A Dark Fantasy Spy

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The cat beastman let out a strange cry as they drove onto the highway.

The thunderous noise of the engine and the fierce wind hammering against the windows echoed outside the vehicle, but inside, only an excruciating silence prevailed.

I sat in the back seat, lost in thought as I gazed at the swaying black tail beyond the seat.

“……”

Why on earth was a beastman in the information department?

The world may have become more favorable toward beastmen, but the military was a conservative group. It was a society that could be described as anachronistic rather than just being outdated.

And within the conservative and closed military, the intelligence department was the most conservative and extremely closed-off place.

Although I hadn’t worked in the Military Intelligence Agency for over ten years, I had never heard or seen a beastman working in the intelligence department.

Were they truly a Military Intelligence Agency employee?

Just when I started to harbor such doubts, the vehicle turned off the highway and began to run down a secluded country road.

The old magic lanterns illuminated the lonely rural road.

At the far end of that distant path, I caught sight of a single building standing ominously.

At that moment, the beastman in the driver’s seat reported into the radio.

“We’re passing through the main gate now.”

That meant we had arrived at a safe house.

Episode 13 – A Country Without Magicians

Until the moment the car gracefully passed through the main gate and entered the tent-covered parking lot, the beastman offered no further explanation.

“Where is this….”

At that moment, someone answered my question.

“It’s a safe house, Manager.”

“Oh, Jake.”

“You’ve just arrived.”

“There’s Pippin too?”

It was Pippin and Jake.

Just as Leoni had said, all of my subordinates were here. Pippin and Jake were leaning against a wall near the parking lot.

As I stepped out of the tent to survey the surroundings, Jake walked over, revealing himself as he pulled back the fabric with his hands.

“You came late.”

“I had some things to attend to. Why are you two here?”

“Honestly, we don’t know either.”

Pippin answered. She followed Jake out of the tent and began explaining in a tired voice.

“You don’t know the reason?”

“After returning from vacation and waiting at the residence, we received orders to come here. Both of us did.”

“Who told you to come here?”

“The overseas director.”

The person who had ordered the team to wait here was none other than Leoni.

When I received the expected response to my query, I nodded and looked around.

The area where the safe house was located was quite remote. The entrance was barely wide enough for a single vehicle to pass through.

It appeared that they had constructed buildings on a flat area cleared from the forest, surrounded by dense fields and trees. The building had a simple composition of slate and brick typical of industrial complexes.

Just then, the beastman who had gotten out of the car entered the building.

So that’s where we go. I headed toward the building with Pippin and Jake while conducting a roll call.

“In any case, you came here on Leoni’s orders but don’t know why?”

“Yes. Did you receive any explanation, Manager?”

“No.”

I hadn’t received an explanation either.

Instead, Pippin and Jake, who had arrived earlier, had hinted at a few facts.

“There are people waiting inside.”

“People? Company staff?”

“I’m not sure about their affiliations. But they don’t seem to be from the Military Intelligence Agency.”

“Then they must be from the Royal Intelligence Department.”

Jake nodded, adding that he thought the same.

Based on Pippin and Jake’s insights, the situation inside the building was as follows.

First, the inside of the building had no special facilities. There were a few rooms, but the people inside hadn’t come out for several hours.

Second, there were piles of documents inside the building. There were rows of simple chairs, and in front of them, a screen and a magic projector were set up.

As Pippin described the scene inside, she said:

“It felt like an auditorium. It seems they are preparing for a briefing.”

“A briefing….”

A briefing with personnel gathered from somewhere. That was not a very comforting situation. The fact that they had set up an area outside the company meant that the operation had already been set in motion, minimizing connections between the headquarters and the field teams.

In other words,

“It seems we arrived a bit late.”

We were joining an ongoing operation as the latecomers. Alternatively, it could mean that a large-scale joint operation involving multiple teams was beginning. At least, based on my experience, those were the only two scenarios.

As I voiced this, Jake chuckled and teased me.

“Then why didn’t you arrive earlier?”

“Shut up. You punk.”

In any case, it wasn’t a good situation.

I hurried Pippin and Jake to enter the building.

And the moment I crossed the threshold of the entrance, I was shocked by the view before me.

“What the….”

The inside of the building was empty. Folding chairs were scattered chaotically, and unfamiliar people were pacing about in confusion.

And against that backdrop, a cat beastman was running madly while being chased by Charnoy, who was pushing chairs aside.

“This damn furball tricked Charnoy! To think it would brazenly lie to a colleague at a convent, saying they went to a trading company…!”

“Meow!”

“If caught now, you’ll be negotiating with three heads for your trouble…!”

“Meow—!”

Caught between the chair-wielding nymph aiming to deliver a chair shot and the fleeing beastman, I suddenly felt dizzy and clutched my forehead.

“Ah….”

I already wanted to go home.

*

Cleaning up the chaotic scene was no easy task. It took me a little over thirty minutes just to set the scattered chairs upright and carefully check for any broken lines.

Only after I removed the broken chair and replaced it with a new one in the auditorium was I able to properly introduce myself to everyone.

“I’m Matthew, the Operations Team Leader.”

A man with a freshly shaved jaw, whose beard looked just trimmed, reached out his hand and introduced himself.

“I’m Colonel Frederick Nostrim.”

The man who introduced himself as the Operations Team Leader pointed to the man next to him, who was wearing horn-rimmed glasses.

“This is Sub Team Leader Steven.”

“Nice to meet you.”

The Sub Team Leader also extended his hand for a handshake. I greeted him and examined the Operations Team Leader and the Sub Team Leader closely.

The Operations Team Leader and Sub Team Leader were people with somewhat peculiar characteristics. The relatively younger Sub Team Leader seemed to be in his early forties, while the Team Leader looked nearly fifty.

Given that people who engaged in ‘field’ work in intelligence agencies tend to shift to desk jobs after they hit their thirties, it was quite unusual for two older individuals to lead an ‘Operations Team.’

Of course, other traits also caught my attention, the most impressive being the appearance of the Operations Team Leader.

“…Hmm.”

Putting aside the Sub Team Leader’s tacky horn-rimmed glasses, the Operations Team Leader exuded a unique presence that suggested he could take down anyone with just a glare.

As I briefly pondered over his somewhat familiar features, I suddenly raised my brows, recalling a purple alien I had seen in a Marvel movie decades ago.

Ah, right. Thanos. That was his name.

Now that I think about it, long ago, before the department store terror incident, Camila mentioned that someone resembling Thanos had been following her since she arrived at the airport.

I must have seen him somewhere before. It was a familiar face.

Regardless, overwhelmed by a sense of shame and a heavy heart, I buried my face in my hands and mumbled.

“…I’m sorry.”

“The kid can be like that sometimes.”

While the Operations Team Leader followed up on the Sub Team Leader’s joke, the firmly shut door finally opened.

A person emerged from the previously unopened door. A relatively young staff member came out, facing us, and cheerfully shouted.

“The briefing will be starting soon! Please take your seats!”

“Finally, it’s starting.”

The Operations Team Leader snapped his fingers and issued orders to his team members.

As the crowd busily moved to find their seats, I gestured towards Jake, who was holding the honey candy, and the Pippin who was tightly holding onto Charnoy.

“Let’s head in too.”

*

As the lights dimmed and the magic projector illuminated the screen, the gloomy interior of the makeshift building was filled with the sound of a staff tapping their staff.

“Ugh…”

The owner of the sound was a man who had emerged from the back room.

He was a man who was noticeably balding on the sides and at the crown, with a typical receding hairline far beyond his forehead. It seemed he had trouble moving as he leaned on his staff, struggling to position his protruding belly in front of the screen.

Cough! Cough! Before the man could utter a word, he abruptly broke into a coughing fit. It seemed like he might have caught a bad cold.

After wiping his nose with a handkerchief, the man finally managed to start speaking, his voice nasal and unsteady.

“Phew…. I finally feel alive. Sorry, friends. Did I look ugly?”

The man with the staff waved his hand in a feigned cheerful tone, attempting to lighten the tense atmosphere.

But nothing happened.

“…….”

“…….”

Neither I, Pippin, Jake, Charnoy, nor those presumed to be from the Royal Intelligence Department reacted to the man’s statements. As soon as he opened his mouth, the Operations Team Leader and Sub Team Leader openly sighed in exasperation.

“Of all places to be assigned….”

“Seriously.”

“…….”

From the conversation exchanged between the Operations Team Leader and the Sub Team Leader, I sensed that something was amiss.

Due to the low volume, I couldn’t hear the conversation clearly, but in the icy silence, the man with the staff blinked in surprise, awkwardly smiling as he changed the topic.

“Ah, um. So…. Anyway, thank you all for gathering here without delay. Director—no, now it’s Chief—Director Leoni has said that if this briefing goes badly, it might be the end for us, so I’ll keep it short, clear, and concise. But there are some newcomers here, so let me begin with a little backstory…. We were just simple people thinking only about our own work, confined in our offices.”

With a voice filled with nasal tones and unsteady sounds, the Operations Team Leader shook his head and muttered.

“Oh my God. This is insane….”

My ominous foreboding was confirmed.

The overweight man with the staff waved his short arms and began to rambled on. It was such a sudden story that I had no idea what he was trying to say, but through the man’s words, I gleaned that he was an analyst in charge of analytical work.

To be precise, that was all I managed to figure out.

“…Is this really an analyst?”

I was at a loss for words.

Perhaps my voice didn’t reach him, for the analyst continued to ramble on for quite some time. Observing from the side, an anxious voice erupted from what appeared to be his subordinate.

“Sir…. Sir…!”

“Uh, um, right. The story just veered off course.”

The man scratched his head awkwardly as he tapped the ground with his staff.

“Thanks for letting me know. Now, let’s talk about why we are gathered here. That is, the ‘business’ we are going to undertake together….”

With a grunt, the man twisted his body, aiming the remote control at the projector. The moment he pressed the button, the screen shifted, and words appeared on it.

The first page of the document, which was new to me, displayed only two colossal phrases.

Operation Name: Magic.

Military Grade One Secret.

“…Friends.”

The man operating the remote grinned at us and opened his mouth.

“Have you ever killed any wanted magicians?”