Everyone but Me Is a Spy - Chapter 70

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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 70
Nina beamed more brightly than usual today, glancing around at the family gathered before her.
The tea time that Chayson had arranged, bringing everyone together, was taking place in the Reception Room where she had first met them all.
That alone was enough to set her heart racing with joy.
To spend this delightful, harmonious time with family—trying to maintain good relations after their first meeting—felt like a dream come true.
‘This really is a moving moment. I have such a good feeling that wonderful things will happen with my family from now on.’
With servants bringing tea and even Gugucu present, it was turning into the most perfect day imaginable.
“I’m so glad we can spend leisure time together, Aunt. Is the tea to your liking?”
“The aroma is lovely. And you say the servants prepared the cookies with you directly? I’ve been busy with personal matters and haven’t given you enough attention, but let’s spend time together more often from now on.”
“Really? Truly? Oh, how wonderful!”
Nina pressed her hands to her heart and bounced her shoulders with delight.
Meanwhile, Natalisha’s mind remained in turmoil despite the kind words she spoke.
She was far more confused and flustered than the other operatives who had heard the news about Gugucu.
‘If that pigeon was a double agent, then what was the Master doing……?’
As she turned over the Master’s bewildering actions in her mind, she recalled a private investigation she had conducted.
It concerned what field the Master had invested in.
The results were surprising: hemostatic medicine.
‘Count Sejak’s house became nouveau riche through war profiteering from the hemostatic medicine business—that much is well known.’
Moreover, Count Sejak seemed to maintain ties with Lirye, a viscount who appeared to have intimate connections with the Defeated Nations Alliance.
The fact that the Master—who had invested vast sums in Count Sejak’s ventures—had handled the double agent Gugucu with such practiced ease deeply troubled Natalisha.
‘Am I now complicit in double-agent work myself?’
From the way the Master had spoken of government funding, it didn’t seem he’d joined hands with the Defeated Nations Alliance.
But if it was his personal betrayal, how could Natalisha—who had served his commands loyally all this time—possibly act?
‘When I become the Master, must I govern spies while aboard the same ship as the Defeated Nations Alliance, as the current Master does?’
Even after opening Riquita’s safe, there were problems.
She couldn’t begin to guess how that information would be used.
Now that it had become Nina’s safe, the Master might order her to steal from it at any moment.
‘What am I supposed to do when that time comes?’
Unable to organize her thoughts, Natalisha forced herself to answer Nina’s words and struggled to lift the corners of her mouth.
Kathari noticed this and tilted her head curiously.
‘Did she grow close to that pigeon from Soltem? She seems unusually agitated.’
Everyone would’ve been startled, surely, but she’d never seen Natalisha this shaken before.
Chayson had even given the pigeon gentle affection and often brought her nuts, so melancholy would’ve been understandable for him—but not for Natalisha.
Excy was the least affected, seemingly because she had never paid any attention to Gugucu in the first place.
She was prone to muttering darkly to herself, but had kept her mouth firmly shut in front of the pigeon.
Observing the fake family’s mood, Kathari decided she had no choice but to step in, and posed a question to Nina that she’d been planning to ask.
“Nina. Did you happen to see Gugucu, the pigeon that our neighbor Joel keeps?”
“No? Hmm. Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“It was a few days ago. It was the day after I baked cookies to give to Gugucu.”
If it was the day after Nina had baked the cookies, that was indeed a few days back. Kathari remembered too.
The day after would’ve been when May, the prisoner, had been released from confinement and taken her own life.
“Birds are industrious—did you meet her in the morning?”
At Kathari’s probing question, Nina laughed and shook her head.
“Gugucu came by late at night. I ran into her on the Balcony, and when I went into my room to get more cookies for her, she flew away.”
“I see. She didn’t pass anything along to you or anything like that?”
“Nothing like that. You’re worried because you haven’t seen Gugucu, aren’t you? She’s our neighbor too, after all.”
“Ah, yes. Being a neighbor, one does worry.”
“How considerate of you all…….”
While Nina sighed, cradling her own cheeks, Kathari and the other operatives recalibrated the timeline in their minds.
It seemed that Gugucu had last met Nina before departing this place.
‘What was her purpose in meeting Nina?’
As Chayson sipped his tea in deep thought, Excy’s mind was already elsewhere entirely.
‘Forget the pigeon. I just want to get to my private laboratory. A mission like this? I could do it forever.’
Unaware that everyone was lost in their own thoughts, Nina set down her teacup and giggled.
“I’m so happy right now I don’t know what to do with myself.”
“W-well, I’m glad then.”
Natalisha found Nina’s expression too bright and buoyant to bear, burying her nose in her teacup.
Even this gesture brought joy to Nina.
‘Aunt has finally decided to grow closer to me. Whatever the reason, she came to tea time even amid all this uncertainty.’
There was no greater happiness, it seemed, than living peacefully and harmoniously with one’s family.
Nina wished she had met these beloved people even a little sooner, but she was content enough as things stood now.
As teatime drew to a close, Natalisha asked as though recalling something she’d forgotten.
“I’m curious about the films in the Projector Room. We haven’t opened that room in quite some time, have we?”
“Oh, the Projector Room is…….”
Nina, who had paused thoughtfully, continued with renewed resolve.
“I’m planning to open it again tomorrow!”
Now Nina felt no fear at all about what she might see and hear in Riquita’s films.
It was because she had felt anew that there was a family by her side to face whatever came.
But before she opened the Projector Room again, there was something she had to do.
Nina had resolved to honor Riquita’s final wish.
* * *
That night.
Treading softly, Nina slipped from her room and entered the Dust Pit Room.
The stale, musty dust and the acrid smell of mold still hung heavy in the air.
Nina’s gaze slowly swept across the old, rusted weapons and storage chests before settling on the national flag of the Dotchen Kingdom.
When she grasped the end of the banner and unfolded it, she found Riquita’s final wishes written there plainly—a request to burn this entire room.
‘Grandmother. I understand your secret now.’
Nina had no intention of telling her family that Riquita had been a spy for the Dotchen Kingdom.
Though there should be no secrets between family members, this was all for the sake of these innocent, fledgling people she called family.
Nina drew a lighter from her pocket.
‘I don’t know why you looked down on me so. Was it truly because I was only a servant? Either way, as long as my family stands beside me, I will no longer be swayed by you.’
Nina set the flag of the Dotchen Kingdom ablaze and hurled the lighter into the tangle of papers and blades.
Whoosh—
The Dust Pit Room was consumed by flames in an instant.
Standing outside the door, Nina watched the raging fire with resolute eyes.
Just as Riquita had written, the flames did not escape beyond the doorway, nor did they damage the windows or walls.
Then a storage chest collapsed, spilling a cascade of papers that had been stacked inside.
Nina casually kicked the documents that had stopped at her feet into the flames—until she spotted a familiar face.
‘What? That person is……?’
Without thinking, she reached down and picked up the document, which was already half-consumed and illegible.
But the face in the photograph that remained was still perfectly clear.
‘They look so much like someone I know.’
What Nina had discovered was a photograph of a middle-aged man, and she found it curious that Lord Aman, who occasionally visited Count Sejak’s Estate as a guest, would likely look exactly like this if he aged further.
It seemed there had been a name written below, but soot had already obscured it beyond reading.

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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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