"A good ending."
Princess Margaret nodded slightly, then looked at Shade before her.
"How should I thank you? Shade, you probably cannot understand what this means to me."
Shade very much wanted to bring up arranging a meeting with Sir Prisha right now, but after thinking it over, he decided to wrap up this trivial matter first.
"First, tell me what should be done with Miss Brown. She is probably waiting anxiously for news. Let me make this clear: I will not kill anyone. Though she is a spy to you, to me, she is an outstanding agent of this country. A defected agent."
Come to think of it, whether as Military Intelligence Section Six's current Ace Agent or as the Gray Gloves Ace spy "Gray-headed Eagle," Shade had every reason to kill Miss Brown.
"What are you talking about? Who asked you to kill her?"
The princess shook her head slightly.
"If I had learned of this a few years ago, I would certainly have taught her a lesson. But now that she has defected from Military Intelligence Section Six, she is no longer Kasonlik's enemy. Though she probably knows some things about Military Intelligence Section Six."
"You do not want to punish her."
Shade said it as a statement. The princess with pale golden hair glanced at him.
"That is what you said, not what I said."
"Then for the next letter, will you dictate it for me to write, or write it yourself?"
For a moment, Shade felt as though he had truly seen the princess smile at him. But when he looked closely, it seemed to have been an illusion.
"I will write it myself. I will have to trouble you to deliver the letter into her hands."
She extended her hand toward Shade. Shade reached