Prologue: The Day Rikita Bones Died

"Rikita Bones is dead."

The shockwave those seven words sent across the continent was nothing short of seismic.

There was no dispute that Rikita Bones, the greatest double agent the continent had ever produced, was a war hero. Without her, the war would still be raging — or it would have ended in victory for the defeated Kingdom of Dochen. Her talents were so extraordinary that she was reserved exclusively for the most classified of missions; unless you were a Master of an intelligence agency, you could not so much as lay eyes on her.

"Now that everyone is assembled, I will lock the door."

Clunk.Creak.Clunk-click.THOOM.

Layer upon layer of mechanisms engaged, sealing the door tight with a barrier of magic. The Masters of every national intelligence agency settled into a circle around the hermetic conference room — a summit of the victorious allied powers, each of which had grown fat absorbing the defeated nations that bordered them.

"Let's skip the pleasantries and get straight to business."

No sooner had one impatient voice broken the silence than the bickering began.

Every one of them had come for Rikita's legacy. What each nation wanted was not her land, nor her money. It was something far more valuable and far more discreet: information.

Rikita had contributed enormously to ending the long war — but by that very token, she was also the spy who knew more of the continent's most sensitive and dangerous secrets than anyone alive. It was impossible even to estimate what she knew, or how much of it. The joke that whoever obtained her intelligence would obtain the continent itself was no joke at all.

Amid glares so venomous it was hard to believe these men had ever been allies, the Master from Kibon spoke first.

"Rikita Bones was born in the Kingdom of Dochen, to begin with. It therefore stands to reason that her effects belong to Kibon, which absorbed Dochen."

The Master of Lujein, seated across from him, narrowed his eyes.

"What nonsense is this? Rikita never once worked for the Kingdom of Dochen. The nation she approached first, of her own volition, was Lujein."

"It was Ilite that conferred a Marquis title upon Rikita Bones. And it was Ilite that conducted more operations with her than anyone else."

At the Master of Ilite's scoffing remark, the Master of Soltum shook his head.

"And what does that amount to? Rikita's residence is a townhouse in Soltum, and as you all well know, Soltum is a free state. The conclusion is plain: she chose to spend her remaining years in Soltum."

The Master of Holich, in the seat beside him, let out an unmistakably derisive chuckle.

"Ahem. By that logic, she was close to Holich as well. Judging the matter by the location of a townhouse seems rather convenient, doesn't it?"

"I beg your pardon? Convenient?"

"Not that you're wrong, exactly. The townhouse does sit in Soltum, yes — but by geography alone, it lies within easy reach of every nation represented in this room."

At the Kibon Master's words, heads nodded in agreement all around, and the atmosphere of the summit turned several degrees uglier. In the end, no consensus was reached before the meeting broke up, and they agreed to postpone serious negotiation until the contents of the vault had been confirmed.

The task of cracking the vault fell to Soltum's intelligence agency. Rikita's vault was anything but ordinary — one wrong move and everything inside might detonate into oblivion — so a technician was essential. And Soltum happened to have a genius magic tool developer whose reputation, passed in whispers from Master to Master, claimed there was nothing under heaven he could not open.

The gathered Masters stared expectantly at the man assembled in Rikita's townhouse, and the Master of Soltum clapped a hand on the shoulder of the man he had smuggled in.

"Show us what you can do."

"……"

He was Joel Smiler — Soltum intelligence operative and magic tool developer. With his curly silver hair and coolly indifferent golden eyes, Joel still retained a boyish air at first glance, barely of age — yet the Master seemed to trust him without reservation.

Joel donned a specially crafted magitech monocle and studied the vault door with painstaking care for a long while. Then:

"I can't open it."

At Joel's pronouncement as he removed the lens, the room burst into hollow groans of despair. The Master of Soltum's eyes went wide with disbelief.

"What did you say? What on earth do you mean? There's no vault in existence you can't open, Joel!"

"There's a special magitech device installed inside. Intricate yet audacious — truly an exquisite piece of design."

Joel murmured his admiration alone, a pleased curl tugging at the corner of his mouth. The Masters, by contrast, were in no state to share his admiration; some clutched their heads while others heaved long, deep sighs.

"A special magitech device, you say……?"

"Unbelievable. I knew it was no ordinary vault, but still."

"You're not pretending it won't open so Soltum can spirit it away in secret, are you?"

"Why on earth would we do that!"

Sweating now, the Master of Soltum pressed Joel relentlessly.

"You're not merely a safecracker — you're the finest magic tool developer alive. Tell me there's truly no way to open it."

"There is a way. However……"

"Th-then what is it!"

Joel examined the vault's hinges thoughtfully before answering.

"It requires the blood of Rikita."

"Her blood? Rikita is dead. Are you saying it can never be opened, then?!"

Just as the Masters teetered on the edge of despair, Joel offered them a small glimmer of hope.

"No. The blood of her kin will serve just as well. Family, after all."

And that hope collapsed into miserable ruin the moment someone recalled that Rikita Bones had no family at all.

The Masters consoled themselves in the end with the thought that this was perhaps for the best. If no one could have it, rather than any single nation possessing it, then wasn't that the perfect outcome — no problem at all?

Then Rikita's will was discovered — and with it surfaced an existence none of them had ever dreamed of.

Her sole living kin. Her granddaughter. Hidden blood of the Bones line.

"Find out everything about Nina Bones — now! Where is she hiding? What are her weaknesses? What does she want?"

The Masters were dumbstruck — when, by all the gods, had Rikita borne a child and raised up a granddaughter? — but tracking down her kin took precedence over everything else. Before they'd known she existed, no one would have thought to look. Now that they knew, the chase was swift. Hunting people down was, after all, what they did best.

Every intelligence agency on the continent came back with the same intelligence at nearly the same speed.

"Master! Nina Bones has been working as a maid in the household of a certain Count in Ilite."

Good grief. She was in Ilite all along!

The Master of Ilite clapped a hand to his forehead, caught off guard.

"Next. What's the next piece of intelligence."

"What Nina Bones wants most is……"

One by one, the agents of each nation hesitated, watching their Masters' faces. Apparently, whatever the sole living kin of Rikita Bones desired was not something that could be easily obtained.

"Wh-what in the world is it……!"

Just as the Masters, hearts in their throats, swallowed dryly, the agents delivered their answer.

"A family, they say."

A family!

In an instant, Rikita Bones's hollow, empty townhouse and her barren, lonely family tree transformed into something as sweet as cake. The Masters of the allied intelligence agencies exchanged razor-sharp glances.

A war of nerves crackling like lightning. The grim resolve of men who refused to be the first to pull out. Masters who had survived every kind of skirmish this world could offer needed only a glance to know they were all thinking precisely the same thing.

On a bright, warm day, the people gathered in the drawing room of the Bones family townhouse were waiting for their new family member. It was the day that nineteen-year-old Nina — who had lived her whole life believing herself an orphan — would return to the embrace of the family she'd longed for.

They were all strikingly handsome people, yet bore precious little resemblance to one another. They smiled when their eyes met and exchanged a few pleasant words, but there was nothing particularly warm or tender about it.

A woman on the sofa, feigning embroidery, stared at the sharp little needle in her hand and chuckled softly.

I am Katahari. Nina Bones's cousin — or rather, a spy of Lujein pretending to be one.

A man across from her, hidden behind an unfolded newspaper, snickered in kind.

I am Exi. Nina Bones's cousin — or rather, a spy of Kibon pretending to be one.

Not to be outdone, a man who appeared to be admiring the drawing room's paintings chimed in as well.

I am Chayson. Nina Bones's uncle — or rather, a spy of Ilite pretending to be one.

A woman arranging the flowers in a vase let the corner of her mouth slide up in a smooth smirk.

I am Natalisha. Nina Bones's aunt — or rather, a spy of Holich pretending to be one.

A perfectly ordinary-looking carrier pigeon alighted on the window frame, and beside it a potted cactus caught the sunlight and gleamed.

Gugu. Gu-ru-ruk-guk-gu.

(I am Gugu. An ordinary carrier pigeon — or rather, Soltum's spy pigeon pretending to be one.)

……

(I am a cactus. I am a cactus.)

Beyond the cactus's sharp spines, past the window, lay a small garden and the front gate — and from the carriage halted there, a young woman stepped down. With light brown hair and eyes of vivid pink, Nina gazed at the nameplate reading BONES, her face glowing with anticipation.

"My family lives here……!"

Behind her, shimmering with emotion, the horse waiting obediently at her back gave a low nicker.

Prrrum. Prrum-prrum.

(I am Maximus. A very handsome horse — or rather, Soltum's spy horse pretending to be one.)