Then, sandwiched between the description and the complaint, she casually mentioned that, in order to gather intelligence, she planned to switch to a new cover identity.
"If Rum took the earlier part seriously, understood Uzo's threat to the organization's members, and decided to punish him... or personally make contact with him, that would be absolutely perfect.
"And if that old bastard remained as stubbornly obsessed as ever, his collector's itch acting up and making him determined to recruit Uzo, this so-called genius, under his command... then Uzo's actions today could at least draw his attention, making him overlook the request to change assignments buried in the middle and forget to reject it."
Curacao carefully laid out her plan. "That way, it can't be said that I never reported it. As long as there are no problems with the subsequent intelligence gathering and missions, I can naturally switch jobs, completely stay away from cases involving Uzo, and then..."
Her phone buzzed with an incoming message, interrupting her daydream.
Looking down, she saw that Rum's reply had arrived.
Curacao froze for a moment. After a while, she closed her eyes and prayed devoutly. Only then did she take a deep breath and open the email.
...Unfortunately, her prayer had failed to take effect.
Rum's reply had focused precisely on the sentence Curacao had intended to conceal—
[No need to change identities.
Lawyers and Detectives are naturally the best partners.
You did well today. Keep it up.]
Curacao: "..."
Curacao: "???"
She stared at that final line, "Keep it up," in utter disbelief—keep up what? Keep nearly getting blown up by Uzo, or keep plotting every possible way only to land right in Uzo's hands??
"Does that old bastard even know what he's praising?"
Curacao gritted her teeth so hard that she nearly