A Dark Fantasy Spy

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“Coup d’état….”

A few words started floating in my mind.

Mohammad Mossadegh and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet. Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal….

All names of state leaders removed by intelligence agencies, along with the puppets installed by those agencies.

“…Not really surprised, are you?”

“What’s so surprising about this? My track record speaks for itself.”

After more than ten years in the intelligence field, I’ve seen things far worse than a coup.

Veronica across from me began to elaborate.

“I don’t have detailed information yet. But it’s certain that a coup will occur soon.”

The intel was a bit vague.

While there was at least some specificity about the Magic Tower’s independence situation, this was more on the level of mere rumors.

“Don’t you know? Or are you hiding something?”

Veronica smiled silently, leaning back into the sofa.

I gazed into her pitch-black eyes.

“What’s the intel agency’s involvement? Who are they planning to remove?”

“I can’t say. I haven’t obtained what I want yet.”

“Then, what do you want?”

“Well…”

Veronica turned her head away, her words trailing off. She stared at the flames crackling in the hearth, the red shadows dancing across her face.

“At the very least, you should tell me the area and the parties involved. If the intel agency is involved, this could be serious.”

“The region is the Magic Tower. There shouldn’t be any bloodshed, and it’s not an issue the intel agency is involved in… for now.”

What she meant was that they could intervene anytime.

Veronica smiled sadly, gazing at the fire.

“I don’t know the details either. They haven’t told me yet.”

“Is that so?”

“The certain thing is, a major incident will occur that could change the regime at the Magic Tower. Whether it’s a revolution or a coup, I can’t say exactly.”

“Does it really matter what you call it?”

After all, a regime change is a regime change.

In practice, if it succeeds, it’s a revolution; if it fails, it’s a rebellion. Later on, they’ll be treated as rebels anyway.

What mattered was that, as of now, the regime was about to change.

Assuming it all goes as planned, of course.

So it didn’t matter whether it would be a revolution or a coup at the Magic Tower. It also didn’t matter who would trigger it. The one who informed Veronica would be behind it, but Veronica clearly had no intention of sharing that information now.

That sly human.

Instead of struggling to regain control of the conversation, I decided to ask a more productive question.

“If a coup occurs, who stands to gain? The Empire? The Cult?”

“That will depend on who reaches out first.”

“…So I should go reach out first?”

“Well, if I share my thoughts…”

Veronica smiled with a hint of crimson glow on her face.

A very typical politician’s smile.

“Whether they extend a hand or not, it means we’re in the same boat, after all.”

*

Episode 6 – Betrayer of the Revolution

The news of a coup about to erupt at the Magic Tower was shocking, yet honestly, it hardly felt real.

Veronica’s words had no grounds.

Of course, Veronica is a Saint of the Cult and an international lobbyist, a great informant, but that doesn’t support the credibility of the information she relays. How could I trust intel that had no basis? Veronica’s intel was, to put it bluntly, mere hearsay.

“Someone, when, and how will they initiate a coup? And yet, a coup is supposed to happen?”

It was clear as day what kind of reply I’d get if I reported this to the higher-ups.

“Collect further intel.”

It wouldn’t be no more than that mechanical response.

So, I had to keep quiet about the coup until precise information came in.

This was quite a perfectly reasonable course of action. Collecting meaningful intel and producing information is a spy’s duty and the purpose of intelligence agencies. If I collected information that didn’t even qualify as “meaningful,” what would I be hearing later?

I’ve already heard such responses far too many times.

Well, it’s all in the past.

“Manager, the report has arrived today.”

“Thanks.”

Anyway, regarding the coup at the Magic Tower, I planned to deploy informants soon to collect additional intel. Reports could wait.

Thus, I headed to the embassy as usual to receive information reports.

The first thing placed on my desk was regarding the Magic Tower.

“Looks like the concealment wife was successful? They’re tracking an anarchist group?”

“Yes.”

The Magic Tower Police and Public Order Protection Agency identified the anarchist group ‘Conspiracy of Black Flame’ as the culprits behind the bombing. Specifically, this conclusion was drawn using the disinformation I leaked.

However, I honestly didn’t expect the Magic Tower to point fingers at an anarchist group rather than the Reconnaissance Command.

“I thought they’d definitely lean towards the Reconnaissance Command. Things are strange.”

“Aren’t they originally a terrorist group? They did disband once when their leader was executed, but those who weren’t captured are still operating in splinter cells.”

The reason I leaked disinformation to the Magic Tower was due to two objectives.

One was to hide the fact that I was behind the bombing, and the other was to disguise the kidnappings to implicate the Reconnaissance Command, drawing the Magic Tower’s counterintelligence agency’s fire towards their networks.

In short, it was a murder and an attack at the same time.

With the Royal Guard HQ’s overseas part shattered by the power struggle, if the Reconnaissance Command’s networks at the Magic Tower took a hit, the Royal Intelligence Department and Military Intelligence Agency would likely take their place. It was a good opportunity to broaden my own latitude.

Yet—

“After leaving all those fingerprints, at this rate, I’ll be going crazy.”

Stupid magicians couldn’t take a feast if you laid it out for them.

Even after passing on the corpses from the special ops task force that raided the hotel and the fingerprints obtained from the fake office of the Reconnaissance Command, they were poking around in the wrong places. It drove me insane.

If only I could have dealt a crushing blow to the Reconnaissance Command’s networks at the Magic Tower. It seems the affairs of the world rarely align with personal intent.

“In any case, you wouldn’t be able to eat it. You’ve served the whole banquet but now they’re wandering around aimlessly with their spoons.”

“But the concealment wife was successful, right? So it’s square.”

“Square? What’s the use in that? The Reconnaissance Command is still out in the open.”

I hadn’t expected the counterintelligence capacity of the Public Order Protection Agency to be so pathetic. Considering how they smashed the Royal Guard HQ’s Magic Tower branch, they should have been able to handle the Reconnaissance Command as well.

As I continued my thoughts, I nervously tapped my pen against the desk.

“What if we just poke at the unpalatable fruit?”

“Are you trying to shift any suspicion back to them regarding the bombing? Just hold your horses.”

Jake’s argument had some merit. If I messed this up, it could cause significant trouble.

Generally, the tactic for striking an overseas intelligence network involves leaking disinformation and striking at intel assets rather than directly targeting agents. Especially, killing an agent is akin to stripping off the ranks and challenging them outright.

Why do you think the Military Intelligence Agency took risks to tear the Royal Guard HQ reactionary down? It was all due to having touched their personnel.

In any case.

With the backdrop of the operation concealed, it was wise to halt here.

Even so.

“…Ah.”

There was no escaping disappointment.

I closed the file and turned to the next report.

This information document was a report on the activities of the Reconnaissance Command. The agency where the ones who’d shot me at the hotel belonged.

“I hear they’ve detected unusual movements in the Reconnaissance Command?”

“Yes, the volume of confidential communications has increased. Over 30 communications have occurred in the last three days.”

They claimed the volume of communications from the Kien Empire Ministry of Defense to the Imperial Representation stationed at the Magic Tower had gone up.

Considering that the Reconnaissance Command is directly subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, and that all defense attachés dispatched from the Empire’s diplomatic missions belong to the Reconnaissance Command, it’s accurate to say that the communications from the Reconnaissance Command have surged.

This was likely due to the death of members of the special operations team during their mission. Not to mention that they had fallen during their foreign operation and their bodies had been handed to the Magic Tower; they must be on edge.

To note the bodies were in the Magic Tower Police Hospital’s morgue. I had an appearance request from the Magic Tower Police, so I went to the hospital with the attaché staff and confirmed it myself.

“Oh, and some identified Reconnaissance Command operatives have reportedly left the country.”

“I’m looking into it now. Their destinations all differ, but I suppose they’re gathering at the Magic Tower?”

“The assessment from the analysts suggests that’s a strong possibility.”

If the analysts said it, I supposed I’d have to believe them.

Anyway, the Magic Tower still had no clue about the bombing, nor had they discerned who kidnapped Fabio Verati; their investigations were sluggish due to the protests.

Military Intelligence Agency analysts concluded the concealment had been a significant success, and thanks to perfect follow-ups on the remnants of the 73rd Project Taskforce, the likelihood of the truth surfacing was almost null.

The Magic Tower would be clueless about who perpetrated the bombing and kidnapped Fabio Verati forever. Even if the truth did come out, it’d likely take months, if not years, so the political and diplomatic aftershocks would probably be “less” than expected.

This conclusion arose because protests at the Magic Tower had intensified.

With the police statement pointing to an anarchist group behind the bombing attack, the protests in the Magic Tower became even more fervent. Alongside that, infighting among the protest factions erupted.

The illegitimate offspring of the ugly Führer fiercely criticized the anarchists. It wasn’t surprising, as everyone knew that Nazism despised socialism, and anarchism was a branch of socialist thought. Anyway, the Nazis in the Magic Tower launched a political offensive against the anarchists. Meanwhile, the anarchists, who had been misunderstood to be engaged in armed struggle, split into two factions.

The moderates claimed that the police’s announcement was slander, while the radical faction, who had been suppressed by public security, contended that only a struggle through revolution could bring genuine freedom to the Magic Tower. To add to the mix, the communists within the Magic Tower also divided into moderate and radical factions, beginning to attack one another.

Thus, clashes and internal strife cascaded through the protest factions.

This was an entirely unexpected outcome. It wasn’t even an intended result. I merely chose a suitable terrorist organization to utilize, and now it spiraled into this chaos. The swift progression of events caught me off guard.

When the ringleaders split into rather similar factions, the protests lost direction and control, causing the Magic Tower police and Public Order Protection Agency to feel the heat from the runaway wild horse. As the media frothily declared that “the Magic Tower is doomed,” the police and the counterintelligence agencies halted their work to divert efforts towards crowd control.

Protests erupted all over the Magic Tower, creating security gaps, while through those gaps, various crimes continued unabated.

Still, the Magic Tower poured their strength into suppression, and the protesters, in some way, engaged in self-correcting dynamics so the protests didn’t escalate into outright riots. However, it wasn’t peaceful by any means.

In any case, it was nothing I could worry about. I didn’t know anything either way.

“Hmm….”

I laid the Magic Tower police report received through foreign affairs on the table. Scribbled in the document’s corner was a note: ‘Sudden division within the protest faction. Collection of relevant intel required.’

That had been all I gathered in the three days.

“……”

I hadn’t grasped any significant updates about the Reconnaissance Command.

The information officers and operatives working in the Kien Empire had failed to track the outbound Reconnaissance Command agents, and those working in the regions where the Reconnaissance Command agents landed couldn’t gather additional intel.

Military Intelligence Agency had failed to detect them.

That was the conclusion from the intel document I received this morning.

The Reconnaissance Command’s operations within the Magic Tower had taken no hits whatsoever, and no one knew where the outbound Reconnaissance Command agents were heading. The probabilities suggested that they were most likely bound for the Magic Tower, yet that held only a 40% chance. There’s a 30% chance they might head towards Mauritania, and about a 15% chance they’d venture to neighboring nations.

That wasn’t all, though.

Veronica, who’d previously mentioned a coup or a revolution at the Magic Tower, had yet to provide a single piece of intel. Even when I pressed her, saying I needed to know before it was too late, Veronica merely replied that she’d inform me “when the time is right.”

Getting hopes up, I tried reaching out using my connections to gather similar intel regarding the coup. Military Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Inquisition, media, Ministry of Foreign Affairs…. But nothing came through. I could’ve counted on the Royal Intelligence Department, but the only person I knew there was Leoni, and she vanished without a trace.

Time continued to slip away, and I had no clue what might erupt next.

Delaying reports may work for a day or two, but when it comes to issues related to a coup, waiting any longer became difficult.

But the server of the Military Intelligence Agency held nothing, Dmitri had failed in intel gathering, and Leoni had gone AWOL. Sophia had cut communication.

There was no hole from which information could escape.

I let out a deep sigh and looked up at the ceiling of the office.

“……”

Neither Clevenz, Pippin, nor Jake would be of assistance. If the Military Intelligence Agency started moving to gather information on this matter, issues would undoubtedly arise. Politically and diplomatically.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t consult relevant agencies either. Whether it was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Military Intelligence Agency, or Royal Intelligence Department, sending an official document to gather intel would leave a record.

So, in this situation, it ultimately dictated that I must gather information in a manner that left “no records.”

An unofficial route,
An agency or group capable of easily accessing information about the Magic Tower,
Someone with considerable authority who was akin to a friend,
A trustworthy individual.

By chance, I had someone like that.

“…Hoo.”

I took a deep breath, grasped the receiver, and dialed.

The unique dialing tone of Abas rang out, and after a brief wait, the other party answered.

“…Hello?”

-‘…Frederick?’

It was a voice I hadn’t heard in three years.

“Uh, it’s me. It’s been a while.”

I rubbed my sweaty face with my hand, continuing with a voice that crawled out.

“…Sister.”