A Dark Fantasy Spy

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The Magic Tower is declaring independence.

Right now, at this very moment.

I haven’t obtained specific plans yet, but it’s certain they’ll declare independence in the near future.

“What is this, the Berlin Wall collapsing? What’s with the declarations and all this fuss….”

“What’s Berlin?”

“…It’s a thing.”

Of course, there’s no objective basis for it. Just Saint Veronica’s testimony.

To dismiss it as mere speculation from a single individual would be a mistake, considering Veronica’s political and social stature rivaling that of the Pope, and her intelligence network is more impressive than that of any ordinary information officer.

She was a lobbyist, after all.

She wasn’t just any lobbyist; she was a high-level information agent connected directly to the Imperial Family and the Cult National Affairs Council. If she wanted, she could secure high-level intel effortlessly.

It was surprising that the Imperial Guard HQ handed information to the traitorous Veronica, but in a way, this could serve as the most solid evidence supporting the espionage claims.

What should I do?

This information, what it means for the events to come, the world that’s about to change.

How will it affect me, and Camila Lowell?

One thing is for sure: I know nothing at the moment.

I don’t even know where I am or where I’m going.

But I had to do what I needed to do.

“…Saint, do you have any evidence? Anything I can report?”

“Just a moment. I received a pardon from the Guard HQ….”

“A pardon?”

“At first, they only brought money, but they kept deflecting, so they eventually gave it to me. Stamped it with the Chancellor’s seal.”

“You received that instead of money?”

“I got both.”

I compiled the information and evidence from Veronica to gauge how it would impact our government’s forthcoming projects.

After crunching some numbers, I came up with an estimate.

If things continue as they are, a complete overhaul of the plan would be inevitable.

“……”

Looks like I’ll be working overtime.

—

Episode 4 – Why Me?

Fortunately, it wasn’t me who ended up working overtime.

The Military Intelligence Agency needed to enhance the credibility of the intelligence I reported, which required gathering additional information from agents and operatives spread across the continent for cross-checking.

So, countless seniors from the Military Intelligence Agency filled in for my night shift.

The next morning, the results came in.

“They’re right about declaring independence.”

The Magic Tower was indeed preparing for independence.

I couldn’t hide my dismay and buried my face in my hands. I then squeezed out a long breath.

“…So what do we do now?”

“What do you mean, what do we do? If they declare independence, then so be it.”

Colonel Clevenz replied with an unusually calm expression. But judging by how long I’ve known him, he was definitely not as composed as he pretended to be.

“What happened at the meeting? Any good suggestions come up?”

“Do you think any good suggestions came up?”

The head of the Military Intelligence Agency’s Counterintelligence Department clicked his tongue in response.

“Count yourself lucky you weren’t in Room 503. It was chaos. The Director was grilling the commanders, asking what on earth they were doing on the field. If you were there, the atmosphere would have turned grim for no reason.”

The Director seemed to have railed against the overseas unit commanders. I asked him,

“Which units were being grilled?”

“Overseas Intelligence Office, Overseas Operations Office, Technical Intelligence Division, Open Information Division, Special Activities Department.”

It meant the entire overseas unit had been thrown into disarray.

While the Military Intelligence Agency’s overseas division had more units than those five, it was safe to say that effectively the entire overseas unit had been reprimanded. Of course, they weren’t just keeping an eye on the Magic Tower, but that didn’t really matter.

What mattered was that the overseas unit failed in information gathering.

“For now, you keep doing what you were doing.”

“Is that really alright…?”

“What can we do? Even if we want to make a judgment call, we lack information. You can’t just expect intel to fall from the sky while we wait.”

Though I’ve heard that if you ask the Americans, information may come down from the heavens and the universe.

Anyway.

The Military Intelligence Agency ordered to proceed with the current plan without modifications. A change in the plan would require collecting and analyzing intelligence, then making a decision based on that. And since we had no incoming intel, the directive was to monitor the situation and proceed as it is.

If the analysis turned out to be correct, and the Magic Tower declared independence while the Empire embarked on a hardline approach, the operation would likely collapse. There was no way to stay around if a war broke out.

“Do you think a war will happen, Colonel?”

“I wouldn’t know. But I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Clevenz let out a personal remark, then paused to catch his breath before speaking to me again.

“Whether they declare independence or start a war, we’ll keep the plan as it is. Find the ones who sent those spies. Everyone’s busy, and you’re the only other one left.”

Since everyone was too busy with information gathering, they were leaving it all to me.

“Yes.”

“Good. Pull all the necessary personnel according to the submitted plan, and let me know if you need any equipment. It’s a directive from the Director, so there won’t be any trouble. And report immediately if there’s any new information.”

—

Even though all mid-level and higher officials in the Military Intelligence Agency had been put on emergency duty, I found myself without tasks to handle.

This was due to special orders to focus on creating conditions for the operation.

It’s ironic to think that I was the one who fired the signal flare first. Normally, the person who brought the intel keeps inquiring about it.

But since I had no knowledge at all, I couldn’t really assist in any way. I already had my own tasks to handle.

So unless there was new intelligence or special orders, I needed to concentrate on the upcoming project.

“Did you review the plan?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

The goal of this operation was to ‘trace the source that sent the spies.’ Thus, I formed a team to successfully carry out the mission.

I gave alternating instructions to Pippin and Jake. Jake was first up.

“Hey, what happened with the Special Activities Department?”

Since the mission was to trace the source of the spies, physical confrontation was expected. If we were tracking from a third country, that’d be one thing, but stepping into the turf of magicians meant we had to have a certain level of physical force in case of emergencies. And there wasn’t a better team than the Special Forces.

For a simple strike mission, we could request support from the Special Operations Command, but since we needed to carry out intelligence tasks simultaneously depending on the ground situation, I pulled personnel from the Special Activities Department. The Special Activities Department itself was a group comprised of elite chosen from the Special Forces, so there was no question about their capabilities.

However, activating the Special Activities Department required the Director’s permission…

But since the person who gave me the special orders was the Director, getting approval was quite easy.

And Jake being a former Special Forces member, along with the operation team I previously collaborated with during Raul’s assassination, made reaching out a piece of cake.

Jake answered my question,

“They’ve gathered the team and are getting their gear on the train. They should arrive by tomorrow, but the issue is moving the gear…”

“I’ve already sorted that out.”

I had prepared everything for the Special Activities Department members to move.

“We have a ghost company created by the Intelligence Agency. It’s a company exporting electronic parts, and we’ll load the gear onto a ship of foreign nationality and drop it in international waters.”

A method commonly used by North Korea for foreign currency earnings.
What happens is that once we drop the promised cargo at the selected coordinates via a ghost company established overseas and a ship registered to a third country, another ship comes along to retrieve the goods and make the payment. I decided to adopt the method of the Reds.

“Then a fixed spy will receive the goods and hide them away, and we’ll just have to track and deliver.”

“Next.”

Pippin trotted up with a comment,

“About the analysis team issue you mentioned, I contacted some colleagues in charge of the Magic Tower. They said they’d spread the word.”

“What’s the outcome?”

“They’ve all been gathered.”

I recruited analysts.

Sending collected intel to the Intelligence Agency for analysis takes too long, so it was necessary to analyze it on-site for swift response. We could manage simple analyses ourselves with just the three of us, but given the tasks at hand and the need for accuracy, it was best to enlist the help of experts.

Of course, I didn’t just pull personnel from those two departments.

“What about the counterintelligence department?”

“They said they’ll come to the capital as soon as the handover at the research institute is done.”

“What about the technician?”

“He’s on standby at headquarters.”

In addition to the operation team and the analysis team, I received assistance from various departments.

While they all complained about being understaffed, once they heard it was a special mission from the Director, they quietly complied. Anyway, with contributions from the Special Activities Department, Intelligence Analysis, Counterintelligence, and so on, I quickly transformed a small operation team into a massive task force.

“At this rate, it’s almost like a task force…”

When I realized it, I found myself shouldering a job well beyond my capabilities.

I’m sure I’ve done similar tasks in the past, but I didn’t recall them going to this scale before. This was a joint effort, not a solo mission.

Anyway, I hurriedly rushed around in every direction to complete what needed to be done to ensure the operation’s success.

Of course,

“Uh… Colonel.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

There were indeed a few issues.

“About the information team you mentioned, we’ve contacted both the intel and operations side, but they said there’s absolutely no availability…”

“So?”

“They refused to provide support. Well, it’s not exactly a refusal…”

“And?”

“They said since there weren’t any experienced personnel, they’d instead send in a newbie.”

—

“Director, are you absolutely sure there are no personnel available?”

-‘Sorry, but that’s how it is.’

“Excuse me, Director! No matter how stretched thin things are, how can you attach a newbie to us? What if something goes wrong in the most critical part?”

-‘…sigh. I looked into it because the Director ordered me to, but the only personnel available on-site right now is the newbies. Why do you think I recommended you for this in the meeting?’

“Director.”

-‘Just know that I’ve done my part. Still, we’ve pulled in experienced staff, so I doubt it’ll be a major issue for the mission. I’ll have to go into a meeting now, so we can talk later.’

“Director! Director! Ugh, the line’s dead.”

I gripped the disconnected phone and raised my voice to no avail before setting it down. I slouched back onto the sofa and leaned my head back.

“Ugh…”

I succeeded in forming a team necessary for the operation, but I failed to assemble a human intelligence team that could go out into the field to gather intel.

To be precise, I couldn’t create the ‘elite team with exceptional field senses’ I had planned. This was due to the lack of personnel within the Intelligence Agency itself. Instead, I had successfully recruited a few agents sent to the Magic Tower informed by the overseas intelligence division.

The problem was they were ‘newbies.’

“…sigh.”

“The newbies might actually be good enough if they’ve been dispatched overseas, right?”

“That’s not quite how it works.”

“Why not think positively?”

You’d be lucky if they had any significant field experience beyond a few short-term missions, calling it skill would be absurd.

However, what can you do when there aren’t any personnel available? You can’t just suddenly pull in experts from the outside. At least they weren’t complete rookies; they were newbies who’d done a task or two, so that was a bit of a relief. If we had gotten only true novices, the operation would have been a complete flop.

I quietly beckoned Pippin and Jake, who were seated on the sofa in the break room.

“Hey guys, when do those people who were supposed to arrive get here? They should have arrived by now.”

“Just a moment… According to a text, they’re about to arrive at the train station. Should we go pick them up? We could get a ride from the transport battalion or send a magician.”

“We shouldn’t summon them here without ever seeing their faces. Let’s take a taxi instead.”

Having spent the whole day preparing for the operation, I stepped out to greet my soon-to-be colleagues.

As I left the Intelligence Agency building, I engaged in an ordinary conversation with my subordinates after a long time.

“Everyone doing well?”

“At my age, my body isn’t going to fall apart that easily.”

“I’ve got knee cartilage issues.”

“With how you keep hiking around while loaded with gear, it’d be weird if you still had any cartilage left. Want me to ask Saint Veronica for treatment?”

“That would be much appreciated.”

“By the way, I heard there are great resorts near the Magic Tower. If we get time, want to visit? You’ve been working too hard.”

“A few days off is enough, don’t you think? Besides, there are better resorts near there. But if I go… I’d have a tail on me. Right. Let’s check out that place you mentioned if time allows.”

“I heard that if you go to the Magic Tower, you’ll need to take a drug test when you return. Should we have to take one too?”

“I wouldn’t know. Better check the regulations.”

We had been joking around while heading up the stairs to the second floor. We entered the changing room, removed our work uniforms, stashed them in the cabinet, changed into suits, and retrieved the IDs we left at the sentry before finally leaving the Military Intelligence Agency.

“Ugh, it’s cold.”

It seemed summer had passed, as a chilly autumn breeze kicked in. Was it the fatigue making my body feel weak, or was I just dressed too lightly? I felt a bit cold, so I buttoned up my jacket and shivered against the chill.

“What’s with the chilly complaints at your age?”

“Why don’t you try pulling an overnight shift for me and then talk?”

“Don’t worry; I asked a colleague to reserve us a taxi. We should get going. They must be waiting.”

We intended to take a taxi to the train station to pick up our guests.

However, we never needed to take a cab.

This was because employees from the Royal Intelligence Department had parked their vehicles outside the Military Intelligence Agency building.