The two spies scanned the empty corridor sharply.
Moments after the door clicked shut, glistening droplets began falling into the hallway with soft taps.
It was Nina’s tears, dripping from the ceiling.
‘My family’s going to throw my uncle out of this house. Because of me……!’
She couldn’t understand why Natalisha wanted Cheyson to leave.
Whatever this was, the lodged stone was struggling to break free, indifferent to the will of the rolling stone that had brought it there.
The moment Nina’s feet touched the floor, she could no longer hold back her sobs and ran down the corridor, tears streaming.
“Sob, sob, sob.”
Even so, she didn’t forget to snatch up suspicious-looking wires and recording devices as she fled.
‘I wanted my family to live in harmony. And I was the source destroying it.’
Nina’s heart was breaking, and she hurried straight back to her room.
“Sob, sob, sob!”
There, she beat her bed furiously with the tangle of wires and eavesdropping equipment clutched in her hands—much like seizing a jellyfish by its tentacles and thrashing it about.
‘Ah, this is so unbearable. Is this the weight the protagonist must endure?’
She had been thrilled to become the heroine of her own story, but if that story drowns in sorrow, how could she ever escape it?
Nina didn’t want to lose a single member of her newfound family.
Would it truly end with just sending one person away? No—it would not.
‘It must be because of the inheritance I’m to receive that this is happening. They must believe I’ll share it willingly.’
Nina, who had buried her face in the pillow, raised her head.
‘They’re reducing the family to increase the share of inheritance they’ll give me.’
The sum was enormous—far too large to call modest—yet her family was fracturing over this cold, lifeless money.
‘I can’t lose my uncle. He said he doesn’t want to leave this house either.’
With the swift, practiced hands of a maid, Nina pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away her tears and mucus in one quick motion, then opened the wardrobe.
She pushed aside the black cloth lining the inside and carefully examined the maid’s essential items.
Before she could even make the Townhouse safe, her family was about to scatter.
She couldn’t simply sit still.
‘I have to help convince my family.’
With grim resolve, Nina reached out and selected one of the maid’s essentials from the collection.

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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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