A Dark Fantasy Spy

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Beastmen are the most recognized among the races excluding humans.

Due to their significant numbers, they can be found everywhere and generally possess cute appearances.

Among the Beastmen, dogs and cat Beastmen are particularly popular. In any culture, dogs are close companions to humans, and cats are often revered. The main reason for their popularity is undoubtedly their looks. But, to be honest, I don’t interact much with Beastmen.

If you were to ask me if I dislike Beastmen, I would definitely say no. I’m not a species racist.

However, if you asked whether I like them, well…

Forget about the incident with the fox Beastman terrorist—I’ve got allergies. Fur allergies. And since Beastmen have traits of both humans and animals, they shed fur like crazy during shedding season.

So, my avoidance of Beastmen isn’t a matter of principle; it’s a health issue. No matter how much I like them, the allergic reactions are a pain.

Honestly, if it weren’t for that, I would have already made friends with them.

But…

This is…

Something…

“…What was your name again?”

“My friend’s name is Kair…”

“Kyaru?”

“I said Kair! Not Kyaru!”

“……”

Doesn’t seem right.

Episode 10 – Turn Northwest

“That’s correct.”

The silence of the hotel room was only broken by the sound of papers shifting as I reviewed a document.

“The reconstruction project for the Magic Tower’s public infrastructure, innovative projects to resolve public-private sector labor conflicts, joint response measures for the socially vulnerable and interspecies livelihood stability, diplomatic correspondence between the Magic Tower and Kien Empire, and the Magic Tower and Lushan Federation…”

“Is this the item you were looking for…?”

“Yes, it is.”

A disheveled brown envelope and bound documents lay on the table. Interesting phrases were printed on the covers of all the documents: diplomatic secret, state secret, confidential, and so on.

On the documents flowed vibrant magical anti-tampering patterns. As I was looking through the Magic Tower’s documents, I organized the completed copies by hand.

“Oh, it’s still warm, being freshly copied. Thank you for your hard work, Administrator.”

“You’re welcome.”

Francesca smiled brightly. She was a high-ranking civil servant at the Magic Tower Secretariat and had just sold some confidential information from the Magic Tower.

To me.

“Strictly speaking, I didn’t sell anything. I was merely storing administrative documents in the hotel room as requested.”

“I just happened to pick up a document that was rolling on the floor.”

“Right… well, regardless of the truth, it doesn’t really matter.”

Francesca leaned back in the sofa with her beaming smile.

Taking a moment to pause, I swept the documents to one side. This revealed snacks that had been obscured by the paper mountain.

“Help yourself.”

“Should I?”

We began our tea time, sitting around the table together.

*

The crux of human intelligence gathering lies in interpersonal relationships.

In the 21st century, with communication technology developing exponentially, information activities can happen without the constraints of time and place, but essentially, HUMINT relies on information exchanged between people.

Of course, there are issues involved as well.

The advantage of HUMINT is gathering information through individuals, but the drawback is that it requires contact with people to collect that information.

For instance, if an information officer fails to maintain a good relationship with their informant, if the informant betrays the officer’s trust, if the officer cannot protect the informant’s secrets, or if either party fails to fulfill their contract, the operation fails.

In other words, proficiency in gathering information via HUMINT depends on how well the officer maintains their ‘asset’ relationships.

Whether it’s by feeding them money or accommodating their requests, one must form relationships in a way that minimizes emotional harm. That is the alpha and omega of all HUMINT operations.

“Well.”

Thus, I took some time out of my precious golden holiday to meet Francesca. To put it more accurately, I made time to manage my informant.

If this were work like information analysis or investigation, things that could be assigned to someone else, that would be great, but unfortunately, managing informants is a task that falls solely on the information officer.

“Is the coffee to your liking?”

At my question, Francesca lifted her fancy coffee cup and smiled.

“It’s coffee grown on the land of the Mladic family. I like it.”

“You can taste it and know? That’s impressive.”

“I’m quite fond of coffee.”

Francesca said with a satisfied expression. The coffee beans from the Mladic family, who own a large estate and corporation in Patalia, are considered among the best in the continent and the world.

I pretended to feign ignorance, nodding along.

“Ah, is that so?”

Francesca loves coffee.

Her favorites are those from her home country Patalia’s Mladic, and the island nation of Maikar in the Mauritania continent. As she grew up with Mladic coffee, she’s familiar with it, while she fell in love with Maikar’s during a trip in her university days.

I know what kind of coffee she likes, why she likes it, and how often she drinks it.

Her preferred snack is coffee, and her hobbies include brewing coffee and crafting cocktails. She also enjoys board games like chess and cards but has no interest in physical exercises other than sword practice.

The reason I know this is simple.

Francesca is my informant.

I certainly don’t know everything about her, but I’ll find out the rest as time goes on.

“Um…”

She gently stroked her coffee cup before speaking up.

“Was it coincidence or intentional that the Colonel provided me coffee?”

This is a rather obvious leading question. I smirked slightly and half-closed my eyes as I replied.

“I’m not an astrologist; how would I know what you like? You never told me.”

“Hmm…”

Francesca let out a charming sound while flashing me a sly smile, a look that could easily lead to family planning if seen by someone else.

There are some taboos that information officers must avoid when dealing with informants.

The first is calling informants ‘assets’ instead of using their designated titles, the second is making vague assurances when an informant feels uneasy, and the third is developing personal feelings for the informant.

The third is particularly dangerous. It’s fine to playact having personal feelings, but getting too immersed in genuine emotions can lead to big trouble.

-Clatter.

With her coffee cup set aside, Francesca leaned back on the sofa with her arms crossed.

“…….”

In conversations, a spread arm and an open chest are positive signs indicating comfort with the other person.

“Anyway, thank you. Due to recent natural disasters causing poor harvests, it’s been hard to find goods. Thanks to you, I’ve had a good experience in a while.”

Releasing tension from her shoulders, Francesca propped her head up with her hand. Like a cat napping in warm sunlight, she continued speaking in a leisurely manner.

“An oracle sent a letter. I’ll have to go to the Empire soon, so prepare in advance.”

“Oh, a letter?”

“Yes.”

A ‘letter’ is a term referring to special communications from diplomatic missions. Unlike documents that can be viewed by many if there’s authority, a letter is shown only to a single authorized recipient.

Typically, very few people besides ambassadors receive such documents.

This indicates how significant the document is.

“Colonel, do you know what kind of work our secretariat is responsible for? I believe my sister mentioned it…”

“Let’s see…?”

I tilted my head with a puzzled expression.

“Are you talking about the paper companies you have set up, or the ships that change their documents at each port with a different owner than the actual owner? Or meeting foreign businessmen without informing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or items stored in containers abandoned at the dock for years?”

“Well, those trivial matters aren’t what matters.”

Francesca smiled brightly despite the odd expression on her face.

“The Magic Tower unofficially asked me to meet with prominent figures of the Empire. It’s effectively an order since it bears the oracle’s seal.”

“But…?”

“They said to meet with the oracle committee members.”

An oracle committee will visit the Empire. Until now, it was just mere speculation, but now it’s official.

I wonder who those prominent dignitaries, whom mages will meet, are.

“However, what should I do? It seems I’ve lost an important paper. It was a document I had to destroy after reading….”

I quietly copied the letter Francesca had handed me.

And then held a lighter flame close to it.

-Ting.

-Whoosh~!

The paper quickly went up in flames. The ornate calligraphy, the magical patterns meant to prevent tampering, and the oracle’s bright red seal all vanished.

“That’s an interesting story.”

Francesca, rising from the sofa, waved her hand nonchalantly as she headed for the door.

“Did you enjoy the coffee?”

As I dropped the remnants of the burning paper into my teacup, I reflected that it wasn’t a bad tea time, considering neither of the cups had been emptied.

*

All the collected intelligence was sent to the Military Intelligence Agency.

Digging a small hole beneath a bench in a famous park with a high flow of people, I buried the documents and then contacted the Military Intelligence Agency to have them retrieved.

-‘Oh, I received the items. What’s this?’

“It’s documentation from the Magic Tower. I made copies of major documents that have gone up to various ministries, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Environment.”

-‘Hmm…’

Cleveland let out a peculiar sound as he pondered over the public phone receiver.

-‘All well and good, but I’m worried about using informants for intelligence collection beyond the mission. I suppose you have thoughts about that, correct?’

The essence of human intelligence lies in maintaining a good rapport with informants. And that ‘relationship’ includes whether they can swiftly obtain requested information.

As people age, they tend to shy away from trying new things, especially when they rise to higher positions and tend to handle things conservatively. They generally feel anxiety just from deviating from familiarity and normalcy.

And spying should never be normal or familiar.

So, to properly manage informants, they must be tamed in advance.

“Don’t spies start by asking trivial things first? Phone numbers, work colleagues’ personalities, relationships with superiors, grievances, and so on?”

-‘That’s true.’

“They need to be greased up beforehand so they handle the big requests properly later. You sharpen a knife before using it, right?”

-‘That’s a bit too big to just brush off as trivial. Aren’t you afraid you’ll end up sick from this?’

Even if I were to say, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Cleveland’s rank was too high for me to joke around with. I can’t even joke freely now.

“I have a plan in mind. I’ll do some background checks before rolling things out.”

-‘Oh? Do you need anything? I’ve already taken care of what you asked for last time.’

“Thanks, but I’m fine for now. I’ll contact you before returning if there’s anything special.”

That was about all I needed to organize things.

For the time being, I’ll keep assigning minimal tasks to Francesca while gaining her trust, and if I find someone suitable among her acquaintances, I’ll try to recruit them too. By taming them like this, one day Francesca could become an informant like Veronica.

Then I could manage two informants simultaneously.

I could cross-verify the intelligence coming from independent sources and even diversify my operations further.

I exited the phone booth and began walking down the street. Perhaps due to the year-end holidays, the streets, regardless of how cold it was, were filled with people. Families, friends, lovers, colleagues…

Once I’d extinguished the urgent fires, I found myself with nothing to do.

Family gatherings are next week, so I just need to prepare to head home. Since it’s practically just showing up, there’s really nothing to prepare.

There’s no need to prepare for dispatch either. The embassy staff will send any necessary materials, and once the operation order comes, I’ll prep for details then. I don’t know how long the deadline will be, but smuggling a few people out isn’t particularly difficult. Of course, it could be tricky if it involves an important individual.

By the way, Pippin and Jake went on vacation.

I cheered them on to enjoy their well-earned holiday, so I treated them to dinner and sent them off.

“……”

But no way are they actually together, right?

While the Military Intelligence Agency isn’t a strict place forbidding office romances, thinking they’re dating gives me an odd feeling.

It was always the three of us pooling our money to eat out and have fun. But hanging out with them right before heading home, or crashing a date would be pretty awkward…

The winter winds blew fiercely.

My sides felt cold. I tightened my coat and crunched my feet through the snow, pondering who I should meet to spend time with.

Veronica? She’s with a cult. Francesca? Frequent contacts might raise suspicion. Lucia? I’m grateful for her medical treatments, but we’re not close enough to hang out casually.

“…Sigh.”

In the end, there was only one person left to meet.

*

“So, you came looking for me?”

“Yes.”

“…….”

Camila, who had just awoken from a honey-like nap, squinted her eyes.

Without even time to fix her messy hair, she smacked her forehead.

“Bloody hell….”