Volume 3 - CH 5.2

Chapter 5: The Darkness of Jeantan

“A paperweight?” Kazuya asked.

Inspector Grevil de Blois, who had been furiously listening to Kazuya’s and Victorique’s exchange, suddenly brought his ear close to the receiver. His drill-shaped hair stabbed Kazuya’s cheek.

“Ouch!”

“What’s going on there?”

“Your brother just came at me like a madman. Go away!”

“Is Grevil there?” Victorique’s voice turned grim.

Kazuya turned to the inspector, who instantly moved away from the phone, struck a pose, and shook his head as if to say, ‘I’m not here.’

“He is. But he says not to tell you that.”

Inspector Blois stared daggers at Kazuya.

“I’m the one asking for help, not the inspector. If there really is someone out there kidnapping people, I have to do something. I think Inspector Blois just wants to impress or something. He’s dead set on making a name for himself in Saubreme.”

“Ah, Jacqueline!” Victorique muttered.

“Jacqueline?” Kazuya said, glancing at Inspector Blois.

The inspector turned away as soon as he heard the name. It was the same name that Inspector Blois blurted out when he spotted a lady down at the train station.

Victorique gave no signs of answering Kazuya’s question. She seemed to be suffering from a much worse cold than he had thought. She occasionally gasped for air and barely managed to speak.

“Did you find a glass paperweight?”

“Give me a sec.” Kazuya looked around the conference room. He spotted a rugged glass paperweight sitting on top of a stack of papers. “I found one.”

“Take it.”

“Done.”

“Lift it up.”

“Okay… done.”

“Drop it on the floor.”

Kazuya fell silent.

“Just do as I say—Achoo!”

Kazuya looked around the conference room. The detectives were staring at him with bated breath, wondering what he was doing. Following Victorique’s instructions, he dropped the paperweight to the floor.

The hunk of glass fell slowly.

The moment it hit the hard floor, it shattered into pieces.

For a moment, Kazuya just stared at the smashed paperweight. “It shattered,” he said.

“Do you get it now, you simpleton?” She coughed.

“G-Get what?”

“Why did those guys at Jeantan lie to you? The answer lies in front of you. It’s why they changed the decor after you left, and why they insisted that they never saw you.”

“…”

“You dropped a lot of things in that room: a metal comb, a brooch, and a Blue Rose paperweight that was supposed to be made of glass. But the paperweight didn’t break. Why is that?”

Kazuya’s expression changed.

“Because the Blue Rose that you dropped was not made of glass.”

“Really?!”

“If it were glass, it would have shattered. But a real diamond would not break. What you saw in that room was not a paperweight…” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “It was the real Blue Rose,” she said clearly. “Stolen from the royal treasury of Sauville during the Great War. I believe the entrance to the darkness that is Jeantan is also the site of the illegal art trade that Grevil is so eager to find.”

The door to the conference room opened, and the detectives assigned to the missing persons cases entered. The Superintendent-General, Mr. Signore, entered last, regarding Inspector Blois silently.

The inspector squared his shoulders. “I believe both the smuggling and the kidnapping are happening in Jeantan.”

He wished to raid Jeantan and search for evidence. A few detectives agreed with him, but most were skeptical and concerned about the high social status of the owner, Mr. Garnier.

Inspector Blois repeated his theory, and when asked if he would take responsibility, he said in a hard tone, “If I’m wrong, I will resign from the force.”

Kazuya was taken aback by the serious expression on his face. He had never seen the man look so serious in all the cases he investigated back at the village. The inspector was so determined to pull off something big in Saubreme. Kazuya assumed that he became a police inspector for fun. He never thought he’d be wanting a career at headquarters.

Mr. Signore gave his approval to search Jeantan.

Dusk was slowly settling on the dry streets of Saubreme.

A hundred police officers from the police department surrounded Jeantan. The face of Inspector Blois, the man leading the charge, was full of confidence.

“What is the meaning of this?” Mr. Garnier, the owner of Jeantan, regarded Inspector Blois with a thin smile. When he saw Kazuya beside him, he raised an eyebrow. “Is this about this morning?”

“No.” The inspector showed him a document issued by the police department and stamped by the Superintendent-General, Mr. Signore. “We have a search warrant for Jeantan. We’re coming in.”

“What are you looking for exactly?”

“Missing girls and the Blue Rose.”

For a split-second, Mr. Garnier’s expression changed. Then the next instant, he started laughing. Inspector Blois gave a start. The staff behind Mr. Garnier laughed as well.

There was no emotion in their faces. They were as expressionless as Noh masks.

Kazuya looked away.

Amid the laughter, the officers entered Jeantan.

“Did you find anything?”

“No, sir!”

“Search harder! It must be here!”

Shouting at each other, Inspector Blois and the officers continued examining the inside of the department store.

Kazuya followed the inspector to the room where he had first wandered in, a room full of glass cases.

The glass cases were full of sparkling and glamorous items, but none of them were stolen art or particularly expensive. The officers checking the storage area below also reported finding nothing.

They couldn’t find neither the artworks nor the missing girls. Only fake paperweights and jewelry in the room above, and mannequins in the storage area.

Inspector Blois paced around irritably. “That can’t be right!” he hissed. He slammed his fist on a glass case and bit his lip. “Kujou,” he called. “The secret lies inside Jeantan. The Blue Rose you found was in a room in the department store—here. And the Russian girl you brought with you told us that they were locked in a room in Jeantan. She said she could see the royal palace from the window. And when a little girl asked Luigi for help, she came running out of here.” He paused, then in a frustrated tone, added, “Everything should be here, inside.”

“Yeah.” Kazuya was kneeling on the floor, deep in thought.

“What are you doing?” Inspector Blois asked curiously.

“When I first entered this room and found the real Blue Rose, the wallpaper was brown and the floor was covered in black and white tiles. The chandelier was also flower-shaped. It was an elegant room. But when I returned here with you, the wallpaper had changed to gold and the chandelier had changed shape too. The items in the glass case had been replaced, and the floor was covered in a red carpet. The room was transformed into something sickening.”

“Yes. What about it?”

Kazuya grabbed the edge of the red carpet on the floor and pulled as hard as he could.

“I see,” the inspector breathed.

Black and white tiles appeared from underneath, gleaming coldly.

“Mr. Garnier tricked us!” Slowly, he rose to his feet.

Kazuya and Inspector Blois stood there, staring at each other.

Hearing shouts from the police officers, Kazuya and Inspector Blois rushed into the high-end women’s clothing department on the third floor of Jeantan.

The officers were examining one of the fitting rooms.

The voice of the strange old lady came to Kazuya’s mind.

“My daughter wanted a dress. I told her I would buy it for her. She took the dress and went into the fitting room by herself. I waited for her to come out, and when I opened the door, she was gone. There was nobody there.”

Kazuya and the inspector looked in the direction the officer was pointing.

The door to the fitting room was open. It was surrounded by walls on three sides, the furthest wall having a mirror. The mirror moved slowly. Kazuya and the inspector exchanged glances.

“I waited for her to come out…”

Beyond the mirror was a small room that could hold three to four people.

“…and when I opened the door, she was gone.”

“There was nobody there.”

Anastasia’s voice sprang to mind this time.

“I entered the fitting room. When the door closed, the mirror opened.”

“I was dragged into the mirror.”

“I found many others like me, crying.”

“We were trapped in the looking glass.”

Kazuya shuddred.

The looking glass. This small room is the place that Anastasia was talking about!

The officers searched the small room and found nothing.

Mr. Garnier shrugged. “It’s a storage space,” he said. “We barely use it, though.”

“But—”

Inspector Blois cut Kazuya off. He then produced a pocket watch from his pocket and glanced at it. A hint of panic flashed in his face. Kazuya bit his lip.

“I understand what you’re trying to say, Kujou. There’s a hidden room at the back of the fitting room. The girls who entered the department store and never came out may have been taken from here. But we have no evidence. None at all. This is not enough proof. If they insist it’s just a storage space, there’s nothing we can do.”

“But still!”

“Why are people disappearing? Their motives also remain a mystery.”

Kazuya recalled Anastasia’s voice.

“Demons come and perform a ritual. They lock us up for the ritual.”

“Demonic rituals! Demons! Demonic rituals!”

“We are sacrifices. Demons surround us and recite weird incantations. They raise their hands like this.”

Kazuya shook his head. Inspector Blois also bit his lip in frustration.

“Anastasia said something about sacrifices for demonic rituals,” Kazuya said.

“That can’t be true,” the inspector replied. “What we need to find is the missing artworks from the royal treasury. And then the girls who disappeared from here. We need concrete evidence. It must be in this department store somewhere. We have to find it.”

The inspector glanced at the pocket watch again. Kazuya looked at it as well. It was 6:30 PM. The light from the setting sun shone on them through the window.

The police officers stared at Inspector Blois with puzzled looks. Mr. Garnier and his staff stood at a distance, grinning.

“We’re gonna run out of time soon,” Inspector Blois mumbled.

Kazuya sighed heavily.

Mr. Garnier and his employees approached the officers.

“I think it’s time to give up, gentlemen,” the man said with a small smile. “It’s already been an hour. I doubt you’ll find anything. After all, there are no hidden rooms in Jeantan.”

“No—”

“Enough!” Mr. Garnier roared. “Now get out of here!”

Kazuya stepped forward. “Excuse me, can I borrow your phone?” Inspector Blois tried to say something, but he cut him off. “I know. I’m the one asking for help.”

“You better mean that.”

Mr. Garnier regarded them quizzically, but eventually nodded. “I suppose that’s fine.”

“Thank you.” Kazuya gave a small nod.