Chapter 223
When the intelligence team actually found the blood relation report from Miyano Akemi's apartment, everyone was dumbfounded.
After the FBI had formed an impression of "don't all the people in this organization have some kind of serious illness," the organization members also developed a peculiar impression of the FBI as "taking all sorts of crooked paths."
After all, the intelligence team was very clear about Miyano Akemi's identity—she herself wasn't worth much attention, but rather her sister was very important to the organization.
Considering Rye's—no, more accurately, the FBI agent whose real name was Akai Shuichi's—attempt to set a trap to capture Gin and others, the original purpose might actually have been to deceive the Miyano sisters, but it failed due to Botanist's interference, forcing him to change targets.
As for why he chose this timing, switching targets so hastily, it might be that Botanist's great achievements in America gave this undercover agent Akai Shuichi a sense of urgency, worried that the organization would really take Botanist's words seriously, so he had to start planning withdrawal and intended to take some spoils of war... it must be like this!
It couldn't be that he was targeted by Botanist to the point of mental breakdown and had to use this method to bribe Miyano Akemi who stayed by Botanist's side, trying to achieve his goals through roundabout means, right?
...Cough cough, fortunately it was already confirmed that the other party had always been FBI, otherwise given Botanist's operations, this possibility was actually quite high...
The intelligence team members exchanged glances and quietly reined in their wild thoughts.
How could they be disrespectful to Botanist! Botanist clearly did everything for the organization's good!
Our Botanist was simply too skilled in operations! Forcing the undercover agent to reveal his true form! What more could they be dissatisfied with!
...So, where was such an amazing Botanist now?
After stirring up chaos between the organization and FBI, Usuha Izuki patted his butt and left, but he wasn't idle either—he was busy looking for a new house.
After all, Samukawa Shinryu's house had been vacated, and now the organization's house probably couldn't be lived in either. He needed to find new ones for both—he was really quite busy.
As for why he turned off his phone...
[Of course it's because not knowing the answer leads to suspicion.] Usuha Izuki said confidently. [If I appeared too early and gave them answers, even if they didn't quite believe it, the suspicion value I could farm wouldn't be as much as when their autonomous motivation was at its highest.]
The system danced with wild joy in agreement: [Yes, and now you've also farmed a wave of suspicion value about whether you were retaliated against by the FBI.]
Usuha Izuki glanced at the system log: [Furuya Rei and Morofushi Hiromitsu will probably also suspect whether I colluded with the FBI... Mm, that's about enough. Time to turn on the phone.]
Although the system felt this wave of suspicion value was very profitable, it was also a bit worried.
After all, Usuha Izuki disappearing meant he couldn't interfere, couldn't personally get involved to control the narrative, which also meant he didn't know what the organization people were thinking now.
If there was any unfavorable trend for Usuha Izuki, even if Usuha Izuki stared at the suspicion value numbers in the system log, he couldn't tell anything. Contacting the organization like this—wouldn't it be a bit dangerous?
Usuha Izuki was very confident: [Don't worry, I'll grab someone to ask.]
System: [...Vodka? Bourbon? Scotland? Don't you want to change who you torment? They've already given enough suspicion value—even with greater stimulation in the short term, you can't squeeze much more out of them.]
Human emotions had limits. These few people, because they usually had more contact with Usuha Izuki, were the most stimulated in the first wave and had already recovered. Stimulating them again in the short term wouldn't have much effect.
On the contrary, those who had a general relationship with Usuha Izuki and rarely saw his bizarre statements directly still had great potential for harvesting.
Usuha Izuki naturally understood this principle: [It's fine, I'll change to someone else. I've had their number for a while but never called.]
However, after turning on his phone, he first had to face almost-freezing missed calls and new email notifications that nearly prevented him from opening his contacts. It took quite a while before he finally managed to dial out.
This time the call connected rather slowly, but it did eventually go through.
"...Hello?" The person on the other end was female with a gentle voice, but very cautious. "Who is this?"
This attitude indicated the other party didn't have Usuha Izuki's caller ID—meaning they weren't familiar enough with Usuha Izuki to know his phone number.
But Usuha Izuki didn't care and said directly: "Kiel, it's me."
Kiel: "...!!!"
This voice... was Botanist?!
Although she hadn't had much contact with Botanist, this voice was practically mandatory memorization for undercover agents—otherwise you'd die without knowing how.
But hadn't Botanist disappeared?! So many people couldn't find him—why would he call her at a time like this?!
She really wasn't familiar with Botanist! And considering what happened to the last person Botanist inexplicably targeted... could it be that Botanist actually thought she had problems too...
As a CIA undercover agent, Kiel broke out in cold sweat after just answering the phone without saying anything yet, but still had to force a smile to maintain appearances.
"...Botanist, so you're fine. Everyone's been looking for you."
Great, now she had a topic to talk about, buying some time to adjust her mindset.
Usuha Izuki watched with satisfaction as the suspicion value in the background rapidly increased. In just this short time, it was already more than all the suspicion value he'd gotten from Kiel over the past few years: "I was hiding because I hate so many people suddenly looking for me all at once. So annoying."
This kind of trouble-avoiding sentiment wasn't something Kiel couldn't understand, but Botanist hiding like this was really too irresponsible... uh, but since it was Botanist, then never mind.
"Since you wanted to avoid trouble, why are you calling me now?" What Kiel most wanted to ask was why he was calling "me" instead of someone else, but asking like that felt too obvious, so she had to be more subtle.
Usuha Izuki wasn't polite either: "What's the organization's situation now? How are they discussing me? Tell me."
Now Kiel could finally ask naturally: "Why me?"
"Guess."
Kiel: "..........."
No wonder that Rye—no, Akai Shuichi—had responded to Vodka the same way. He'd really been tormented by Botanist until he was thoroughly marinated.
But what exactly was the reason? Was it because he had leverage on her...? Did he want to toy with her like he had with Akai Shuichi? Was she about to become the next person bullied by Botanist?
Kiel was frantically suspicious, but this kind of thing could be suspected in her heart—she couldn't actually ask it out loud, or there'd really be no room for recovery. She could only pretend she was too lazy to play along and directly gave an answer.
"I don't know much, but not long ago the message from the intelligence team was that Akai Shuichi planned to scam Miyano Akemi by claiming to be a relative. The intelligence team will have a meeting later..."
Usuha Izuki asked a few more questions, indirectly grasping the organization's current attitude toward him.
Mm, Miyano Akemi was still quite stable. Sure enough, after throwing out something very ridiculous but factual, everyone lost interest in the mundane possibility of "colluding with traitors."
"I understand." Usuha Izuki sighed. "Sigh, can't blame everyone for finding it ridiculous. The probability of a new member actually being a relative is really too small..."
Kiel cautiously agreed: "Yes."
"Actually, if they really were cousins, that would still be okay. Better than father and daughter going undercover together—wouldn't that be spotted at a glance?"
Kiel: "...!!!"
She was the one doing undercover work in the organization together with her father, and had even obtained her codename through her father's death. What exactly was Botanist hinting at with these words?!
Had Botanist ever seen her father?
This was bad—it seemed she and her father had appeared before Botanist together... Could he have already seen through them back then?
No way, that was several years ago. Botanist had clearly shown no reaction all along, but today he suddenly called, suddenly mentioning father and daughter... normally wouldn't examples use father and son?
Could it be that Botanist was actually very focused, only moving to the next target after finishing tormenting one?!
Kiel was sweating profusely, only able to comfort herself that she and her father didn't really look that much alike. If family relationships could be distinguished just by looking, then what would paternity testing centers be for...
"...Yes." Kiel forced herself to stay calm while responding to Botanist. "But generally speaking, this kind of arrangement is too easily discovered, and once one is exposed the other has to suffer too, so undercover agencies rarely arrange it this way... Akai Shuichi's was also fake."
"That's hard to say." Usuha Izuki said meaningfully. "Anyway, thanks for your answer. Since everyone's calmed down, I'm relieved... Keep in touch when you have time, bye~"
Kiel: "..........."
No, what do you mean it's hard to say? And what does this "keep in touch when you have time" mean? You're not really going to call her often from now on, are you?
No! She didn't want to become the next Rye!
As a spy properly trained by a legitimate undercover agency, after hanging up, Kiel calmly analyzed the current situation and felt that no matter what, she had to stay steady first.
After all, quite a few people in the organization had been pointed at by Botanist and called undercover agents, but only Rye had problems.
Moreover, Botanist had never produced any evidence to prove Rye was an undercover agent—just talked about it verbally, not seeming very serious, at most showing disgust, so... even if the other party suspected something, she couldn't panic. As long as there was no evidence, everything would be fine.
She should even try to build a good relationship with Botanist, so she'd have fewer things in common with Akai Shuichi...
Of course, most importantly, she still needed to establish herself firmly in the organization.
So after thinking for a while, Kiel felt she should take the initiative.
Otherwise, if someone else contacted Botanist later and Botanist said he had called her but she hadn't reported it... that would make her look suspicious!
So Kiel decisively called Bourbon, who was currently in charge of Botanist-related matters for the intelligence team.
Bourbon: "Kiel? What a rare guest."
"Bourbon, I have the latest intelligence about Botanist." Kiel remembered her disguise and couldn't be too agreeable, so she said pretentiously, "What are you planning to trade for it?"
Bourbon was very straightforward: "I'll owe you a favor. When you need intelligence, just find me. So, what about Botanist?"
Kiel gave Bourbon an edited version of the recent phone call: "...That's how it was. I didn't expect he would call my phone either."
Bourbon naturally helped her find an excuse: "It's probably because you're not very familiar with him. People who are closer to Botanist are more likely to offend him. Look how many times Vodka has been blacklisted by him... That guy is very difficult to please and holds grudges. He simply can't be tamed."
"...You sound like you're describing a feral cat."
"He's much more troublesome than a feral cat." Bourbon complained. "But it might be okay for you because he's a bit sexist."
"Ah, I think I've heard a little about this..." Kiel said uncertainly. "Really? He treats that Miyano Akemi and Vermouth very well?"
Bourbon didn't really like Miyano Akemi becoming so prominent in the organization, but there was no choice—now Miyano Akemi was really famous: "...I suppose so."
Kiel then probed for intelligence: "Speaking of this, when I was chatting with Botanist about Miyano Akemi and Akai Shuichi just now, his attitude seemed a bit... strange. Do you know why?"
Bourbon: "..........."
Kiel had an ominous premonition: "...Bourbon?"
"...This intelligence... forget it, you'll know later anyway." Bourbon answered reluctantly. "According to investigation, the testing center Miyano Akemi went to later had no one who was bribed, which means the paternity test is real... and it seems Botanist was the first to complain they looked alike..."
Kiel: "........???"
Wait?! Did Botanist really identify blood relationships with the naked eye?! Then wouldn't her relationship with her father be...?!