86
Message from a Wandering Ghost
I was exhausted when I arrived at the main building. I had run a lot and my nerves were frayed from secretly dealing with everyone. I wanted to ditch the engagement ceremony and everything else, drink some alcohol, and pass out, but I couldn’t.
The staff came in and screamed at my appearance. I felt relieved at that sight. It felt like I had returned to some peaceful world. I had just killed who knows how many people, yet these people act like the world is ending if my appearance is a mess.
While I quickly washed up and fixed my appearance, Jay came in.
“Team leader, you were here.”
“Ah, I had to shower too.”
As I grumbled demonstratively, Jay clicked his tongue.
“Ah, the situation has gone to shit. All the Canaris bastards are dead.”
For a moment, I almost felt relieved but managed to hold back. I frowned and asked, “All of them?”
“Yes. Two survived in Zone F, but one died on the way to the hospital, and the other…”
I asked, feigning calmness.
“The other? When I checked F earlier, they seemed fine?”
“They say he was sniped. A sniper rifle was found, and it happens to be one provided by Mr. Riegel’s security team. The Director and Mr. Riegel are furious right now. The Director suspects there might be Canaris among Mr. Riegel’s security team, but the problem is that Mr. Riegel’s team shared security-related information with the Security Bureau this morning. It included details about the cabin near the back door… So Mr. Riegel’s team suspects us.”
“It’s a bloody engagement ceremony.”
I chuckled. I know what Jay couldn’t bring himself to say. The suggestion to call off today’s engagement ceremony. No, more precisely, he wants to say, ‘How about you stop getting involved with Sebastian Riegel?’ And regardless of what Jay had done to me in the past, his eyes now showed genuine concern for me. That’s why he couldn’t say it out loud and was just asking with his eyes if I’d be okay.
“Armin, let’s go.”
Hearing a familiar voice at the door, I turned to see Sebastian. Even in this chaos, he looked dazzlingly handsome. God must surely exist. And He’s certainly not the fair and just type. I’m sure of it.
“Alright, let’s go.”
I strode over and took his outstretched hand, smiling. Even in this situation, Sebastian was elegant and confident. I found that impressive.
The engagement ceremony proceeded as planned. It just moved a bit faster, probably because some people were getting anxious, so it wasn’t the atmosphere to tell them to relax and enjoy. The Security Bureau people were already divided into those with stiff expressions, those with hollow eyes, and those shivering from cold while clutching bloodstained jackets crumpled in their hands. And amidst all this, there was one noticeable bastard.
“Well, well, what’s a male prostitute doing at someone else’s engagement ceremony?”
When I openly insulted him, the male prostitute, or the guy who pretended to be one, grinned. He had his arm around Lee’s shoulder, but my friend looked quite uncomfortable with his intimate skinship.
“Oh my, you’re embarrassing me over something I did briefly just to make a living.”
“If it was something you did to make a living, was it a task assigned by the company?”
“No, it wasn’t. Our Lee…”
‘Our’ Lee.
Hmm, ‘our’ is it?
Explosives had gone off, and several bodies had been carried out. Most of the guests obviously hadn’t seen the scene right before their eyes, but everyone could sense that a bloody situation had occurred. Naturally, the atmosphere was tense, and most people looked unwell, but there were exactly two people in this place with good complexions. One was Sebastian, who always shone with God’s grace, and the other was this male prostitute bastard.
Look at that glossy face.
I glanced at Lee. Want me to get rid of him? Seeing what was written on my face, Lee slightly shook his head. His face said that not interfering would be the best help.
“I don’t know if you’re ‘our’ Lee or whatever, but this is my engagement ceremony, and if you get caught doing anything stupid, you know you’ll die.”
“Like those guys earlier?” he asked cheerfully. I raised my lip with a “kik” sound.
“Those guys went out like gentlemen. When I say die, that’s not what I mean.”
At my words, he whistled. Meanwhile, Lee managed to slip out from under his arm.
Then, after rubbing his face dry, he introduced the male prostitute to me.
“You can call him Yus.”
“Is he with the Security Bureau?”
“Freelancer.”
Ah.
When I smiled fiercely, Lee gave a bitter smile and signaled me to let it go gracefully.
Well, like most intelligence agencies, the Rotman Security Bureau sometimes collaborates with freelancers. Freelancers here refer to freelance spies. Of course, working as a freelancer in the spy industry is a mark of exceptional ability. The reason they don’t mess with agents belonging to intelligence agencies is that each agency retaliates if their agents are touched. Government-level retaliation is quite heavy for an individual to bear, so they usually don’t interfere. Of course, saying this might make one question the intelligence of those who came all the way to my engagement ceremony, but those bastards are ones who have either nearly died by my hand, permanently lost body parts, or suffered other irreversible damage. In short, they’re reckless bastards.
However, working alone in the spy industry means having no background and being easily subject to retaliation. It would be like walking a tightrope every day, but there are guys who manage to do it, and such guys always have two elements: First, they’re exceptionally skilled. Second, they’re psychos. You need both to be a freelance spy. No matter how skilled a normal person is, they could never make it as a freelance spy. Their mental state would crumble instantly, leaving them a wreck.
“I’m surprised you’re acquainted with a self-proclaimed psycho.”
At my words, Lee shook his head.
“We’re not acquainted, we just worked on a job together once, long ago.”
“Ah.”
“Somehow we ended up connecting then.”
Lee signaled to stop talking about it, so I was about to let it go with an “I see.” Yus smiled fiercely, looking somewhat displeased.
“Why are you talking so long? We drank and slept together. You know how men are, when bodies get close, feelings develop too. That kind of relationship.”
Lee muttered quietly, “Ah, shit…” Lee isn’t the type to be embarrassed by this kind of thing. Back when we weren’t that close, Lee, completely drunk, once revealed his sexual preferences to me. According to Lee, he’s gay, likes both topping and bottoming, doesn’t like being tied down to one person, and prefers seeing multiple people at once. I asked if he was crazy, and he just grinned as if he liked that comment. That’s the kind of guy he was. The reason he doesn’t date is simply because there’s no one he likes, and drinking is more enjoyable. The only reason Lee is uncomfortable in this situation now is one thing:
Lee dislikes Yus. He didn’t like that one-night relationship.
“Was it rape?”
I asked, hoping it wasn’t. The rape I’m talking about here encompasses a very wide range. Because when it comes to a psycho freelance spy bastard, nothing they do would be surprising.
I was ready to shout “God, here comes another bastard” if Lee showed even a hint of affirmation, but fortunately, he shook his head.
“It wasn’t rape,”
“It wasn’t? You fucked me. It was rape.”
Yus kindly reminded Lee of that night. Lee irritably replied,
“How could I rape you? How could David rape Goliath? … Shit, anyway, Yus didn’t do anything to me. If anything was done, I did it.”
Ah, so Lee was the one on top, it seems.
Anyway, it seemed there wasn’t any major issue with Lee, so I decided to lose interest. If that’s how it is, they can sort it out between themselves. The engagement ceremony was over, guests were getting up from their seats, and I was thinking about looking for Sebastian when it happened.
“By the way, Mr. Schnieke.”
Yus called out to me. He was fondling Lee’s chubby cheeks while holding him in his arms. I turned to look at him, but he was busy teasing Lee’s cheeks. What the hell, how tasteless. I was about to leave when Yus spoke to the back of my head.
“Would you pass this on to Mr. Riegel? Tell him I’ll visit again the day after tomorrow. With a message from a wandering ghost, at midnight.”
What nonsense is this?
When I turned back to him, he was still not looking at me. But for some reason, Lee’s face had frozen coldly. Lee roughly pushed away Yus’s hand and gritted his teeth, saying, “A wandering ghost? Shit, you really…” Just as Lee was about to curse, Yus raised both hands and stepped back, as if surrendering.
“Well, I’m just playing messenger. Don’t get so angry.”
“You said it had nothing to do with you!”
“It didn’t… but now it does?”
Yus grinned. Lee shouted,
“Was it you? Were you the bastard who sniped earlier?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
Yus’s eyes briefly turned to me. I received that gaze as if nothing was wrong, but for a moment, I felt a chill. Yus’s eyes seemed to be asking if I wasn’t the one who had sniped. However, Yus didn’t say anything out loud and just said, “I should go now,” as he walked away. Lee quickly chased after Yus.
“Stop right there, we need to talk!”
Lee’s shouts faded away. ‘A message from a wandering ghost’? I don’t know what that means, but I made a mental note of it. Thinking he was a dangerous person, I couldn’t take my eyes off the direction Yus had disappeared for a while.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
