Everyone's Undercover

The base rooms were spacious and brightly and evenly lit.

In the center was a rectangular wooden table, with about a dozen chairs scattered around it. Some were occupied, while others were empty.

Lowell leaned back in the innermost chair. Frieren sat to his left, sipping her black tea. Fern stood behind her chair, his pale purple eyes scanning the room.

Himmel, Ruby, Methode, and Liletta gathered on the other side of the table. Ruby lay on the table, her chin resting on her crossed arms, her fiery red curls slightly disheveled. Himmel sat upright. Methode placed her hands on her knees. Liletta stood a little further away by the window, arms crossed, gazing at the darkening sky outside.

The door was pushed open.

Sense and Falsh walked in one after the other. Sense's long brown hair almost touched the ground, and her eyelids drooped. Falsh followed half a step behind her, his gaze calm behind his round-framed glasses.

Several more people entered from behind them.

Iris walked in with light steps, a sweet smile on her face. Schritt followed beside her, holding a metal flask in her hand. Wolf brought up the rear, closing the door behind him, carrying a longbow wrapped in cloth in his arms.

Lutine and Lore entered from the other side of the room. Lutine had her head down, her long hair obscuring most of her face. Lore had her eyes closed, her hands clasped in front of her.

Gazella was the last to enter. He rubbed his hands together, a slightly ingratiating smile typical of street vendors plastered on his face. His gaze swept quickly around the room before he naturally sat down in the empty chair closest to the door.

The room fell silent.

In the distance, the music of the Imperial Capital's celebrations could be faintly heard, but it was several streets away and indistinct.

Sense stopped in her tracks. She tilted her head slightly, her long brown hair sliding to one side with the movement. She looked at the faces in front of her, her expression as if an invisible, enormous question mark was hovering above her head.

She blinked, her droopy eyelids lifting slightly.

"... Well."

Gazella spoke first. He cleared his throat, leaned forward, and rested his elbows on the table. He looked to the left, then to the right, and finally his gaze settled on Lowell.

"So," he said, his voice low but clear, "if I understand correctly... I mean, the few of us," he pointed to himself, then to Iris, Schritt, Wolf, Lutine, and Lore, finally tracing a half-circle in the air to encompass everyone, "--are all undercover agents?"

Iris chuckled. The laughter was crisp and natural, unlike her usual sweet and harmless laugh; it lacked the deliberate sweetness and instead conveyed a genuine joy.

"It seems so," she said, her eyes crinkling into crescents, her shoulders swaying slightly. "Hahaha... this is truly..."

She couldn't stop laughing and raised her hand to wipe the corner of her eye.

Kleis —the man who always worked as a "blacksmith"—let out a long, slow breath. His shoulder muscles visibly relaxed, and his usually straight back leaned slightly back in his chair.

"What?" he said softly, his tone carrying a faint weariness after a heavy burden had been lifted, and a hint of absurd amusement. "I was still agonizing over... what to do if I really had to take action against you. Turns out we're all in the same boat?"

Lutine raised her head, a few strands of hair brushing aside to reveal her still gloomy eyes. She glanced at the number of people in the room, then carefully reviewed the list in her mind.

"It seems... not entirely the same? One person is missing."

Lore's eyes remained closed, but her lips moved slightly, and her voice clearly reached everyone's ears:

"Mr. Clematis doesn't seem to be here."

Several pairs of eyes turned to Lowell at the same time.

Lowell was picking up Frieren's half-finished cup of black tea and casually taking a sip from the rim. Sensing her gaze, he looked up and blinked.

"Uh..." He put down his cup and scratched the back of his head. "I don't know. Shouldn't you be asking Arlecchino about this?"

He thought for a moment, then added:

"But speaking of which, since I gave the signal, and they haven't come to assemble by now... they're either dead, or they really are the Shadow Warriors."

Iris immediately stopped laughing. She turned to look at Lowell, her face regaining that sweet, radiant smile, but one that held little warmth in her eyes.

"Haha," she said lightly, "That's really good. Can I kill him?"

She tilted her head, her tone casual, as if they were discussing what to have for dinner.

"I really don't like that guy."

Lutine turned her head to look at her, a hint of inquiry in her gloomy eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Iris immediately pouted, her face scrunching up in a pitiful expression. She moved closer to Lutine, her voice drawn out and soft:

"Waaaah... Lutine- chan..."

She stretched out her right hand, fingers spread, and waved it in front of Lutine. Her nails were neatly trimmed.

"My fingernails were ripped off so badly with a piece of metal, you know?" She spoke slowly, as if to emphasize the pain. "It hurt so much... and after that guy saved me, he just gave me a cursory treatment and sent me back to the battlefield immediately..."

Lutine looked at her perfectly intact, even delicate, fingers, paused for two seconds, and was about to say something comforting—

"Hey, hey."

Lowell's voice broke in. He rested his chin on his hand, tapping the table lightly with the fingers of his other hand, his expression somewhat helpless.

"I don't know about others, but you..." He glanced at Iris, "Didn't you specifically come to me to ask for the spells 'Pain Nullification' and 'Rapid Recovery'? You even emphasized that you wanted the kind where you could control the intensity, saying it 'feels really exciting'..."

Iris instantly dropped her aggrieved expression, turned her head, and glared fiercely at Lowell. A clear "Mind your own business" glint flashed in her red eyes.

"None of your business," she pouted, "You're a hands-off manager."

But the next second, she immediately turned her face back, put on that pitiful expression again, and grabbed Lutine's sleeve and shook it gently.

"Lutine- chan..."

Lutine watched her change of expression so quickly, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly. But she didn't say anything, only raised her hand and, with a somewhat stiff movement, gently patted Iris's head.

Iris leaned closer, resting her head on Lutine's shoulder and comfortably closing her eyes.

"Anyway," her voice muffled by Lutine's clothes, but clear, "That guy is truly heartless. I like to play, that's my business, but he doesn't know... he really treats me like a tool. I'm not some Golem that you can fix and keep using after it breaks."

Lore kept her eyes closed, but tilted her head slightly towards Iris.

"I find you a bit odd; what do you mean by 'exciting'?"

"Stop! Stop!"

Ruby lifted her head from the table and sat up straight. She raised one hand, her bright green eyes darting this way and that, her little face clearly saying, "I need to sort this out."

"Um," she cleared her throat, trying to make her voice sound more organized, "Let me summarize?"

She extended her index finger, first pointing to a group of people including Iris, Gazella, Schritt, Wolf, Lutine, Lore, and Kleis.

"You are all undercover agents sent by Arlecchino to infiltrate the 'Shadow Warriors' organization?"

Several people either nodded or acquiesced.

Ruby then raised her second finger.

"And then, you went undercover for so long—I don't know exactly how long, but it seems like quite a while—and it turns out even your own teammates were undercover agents, something you didn't know about each other?"

Gazella coughed lightly and touched his nose.

"Ahem... Father said... when he sent us in, he mentioned that for safety and to prevent exposure, although there might be other accomplices lurking. But he only said 'might,' he didn't tell us who they were, let alone..."

He looked around and shrugged.

"... and that's not even mentioned, it's practically all of them."

Ruby opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She blinked, then blinked again, her expression slowly shifting from confusion to a deep, pure bewilderment.

"So..." she said slowly, as if processing an utterly absurd fact, "You bunch of undercover agents, infiltrating for so long, and the only person you were actually infiltrating... Clematis?"

The room fell silent for a moment.

Then, Iris burst out laughing again, her shoulders shaking. Gazella turned her face away, her shoulders also trembling slightly. Even Lutine, who was usually gloomy, seemed to have a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth.

Ruby didn't laugh. She looked at this one, then at that one, and finally her gaze settled on Lowell, her emerald eyes filled with a questioning look of "What on earth is going on?"

"Then why did you go undercover?" she asked, her voice unconsciously rising a little. "Wouldn't it have been easier to just find an opportunity to take out that Clematis? Why go through all this trouble?"

Lowell scratched his cheek, looking somewhat innocent.

"Who knows? I don't know," he said, his tone carrying that usual nonchalant, almost aversion to trouble. "But Arlecchino must have her reasons. After all, she's a professional... um... giving the kids some training or something?"

Sense had been standing quietly by the table, listening to everything. Now, her droopy eyelids lifted completely, and her brown eyes calmly swept over the "Shadow Warriors" in the room. The confusion from before was gone from her face, and she had returned to her usual indifferent and listless appearance.

"In short," she began, her voice steady, steer the conversation back on track, "Since we're all on the same side, things are simple."

She walked to the empty seat at the head of the table, but didn't sit down immediately. Her long brown hair slid silently across the floor.

"Tell me the intelligence. What did you hear over there?"

Iris was still leaning on Lutine's shoulder. Hearing this, she lazily raised a hand and pointed to the folded piece of paper she had tossed on the corner of the table.

"Information... not much. It seems we're only providing support and assistance for this mission. The actual assassination will be handled by 'other organizations.' That's what Clematis said."

She paused for a moment and added:

"Furthermore, all your information is on that list. It's frighteningly detailed."

Fern walked to the table, picked up the paper, and unfolded it. His pale purple eyes quickly scanned the paper.

"Lady Frieren, our intelligence records are very detailed."

Frieren took the list, her emerald green eyes fixed on it.

"Hmm," she said, laying the list flat on the table after reading it. "Appearance, clothing, preferred magic, fighting style... even some very subtle habits are recorded. It's not surprising that Shadow Warriors has this level of intelligence gathering ability."

Lowell also leaned forward to look at the list. His gaze moved quickly from top to bottom, stopping when he saw two names.

"... Lupa and Linié are both listed?" He raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat surprised. "That's outrageous. They shouldn't be in the Imperial Capital yet, right? I just notified them to come over."

He stroked his chin, deep in thought.

"It seems they've tracked down their movements, deduced that they would definitely arrive in the Imperial Capital around this time and be involved in this... Their intelligence network is impressive. And Linié is quite skilled at magic perception and disguise, yet they were still tracked down... It seems the organization cooperating with the Shadow Warriors has people adept at infiltration."