A Dark Fantasy Spy

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About 30 minutes had passed since I dragged Francesca out of the lodging.

Where our feet had landed was not in the northern regions of the Kien Empire, but at the immigration office of the Magic Tower.

“That was really fast. I’ve heard so much about the convenience of teleportation scrolls, but honestly, I never thought they could take you all the way from the north to Petrogard in one go. Isn’t it fascinating, Administrator?”

“……”

Francesca shot me a cold glare. It felt like a chilling dagger had pierced my heart.

“Such an awful attitude.”

I took the lead, urging Francesca along as we exited the immigration office.

“Come on! The sun will rise soon. You must be tired from the long journey, so let’s not keep waiting too long. People should mind their manners.”

“The one who claims to have manners is the same person who barged in on a woman staying at an inn. Don’t you think that’s a bit hypocritical?”

“When I do it, it’s romance, and when someone else does it, it’s an affair, right?”

“…Hah.”

With a grin, I stepped outside.

I thought I heard a sigh from beside me, but it must have been my imagination.

Most likely.

—

Episode 12 – The Most Powerful Magician

Francesca, who had been yanked out of bed in the middle of the night, was grumbling but eventually let out a resigned sigh.

After traveling hundreds of kilometers magically, Francesca faced me with a worn-out expression and asked,

“Can we stop with the nonsense? Why did you suddenly bring me to the Magic Tower? And why did you drag me along?”

“I have someone to introduce you to, and besides, we could use the Administrator’s help.”

A question arose on her tired face.

Francesca tilted her head, pondering the meaning behind my words.

“Introduction… Is this related to that matter from before? The underground dark elf?”

“That’s right.”

Currently, the underground black market in the north was tightly gripped by a single dark elf.

The owner of the Palm Tree Trade Guild, Hormoz. He could roughly be likened to a shady loan shark operating on Earth.

That dark elf possesses the information we need.

“Hormoz is likely the person who knows the source of the dark magic used in the department store terror incident. But he’s not inclined to give us any information.”

So what can we do?

We have to force it out of him.

“The person we’re going to meet now can help us play tricks on that dark elf.”

“Hmm… Is this person trustworthy?”

“You can trust them; I’ve known them for a long time. About five years.”

I halted my steps and glanced back at Francesca.

Though she had just woken up, Francesca stood there looking as she always does.

No.

She looked even more dazzling than usual.

Dressed in a suit made from premium fabric with golden trims on the waistcoat. The fitted trousers and the well-groomed hair.

She dressed in such elegance! I had guessed she had money since she wore nice clothes regularly, but at this level, she was practically nobility.

“…Oh right. She is nobility.”

“What’s with the sudden odd statement…?”

Perhaps it’s because of her striking beauty. Francesca hardly looked like a person just rolled out of bed.

Instead, she looked like a renowned noble returning home after a late night at a social club. A bit like a dandy, one might say.

As the saying goes, clothes give you wings. With attire like hers, she could probably soar to Mars.

Well, it was just about right.

I smiled in satisfaction and complimented Francesca.

“Looks really good. Where did you get that suit made?”

“This? It was made by the tailor who created the colonel’s suit.”

“Aha! That makes it even better.”

Noticing my cheerful demeanor, Francesca suddenly seemed wary, eyeing me suspiciously.

But it didn’t matter.

With an unabashed attitude, I made a request to Francesca.

“Administrator, I have one favor to ask. Could you answer with ‘we’re in a romantic relationship’ if anyone asks about our relationship? More specifically, say we’re at the stage right before dating.”

“……”

“I trust you understand?”

Francesca smiled brightly.

“It seems the concussion finally made you lose your mind.”

That was indeed a painfully honest jab.

—

The great wizards—pioneers and revolutionaries, and fathers of the nation—built the Magic Tower.

After thousands of years of wait, they finally obtained this land.

To preserve knowledge against external invaders and ensure the legacy of wizards for future generations, the grand mages lifted the Magic Tower into the sky.

A gigantic tower with the sky beneath it, which no one could invade or even dare to approach.

Now, there are lawsuits claiming it violates landscaping rights and sunlight rights, but the Oracles maintaining the floating Magic Tower do it not simply out of respect for tradition. The benefits of being airborne outweigh that of being on the ground.

Since the tower’s construction, the wizards progressively modified the great ancestors’ legacy. They added new floors, expanded sideways, and enhanced the efficiency of spatial magic, etc.

However, reckless expansions and developments spawned numerous issues like inequality, housing shortages, and slums, but since decent land is scarce here, any ordinary issue hardly makes it onto the list of problems.

Nestled just a bit away from the numerous produced slums is an old apartment in the downtown area.

On the fourth floor of a precariously fragile apartment, where tenants and homeless coexisted, lies the Safe House of the Military Intelligence Agency.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and come in!”

“……”

Francesca stood shocked in the hallway, gazing into the house.

“What is this…?”

“A safe place. If you keep the door open, the cold wind will come in, so please step inside for now.”

I pulled a dazed Francesca inside.

After tossing the key buried in the garden bed next to the common entrance onto the table, I cursed the Military Intelligence Agency’s Magic Tower branch.

“What stingy bastards. There’s not even a TV?”

The Safe House was utterly barren. With its worn façade and various cracks along the yellowing wallpaper, that much was understandable.

But not having even a common TV that one could find in a train station waiting room was a bit much.

Suddenly, I found myself clicking my tongue absentmindedly. I switched on the lamp next to the sofa and gazed out of the window.

“The maintenance costs of the safe house come out of the branch’s budget. But still, leaving only the sofa and a few furniture pieces, c’mon….”

“…Is this really a safe house? Is it?”

Francesca murmured incredulously.

“This is not what I was expecting….”

“It’s usually not like this. They usually furnish the place with various furniture and secure a nice location, but since this place is not meant for permanent residence but rather a quick hideaway, it probably ended up this way.”

I grumbled discontentedly.

Surely all our conversations here would be recorded by the Military Intelligence Agency personnel dispatched from the Abas Embassy at the Magic Tower.

This means the conversation I’m having with Francesca right now was being recorded as well. I somewhat hoped they wouldn’t just record but report it to the higher-ups too. What’s with this so-called safe house?

“Tsk… It seems the person we are supposed to meet hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Weren’t they supposed to be waiting for us…?”

I shrugged nonchalantly.

“They’re probably already here. They must be checking if this place is truly safe. They’re a bit shy.”

“…Isn’t that usually described as cautious or fearful?”

“Same difference. Just sit back and relax.”

I threw open the window to let some fresh air in and took out a handkerchief to dust off the dirt accumulated on the old sofa.

Coming to her senses, Francesca cast a cleaning spell on the spot where she would sit, and perched on the sofa, she curled up slightly, clearly uneasy.

“Whoosh.”

After brushing off some dust, I plopped down next to Francesca.

“……”

“What are you staring at?”

“There are chairs and plenty of other places to sit. Why do you have to sit right next to me, Colonel…?”

“If we’re pretending to be in a relationship, we should stay close, right?”

What are we, some show-window couple sharing separate rooms? Grumbling with that nuance, I noticed Francesca’s shoulders slumping as a sigh filled the sanctuary.

“I just don’t get it. Who brings their romantic partner to such a transaction meeting on their first encounter? That sounds pretty rude.”

Manners, huh.

“To a normal person, it might seem so. But that guy is not a ‘normal’ person.”

“…?”

It’s someone who doesn’t quite fit into general common sense…

Anyway,

“It’s not necessary to elaborate. Once you meet him, Francesca, you’ll understand.”

Having said everything I needed to, I switched off the lamp next to the sofa, burying myself in its comfort. The entrance into the apartment reflected in the window.

Francesca gazed at me quietly but suddenly jerked her head away, and silence fell over the safe house.

—

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

The sound of the second hand, gentle like ripples spreading across a lake, echoed in my ears.

Looking at my watch, rolled up my sleeves, and checked inside, it had been about 40 minutes.

“……”

We waited in the lake of silence for our guest. While the seat wasn’t particularly uncomfortable, no one spoke up first.

When there’s a beginning, there’s an end.

The stone thrown first into the lake came from none other than Francesca.

“Colonel.”

“Yes?”

“Is the person you mentioned, the one you’ve known for a long time, really coming?”

Crossing her legs and folding her arms, Francesca lightly posed her question.

To that, I casually replied while peering out the window.

“Yes.”

“……”

Although my confident answer was given, it seemed to not satisfy her.

Francesca nodded in understanding, but her violets eyes showed no sign of acceptance. She was still waiting, but she didn’t look pleased.

Instead of clearing her doubts, I stayed silent, gazing out of the window. Francesca occasionally took glances at me in silence, and then turned her gaze in another direction.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

The soft sound of the second hand echoed throughout the safe house once more. Ten minutes passed. Twenty minutes. Before long, it surpassed forty minutes, with only about four hours left until sunrise.

Yet still, I waited. Leaning against the window’s glow from the streetlights, I watched outside.

“……”

Then it happened.

A bizarre noise that sounded like a switch being flipped rang through the space.

-Pik…!

What followed the strange noise was an extraordinary spectacle. Like a scene from a horror movie, the streetlights that lined the street slowly began to extinguish one by one.

Even Francesca, who had been staring blankly at the void, turned her head at this mystical sight.

“…What is that?”

Sensing a sense of foreboding, Francesca attempted to rise. I raised my hand, urging her to sit back down on the sofa.

“Don’t worry.”

“……”

“I believe in you. It’ll be fine.”

At those words, the lights of the apartment entrance flickered off as if they took that as a signal. It was the moment the last streetlight in the area went out.

I turned my gaze from the darkened street back to the entrance.

Step, step, step. The sound of someone’s footsteps echoed.

Passing through the common entrance, climbing the stairs, and crossing the hallway, the footsteps came to a halt right in front of the sanctuary.

A moment later,

The front door swung open.

“……”

The guest who entered was a hulking figure. The light that should have illuminated upon sensing his presence flickered weakly, fading into the darkness.

From the darkness emerged a figure who opened a small box he held in his hands. He pulled out a tiny match and struck it.

In the darkness, a small flame ignited.

I raised my hand to greet the man who stepped into the sanctuary, match in hand.

“Welcome, Jammer-Victor.”

“I’d prefer you call me Victor.”

“Of course, if that’s what you want.”

The deep red glow revealed the colossal fangs hiding beneath his skin.

His skin glowed with a green hue reminiscent of a savage beast’s fangs.

“It’s been a while, Victor. Looks like business has been good? You look sharp compared to your days back as a sergeant.”

The orc, called Victor, grinned in the dark, showcasing his fangs.

“Looks like you still have your head on your shoulders.”

The orc greeted with a gravelly voice tinged with a faint smile.

“Good to see you alive, my friend.”

In the dilapidated apartment, just a block away from the Magic Tower slums.

It was the moment of reunification with an old friend.