Now, though, it was a clear and unshakable goal that drove her to work as a Lamplight spy.
That very goal meant she had to speak up.
No matter how scared she was, no matter how outrageous she knew she was being, she couldn’t afford to hesitate. If she didn’t listen to her heart, it would mean there was no reason for her to continue being a spy.
As soon as their briefing for the Lylat mission ended, she headed straight to Klaus’s room. Despite her abrupt arrival, he didn’t seem put out. Rather, he looked at her in surprise.
She took a deep breath and held her head high.
“I can’t agree to this!” she declared. “Please, I need you to revise our strategy.”
It was a rare day when one of the girls asked Klaus to modify his plans. They cut in with questions, sure, but by and large, Lamplight followed his instructions to the letter. Despite his incomprehensible turns of phrase, his experience and talent had been enough to earn the girls’ unconditional trust.
As such, Sara’s actions were all but unprecedented.
Klaus blinked as he sat down in his chair. “What are you saying? Would you mind elaborating?”
“Like I told you before, I have a real goal for the first time in my life.” Sara went on, undaunted. “I’m going to be Lamplight’s guardian—someone who never lets any of her teammates die. I’ll work to protect the others until the day comes where they’re ready to retire. That’s the kind of spy I want to be.”
Lamplight’s guardian.
Sara had already told most of the team about it.
After spending so long rudderless, she’d finally found an objective—prioritizing her teammates’ lives over the success of their missions.
“I can’t agree to a plan that puts Miss Erna and Miss Annette in so much danger.”
The plan Klaus had put forward went against Sara’s beliefs.
Splitting up the team meant she would be in no position to help the others. Plus, even if she accepted that it was necessary for the sake of the mission, the way he’d arranged the duos carried far too much risk.
“I can appreciate why you built our strategy around Miss Erna. But in that case, you should have paired her up with Miss Monika or Miss Sybilla—someone who could protect her if anything went wrong.”
Klaus was taking a duo that had yet to fully mature and placing them on the mission’s front lines. Even just thinking about it made Sara shudder. What if something happened to them?
“We need to keep those two safe—that’s why I have to insist that you rework the plan.”
“……………………”
Klaus didn’t offer her an immediate reply. Rather, he stared directly at her. His face muscles didn’t so much as twitch, and his expression was scarily robotic.
Sara could feel her heart pounding in her chest.
She knew full well that she was completely out of line. Someone as inexperienced as her was in no position to be talking back to her boss like that. She was gushing so much sweat, she could feel her temperature dropping.
As she fought back her rising urge to flee, Klaus finally spoke. “Sara—”
Sara braced herself for a scolding and waited for him to go on.
“—color me impressed at how much you’ve grown. You’ve come a long way from the days when you couldn’t even bring yourself to voice an opinion to the others.”
“Huh…?”
What she got, however, was praise.
Klaus crossed his arms in satisfaction and nodded a few times. He seemed to be basking in his delight.
Sara found herself a little taken aback at the unexpected response.
“That’s something to be celebrated, Sara. You’re trying to take your first big step toward becoming a true spy. So as a fellow spy, I’m going to give you my answer straight out.”
“O-okay…”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Monika and Sybilla have different roles to play. There’s no arrangement better than the one we have.”
However, his reply was one of flat-out rejection.
After contemplating the matter as best he could, that was the conclusion he’d arrived at. He’d spent their entire vacation in Marnioce, from the very first day to day thirteen, agonizing over his decision. Weighing his subordinates’ safety against his duty.
“I…I know that I’m being selfish here.” Sara balled up her fists and took a half step forward. “But if you could at least let me go along with the two of them—”
“And what is it you think you’d be able to accomplish?”
Klaus’s voice had a sharp edge to it.
He was speaking not as her mentor but as a spy. Even if Annette and Erna did find themselves in peril, having someone of Sara’s skill there wouldn’t actually do anything to help.
“……………………………”
Sara was struck speechless, and Klaus slowly rose to his feet. “In light of your growth, perhaps some slightly harsher lessons would be apropos.”
“Huh?”
Klaus crossed in front of her. “I was always planning on eventually having you follow in her footsteps. And not just with cooking, either. As someone who plans to retire from espionage someday, these skills will be even more useful to you. If you can master just ten percent of them, that would be more than sufficient.”
He went and unlocked the cabinet in the corner.
As far as Sara knew, there was nothing on its shelves but statistical data and maps and such, but once Klaus was done fiddling with some sort of mechanism, a pleasant click rang out as something dropped from its top section.
“I have five records left of her performances.”
Klaus reached into the fallen paper bag and pulled out a set of what looked to be five record cases. The cases were all black, with nothing written on them.
“What are those?”
“‘Flamefanner’ Heide was a prodigy when it came to painting sound, light, smells, and even the air itself in her hues, and these are some of her works.”
Sara watched with bated breath as Klaus retrieved a record player from inside the cabinet. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what might be about to happen, but all he did was plug the player into the wall and set it up to play music.
“Your assignment is to endure for two minutes.”
“…What?”
“If you can do that, I’ll take your opinion into consideration.”
Sara was a bit bewildered, but she braced herself all the same. If those were his conditions, then she wasn’t going to back down.
Klaus dropped the needle on the spinning record.
“Listen well, ‘Meadow’ Sara—this is an important first step that you need to be able to take.”
The moment he did, Sara’s body split in two.