As their neighbor, the Din Republic could ill afford to sit idly by while a coup took place in Lylat. There were countless angles for spies to work there.
On a personal level, though, Klaus was sympathetic to Grenier’s ideals. The sound of Lylat’s people suffering had reached his ears, too.
“You can count on my support,” Klaus said, offering him some superficial encouragement. Then he said, “But there’s one thing…” and lowered his voice.
“This is a request not as a spy, but as a simple tourist.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t threaten the islanders’ livelihoods any more than you already have.”
Klaus knew that Grenier had spent years pushing for the naval base to get expanded. He knew about the murders Grenier’s favorite researcher had committed, too.
“These people live in harmony with the splendor of nature, and you need to respect that. How is what you’re doing to them any different from the Lylat nobles you so despise?”
“________”
Grenier inhaled sharply for a brief moment, then let out a long exhale. “…You’re right, of course. Now that I have Jackal’s treasure, I mean the island no harm.”
“Good.”
“If anything, I intend to start repaying them. I know what it is I’ve done.” Grenier cast a look outside the window. “I’ll be keeping the treasure, but perhaps we can use the ship itself as one of their island’s tourist attractions. It would take too much work to sell it off anyhow.”
There were no hints of deception or insincerity in his voice.
Grenier’s grand ambitions might have occasionally led him to make morally dubious choices, but at heart, he had a strong sense of justice. Klaus had engaged with him a number of times during Klaus’s time on Inferno, and he’d seen for himself the work Grenier put in to ease the people’s suffering.
Klaus nodded. “Also, it would be prudent to let the islander who murdered Mercier off the hook. If you try to arrest her, the truth behind the serial murders is likely to get exposed. The man reaped what he sowed.”
“…You’re right. Maybe a lighter touch is called for.”
With that, Klaus’s end of the negotiations was complete.
Annette was in good cheer as well. “As long as I can use the lab, I don’t care about any of that.”
Klaus turned to leave, but several of the girls looked like they still had things they wanted to say. Their shoulders twitched as they fidgeted.
“N-now, a little birdie told me this,” Lily said, stepping forward. “But there’s a big hole in the deck of the ship, right?”
Grenier looked at her in confusion. “What? How could you know that?”
“The point is, that hole was probably there from the start. It definitely isn’t there because someone broke it.”
“I…see…”
The girls were looking for some assurance.
Grenier let out a perplexed sigh. “Well, we haven’t really started our investigation yet,” he muttered. “I say, that ship has a lot of secrets. Why did its cannons go off when it was drifting by? And who exactly was that figure who called herself Sybillan…?”
“Just a pirate ghost, I imagine. Maybe curses are real after all,” Klaus said quickly, before Grenier could ask too many questions.
After retrieving Annette from the naval base, they headed back to the beach they’d started out at. “I’m gonna tie her up so she doesn’t run away again,” Sybilla said before winding a rope around Annette and dragging her along with them.
When they arrived once more at the beach, Lily spoke up. “By the way, Teach…did you say you’re backing the vice-admiral’s coup?”
She was referring to the conversation back at the base, no doubt.
When Grenier had talked about wanting to overthrow the government, Klaus had offered the man his support. Several of the girls had been taken aback by that.
“Are you sure about that? I thought that Din and Lylat were supposed to be allies.”
“We are,” Klaus replied. “If it wasn’t for Lylat, the Republic might very well still be under Galgad occupation. Even with the war over, we’ve continued fostering a strong relationship with them in order to keep Galgad at bay.”
That was Din’s official position, in any case.
After the Republic got invaded, it was a combination of supplies from the United States of Mouzaia, troops from the Fend Commonwealth and Lylat Kingdom, and covert ops by the Din Republic spy team Inferno that allowed them to drive off the Galgad forces. Once the war ended, those four nations’ intelligence agencies had formed an alliance.
“But here’s the thing—Lylat is where the Nostalgia Project began.”
That was the name of the globe-spanning plan that had secretly been progressing in the Din Republic.
“We don’t know the details, but it’s definitely cause for concern.”
There was a lot they didn’t know.
However, remaining ignorant and leaving things be wasn’t an option. For Klaus, there was something essential urging him onward.
“If it wasn’t, Inferno wouldn’t have fallen.”
Guido had betrayed Inferno and joined Serpent.
What if his motives had been related to the Nostalgia Project?
If that was true, then the Din Republic couldn’t just stand idly by. This was a topic so sensitive that neither “Hearth” Veronika nor “Torchlight” Guido had so much as mentioned it to Klaus.
“Our deadline is the start of the global economic recession. That’s how long we have to get right to the heart of the Lylat Kingdom and steal their most closely guarded secrets.”
Gerde had described it in her legacy. According to her, the world was headed for a financial crisis so bad, it would be called the “Great Depression,” and that was going to lead to a second Great War breaking out.
Once war drew closer, though, Lamplight would have little choice but to stop interfering with Lylat’s government. If the Galgad Empire invaded while the Lylat Kingdom was in the middle of a coup, it would be all too easy for the Din Republic to get caught in the middle of the hostilities.
“I’d like to hear it straight from you, Teach.” Lily pursed her lips tightly and took a step forward. “What sort of mission is Lamplight about to embark on?”
“…It would appear that many of you already suspect what’s happening.”
Klaus nodded, then took the notebook Grete had been using and opened it for the girls to see. Written inside were notes detailing how each and every one of them had spent their vacations.
In a sense, the notebook itself was Klaus’s objective.
“When we split up, we can see the world from countless different angles. We can observe things we never would have been able to if we were all in one place. Has this vacation helped you all understand that?”
The holiday had made him certain of that.
By spreading out, they’d been able to gather huge amounts of intelligence in a short amount of time. They’d learned about Raftania’s situation, about the navy conspiracy, and about the pirate legend. They’d exceeded Klaus’s wildest expectations.
“For the next year, Lamplight will be parting ways.”
The girls didn’t so much as shudder. They’d already braced themselves for this.
Klaus continued. “I’m going to be dispatching you in small groups to specific task sites. There, you’ll gather intelligence, engage in covert ops, and complete your missions—and in doing so, we’ll obtain a full picture of what the Nostalgia Project entails.”
Unlike before, they wouldn’t be living together anymore. It would be at least a year before they all got back together, maybe more.
They were going to have to fool everyone around them while they were alone on foreign soil. That was the mission that awaited the Lamplight girls.
Lily stuck out her tongue. “Well, I’d be lying if I said I was confident we could handle something on the scale of world revolution.”
“That’s not what I like to hear.”
“But now… Now we have something we’re fighting for.”
Klaus could tell exactly who she was referring to.