Chapter 18
Why on earth had I ended up sharing an office with a spy from an enemy nation?
If I had my way, I would tell the Chief of the Operations Staff that this woman was a spy, but without evidence, I’d be sure to be called a lunatic.
So for now, I had no choice but to act naturally.
After calming my confused mind with a deep breath, I opened the office door.
Then I shrugged once at Lucy, who was looking at me strangely.
“Did you hear that too? The door hinge sounds strange. I’ll have to call a repairman soon.”
My opening and closing the door had been nothing more than an inspection of the hinge’s condition.
Having presented a reasonably sound argument for something I’d improvised on the spot, I walked to my desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down.
“So, what’s your name?”
Once I placed the bread bag on the desk and settled into position, Lucy gave a crisp salute.
“I am Second Lieutenant Lucy Emilia, assigned as the Operations Staff Chief’s adjutant as of today. It is my great honor to serve as adjutant to the exceedingly busy Chief of the Operations Staff. I am prepared to faithfully carry out my assigned duties so that this honor does not fade.”
It was a concise report of assignment.
More importantly, she was using her real name.
Then again, perhaps only a handful of people in the Allied Nations knew Lucy’s real name, so she may have thought there was no need to use an alias.
Whatever the reason, the beautiful woman standing before me was a spy from the Allied Nations.
Of course, I didn’t particularly care that she was spying in the Empire.
It wasn’t as though I was patriotic toward the Empire.
The problem was that the person who would later come to be called the Empire’s nightmare was both my adjutant and a spy.
I wasn’t patient enough to make an adjutant of a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment.
‘So I have to drive her out.’
Somehow, I had to make my superiors decide that someone named Lucy Emilia was unqualified to serve as the Operations Staff Chief’s adjutant.
‘Then I need to create a pretext, but…….’
As I tapped the office desk with a grave expression, a lightbulb appeared over my head.
‘Wait. Come to think of it, when I went outside, a human-rights group was preparing an antiwar (反戰) protest in front of General Staff Headquarters.’
If I used this properly, I might be able to separate Lucy from me.
Smiling faintly to myself, I returned Lucy’s salute.
Immediately afterward, as Lucy stood at parade rest, I looked at her and spoke in a somewhat solemn tone.
“Good. Second Lieutenant Lucy Emilia. Did you just say you were prepared to faithfully carry out your assigned duties?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That’s a bold answer. Then I’ll give you a mission to determine whether your abilities make you qualified to serve as my adjutant. Go outside, suppress the protesters, and return.”
Perhaps flustered, Lucy hesitated briefly before answering.
“……The protesters, sir?”
“That’s right. More precisely, they’re criminals holding an illegal protest without reporting it to the Imperial Household. We ignored them at first because their numbers were small, but I hear they’ve recently been growing bolder.”
“I’m aware of them, but isn’t that the military police’s jurisdiction?”
“Protests taking place in front of General Staff Headquarters also fall under our jurisdiction. Under the Wartime Public Order Act, Imperial officers have the authority to punish subversive elements within their jurisdiction.”
Lucy nodded as if she understood.
“You are quite correct, sir. I will follow your orders.”
“Good. Then go carry out your mission. Return and report once you’ve completed it.”
“Understood. But may I make one request?”
“What request?”
Lucy raised her hand and pointed at me with her index finger.
“Bread.”
……What was that supposed to mean? Was it a hint that she intended to shoot and kill me?
As I tensed at the incomprehensible gesture, Lucy blinked once and continued.
“Didn’t you say you would hand out bread when I first came in? If you permit it, Captain, I’d like to take one.”
Ah. That bread.
“Go ahead. Take one.”
When I casually nudged the bag of bread across the desk, Lucy came closer and took out a croissant.
Then she bowed her head briefly to me, turned, and left the office.
Seeing that, I let out a low breath and leaned back against the chair.
As my tension eased, I felt my body growing languid.
‘For now…….’
At least I had laid the cornerstone for creating a pretext.
Telling her to suppress the protesters single-handedly was an impossible mission, even by my standards.
How was she supposed to suppress those enraged citizens on her own?
So I could sit here and wait at my leisure, then use Lucy’s failure as grounds to declare her unqualified when she returned.
Of course, it wouldn’t solve everything at once, but it was important to build up the reasons one piece at a time.
Relieved inwardly that things seemed to be going according to plan, I took some documents from a drawer and began reviewing them.
I couldn’t simply sit around doing nothing until Lucy returned.
It was just after I had reviewed a few documents.
탕─!
My shoulders flinched at the sound of gunfire from outside.
A terrorist attack? No. If it had been gunfire from a terrorist attack, it wouldn’t have sounded like a single shot.
Besides, the direction the gunfire was coming from was close by.
It sounded as if it had come from in front of General Staff Headquarters—
타앙!
My thoughts froze when another gunshot rang out.
‘No way…….’
Had Lucy fired a gun?
The moment that thought occurred to me, I hurriedly rose from my seat.
This was no time to be handling paperwork in the office.
*
“You’ve arrested all five of the protest leaders. Good work.”
Sergeant Wendelin, an interrogator with the military police, stared blankly at the woman before him.
Wendelin swallowed hard and replayed what had happened just minutes earlier.
The woman who introduced herself as ‘Captain Daniel Steiner’s adjutant’ had taken a quick look around at the riot police facing off against the protesters, then drawn a revolver and fired two shots into the air.
When the protesters panicked at the sudden gunshots, the woman asked the riot police to cooperate, then subdued the five protest leaders with remarkably practiced movements.
In effect, the riot police had done little beyond helping make the arrests.
The fact left not only the riot police but also Sergeant Wendelin so flustered that none of them could say a word.
“What’s all this commotion?”
Startled, Wendelin turned toward the source of the voice and saw Daniel Steiner approaching.
He felt a certain pressure from the sight of Daniel walking toward them with his officer’s coat billowing and his peaked cap pulled low.
Thinking he must not get on Daniel’s bad side, Wendelin looked around and shouted.
“What are you doing? Everyone, attention!”
At Wendelin’s shout, the thirty riot police officers stationed nearby snapped to attention.
Daniel gave them a quick once-over as he approached, then looked at Lucy with a cold gaze.
“Explain what happened.”
At the blunt command, Lucy saluted and spoke.
“As ordered by the Chief of the Operations Staff, I fired warning shots while suppressing protesters who were committing acts of violence. As a result, I dispersed the citizens engaging in an illegal protest and arrested the five ringleaders.”
Wendelin, who had been listening from the side, finally nodded as if he understood.
‘It was Captain Daniel’s order? That figures.’
There was no way a newly commissioned second lieutenant would take such a bold action.
Daniel, on the other hand, felt as if his insides were burning.
‘When did I ever tell her to fire warning shots?’
He wanted to ask her that, but under the Wartime Public Order Act, Lucy had done nothing wrong.
So instead of scolding Lucy, Daniel held out his hand.
Lucy understood immediately, drew the revolver from its holster, and placed it in Daniel’s hand.
When Daniel opened the revolver’s cylinder to check, he found that two rounds really had been fired.
As he let out a hollow laugh in disbelief, Lucy began to speak.
“Captain. These people are rioters who have violated both the Assembly and Demonstration Act and the Wartime Public Order Act. They have violated the Wartime Public Order Act three times, including ‘attacking soldiers dispatched to maintain public order without legitimate cause.’ If you give the order, I will execute them on the spot.”
For a moment, Daniel wondered if he had misheard her and looked at Lucy.
Weren’t the people who had led an antiwar protest obviously on the same side as her?
‘She’s saying she’ll kill people on her own side? Why?’
……No. Thinking about it coolly, she might take the Empire’s side to the bitter end in order to avoid suspicion.
‘What a heartless, cold-blooded woman! Doesn’t she feel sorry for these people?’
He wanted to lecture her on morality, but there were far too many eyes on them here.
Besides Wendelin and the riot police, countless citizens had come out to watch, and reporters taking photographs stood not far away.
Here, he had no choice but to put on the appearance of an Imperial officer.
“No.”
드르륵, 탁.
Daniel closed the revolver’s cylinder, handed it to Lucy, and spoke.
“They’re not worth killing. Sergeant Wendelin.”
Wendelin, called by name, flinched and answered.
“Yes, Captain Daniel Steiner!”
“Interrogate them and find out why they led the protest. You must uncover what subversive beliefs drove them to insult the Imperial Household and incite the citizens.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Wendelin, thoroughly tense, began issuing one order after another to the soldiers.
The soldiers then moved in perfect unison and began helping the protest leaders to their feet.
Daniel watched them quietly, then tightly shut his eyes when no one was looking.
‘Haa…….’
My attempt to build a pretext had ended in utter failure.
*
The next morning.
I woke up to my alarm and, as usual, walked to the kitchen to make coffee.
I took coffee grounds from the shelf, brewed the coffee, and poured it into a mug.
Then I walked naturally to the front door, picked up the newspaper that had fallen through the mail slot, and returned to the kitchen.
I sat at an angle in the chair before the table and took a sip of coffee from the mug.
Its clean yet refined flavor delighted my palate.
‘As expected, morning coffee is delicious.’
Feeling content, I unfolded the newspaper—and froze.
My photograph was spread across the front page in black and white.
More specifically, it showed me holding a revolver and checking its cylinder in front of the five kneeling protest leaders.
To anyone looking at it, I appeared to be pondering whether to execute them.
Sweating cold, I read the headline and was aghast.
【Captain Daniel Steiner Arrests Illegal Protest Leaders!】
The headline was bad enough, but the article was even worse.
『……As a result of the military police’s interrogation of the protest leaders, it was revealed that three of them had been working for money from the Allied Nations. This is the moment when suspicion that the cornered Allied Nations had instigated the antiwar protest turns into certainty. In connection with this, Sergeant Wendelin mentioned that Captain Daniel Steiner had provided great assistance……』
Having read this far, I folded the newspaper and picked up my mug.
I took a deep breath and drank the coffee as calmly as possible, but for some reason, it no longer tasted good.
My head was spinning. Seriously…….