Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 7

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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 7
“Wow. Joel. What is all this?”
Nina covered her mouth and sighed at the profusion of Magitech Devices arrayed along the wall.
She wasn’t even sure they were actually Magitech Devices.
She’d only guessed based on seeing blue circuitry and Magestone fragments worked together, but she couldn’t begin to fathom their purpose.
Some looked like clocks or books, others like delicate chandeliers—the whole display resembled a luxury salon’s showcase.
“I’ve been housebound for so long that I picked up tinkering. These are just experiments.”
“You make Magitech Devices as a hobby? Is that even possible?”
At Nina’s skeptical reaction, Joel’s expression grew serious.
“Impossible, naturally. Charlatans peddle those vapid books promising ‘You too can earn a hundred million won with Magitech Devices’—but anyone with that mentality couldn’t fold a paper crane properly. You seem to know a thing or two, Nina.”
With that, he changed direction, heading downstairs instead of continuing up as he’d been leading her.
“This way, please.”
Nina gasped repeatedly as she spotted more Magitech Devices displayed along the staircase railings and walls.
“You made all of these yourself?”
“I did. There’s satisfaction in the research.”
“A genius in Magitech Engineering like you—and the state just lets you sit here?”
“I am gifted, but unfortunately I’m in delicate health.”
“If you were well, the state would have spirited you away to work in secret—well, this is the Free Country, not a kingdom. But they’d have been desperate to claim you.”
Joel paused at the threshold of a basement door, looking down at Nina intently.
His eyes, flecked like gold leaf, held a strange luminescence in the soft light.
“Are you particularly observant, Nina?”
“More than most, maybe? But why ask? Planning to study people too?”
Nina laughed brightly at her own jest, but Joel’s expression hardened in confusion.
“Study humans? That’s a curious thing to say.”
He turned the doorknob with a soft click and pushed the door open.
“My workshop for making Magitech Devices.”
“Oh my!”
Nina covered her mouth again, gasping in wonder.
One corner of the workshop was stacked high with Mesons, while long tables held an array of disassembled machinery.
A blackboard was covered with complex equations, and beneath it hummed a Magestone Extractor, spinning steadily.
A space where Magitech Devices were designed and built—she’d never seen anything like it.
“This is truly remarkable. You did all this alone?”
“Working alone is easiest. I hire hands if needed, but I don’t trust them.”
There was such pride in every word he spoke about making Magitech Devices that Nina found herself laughing softly.
“You call it a hobby, but you’re living your calling.”
“……Calling? I see. So that’s what you call it. A calling.”
While Joel turned the word over in his mind, Nina spotted a Magitech Gun hanging on one wall and brightened.
“Look—a Magitech Gun.”
Unlike ordinary bullets containing gunpowder, a Magitech Gun fired condensed Magical Power extracted from Mesons.
Since the gun itself was a type of Magitech Device, its varieties were endless depending on design and refining methods.
Joel pulled a Mage Cartridge from a drawer and held it up.
“That one fires Shockwaves. It can’t pierce an enemy’s flesh, but it can suppress them from any distance.”
“I see.”
Nina’s eyes gleamed as she traced the barrel.
The dull dark-brown muzzle studded with Mesons looked exactly like chocolate topped with blueberries.
Then the workshop lights suddenly turned red, and an alarm sounded.
-Intruders detected. Intruders detected.
Unfazed by the sudden alert, Joel silenced the alarm. Using a Reconnaissance Magitech Device to check the upper floor, he found there were four intruders.
Nina, however, jumped in alarm, her feet tapping nervously.
“Surely not—intruders breaking into the home of a sickly young man?”
“How bothersome.”
He had an idea who they might be.
The culprits were likely among the Intelligence Agencies of the Ilite Kingdom, Holich, Kibon, and Lujein. Or perhaps all four.
‘I knew something was wrong when Master started pestering the other Masters. He’s finally provoked them.’
His Master had used the fact that Likita’s Townhouse lay in Soltem as leverage to extort rare goods and Mesons from foreign Intelligence Agencies.
‘Even if no blood’s been spilled, they’re offended. They want to send a message.’
They hadn’t come intending to kill. At worst, they’d break some windows and leave a warning.
The instant the alarm triggered suggested they weren’t professional assassins from any Intelligence Agency.
He had Security Magitech Devices, of course, but conflicts between Intelligence Agencies were for his Master to resolve.
There was no need to escalate by intervening unnecessarily.
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Nina jabbed him in the arm.
“Joel. Can I borrow this for a second?”
She had already slung the Magitech Gun she’d been examining over her shoulder.
“What exactly do you intend to do with that? It’s dangerous—please put it down.”
“My goodness. Even if I look like this now, I was once a maid responsible for keeping the Count’s manor spotless.”
“What does that have to do with a Magitech Gun?”
As Joel reached to take the gun from her, Nina grinned and clutched it protectively to her chest.
“You don’t have any maids here, so you wouldn’t know—but handling a Magitech Gun is one of a maid’s essential accomplishments.”
Joel found himself wondering whether he’d somehow misunderstood the meaning of the word “accomplishment.”
He was pulled from this bewilderment by the sound of a Mage Cartridge clicking into place on the gun.
Though he’d never shown her how to operate it, Nina loaded the cartridge with practiced ease and disengaged the safety.
“How did you—?”
“Let’s go.”
Before Joel could protest further, Nina dragged him out of the workshop.
“The basement’s perfect for getting trapped, and there are too many valuable Magitech Devices down there. We need to deal with this before they can take control of the upper floors.”
She then crouched low as she approached the stairwell leading to the first floor.
Joel felt a strange disconnect watching Nina use the stairs as a makeshift trench with such naturalness.
According to his intelligence, Nina had never received formal combat training, nor had she ever participated in any such engagement.
‘Something’s off here.’
He observed her with a peculiar sense of unease.
Even as the intruders’ footsteps echoed through the lobby, she showed no sign of intimidation.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
Instead, she whispered as if to reassure him, then darted out before he could stop her.
What unfolded in the lobby was nothing short of extraordinary.
Nina moved as though the Magitech Gun were an extension of her own body.
She brought the butt to her shoulder, aligned the sight and muzzle in one fluid motion.
The Magestone lodged in the barrel gleamed blue, as if flaunting the presence of the fully loaded cartridge.
“What the—? Where’s the owner of this place, and who do you think you—”
Bang!
She pulled the trigger before the intruder could finish speaking. The Shockwave erupted from the muzzle and slammed into his body with brutal force.
“Ugh!”
As one of his companions crashed into the wall and lost consciousness, the remaining intruders’ demeanor turned noticeably more vicious.
Nina’s expression soured as she pushed out her full lips in displeasure.
“Four of you against one sickly young gentleman? That’s truly contemptible.”
“Sickly? You think that looks sickly to you?”
“If he’s sickly, I’m at death’s door!”
Then, with fluid grace, she swiftly increased the distance between herself and the advancing intruders before turning to aim at them again.
“Judging people by appearances—truly disappointing.”
Bang! Crack!
Thud! Crash!
The intruders struck by the Magitech Gun flew into walls and floors one after another, crumpling to the ground.
While ejecting the spent cartridge and loading a fresh one, she stomped on an intruder’s foot and drove the butt of the gun into his solar plexus.
The empty cartridge she’d discarded struck true against the head of an intruder struggling to rise.
From his vantage point on the stairs below, Joel felt the world tilt as a memory surfaced—the moment he’d been assigned to this operation.
<Joel Smiler.>
<Yes, Master.>
<Starting today, you are Nina Bonze’s neighbor.>
<…….>
<So frail you can barely leave the house—spend your days pressed against the window watching the world. No need to force yourself to hunch those broad shoulders.>
<Who designed such an unflattering cover story?>
<While you’re there, feel free to craft as many Magitech Devices as you like. I’ll fund it all.>
<Understood. Though I must say, you’re currently standing on one of my finest creations. Kindly remove your foot. Even for you, Master, I have limits. I’ll charge at you with the resolve of a dead man.>
<…….>
The Master had quietly lifted his foot from the Magitech Device, and Joel had been assigned the operation.
Frankly, he’d found it distasteful and tedious from the start.
But now Joel decided to revise his initial assessment.
That flawless Proper Gun Stance and grip.
Flawless footwork and landings.
Flawless aim and flawless hands.
An expression of calm composure as she simply did what needed to be done, unwavering in her gaze.
Clean and efficient, stripped of all unnecessary motion, the movements of someone perfectly designed.
If a Magitech Gun that had been engineered to absolute perfection were to take human form, wouldn’t it look exactly like this?
“Uhhh… Who on earth are you…?”
Thud.
With the last intruder falling, the situation ended in an instant.
Nina turned around with a radiant smile, a Magitech Gun slung across her shoulder.
Against the backdrop of the Magestone’s blue pulse and the scattered forms of the intruders, her soft hair and skirt hem drifted gently in the air.
“Joel. Are you alright? You’re not too frightened, are you?”
“…Yes.”
Joel answered numbly, his heart pounding like a broken gear grinding inside a machine.
Within Nina’s transparently gleaming pink eyes bloomed the most perfectly designed cherry blossoms of spring.

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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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