Chapter Three: Is a Quiet Life Too Much to Ask?
Chapter Three: Is a Quiet Life Too Much to Ask?
And so, break finally rolled around. Which is to say, the day I had promised to let the students take photos at the mansion.
“Sensei! What do you think?”
“Look at mine, too!”
Students were swarming the yard, digital cameras and 3TSes in hand. They looked like they were having a great time. In the end, virtually the entire class managed to show up with some form of photographic equipment. The ones who had gotten digital cameras lent their 3TSes to the ones who hadn’t, so everyone could feel involved.
With that many kids taking pictures, you can imagine how many pictures got taken. But it was nothing that wouldn’t have happened at any other photography get-together.
As far as it went, anyway.
“Okay, look this way!”
“Say cheese!”
“Zero wouldn’t pose like that!”
But it wasn’t just any photography get-together that was happening in our yard. Everyone was dressed up in ways that looked very familiar—specifically, from manga and anime and games.
That’s right: this was a cosplay affair. Both the photographers and the photographees were dressed up. Most of the outfits had been prepared by Minori-san and Hikaru-san. The two of them had suggested the idea out of the blue, apparently concerned that the party wouldn’t be interesting enough on its own. Some kids had even asked their parents to get clothes made by local tailors.
I had to admit, though, that we had other objectives in mind for this cosplay photo party. One goal was that the kids would understand what it meant to be on the receiving end of a photograph. When they were dressed up themselves, it would help them get a sense of why they might not want someone to take a picture without their permission. That was Hikaru-san’s idea.
The other hope was articulated by Minori-san: namely, that a cosplay party would keep them busy enough that we wouldn’t have students wandering at random through every room and hallway in the mansion. Clara was one thing, but if Amatena was discovered, it wouldn’t be pretty. If we limited the students’ access in the house to rooms with outlets, and maybe to my and Hikaru-san’s rooms, it would keep the chance of Amatena being photographed to a minimum.
So anyway, there we were. Most of the students were immediately taken with the cosplay costumes provided by Minori-san and Hikaru-san and quickly picked out their favorites. Our two fashionistas used safety pins and clips to get the sizes right—and before you knew it, our lawn looked like the world’s biggest crossover fic.
“Perfect, just like that! Look into the distance!” The instructions were coming from someone with her own DSLR camera—Minori-san, out there among the students. “Okay, here we go—three, two, one. Cheese!”
The shutter clicked away as she shot from head-on, above, below. She was so confident, I wanted to ask where the professional cameraman had come from. Even the way she took the pictures was, like... sexy, somehow. The flattering patter she kept up. I wouldn’t have been completely surprised to hear her exclaim, “Great, now get that top off!” or, “Take it all off, just go for it!”
She was already lined up alongside the guys, taking photos. And then there was...
“Yes! Hold that pose!” Hikaru-san had set up camp in the shade and was fiddling with some kind of machine. It was a small box, and sat at his feet puffing out smoke. A smoke machine or a fog machine, I guessed. Come to think of it, I had heard it was fashionable these days to use one of those to spice up a cosplay shoot. And it did lend the characters a certain mystique. Gothic-Loli and “hard-boiled” types looked just perfect brooding in the fog.
“Hmm...” I sat in a chair in a corner of the yard, watching everyone pose and snap pictures of each other. Hikaru-san was much better suited to being the teacher in this situation; I planned to help run the electrical outlets and generally do behind-the-scenes work. But then...
“Shinichi!” I turned in the direction of my name to find an unmistakable figure coming toward me with a smile. It was Petralka. And she was in full costume. “Do you like it?!”
She had her digital camera in one hand and was giving me a full-fledged grin. She stopped in front of me and spun around, her silver hair and Gothic-Loli skirt billowing out.
Whoa. Cute...!
“Does it look good?”
“Yeah, terrific,” I said. “Is this...?” I recognized almost immediately what her outfit was. How could I not? She was Angelica, the heroine of Angelica—The Burdened Princess. The long silver hair and thick eyebrows, the butterfly-themed hair clips, the predominantly black-and-white outfit. Well, all that was common enough. What was less common was the box on her back, bigger than Petralka herself, and the even larger sniper rifle she was carrying.
Incidentally, the books never made clear exactly what was in that box. One explanation even claimed it was home to a mysterious life form of some sort.
“It was Hikaru’s suggestion,” Petralka said with a smile. “It is, after all, a work penned by your father, is it not, Shinichi?”
“Er... yeah. Well, yeah.” I nodded and half-smiled.
It was true; my father had written the light novel. It was apparently one of his more popular series, and there were even plans for an anime.
“That’s really something, though,” I said.
“Hm?”
“I mean... You really look like her. You’ve already got the silver hair, so you don’t even need a wig, and you’ve really nailed all the details. It’s like you’ve transcended cosplay.”
Granted, Petralka was an empress, whereas Angelica was technically a princess. But Angelica was supposed to be on the small side, so Petralka fit her that way, too. The only noticeable difference was that their eye colors didn’t match, but the costume itself was so arresting that your hey-that’s-not-quite-right sense took a vacation. As for Angelica’s distinctive thick eyebrows, Petralka must have gotten help with makeup from Minori-san or Hikaru-san.
Hmm. Petralka as Angelica. It was so perfect, I wished my dad could see it.
“If you say so, Shinichi, then we assume it is true.” Petralka put her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction. Behind her, I could see several female knights. Her bodyguards, presumably, along just on the off chance anything happened.
“The box isn’t too heavy?” I asked. I assumed it was made of packing foam or something; I was sure it was empty.
“It’s quite light. Look.” Petralka spun another half-turn, as if to emphasize just how easily she could move.
“Eek!”
But as she turned, the box caught someone passing by.
“Hrk—our apologies,” she said politely, turning to the person she had knocked over. It was Myusel. “Are you quite all right, Myusel?”
“Y-Yes, thank you. It was just a gentle tap... I’m the one who should apologize.” She took a proffered hand and stood up.
“Hrm?” Petralka blinked. She was looking—not at Myusel, but at the other maid, who had offered Myusel her hand. It looked like they were just on their way back to the kitchen to get tea and snacks for everybody. “This would be...?”
“Oh, that’s the girl we mentioned.” Inside, I was terrified, but I forced myself to act calm. “Myusel’s distant relation, the one who’s staying with us to learn to become a maid? Her name is Clara.” We had settled on using Clara’s real name so she would react immediately when someone called to her.
“A pleasure to meet you.” The new maid bowed her head to Petralka, virtually expressionless.
“So she’s the one...” Petralka eyed Clara up and down. My heart was pounding in my chest every moment she spent looking at our “new maid.” Could she possibly see the beast ears hidden by the headdress? Were the elf ears too obviously fake? Myusel seemed to be having the same thoughts; I could see her watching Petralka uneasily.
“Can’t say she looks much like Myusel,” Petralka murmured.
“W-Well, she’s a distant relation. They won’t look that much alike.”
“Is she also a half-elf?”
“N-No. She... She’s from my mother’s side, so...” Myusel answered awkwardly.
It couldn’t be easy for her to lie to Petralka. We had agreed that our story would be that Clara was Myusel’s relative on her mother’s side, but to help keep Myusel from getting in trouble if we should be discovered, we had also claimed that Myusel herself had never met Clara before. Considering how long it had been since Myusel had had any contact with her mother’s side of the family, it was plausible. But if Clara was ever found out, I was prepared to swear that I had been tricking Myusel, too.
“Hmm...”
Could Petralka tell how anxious we were? Whether she could or not, she kept up her study of Clara. The beast girl remained expressionless, but I thought she looked even stiffer than usual, so maybe she was anxious, too. To be fair, Petralka was technically the leader of an enemy nation from Clara’s point of view, not someone she would normally get such a close look at.
“Clara, was that your name?” Petralka asked suddenly.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Shinichi is a most perverted man. Be careful.”
“H-How can you say that?!” I exclaimed, frazzled; Petralka looked at me and laughed.
It didn’t look like she had seen through Clara’s disguise. In fact, Petralka had her hands on her hips and was looking at me in what seemed to be high spirits. “Considering your predilections, Shinichi, we thought perhaps you had chosen your maid based on bust size again.”
“You’re just imagining that, Your Majesty...”
Sure I like big boobs, but I’m a huge fan of small racks, too! Wait—how long is she going to keep going back to that, anyway?!
“We are relieved to know that not everyone around you is necessarily well-endowed.”
I gathered that Petralka felt a certain kinship with Clara when she discovered that they had the same body type—by which I mean that they were both pretty flat. I guessed that made a certain kind of sense: back in Bahairam, Clara had been chosen to take care of me on the basis that she looked young, like Petralka. Over there, they thought I was Petralka’s official concubine.
“Hmm, so a large bust is not an absolute precondition for you, Shinichi?”
“I’ve been telling you. I’m perfectly happy with boobs of any size.”
“Indeed, indeed.” Petralka nodded, pleased. Was she happy to have found someone to be Flat Friends with? “More importantly, Shinichi, are you enjoying yourself?!”
“Sure I am. Heck, this photography party was my idea. What about you, Petralka?”
“We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves!” Petralka made an expansive gesture with her hands, one of which was still holding the digital camera.
As we had discovered when shooting the movie, cosplay seemed like a good stress relief valve for Petralka, a chance to be someone else. It helped her escape, just for a short while, the pressures of being a young empress. If it could do that, then this cosplay-photo party was taking care of two birds with one stone. In fact, make that three.
Petralka glanced at a student walking by. “Hm, is that costume not from Rose Princess?” she asked excitedly.
She was looking at someone who was indeed dressed like a character from the anime Rose Princess. Come to think of it, back when Hikaru-san had first showed up, Petralka had been excited about his costume, which was from the same show. I guess she really liked Rose Princess.
“You there!” she exclaimed. “Allow us to photograph you, please! Shinichi, we will see you later!” she added, then she rushed off, eyes shining, after her potential photographic subject. Her bodyguards hurriedly chased after her.
I guess Petralka was enjoying the party just as much as she said.
“I’m so glad Petralka seems to be having fun,” I said, turning to Myusel. And then I added, “You okay?” She still looked deeply worried. It couldn’t have been easy for her to lie to Petralka.
“...Yes, somehow...”
“I’m sorry. I know this isn’t easy...”
“No...” Myusel forced a smile onto her face.
Hmm. It looked like we had the empress fooled so far, but I didn’t expect to be able to keep this up forever. Was there any way I could talk to Petralka about exactly what was going on, and somehow get her to spare Amatena’s and Clara’s lives?
“Are you having fun, Clara?” I asked, hoping to diffuse the situation just a little.
“This is the first time I’ve been present at such an event... I feel a little lost,” Clara said, almost in a whisper.
When I really thought about it, I realized that while Clara might have picked up a little bit about anime and manga from handling the otaku goods I sent with Amatena, she couldn’t know that much about them. To go from there to being thrown into a cosplay party must have been pretty disorienting, like an average guy-off-the-street who stumbled into Comiket.
“Hard to enjoy it, huh?”
“No, that is not the case,” Clara said confidently.
“That’s good to hear.” For better or for worse, she never showed much expression, so I had to trust that what she said was the truth. “I know this is rough on you, Myusel, but just try to roll with it for today.”
“Oh, uh, th—the photo-graphy party itself is very pleasant,” she said, sounding slightly frantic. “Everyone is wearing the most wonderful costumes and having such a good time... I’m having fun just watching them.”
“Hey,” I said suddenly, “what about you, Myusel? Do you want a costume?”
“O-Oh, no, I... I couldn’t possibly...”
Maybe she was reluctant to mingle with the students, all of whom came from nobility or wealth.
“You absolutely could!”
“Eep?!” Myusel squeaked at the sudden interjection. “Hikaru-sama...”
I turned and saw Hikaru-san standing there, grinning. “Cute girls should wear cute costumes,” he said. “I mean, so should guys, but especially girls.”
“It sounds downright convincing coming from you, Hikaru-san.”
“Hush your mouth,” he said with a glare at me.
Gee, uh, I thought it was a compliment.
“The point is, we’ve gone to all this trouble to put on a party, and you simply must join us.”
“Huh? What? Er...”
“Here, change into this. Quickly, now.”
Myusel, cowed by the force of Hikaru-san’s personality, took the costume from him. It was a dress in a very light shade of red. “What’s this?” she asked.
“It’s the costume Viktorika wears in Angelica—The Burdened Princess. And here, Clara, this is for you.”
“Me, too?” She blinked at the dress and wig Hikaru-san pushed into her hands.
“You’re Red Angelica, Clara-san. I’ll handle your makeup and Minori-san will do the photos, so hurry up and change.”
“Huh? What...?”
“Even Elvia’s out there getting her cosplay on. You should jump in, have fun.” Hikaru-san pointed, directing our attention to Elvia, who was dressed in costume and mingling with the students.
Now, as I saw her out there, I understood. With her costume and her ponytailed wig, she was obviously Akane, the ninja from Angelica. Right now she was posing with Petralka as Minori-san took a flurry of photos.
“It’s like a cast reunion for Angelica!” Hikaru-san said with a big grin. “...Hey, Shinichi-san. Don’t act too thrilled.”
“No, it’s cool. It’s just, it’s my dad’s, and it... feels a little weird.” I smiled weakly.
Yes, I had read the novels and the manga, but the way I could see my old man’s face hovering behind each of the characters made it hard to feel moe about them. Judging from Hikaru-san’s expression, he’d planned this “cast reunion” just to get a rise out of me, but that made me even less sure how to react.
“So, Shinichi-san, you’re not curious what Myusel would look like as Viktorika?”
“Ermgh...?”
Viktorika, one of the characters of The Burdened Princess, was designed as your typical rich-chick character. Openly and unabashedly selfish, her personality was the exact opposite of Myusel’s, but that could make it all the more interesting to see Myusel take on her persona...!
“Uh, maybe I d—”
“You see?” Still grinning from ear to ear, Hikaru-san turned toward Myusel. She looked a little overwhelmed for a second, then her shoulders sagged.
“I-If that’s what you wish, Shinichi-sama,” she said, nodding.
“I also have no objection,” Clara said.
“And I have a little something for you, Shinichi-san,” Hikaru-san said.
“Is it Soru, by any chance?”
Soru was the main character (also a ninja) of Angelica—The Burdened Princess.
“Hardly. You really think you’re cut out for that?” Hikaru-san said. “No, you’re going to be Saizensen-kun.”
“But why?!”
“I’ve got a horizontally-striped shirt and a black rucksack ready to go here.”
“Not what I was asking.” Did that even count as cosplay?
“We are at a cosplay party here. Don’t just sulk in the corner, get out there and stalk amongst the other cosplayers with your camera around your neck, eyes glinting like a hungry wolf, a battlefield correspondent looking for his next great shot!” Hikaru-san gave me a triumphant look.
Er... I don’t think any battlefield correspondents would be taking pictures of cosplayers...
But anyway...
“The point is, you want me to get off my duff and mix, right?”
“Yes indeed,” Hikaru-san said.
There was a certain logic to what he was saying—I understood that just standing off to the side while everyone else was having fun could make me a bit of a killjoy. If I wasn’t going to put on a costume, I should at least be taking pictures. So I reached into my pocket for my phone.
“Huh?” I couldn’t feel it. I must have forgotten it in my room—today of all days. “Looks like I forgot my phone. I’ll go get it while you two are changing.”
“Excellent. Right this way, ladies,” Hikaru-san said, ushering them over to a changing area. I watched them go, then darted for my room.
Ten minutes later. I was walking back down the hall toward the yard, phone in my hand. I wondered if Myusel and Clara had finished changing yet. Maybe not. Ten minutes just wasn’t long enough. Images of them in their cosplay outfits (purely hypothetical) drifted through my mind. Myusel bashfully wearing her rich-girl dress; Clara looking expressionless and somehow pleased at the same time.
Oooh, I could hardly stand it. Even just in my mind’s eye, it was almost more than I could process. Well, I wouldn’t know for sure what they looked like until I saw them, but Hikaru-san had picked out their outfits personally, and he knew his cosplay. I didn’t expect to be disappointed. Besides, girls that pretty would look good no matter what they wore.
I was striding down the hallway, grinning to myself, when...
“Huh?”
I spotted a door that was slightly ajar. That wasn’t necessarily a problem—the problem was that the door in question was the one to Amatena and Clara’s room. And Amatena must have been in there at that moment. With Elvia at the party, she could hardly be outside.
“Not very cautious of her...”
I had given the students strict instructions not to go into her room, or any of the rooms except the ones with outlets and otaku stuff. They would probably pass this one by anyway, just a guestroom that normally wasn’t used. I understood all that, but even so, what if somebody happened by, happened to look in? Especially with the door hanging open like that.
Maybe she just forgot to close it, or maybe she wanted to get a little air—she sure couldn’t open the window that fronted the yard—but whatever it was, I would have to tell Amatena to be careful.
I poked my head in the door and was about to call Amatena’s name, when I stopped.
There was Amatena, in Elvia’s clothes and with Elvia’s hair color, studying herself intently in the mirror. The expression her reflection wore was the picture of seriousness—I mean, she was always serious, but now even more than usual—and I hesitated to interrupt her. I felt like I shouldn’t bother her.
“Hm?” Amatena herself turned, though—maybe she saw me in the mirror. “What is it, Shinichi?”
“Oh, uh, it’s just, the door was open a little so... just be careful about that...”
After a moment, she nodded. “I see. I wanted to change the air in the room, but I admit that was incautious of me. My apologies.”
“What are you up to?” I came into the room and shut the door behind me.
Amatena glanced away from me uncomfortably at first, but then she looked at a desk in the corner of the room. I followed her gaze, and saw two photographs sitting on the desk. Minori-san or Hikaru-san must have brought her hard copies of some of their photos.
“Can I see them?”
Beat. “Go ahead.”
I walked over to the desk and looked at the photos. Both of them were of Amatena pretending to be Elvia. One of them showed her caught by surprise, the picture taken without warning. In the other, she had been told there was going to be a photo, and she wore her usual flat look.
“What are these about?”
She looked pretty good in both of them.
Amatena exhaled shortly. “I think it might be just as you said.”
“As I said?” I’d talked a lot with Amatena; I wondered what exactly she was referring to.
“The armor I wear to protect myself, the mask that hides my inner feelings... It might itself be what has me cornered.” As she spoke, Amatena turned back toward the mirror. She was the spitting image of Elvia, yet you could tell immediately that it wasn’t her, that it was Amatena. “What Hikaru said—I understand that, too.” She paused for an instant, almost hesitant. “Being with someone they can’t read is intensely uncomfortable for people—or maybe I should say, makes them nervous. So much so that they might want to be rid of her.”
“Well, that’s...”
...not true—was something I couldn’t say.
“I was so sure that I had to hide my vulnerabilities. Or rather... That it was best to have no vulnerabilities, which I still believe. But to erase my expression, keep the emotion from my voice, and wear an iron mask... I’ve begun to doubt whether that’s the best way to hide such weaknesses.”
I looked at the photographs again. If you asked me which of the two Amatenas I would rather be friends with, I would pick the one who looked surprised. The emotion on her face made her look approachable, like someone you could talk to.
And that... that was Elvia’s forte. I wondered if Amatena had been like her sister once, bubbling with feeling. But if you wore your heart on your sleeve too much, there was no shortage of bad guys willing to take advantage of it. Amatena resisted that by suppressing those feelings, but that took its toll, too.
“Not that I want to be spilling my emotions out everywhere like Elvia,” Amatena added, as if she could read my thoughts.
“Fair enough...”
Elvia’s footloose and fancy free attitude would definitely do more harm than good to a soldier or a spy. Not to mention that if she ever were actually captured by the Eldant side, it would make her all too prone to saying something she shouldn’t. But at the same time, when it came to someone who was cold, hard, close to the vest with everyone, not just her enemies—would I want to work with a person like that? I wouldn’t be too eager.
There had to be a balance to strike, I thought. Or maybe I was just being naïve.
“I may need to soften myself to a certain extent.” Amatena’s lips softened into something like a wry smile.
Ooh. Even a wry smile looked cute on her. Was this “moe by contrast”?
“Good thought.” Smiling, I held up the phone in my hand for her to see. I tapped over to the camera function; the LCD screen filled with an image of Amatena’s face. “In that case, how about a smile, Amatena? Nice and bright.”
“Er...? B-Bright?”
“Just like Elvia would do. Like, gri-i-in!”
“‘Gri-i-in’?”
So much for expressionless: now she was openly frowning. Well, at least she was showing some emotion. That was a start.
For a few minutes, I watched Amatena struggle to produce an “Elvia-esque” smile, and I couldn’t help grinning myself.
The photography party was pretty much a success. Okay, so it ended up more focused on cosplay than photos, but everyone had fun, and most of them seemed to have mastered asking permission before taking a picture. Rather than simply scolding them and being all “Don’t take pictures without asking!”, it turned out to be a lot easier to get the message across by showing them that asking permission was a small thing that could make a big difference to everyone’s enjoyment.
Most importantly, everyone went home with big smiles on their faces.
Granted, Petralka put up a bit of a fight (“We do not wish to go home yet!”), but I had kind of expected that. At length she was dragged off by Garius, who had come to get her. He came personally, by the way, just to be safe—because of some reports (he told me) that a Bahairamanian special forces group had crossed the border. To him, this didn’t sound like the little skirmishes we’d been having.
Anyway, later that evening...
“Everything was really great today!” Minori-san said enthusiastically as we all sat at the dinner table. “Especially that ‘reunion’ for the cast of Angelica! Her Majesty looked fantastic. We’ll have to give a copy of the picture to Garius-san and everyone else.”
“I really tried to go the extra mile for that costume,” Hikaru-san said with a placid smile. “I was sure Her Majesty would look great as Angelica. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time now. This whole day was worth it just to see her in that outfit.”
He really did sound happier than usual; it dawned on me that he had genuinely enjoyed himself. He himself could fall on the somewhat restrained, emotionless side, but when he was really having a good time, you could see it in his eyes.
“Of course,” he added, “I loved the outfits for Myusel and the others, too.”
“Yeah, they looked great in those costumes.”
“Y-You think so...?” Myusel asked a little shyly, her cheeks flushing. She must have been tired from the photo party, but it didn’t seem to have caused her to skimp on dinner. She was really diligent, or energetic, or something—in any case, a great maid.
“And Clara, thanks for all your help. You have fun?”
“Yes.” She nodded, but she did look a little tired. Given that she was probably even more nervous than Myusel the entire time, that was understandable.
“You, Elvia?”
“It was a blast! I wanna do it again!” She grinned, and her tail wagged wildly. She had been dressed as a ninja, and by popular demand, she had closed out the party by jumping, lunging, climbing the trees, and generally acting like one.
“I wish Brooke and Cerise could have been part of it,” I said.
The two lizard people, surprised to suddenly find the conversation turning to them, looked at each other.
“Us?” Brooke asked.
“You certainly don’t have to worry about us,” Cerise added.
Despite what they said, I really didn’t want to leave them out of things. Obviously, if they tried it and it just didn’t click for them, I wouldn’t force them.
“These things are always more fun when everyone’s involved,” I said.
“That so? We’ll have to take your word on it, Master.” Brooke and Cerise looked at each other again.
I did have the distinct impression that there was a limited number of costumes likely to suit a lizard person, but—no, wait. What about, like, Go***lla or something? Or go a step further: Mecha-Godzi***! Or did that leave the realm of cosplay and just turn into wearing a rubber suit?
“And Amatena, I’d love for you to be with us next time,” I said, turning to her.
“No, I...”
“We could make you Elvia’s twin!” Hikaru-san broke in excitedly.
“How’s that?” Elvia asked, perplexed.
“Like, have you wear the same clothes, or matching costumes,” Hikaru-san explained. “You see palette-swapped characters in fighting games all the time—characters who look exactly the same except for the color of their outfits. Or sometimes they even just look flat-out identical—though there’s usually a limit to the similarities.”
“You mean not just matching outfits, but making the two of them look exactly the same. Perfect twins. I like it,” Minori-san said.
“Huh! Who knew?” Elvia said, impressed. Then she turned to her sister, who looked so much like her. “You shoulda been out there today, Big Sis Ama.”
“That would have been impossible, and you know it.”
“Oh, yeah. I guess I do.” Elvia shrugged. She must have really enjoyed herself, because it seemed to have made her forget why Amatena and Clara were here. Then again, that sort of absentmindedness was very Elvia.
Suddenly, the dining area was assaulted by an earsplitting electronic noise. It wasn’t the friendly ding that accompanies an email or a phone call; it was more like the sort of screech that accompanies an earthquake notification, a siren purposely designed to be disturbing. (Anyway, we didn’t get email or phone calls here in the Eldant Empire.)
“Wh... What’s that?”
Everyone in the dining area froze. Minori-san, though, pulled her phone out of her pocket. It turned out to be the source of the noise.
“Minori-san, is that...?”
“An alarm,” she said, her face grim. She swiped across the phone screen, killing the sound.
“An alarm? Don’t tell me...”
“Intruders.”
That one word froze the atmosphere in the room.
After I had been kidnapped the last time, the JSDF set up high-fidelity security cameras around the mansion. I didn’t know exactly how they worked, but I knew they were equipped with infrared and sound sensors, among other things, and that they were connected to Minori-san’s smartphone and computer, and would let her know if anything came up. They had probably also notified the JSDF garrison.
From there to here, though, would take seven or eight minutes, even by motor vehicle. They had to take a circuitous route through the woods, a route that didn’t even really have a road, limiting their speed. Even if they jumped into action the moment they heard the alarm, including the time it would take them to get ready, we could be looking at ten minutes or more until they arrived.
“I’m seeing... seven—no, eight?” Minori-san said, studying her phone. “It’s weird, though. The camera isn’t showing any— Hey.”
“What is it?” I asked, and Minori-san showed me her phone.
I was looking at what seemed like a video clip. It showed what the camera had captured over the past ten seconds or so.
“Wh-What the heck is this?” For a second, I thought maybe there was some kind of glitch in the video. It showed a forest at night—the one just outside the mansion. It looked pretty normal, honestly. Except, there was this one part of the image that kept sort of shifting. It’s hard to describe, but it was like some of the scenery would slide out of place for an instant, then go back. Then slide, then go back.
“My guess is camouflage,” Minori-san said.
“Camouflage? You’d have to be talking, like, active camo to get an effect like this.”
I had seen this sort of thing before—but only in movies like Pre**tor or anime like Ghost in *** Shell. They were disguises that went beyond just blending in. There was an instant of lag when you moved, as they adjusted to their new surroundings, but if a person wasn’t paying attention, such camouflage would be almost impossible to notice.
“Clara...”
“Yes, Elder Sister.”
Amatena and Clara both stood up.
“Wh-What’s the story?” Elvia asked, eyes wide. But Amatena didn’t even glance at her—instead, she turned to Minori-san.
“Pursuers.”
“You think you know who they are?”
“Among the beast-person units in the Bahairamanian army is one squad that specializes in concealment techniques. It’s a small unit, but they’re elite veterans. They wouldn’t be mobilized just to hide a little domestic strife. They specialize in assassination and kidnapping. When I captured Shinichi, they were the unit I used.”
We all looked at her, astounded. This incredibly advanced camouflage, though—what was it? Some kind of magic? Beast people weren’t supposed to have a lot of magical power, though. I had been told they could hardly use basic spells.
“The Eleamachi tribe?” The question came from, of all people, Brooke.
“That’s right.” Amatena nodded.
“Who or what is that?”
“A lizardman tribe that’s not quite like the rest of us,” Brooke explained. “They can change their skin color, y’see. There’s only so many colors they have, and only so fast they can do it, but in the middle of the woods? One could be standing right next to you and y’d never know it.”
“Color changers... Almost like chameleons...”
“Where are you going?!” Hikaru-san shouted. We looked up to see Amatena and Clara nearly out of the dining room.
“We can’t cause any more trouble for you. We’re leaving,” Amatena said brusquely.
“But we don’t know if they’re really after you or what,” I objected.
“Who else could they possibly be after? Frankly, I’m amazed they didn’t get here sooner. Bahairam knows that Elvia... my sister... They know she’s here. They must have known I would go to her if I were ever in trouble.”
“But—”
“We can’t afford the commotion a battle here would cause. Then the Eldant forces would know about us, too.”
So that’s why they were trying to leave. Amatena and Clara nodded at each other and made to go again.
Elvia, though, jumped out of her chair. “B-Big Sis Ama! It’s too dangerous to go now—!”
“We have no choice.”
“But you... But I...”
She was desperate to stop them, but she couldn’t seem to get the words out. And logically, Amatena was exactly right. And yet...
“I was... happy that you took our side,” Amatena said, looking at Elvia.
“Wha...? Sis...?”
Elvia was obviously taken by surprise; all she could manage were a couple of startled half-questions. Amatena, seeming to feel there was no need to say more, turned to leave.
“U-Um!” Someone else stood up and called out. Someone surprising.
“Myusel?” I said.
“Um... I agree that now isn’t the time to go out there...!” She had to force herself to speak, but she sounded convinced. She wasn’t looking at Amatena so much as at Clara.
“Don’t burden yourself,” Amatena said. “Two people who should never have been here, won’t be here. It’s nothing more than—”
“But me, I—!” Myusel didn’t seem to feel the same way. “I have someone to... to teach, and that makes me... happy... and so... well... I disagree that you shouldn’t... shouldn’t be here...!”
Amatena was completely silent. Clara didn’t speak or show any expression. But I thought I saw her tail shift almost imperceptibly. It was something I had seen any number of times back in Bahairam. I had never asked her, but I thought it was a sign that she was happy. And so...
“I agree with Myusel and Elvia,” I said. “I think you should stay here.” If there was one thing I knew about these two, though, it was that emotional pleading wouldn’t convince them. So I started talking fast, almost desperately, adding logical arguments for why they should stay. And logical arguments are, if I may say so, something I’m pretty good at. “Even if you get out of here without causing a commotion, if the Eldant authorities find out there were Bahairamanian troops in here looking for you, it might lead them back to the fact that we were hiding you. Elvia’s here, after all.”
“That’s...”
“You aren’t the only ones with skin in this game,” I insisted, and then I turned to Minori-san. “Minori-san, can you give me a rough idea where these intruders are?”
“Just behind the house, I’d say.” I could hear a note of anxiousness in her voice.
This was bad. These were enemies we couldn’t afford to take lightly.
No. The enemy’s strength isn’t the problem. The JSDF should be here any minute, so actually...
Enemies approaching the mansion.
Bahairamanian soldiers.
Amatena. Clara.
The time I had been kidnapped...
I paused for a long moment.
Ahhh. Okay.
“If they’re that close already, then that only makes it more likely they’ll spot you when you leave the mansion. Wouldn’t it be easier to pass this off as another attempt by Bahairam to kidnap me, or maybe Hikaru-san?”
“Shinichi-sama, that...” Myusel was looking at me, shocked.
I looked around the dining area at them: Minori-san, who had looked up from her phone; Amatena and Clara, still standing there; Elvia, Hikaru-san, Brooke and Cerise. I nodded with a lopsided smile. “I think the best thing would be to beat them back right here.”
Obviously, even I wasn’t stupid enough to think we could take on a Bahairamanian special-forces unit or commando squadron or whatever head-on. Elvia, Amatena, and Clara might have exceptional physical abilities, but so would our attackers, and because they were coming specifically for Amatena and Clara, they would be ready for a couple of beast girls. Toe to toe? Not happening.
If this really was the same squadron Amatena had used to kidnap me, there was also a good chance they would already know who all was in the house and what our fighting capabilities were. In other words, we didn’t have a prayer unless we could come up with something completely unexpected. But we didn’t exactly have a lot of time to set a trap or come up with a plan, either. That limited our options.
“I hope this works,” I murmured, looking at my phone where I sat in the living room. Minori-san had given me the password so that my phone could hook into the alarm system to get notifications and video. The cameras around our building gave us a good idea of approximately where the Eleamachi, the color-changing lizardpeople, were.
For the moment I had Brooke and Cerise going around, pretending to inspect the house.
No matter how well they could hide themselves, when the Elemachi moved, there was a sort of flicker. Meaning that as long as somebody was looking directly at them, they would want to stay still. Having Brooke and Cerise out there, moving around, would help slow them down. If we could buy ourselves some time that way, so much the better for us.
I also asked Minori-san to tell the JSDF to abort its mission, on the pretext that this was a false alarm. If the JSDF garrison got involved, the Eldant army was sure to know about it, and the chances of Amatena and Clara being discovered would shoot up. My plan was for us to handle the Bahairamanians without help.
“Shinichi-sama,” Myusel said as she entered the living room. She had changed into a one-piece dress, I assumed because it was easier to move in than a maid uniform. “Where are the others?”
“Not here yet. I think they’ll be ready soon.”
If this took too long, my whole strategy would go out the window. Actually, I was a little embarrassed to even call it a “strategy,” considering that it amounted to a bad joke.
“You know, you kind of surprised me,” I said.
“I’m sorry...?”
“I never expected you to be the one to stop Clara.”
Myusel blinked. The truth was, she had no reason to stand up for Clara. Yes, they were working together as maids, but that was just a way of giving Clara cover. And Myusel was only doing it because I had asked her to; she didn’t have any special interest in Clara. If anything, it must have significantly added to her stress, having to lie to Petralka. I never expected them to get so close that Myusel would come to see Clara as a sort of student.
“I see... Yes, of course,” Myusel said with a small smile. Yes, small—but there was kindness in her eyes. “To have an apprentice, someone to lookout for... It really made me happy.”
“Yeah, that’s what you said.”
“And...” Myusel glanced at me; she almost didn’t go on.
Hm...? That little look she gave me, sort of glancing up at me—you’d think I’d be used to it by now, but it still made my heart pound.
“Talking with Clara-san has even taught me about myself. It’s shown me things I wasn’t even aware of.”
She seemed to be talking to herself more than to me. “What do you mean?” I asked, but she gave a shrug and an embarrassed smile and didn’t go on.
If I had pressed her just one more time, she might have told me what she was thinking, but at just that moment, Minori-san came up. “Shinichi-kun, Myusel.” She was holding—not her usual 9mm, or even a machine pistol, but a stun gun, something nonfatal. It probably had less to do with not wanting to kill the Bahairamanian troops than with not wanting any gunshots. “Just to be clear, in the event that Shinichi-kun or Hikaru-kun is in any kind of danger, I’m going to use my gun, understand?”
I assumed she meant her pistol. In other words, our safety was her priority, over and above keeping Amatena’s and Clara’s secret. She wasn’t going to go along with any more of my cajoling or my little plans. That was her job; I was grateful she had even been willing to call off the JSDF for me.
“Understood,” I said, trying to stay calm.
That was when Elvia and Hikaru-san came in.
“We got it!”
It was kind of nauseating to watch.
Over and over, a piece of the scenery roughly the size and shape of a human being would flicker and slide, like someone was fiddling with it in a photo program, before melting back to normal.
Our antagonists, the Eleamachi Tribe, could change the color of their scales to match the surrounding scenery, but they didn’t actually become translucent or anything. Like a ninja hiding among the stones by wearing gray clothes, if they were to walk straight down the halls of our mansion without sticking to the walls, we would notice them immediately.
Even so, the ability to shift colors was threatening. The patterns they assumed were detailed—and fast. Color-changing animals like chameleons and frogs couldn’t exercise their talents instantaneously. But the Eleamachi Tribe—granted they were going slowly, but they were almost indistinguishable from their surroundings within seconds of moving. Apparently there was a creature, the golden cuttlefish, that could change the color of its skin in just over a second using polarized light, so it was sometimes called “the chameleon of the sea.” The Eleamachi seemed to have more in common with the cuttlefish than with actual chameleons.
I could hardly imagine what survival strategies had produced a tribe of lizardmen with an ability like that. Or maybe this world didn’t even function on evolution.
I had to set those thoughts aside, though.
“Okay, stop right there,” I declared when I saw that seven Eleamachi had entered the living room.
At the same moment, I switched on the two key lights we’d set up in there. This wasn’t like normal illumination, coming from all around; a strong light thrown in a single direction creates shadows. In photography, this helps produce a sense of depth. In our case, though, the shadows would pinpoint exactly where the Eleamachi were. Their little invisibility trick wouldn’t work anymore.
The Eleamachi tribesmen froze. Unsure what to shift to, their bodies were covered in a mottling of strange in-between colors. Now that I got a good look at them, I could see that they were the spitting image of chameleons. They looked basically like Brooke, but their eyes were extra large, practically seeming to pop out of their heads. To be honest, it was kind of grotesque.
“I won’t ask you to surrender,” I said. “Go home quietly, and nothing else has to happen.”
The Eleamachi glanced around with those bulging eyes—then they all spotted me at once and assumed fighting postures. Made sense, I guess. What special-ops squad would pack up and go home just because you asked them politely?
At that moment, though, my friends jumped out from where they had been hiding in a corner of the room—Elvia and Minori-san, along with Amatena and Clara. All armed. Not with weapons, exactly: Amatena and Clara had a meat tenderizer and a wooden pestle they’d borrowed from Myusel, while Elvia had a stew pot. Knowing that we would be facing scaled opponents in tight quarters, we decided blunt instruments would do more good than clumsy edged weapons. Although to be fair, Minori-san was carrying her stun gun.
I was hoping it would be enough to help us fend off enemies who were practically unarmed. Based on the Eleamachis’ special skills, I didn’t expect them to be carrying anything too large. After all, they couldn’t change the color of weapons and gear. But then...
“Huh?” I let out a sound of shock. Each of the Eleamachi opened their huge jaws, like a tear appearing in their faces, and produced a dagger from their own stomach. And not by reaching in with their hands, either—they used their exceptionally long tongues.
Come to think of it, Amatena had said the Eleamachi Tribe carried concealed weapons, but I hadn’t expected them to conceal them like this. I had assumed they would have brass knuckles, or maybe needles at the most. What was this, the International Shocker Show?!
There was a piercing clang as Amatena and the others blocked the daggers with the objects they were holding.
“Amatena Hareneiman, give up and hand yourself over to us,” one of the Eleamachi tribesmen demanded, even as he traded blows with her. They had seven fighters; we had four. Myusel and I were here, of course, and the Eleamachi probably knew about Hikaru-san, Brooke, and Cerise—but they felt they had brought enough people. The truth was, most of this mansion’s residents weren’t going to be much help in a straight fight.
“We can give you an easy death, if you don’t struggle.”
“Hm?” Amatena cocked an eyebrow. “No plans to take me back to Bahairam and interrogate me?”
“Word is, it’s better if you don’t come back alive,” the Eleamachi said, rolling his big eyes.
The next second, I let out a sort of surprised choking sound. “Guh...?!” The Eleamachi tribesmen suddenly started changing colors at incredible speed. Amatena and the others, as surprised as I was, took a step back from their opponents. The Eleamachi weren’t camouflaging themselves anymore; now we could see exactly where they were. But the rapid-fire succession of random colors made it almost impossible to tell what we were looking at—what was a hand, and what was a head? Where were their chests? All we could see were the flashing colors, no idea where the next attack might come from.
“Hrgh—!” Amatena and Clara didn’t find it any easier to fight than anyone else. The Eleamachi pursued them as they backed up. The chameleon people moved to surround us. This must have been the ace up their sleeves, the last resort they held in reserve to give them the edge when they needed it. This went beyond hiding: they were using their color-changing abilities as an offensive tactic, to confuse their opponents. In fact, the better a martial artist you were, the more confusing it would probably be.
“Die—!” One of the Eleamachi lashed out with his dagger.
The next instant, a white mist hit his face. Startled, he froze, and then backed up. The mist, though, spread out and pursued him and his companions. It was coming from under my chair, and in a matter of seconds it had filled the entire room.
“What’s this?!” the Eleamachi growled. “Are you fools? You’re just—”
—blinding yourselves, I think he was about to say. And sure, practically speaking, we had just made it harder to see. That’s a smoke machine for you. If you use it in an enclosed space, it gets smoky.
But that wasn’t actually our goal.
“What’s... going on...?” The Eleamachi’s voice was suddenly sluggish. Perfect. It was working.
“You know how a smoke machine works?” I asked, reflecting that he probably didn’t. Okay, so monologuing was more of a villain thing, but I decided to fill them in anyway. “The smoke comes from dumping dry ice into water. When the water evaporates, it causes the dry ice to vaporize and takes the heat in the air with it.” That’s why smoke machines could be used like impromptu refrigerators. Most of us have probably gotten ice cream in the summer and had it stashed in some fog-spewing water/dry ice combination to keep it cool.
Well, that’s exactly what I was doing. Hikaru-san had a bunch of dry ice on hand to fuel his cosplay smoke machine. To be more precise, he’d apparently imported an industrial dry ice producer, with which he induced the JSDF garrison to make a bunch of dry ice. I just appropriated the extra, you might say. There was more than enough of it to fill an enclosed room with cold vapor.
By the way, some people confuse the smoke with carbon dioxide, but actually it was just tiny particles of water and ice. Literally fog. While it dissipated into invisible water vapor in a matter of moments, it took atmospheric heat with it when it did so. And unlike humans, who could produce their own body heat to compensate, the Eleamachi were lizardmen whose body temperature would drop when they were exposed to the fog—and that meant they would move slower. Just like Brooke trying to wake up in the morning.
“Grrrr...” Even so, it looked like they still wanted to fight.
“Tifu Murottsu!” Myusel and I added our magic spells to the mix, causing a whirlwind in our living room. The air swirled around, the lizardmen surrounded by whipping fog that made the air colder and colder. It was like turning a fan on in a chilly room.
And then, when they were feeling good and dull, Amatena, Clara, and Minori-san jumped on them.
That was how we succeeded in fending off the Eleamachi tribe. Cold and slow, they were no match for Amatena and Minori-san. They and Clara tied up the lizards and stuck them in a bathtub full of cold water. That would keep them nice and docile for a while, ropes or no ropes.
We left Brooke and Cerise to guard them, then the rest of us went to the living room to talk about our next move. Specifically that included me, Hikaru-san, Minori-san, and Elvia, along with Amatena and Clara; Myusel went to the kitchen, saying she would bring tea.
“Still, the fact that their objective wasn’t arrest, but assassination...” Amatena crossed her arms. “I’m speculating somewhat, but I think it’s highly likely that the Eleamachis’ orders came from my superiors, or possibly even over their heads.”
“What do you mean?”
“If they didn’t want to question me—if they thought it was better not to... then probably, the higher-ups were hoping to pin their own crimes on me. Then they could say they had killed me, and no one would be the wiser.”
“Ahh. I get it...” I nodded. They say dead men tell no tales, or in this case, I guess, dead beast girls. Amatena was going to be their scapegoat, sort of like how politicians accused of corruption always tried to pin things on their secretaries.
“That’s not cool,” Hikaru-san said, disturbed. “But it does make it look more and more like your arrest was a mistake, or at least the military police getting too eager...”
“I wonder whatever happened to make ’em doubt you, Big Sis Ama.” Elvia didn’t seem very interested in the niceties of what was going on, but this particular detail bothered her.
“Well, a little interrogation of our friends the lizards might clear a few things up,” Minori-san said. Then she turned toward the door. “Oh. Myusel...”
Myusel must have been back with the tea. I turned, too, and—
“Guhuh?”
—froze in shock.
That was Myusel at the door, all right. And she was pushing her tea cart, too—but there was a knife at her throat.
“Shinichi...sa...ma...” The dark blade was pressed into the pale flesh of her neck. A gentle push, a slight pull, and the room would be a bloodbath.
“Looks like we missed one,” Minori-san growled.
Standing there behind Myusel was one of the Eleamachi tribe. Come to think of it, when the alarm first went off, we hadn’t been able to see exactly how many of them there were—seven, or eight? I counted seven who came inside, and had foolishly assumed that was all of them. But I guess they’d left one behind. Maybe he’d had a mission of his own, or maybe he was directing things from the rear. It didn’t matter now, because here we were.
“Let the others go,” the Eleamachi hissed, “or the girl dies.” He didn’t shout, and there was no note of triumph in his voice. He sounded absolutely cold and calculating. If he had been agitated, I would have thought we might be able to provoke him, or plead with him—in any case, talk our way into some kind of opening. When you were dealing with someone as calm as this, that was a lot harder.
Crap. What do we do?
Mentally sweating, I struggled to come up with a plan, but my mind was a blank.
Minori-san drew her 9mm. “Kill her, and you’d better believe you’ll die about one second later.” If this were a TV show or something, this was where she would make a spectacular sniper shot, hitting the bad guy in the head without grazing the hostage. But I didn’t think I could expect that now. For starters, we were dealing with a color-changing lizard, whose abilities made it very hard to tell what was his head and what was his body. And if we didn’t take him out with one single shot to a vital point, we could be sure he would cut Myusel’s throat.
“I wouldn’t be in the special forces if I had any fear of death,” the Eleamachi returned calmly. Minori-san bit her lip and said nothing. She certainly knew and understood everything that I did.
This was bad. We were out of options...
Bong.
There was some kind of dull sound.
An instant later, the Eleamachi crumpled to the ground. Well, actually, his right arm didn’t move; it continued to hold the knife at Myusel’s throat. Slowly, the Eleamachi lowered it. It looked bizarre, but finally I caught on: someone else, behind the Eleamachi agent, was holding his arm.
Wait...
Someone else?!
As we watched in amazement, someone appeared behind the reeling Myusel. They were dressed all in black, only their eyes visible. They looked even ninja-ier than the Eleamachi had.
And then, suddenly, there were several more of the masked people. They stepped out from behind the first one, each of them also dressed in black. One went to the left, one to the right. Three of them in all. And then the one in the center pulled off their mask.
The first thing I saw was short, blond hair. The gold-fringed face looked very familiar. In fact, two people who looked just like her were sitting beside me.
“Big Sis Jiji?!” Elvia exclaimed.
“Elder sister?” Amatena said, sounding every bit as surprised as Elvia.
“Wait. ‘Big Sis’ Jiji?” The name rang a bell. Elvia and Amatena had both mentioned it to me in the past.
“It’s Jijilea! Our big sister!”
...Huh? Will someone tell me what’s going on?
What was Elvia and Amatena’s older sister doing here? Completely and totally confused, I just sat there, not moving.
In contrast, Jijilea looked at Elvia and Amatena, and then a sort of easy smile came across her finely-formed lips. “The cleanup’s finished.”
If nothing else, it looked like they weren’t there to hurt us. By way of proof, Jijilea and the others made a show of putting their weapons down. Each carried a short sword—almost a dagger—and of course, we didn’t know if they might have other weapons under those black pajamas. Well, there was no way to be completely sure we could trust Jijilea at this moment. The fact that she and the others were making any conciliatory gestures would have to be reassurance enough.
For the time being, we ushered them into the living room. Elvia and Amatena laid down their arms (well, their cooking utensils), but Minori-san kept her 9mm at the ready. Given what had happened back when she’d rescued me from Bahairam, there was a good chance Jijilea knew something about the mysterious ranged weapon carried by the outlander woman. But she didn’t look overly worried about it.
“Big Sis Jiji, what’s this about cleanup?” Elvia demanded. We were seated on the sofas, but the two people accompanying Jijilea didn’t sit down, nor did they take off their masks. They stood by the wall. Jijilea herself sat on the other sofa facing us. She really did look just like her little sister. I mean, with golden hair and all, but a short-haired Elvia had an appeal all its own. It emphasized the beast features.
“Please don’t be upset, Elvia,” Jijilea said firmly. “I’ll explain everything.” She was smiling, as she had been ever since she first showed her face. She looked calm, in control. If Elvia was the hyperkinetic third child, and Amatena was the serious middle baby, then was Jijilea the easygoing oldest daughter?
She broke into my mental attempt to classify the beast girls. “So you would be Shinichi-san?”
“Huh? Er, yes,” I said, unconsciously straightening up. She gave me what seemed like a very pointed smile—then looked at Amatena.
“I’ll tell you something, Amatena—we knew you were communicating with Shinichi-san.” She sounded completely blasé, but Amatena went stiff with shock. The elder Harneiman sister, however, went on as if she were discussing the weather. “And we knew it involved Elvia somehow.”
“Ahh... err...” Elvia quickly looked away from Jijilea.
“So it wasn’t too hard to guess where you’d run off to.”
“And so you’re here to arrest me...?” Amatena’s voice sounded even flatter than usual; maybe she was really worried.
Jijilea, though, shook her head. “No. Different issue.”
“Why, then?”
“You’re more than aware of the corruption spreading through the upper ranks of the military right now, yes?” She had the tone of housewife spreading gossip: “Did you hear? The Kanous’ boy stopped going to school!” Jijilea went on: “It finally got to where it couldn’t be overlooked anymore.”
“That’s what the purge was for, wasn’t it?” Amatena said.
“Yes, but if you confront them, just try to arrest them outright, no one’s going to play along. They all have backup plans, they all know how to get away. None of them are stupid, and some of them have a certain amount of status and authority.”
Well... Fair enough. If you go around announcing that you’re out to end corruption, the corrupt people aren’t going to just sit there and wait for you to gather evidence and find witnesses. Even less so if they’re powerful enough to control others. I had a sneaking suspicion there might have been a sudden rash of suicides in Bahairam. Scary stuff.
“See?” Jijilea smiled and brought her hands together in front of her face, like she was praying, or maybe asking for a little favor. “Say, Sis, I’ve got a great idea...”
“So we decided to put on a little show,” Jijilea said. “Officially, we told them we were going to gin up something to pin on you and then move to arrest you. But while they thought we were busy with that, we were looking for anything we could find against them.”
Elvia, Amatena, and Clara all looked at each other, openly shocked. If what Jijilea was saying was true, then Amatena and Clara had been nothing but bait, a pretext, a trap laid to catch corrupt military officials. And the girls themselves hadn’t known anything about it; they had danced like a couple of puppets on strings.
Now I understood why the Eleamachi tribe had been sent in. If Amatena and Clara never came back alive, then all was well and good. But if they were captured by the military police and interrogated, it might be discovered that they were actually innocent—and there couldn’t be anything worse for the corrupt officials. That was why they needed the beast girls dead... Yikes. Even scarier stuff.
“We’ve done a bit of cleaning house in the army, though, so we’re here to bring you home.”
“So I’ve been dancing in the palm of my older sister’s hand this entire time...” Amatena mumbled. Jijilea didn’t answer; she just smiled.
Clara was looking from Amatena to Jijilea, expressionless; while Elvia was glaring at her oldest sister. I guess no matter what the reasons were, you couldn’t expect anyone to just go, “Oh, I see! So that’s the story! Thanks, Sis!”
“I don’t mind telling you, it was rough,” Jijilea said, as if she didn’t even see the reactions of the other women. “Took longer than we expected, too. More people were implicated in the corruption than we thought. And we can only put so many people on the force, for security reasons. I would have loved to come get you sooner, but...”
“I can’t believe you, Big Sis Jiji!” Elvia, finally unable to take it any longer, exploded.
“Er...?” Jijilea just looked at her, bemused. Even Amatena seemed a little surprised. Maybe she was taken aback that Elvia seemed to be angrier about this than she was.
“Big Sis Ama almost got arrested—hell, she almost got killed! Do you realize that? What would you have done if they’d killed her?!”
“I knew Amatena of all people would figure a way out,” Jijilea said as though she was talking to a frightened child. “And nobody killed anybody, so what’s the big deal? I’m so lucky to have such capable little sisters.” She grinned, Elvia’s anger just rolling off her back.
Huh... I was starting to get a pretty good picture of what kind of person Jijilea was. She might sound totally calm, even pretty nice, like she wouldn’t hurt a fly. But she was the most ruthless of them all. A classic two-faced character. I finally understood what Elvia had meant when she said “Big Sis Jiji” was the most accomplished of all her sisters. She seemed like she could claw her way to the top of any organization.
But what did we do now? She wasn’t really our enemy... but she wasn’t really our friend, either. And she seemed like the type who would be perfectly willing to “deceive her allies in order to deceive her enemies,” and do it with a smile.
Silently, I looked over at Minori-san to get her opinion. She seemed to be thinking the same thing I was: with a small sigh, she slid her gun back into its holster.
At length, it was decided that Amatena and Clara would go home to Bahairam with Jijilea and her squad.
I’d wondered how they had been able to get into the mansion without setting off the alarms, but my question was answered when they summoned their ride home. A Puppet Drake, one of the dragons with a control spike in its forehead, drifted soundlessly down from above. It was enough to make me go weak at the knees. The dragon’s belly was painted black, so that if you looked up, it would probably seem no more than a part of the night sky. Jijilea and the others had arrived on its back, deposited directly beside the mansion like a special-ops squad inserting via helicopter.
“Thank you for all that you did for us.” Amatena, fresh from a quick rinse to return her fur to its original color, bowed to me.
I smiled and shook my head. “I had a good time. Oh, and here.” I gave her a souvenir I’d prepared.
She took it with surprise—a hinged wooden photo frame. It was folded up at the moment so she couldn’t see what was inside. “What’s this...?” She stared at the gift.
“It’s called a photo frame. You can open it, if you want.”
I’d just grabbed it from my room a moment ago.
Slowly, Amatena unfolded the frame. Inside were two pictures. One was the photo of a very surprised Amatena that Hikaru-san had taken. The other was one I’d taken at the photo party—it was of Amatena, disguised as Elvia, but smiling hesitantly.
Amatena’s eyes were wide. “These are...”
“I had to get it together in a hurry. Sorry.” Pressed for time, I’d just grabbed a frame from my room. Secondhand, if you will. I’d had some pictures of Myusel and Petralka in it. The photos that were in there now, I’d printed out in a hurry. They weren’t dedicated high-quality prints; if you looked closely enough, they might not look great. But heck, for this purpose, it would probably be fine.
Amatena gave the photos a long, hard stare—then slowly closed the frame. “It was a trying experience... but not without its joys,” she said almost in a whisper. She looked up, and just for an instant I thought I saw the ghost of a smile on her face. But then she was back to her usual expressionless self.
Well, these things don’t change overnight. One small step, that was a good start.
“Amatena, Clara, just about time to go,” Jijilea said from behind them. Amatena nodded at her, then turned back to me.
“Well, then.”
“Take care, Big Sis Ama,” Elvia said, her tail wagging energetically.
“And you.”
Come to think of it... I didn’t know exactly how long Elvia had been in Eldant as a spy, but I’ll bet it had been a long time since she’d had a chance to just spend a few quiet moments with her sister. The circumstances that brought Amatena to our house hadn’t exactly been easy—in fact, it had all been kind of a pain in the neck—but Elvia was still happy about it.
“Come for a visit sometime,” I said.
It would make Elvia happy.
“I don’t think it’ll be that simple,” Amatena said with a half-smile.
Then I turned to Clara. “Take care of yourself, Clara.”
“I will. And you, Shinichi-sama.” She nodded to me, and I nodded back.
Then, Clara bounded toward me. Before I could so much as wonder what was going on, she had gotten up on her tiptoes and—
Smack!
—planted a soft kiss right on my cheek.
“C-Cl-Clara?!”
I of course registered immediately that this was the second time she’d kissed me on the cheek. My hand went to the spot where she had planted the kiss. Clara looked at me, at how totally startled I was, and smiled. From a girl who so rarely showed any expression, just a simple smile was an immensely powerful thing. I felt my heart skip a beat.
Then there was a soft tug on my sleeve, at the elbow, and I took a questioning step back. I turned to find that it was Myusel with a grip on my shirt. And for once, uncharacteristically, she looked annoyed; she leveled a reproachful stare at Clara.
Huh? What?
I was only getting more and more confused. But Elvia, who had watched the whole thing in amazement, shook herself out of her reverie and exclaimed, “Wh-What’re y’ doin’, Clara?!” She reached out to my cheek and began wiping at it with her palm, as if to get rid of some dirt.
“Ah—ow! E-Elvia, that—that hurts!”
“Just saying goodbye,” Clara said mildly.
“I never heard of sayin’ goodbye like that!”
I looked back and forth from one of them to the other while Elvia kept working at my cheek as if she were going to take the skin right off. Uh... pretty sure I’m headed for a snakebite here...
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Myusel, still looking upset.
“I see you’re well down the path of the heartbreaker, Shinichi-kun,” Minori-san chirped, evidently amused.
No—hey—heartbreaker? How can I be a heartbreaker when I’m the classic case of turned-into-a-shut-in-after-getting-shot-down-by-his-childhood-best-friend?
“You really have no limits, do you, Shinichi-san?” Hikaru-san said, and started counting off on his fingers. “You’ve had a kiss from Clara, you’ve shoved Amatena to the ground... What else was there?”
“No limits”?! Neither of those things was my fault! They were accidental, not deliberate, and I’m innocent, innocent, innocent! I demand a retrial! (Technical difficulties.)
“That’s right! He’s right!” Elvia shouted. She mercifully stopped rubbing my cheek, but instead she grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and stared into my face. “You pushed over Big Sis Ama in the bath, didn’t you?!”
“How many times do we have to go over this?! I didn’t do anything!”
“Didn’t y’ really?” Elvia demanded, looking very menacing.
Ahhh... Why’s she got to get so angry at me?
To top it off, Amatena was watching us with a frown. “Seems like you’ve got it rough yourself,” she said—not to me, but to Elvia.
Wait, now Amatena’s scoring off me?!
Was this an attack? Was I being attacked?! What had I even done?! I was beginning to panic at the repercussions of crimes I didn’t even remember committing when...
“Amatena, Clara,” Jijilea called from the back of the Puppet Drake. “Hate to interrupt, but I think it’s time to get going.”
“Yes’m,” Amatena and Clara said, and got on the dragon. It flapped its huge wings, a dark form receding slowly into the night.
Finally...
“Hey, is it just me, or is Amatena, y’know, lost?”
“Yeah, I got the same vibe. Like how she only smiled at Shinichi-san.”
“Shinichi-sama, I’m expectin’ my ‘phase of the moon’ tomorrow—!”
“Two different wives from among the locals? For an otaku, he really gets around.”
“An otaku? More like a monster.”
“...Um, Shinichi-sama... I... ahem...”
“So I don’t have t’ hold back anymore, do I? Do I?”
Long after our Bahairamanian visitors had disappeared into the sky, the girls (and Hikaru-san) continued to harangue me about things I didn’t realize I had done.
It had been a day since Amatena and Clara had left. I felt a little lonely, the way you do when two people you’ve been living with suddenly move out, but partly it may just have been a hangover from the constant anxiety of hiding them.
Of course, the only thing that had really happened was that our lives went back to normal. My day had been pretty much the way my days were before Amatena and Clara had shown up.
“Here you are, Shinichi-sama.”
The way Myusel brought me a snack when I was working into the night was back to normal, too. Of course, that had never really changed, even while Amatena and Clara had been here.
“Thanks.”
Tonight’s snack was a pair of small baked goods, sort of like croissants. Maybe the idea was that they would be easy to eat with one hand. I reached out for one without getting out of my chair. I’d been putting off a lot of work, and now I had to catch up.
“That was a rough few days, huh?” I said, taking a sip of the tea Myusel had so thoughtfully brewed for me. “I’m sorry about that. I know you ended up with a lot of extra work and just trouble all around.”
“Not at all,” Myusel said with a smile. That smile, too, was just like normal. But then she paused, looking a little distressed. “Oh... But... It was a little uncomfortable, lying to Her Majesty...”
Yes, I had effectively ordered her to do it, but deceiving Her Majesty the Empress was probably something Myusel had never expected to be doing in her life. She was too sweet, and her relationship with Petralka was too good, and she probably felt pretty guilty about it.
“Fair point...” I said, and crossed my arms. “It might get me yelled at—but I’m going to tell Petralka everything.”
I had gone back and forth with myself, but ultimately that was my decision. It would be better to be out in front of it, to confess and apologize, than for the whole thing to come to light later. If I framed it in terms of having planted a seed of sympathy for Eldant in the middle of Bahairam’s army, they might even forgive me for it.
“Say,” I said.
“Yes?”
“You said talking with Clara helped you realize something. What was it?”
“Er...” Myusel suddenly went beet red. “W-Well, uh, it was, ahem...” She looked at the ground in embarrassment—and then, as if that wasn’t enough, hugged the plate she was holding to her chest.
Huh? What was it? Was it that embarrassing?
“H-Hey, it’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I don’t mean to pry.”
“Oh... No... I just...” Myusel shook her head ever so slightly, not looking up. “Clara-san and I talked about you, Shinichi-sama...”
“You did?”
“Uh-huh. And she said you had your heart set on someone...”
“What?!” This was news to me. “What the heck?!”
“Is she wrong? I thought she ought to know...”
Clara said that? But why...
“...Oh.” Then I remembered. I remembered how back when I had been kidnapped by Bahairam, and I had been trying to stave off Clara, who had orders to get it on with me, I’d used that line as an excuse. She still thought it was true... and she had told Myusel.
“When I heard that, I really didn’t like it...”
“Huh...?”
I wondered what that could mean.
Wait... Wait... What’s going on...?
Myusel just looked at the ground, red-faced, not saying anything. But I wasn’t any better. I just blushed and couldn’t speak, either.
There was a moment of silence between us as if time had stood still. Then, finally, Myusel summoned up her courage and said, “.........U-Um... Shinichi-sama, even if... even if you are sick... I still...”
“Sick? What?”
“I mean, how you’ll die if you touch a woman’s skin...”
“Buh? The heck are you talking about?” I said, but then I remembered that, too. Another excuse I had given Clara...
Wait, so Clara told Myusel about that?! What had they been talking about?!
“Uh-uh, no! There is no such illness! That’s just a lie I made up to keep Clara from jumping me!”
“There... There isn’t? It is?” Myusel looked practically relieved.
...Okay, whoa, wait just a second.
Why would Myusel be relieved about that?
No, Shinichi, don’t get any funny ideas. Don’t get your hopes up. Remember how sure you were about Shouko, about your old friend, and look how that turned out! You want that to happen again—with Myusel? You’d never recover!
I tried to bring myself down from the bizarre high I was suddenly experiencing.
Explode, you damn real! Explode, you damn real! Explode, you damn real! Explode, you damn real!
(This was very important, so I repeated it four times!)
There I was, heart pounding, when—
“Shinichi-sama!”
The door flew open so hard I thought it would fly off its hinges.
“Yipes!”
“Eek!”
Myusel and I both exclaimed. And in came...
“E-Elvia?” Yes, it was Elvia standing in the doorway. And she had some sort of cup in one hand. “Wh-What’s going on?”
“I brought y’ a late-night snack!” she said, all but running over to me.
“Th-Thanks. But Myusel already brought me a—”
Elvia didn’t seem to be listening. She stopped square in front of me.
I looked at her, confused. Was she going to hand it to me? I saw a cup, but I didn’t really see any snack. I reached out to take the drink...
“Yah!” Elvia shouted at the top of her lungs, and dumped the stuff in the cup all over me.
“Eeyikes! What in the heck...?!” I exclaimed. The contents of the cup now covered me from head to toe, and they had a familiar, slightly burnt smell.
“O-O-Oh no, and after Cerise was so nice as to give me some of her tail, I went and spilled Shinichi-sama’s snack all over him!! Oopsie!”
“You sound like you’re reading from a script! Wait—you used Cerise’s tail this time?!” Were lizardman-tail stamina drinks just normal in this world?! “And you spilled it on me on purpose, didn’t you?!” Late-night snack, my foot! It was pretty obvious this was deliberate! But why would she do such a thing?! “Ugh, I’m soaked in it...”
Just like before, the gooey liquid was stuck in my hair, and it wasn’t fun. With apologies to Cerise, I would have to go wash this right out...
“Huh—?!”
I had a bad feeling. Almost a premonition.
“You sure are! You’re all dirty, right?! Let’s get you in the bath!”
Before I could object, Elvia had a grip on my arm and was dragging me out of my chair. I fell right on the ground, but she kept pulling.
“Wait—Elvia?!”
As we sped down the hallway, I twisted to get a look at her. Her cheeks were bright red, and her eyes seemed a little out of focus—and was it just me, or was her breathing harsh? Like she was really excited... about... something...
Uh-oh. Was that what was happening?!
I remembered something she had said just after Amatena and the others had left.
“I can’t believe you got in the bath with Big Sis Ama, but not with me! It’s so unfair! That’s cheating! You’re the worst!”
“I told you, that was an accident!” I flailed and struggled, but a contest between a former shut-in and a werewolf in the grip of the moon was no contest at all. Elvia was making a beeline for the bath... “Elvia, wait—Elvia?!”
“I’m not waiting another minute!” she snorted.
Was she about to eat me up?! I mean, in more ways than one?! And when Myusel and the others found out what had happened—ahhh?! Not only was I about to pop my duck, but I might as well have been on public display! I would be traumatized for life!
“Sh—Shinichi-sama!” Myusel, frozen by Elvia’s sudden appearance, finally came to her senses, poking her head out of the room after us. But she didn’t have any better idea what to do than I did, and could only watch us go.
My desperate scream rent the late-night silence of our mansion:
“Heeeeeeelllllllllpppp meeeeeeeee!!”
（つづく）
To be continued...