CHAPTER 6     Crackdown

Bernard and Ticky’s master-and-servant relationship was a microcosm of the connection between the families of Marquis Broussais and Duke Coulson.

While the status difference in their titles played into it, the main thing fueling that uneven relationship was the fact that all the rivers for agriculture and drinking water were located in Coulson territory. The two clans’ lands were adjacent to each other. About fifty years ago, House Broussais was permitted to build a canal to draw water from one of those rivers, provided that it subordinated itself to House Coulson thereafter. From a young age, Bernard’s parents had drilled into him that he must not defy any member of their clan.

Naturally, in emulation of House Coulson, he hadn’t been allowed to attend the academy.

“It’s all his fault. All of it! All of it!”

Bernard’s day typically started with him spewing such malice. He’d writhe in bed, let all his curses out, then leave his room for breakfast. If he didn’t do that, his life would be virtually unbearable.

Selfish and abusive to the extreme. Pushed Bernard around. Happily indulged in vices but would blame it all on Bernard if he got caught. He’d strike him if he was in a bad mood; entreating him to relent would result in a kicking.

And yet, it was his fate as a member of House Broussais to endure all that from Ticky.

Several months ago, however, his emotions had suddenly exploded.

At the time, Bernard was suffering from stress-induced insomnia. Since he couldn’t fall asleep no matter what, it had become customary for him to take a very early-morning constitutional.

One day while he was on his walk, he made eye contact with a girl who’d stepped out of her house to take in the newspaper. The instant he laid eyes on a creature so weak even he could overpower her, all his bottled-up feelings burst out.

Before he knew it, he was lying on top of her, bashing her head with a rock he’d grabbed from nearby.

“That was so exhilarating,” he murmured, recalling the sense of pure exultation he’d felt then. One might even have called it a rush of pleasure. Ultimately, someone had intervened, so he hadn’t killed her, but ever since then, he no longer found himself too anxious to sleep. Instead, when he thought of how alive he’d felt beating the girl, he would end up too excited to sleep.

“Once more, just one more time…”

His heart raced. Soon he would be unable to hold himself back.

Bernard was aware that the only person he truly wanted to beat to death was Ticky Coulson. But as of this moment, he had no means of doing so.

Just after he got out enough of his rage to leave his room, Bernard noticed a black envelope had been slid through the crack at the bottom of his door. The distinctive envelope was embossed with an owl design.

“Hmm…”

He picked it up. It bore the same design that the spies of House Broussais used.

To a member of the aristocracy, dirt on other noble houses was sometimes more valuable than gold. To that end, the highest of noble families employed specialized operatives to snoop on their peers.

He’d seen black envelopes like this one come to his parents on numerous occasions, but this was the first time he’d received one himself. Evidently, this was information he needed to know.

He scanned the contents—and his eyes grew wide.

“At last, I’ve got him!”

His lips curved upward in glee.

Three days after Bernard attacked Cecilia, a very familiar scene was playing out at the academy.

“Prince Cecil!” shrieked girls from the second-story classrooms as Cecilia passed by outside the building. She looked up to see several blushing female students staring down at her. When she graced them with a princely smile and waved, a few swooned and fainted, steam practically rising from their faces.

Gilbert regarded the spectacle apathetically before coming up next to Cecilia. “You really do that a lot.”

“Do what?”

“The whole prince shtick,” he said

She struck a triumphant pose. “Don’t worry! I’ve gotten pretty used to it!”

“I wasn’t worried.”

“Really?”

“But I know that’s just how you’ll interpret it,” he muttered. His sister was extremely good at interpreting things exactly the way she wanted to.

Suddenly, a teacher spied them from the school building and shouted at Gilbert, breaking up their pleasant moment. “There you are! Gilbert!”

Both of them turned around to find the faculty member running up to them.

“What’s the matter?” Gilbert asked.

“You have a visitor.”

“A visitor? Oh no,” he groaned, getting a very bad feeling about this. Ticky had probably marched his way onto campus.

Guessing the source of Gilbert’s frown, the teacher shook his head. “No, it’s not him this time. Today your visitor is the heir to House Broussais. He said his name is Bernard.”

Cecilia and Gilbert exchanged glances.

After class, Gilbert went behind the school building. It was a dark, north-facing area where hardly anyone ever went, making it the perfect place for a secret conversation.

Facing him was Bernard, whose usual timid and cowering demeanor was nowhere to be found. As he regarded Gilbert silently, he didn’t notice that there was a third party in the shadows.

“Why are you here?” the duke’s son finally asked.

Bernard’s gaze darted around before he replied in a thin, reedy voice, “I’m here because I want to help you.”

“Excuse me? What are you talking about?”

“Today I received some intel,” he noted, drawing a black envelope from his breast pocket.

“What is that?”

“Intelligence from a family spy,” Bernard revealed, looking down at the letter he drew from the envelope. “This is a summary of what it says: ‘Gilbert Sylvie is looking for help in getting revenge on House Coulson.’”

“……”

“Based on that, I guess they treated you pretty badly before you went to House Sylvie.” Bernard smirked. His eyes were narrowed behind his glasses.

By contrast, Gilbert wasn’t smiling at all.

“Ticky was right. You have been looking into House Coulson. But you’ve been collecting info to take down him, not Nichol. Am I wrong?”

“I don’t know—who’s to say?” Gilbert replied after a pause, refusing to confirm or deny.

Convinced of his victory, Bernard let his expression turn smug. He took a step closer to Gilbert. “I only wish I’d realized sooner! If the Sylvie heir takes revenge on the Coulson heir, that would cause great offense. But everything is different if it’s Ticky who loses his noble status!”

Speaking with more fluency than he’d ever displayed before, Bernard moved in closer. “He’s soon to be a commoner and has almost no one supporting him! If you’re going to take aim at anyone, it has to be him!”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“But you can’t drive him into a corner on your own. He will be suspicious of any move you make. Which is why you’re seeking coconspirators to help you get your revenge.”

“Is that all written in the letter?”

“Yes. Aren’t the Broussais spies amazing?”

“……”

Bernard placed a hand over his heart. His eyes had grown a little bloodshot in his excitement. “I can assist you. I’m sure you’re aware of my current position. As a former Coulson, you must know that the Broussais family is condemned to servitude!”

His tone turned so rough, it was impossible to imagine it coming from his usual self. “I want revenge on Ticky, too! I want to send that rat straight to hell! But I can’t do it alone! I need your help, too! So—”

He broke off, panting heavily. After leveling him with a chilly look, Gilbert finally let out a sigh of resignation. “I’ll admit you’ve done relatively well bringing me this information.”

“Does that mean—?”

“But I can’t work with you,” he finished coldly.

Bernard took a small step backward in disbelief. “Why not?”

“Yes, you resent Ticky, and you truly want to help me. But you don’t have the guts to follow through.”

“The guts?”

“Up until now, you’ve contented yourself with being his lackey. How could someone who’s never so much as killed a fly possibly help me? What would you do if I roped you into some terribly cruel scheme?” Gilbert insisted disdainfully.

After a moment of silence, Bernard broke into an eerie grin. “Never killed a fly, huh? Far from it. I could do someone in.”

“Anyone can claim they’ll do something.”

“In March…”

“Yes?”

“Have you heard about the thing that happened in March? You know, where a girl got her head bashed in with a rock?”

Gilbert narrowed his eyes. Then, after a slight pause, he nodded. “Yes.”

“That was me. I was the one who did it. Before I knew it, I had a rock in my hand, and I was striking her with it,” Bernard revealed, staring down at his own hands as if he was remembering how it had felt. “And three days ago, I couldn’t take it any longer, so I went to go finish the job. I didn’t manage to, but I was this close to killing her!”

“……”

“If I get another chance, I’ll definitely send her to the grave. And if I’m going after Ticky, I’ll do whatever it takes!”

Bernard grabbed a fistful of Gilbert’s shirt, his eyes bulging. “Do you get it now? I have guts! Go on, pick me for your partner! I know you’re a sly one; Ticky says so all the time! You’ve got some pretty good intel, don’t you?”

“……”

“Do you have proof of his crimes? Or maybe you’re planning to frame him for something he didn’t even do? Oh, or could it be you’ve figured out when he’s sure to be alone?”

Gilbert slapped Bernard’s hand away roughly. Then he smoothed out his slightly wrinkled shirt. “I really can’t pick you for my partner.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re arresting you here,” he said. That was when Cecilia suddenly emerged. Bernard must have remembered her from the hospital because his face froze.

“Hiii-yah!”

After tapping the Sacred Artifact on her wrist, Cecilia touched Bernard. Something clear, round, and glass-like sprang up around him.

“What is this?!” he cried.

“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you! It’s got pretty bad recoil,” Cecilia told him, a hand on the surface of the glass. She had inverted her Artifact’s protective barrier to create a cage to contain Bernard.

The boy’s voice quivered with rage as he glared at her. “Where did you even get…?”

“It’s Gilbert’s,” revealed Jade, popping up all of a sudden behind Cecilia. He’d used his own Artifact to hide them both this whole time as they watched the exchange play out.

“Don’t forget about us,” called someone from behind Gilbert. The air warped, and Lean, Oscar, plus a very shell-shocked Mordred stepped out. Lean wore Jade’s bracelet, which she had once given back to him, on her wrist.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you read. What an idiot you are.”

“I could’ve forged something like that.”

Next it was Dante and Huey who jumped down from a tall tree nearby. Dante was holding a black envelope identical to the one Bernard had produced.

Gilbert drew out the hand he’d kept at his back this whole time. In it, he clutched an iron box about the size of his palm. Then he pressed a button on the contraption, and it began to play back his recent conversation with Bernard.

“Have you heard about the thing that happened in March? You know, where a girl got her head bashed in with a rock?”

“Yes.”

“That was me. I was the one who did it. Before I knew it, I had a rock in my hand, and I was striking her with it.

“And three days ago, I couldn’t take it any longer, so I went to go finish the job. I didn’t manage to, but I was this close to killing her!”

“Why, you little—”

“It’s a phonograph. I had Grace whip up a miniature just for today. Granted, it isn’t small enough to simply hide in my hand,” Gilbert said, then switched off the device and turned back to face Bernard with a disdainful smirk on his lips. “Since we had no proof, we just had to get a confession out of you.”

“Listen…”

“It’s what you deserve for laying your hands on Cecil,” he continued harshly, the look of a devil on his face.

They’d set the plan a day after Grace had explained the situation. Most of it was Gilbert’s handiwork. It was Cecilia, however, who suggested they get everyone else in on it, too.

“We know who assaulted Emily, and we want to catch him. We need your help.”

Everyone readily agreed once they heard that. Dante was the only one who’d never gone to visit Emily in the hospital, so they told him the whole story. His first response after taking it all in was, “Oscar’s going to help, too, right? I’m down.”

Then the mission began in earnest.

Huey was the first to act. Using his old assassin buddies and connections, he managed to uncover what was in the black envelopes. Next, Jade printed up the envelopes with his new printing press. Lean wrote the letter that went inside. Then Dante broke into the Broussais estate and slipped the note under Bernard’s door. And after all of that, Oscar served as the official royal witness to Bernard’s confession.

There would be no watering down of justice or pandering to the nobility in front of the crown prince.

Trapped inside the transparent glass, Bernard roared. He glowered at Gilbert. “So when you said you wanted to get revenge on House Coulson…”

“That was all a lie, of course. Lean here wrote everything in that letter, including the things about my past.”

“Thank you very much for reading my work.” She beamed, giving a gracious curtsy. Her powers of creativity had been surprisingly useful.

Bernard trembled inside the cage. His face was red with fury, and if it weren’t for Cecilia’s restraining dome, he would have already lunged at Lean.

I think we’ve managed to get a handle on the situation for now, Cecilia thought, breathing a little sigh of relief as she gazed at the captured boy.

In truth, she hadn’t been wholly convinced they’d succeed. Their entire plan would have fallen apart if Bernard had just inspected the letter a little more carefully to verify it.

“So you’re…the one who did that to Emily?” came a quavering voice from the back. Although the rest of the group had already relaxed, Mordred alone stepped forward. They’d had to drag him there half against his will in the first place, but now he drew right up to the glass and slammed his fist against it. They’d never seen him make such a frighteningly intense expression before.

“Cecil! Open this thing up!” demanded Mordred.

“What?! N-no! We’ve managed to catch him and everything—”

“I won’t let him run away! I won’t be satisfied until I’ve gotten to him with my own two fists—”

“Oh, hush.” Huey sighed, punching Mordred in the solar plexus. He let out a low whine at the sudden blow before passing out.

“Hey!” protested Cecilia, at a complete loss.

“Well, I guess we didn’t want him making a scene here anyway,” drawled Dante with a grin.

True, it didn’t matter if Mordred was there or not, now that they’d accomplished the bare minimum of showing him the culprit getting apprehended, but did those two have any scruples at all?

Huey hauled Mordred up over his shoulder. It was a little astounding that he could lift a full-grown man despite his short stature.

“I’ll take him back to the nurse’s office,” he told them.

“Then I’m going with you!” trilled Lean.

“You don’t need to.”

“Awww, but I just wanted to accompany you,” she whined, swiftly handing Jade back his bracelet before bounding after Huey.

The couple always did exactly what they wanted and nothing else. It was soooo Lean to return the bracelet that promptly.

After watching them go, the rest of the group turned back to face Bernard. His head was hung low, and he hadn’t moved an inch.

“Now all we have to do is hand him off to the gendarmerie along with that, and it’s case closed,” noted Dante, pointing at the device Grace had made.

Sensing that everything was almost over, Cecilia felt relieved. But just then…

“…on me.”

“What?”

“You thought you could look down on me!” Bernard screamed, clawing at the cage.

“Hey!”

A loud crackle of static electricity propelled his hands away from the barrier. But he simply clawed at it again, undeterred.

“What are you doing?! You’re going to hurt yourself!” Cecilia cried.

“You thought you could look down on me! Treat me like crap! Bully me!”

“Calm down,” Gilbert ordered in an attempt to pacify him.

“Bernard?” Jade asked tremulously, backing away from him.

“Not just him but all of you! Everyone! Everything! I want it all gone from this world!”

“Ooh, you really sound like an evil villain there, buddy,” Dante jeered flippantly, which made Bernard roar in fury and lash out.

“Hey! You’re going to ruin your hands! Calm down!” Oscar shouted.

Though Oscar’s presence had seemed to cow Bernard up until now, that comment was the last straw. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

Then, with a feral growl, his eyes grew bloodshot, and he bared his teeth. Smoke rose from his hands, and the stench of burning flesh filled the air. The ends of his hair lifted.

A black mist billowed up…

“What?! Wait a minute!” Cecilia cried in panic and disbelief.

“Rrrooooaaarrrrr!”

Bernard let out a beastly howl as the Obstruction took control of him.

“Cecil! It’s going to break!” shouted Oscar.