A Dark Fantasy Spy

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Fortunately, there was a decent place to stay.

We entered the lodging where public servants working at the Rift resided. Since Francesca also lived here, it allowed us easy access into the building.

The problem was that three people had to sleep in one room.

“…Why am I here?”

“Because there’s no other room. I can’t just kick everyone out of a perfectly fine room, can I?”

Unfortunately, the accommodations near the Rift were not in great shape.

Although it was a national important site and had strategic significance in the Northern Regions, public servants and civilians working at the Rift used to be well taken care of. However, as the conflict dragged on, the lodging fell into disrepair due to the lack of resources for maintenance.

Just weeks ago, one of the lodgings had burned down, which led to shared rooms accommodating six to eight people rather than two.

“Well, I’m from the Magic Tower, so they’re accommodating me. I’m probably the only one here with a private room.”

“……”

I stared blankly at the inside of the lodging. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but now I realized it was far too shabby and worn for a place where the administrator of the Magic Tower Secretariat would stay.

Even the hotel offered by the Military Government Headquarters wasn’t in great shape, but this was something else…

While I was lost in unnecessary thoughts, Francesca approached me as I paced around the room.

“There’s only one bed, so I think we should let the hero sleep first. I’ll take the sofa.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect it to turn out this way…”

“It’s fine for me. I’ve been feeling lonely anyway, so I’m glad to have someone to talk to.”

Francesca added with a nonchalant smile.

“Oh, and the colonel’s place is over there.”

Francesca pointed to a corner of the room.

As I looked where her finger was directed, I noticed a bunch of blankets and sleeping bags scattered across the floor.

“…Am I supposed to sleep on the floor?”

“Yes.”

“…It’s cold all the way up here?”

“Just take a potion and go to sleep. It will help restore your energy, so you’ll be able to withstand the cold coming from the floor to a certain extent.”

“……”

To be honest, at this point, it would probably be much better to just sleep in the car.

Episode 11 – No Abnormalities on the Northern Front

The erratic weather of the North is world-renowned.

Typically, the clouds obscure the sun, casting darkness even during daylight. Yet, in an instant, the dark clouds might disappear, and bright skies appear, or a bolt of lightning might suddenly strike under a sunny sky, accompanied by raging snowstorms.

So, the Northern Regions of the Kien Empire had an incredibly unpredictable climate.

“…Hmm.”

Francesca elegantly shook her head while looking up at the dark sky.

“Seems like it’s not a good day to head down.”

The sky was densely shrouded in dark clouds.

Definitely midday, but the surroundings were gloomily dark. The sun, which usually shined brightly, was nowhere to be found, leaving only the eerie blue glow emitted from the Rift lighting the surroundings.

It was fortunate if it stayed dark; now, fog was rolling in, making it impossible to see ahead.

The faint mist, which seemed to have come from who knows where, enveloped the basin, making it impossible to gaze towards the opposite mountain peak.

“…This feels like a mist.”

“What’s that, Hero?”

“There’s a movie where monsters come out in the fog. I used to watch it when I was a kid, and I could never go outside on foggy days. It brings back memories.”

Francesca tilted her head repeatedly, clearly not grasping Camille’s enthusiastic explanation.

It seems even the magicians of the Ivory Tower, known for their vast knowledge, occasionally encounter something they don’t know. It’s strange for Francesca to know of the movie Kamila was referencing anyway.

Nevertheless, determining that understanding what Camille was saying was beyond her comprehension, Francesca turned to me and requested help.

“I think you and the hero are pretty close. Could you possibly explain what this mist movie is…? No, why do you look like that?”

I shot a pale glare at Francesca.

“…I d-don’t know. D-d-don’t talk to me.”

“……”

I didn’t want to stutter, but I couldn’t help it. My jaw was trembling.

The reason I was shaking wasn’t due to fear.

It was simply too cold in this lodging.

Whether it was the draft or the inability to block the cold, despite putting on the sleeping bag, blankets, and coat, I couldn’t sleep, and the chilling bite penetrated to my bones.

Eventually, after tossing and turning restlessly, I was forced to wake up to the sound of Kamila and Francesca rustling about.

“Geez, I think I’m going to freeze to death. Sh-shit…”

“…Oh dear.”

Francesca’s face was marked with concern. However, glancing at the barely contained smirk barely hidden beneath her expression, it seemed she felt a bit of amusement.

She probably stopped trying to hide her laughter. Francesca didn’t bother to pull down the corners of her trembling lips as she spoke to me.

“Did the potion I gave you not work…?”

I shook my head. The potion’s effect was sufficient.

Before being the administrator of the Magic Tower Secretariat, Francesca was a magician. And she was particularly proficient in the field of alchemy.

The materials given when Leoni was the head of the Royal Intelligence Department indicated that a substantial number of Francesca’s papers and research results were registered at the Ivory Tower in the Red Desert.

Even the alchemists, who had spent millennia perfecting their craft and integrated with indigenous religions to establish the Ivory Tower, recognized her skills. So, it was unlikely her potion would lack efficacy.

Indeed, the first time I took the potion yesterday, I had a good night’s sleep. The issue was waking up midway when the potion’s effect wore off.

“Maybe the quantity was insufficient. Should I bring you more potions?”

“If… if there’s any left, pl…please.”

Francesca smiled and handed me the vial, and I immediately downed the potion.

Kamila, who had been watching from the side, suddenly asked,

“What does that taste like?”

“Tastes like children’s cold medicine.”

“Ew.”

*

The mercurial goddess of the North did not seem to allow us to descend below the mountains.

In the end, both Kamila and I had no choice but to remain stuck in the basin with the Rift.

“It can’t be helped. We’ll have to stay here for a while and go down as soon as the weather clears.”

Given that the situation turned out this way, we had to reach out to the military unit in charge of the Rift. Thankfully, Senior Lyudmila, who had come along as a translation escort, helped us with that.

As we briefly waited near the campfire from yesterday, the key executives grouped together and came to greet us.

“Welcome to the Rift, Hero and Colonel. I’ve heard the situation from Senior Lyudmila.”

The officer, who wore a rank insignia of a lieutenant colonel, introduced himself as the unit commander.

Behind the seemingly older lieutenant colonel stood several senior officers and non-commissioned officers. There were hardly any junior officers, privates, or sergeants in sight.

With the help of the higher-ups, I had a look around the Rift unit and made my own rough estimate.

“Hmm… these folks seem to be quite the elite troops.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Take a look, Kamila.”

I shared the information I had just analyzed with the budding spy, Kamila.

“Do you remember the ranks of the people who greeted us earlier?”

“Of course, the lieutenant colonel and the special sergeant… so that’s a colonel and a warrant officer; they first greeted us, followed by several major officers and sergeants.”

“Doesn’t that seem strange?”

“What part?”

“In this little depression, there are high-ranking military personnel everywhere.”

Typically, junior officers and senior non-commissioned officers like majors would not gather in one place unless they were in headquarters.

Moreover, there were a lot of generals, but far fewer junior officers.

“Young officers tend to be either junior officers or privates. Usually, it’s either a captain or a sergeant at best, but here, the older officers vastly outnumber the younger ones.”

“…Now that you mention it, it does seem odd.”

“In regions where many elite young officers are present, there are certain characteristics.”

The characteristics of regions with many elite young officers are as follows.

First, promotions tend to be advantageous.

Second, it is a unit with significant roles.

Third, the military perceives that area as a strategic location.

Conversely, if there are many young officers but they are not elite, that situation is somewhat different.

Regions with such units are not strategic locations or are of little value to occupy.

“And both cases share a commonality: they usually don’t handle particularly crucial military secrets.”

“Hmm….”

A small groan slipped from Kamila, and with a troubled voice, she muttered.

“Does that mean the secrets that low-ranking officers can handle are… limited?”

“Exactly.”

While junior officers can deal with more information than one might think, they generally deal with little of the crucial information. Therefore, units with many junior officers do not require strict security and do not handle significant classified information.

In other words, they are not subjects that intelligence agencies need to pay much attention to.

However, the units with many high-ranking officers are different.

“Units with many older officers or non-commissioned officers tend to handle crucial secrets and usually demand strict security measures. Their units are often in strategic locations or core posts.”

“For example?”

“Naval bases handling nuclear submarines, units managing ballistic missiles, or air defense units defending the capital.”

Units situated in major strategic points or tactical locations, or units handling critical weapons are vital.

Such units deal with high levels of classified information and require strict security. They are under the careful scrutiny of foreign intelligence agencies.

That’s exactly how the unit responsible for the Rift was laid out.

There were many senior officers but few junior officers, and the unit wasn’t exceptionally large.

“Another characteristic of such units is that their armament levels are often quite high, like the armored vehicles and tanks we see over there.”

I pointed my finger towards the armored vehicles nearby. Armored cars and tanks lined up, covered in tarpaulin.

“I didn’t notice it well in the dark, but there are bunkers here and there. They probably intend to pull out those armored vehicles and tanks to put in the bunkers for defense if a situation arises.”

“…That implies the Rift producing magic stones is quite important, doesn’t it?”

“Of course.”

I continued, guiding Kamila as I surveyed the surroundings.

“But that’s a conclusion we can make because we know there’s a Rift here and that those people are defending it. If we had no idea there was a Rift here, we wouldn’t have necessarily identified that as a defense unit…”

“If we hadn’t?”

“Even just by observing those things, you should roughly predict, ‘Ah, there seems to be something significant here.’”

Kamila nodded and, after considering my words, murmured a question.

“Do we really need to learn such things?”

“That question is wrong. It’s not about whether this should be learned; if you don’t know this, you’ll be in trouble.”

It’s only right that someone not doing their job right should leave if they are getting paid for free.

Anyway, I continued educating Kamila intermittently while exploring the military unit responsible for the Rift. Experiencing a unit of this level wouldn’t be easy, and it would provide her with valuable insight.

Since we had nothing much to do, Kamila decided to enjoy the sights she had never experienced before while I made sure to absorb everything I could and report back in detail once we returned to the embassy.

“Won’t we be suspected of being spies?”

“I’m a diplomat, so that doesn’t matter to me. What’s the point of having immunity if I don’t use it?”

“What about me? I’m not a diplomat; how do I escape?”

“Well, I don’t know about that… Kamila, how about checking out a detention center while we’re at it? I visited one when I was stationed in Iran, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected.”

“I don’t care about the detention center; I just want to hammer a nail into the coffin of whoever ends up getting taken there.”

“I’ll write in my will that if I die, to bury Kamila with me. Sounds good?”

We wandered around the Rift, laughing and chatting. Francesca seemed to be sighing a little further away, but it didn’t seem to concern us.

In short, it didn’t matter.

It really didn’t matter.

*

The imperial military officers’ guidance had been wrapped up long ago, but we decided to explore a bit more of the surroundings.

Although it was a key area that produced strategic resources, the average person could not move freely. Fortunately, no audacious individuals dared to stop Kamila, who was being afforded courtesy by the Military Government Headquarters.

Thanks to that, we were not hindered in any way.

We parted ways with Francesca during our exploration. She mentioned she had to see to some people for a moment.

“Who is she guiding?”

“Who knows? Probably the Magic Tower folks.”

After all, even though Francesca was a colleague of Kamila, she was still an official member of the Magic Tower.

She had support staff to assist her in the Secretariat and was escorted by the pro-imperial Oracle Committee members directly.

“Most likely, they are from the Magic Tower. Whether they came to research the Rift, conduct mining operations, or settle down here, what does it matter?”

“But you’re still colleagues… Isn’t there at least a concern?”

“Concern about what?”

Once we saw each other again, she would ultimately explain who she was leading, why, and where in detail.

“Anyway! Forget about Francesca, and worry about yourself. Don’t fall behind and keep up.”

“…Yes.”

After wandering around for a while, we had climbed up to a higher elevation.

It happened to be a spot where the entire basin was visible, so I took out my camera to capture the Rift and the surrounding buildings.

Despite the fog, the outlines of the structures were slightly visible, making it manageable to take photos.

For reference, Kamila took on the lookout and I handed her binoculars to scout the area.

Just as I was absorbed in taking pictures, Kamila suddenly poked me.

“…Excuse me.”

While I was trying my utmost to capture the shot, Kamila quietly called out beside me.

“What is it? Is someone coming up?”

“Not that. Isn’t something strange over there?”

“Wait. I’m trying to focus here; this is a crucial moment. If I can get this shot, I might earn a medal….”

“No, check out the people gathered below.”

Kamila tugged at my clothing as she pointed at something.

“Where?”

“The building with the blue roof. Can you see it?”

“Oh, I see.”

Receiving the binoculars Kamila passed, I confirmed where she was pointing.

I yawned while peering through the binoculars.

“What’s there to see? All I see are people.”

“Look at the people! Just look at the people! How do you not understand?”

“I’m looking! What’s the problem…?”

“Don’t you think their clothing is a bit unusual?”

“Just a moment, let me look closer.”

Annoyed by her impatience, I stretched my neck and peered deeper through the binoculars.

“I saw it! It’s nothing special; just had to share the news. I’m rolling all the way down to the bottom.”

“Just look closely!”

In the misty basin. As they crouched beneath the rocks, I took my time, patiently waiting for the fleeting silhouettes to emerge.

Then, after about a minute, three, five minutes had passed.

The figures mingled among the fog briefly revealed themselves.

“…What do you see?”

“…Just a second. Wait a moment. I think I saw something just now.”

I examined the people moving through the fog closely. Specifically, I focused on the clothes they were wearing.

They were clearly different shades from the dull military or work uniforms.

In other words…

These were…

“…Academy?”

The clothing of the Academy was unmistakable.