Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 67

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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 67
Click. Whirr.
Click. Whirr.
Click……
Joel had been holed up in the Research Lab for days now, pursuing his hypothesis.
Spread across his desk were reports he’d compiled himself—Nina’s physical capabilities and Riquita’s estimated physical abilities.
On the wall in front of him, if he lifted his head, he could see footage of Nina recorded under the guise of “testing,” along with various metrics displayed there.
“Coo-coo.”
Guugu flew in through the small door and landed on the desk, but Joel didn’t spare him a glance—his eyes just kept moving between the desk and the screens.
“Guugu. I don’t have time to play. Once you’re done with what you need to do, it’d be helpful if you kept watch on Nina’s balcony.”
“Coo! Coo-coo-rrr.”
Guugu, expressing his disappointment, rolled across the desk to pester Joel.
Joel’s expression soured.
‘……Maybe I was too harsh.’
Joel thought back on the time they’d worked together and had let Guugu come and go freely from the Townhouse.
Truth be told, when he’d first tried to keep the bird out, it had proven skilled as a spy—picking the locks on the electrical boxes and repeatedly sabotaging the security circuits—so he’d had no choice but to relent. He could have installed electric traps or capture mechanisms, but Joel wasn’t cold-blooded enough for that.
Because of his mercy, Guugu was now able to enter the Research Lab as freely as he pleased.
The pigeon smoothed down his ruffled feathers.
Then he examined the documents Joel had laid out.
True to his record as a decorated animal spy, he seemed to be observing carefully, understanding even the dizzying charts and formulae to some degree.
“Coo-coo!”
When Guugu tapped Joel’s arm with his wing, Joel sighed and withdrew the arm he’d rested on the documents.
Then he reached toward the Motion Implementation Magitech device, densely studded with number buttons.
‘If I input Riquita’s estimated ability parameters here…….’
After finishing the calculations, he entered a few more lines of numbers, and the magitech device projected the resulting motion onto the screen.
A glowing implementation dummy bounded upward and fired a gun according to the input values.
As Joel watched the dummy’s movements intently, his gaze shifted to the image of Nina displayed beside it.
‘……Just as I thought.’
Nina’s movements and Riquita’s movements were strikingly similar.
Even the small habits that appeared when changing a blade’s direction, even the angle of the feet as they pushed off the ground.
Yet Nina had never even met Riquita, her supposed grandmother.
‘At least, that’s what everyone claims.’
Joel unfolded a copy of the Clone Human Experiment materials he’d delivered to Master some time ago.
Strictly speaking, he shouldn’t have made copies, but he was in the habit of photocopying hard-to-obtain Magitech Engineering materials for his personal collection.
The crimes of the Defeated Nation Alliance, led by Dotchen Kingdom, hadn’t been confined to the battlefield.
Using the war as a pretext, they’d conducted experiments forbidden under continental law. The Enhanced Human and Clone Human experiments were prime examples.
The Enhanced Human experiments using Magitech Engineering Modification had achieved partial success, but the Clone Human experiments were reportedly a failure.
Since Soltem had long devoted itself to researching the restoration of Enhanced Humans back to their original state, Joel had thoroughly studied materials in that field as well.
But even by his standards, the movements of Nina and Riquita were so similar that they felt artificial.
‘……If Dotchen Kingdom had succeeded in the experiments,’
Lost in thought, Joel reviewed the Clone Human Experiment materials and shook his head.
‘According to the reports, it’s impossible to store the source material needed for cloning for extended periods. Considering the age difference between Nina and Riquita, the timeline doesn’t fit. I’m missing something.’
Just from the various ability metrics of Nina that he’d studied, she was no ordinary human.
Even without traces of Enhancement modifications, her physical abilities couldn’t be called natural.
Along with the hypothesis that Nina might be a Clone Human of Riquita, another person came to Joel’s mind.
‘A traitor. Or a double agent.’
If Nina’s true identity was indeed a Clone Human prepared by the Defeated Nation Alliance, then whoever possessed information about her would have to be a traitor or double agent.
It had been several days since he’d sent Master an encrypted telegram asking if he’d caught the traitor’s tail, but Joel still hadn’t received a reply.
It seemed his superior, displeased that his subordinate had acquired a base and barred the door, had cut off information flow.
But in the meantime, Joel had managed to narrow down who might be the traitor.
The spies playing the role of servants who’d received substantial sums from Nina, and Ryan, who went out constantly and met the most people.
‘……And Nina herself.’
If Nina was a Clone Human, the possibility that she was a spy—whether by choice or not—couldn’t be ignored.
Separate from his mission, he’d thrown himself into research wanting to understand her better, but the more he pursued it, the less he seemed to know her.
As Joel traced Nina’s name on the chart with his fingertip, a person suddenly came to mind who might know the traitor’s identity.
Headquarters would have finished the interrogation already. The records should have been filed away in the records room quite some time ago.
Going to The Agency now would clearly result in being turned away at the door. Sneaking in would be limited to the Lobby at best.
He could pick the detention cell locks, but infiltrating deeper was impossible.
Accomplishing something like that would require someone else’s help.
“Guugu. There’s something I need you to do. Not something The Agency ordered—something I’m asking you for personally.”
“Guugu?”
Guugu, still hovering over the papers and screens on the desk, lifted his head.
Joel handed him a hastily scrawled note and a Circuit Lock Pick etched with blue circuitry, then issued a new assignment.
“Deliver the note to Master, then slip covertly into the Agency’s prisoner detention cell and bring back May, who was Nina’s comrade.”
“Guu…?!”
The eyes of Guugu, a spy trained in his craft, flashed bright.
“Guuguuut!”
A chirp erupted from him—the sound of unwavering resolve.
* * *
The Master of the Soltem Intelligence Agency glanced about before stepping into Joel’s townhouse.
Even as he did, his gaze kept drifting to the crumpled note he held tight in his fist.
Joel’s conduct had rankled him so thoroughly that he’d cut off all contact and ceased sharing intelligence for some time now.
But the moment he unfolded the note Guugu had delivered to him today, he found himself compelled to seek out Joel at once.
[I have something to tell you regarding Nina’s true identity.]
Anyone would have rushed to hear it.
“I’ve been expecting you. Shall we go upstairs?”
Joel met Master in the lobby, locked the entrance securely behind them, and activated all the soundproofing systems throughout the townhouse as they climbed to the workshop.
The moment Master stepped into the workshop, he spoke.
“What exactly is Nina Bones’s true identity? What have you uncovered?”
“Please, have a seat.”
Joel displayed footage of Nina and a reconstructed image based on Riquita’s estimated physical capabilities, then began his explanation.
“Look at these first. These recordings—”
As Joel spoke, Master’s complexion shifted by the moment.
He doubted his ears, then bristled; he doubted his eyes, then gasped; he went blank, then cycled through them all again.
“—and that’s how I reached my conclusion.”
……
When Joel finished, Master, rigid with shock, exhaled a heavy sigh, his expression growing thoughtful.
“So there’s a real possibility that Dotchen has finally succeeded in clone human experiments.”
“That is correct.”
Master looked at Joel, who remained outwardly composed, with surprise in his eyes.
“You said you were taking a long vacation, yet here you are conducting crucial investigations on your own. I must say, I hadn’t taken you for it, but it seems your heart truly does—”
“Only with this knowledge can I manufacture the Magitech Gun best suited for Nina.”
Joel cut him off and answered with finality.
Master faltered, his mouth opening and closing.
“…So you weren’t investigating because you found Nina Bones suspicious, then?”
“This target does have many questionable aspects, but I fail to see what significance that holds for me at present.”
“Well, you’re a spy for Soltem—it ought to carry considerable significance.”
“I’m on a long vacation.”
“Vacation or not, if you’ve learned anything about a target the Agency is closely monitoring, you’re supposed to report it according to protocol.”
“Which is exactly what I’m doing now.”
“…That much is true.”
Master had nothing more 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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