Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 31

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

Chapter 31
As usual, Nina peered through the window at the Townhouse where her family lived, when something made her freeze.
“What on earth is that?”
She looked inside the Townhouse through the Scope of the Mana Gun that Joel had given her.
For reasons unknown, her family members shuffled about like the undead—corpses brought back to life, jerking and stumbling as they moved.
The sight alone told her nothing of what was happening, so Nina made her way to the Workshop to find Joel.
“Joel. Could I borrow a few Magical Devices?”
“Of course. What do you need?”
Joel removed his goggles and shook his head, sending luminous blue Mana Stone fragments tumbling down like snowflakes.
The fragments drifted slowly into a large glass vessel set to one side of the Workshop, gathering like sand at the bottom.
It was a Magical Device designed to collect Mana Stone fragments suspended in the air.
Nina found it fascinating, but quickly recalled why she had come and approached Joel.
“I’d like to use a Directional Microphone. And Headphones or a Speaker to hear the sound.”
“…Understood. Please wait a moment.”
Joel suppressed his expression and calmly stood up, rifling through a storage cabinet.
He’d claimed to have lived as an errand boy and servant, wandering the streets. Yet here he was, familiar with sophisticated surveillance equipment—not crude terror bombs, but the real thing. It was startling.
‘Just what streets was he wandering?’
The idle thought made Joel flinch.
A hypothesis he’d never considered until now had surfaced.
‘How does the Ilite Kingdom manage the Underworld?’
Until now, the investigation had focused primarily on the Count’s Estate where Nina had worked as a servant.
With so many suspicious details and all the servants there being unusually capable, it was only natural to concentrate there.
But what if the very streets where Nina had run errands weren’t ordinary either—not just the Count’s Estate?
‘It’s worth investigating.’
Joel made a mental note to bring it up at the weekly meeting.
“Here’s the Directional Microphone and Speaker.”
As he assembled the microphone onto a large Antenna, Nina naturally picked up the Speaker.
It was a Magical Device capable of capturing sound from straight ahead with clarity even at a distance—far more discreet eavesdropping than a drone microphone.
“Do you know how to use it?”
“I’ve used it a few times before.”
Nina nodded confidently.
Joel regarded her with an odd expression.
“A few times… I see. Even so, this equipment has some sensitive aspects, so I’ll help you with its operation.”
“Oh, you don’t have to go that far.”
“Please don’t refuse.”
Nina let Joel take the Speaker as well and followed him as he led the way.
“Here I am with strong arms of my own, yet letting a sickly young master carry things.”
“I’m sickly, not weak in strength.”
“Still… but how did you know where I was going to use this?”
“Obviously, you’re going to listen to next door. Aren’t you?”
“Oh!”
Nina stopped abruptly and turned, looking up at Joel with a startled expression.
Before she could even ask how he knew, he continued.
“You watch them every day. Your family.”
“…!”
To be caught watching like this—after packing a bag and saying she was leaving home, no less.
Embarrassed, Nina covered her cheeks and struggled to think of an excuse.
“Shall we go?”
But Joel asked nothing and simply walked ahead again.
Nina stared blankly at his broad back for a moment, then broke into a shy smile and followed along.
It was strange—a sickly young master could seem so reassuring.
* * *
“Patients who won’t listen must be gathered in one place for proper care. It feels just like living in a Dormitory, doesn’t it? Simply delightful!”
Juger Number 4 lined up wheeled beds in a sunlit corridor.
Kathari, who had tried to disguise herself as a servant only to be caught early and restrained to a bed, coughed and scoffed.
“You’ve never even… lived in a Dormitory. Ugh, my throat hurts…!”
“Never provoke that machine. Behave, and it’ll be over quickly.”
Watching Exie walk meekly to a wheeled bed and lie down, Kathari let out a bitter laugh.
“No self-respect… just gloomy and dull…”
“You got caught trying to escape and ended up tied to a bed, so you can complain all you like. But as Exie says, obedience is the wisest course right now.”
Natalisha and Cheyson sighed and collapsed onto their beds.
Lying there in the sunlight streaming through the hallway’s broad window and the lukewarm breeze, they felt genuinely at ease.
All except Exie.
“Ugh. I’m being purified. It’s far too bright. I miss the shadows. I hate this light.”
Juger Number 4, who had been clicking his gaze over the patients lying in a row, cracked his mechanical finger joints one by one with a sharp pop.
“Now then, I shall commence the Soreness-Flies-Away Massage Protocol.”
“What did you just say?”
Natalisha pushed herself upright, her expression one of disbelief.
Between the mechanical fingers of the clockwork automaton, hot steam hissed out with a sharp wheeze.
“Just kill me instead! Ahhh, my head!”
Natalisha seized Cheyson’s hair as he shrieked and shook his head violently.
“That’s right! You die first! You useless bastard, this whole nightmare is your fault!”
“You really ought to use kinder language. Allow me to rinse out that foul mouth of yours.”
As Juger Number 4 approached with a bottle of Nutritional Supplement Drink in hand, Natalisha’s face went ashen and she gestured desperately toward Exie beside her.
“No. No, wait. Just kill me instead. Exie, quick—do something—”
“…….”
When she turned to find no response, Exie had already collapsed, a needle coated in Sleep Poison piercing the back of her own hand.
Drawing inspiration from this sight, Natalisha chose unconsciousness for herself as well, striking her own neck cleanly with a knife hand and tumbling into the blissful void of oblivion.
Seeing this, Cheyson swiftly followed the same path.
“My, it seems you’re the last one standing.”
Kathari, whose eyes met Juger Number 4’s gaze, let out a scream.
“This isn’t fair! I’m restrained! Put me to sleep too!”
“Never fear. I shall care for you most tenderly.”
The shadow of the mechanical fingers drew inexorably closer to Kathari’s terrified face.
* * *
Nina, who had been carefully observing the situation inside the house through a Directional Microphone and the Scope of the Mana Gun, set the weapon down with a confused expression.
“What’s happening? Even though I’ve left, why—”
Despite the root cause of their family discord—herself—having vanished, they still did not appear content.
If anything, they seemed to be suffering from failing health.
“Juger’s nursing them so carefully, and yet they’re in such pain. How sick are they, really?”
As Nina bit at her nails anxiously, Joel exhaled a resigned sigh.
“Nina. There is something I must tell you.”
“Yes? What is it?”
Joel knew that to keep her from leaving Soltem, he ultimately needed these worthless false family members.
“It seems that since Nina departed, her family has fallen into such despair that they’ve stopped eating and drinking entirely, and now languish in ill health. Moreover, they intend to drag those withering bodies about in search of Nina.”
“W-what did you say?!”
“With such a dreadful malaise, one scarcely knows when they might collapse. Surely you’re concerned.”
Alarmed, Nina shattered the window with her entire body and hurled herself through before Joel had even finished speaking.
Leaning his head out the window, Joel observed Nina land safely below with a practiced Landing Technique and withdrew a Chart from his trouser pocket.
‘This is only the second floor, though the ceiling height is rather generous.’
Joel adjusted several figures and recorded the height from which Nina had leaped.
The unrealistic results he had meticulously measured from examining Nina’s physical capabilities over recent days.
And the uncertainty regarding the distances she had darted about.
Lost in thought, Joel arrived at a fundamental question.
‘Could it be that she was designed and born that way from the very beginning?’
An investigation into the Orphanage where Nina had grown up must surely have already concluded.
Given the absence of any unusual reports, there were likely no suspicious findings.
‘Still, I should request materials concerning the Orphanage just in case.’
Joel retrieved his Walkie-Talkie and instructed the Ilite Immigration Management Office to cease their ‘inspection’ of the overpass.
Then, quite suddenly, something deep within his chest pricked with an unfamiliar sensation, and he flinched.
‘What is this feeling?’
The sting gradually deepened, then vanished abruptly, leaving behind an emptiness that blossomed into something he could not name.
Pondering whether this phenomenon warranted examination, he soon recognized the sensation as regret and let out a soft laugh.
‘It’s only natural to feel sorry that such an excellent research subject is departing. Nothing more than that.’
Joel gathered the Directional Microphone and Speaker and trudged back to his Workshop.

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