Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 6

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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 6
Nina’s lips curved downward as if to say she pitied the suddenly somber mood.
“My goodness, look at that…… You must have been quite exhausted yesterday.”
A relative younger brother whom she hadn’t known existed had suddenly appeared, claiming to inherit everything from this house—no wonder Exicy’s heart felt unsettled.
Nina felt a bitter ache, as though Exicy’s distress were somehow her fault.
She wanted to speak with the relatives about her grandmother’s estate, but she herself didn’t know exactly how much it amounted to.
An elderly gentleman claiming to be Likita’s notary had brought part of the will to the Count’s residence in Ilite, but he’d said the full contents still needed verification.
‘Grandmother said the procedures are complicated because she was from the Dotchen Kingdom, which no longer exists.’
Nina knew little of estates and notarizations, but she understood well enough how greedy it was for her to claim everything without her relatives’ share.
‘Why did she leave me everything? Once I receive the complete will, I must speak with the family about this.’
As Nina chewed on thinly sliced carrot, lost in such thoughts.
The others seated around the table also had complicated minds.
‘To deliberately toss a sleep poison out the window and close the window at exactly that moment. Truly Likita’s granddaughter…’
Kathari as well.
‘It doesn’t seem she caught on to us completely. Did she sense something suspicious by instinct?’
Natalisha too.
‘She looked down on us with scorn yesterday, and today she goes straight for Exicy? Is she mocking us?’
Cheyson swallowed hard, replaying last night’s events in his mind.
What had the master of each of their respective intelligence agencies said?
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How many maidservants on this continent could subdue a criminal with just a slingshot?
And at that, while the target was mounted and fleeing.
Aiming at something moving fast was harder than it seemed.
Natalisha, a master sniper, nodded to herself with quiet certainty.
‘A sharpshooter, then.’
Kathari, a master of the Disguise Art, recalled the stories she’d gleaned while posing as an old supervisor of the household staff.
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All of them spoke in that confusing way—ordinary yet not quite ordinary.
‘She’s not an opponent to look down upon, then.’
The count’s household where Nina had supposedly worked was suspicious in itself. For an ordinary noble family, their information was far too sparse.
With Nina throwing them off balance on top of that, suspicion kindled into flames.
Cheyson, seated across from Nina, had also been watching how she handled the tableware.
The way she cut the roasted vegetables with her knife was quite skilled.
Those clean, sharp movements suggested she’d cut more than just vegetables and meat.
Cheyson’s eye, trained by his expertise in explosives and his knack for bomb disposal, could not be deceived.
‘She’s been trained in bladework. And the way she recognized the sleep poison immediately last night means she knows about poisons too.’
He was certain that Exicy, a master of toxic substances, would agree with that assessment.
As the meal, heavy with an inexplicable tension, was drawing to a close.
Nina asked something she’d been curious about since yesterday.
“By the way, doesn’t this house have any photographs or paintings of my mother?”
Kathari answered lightly, as though she’d anticipated the question.
“Your grandmother said her heart ached too much whenever she saw your mother’s portrait or photographs, so she put them all away. She got rid of all the things your mother used as a child too.”
“I see…”
Nina, who hadn’t considered that until then, quietly set down her fork.
With her suddenly downcast, Cheyson pressed his advantage.
“But if you look in a mirror, you can see the face of your mother, Saine. You’ve seen your aunt’s portrait, haven’t you? Both you and your mother resemble her quite a lot.”
“…I suppose so.”
With that, Nina would not ask about her mother’s belongings again.
Natalisha laughed bitterly to herself.
Saine, daughter of Likita?
That was a lie. They couldn’t even find any record of Likita’s actual daughter.
‘She never took a break from spy work—when on earth did she have a child?’
Natalisha had considered the possibility that Nina might be Likita’s collateral relation rather than direct descendant, but a magitech examination of hair she’d obtained beforehand proved a perfect direct bloodline.
It meant that Nina’s mother—that is, Likita’s own daughter—truly existed.
‘If we couldn’t find her even after digging that hard, she must be dead.’
Natalisha, pleased that she’d resolved one more mystery today, smiled to herself and steered the conversation.
“By the way, Nina. What do you plan to do today?”
“I was thinking of visiting the house next door.”
Kathari dropped her fork with a clang.
“Next door? The sickly young master’s house—that one?”
“Yes! I promised to return the handkerchief I’d lent to Joel.”
“You’re already on a first-name basis with him? And what handkerchief? You haven’t left the house since you arrived yesterday.”
“We met on the balcony. I even met Joel’s companion pigeon. Isn’t that fate?”
Nina’s ingenuous answer made the three of them feel their insides turn inside out.
Joel Smiler.
What had he been like throughout the preliminary meeting and lodging for this espionage operation?
An inhuman wretch who showed no interest in people and no expression whatsoever.
A fellow who wouldn’t listen to a word anyone said, yet went berserk the moment someone dropped a magi-device.
Barely an adult, and already buried in magi-devices—more machine than any clockwork automaton could be.
The mad clockwork automaton she’d met last night would certainly mistake Joel for a finely crafted mechanism and let him live.
On top of everything, he was from Soltem, that cunning breed.
‘When did these fox-like Soltem bastards make their move?’
The mere thought of Soltem’s espionage bureau made Cheyson’s blood boil.
They were the sort of vicious operators who leveraged Likita’s townhouse in Soltem to subtly lord it over foreign intelligence agencies.
‘And now they’re approaching Nina Bonz directly without sharing the situation? They mean to monopolize Likita’s information.’
That was when Natalisha’s anger flared too, her fists clenching beneath the table.
“Oh, that’s right!”
Nina clapped her hands as she remembered something she’d forgotten.
“I thought the servants’ workload must have increased since I moved in.”
At that remark, Kathari covered her guilty conscience with a gentle smile.
“I wonder?”
It couldn’t possibly be true. The servants in this house were naturally fresh spies assigned to their roles for the first time.
‘Indeed…’
The remaining housework was meant to be handled by the espionage bureau itself, but since Nina had been a maid, she seemed to find the small number of servants unusual.
‘I should assign a few more, if only for appearances.’
Cheyson silently noted the gap to be filled when Nina rose from her seat with a satisfied smile.
“But it should be fine now. I found something wonderful!”
With that, she hurried out of the dining room and returned with something.
“I found a Residential Clockwork Automaton in Grandmother’s warehouse!”
What Nina had brought was a mechanical clockwork automaton dressed in maid’s clothes, wheels visible beneath the hem dragging on the floor.
Cheyson and Natalisha froze for an instant, their eyes trembling as if an earthquake had struck, exchanging glances.
“Hello? I’m Juger Number 4, a Residential Clockwork Automaton. Please entrust me with the housework—cleaning, cooking, laundry, and the like. This here is my best friend, Mosbergi.”
Juger Number 4 held up a wok whose handle was unusually thick and heavy-looking.
Natalisha swallowed hard, her eyes darting to the handle of the wok as she asked.
“Mosbergi? Not Remington?”
Juger Number 4’s face turned toward Natalisha with a click.
“M. O. S. So you’ve already met Juger Number 3, the Security Clockwork Automaton? Remington is a fine friend, but Mosbergi is the only one for me.”
Cheyson and Natalisha’s shoulders trembled slightly.
They consciously averted their eyes from the wok and confirmed their conviction.
‘That’s definitely Mosbergi 5900, Holyche’s shotgun.’
* * *
That afternoon.
As Nina reached for the doorbell of the neighboring house, she saw the door open of its own accord and her eyes went wide as a rabbit’s.
Standing inside the doorway was her sickly neighbor Joel, his face utterly expressionless.
“You’ve come. Nina.”
“Oh, hello, Joel.”
Nina found herself awkward, unable to adapt to Joel’s stiff yet oddly mysterious atmosphere—much like Juger Number 4.
Meanwhile, Joel studied her briefly before his interest waned entirely.
After all, he had never managed to take interest in people.
‘I joined to be buried in the Magitech Development Laboratory, not to do things like this.’
Still, Nina Bonz standing before him was a nationally important target.
In exchange for monitoring her, the bureau had authorized him to use an entire townhouse as his magitech development workshop, so he meant to do his assignment properly.
“Come inside, Nina. The wind is sharp.”
Though the weather was warm and the breeze pleasant, Nina recalled that Joel was sickly and quickly followed him inside.
As she stepped into the foyer, Nina’s eyes widened in astonishment.

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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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