A Dark Fantasy Spy

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“…I see. So it is the Talent Development Institute, right? …Yes, understood. I’ll contact you once the report is done and the instructions come down.”

I placed the disconnected device on the desk.

On the fifth floor of the Advanced Military Magic Research Institute, within the Defense Attaché Office.

The office was inaccessible to anyone except for officials, and it didn’t even accept commands from the ambassador-level representatives.

On one wall hung materials created by the analysts, and documents were stacked on the desks separated by partitions.

I gazed at the photos displayed on the wall.

There were photos upon photos, side by side, all intertwined with red lines that resembled a massive spider’s web.

“…Now then.”

I murmured, placing one hand on my hip while holding a pistol in the other.

“Who should I take down first?”

—

Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

Fabio Verati revealed three pieces of information.

The handler of the spy who infiltrated the Advanced Military Magic Research Institute.

The agency to which the handler belonged.

The current location of Giada Bianchi, who went missing years ago.

As expected, the first was Fabio Verati himself, and the second was the Talent Development Institute represented by the Magic Tower.

“I honestly didn’t anticipate the last one.”

—”But you must have had some idea, right?”

“I suspected it. Where do you think all that money came from? I just couldn’t be sure with only circumstantial evidence.”

Once I received the report from the Counterintelligence Team of the 73rd Business Unit, I got in touch with Clevenz.

I hadn’t even expected it, but when the pursuit ended remarkably quickly, the Military Intelligence Agency popped the champagne.

—”The Overseas Division is saying you should get a medal. There were whispers about giving such a tough task to a Major, and now it seems there’s no one doubting you.”

“What have I even done? I did nothing. The staff from the attaché office and the business unit did most of the work.”

—”So, you’re not going to take the medal?”

“Haha, let the staff take it, and I’ll just take the reward money.”

I exchanged jokes with Clevenz and directly delved into the matter.

After all, the job wasn’t over yet.

“The investigation team has generated a chart of the Talent Development Institute. We have cross-verified the materials created by the analysis team, and the accuracy rate is quite high.”

Thanks to the collaboration between the Counterintelligence Team involved in the operation and the information analysis team from the Defense Attaché Office, we successfully grasped the organizational chart and key personnel data of the Magic Tower’s intelligence agency.

From time to time, we also received help from Dmitri’s network of journalists. Thanks to the excellent skills of the political and international department reporters, the accuracy of the information was generally very high.

Testimonies obtained through interrogations, publicly available information, and human intelligence from journalists. On top of that, additional data from the Royal Intelligence Department.

With intelligence collected and verified from more than two places, the information regarding the Talent Development Institute was beyond doubt.

“I didn’t expect the Royal Intelligence Department to get involved here. What’s going on?”

—”It seems they’ve been looking into it from their end as well. It’s difficult to discuss the detailed info over wireless, so just think of it as cooperation between our organizations.”

Although I met with Director Leoni on the day I was shot, I only heard a rough outline. Clevenz seemed to know something but refrained from elaborating for security reasons.

In any case, I converted that into a good thing.

“Then can I understand that we should be capturing the Talent Development Institute first as ordered?”

—”Yes. This morning the Prime Minister personally explained today’s situation to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. They plan to resolve the issue related to the missing citizens during the discussions, so let’s first deal with the Magic Tower problem.”

First, we’ll handle those bastards who sent the spies.

If I had known it would come to this, I would have just started with the representative office from the get-go.

“Isn’t it too much of a detour to get to a faster route?”

—”Well, you know as well as I do that the intelligence agency can’t act without certainty. We need some information to make a decision, right?”

In other words, it mean
they were telling me it was time to take action now that we were certain.

Knock! Knock!

“Oh, they’ve arrived. I should hang up.”

—”Contact me again later.”

“Yes, please go ahead.”

As soon as Clevenz ended the call, I rushed to open the door. Standing there was a Greenskin holding a box, his sharp teeth jutting out above his protruding jaw.

An orc.

I tilted my head in confusion, wondering why an orc, looking like he belonged on a construction site or a mine, was in the representative office, when several people in work uniforms quickly squeezed past him inside.

“I’m back from the market.”

“Oh, you’re back?”

“Please leave that box here.”

“Yes-sir.”

The orc set down a pile of boxes near the office entrance and bowed slightly before disappearing up the stairs. I guess he was a delivery man.

I held the door open for Pippin, Jake, and the analysts who had just finished their errands.

“Did anything happen on the way? Why did it take so long?”

“Hero and the Saint needed some items, so we stopped by a hotel, and Hero ended up taking his sweet time with a drink….”

“Are you telling me you were late because you had to buy another one?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

“That’s not a big deal, but you weren’t caught by the police, right?”

“Of course not. No one saw us but the two of you.”

Camila and Lucia were doing fine, so I hadn’t thought much about it. If something is needed, you just go buy it.

Anyway.

“Pippin, did you get everything I told you to buy?”

“Um… hydrogen peroxide, a large syringe, acetic acid, a pet bottle of drink, a magic power converter, and powdered juice, right? I bought everything on the list you gave me.”

“Good job.”

I had worried about what I’d do if I couldn’t find some of it, but it came in quicker than I expected. It seems there are no legal purchase restrictions on any of this.

I hummed a tune while setting the items I had taken out of the boxes on the conference table.

Then I waved for Pippin, Jake, and the analysts to gather and handed out copies of the recipes.

“Here, this is what you all need to make going forward. Let me emphasize, you must create these in the exact quantities and order written in red.”

“We’re doing it?”

“Then who else if not you?”

The implications were pretty clear, so when I gave Pippin a knowing glance, she started trembling. Just then, Jake, who had been examining the recipe next to me, raised his hand slightly.

“Manager, but what kind of recipe is this? I’ve never seen it before.”

I smiled brightly at Jake and pointed toward the photos on the wall.

“It’s a gift for those people.”

—

It all began with an incident that occurred at some terrace house.

—Boom—!!

Whether it was a gas leak, or a mishap with an alchemist in distributing reagents, an explosion turned an entire house into a complete mess.

There were even casualties.

The couple residing in the exploded house died. The husband was a company employee, and the wife was a civil servant working at the Magic Tower representative office.

A magician from the local fire department flew in first to extinguish the fire, followed by the police, who began investigating the cause of the explosion.

The problem was that it wasn’t the first time this had happened.

“Hm?”

—”What’s wrong, honey?”

“Uh, sweetie, did you put any drinks in my car?”

Vehicles.

—Knock! Knock!

“Who’s there?”

‘Delivery!’

“Delivery? I didn’t order anything.”

Apartment.

“Manager, a package has arrived.”

“Oh, thank you. But who sent it?”

“Uh, there was no sender listed.”

Office.

“Ah, jeez, mister! Who threw a drink on my broomstick?”

Broom storage.

Packages with unknown senders, mysterious items left without anyone knowing who put them there, deliveries for things that were never ordered. Suddenly, suspicious items with no known origins began arriving all around the Magic Tower.

They were bombs.

—

[Multiple large and small fires have broken out across the area.]

[Terrifyingly red flames are shooting out of the windows. The sound of windows shattering can be heard. Screams resonate from all around, and the dense smoke rising from the site is visible from hundreds of meters away….]

[At 12:30 AM today, a fire occurred in a single-family home resulting in a 45-year-old man suffering third-degree burns and being transported to the hospital, but ultimately he died….]

[The police and fire authorities have formed a joint investigation team to ascertain the causes of the ongoing fires. Will the cause be revealed at the mid-investigation announcement held four days later….]

Everyone’s attention turned to the police’s announcement.

However,

—

[According to the investigation results, the recent series of fire incidents have been confirmed to have been caused by explosions. The police are currently considering a variety of possibilities, including gas leaks, short circuits, experimental accidents, and terrorism….]

In the mid-investigation announcement, the police explained that the fire broke out due to an explosion.

But whether that explosion was natural or man-made, if natural, what the cause was and why it occurred, or if man-made, who caused it, they couldn’t explain.

In fact, when a journalist questioned about the connections of the incidents, the police responded with an ambiguous attitude, neither confirming nor denying.

The media began to ignite.

All media outlets had eagerly awaited the police’s announcement, and of course they were frustrated to find the conclusion of “We don’t know either!”

The police, having been battered by the media, hurriedly released an additional statement that “the first explosion occurred from a beverage bottle,” but rather than praise, they were met with criticism—“Does it even make sense for a bottle to explode?” They had figured out “where” it exploded, but couldn’t explain “why.”

Of course.

I knew “why” the explosion had occurred.

“Wow… the performance is great.”

I made it, after all.

—

A total of 17 bombs were delivered to houses, apartments, vehicles, broom storage, offices, and public institutions.

These weren’t the kinds of bombs typically employed by terrorists seen in movies or on the news but liquid explosives contained in transparent drink bottles, so the targets raised no suspicions whatsoever. Even the police and counterintelligence agency were completely oblivious.

In fact, that was precisely the gift I had prepared to target them.

“…Did you catch the news yet?”

—”I’m watching it now. It seems you never sent explosives, so where did you get this from?”

“I just made it myself. If I used military explosives, I’d get caught.”

The gifts I sent were homemade bombs. I learned how to make them at vocational training.

More specifically, it was a bomb initially prepared by a Middle Eastern terrorist organization that had moved into the UK, aimed at blowing up dozens of aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean, but MI5 and the London police detected the conspiracy and arrested the suspects before it could be used.

Even the UK intelligence agencies only realized those bottles were bombs after setting up cameras inside the suspects’ hideouts, so the concealment effectiveness of this device was already long proven.

I was confident that no one else in this neighborhood knew how to make this.

In any case.

The reason I sent the bombs was simple.

Revenge.

—”I don’t want to be too blunt from a news perspective, but is everything going smoothly?”

“Of course, it’s progressing well.”

Sending a spy to an ally nation? That’s completely feasible. In intelligence warfare, there’s no such thing as allies or enemies.

But sending a spy to gather information and kidnapping a civilian was a totally different matter.

No matter how much the international community operates under the logic of power, kidnapping a civilian is, no matter the justification, nothing short of terrorism.

If Giada Bianchi were a terrorist, a member of a criminal organization, or a public security criminal, the Government of Abas would have certainly understood the Magic Tower’s circumstances.

But Giada Bianchi was just an ordinary civilian. A national scholarship student sent by Abas to the Magic Tower as part of enhancing mutual diplomatic relations and technical cooperation.

During the investigation period, there hadn’t been enough information to make a decision, but now there was plenty.

In the end, the Prime Minister made his crucial choice.

—”Everyone seems satisfied with the results. The Prime Minister feels the same way.”

“I haven’t even reported the confirmation yet.”

—”Isn’t it appearing quite fine over there?”

The Prime Minister remarked, “While war might not be viable, steps need to be taken to prevent recurrence.”

The Military Intelligence Agency interpreted this as “completely stamp out the ones causing trouble again.” It was an emotionally charged and firm conclusion, but with the Prime Minister’s direct seal of approval, no one dared to oppose it.

As expected, the moment the defense ministry heard the details, they went up in arms at the thought of military secrets being leaked, while the foreign ministry gritted its teeth at being blindsided; so all in all, it was quite tame. There wouldn’t be any diplomatic relations deteriorating, at least on the surface.

I had no idea what the Royal Intelligence Department was thinking.

In any case, the Prime Minister called the Military Intelligence Agency chief and Royal Intelligence Department head to his residence.

And this was the result.

—”How many did we remove?”

“15 in total.”

The number of intelligence agency personnel is confidential, but based on Fabio Verati’s testimony, the Talent Development Institute at the Magic Tower wasn’t particularly large.

I aimed to deal the maximum damage with the minimum number by targeting personnel from specific departments.

Administration, Planning, General Affairs, Operations, Communications, Analysis, Audit.

With this, the Magic Tower intelligence agency would have incurred sufficient losses. The staff must have been in mourning, so for the time being, there would have been a somber atmosphere. It would take quite some time to normalize operations.

“I sent 17 packages, and because two people were hospitalized, I couldn’t confirm all the details. I’ve heard that they’re in critical condition but haven’t received clarification from the hospital.”

—”From this perspective, it seems to be getting dangerous. What do you plan to do? Just leave it be?”

“I still have plenty of time. Let’s send someone to the hospital first.”

—”Get Agent 51 and organize the relatives for retrieval and prepare for the next operation.”

“Understood.”

The photos that once filled one wall had now slowly begun to disappear, leaving only a handful left.

“…Hmm.”

I felt I had enacted enough revenge. I put down the disconnected device and called out to Jake.

“Jake! Disperse the remaining gifts. Have agent 51 and the relatives treated and ready. Send out a text.”

“Yes sir.”

“I’m going out for a bit, so don’t leave a record of my departure. I could get caught later.”

“Yes, understood. But where are you going?”

As I changed into formal wear, I concealed the pistol I tucked in my holster with my jacket.

“I’m going to find someone.”