Prologue

Carefully Laid Plans

Chloe, covert agent of the kingdom of Hagl. That was how I was known within the organization.

I was at my favorite place, the edge of a cliff facing the sea. I spread my picnic blanket on the ground and placed a rock on each corner to prevent it from blowing away in the wind. I opened the picnic basket. Just then, the old farmer who always passed by here this time of day called out to me from his wagon.

I waved to him. Surely, he would remember my presence here now.

I nibbled off a piece of my sandwich, poured some tea in my cup, and set it down on the blanket. After confirming there was no one around to see, I lay face down on the edge of the cliff, reached out my arm, and tangled the string from my hat around the branch of a pine tree that’d grown just below.

I kicked off my sandals and tossed them at the rocky shore at the bottom of the cliff. Then I removed my cherished pendant, refastened the clasp, and hurled it with all my might toward the same place as my sandals.

“That should do it.”

There was no reason to stay here any longer. I took my boots out from my bag and put them on before turning from the cliff and walking to the mountain on the other side of the road. I wouldn’t come back here again.

I was leaving behind both my favorite place in the world, and my life as a spy.

That same night, the central control room of the kingdom of Hagl’s Special Operations Force was buzzing.

“Dan, can you go to the Matool cliffs? And investigate the shore below once morning comes. Jacob, check with the security force to see if there’s any new information.”

Chief Lancome watched the two men hurry out of the room, then pressed a hand against his temple as he let out a sigh.

“Chloe goes to the Matool cliffs a lot, doesn’t she, Lancome?”

“That she does, Mary. Despite the many times I’ve told her not to, since there isn’t any fencing.”

Mary covered her mouth. “I wonder what happened to her?”

“She’s fine. She’s gotta be. I’m sending them to check on her, just in case.”

“She was quite shocked when she heard you and I got married, you know.”

“Knock it off. That’s not true. Plus, we still don’t know if anything’s happened to Chloe.”

“Yes, but it’s late, and she hasn’t come back yet.”

It was almost eight o’clock at night. The cliffs would be pitch-dark by now.

“Don’t worry,” Lancome said. “There has to be some kind of mistake. Chloe’s strong.”

He slid his arm behind Mary’s back and gently patted it to comfort her—the Chloe he knew was a resilient woman who never showed a hint of weakness.

***

I changed carriages several times to avoid being followed, took a detour, and boarded a long-distance private omnibus.

I hid my chestnut-colored hair beneath a gaudy red wig, caked on my makeup, and padded my blouse to the brim. Then I drew a mole next to my mouth for good measure. With that, my sexy, good-time-gal disguise was complete.

There were five passengers in the omnibus, including me. All the other riders were men. My every expression and gesture oozed sex appeal, and I caught them frequently stealing glances at me. One of them, a middle-aged man, had the courage to speak up.

“Where are you headin’, miss? Must be somewhere important if you’re on a long-distance omnibus this early in the morn’.”

“Yes, quite. My mother’s ill, and I’m going to visit her. She lives alone; I’m ever so worried.”

“Hmm, that’s a shame.”

Now all the men were listening intently.

“Honestly, I’m very concerned, but there’s no use in fretting over it. I’m just trying not to think negatively.” I pulled a silver hip flask out of my bag.

“Hey, that’s a nice flask ya got there. What’s in it, liquor?”

“Right you are. I know it’s first thing in the morning, but we’re in for a long trip. You boys care for any?” My matte silver flask was filled with a special spirit even stronger than ordinary calvados. “Go ahead and help yourselves,” I said and, much to the men’s delight, passed the flask around for them to take sips. When it was my turn, I touched the opening with my lips and only pretended to drink.

Before long, some of the passengers were cheerfully muttering to themselves, while others were dead silent because they’d fallen fast asleep. This would ensure that they would only have the briefest recollection of our encounter.

When they’d try to think back on it, all they’d remember was my thick makeup, beauty mark, and red hair. Oh, and my ample bosom, I’m sure.

Late that night, I got off at Thurston and started to walk. I would travel from here and enter the neighboring kingdom of Randall.

I was able to pass through the border checkpoint thanks to the fake identification papers I’d forged. According to the documents, I was a redheaded woman named Maria. The name was an alias, of course.

The moment I entered Randall, I sneaked away from any prying eyes and took off my wig. I used makeup-remover liquid to quickly wipe away my thick cosmetics and the beauty mark by my mouth, then removed the padding from my blouse and stowed it away in my bag.

I gave myself a quick check using my compact mirror. Once I stepped out from the shadows, the sexy redheaded bombshell Maria was gone, replaced by a woman in the same outfit with chestnut-brown hair.

After arriving safely in Randall, I boarded the first of many carriages I would be taking. Since the carriages didn’t travel overnight, I had to spend the evening in a hotel. All in all, it took me twenty days to cross Randall like this and enter the neighboring kingdom of Ashbury.

I crossed the border using a different set of identification papers, which were for a woman named Victoria Sellars.

Victoria Sellars was a real person who lived in the kingdom of Randall, but she had gone missing. She was the same age as me, and we shared a physical resemblance, but she had no other special characteristics. She’d been missing for ten years now, and her family was scattered all over.

When I first saw her missing person report, I’d thought, I could use her someday, but I’d never imagined at the time that this was how I would do so. On paper, it would look like Victoria Sellars had left the country.

Chloe the spy no longer existed in this world. I had every intention of living my life as Victoria from now on. On her identification papers, I had filled in my own details in the physical characteristics column: brown hair, brown eyes, age twenty-seven, height 165 centimeters.

The real Victoria was slightly shorter than me. Of course, I was in a different kingdom now, so no one could tell that my identification papers from Randall were anything but legitimate.

And so I, Victoria Sellars, left the border and went straight into a restaurant.

“Good morning. What can I get you?”

“Coffee, pancakes, two sausages, and fried eggs, please. Oh, that’ll be two eggs over easy.”

“Got it. Take a seat wherever you’d like.”

After I finished ordering, I chose a corner table and sat with my back facing the wall, then let out a sigh. By this time, everyone at my old job probably thought I’d either fallen off the cliff or jumped.

“Sorry for the wait.”

The waitress set down a cup of fresh, steaming hot coffee, sizzling sausages with a nice bit of char on them, and a stack of steamy pancakes with a wad of butter in the center that was already starting to melt. The eggs were over easy. My order also came with a tiny glass pitcher that was filled to the brim with maple syrup.

I poured the entire pitcher over my pancakes, picked up my knife and fork, and began greedily devouring my breakfast. It had been a year since I first started preparing to leave the organization, and eight months since I’d started restricting my food intake.

“Haah, absolutely delicious. Now I can eat whatever I want.”

The reason I’d kept to such a strict diet was because I needed to play the part of a heartbroken, jilted woman. I’d been absolutely starving the entire time. At one point, Lancome was so worried about me, he made me take medicine that would stimulate my appetite. The hunger pangs had been extreme, but I hung in there. I dropped eight kilograms in eight months.

But now I could finally eat as much as I pleased.

I took my time and savored every morsel of my meal, which was large enough to satisfy even a man’s appetite, then walked through the capital city and headed for a hotel. I needed to regain my muscle tone as quickly as possible.

Finally, I entered a large hotel on a main street and went up to the counter.

“Hello, I sent a letter about making a reservation. The name’s Victoria Sellars.”

“Ah, yes. We’ve been waiting for you, Ms. Sellars. Your room is on the third floor—a corner suite, just as you requested.”

I would use this hotel as my base of operations for the time being to prepare for my new life. I had many cards I could play here, so I was going to take it slowly. I threw myself on the bed with a plop.

I wondered if Chief Lancome would continue looking for me. I’d crossed two whole kingdoms to get here to Ashbury; would he really extend the search this far? Or would he give up straight away?

“Knock it off. Sitting here worrying about it is just a waste of time.”

From now on, I wanted to live my life freely, without being tied down by anyone.

By all accounts, the royal family here in Ashbury was excellent; they’d gone many generations without engaging in an offensive war, using their military strictly for defense. Trade was healthy, and the population was diverse. No one would bat an eye if a stranger suddenly came to town and settled there. That was why I’d chosen to live in this kingdom.

“What should I do for a living…?”

Lancome had taken me in as a young man, when I was eight years old. I’d performed my first mission at age fifteen and worked nonstop thereafter until twenty-seven. During that time, Lancome rose the ranks to chief.

Every month, I would buy small items for my family and ask Lancome to send them off with some money. He’d check to make sure there were no letters in the packages, then forward them to my parents’ house.

One of the rules was that I mustn’t contact my family, you see.

The thought of my parents’ and my younger sister Emily’s joy at receiving the packages was what kept me going while I worked. Even though I couldn’t contact them, Lancome would at least tell me if they died. I made sure of that several times.

“I can’t believe they’re all dead…”