Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 4

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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 4
Nina’s eyes widened round as coins, then her brows drooped in sympathy.
“My, what a sickly young master you are.”
He appeared sturdy enough, but his naturally broad shoulders couldn’t simply narrow because he claimed to be ill, so she conceded the point.
“From today onward, if you’re living there, we’ll be seeing each other often. Please, just call me Joel—and since I’m a year younger than you, feel free to drop the formality.”
“Is that so?”
Nina brightened immediately, accepting his words without hesitation, but then something struck her as odd.
“But how did you know I’m a year older?”
“I merely guessed, and it seems I was right. I tend to be fairly perceptive.”
“Ah, I see!”
Under normal circumstances, she would have questioned such a claim, but joy at suddenly having a family had filled her mind with nothing but flowers.
Everything felt satisfying and happy in equal measure.
“Is GuGu your pet pigeon?”
“A pet?”
Joel looked down at GuGu with confusion, and the bird promptly stuck out its ankle with a sassy air, displaying its identification tag.
“…Yes. So it appears I am.”
“Coo, coo, coo~”
GuGu rubbed its head against the back of Joel’s hand, full of affection.
Nina gestured toward her handkerchief, which hung limply in Joel’s grip and swayed back and forth, and laughed awkwardly.
“Could you ask GuGu to bring my handkerchief back?”
“Cough! Cough, cough!”
Before Nina could finish speaking, Joel covered his mouth with the handkerchief and coughed harshly.
“Joel? Are you all right?”
Alarmed, Nina leaned forward against the railing, and Joel managed a strained nod.
“Yes… cough, cough… The weather’s grown cold. I should head inside.”
With that, he tucked the handkerchief into his breast pocket and continued in a perfectly steady voice.
“I’m afraid the handkerchief has become soiled, so I cannot return it as it is. Would you visit tomorrow? I’d like to have it cleaned and given back to you, but I’m far too frail to venture outside…”
“Ah, I understand.”
Nina had been feeling awkward about gifting her handkerchief to a man she’d only just met, so she’d decided to ask for it back. Now she smiled sheepishly and pointed at GuGu.
“GuGu could bring it back for you, you know.”
“Coo-ooo… coo-ook…”
Suddenly, GuGu pressed its wing to its forehead and swayed unsteadily, then crumpled to the ground with a soft thud.
“Oh my, GuGu!”
“I’m afraid GuGu has taken ill. A few days of rest and observation should do, though if you truly wish to have your handkerchief back tomorrow via GuGu, I’ll send him even if I must drive him with a whip.”
Joel stroked the fallen bird with melancholy and solemn devotion.
Nina waved her hand in alarm.
“I’ll come by tomorrow to fetch it! Don’t worry—please take good care of GuGu.”
“Coo… coo-coo-coo-rururu…”
Joel cradled GuGu in his arms, who made pitiful sounds, and smiled faintly.
“You’re truly kind, Nina. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
With that, he made no sound at all as he slipped away beyond the balcony like a phantom.
Nina watched the spot where Joel had vanished and thought he was rather a peculiar sort of neighbor.
* * *
That night.
Between the plush bed and its cozy quilts, Nina tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
It had taken five days by carriage to reach the free city of Soltem from the Ilite Kingdom.
She’d never spent so long in a carriage before, and though her entire body ached and she was exhausted, sleep stubbornly refused to come.
‘What if I wake up and it’s all been a dream?’
The garden of flowers that had filled her mind throughout the day began to wilt as the evening wore on.
A vague unease mingled with anticipation, and a restless unease washed over her.
Back at the orphanage, she’d often dreamed of her family coming to find her.
The faceless relatives had appeared in her dreams wearing iron masks, and though their strange, cold visages frightened her, the mere fact that they had come for her filled her with such joy she could scarcely contain it.
Yet here she was, sleeping in a house where she’d live with her family—in her own bedroom, no less. It felt so much like a dream that it became frightening.
What if she woke up in the Count’s Residence servants’ quarters instead?
‘It must be because this house still feels unfamiliar. Once I grow accustomed to it, once falling asleep in my own room becomes routine, I won’t worry about it being a dream anymore.’
Nina reassured herself, steeling her heart.
Then she heard a sudden clattering noise from somewhere.
‘Hm? What was that?’
Wide-eyed with alarm, Nina clutched her pillow and cracked the door open.
She was certain she’d heard something, yet the hallway was dark and silent.
Suddenly, she remembered Joel’s words from their chance meeting that afternoon.
“I thought perhaps there had been a theft, since I hadn’t seen you before.”
‘A theft……!’
Nina barely swallowed the gasp that threatened to escape her lips.
Thanks to Rikita Bonz’s apparent taste for ornament, the townhouse was adorned throughout with expensive decorative pieces.
The master’s funeral had only recently concluded, and with a new resident having just moved in, everything remained unsettled.
Moreover, the nearest neighbor was a sickly young master.
This townhouse was precisely the sort of place a thief would set their sights on.
‘What should I do! If there really has been a theft, what then!’
Nina turned on her heel and crept out onto the balcony, peering into the darkness beyond.
‘There’s not even a patrol guard passing by……!’
The opposite balcony was dark as well, leaving her with nowhere to call for help.
‘I hope the rest of the household is safe. It would be better if no theft occurred at all.’
She couldn’t confirm anything simply by staying in her room gnawing on a pillow.
After pacing anxiously, Nina finally clutched the pillow to her chest, opened her door, and stepped into the dark hallway.
‘I just need to confirm there’s no trouble. It’s not so different from maid’s work.’
Even thinking this way, walking alone through an unfamiliar house at night felt far more unsettling than she’d anticipated.
The eyes of figures in paintings hanging on the walls gleamed sharply, as if concealing lenses, and the strange growth rings of the window frames seemed to hide listening devices, catching every word spoken nearby.
Each time moonlight filtered through the windows and wavered across the corridor, it felt as though a searchlight from some tall tower were pursuing her.
Whenever Nina rolled her eyes, her long lashes fluttered delicately.
‘This is my home now……. Why do I feel so uneasy? Is it because I’m thinking a theft might have occurred?’
Perhaps it was the piercing gaze of Rikita Bonz, the house’s former owner, that lingered so intensely in her mind.
Just as she descended the stairs with quiet steps.
She heard something rustle faintly.
‘Ahhhh!’
She barely stifled her scream and crouched down, poking her head between the stair railings to look below.
‘It sounded like it came from Grandmother’s room.’
She still couldn’t be certain a theft had occurred.
Perhaps other family members had visited the room, missing the grandmother.
Nina crept forward and pressed her ear to the grandmother’s door.
‘I don’t hear anything. Did I mishear?’
Tilting her head, she carefully opened the door.
And there was no one inside.
The first thing that caught her eye was, as expected, the deep reddish-pink eyes of the portrait.
“I, I beg your pardon.”
Even though it was merely a painting, its gaze felt so piercing that her head bowed of its own accord.
As she entered the room and glanced about, she noticed something and her eyes widened.
A curtain was swaying in the breeze coming through a slightly open window.
The decorative tassel at the curtain’s end kept tapping, tap-tap, against the desk’s edge, and beneath the desk lay a pen and paperweight.
‘Ah! So that was the sound!’
The tension that had gripped her shoulders melted away in an instant.
‘Thank goodness there wasn’t a theft.’
Nina bent down and picked up the objects scattered on the floor.
Click.
“Hmm?”
At the small sound from above her head, she looked up to see a dart pin embedded in the desk.
‘My goodness? What is this? Was it here before?’
She extracted it and examined it from all angles, noticing what appeared to be a stain or residue on its sharp point.
‘It looks like it’s rusted! That’s dangerous if someone pricks themselves. I should throw it outside.’
Disposing of it as though throwing away something filthy, Nina flicked the dart pin out the window and examined the desk once more.
Meanwhile, Eksi, who had been hiding beneath the window, gasped in shock at the sharp pain.
‘She saw through the sleep toxin? She discovered my hiding place? So drowsy……!’
And with that, she collapsed, falling into the undergrowth below.
As relief washed over her, Nina felt drowsiness creeping in. Besides, the night breeze made her shiver.
‘I don’t know how it came open, but it would be good to close it.’
So she firmly shut and latched the window that had been letting in the breeze.
She also took care to draw the curtains thoroughly to prevent any drafts.
That very moment, Kathahari, who had been descending a rope from the roof and attempting to slip through the window, collided with the reinforced glass and cried out in alarm.
‘How did she see through it?! Truly, Rikita’s granddaughter……!’
And then she too came crashing down onto the unconscious Eksi below.
Unaware of anything amiss, Nina was about to leave Rikita Bonz’s room when something glimmering caught her eye in a narrow gap between the books.
‘What’s this?’
She pushed the books aside and looked closer, finding a button hidden there with text inscribed on it.
[Intruder Deterrent]
‘With all these expensive things in the house, of course she’d have something like this!’
No thieves seemed to have gotten in, though one could never be entirely certain.
‘Better safe than sorry!’
Nina smiled to herself and pressed the button with a soft click.

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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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