After casually making that outrageous observation, he strode across the main hall. He passed in front of the girls gaping at him in shock, reached the door—
“The rest of the day will be self-study.”
—and with that final comment, left the room.
You could hear a pin drop.
The girls were silent for a moment, but after what had just happened sank in, they exchanged glances, nodded, then stood as a unit—
“““““““HOLD UUUUUUUUUP!”””””””
—and shouted as one.
The main hall was in abject chaos.
“What in the world did I just witness?!” “Does he think this is all a joke?!” “Okay, I really need to ask—what’s so ‘magnificent’ about any of this?!” “That was awful…”
However, the girls could hardly be blamed for their animated ranting.
Their sole hope had just been lost to them. There was only one way a bunch of washouts could have cleared an Impossible Mission, and now, even that was gone.
“Now how are we supposed to complete that mission?!” The brown-haired girl looked even closer to tears than usual.
Lily’s lip quivered as their situation finally began to sink in.
Lamplight’s boss was unbelievably useless.
“W-well, even at worst, we can still train among ourselves and get stronger that way…”
“But training isn’t the only issue here.” The black-haired girl laid a finger against her face. The gesture gave her an elegant, mature air. “In addition to being our teacher, he’s also our boss. That means we’ll be acting under his command during our mission.”
“Uh…so?”
“Will he be able to give us actual orders? I worry that he’s more likely to tell us to Sneak around the back pleasantly and Search the area like a mole.”
That was disturbingly plausible.
In fact, it seemed almost guaranteed to happen.
Lily could feel the color drain from her face.
This was a crisis the likes of which they’d never seen.
The white-haired girl summed things up nicely when she screamed, “WHAT THE HEEEEEEELL?!”
It was like a dam had opened, and the other girls began voicing their complaints at once.
In one fell swoop, they’d been dropped from heaven straight into hell.
And thus, the freshly minted spy team Lamplight fell apart less than a single hour into its existence.
Lily walked across the busy street with a bundle of groceries in her arms.
She had purchased them just fine, but now her legs felt like lumps of lead. Her gait was gloomy as she headed back to Heat Haze Palace, and as she nearly dropped the potatoes for the umpteenth time, she let out a heavy sigh.
How the heck did we end up here…?
After the meeting, Klaus had holed himself up in his room. He had yet to emerge.
Left with no other choice, the girls began practicing lock picking on their own, but that was no different than what they’d already been doing at their spy academies. No sudden bursts of insight seemed likely to come.
If self-study was all they needed to become strong, they wouldn’t have been washouts in the first place.
There was no way they’d be able to clear next month’s Impossible Mission.
And who exactly was the big dum-dum who went and talked a big game about how Teach would have a bunch of brilliant lessons planned to hone our skills?! Forget discovering my latent talent—at this rate, I’m gonna die!
As she silently cursed everything, Lily trembled at the all-too-real future looming before her.
Now that she thought about it, this was probably exactly what her principal had been worried about.
…Would it be better to just make a break for it?
She was reminded of something one of her teammates had suggested the day prior.
But there really isn’t anywhere I can go… And besides—
—what would become of her teammates if she fled on her own?
What would become of the intimidating white-haired girl who had nodded, saying “You’re right, though; that doesn’t sound half bad.”
What would become of the black-haired girl who had elegantly cheered them up by saying “We have to clear that mission—together!”
What would become of the brown-haired girl who had given her a timid smile as she said “Thank you. I feel a lot better. I should be able to get a good night’s sleep now.”
Lily had only known them for a single night.
However, they were all around her age and had all endured the same things she had. Could she really just leave them to die…?
But…what can I do?
In that moment, an idea sprang up in her mind—the one way she could break the deadlock.
She immediately dismissed it as impossible.
However, the plan she came up with refused to go away so easily. The longer she thought about it, the more convinced she became that it was her only option.
Then she heard something.
An old woman’s voice emerged from the crowd. “Stop, thief!”
Lily whirled around.
A large man was running through the city’s hustle and bustle with a purse clutched in his hand, pushing people aside as he made his escape. What’s more, he was heading straight toward her.
He gave her a hard shove. “Outta my way, kid!”
His arms felt as thick as logs, and Lily collapsed by the roadside with an “Ah!”
Meanwhile, the man just kept running.
“Ow-ow-ow…”
Lily rubbed her bum, then began collecting her fallen potatoes. As she was counting them and blowing the dirt off, a genteel-looking old lady came up to her.
She must have been the purse snatcher’s victim.
“Are you all right, young miss…?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine.”