Chapter 152
Chapter 152
Raid the Liaison Office (1)
Before dawn broke, I successfully arrived at the branch location confirmed by Roderick.
“A pizza place, huh.”
The Lunaseeker used to operate out of a laundromat, and now the Security Bureau bastards had set up shop in a pizza place they’d somehow gotten their hands on.
“I wonder if they bake decent pizza.”
“As if. It’s not like they’re actually making money selling pizza.”
I replied like that as I inspected the pizza place. It had already closed for the day.
It was disguised as a pizza shop, so naturally, it would be closed at night. There wasn’t a single person inside.
‘I’ll only know for sure once I get inside.’
The shop had a typical structure. I unlocked the front door using Flicker and stepped inside to look around.
“They must’ve hidden it well, right?”
“Isn’t that obvious.”
I gave a short answer to Irena and drew Flicker.
“I’m going to focus for a moment.”
A gentle breeze began to fill the room, swirling here and there. But I had no intention of stopping there.
“Irena, block the air from escaping this pizza place or coming in from outside.”
At my words, Irena also drew out her stained glass and cast Swift Blade. The airflow between the inside and outside of the building was now sealed off.
Now in this state, I swung my sword wide. The breeze circling through the pizza shop suddenly shifted into a downward draft, almost as if on cue.
“It’s thinning out.”
“Yeah, I can feel it too.”
It was only natural for the wind hitting the floor to have nowhere to go. Even if it tried to escape due to pressure, Irena’s technique blocked it.
A sealed space, air pressing downward.
In this kind of situation, the total amount of wind I was controlling shouldn’t decrease.
But it was gradually thinning out. And it wasn’t slowly seeping through tiny cracks in the floor.
“Found it.”
I followed the flow of escaping wind and easily tracked down the suspicious spot.
“The pantry.”
The wind was escaping through the pantry, where stacks of tomato paste, flour, and cheese were stored.
It wasn’t going through the floor—but the wall. And there was a large pantry cabinet attached to that wall.
“It’s behind that.”
Getting this far had been no trouble. Nora, who had brushed her hand over the pantry, spoke.
“If we just try to open that, it’ll trigger a signal. Oppa, open it.”
Instead of answering, I embedded Flicker. The mosaic spread out. Watching the sight, Nora said,
“I’ll go in first by myself.”
When I said that, Nora tilted her head and looked at me.
“Wouldn’t it be better if I went in instead?”
Stealth was Lunaseeker’s specialty, and naturally, Nora excelled in situations like this. But I shook my head.
“There should only be someone on duty left anyway. I’m not as good as you, but I can move quietly to some extent.”
I planned to go underground and locate the location of the unauthorized annex.
“We’re not going to break through the door of the annex.”
I gave the floor a light tap with my foot.
“We’ll break in through the ceiling.”
A locked door could be opened, and a sealed wall could become an entrance. Using Flicker, I could blow off the roof of the annex without making a sound and slip inside.
“We’ll need precise positioning.”
“I can manage that much.”
Rear Node.
Once I confirmed a position, I never forgot it. Once I had the coordinates, I could find the exact spot and open the ceiling.
“Alright. Then unni and I will keep watch around the area.”
“Yeah, good luck.”
With that, I removed the pantry blocking the way and walked down the stairs leading underground, organizing my thoughts as I went.
They patrolled regularly to check for abnormalities. And the branch chief didn’t stand night watch.
Entering the annex required the branch chief’s permission. In other words, even if those on night duty conducted periodic patrols to check for anything unusual, they would only check the annex by inspecting the door.
‘They wouldn’t expect some lunatic to come in through the ceiling.’
And I was that lunatic. After confirming the annex’s location, I turned back and returned to the pizza shop.
Waiting for me was Nora. It looked like Irena was keeping watch outside.
“Did you find the spot?”
“Of course.”
I walked over confidently and tapped one of the pizza shop’s tables.
“It’s right below here.”
At my words, Nora immediately moved the table aside, and I brought my blade to the floor.
The floor was finished with solid concrete and tile, but it didn’t matter.
A moment later, I successfully carved through the floor and entered the annex together with Nora.
“I know it’s tempting, but we don’t have much time.”
At my words, Nora flinched and let out a sheepish laugh.
“It’s fine as long as we find what you’re looking for, oppa.”
I nodded. Then, in silence, the two of us quickly combed through the annex’s documents.
We used Flicker to open locked cabinets, and simply took out and read the ones that weren’t locked. While the two of us spent time in the annex like that—
Irena was leaning against a gas lamp beside the pizza shop, waiting for us to come back out.
“Not sure if this is the right thing to be doing…”
She was clearly conflicted. Even though she was a knight of the Empire, here she was helping raid a Security Bureau branch.
I couldn't understand what my father was thinking.
“Ah…”
As I continued to dwell on various thoughts, I saw two Security Corps officers approaching in Irena’s line of sight. They were on patrol.
I had to stop them. Questions were questions, but I still had a job to do. My mind spun rapidly.
‘It’d be easy if I used my identity as a knight…’
But this wasn’t a situation where that would be possible. I was in disguise—if I revealed that I was a knight of the Scarlet Leaf Order, it would create a serious problem.
I quickly got up from my spot, peeked my head out from a back alley near the pizza shop, and checked where the officers were heading.
If they just kept walking, there’d be no reason to intervene. But…
‘They probably weren’t told why, but there’s a good chance they’ll patrol the pizza place more thoroughly.’
And sure enough, my bad feeling was right. The guards, who had been simply following their route, started moving closer to the pizza shop.
“Kyahhhhhhh! Help! Is anyone there?! Anyone!”
Taking a deep breath, I let out the loudest scream I could muster. The guards, just about to open the pizza shop door, immediately reacted to my scream.
And I quickly got away from the scene.
‘Kairus and Nora must have heard it too.’
The basement wasn’t that deep, and thanks to all the training I’d undergone, my lung capacity and vocal power were formidable.
“Looks like we need to go.”
Thankfully, Kairus had just found what he needed and was already restoring the annex interior to its original state.
He finished tidying up in a rush, and with Nora, blasted through the ceiling with Flicker to get out.
“Man, life’s rough.”
“Is unni okay? What if something happened to her?”
That scream just now had been Irena’s.
“If something had happened, she wouldn’t have screamed for anyone to help her like that.”
I denied Nora’s worry as we left the pizza place. And, as if to prove my point, not long after we slipped out, the Security Corps officers entered the shop and began inspecting it.
“We almost got wrecked.”
If Irena hadn’t screamed, the officers would’ve checked the pizza shop just as I was getting out of the annex.
Had that happened, I wouldn’t have had a choice but to kill them, and all the effort we’d made until now would have gone to waste.
“…You made it?”
While scanning the surroundings, I found Irena. But something was off in her voice.
“Damn, you screamed so loud your voice is hoarse now?”
At my comment, Irena gave a wry smile and coughed softly.
“It would’ve been a disaster if you didn’t hear it.”
“You did well. Let’s move.”
The next destination was the liaison office.
“Where’s the location?”
Kairus couldn’t help but show a rather complicated expression at Irena’s words.
“A university.”
“Well, isn’t that rich.”
Irena responded like that the moment she heard it. It was certainly a random location, but if you thought about it, a university in the Valorn Empire was the perfect place for a secret agency like the Security Bureau to settle in.
‘Because they’re all national institutions.’
Unlike the Aylan Republic, which had both public and private universities, every educational institution in the Empire was national. Since these schools were established with the Empire’s support, it was only natural that secret organizations like the Security Bureau could receive cooperation and embed themselves within.
“Well, all sorts of seditious movements tend to start in places of learning.”
People who haven’t had access to education rarely dream of rebellion. They lack the time to think that far ahead and have no real desire to climb higher.
“So, where do we have to go?”
“Julian Conservatory.”
At Kairus’s words, Irena made a dumbfounded face.
“A spy agency holed up in a music school?”
Kairus grinned as he replied to Irena’s remark.
“The liaison chief is even posing as a professor in the instrumental music department.”
Apparently, he was disguised as a famous violinist. The liaison office was located on the top floor of the Zelkova Hall, one of the Julian Conservatory buildings.
“No time to rest. Our next target is the Julian Conservatory.”
And just like that, Kairus found himself heading off to a music school—something that had never been in his fate.
As he waited for the early morning train after purchasing the tickets, Kairus spoke to Nora.
“How’s the kitchen knife? Tried using it?”
At Kairus’s question, Nora nodded.
“But it’s kind of dangerous.”
“What part?”
Nora examined the kitchen knife in her hand closely before speaking.
“There’s no restriction on teleportation. Looks like the range goes up to about 30 meters.”
Apparently, it couldn’t pass through barriers. From her tests, even getting past a wire fence was impossible.
“That sounds pretty good. There’s no limit on the number of uses either.”
To that, Nora responded,
“There’s no usage limit, but once teleportation ends, I get hit with intense fatigue.”
Even Nora, a trained Lunaseeker agent, said the exhaustion was so overwhelming she couldn’t even stand properly.
“Immediately?”
“No, there’s a brief delay before the fatigue hits after teleportation.”
And just as suddenly as it arrived, the fatigue faded quickly. It seemed that the user had to endure the post-teleportation fatigue for about three seconds.
Irena let out a noise of dismay.
“Then it makes sense how Roderick got taken down so easily after his teleport was seen through.”
He had been attacked by Irena while in a fatigued state, unable to resist properly.
“If you use it, you absolutely have to kill your target.”
Nora said firmly. Being unable to move for three seconds meant taking hits for three seconds.
And not punches—blades. Even with ten lives, you could die ten times in that window.
“How are you supposed to attack if you’re going to collapse right after?”
“There’s a short delay.”
The short delay Nora referred to meant you had time to land one or two attacks at most.
You had to kill your target within that time limit. If you failed, you’d die instead.
“A weapon worthy of an assassin. How’s the output?”
The early morning train finally came to a stop.
Boarding the train, Nora answered Kairus.
“It’s a masterpiece. Way better than what I used before.”
“Then it’s a win.”
The standard yataghan used by Lunaseeker agents didn’t have any special abilities. It was just a battle gear with solid durability and good output.
This one not only had better performance but also allowed teleportation, so from Nora’s perspective, she’d come out ahead in the trade.