Erna took the notes she’d copied from the office and brought them home with her. She was going to transcribe them onto microfilm when she got there, so it was crucial that she not run into any trouble on her way back.
However, there were always two stops made on her way there.
The first was a bakery. It was open late into the night to cater to unmarried blue-collar workers, and she rushed in to buy up their unsold bread. After filling her bag as well as both arms, she headed out into the back alleys of the city.
Midway through her journey, she stopped to take a rest.
It’s exhausting, spending every day like this.
She had school during the day, then her job at night. On top of that, she had to work to complete her mission while hiding her true identity as a spy all the while. She never had a moment to herself to just relax.
However, that was how spies normally operated.
Up until Lylat, Lamplight had never stayed in a single country for more than two months at a time. The team was unique in that their job was to go around the world overcoming situations that had proved impossible for their countrymen.
Now, though, Erna was faced with the solitude that came with being a spy who had to lie to everyone around them. Aside from Annette, she hadn’t seen any of her teammates in ages.
But it’s all fine. I’m hanging in there. I just have to take things one day at a time, and—
Right as she was taking in the smell of the bread to cheer herself up, she heard a voice.
“And what exactly do you think you’re doing?”
It came from behind her the moment she set foot in the alleyway.
Three men dressed in military uniforms stepped in to cut off her avenue of retreat. They’d been hiding just out of sight.
The leader of the trio had a shaved head. His features were so pronounced that his eyes were practically bugging out, and he radiated a quiet hostility as he marched over to where Erna stood, motionless. “We’re with Genesis Army’s Nilfa unit. What’s an exchange student like you doing loitering in alleyways?”
Erna bit down on her lip a little.
The Genesis Army was the Lylat Kingdom’s intelligence agency—a group that leeched off the aristocracy and used their outstanding counterintelligence skills to keep domestic malcontents in line.
She’d heard of the Nilfa unit, too. They were the ones in charge of suppressing anti-government sentiment in that area. They showed up many a time in Gabriel’s court records.
Erna played the part of a delicate young girl and cast her eyes downward. “I was just giving them some bread…”
Sure enough, the back alley Erna was visiting was filled with homeless people like the one she’d seen that morning. They had problems just getting enough to eat, and they gathered in alleys to scrounge for scraps and took charity from churches in order to get through the day.
Four people, men and children dressed in shabby clothes, had already gathered around her. Without that bread, those people would starve. Some of the people in their ranks had lost their jobs and houses after getting arrested for opposing the government. Erna had learned about them through her work at the law firm, too.
The Nilfa men nodded like they’d seen her answer coming. “You sure were. We’ve done our research. Every night, you buy up unsold bread and dole it out to these people. It’s admirable, it really is.”
Their mouths curled into mocking sneers.
“But the question is, what are you getting out of feeding this gutter trash?”
“……………”
Erna’s face went hot.
She knew that was how they really felt, and that just made it all the more reprehensible.
“You go to St. Katraz, right? You should be focusing on your studies.” The leader of the trio gave Erna a look dripping with scorn. “We know you’ve been working at that law office. It boggles the mind, it really does. Why take your hard-earned money and throw it down the drain like that?”
“Th-these people are—”
“Lazy bums? Yeah. The only reason they’re even able to live here is because good people risked it all driving those Galgad savages back into their own country. Now these wastes of space are squandering that blessing and stinking up the whole city.”
The Nilfa trio shoved the homeless people aside and moved in to surround Erna.
“Hands up. You’re under investigation.”
Their interrogation wasn’t going to be gentle.
Erna could see the guns hanging from their waists. Their barrels glinted dully in the moonlight.
“It’s people like you who always embolden the morons who try to oppose us and attack our nation. You wouldn’t happen to be an enemy spy, would you?”
They were calling it an investigation, but it was little more than mob justice.
It happened all the time. The aristocracy regularly sicced the Genesis Army on people who harbored anti-government sentiments in order to bury them in abuse and strike fear into their hearts.
It was true that spies had an easy time joining up with people who had a bone to pick with the government. When people lacked the power to fight their nation’s institutions, it wasn’t much of a jump to go from that to wanting foreign spies to threaten those same power structures. However, that only served to legitimize the Genesis Army’s methods.
The men smiled cruelly. “You make one shady move, and we’ll execute you for sedition. You wanna join the rest of the bodies?”
Cold sweat trickled down Erna’s back.
That note with my list on it is in my collar.
She hadn’t put it in her bag. It was tucked safely away in a hidden pocket in her shirt. No matter how violently they searched her, they wouldn’t find it.
I just have to put up with a little bit of abuse…
It was clear from the look in the men’s eyes just how vulgar their desire to torment a young girl was. Erna was sixteen now, and her body was closer to that of an adult woman.
However, fighting back would be a bad move.
All she had to do was endure, and then their suspicions that she was a spy would go away. That was enough.
As a female spy, she was prepared for this. All she had to do was let them satisfy their—
“Y-you’re wrong. She didn’t do anything wrong!”
The cry came from an unexpected direction.
It was one of the homeless youths that Erna had been trying to give bread to. His voice trembled as he looked pleadingly at the Genesis Army trio. “All she does is bring us food out of the goodness of her heart. She would never defy His Majesty—”
“Get your foul breath out of my face!”
One of the Nilfa men slapped him across the face.
Violence came naturally to them, and the crack of the swift backhand echoed through the alley.
“Oh, I get it. The girl’s trying to defy us by winning over the human trash. Now we’ve got her on obstruction of a public official on top of seditious conspiracy. In accordance with Article Four of the Peace Preservation Act, you’re under arrest.”
Hearing that made Erna’s blood run cold.
“Now, get over here! The guillotine is thirsty for your—!”
“Oh, just shut up.”
As the man shouted, Erna sank her elbow into his solar plexus.
There were three hostiles she needed to contend with, and she’d gone for the bald man in the middle.
The surprise attack caught her foes off guard, and their reactions were delayed. The man on the right went to draw his gun, but Erna grabbed his arm, twisted it all the way back, and snatched his pistol away from him. Then she used his body as a shield as she circled around and shot the left man in the shoulder.