However, the brown-haired girl seemed unsatisfied. She looked down despondently. “You’re right; it is a bit different than I imagined.”
That was when Lily spoke up. “So? This is pretty great, too, isn’t it?”
The other girls all turned to her.
Lily gazed up at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling and went on warmly.
“I mean, just picture it. Living in a beautiful building, having three meals together every day, training and going out on missions, taking baths, eating meals, playing board games, enjoying the city’s nightlife every now and again, becoming master spies… Doesn’t that sound amazing?”
“You trying to sneak a fourth meal in there?” the white-haired girl quipped.
“Well, not every day.”
“You’re right, though; that doesn’t sound half bad.”
Nobody spoke up to disagree. In fact, they had probably all been thinking the same thing.
Then another girl cut in.
“Well, we know what we have to do to make that a reality.”
She had straight-black hair, and at eighteen, she was the oldest of the group. Her exceptional figure seemed almost designed to draw gazes, her face was dazzlingly beautiful, and her elegant smile only served to accentuate her attractiveness.
“We have to clear that mission—together!” she declared with a very chairwomanly energy, and that served to settle the matter.
That seemed as good a moment as any to end the dinner.
After using rock-paper-scissors to decide who would have to clean up, the girls headed to their rooms. Heat Haze Palace had plenty of space to go around, so each of them had a bedroom all to herself.
What a nice group, Lily thought in satisfaction as she made for her room. On her way there, she spotted one of the other girls with a downcast expression.
It was the timid, brown-haired girl who had just been expressing her concerns.
“Still worried, huh?”
Lily flashed her a smile, and her new comrade gave a nod in return.
“I know it’s lame, but yeah…,” she replied in a quiet voice. The muscles in her face were tense. “Say, Lily, do you have anywhere you can escape to?”
“What do you mean?”
“Before the Impossible Mission starts, I’m going to run away.”
“Hmm… Sorry, but I don’t have a lot in the way of relatives. Actually, I don’t have any family at all.”
“Oh no… And with the provisional graduation, I can’t even go back to my academy… I’m all out of options…”
Apparently, Lily’s new friend didn’t have any family, either.
Many of the spy academy students were orphans who’d lost both parents to accidents or disease.
Without some situation like that to force their hand, it was rare to find anyone willing to take on the grueling training of spy work.
“I wouldn’t worry so much.” Lily put on her broadest smile to cheer up her new teammate. “Think about it. That Klaus guy wouldn’t gather a bunch of washouts without having some sort of plan, would he? If his team blows it, he’s the one who’s gonna be in danger. He probably has a bunch of brilliant lessons planned to hone our skills.”
“A-and that’ll make us strong enough to do Impossible Missions…?”
“Of course! I mean, that guy practically had an aura crackling around him. An aura that said I’m gonna give you awesome lessons to awaken the talents sleeping within all of you!”
Lily wasn’t just saying that to console the brown-haired girl, either.
The sheer power emanating from that man put her spy academy teachers to shame. He was probably some sort of super-genius when it came to education. After all, it would have required supreme confidence to assemble a team of washouts to take on an Impossible Mission.
“…Yeah, I guess you’re right.” The brown-haired girl’s expression softened. “Thank you. I feel a lot better. I should be able to get a good night’s sleep now.”
“Any time. Better get that shut-eye so you’re ready for tomorrow’s training!”
Lily gave her a small wave.
Obviously, she was worried, too. Without some unbelievably efficient help, they had no hope of taking on the Impossible Mission. She didn’t have the mission’s details yet, but with a bunch of washouts on one side and a 90 percent mortality rate on the other, the math was clear.
That was why she chose to believe in Klaus—and believe he had a plan.
The next morning marked their second day at Heat Haze Palace.
When the girls assembled in the main hall, Klaus made his appearance. Unlike yesterday’s outfit stained in red, though, his suit and trousers this time were nice and clean. Lily found herself utterly captivated by his trim appearance.
She decided to greet him in an attempt to hide her racing heart. “Good morning, Boss.”
“Oh, I don’t like that at all.” Klaus frowned. “Let’s not call me Boss. Teach, maybe. Or just Klaus.”
“Uh…okay. Teach it is, then.”
“Fine by me. Now, let’s get this Lamplight meeting started.”
The couches in the main hall were arranged in a U-shape, and the girls had been sitting on them as they waited. They steeled themselves.
Klaus, completely unaffected by the tension in the room, began speaking leisurely.
“Allow me to explain. Lamplight is a provisional team built to take on an Impossible Mission, one that revolves around infiltrating a laboratory in the Galgad Empire. I’ll get into the particulars at a later date, but our task is to steal something from inside it. The reason it’s been designated an Impossible Mission is because a team of our operatives failed to complete it last month. There were no survivors, and we received no intel back from them.”
“No survivors…,” one of the girls murmured.