Chatting over coffee with colleagues in Amabile, where impossible things happened as a matter of course, or Ro’s attitude toward Robert, who was cold, rational, and sometimes ruthless in his work even if not to the extent of Serpente’s boss, as if he were treating him like the owner of a neighborhood cafe. Once Amabile’s walls were removed, this was all just what ordinary life looked like. A kind of disconnect.

“If you don’t like potatoes, we can leave them out. But you did eat fries when you had hamburgers, didn’t you?”

“I don’t dislike them, so leave them. If we’ve bought everything, let’s go pay.”

“No, there are still more things to get.”

When he stopped Ro from taking the potatoes out of the cart, he headed next to the toy section, where children’s toys were piled high. After glancing over the whole section, he started putting toys into the cart. No, “putting” probably wasn’t the right word. “Sweeping them in” would fit better. Seeing the toys pile up high in the cart, Upsilon remembered that the mission destination was an orphanage.

Since they were not actually going there to volunteer, this was clearly a “preparation item” for the mission. Ro and Upsilon’s goal was the list of invitees who had been sent invitations to the suspicious charity event somewhere inside the orphanage. It seemed like a strategy to first win over the children who lived there, since the information might be hard to obtain directly from the people in charge.

“I suppose you’re planning to take these to the orphanage.”

Ro, filling the cart with toys, smiled at Upsilon instead of answering.

“Nothing wins kids over like this. First impressions matter.”

“A gift barrage?”

“Your choice of words. It’s not a gift barrage, it’s Santa. Santa.”

Christmas was far off, and Upsilon had no idea why Ro had started talking about Santa from the cafe earlier, but once he understood Ro’s strategy, he silently watched him select toys and put them in the cart. To Upsilon, they were just toys that varied slightly in shape, but Ro would occasionally ask his opinion on which of the two seemed better to play with.

“Just buy anything. They’re only for the mission.”

“You really think the kids won’t notice that? Kids know everything. Gifts for children have to be chosen with as much heart and care as if you were giving a present to a lover for the hundredth day anniversary.”

Watching Ro talk seriously over two character dolls that seemed to differ only in color and decorations, Upsilon sighed inwardly. He wondered if they would end up staying up all night just choosing toys for the kids, never mind steak.

In the end, what Ro had meant by paying the steak price in advance was serving as a porter for the toys going to the children. Upsilon set the large box full of children’s toys, more than Ro could even carry, into the trunk, and Ro loaded the box he had brought afterward into the back seat.

“Now I’ll really stop making you work and grill you the meat.”

Ro, taking the wheel and saying they had earned the right to eat because they had worked hard, looked exactly like an uncle who had bought a pile of gifts for his nephews and was feeling generous.

In the car heading to Ro’s house, Upsilon, sitting in the passenger seat, asked a question he had not been able to ask earlier.

“By the way, is it all right for you to tell me where you live?”

“Wouldn’t it be fine as long as you don’t go shouting it all over town?”

“…I won’t.”

“Then there isn’t any problem.”

At Ro’s answer, Upsilon frowned without realizing it. Put kindly, it meant Ro was carefree and trusted him, but taken badly, it made him seem far too lax in his security awareness as an Amabile agent. Or maybe he had been in Amabile so long that he had developed security numbness.

“No problem? You’ve been in Amabile that long and still have such a loose way of thinking?”

“It’s a safe house provided by Amabile. Contrary to appearances, it’s a facility equipped with all kinds of security systems.”

I can’t even count how many people died after placing blind faith in those security systems. The chairman and board members’ families of Roello, whom he had once taken hostage, also lived in a place surrounded by security systems. Had they ever imagined the supposedly impenetrable facility would be breached by him? The urge to lecture him rose all the way to Upsilon’s throat.

“You’re so stubborn. Have you never thought that, as you said, living all wrapped up and protected like that would actually draw more suspicion from the people around you?”

“You and I are both from places where that would make sense.”

“By that logic, the people living next door, downstairs, and upstairs from me are all surveillance targets and elimination targets? My downstairs neighbor’s kid just started walking, too.”

Stopped by a red light, Ro glanced at Upsilon. He seemed unable to argue with him, but his furrowed brow still had not smoothed out, as if he could not understand Ro at all. Upsilon was not failing to understand what he meant, but he was overlooking one fact about Amabile.

“Upsilon. You asked earlier when we came out of headquarters after the briefing whether Ro and the boss are always like that. That the boss doesn’t seem difficult.”

Upsilon’s gaze, which had been fixed straight ahead, moved toward Ro.

“Isn’t it because Amabile looks so free compared to what it actually does? The boss also seems pretty casual with the agents.”

“…Honestly, yes.”

“The boss probably adjusts the briefing style to fit the agent who’s carrying out the mission, so that may be part of it. But that absolutely does not mean Amabile as a whole is open or sloppy. I’m saying this because, after being tangled up with me yesterday and today, you seem to have started questioning Amabile and the boss’s image all over again because of the atmosphere you saw and felt.”

At Ro’s words, which had somehow seen right through his state, Upsilon silently looked straight ahead again. He hadn’t thought he was showing it that much, but perhaps, contrary to appearances, he was poor at keeping his expression in check if his thoughts were leaking onto his face.

He had never thought Amabile was sloppy. It was just that, compared to the things Amabile did, he kept encountering overly ordinary moments and found them unfamiliar, and after seeing a side of Robert he had never seen during briefings with him over the past five years, he had wondered if this was what the place had always been like.

After five whole years, just being paired closely with Ro could make the whole of Amabile look different. To Upsilon, that was a fascinating thing.

“It’s unusual. I mean, even if it’s a private intelligence agency, there is a certain rigid atmosphere people associate with the term. For the past five years, if nothing else, I thought the boss fit that image pretty well.”

“If you think that way, then the boss is just matching that image for you. He probably assigned missions that suited your personality most of the time.”

That much was true. Not always, but when carrying out partner missions, Robert generally assigned agents as partners who matched Upsilon’s personality well. Thanks to that, there had never been any major problems in mission performance, which was probably evidence that Robert paid considerable attention to choosing the agents who would be sent on missions.

“What I mean is, Amabile is that kind of place, so you don’t need to worry about the security of where I live. The safe house wasn’t sloppy with its security, which is why I’m still alive to this day.”

“I was just saying that, since you and I are both in this line of work, being careful never hurts.”

“Oh, really? I thought you were about to start lecturing me for being numb to danger.”

At Ro’s snort of laughter, Upsilon leaned back against the seat and grew serious. Was his expression really that unreadable? He checked his face in the side mirror. It was the same expressionless face as always.

Ro’s specialty was honey traps, so could it have something to do with that? For example, mind reading. Since he could not tell exactly how his own face appeared in Ro’s eyes, it was frustrating.

“If Upsilon himself asks to be removed from this mission, then I’ll consider it.”

As if waiting for the right moment, the light turned green, and Ro slowly pressed the accelerator while recalling what Robert had told him last night. Somehow, the things he had worried about seemed to be happening already.

Whether Upsilon was aware of it or not, to Ro it looked as if the emotions he held were seeping through tiny cracks bit by bit. In the name of worry, or in the name of anxiety. That one-sided love, cumbersome and surely only going to interfere with mission performance, and perhaps even put Ro himself or Upsilon in danger.

The Duke of Ashford’s request would surely be an important mission affecting not only Amabile but American society as well, and a dangerous one at that. If Robert had not paired him with Upsilon, Ro would have waited for time to solve it, but the situation had changed.

If he could not sort out the feelings he had for him, Ro had no intention of carrying out the mission with him. So he wanted Upsilon to clear away the feelings he had held for so long. As quickly as possible.