Chapter 12

News footage of Ostanian and Westalian ministers discussing normalized relations plays in the Forger home while Loid reflects that the fragile peace between the nations, false or not, is precisely what WISE, Operation Strix, and his manufactured family exist to protect. Yuri arrives, and the handshake at the door conceals a mutual sizing-up: Loid weighing whether the young man endangers his cover, Yuri judging whether this stranger deserves Yor. Both privately commit to their performances, Yuri as a mild civil servant hiding his SSS fury, Yor as a convincingly loving wife.

Trouble starts immediately. Yuri wants to know why his sister concealed a marriage for an entire year. Loid had earlier urged Yor to simply admit she married to dodge the stigma of staying single, but she insisted her eccentric brother would never accept a loveless arrangement and promised to handle the excuse herself. Her answer, delivered with a straight face, is that she forgot to mention it, and when Yuri cites their old phone call about a partner, she claims she forgot that she had forgotten. Loid drops two plates in disbelief, yet Yuri, helpless where his sister is concerned, laughs it off and accepts everything, leaving Loid convinced the whole Briar bloodline is defective.

Over dinner and the Hugarian wine Yuri brought to loosen tongues, the brother-in-law's friendly questions sharpen into an interrogation: where the couple met, what they ate, which restaurants, when the relationship turned serious, what pet names they use. Loid parries each probe, and when conversation turns to Yuri's supposed work trip to Hugaria, the trap springs in reverse. Yuri's answers about the Obda café and the Kalpatia restaurant match, word for word, a fabrication manual used by Ostanian intelligence, and his details are stale: the restaurant passed from father to son, and a grape shortage pushed his wine's price from 200 to 300 dalc. Combined with Franky's research into Yuri's employment history, Loid concludes his brother-in-law belongs to the SSS, WISE's greatest enemy, and coolly decides that staying close to him could yield intelligence, while Yuri's secrecy toward Yor doubles as potential leverage.

The drunken Yuri then bares his heart. Flashbacks show the orphaned Briar siblings scraping by, Yor returning home drenched in blood she waved off as work, buying him the encyclopedia set he craved from her "big payday." Her sacrifices drove him to succeed so he could protect his only living relative, and he challenges Loid to be a man more capable of shielding her than he is. Loid responds with shameless theater, vowing to guard Yor from knives, bullets, even a falling nuke. Yuri smells a lie but cannot disprove it. When a spilled glass leads the couple to brush hands and flinch apart like strangers, his suspicion reignites, and doctored photos fail to calm him. He issues an ultimatum: kiss now and receive his blessing, or he petitions to annul the marriage. Loid, reminding himself that Westalis's finest spy has romanced dozens of targets, leans in, while the utterly unprepared Yor turns scarlet.

Loid definitively identifies Yuri as an SSS counterintelligence officer by recognizing his cover story as textbook fabrication, backed by Franky's background check, and resolves to exploit the connection rather than avoid it. Yor's absurd "I forgot" excuse for hiding the marriage inexplicably works on her brother. Flashbacks reveal the siblings' impoverished childhood and the bloody work Yor took on to provide for Yuri, explaining his obsessive devotion. The chapter ends on the kiss ultimatum, with Loid committed and Yor panicking over her first kiss.

The opening news broadcast features ministers modeled on real Cold War politicians: Westalis's Minister Brantz mirrors West German foreign minister Willy Brandt, architect of Ostpolitik and later Chancellor, while Ostania's Minister Windsor draws on East German foreign minister Otto Winzer. The first names line up with the fictional countries, Willy for Westalis and Otto for Ostania. Endo studied Hungarian wine labels and storefronts to design Hugaria. The chapter belongs to the Secret Police Arc, runs 27 pages, released August 26, 2019, is collected in Volume 3, and was adapted in Episode 8 of the anime.