After finishing an early dinner, basically combining two meals into one.
Once he had washed the dishes and returned to his bedroom, Ritsu began looking up map information related to tomorrow's mission location. After all, this time they were heading to Finland, a place he had never been before. Not understanding the geographical environment would be a disadvantage for the operation.
The mission site was located in Hanko, Finland, a coastal city. The castle established by the target, Finlandia, was situated in the suburbs of Hanko, surrounded by sea on three sides. It was indeed a location that was easy to defend and hard to attack.
Within the effective firing range of himself and Chianti, there were three reasonable sniper positions. If they were labeled as points A, B, and C, then the one that would maximize Chianti's usefulness was point C.
This was because the distance between point C and the castle was within 500 yards. For Chianti, whose maximum range was 550 yards, this was a relatively safe shooting distance, and it would also greatly improve the accuracy of mobile sniping.
Irish watched TV in the living room for a while, but soon found it boring. He walked to Ritsu's door and knocked politely.
"Can I come in?"
"You may. Come in."
After entering the bedroom, Irish's first instinct was to examine the room's arrangement. Although he had grown up in an orphanage, he cared a great deal about cleanliness. His impression of a person often came from whether their living environment was tidy.
Clearly, Ritsu's room passed with flying colors. Everything was neatly arranged, and there wasn't a single trace of mess or disorder.
He walked over to the desk and saw Ritsu bent over a sheet of paper, drawing.
"What are you doing? Drawing a map?"
"Yeah. Memorizing it this way makes it stick better. Tomorrow's mission can't afford any mistakes. This isn't some trivial skirmish, we don't even know how many enemies there are, so the only thing we can do is stay vigilant and be fully prepared."
Irish clearly hadn't expected Ritsu to think things through so thoroughly. His drawing skills were also quite good. He quickly sketched out a top-down map of the mission area, even marking all the routes suitable for infiltration, sniping, and retreat.
Taking out a chess set from the drawer, Ritsu placed a white rook on sniper point C. Then he took a black knight and a white bishop, placing them at breach point A. Finally, he placed a black king on sniper point A.
He explained, "Having Chianti at sniper point C is the most reasonable setup. She has two retreat routes. One passes through breach point A and the other leads to my position at sniper point A."
"Breach point A is an assault from the left flank, which is in the same direction as my sniper point A. While I support your attack from here, Chianti on the other side can harass the right flank, creating a diversion."
A hint of admiration flashed in Irish's eyes. Being able to calculate all routes and methods in such a short time was already impressive but Ritsu could even select the optimal plan from them… that was truly remarkable.
No wonder many code-named members in the Western Europe division, where Irish mainly operated, wanted to recruit him. Even Stout, who had partnered with Irish twice, had spoken highly of him just from reviewing his public records.
"This is indeed an excellent attack plan," Irish said cheerfully, leaning on the desk with both hands. "Macallan, I'm starting to envy those who get to work with you."
"What do you mean?"
"You're smart, and you think through every detail. Working with you is enjoyable. But…" Irish tapped his temple with a finger and smiled, "Work with you too long, and your own brain might start to rust."
Ritsu clearly hadn't expected such high praise. He accepted it politely and said modestly, "Irish, that's a bit of an overstatement."
Irish shrugged casually. "You can take it as British humor. It's not exactly hilarious but I meant what I said, you really are outstanding."
"Let's not go overboard with the compliments." Ritsu picked up the black king and white rook, placing them together at breach point B. "If the earlier plan succeeds, Chianti and I will enter from point B to rendezvous with you. Then we'll head straight for the traitor's nest, and the ending will naturally be…"
Click. The chess piece landed at the deepest part of the castle.
"Checkmate."
Irish clapped a few times in appreciation and said with interest, "Now I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow. I want to see if your plan holds up perfectly in practice."
"Perfection doesn't exist. This is just the optimal plan."
"Heh, that's already more than enough." Irish glanced around, then looked at the gray mattress and white bedding laid out on the floor. "Am I sleeping here tonight?"
"No. That's mine."
"…?"
Ritsu pointed at his bed. "You're the guest, so you take the bed. If there's anything uncomfortable, just let me know, I'll do my best to accommodate."
"You're a bit different from the rumors."
"Rumors?" Ritsu blinked twice, still wearing his usual expressionless face. "What do they say?"
"That you're like Gin. Quiet, bad-tempered, and so unapproachable that no one dares get close. Basically the same reputation as Gin."
"…Is that so?"
Ritsu had no idea such rumors about him existed within the organization. Hearing it now, he sounded like a complete villain.
"Turns out you're surprisingly easy to get along with. Guess rumors really aren't reliable."
Since they would arrive in Finland late at night the next day, and to ensure they stayed fully alert during the mission, Ritsu and Irish finished washing up early and got into bed.
However, since both of them were used to sleeping alone, sharing a room made it difficult to fall asleep, even counting sheep didn't help.
"…"
Ritsu tossed and turned under his blanket. Even the smallest movement seemed loud in the quiet room. Irish, lying on the bed, opened his eyes and propped himself up on one elbow, looking at Ritsu's back.
"Can't sleep?"
"Yeah. I'm a bit picky about where I sleep. I'll get used to it soon."
'Picky about beds, huh? Kind of like a kid.' Though Irish himself was quite a bit older, he was already thirty-two, practically on the road to forty.
"Want to switch? I can take the floor."
"No need. I'll adjust soon enough."
"Alright then. I'm going to sleep. Good night."
'Stubborn little brat,' Irish thought, raising an eyebrow as he lay back down. Since Ritsu insisted on taking the floor, he might as well accept the kindness and comfortably drift off to meet the goddess of dreams.
Ritsu carefully turned over and looked at Irish lying on his bed. 'He really didn't insist on switching… seriously? Why not follow the usual script?'
Staring up at the ceiling, he felt a bit hopeless. At this rate, who knew how long it would take to fall asleep.
Hopefully, he could catch up on sleep on the plane tomorrow.