Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 53

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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 53
Kathari’s fingertip indicated Natalisha’s Hairpin.
“What Natalisha carried out wasn’t Likita’s Inheritance. It was a recording of the conversations that took place inside the Townhouse—sinister work, I know.”
“Sinister? I was simply doing my job. Isn’t this standard for any Spy?”
Natalisha fixed Kathari with a sharp stare, adjusting the Hairpin fitted with the Recording Function.
“……I’d rather not, but it would be better if there were no misunderstandings that might arise from unnecessary complications.”
She continued, her face showing reluctance.
“As for the broken fixtures in the Townhouse—I saw that strange pigeon carrying them away with my own eyes.”
“That strange pigeon from Soltem? You mean it was being smuggled out from Soltem?”
Chayson’s expression hardened as he asked, and Natalisha shook her head.
“I can’t say. The pigeon didn’t carry the Jewel to Joel Smiler’s Townhouse.”
“Building a nest and collecting shiny things. No matter how much training you give them, a pigeon’s still a pigeon, I suppose.”
If Guguq had heard that remark, he would have come charging with his beak forward.
“If the misunderstanding’s cleared up, go do your jobs. Tsk. We’ve just wasted unproductive time again.”
“And how exactly are we supposed to spend productive time right now? Even if we could open this door, we might never find out why Likita wants to kill Nina.”
“So nitpicking is your hobby, is it?”
“Who asked you?”
The moment Natalisha’s curt retort and Kathari’s eyes met, sparks flew between them.
Natalisha wasn’t the only one sensing time slipping away with nothing to show for it.
They were all seized by the same frustration, and the Spies who thrived in active fieldwork found this situation suffocating and claustrophobic.
Perhaps that was why.
Clang!
Neither waiting for the other, they seized the chance for a physical struggle and drew their Daggers, clashing them together.
“How uncouth—a Lucien-bred upstart.”
“How barbaric—a Holich-bred savage!”
The two moved their Daggers with tremendous speed, each striking at the other’s vital points while defending against incoming blows.
They moved so fast and with such precision that it resembled a waltz.
Chayson and Excy, who had stepped back to avoid being caught in the fray, even found themselves entertained by the spectacle.
Clang! Clang!
How long did the Dagger waltz continue?
…….
…….
Only now did Natalisha and Kathari feel alive again, their lips curling upward with satisfaction.
The thrill of aiming for each other’s lives with full force while simultaneously being targeted—that ecstasy tingled all the way to their scalps.
Scritch—.
As the Daggers grazed their shoulders, bits of lace decoration fell away.
As if it were a signal, they simultaneously reached out their free hands and exchanged a high five.
Crack!
With that sharp sound, their fight ended.
Having sparred with a true master for the first time in ages, both bore beads of sweat on their brows without noticing, their expressions satisfied. Though the lightness faded from their faces just as quickly as it had come.
Natalisha recovered her composure first, checked the time, and nudged Excy’s shoulder before heading down the Corridor.
“I’m done wasting effort on a door we can’t open. Time’s too precious.”
“Ah! How violent. I have no interest in a second round.”
At Excy’s retort, Natalisha’s eyes narrowed to slits, boring into him.
Because some of the venom had been dissipated by the recent fight, her gaze wasn’t quite as sharp as usual.
Yet Excy, seemingly intimidated by her bearing, was the first to look away unnaturally.
Only after Natalisha had completely vanished down the Corridor did he brush his shoulders and grumble.
“That’s right—people need bread to live. I could tell from way back when she refused to touch flour so she wouldn’t gain weight. Even Natalisha’s becoming a character wreck like Kathari. Responding to such impulsive fights. This house is full of nothing but ill-tempered people.”
“Listen here.”
…….
That was how Excy found himself earning a harsh rebuke from Kathari before retreating to his own room.
In the dark Corridor, only Chayson with his tangled thoughts and Kathari—reluctant as she was to admit it—with her rising spirits remained.
Their eyes, which had been following Excy as he receded, met directly.
…….
…….
In that moment, the two glimpsed something of each other’s hearts and felt a small kinship.
Within this sluggish Mission, Chayson and Kathari harbored a quiet pleasure.
A pleasure that stemmed from their Target, Nina.
Of course, one shouldn’t feel such emotions toward a Target, but strangely, it didn’t seem so wrong. Even knowing how crucial this work was.
Without either moving first, the two quietly descended to the Lobby and pressed themselves against a wall lost in shadow.
Kathari was the first to speak.
“Chayson. What are you thinking? You said this mission was urgent, that you couldn’t leave—and now?”
Chayson stared at his bleeding hand where the Sandwich Toy had cut him before answering.
“……The opponent wasn’t ideal.”
“I feel the same way.”
“What about you, Kathari? What’s your plan?”
Kathari also gazed up at the ceiling, her face heavy with thought.
Jeweled fragments from the shattered Chandelier caught the moonlight, glittering against the darkness.
“……Once the mission is complete, I’m leaving anyway. There’s no harm in being kind to Nina until then. My role is to get close to her, so I’ll see it through.”
“That sounds like you won’t investigate Nina separately or dig into her past. You’re refusing individual assignments from the Agency?”
Kathari shrugged at Chayson’s worried question and smiled.
“When I said I’m leaving after this, I didn’t just mean the Townhouse.”
“What? Kathari, you don’t mean……”
“That’s right. Once this is over, I’m quitting the Spy Organization. Whether it’s discipline or a pay cut, I’m leaving anyway—and I’d rather not torment Nina myself. Natalisha and Excy and that fox from Soltem should be enough.”
“…….”
“I heard from Excy what you all found when you opened the film without me today. I respect Likita, but Nina’s situation is a different matter. Don’t you think she’s pitiful?”
“……You’re better than I am.”
Chayson let out a hollow laugh and rubbed his face roughly.
Nina, who had lived so hard that she saw herself as a supporting character in life’s story, always managed to smile brightly.
He’d never seen her struck so devastated before. Those sad, desperate eyes—on the verge of collapse—he couldn’t forget them.
He understood it was for the nation’s sake, but he couldn’t help feeling that they were making an effort to torment a poor girl they barely knew.
“Kathari. What will you do after you leave the Agency?”
“Who knows. Maybe I’ll take aim at that annoying fox from Soltem.”
She answered playfully, but her eyes trembled faintly.
Nina Bonze—the beloved granddaughter of Likita Bonze, her respected role model. An enigmatic presence who regarded her as an older sister and followed her more faithfully than anyone.
The thought that she would ultimately wound this Nina filled her with guilt already.
Chayson, harboring similar thoughts, looked up toward the room where Nina slept with a bitter expression on his face.
He muttered to himself that the moment had come for him, like Kathari, to make a choice either way.
* * *
Meanwhile, Nina, too restless to sleep, sat in her grandmother Likita’s room.
The desire to know and understand her grandmother was what had drawn her here.
But sitting in this room, she could only think of those painful words.
‘Let’s skip the awkward greetings that might pass between grandmother and granddaughter. We’ve never had that sort of tender relationship anyway.’
‘Is your very existence also a debt of guilt to me?’
‘If Nina were dead, that would be the end of it.’
Nina touched her neck with a deflated expression.
She wondered if her grandmother had brought her to this house only to inherit the Inheritance before killing her. Even that suspicion crept in.
‘No. I only know an extremely small part of grandmother. There must be some misunderstanding.’
She tried to think positively, when suddenly she noticed a faint smudge along the door frame.
Rising out of habit like the excellent maid she was to wipe it away, she realized it wasn’t a smudge at all—it was a Blue Circuit.
‘Hm? There’s something like tape covering it, as if it were hidden.’
As Nina traced the faintly visible circuit with her fingertip, she remembered having something with a similar feel in her possession.
‘That one was hidden inside a Blue Circuit too.’
What Nina drew out was the inherited Short Blade, which had a blade thin enough to slip into a door frame.
‘Come to think of it, wouldn’t the door be cut as well? Even though it’s closed, the space between the frame and the door is severed.’
Alternating her gaze between the blade and the door frame, Nina murmured that it was a foolish notion before reaching out.
Soon after, Nina’s Short Blade slid smoothly through the thin gap in the door frame.

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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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