Volume 3 - CH 6.1

—Bedroom 5—

Dusk was slowly creeping in on St. Marguerite Academy, painting the vast campus a bright orange. The air, hot and humid during the day, had cooled, and a pleasant breeze whistled through the gardens occasionally.

The office on the ground floor of the main school building was quiet.

Ms. Cecile was standing by the wall with fear in her eyes. She was in front of the telephone, holding the receiver.

“Yes, I understand.” Her voice was grim, her expression dark. “Our monitoring was inadequate. We are terribly sorry.”

She could hear the happy chatter of students passing by outside. It was almost curfew. Students who had been spending their time all over the place were on their way back to their respective dormitories.

“Please, Marquis Blois,” Ms. Cecile said in a hard voice. She hesitated a little before continuing. “I promise you that nothing like that will ever happen again. We have increased the number of guards and I’m constantly reminding her myself. And the student who went with her is a straight-laced boy. He accompanied Victorique and made sure she got back to the academy safely. If I tell him not to do it again, he really won’t do it again. He’s a trustworthy student. Yes…”

Ms. Cecile listened to the other person’s voice before interrupting. “If you could leave her to us a little longer. I promise we’ll watch her closely. No, a monastery is too much. She won’t fit in. Even now, Victorique doesn’t attend classes. She’s not used to people yet. Introducing her to an all-female ascetic lifestyle will not… end well.” She muttered the last few words with a sigh.

“Please, leave her to us,” she repeated over and over before hanging up. She put down the receiver with a heavy sigh, and hung her head for a while.

Then suddenly she lifted her head. She looked angry. Her eyes were wide open, and her large, round glasses were slipping off.

“A monastery? What a horrible man! Only nasty nobles would come up with that idea. Argh!”

She swung her right leg up and tried to kick the back of the nearest chair, but she miscalculated and hit nothing. Her skirt flipped and her white muslin petticoat and muslin underwear billowed out. At that exact moment, an older teacher entered the office.

“What are you doing, Cecile?” they asked, pressing their glasses.

“Oh, uh, nothing.”

“You were dancing by yourself, weren’t you?”

“N-No. I wouldn’t do that.” But she couldn’t tell them that she tried to kick a chair and missed.

“You should take it easy, Cecile. You’re no longer a student. You’re a teacher now.”

“I know.” Ms. Cecile sulked and turned her back on the old teacher.

The village doctor, the gardener, and now this nagging old teacher. There were surprisingly many people who knew about her life as a student—she wasn’t particularly bright back then either—in the academy. She would always get told to get her act together, which caused her stress.

The phone in front of her started ringing, and she quickly picked it up. The operator told her that it was from Saubreme, this time from a department store called Jeantan. Ms. Cecile was a little annoyed, but relieved to hear Kazuya, a student she particularly liked.

“Hello? Kujou?” She sounded a little happy. “You really love listening to Victorique’s—”

“No!” the boy snapped.

Chapter 6: Alexandrite

“So, you see, Victorique. We almost got it, but we’re kinda stuck. Inspector Blois might get fired if we don’t do something. Not that I care, really. We just can’t find the hidden room.”

“Kujou,” Victorique said. “You sure talk a lot.” She sounded like she was gasping for air.

“R-Really?”

“You’re starting to piss me off.”

“I-I’m sorry. I’ll be quiet.”

“…”

“…”

“……”

“………”

“…………”

“Victorique? Are you awake?”

“Shut up!”

“S-Sorry.”

Kazuya hung his head and waited patiently. He could hear Victorique groaning on the other side.

“Kujou,” she said finally.

“What is it?”

“Get some Blue John.”

“…What?”

Blue John was the name of the fluorite that Victorique used to threaten Inspector Blois when she was a child.

Victorique’s cold was much worse than Kazuya had expected; she would pause occasionally to catch her breath.

“If there’s a secret room where they’re hiding the kidnapped girls and children…” She paused. “Its window should be facing the square in front of the royal palace.”

“Why?”

“The girl you helped said she could see the royal palace from the window, didn’t she?”

“Oh, right!”

“Mark all the windows facing the royal palace with Blue John powder. Write down numbers from right to left so it will be easy to see. It will be 7 p.m. soon.”

“What happens at seven?”

“It’s closing time. When the store is closed and the lights are turned off, all the windows will be illuminated with blue phosphorescent numbers.” She paused for breath again. “But there will be no number on the window of the secret room.”

“I see.”

Kazuya pulled his face away from the receiver and called Inspector Blois. After whispering the instructions she had given, the inspector nodded and went to give orders to the officers.

Kazuya thanked Victorique, but before he could hang up the phone, she said, “Kujou, I’ve only heard the case from you, but…”

“What is it?”

“Hmm…”

“Anastasia kept talking about demons and demonic rituals. And an eagle with two heads. What do you think she meant by those? Apparently, Satanism and bizarre religious rituals from the colonies are secretly spreading in Europe.”

“There’s no such thing as demons, Kujou.”

“Yes, I know that, but still.”

“It’s not demons, but humans. The two-headed eagle she saw…” Her voice grew weaker.

“Sorry for pushing you so hard,” Kazuya said worriedly. “I’ll make sure to bring you back a souvenir.”

“I don’t want any. It’s probably going to be something weird again.”

“What?!”

“Anyway, it’s not demons.” Victorique’s voice dropped low. “Do you remember the Alexandrite ring?”

Kazuya recalled the ring that Victorique had on her finger. A mysterious ring that changed color to red or green depending on the light.

“You mean the magic ring, right?”

“Yes.” Victorique gasped for air. “This case is just like an alexandrite. It changes color if you look at it from different angles, but it’s the same stone. Do you understand?”

“Nope. Not at all.”

An exasperated silence came from the phone. Victorique grunted, then mumbled in her husky voice, “I believe something terrible is happening in the secret room.”

Kazuya and Inspector Blois, along with the police officers, ran around the department store, writing numbers from right to left in all the glass windows facing the palace square.

Fluorescent powder stuck to their hair and clothes. When they were done marking all the windows from the first to the sixth floor, Inspector Blois took out his pocket watch and checked the time. It was almost seven o’clock, closing time for Jeantan.

Kazuya and Inspector Blois nodded at each other, then frowned, realizing that they were acting like partners.

“Stop looking at me,” the inspector said.

“That’s my line.”

They exited the department store and headed toward the square.

Despite it being early summer, the sun had already set. The square in front of the royal palace was lit by a number of dim gas lamps, but the darkness was as thick as a dark swamp. The guards, in their resplendent gold-and-red uniforms, surrounded Kazuya, the inspector, and the police officers, eyeing them suspiciously.

The inspector ignored them and pointed at Jeantan. “Look!”

It was exactly 7:00 PM.

The lights in Jeantan, the largest department store in Saubreme, filled with luxury goods and foreign staff from all over Europe, all went out at once.

For a moment, it was completely dark. Then slowly, in the darkness, numbers written in Blue John powder began to appear.

The guards stood frozen, regarding Jeantan curiously. Kazuya scanned the numbers on the windows, starting from the first floor.

Second floor.

The third floor.

And the fourth floor.

There was a large window on the fifth floor between windows numbered 12 and 13, with no number written on it. It was most likely covered by curtains. He could see faint light from inside that dimmed and brightened occasionally, a sign that people were passing by the window.

Kazuya pointed at the window, and Inspector Blois nodded.

In the dark square, the Blue John powder in Kazuya’s hair and on his clothes began to sparkle. The tip of Inspector Blois’s drill-shaped hair was also glistening blue. Kazuya and the inspector nodded to each other again, frowned, and took off.

Mr. Garnier and his staff gathered on the ground floor was surprised to see the officers returning with a grim look on their faces.

The man frowned. “What’s going on?”

“We want to check a room on the fifth floor.”

Mr. Garnier swallowed, and so did his staff. He shot his employees a glance, and they charged straight at Kazuya and the others.

The Jeantan staff grabbed them immediately, giving no time for escape. The officers fought back, brandishing their batons, but they were bit or thrown with ridiculous force. Despite having similar numbers, the officers were having trouble.

Inspector Blois screamed as two female staff grabbed his legs.

The most aggressive one was a blonde-haired, brown-skinned, mixed-race staff. Holding a sharp knife in one hand, he took flight, aiming at the officers’ vital points. In his hand was a military knife used in the Great War. The officers covered their vitals with their arms. Blood splattered every time their arm was cut.

Mr. Garnier shouted something to the young man, and he turned to his boss.

“Get that oriental boy!” Mr. Garnier ordered, pointing at Kazuya. “He’s the one pulling all the strings!”

The young man spun. He put the knife in his mouth, and like an animal, went down on all fours and lunged at Kazuya. Kazuya was frozen for a second, but immediately leapt back the next moment.

The young man landed on the floor and spun around to face him. Kazuya kicked him in the face with all he had. He thought about the contents of the martial arts book that his brother had sent him. The man held his bloody face, groaning, but then grabbed the knife in his mouth and charged at Kazuya.

The tip of the blade slipped past Kazuya’s nose.

Kazuya, paying close attention on the knife coming at him from left to right, retreated. Then Inspector Blois, who had managed to escape from the female staff, tackled the young man from behind. He turned around and raised his knife at the inspector.

Kazuya pinned the young man from behind and strangled him with his right arm. Tighter and tighter…

The young man stopped moving, and Inspector Blois took his knife.

Suddenly, the other staff grabbed him. Inspector Blois let out a shout, then signaled Kazuya with his eyes to go.

Weaving past the officers and the salestaff, Kazuya left the first floor.