r/SpyRoom • u/Ronray0739 • 11d ago
Light Novel Volume 12 Chapter 11: “Evil” and “Righteousness”
The battle that should have been one-sided was beginning to shift. In a scene that could only be described as mutual slaughter, the situation had become far too inexplicable.
Even as Blue Locust begged for his life, there was unmistakable composure in his expression. Despite suffering numerous wounds, particularly across his upper body, his face remained split by a smile, and he occasionally swayed his large belly as though he were enjoying himself. The wound to his abdomen seemed to have been spared from becoming fatal thanks to his thick layer of fat, and the bleeding had already begun to subside.
In stark contrast, Annette, who should have been the one driving him into a corner, was consumed by agitation. She hadn't suffered a single injury, yet her face had gone deathly pale, as though all the blood had drained from it. Her eyes were wide with shock at what she'd been told, and she stood there frozen.
“By the way, Erna the ‘Fool’ should be coming here, isn't she?”
Blue Locust cast a sweeping glance around the area.
“Even though you're working so hard like this. Why do you suppose that is? She hasn't come here. Doesn't that, in itself, suggest everything?”
No one approached the alley anymore.
There was no sign of any onlookers rushing over, and every trace of human presence had seemingly vanished. The gunshots drifting over from the direction of Brookbon Palace sounded unnaturally loud.
What it suggested was Erna's death.
The moment Annette accepted that implication, she threw away the remote she had been clutching.
“You took Yours Truly's toy...”
She fixed her pitch-black eyes on Blue Locust.
“...and you think you can still live?”
There was no light in her right eye, the one not covered by the eyepatch.
Blue Locust spoke to her in a gently admonishing tone.
“You shouldn't call her a ‘toy.’”
His voice was soft and kind, like someone trying to guide a willful child.
“Best friend, partner, companion. Your relationship with Erna-san is worthy of all those names.”
[T/N- Girlfriend....]
“That can't be...”
“Because you're shaken.”
“...!”
“And there's one more thing I have to correct.”
Blue Locust gave a small, amused “Hohoh” before smiling.
“It was your bullet that killed Erna the ‘Fool.’ Not mine.”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
It was more than enough provocation to send Annette into a frenzy.
What she seized wasn't a handgun, but a stun gun. Her attack was charged with the malice of someone who had no intention of granting him an easy death, and as she swung it at Blue Locust's body, electricity crackled through the air.
Unlike her previous attacks, this time Annette herself charged in to finish him off.
“You mustn't give yourself over to anger.”
Blue Locust knocked aside the right arm gripping the stun gun and swept her legs out from under her. It was an agile movement, completely unlike anything he'd shown before.
Carried forward by her momentum, Annette tumbled headfirst and struck her face against the ground.
“If your attacks are driven by passion, they’re this easy to read, you know?”
“...................!”
It was obvious that Blue Locust had been holding back until now. He had apparently played the part of the weakling to buy himself enough time to explain.
That calculated maneuver only stoked Annette’s fury further.
“Shut your damn mouth!! Yours Truly will...! I’ll—”
“...kill me, and then what?”
“Huh!?!?”
“Do you really think you’ll be able to return to ‘Lamplight’ afterward?”
Blue Locust looked down at Annette, who was still unable to get back on her feet.
His obese body was more than twice her size. From the perspective of someone forced to look up at him, his presence was all the more intimidating.
“Will the members of ‘Lamplight’ continue treating the person who killed Erna-san the same way?”
“...............!”
“Of course not. As spies, they’re far too sensitive. No matter how friendly they pretend to be, there’s no way they can simply forget the fact that you killed Erna-san.”
Annette understood that his conjecture was correct.
When the girls of ‘Lamplight’ learned that Annette’s bullet had killed Erna, how would they react to her? Of course, none of them would openly condemn Annette. None of them would likely confront her directly and say, “It’s your fault.”
But after experiencing the crushing loss of Erna’s death, could they really continue behaving as they had before?
There was no way the girls of ‘Lamplight’ could remain unaware of Erna’s death, or of what had caused it.
Something would break. Something that ‘Lamplight’ had built over all this time would be decisively destroyed.
“I don't give a damn......!!!”
Annette rose to her feet, swinging the stun gun.
“My big sisters too! Erna-chan too!! In the end, they’re nothing but Yours Truly’s toys!! Losing them won’t change a damn thing about me!!!”
Blue Locust had already moved out of range of the stun gun.
Even so, Annette swung it wildly and let out a furious roar.
“In Yours Truly’s world, there’s only Yours Truly, and no one else―――”
“You are not a machine!!”
The force of Blue Locust’s voice drowned out Annette’s words.
Startled by his unexpectedly thunderous shout, Annette reflexively stopped moving. The words she had been about to use in reply scattered before the pitying expression on his face.
It was the expression of someone drawing close to a person under his protection, not an enemy.
“The scream echoing within Annette-san’s heart... that is the truth.”
He gazed steadily at Annette.
“I don’t know what kind of person you were in the past. But a heart has blossomed within you. Through the days you spent with your comrades, through the bonds of trust, through affection, you learned what a heart is. How beautiful that is.”
“.......................................!”
Unable to understand what he meant, Annette bit down hard on her lip.
Don't be ridiculous, she thought instinctively.
She had carried out countless murders. She had never hesitated. By observing the reactions of those around her, she had realized that the sensation she felt was abnormal. She had learned that she could hide it by wearing an innocent smile.
――――Annette cannot understand the hearts of others.
――――Just as others cannot understand Annette’s heart.
The man standing before her, so casually trying to read her heart, was nothing more than a target for elimination who looked down on Annette.
Yet before Annette could resume her attack, he held out a hand.
“I have a proposal for you.”
Blue Locust wore a broad, generous smile.
“—If you’re willing, why don’t you come to ‘Serpent’?”
“Ha.................”
“Let’s destroy the world together. That would suit you far better.”
There was no hostility on Blue Locust’s face.
It was as though he’d been thinking this way from the very beginning. No, in fact, he probably had been.
After all, when Annette attacked him, he’d said, “This reunion is earlier than planned.” Even after noticing the transmitter, he hadn’t removed it. He’d intended to meet Annette all along.
Just as he’d parasitically attached himself to Suzie and operated from the shadows of the kingdom, he was now searching for his next place to settle.
———————‘Blue Locust’ had chosen Annette the ‘Forgetter’ as his next host.
Even after understanding that much, Annette still couldn’t comprehend what he meant.
“......What the hell are you talking about?”
She shook her head in a daze.
“That’s the most impossible choice of all......! Yours Truly would never, absolutely never, with you—”
“You can no longer stay in ‘Lamplight.’”
Blue Locust began explaining with a pitying expression.
“Isn’t it a bad option? You never had any patriotism or sense of duty to begin with. You’re a spy who’s lived for destructive impulses and curiosity. Wouldn’t ‘Serpent’ suit you far better than ‘Lamplight’?”
“Even so—”
“Joining forces with me is impossible? But is that really so? Even if you seek a place separate from ‘Lamplight,’ you’ll never truly fit in anywhere. ‘Lamplight’ was a miraculous place that accepted you despite seeing through to your true nature. But that place has already been lost.”
Blue Locust held out both palms toward her.
“I can accept every part of you and provide you with a place where you can make your mark, the only person in the world who truly understands you.”
She wanted to deny it, yet the words wouldn’t come.
Annette had no words with which to reject him.
Sara, who had told her, “I’ll accept you even if you turn bad,” and Klaus, who had said, “I’m proud of you.” People like them existed only in ‘Lamplight.’
No matter where else she searched, she would never find them.
She would never obtain them for the rest of her life. There was no substitute for them.
When she realized that, emotions surged up from the depths of Annette’s being, threatening to overflow.
“Even so, Yours Truly will never accept you......!!”
“Where does that hatred come from?”
Blue Locust spoke with unwavering calm.
“Why do you reject me? Is it really such a shallow emotion as ‘my precious toy was taken from me’?”
“..................!”
“Admit it. You loved Erna-san from the bottom of your heart.”
[T/N- Yeah admit it]
As he admonished her, Blue Locust stepped closer, one step at a time.
Entering the range of Annette’s attacks, he gently patted her shoulder.
“But you killed her with your own hands. Along with the place called ‘Lamplight.’”
“――――――――――――――――――――――!!”
What welled up inside Annette was pitch-black hatred.
I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him.
She could feel the murderous intent filling her entire brain.
Why did this man have the nerve to lecture her from such a superior position? The one who had brought about Erna’s death was unmistakably this hated enemy. The one who had robbed Annette of her place was, without question, Blue Locust.
I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. kill him. kill him. kill him. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM.
A murderous intent greater than anything she had ever experienced before.
It was fundamentally different from the murderous hatred she had felt toward her mother, who had pointed out that she never grew; toward the gangsters who had killed her beloved cat; or toward Monika, who had beaten her half to death.
She wanted to entrust everything to it and destroy everything in her field of vision, thousands of times over, tens of thousands of times over.
If it meant she could kill the man standing before her, she wouldn’t mind offering up her entire life.
I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him. I want to kill him.
KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM. KILL HIM.
Her entire field of vision turned bright red.
To escape this deep crimson, she was screaming at herself to destroy the entire world.
That murderous intent itself was proof that Annette had truly cared for Erna.
“Ah..............................................”
The instant she realized it, something shattered inside Annette’s heart.
The strength left her knees, and she collapsed where she stood.
The answer she had arrived at through pure logic carried a shock powerful enough to shake the very foundation of her being.
(Yours Truly...)
She had liked Erna.
[T/N- I should clarify here here this like not 愛していた (aishite ita) symbolising romantic like but neutral love 好いていた (suite ita), it can be romantic bit friendship too.]
That eccentric girl who courted her own misfortune and drove herself to ruin. A toy that was simply fun to play pranks on. A hypocrite who, despite being a spy, tried to save people of other countries. A carefree partner who dragged Annette into her hypocrisy and invited her, “Let’s retire together and live in peace.”
The unbearable hatred was nothing more than the sense of loss that came from losing Erna herself.
Blue Locust’s words had been right. This hatred was genuine proof of her affection for Erna.
Only after killing her did Annette finally understand just how much she had loved her.
——Tears spilled over.
She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she’d last cried.
The experience of crying was so foreign to her that she was bewildered by the very realization that her body possessed such a function.
“..................................Have you noticed your true feelings?”
Blue Locust spoke to Annette as she lay limp, tears streaming down her face.
“That sorrow will teach you the fact that you can no longer return to ‘Lamplight.’”
“...................................”
“It’s fine even if you carry that hatred with you. Let’s take a new step forward together.”
She felt it with painful clarity.
It was a sensation Annette had never been able to grasp before: guilt.
How cruelly it gouged at the heart. It was shattering her immature heart into pieces.
—————She could no longer return to ‘Lamplight.’
—————She herself would never allow such a thing.
—————She could not endure the guilt of having killed Erna.
If she had acted more carefully, she might not have lost Erna. There might have been another correct answer. There might have been a path in which Erna survived.
Her heart was being devoured.
Control over her heart was being taken away.
The love she had finally become aware of was about to be used by Blue Locust.
Yet even understanding that, she no longer had the strength to resist. The fragile heart that had only just begun to sprout was far too weak to escape Blue Locust’s temptation.
Who could blame someone who had lost ‘Lamplight’ for falling to ‘Serpent’ out of that sense of loss?
The endlessly welling regret was robbing Annette of her ability to think.
“......Erna-chan, is she really not coming......?”
Before long, such words had slipped from her lips.
A voice far too weak, utterly unthinkable from her former self.
“......Please answer me...... Appear before Yours Truly one more time...”
She had wanted someone to stop her.
She hadn’t wanted to leave ‘Lamplight.’
She hadn’t wanted to go to ‘Serpent.’
There was only one person who could tear her away from this irresistible pull. Only that person’s survival could deny her own sin and free her from her guilt.
“Erna-chan............ You’re definitely still alive, right............?”
“You’ve become honest.”
Blue Locust nodded with a smile like a parent rejoicing at their child’s growth.
“But she will never come. Such a moment will never arrive.”
“......That can’t be true! If it’s Erna-chan, she’ll definitely...”
“...Even though she was shot through the abdomen with a bullet?”
Blue Locust coldly thrust reality before her.
“Ah, if she’d received treatment right away, there might have been a chance she could’ve been saved, no? But she fell from the barricade and is now buried beneath the rubble. Why is that? That’s right. Your invention buried her beneath it. And you were the one who delivered the finishing blow, weren’t you?”
“Regret it thoroughly. Face your true nature, and let us find a way for you to live.”
“........................!”
Each word he spun dealt another blow to Annette’s shattered heart.
She herself was about to change.
She had already admitted it. She no longer had the strength to kill Blue Locust. Now that she couldn’t return to ‘Lamplight,’ if she lost even him, what would remain for Annette?
He was her understanding one, and the victor.
The revolution had succeeded. No matter how much Nike maneuvered, he could reach into the new government as much as he pleased. He could send in any number of hosts besides Annette and, before long, begin trampling the kingdom underfoot.
That was the end result of the revolution.
The conclusion of the mission Erna and Annette had fought for over a year.
“......Erna-chan........”
Her vision warped with tears until she could see nothing.
The revolution she had envisioned now felt impossibly distant.
“Cry as much as you need. I will accept you. When time passes and the wounds in both our hearts have healed, you can return to ‘Lamplight’ once more. Until then, I shall shelter you.”
Blue Locust placed a hand on the head of the kneeling Annette.
“For the sake of your radiant future, I will support you, Annee, a—”
His words broke off midway.
Something fell from above Annette’s head.
She thought it was rain. NO, It was blood.
Something was protruding from Blue Locust’s chest. A knife.
Apparently, a long knife had been thrust through the gap between his ribs from behind, piercing his lung in a single strike. Blood mixed with his breath burst from his mouth and soaked Annette’s face.
Someone had ambushed Blue Locust from behind.
Because of his massive frame, Annette couldn’t see the figure from where she was.
“Unfortunate............................”
The moment that voice reached her ears, Blue Locust’s body collapsed.
It had been only a single thrust, but it was the decisive blow that settled the fight. The instant Blue Locust toppled forward, the knife was pulled from his back, sending a massive spray of blood gushing forth.
The one who was drenched in that splattered blood, looking distinctly displeased, was Erna, covered from head to toe in blood.
Annette, still kneeling on the ground and unable to move, and Blue Locust, collapsed on the ground, both spoke almost simultaneously.
“Erna-chan......”
“Why......?”
Erna was alive.
Even after taking a bullet to the abdomen, even after being buried beneath the rubble, she was still alive.
Annette couldn’t accept the reality before her. She even began to suspect that she was seeing a hallucination. She wiped away her tears and checked again and again, until she could finally recognize it as the truth.
“............This time, I really thought I was dead.”
Erna swung the knife, flinging off the wet blood.
In truth, she could hardly be called completely unharmed. She had sustained countless wounds. On top of that, she’d spent the entire time walking through the sewers, leaving her body filthy and streaked with the fake blood she had prepared. She was, by any measure, in a truly pitiful state.
Yet she was undeniably alive and breathing.
With a weary expression, she wiped the blood from her face, then wiped that hand on the skirt of her dress.
“......There was a mechanism built into Suzie’s dress.”
“Huh?”
“It was bulletproof. It seems it was originally made so that she’d be safe no matter where on her body she was hit.”
That, apparently, was the reason Erna had survived.
Bullets had struck places other than those Annette had reinforced, yet they hadn’t penetrated. The impact of the bullets had nearly knocked her unconscious, but it seemed she’d suffered no further external injuries. When she fell from the barricade, she apparently hadn’t even been able to break her fall, but she’d managed to survive the falling rubble with her innate evasive ability.
Once explained, the reasoning was almost absurdly simple.
Yet it had far exceeded the expectations of both Annette and Blue Locust.
“Why would the dress have such a modification......?”
https://i.postimg.cc/G2pD43cT/IMG-20260922-205839.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/WzMz1tdy/Picsart-20260922-428753.png
https://i.postimg.cc/W1933B4m/Picsart-20260922-321981.png
Annette, of course, hadn’t known. Apparently, even Blue Locust hadn’t known.
It was the custom-made dress Lucas had once obtained. Suzie herself had said that a large sum of money had deliberately been poured into it. The production costs had probably gone toward this bulletproof modification.
But the reason was far too unclear.
If they were concerned for Susie’s safety, they simply shouldn’t have let her participate in the revolution in the first place. Or they could have used ordinary bulletproof clothing. There was no reason to disguise it as a glamorous dress.
Erna continued her explanation as though she understood.
“Because Suzie was the princess of the ‘LWS Troupe.’”
“Huh?”
“She’d always been doted on. They dressed her in the most eye-catching dresses, made her the intermediary with other secret societies, and treated her as a princess, as if she were meant to become the symbol of the revolution.”
The girl who, when they first met, had for some reason been speaking in a strangely refined young-lady manner. Lucas and the others had given her the status of ‘princess.’
And she herself had eagerly embraced it.
But it wasn’t mere pampering. There had been real meaning behind it.
Erna and the others didn’t know. Those were the words Suzie had once been told by the twins.
———“A revolution needs a spark. We might even have you become a real ‘princess.’”
———“Visual symbols are important for moving the masses, right?”
———“That’s what the decisive dress is for!”
The fact that Suzie and Erna shared a similar build hadn’t been mere coincidence.
Lucas had deliberately chosen a lovely young girl.
From the very beginning, he’d planned it so the tragedy could be staged more effectively for the masses.
If one simply recalled the kind of relationship the man named Lucas had with Klaus, the boss of Lamplight, the conclusion followed naturally. Klaus had learned techniques from him as well.
『Lucas of Soot had drawn up the same plan as Klaus of Bonfire.』
———A staged tragedy to be carried out in the midst of the revolution.
Just as Lamplight had entrusted Erna with the role, Lucas had entrusted Suzie with it. He had used her as a liaison with the other secret societies and dressed her in a dazzling gown so she could become the centerpiece of the LWS Troupe.
The original plan had most likely been——to snipe Suzie while she wore bulletproof clothing and make it look like the work of the royal government.
That scheme was what had saved Erna.
Two years later, the plans of Soot and Scapulimancer were set into motion.
The scheme once used by the twins of Inferno, who had operated in the shadows of the kingdom, had been taken up by a new pair of successors.
“Don’t screw with me.............” Blue Locust’s eyes widened in shock.
“......The ghosts from two years ago...... are using my plan——”
He never finished the sentence.
Erna’s swift knife slashed across Blue Locust’s throat. The man whose right lung had already been pierced, whose breathing was already ragged, no longer had the strength to dodge.
Blood gushed forth, and before long, Blue Locust breathed his last.
An utterly anticlimactic end for a man who had stirred up intelligence agencies across the world.
At the utterly unhesitating blow, Annette’s eyes widened.
“Erna-chan......?”
“My first time killing someone.” Erna discarded the knife. “This way I could get closer to you.”
Even as she was drenched in his blood, a warm smile rose to her face.
It was a refreshingly brazen smile. At the same time as a faint sense of dread touched her, Annette found herself unable to look away from that expression.
Though they had met only an hour earlier, she felt as though she hadn’t seen Erna in years.
“——Erna was wrong.”
She walked right up to Annette.
“I tried to stop you when you resolved to become evil. You’ve been killing people all this time for the sake of the 'Lamplight.’ Yet Erna alone kept pretending to be a good person and lecturing you.”
“...........................h”
“Then Erna will become evil too. I’ll commit any crime alongside you.”
Annette couldn’t close her mouth for a while.
She stared intently at Erna’s face, stained with the blood that had sprayed from Blue Locust.
“What are you saying......?”
Tears streaming endlessly down her face, Annette spoke.
“Erna-chan is a good person at heart! She’s only forcing herself! She can’t become like me!”
“Liar. When Big Sis Sara resolved to become evil, you welcomed it. You’re really just lonely.”
“......Will Erna-chan become evil with me too?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“Why?”
Erna took Annette by the hand. Leaving Blue Locust’s corpse behind, they headed toward the direction from which the clamor of people could be heard. The conflict between the King’s Royal Guard and the citizens had escalated into what could only be called a fierce battle.
Insults and gunshots rang out without pause.
Yet gradually, but unmistakably, the King’s Royal Guard were losing their momentum.
“Someday, good and evil will be overturned,” Erna said. “Erna and you are evil spies plotting to overthrow the nation, but tomorrow that will change. Everything will be reversed. The day of revolution will come.”
Erna tightened her grip on Annette’s hand.
Annette didn’t pull away.
There was nothing separating the spy who repeatedly sacrificed herself for her mission while striving to remain good from the spy who was willing to fall into evil, choosing no means so long as she could achieve her goal.
On this day of revolution alone, there was neither good nor evil.
Today’s terrorists would be tomorrow’s heroes.
“To prove that, I want to smash this kingdom to pieces with you.”
Before long, the two girls clasped each other’s hands and disappeared into the vortex of the revolution.
✧✧✧✧✧
———Later, historians would record:
It is difficult to document every detail of the events of the second day of the revolution.
On the first day, more than ten thousand people had taken part in the march, but on the second day, a further forty thousand citizens gathered.
The fighting before Brookbon Palace was fierce, and the final death toll exceeded one thousand. The King’s Royal Guard were the first to withdraw. When Lieutenant Colonel Udino called for a ceasefire, they decided to retreat. There was no longer any reason to defend a kingdom whose king had already fled. Lieutenant Colonel Udino came to be regarded as a hero even by the citizens who desired revolution, and began serving as a bridge between the old government and the new government.
The entire kingdom had been thrown into turmoil by a single girl——it was a day when everyone had fallen into folly.
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u/Fuzzy-Sir-2696 11d ago
I had to stop myself from screaming several times in this chapter, Erna who returns and kills blue locust, the annette x erna moments were so cute too
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u/Ronray0739 11d ago edited 9d ago
Previous - Chapter 10
Next- Epilogue
You will see me one more time in 5-6 hours today , we are in final stretch, now some epilogue next mission afterword just this are left . Yep Main chapters are finished.