Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 52

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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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Episode 52
The moment Joel returned to the Townhouse, his base of operations, he seized the Tennis Racket-shaped Magical Device.
When you pressed the button, it channeled an electric current through the racket—a device typically used to stun wild animals or insects.
“What are you doing? Is Nina the next target?”
“Looks that way.”
“Is this Master’s order?”
“What else?”
“She’ll only be a hindrance. Withdraw it.”
“Here we go again with the insolence.”
Ryan exhaled a long sigh, as though he’d anticipated Joel’s reaction.
“How much longer are you going to cling to these thin scraps of information? Our objective is Riquita’s safe. The mission ends when we open that safe, full stop.”
“I fail to see how seducing Nina through a Honey Trap contributes to this mission in any meaningful way.”
“I’m not being heavy-handed about it, damn it! I just made a simple impression, that’s all!”
An irritated Ryan crossed his arms and grumbled.
“Even secrets people keep to themselves have a way of spilling out when a romantic partner is in front of them.”
“A romantic partner…!”
“Go check what we saw through the projector. That way I can use it as reference and seduce Nina as quickly as possible.”
……
Crackle. Pop-crackle.
Electricity surged from the racket as the button was pressed.
Ryan was taken aback by the sight of Joel, whose entire demeanor suggested he might pounce at any moment.
“Hey. You’re getting stranger by the day, aren’t you?”
“Anyone would grow angry if interrupted.”
“Interrupted?”
Ryan let out a hollow laugh and gestured accusingly at the sparking racket.
“What exactly have I interrupted? Think about what you look like right now. Is that really the attitude of someone observing Nina and experimenting with a magical device? Where’s your head at? Unbelievable.”
“I’ve listened well to the words of a senior who assumes everyone else in the world shares his character.”
“This bastard just won’t quit.”
Even as Ryan clenched his fist as if to strike, Joel didn’t back down.
“So you’re determined to attempt a Honey Trap on Nina regardless?”
“Your research won’t be compromised at all, so just cooperate.”
“Even cooperation is required?”
Faced with that stubborn attitude, Ryan scratched his head as if nursing a headache.
“Joel Smiler. I know you’re indispensable to the Agency, and I’ve given you considerable latitude, but this is excessive. Aren’t my duties work too?”
……
Joel fell silent before Ryan could become genuinely displeased.
Ryan was the one person Joel could reason with, so among the other Spy Organization operatives, Joel followed him slightly more readily.
Ryan was aware of this fact, and because of it, he often gave Joel considerable leeway.
“In any case, bring me the report quickly. Think again about what your job actually is.”
……I understand.
Though his reluctance was evident, the fact that he’d given an answer mattered.
Ryan’s shoulders relaxed, and the furrow in his brow finally eased.
Nina and Honey Trap.
Joel continued turning over this incomprehensible combination of words in his mind.
After the medical examination he’d undergone, he’d been confirmed that there was nothing wrong with his heart.
‘Was it just a temporary glitch? Or….’
Only then did he acknowledge that his heart’s reckless flutter in front of Nina wasn’t arrhythmia, and he fell into new doubt.
It couldn’t be—but if by some chance it were true, could it be that he’d lost his mind the way Ryan suggested?
* * *
That night.
The members of the Fake Family emerged into the dark corridor of the Townhouse and sighed, recalling the subtle signal Ryan had sent as he departed.
‘Good heavens. A Honey Trap on Nina? But Nina is still a girl—innocent and naive…!’
‘Soltem must have been quite desperate. To suddenly initiate a Honey Trap out of nowhere like this.’
‘Thank goodness Kathari wasn’t there. If she’d seen that, Ryan’s head would have been torn clean off.’
……
Kathari gnashed her teeth, burning with indignation and resentment.
She’d been forcibly made to nurse Juggler Number 4, so she alone hadn’t been able to enter the Projector Room.
The other members of the Fake Family had all gone inside and even watched the film together, yet she alone had been absent at Nina’s side.
‘I’ll go in too.’
With that firm resolve, Kathari glared at the Projector Room with blazing eyes.
Meanwhile, Natalisha stared at the fake family members who had all emerged without any prior arrangement, utterly baffled.
‘This is ridiculous. Everyone said they were tired and would turn in early, and here they all are.’
Natalisha had said the same thing herself, but now she stood at the door with an armful of magical devices for lock-breaking.
Joel had given them only a single day to get the projector running again, leaving no time to be caught up in confusion.
‘I need to check what’s on the film beforehand.’
Riquita’s first film had been nothing short of shocking.
The fake family members—everyone except Kathari, who hadn’t seen its contents—were tying themselves in knots trying to organize what to report to their superiors.
They needed to find out whether the other films contained any sensitive information about the Intelligence Agency.
To do that, they first had to get into the room, but the door simply wouldn’t open.
Each of them struggled with a magical device designed to unlock their respective doors, but it was futile.
Since Nina had already opened the door once with the Magical Stone Key, they’d assumed the security system would be disabled and they could slip inside relatively easily.
The result, however, was that even the combined effort of technicians from five nations couldn’t budge it.
‘Pointless. All of it.’
Natalisha scanned the entire door with a scanner encircled by blue circuitry, then clicked her tongue in frustration.
From Nina’s perspective, even though it was ostensibly just a family home, she had locked the doors she’d opened with meticulous care, leaving no window for a hacking attempt.
As Natalisha wrestled with the problem, irritation suddenly flared up inside her and she clenched her teeth.
‘Ever since I was deployed to this Townhouse, nothing has gone smoothly. Day after day, I gain nothing and accomplish nothing, just wasting time in frustration. It’s driving me mad.’
Natalisha had been a sniper whose primary mission was long-range target elimination.
Her cold, meticulous nature made this assignment exhaustingly tedious and glacially slow.
Even when intruders appeared, she couldn’t act properly because of Nina’s sensibilities, forced into bland responses instead, and under the guise of “family” she had to crowd in with these others.
In all that time, she hadn’t managed to produce a single meaningful result, and she spent each day feeling as though a stone were pressing down on her chest.
And now, on top of everything else, she was being forced to watch the information she’d painstakingly assembled piece by piece come unraveling.
Natalisha, fists clenched and trembling, suddenly found her own state of mind rather ridiculous.
‘…That’s not professional thinking. I need to pull myself together and focus.’
The seasoned spy Natalisha stopped indulging her misgivings and manipulated the scanner.
She was checking whether the concentration of the magical stone mounted on the lock remained unchanged.
And as she did, Chayson approached her side and pressed her with unmistakable displeasure.
“What are you planning to swipe this time? You know full well that we can’t just make off with Riquita’s inheritance.”
“What?”
“Don’t try to weasel out of it. Starting with a piece of the Chandelier Jewel, household items that Nina broke have been disappearing bit by bit.”
“…So age has finally dulled your eye for detail. Don’t you dare go around calling yourself a spy. It’s embarrassing to be in the same profession as someone like you.”
From Natalisha, whose mood had soured, came words with an especially sharp edge today.
“I watched you clearly—slipping out of the Townhouse late at night, pocketing something and leaving on your own. You’re going to pretend you didn’t?”
“I did leave the Townhouse at night, but what does that prove? It’s not unusual for me to have urgent meetings with my agency.”
“After seeing Riquita’s film today, that’s the first suspicion you come up with?”
As the two voices began rising, Kathari stepped in.
“Wait. I’m not one to mediate, but lower your voices. I’m not picking sides—I just have something I actually need to say.”

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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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