Chapter 54
*
After a round of deductions in the kitchen.
We were on our way upstairs to tell the truth.
“Young Lord Nihlrit.”
Charlotte, who had been following behind me, looked up at me from below the stairs and said.
“You were shocked when I just ate star anise, weren't you?”
“Of course. I'm a healer, so if someone eats poison right in front of me….”
I couldn't finish my sentence.
Because the girl below the stairs was looking up at me with a triumphant smile.
Just as I was wondering why she was suddenly making that face,
‘Ah.’
“…Did you eat it on purpose?”
“Because it's the best way to get an honest reaction. You already knew it was poison even before I arrived, didn't you?”
I've been had.
I never dreamed she'd use the method from <A Scandal in Bohemia> like this.
That was my mistake.
I should have taken into account that clumsy lies wouldn't work on this girl.
“…Why did you think that?”
“Because there's no way someone on a level similar to mine would have arrived an hour earlier than me and known nothing.”
Hmm. That's overestimating me.
I only deduced it because I'd been through the exact same incident in my previous life.
To put it differently, she solved the problem from scratch, while I solved it already familiar with the material from old exam booklets.
Calling the two equal would be an insult to the first, wouldn't it?
But that worry was brief.
“That's correct, Miss Hauzen. I knew you'd see through it, as expected.”
I decided to ride the wave of her misunderstanding.
I had worried for a moment that my lack of experience would show, but on reflection, it seemed fine.
‘All I have to do is go toe-to-toe with her once, anyway.’
Once this case is over, I have no intention of competing with her in deduction, not even a little.
My goal is to become the kind of relationship with her that the one-armed Emperor and the Great Swordsman had in some pirate manga.
All I wanted was the title of having gone toe-to-toe with her in her debut, and after that I'd just watch my own fame rise along with her exploits.
So I wouldn't have to worry about the aftermath in this case.
“Excellent. Though your method differed, you arrived at the same answer as I did. And you also splendidly saw through my lie.”
At my answer, Charlotte gave a smug smile.
“Then can I say this match is my complete victory?”
“Since when was this a match?”
“My, wasn't it already a contest the moment Young Lord Nihlrit posed the question?”
“If my actions were interpreted that way, I have nothing to say. Very well, let's call it my defeat.”
She, who had been below the stairs, passed me and took a seat on a higher step.
“The winner doesn't have to look up at anyone.”
Hmph.
She looked down at me with a pleased huff.
With a bitter smile, I took a silver coin from my vest's inner pocket and handed it to her.
It was a small custom of imperial noble society.
You acknowledge your defeat and pay the price to buy back the honor taken by the winner.
If the winner accepts the coin, it means acknowledging the other person's skill.
Think of it like exchanging hostages at the end of a war.
Knowing the custom as well, she accepted the silver coin I handed over without a word.
“You admit defeat more cleanly than I expected.”
“Defeat is a good lesson in itself.”
“That's a good attitude.”
Charlotte, who had been staring at the silver coin resting in her palm, opened her mouth.
“You know? This is the first time I've ever received a silver coin.”
“That's surprising. Someone as accomplished as you, Miss Hauzen, had never won before?”
“Not exactly.”
The girl rolled the coin between her fingers.
“Winning was routine. It's just that I never had anyone hand me a coin. Sorcery, magic, and so on—nobles always came up with all sorts of excuses not to offer one.”
“Oh dear. Defeat isn't shameful.”
“Tell me about it.”
Charlotte flicked the coin up once and caught it.
And then she tucked the coin into her cape's inner pocket and smiled.
“Thanks to you, I had fun. I'll explain the truth to my father myself. If he does it, the other nobles won't be able to drag it into factional fighting.”
She had decided to bear the weight of the truth in this case.
That was exactly what I wanted.
If it were Shun Isara, maybe, but for sixteen-year-old slacker Julian, the truth of this case was too heavy to handle.
Of course, it would be a bit much for our father, who was only a baron, as well.
Charlotte must have understood that and was considering our family.
“Of course, I don't intend to hog all of Young Lord Nihlrit's credit for myself. I'll make sure the other nobles hear about your accomplishments too.”
“If possible, I'd like you to say I was on equal footing with Miss Hauzen.”
“That's the winner's duty after receiving the coin.”
Charlotte turned and walked up the stairs.
“Let's go up.”
I followed her up the stairs.
The way to the room on the second floor.
I looked at her blonde hair swaying left and right above the nape of her neck.
The outline of her small ears, visible through the short blonde hair, seeming as if they were red, was probably just my imagination.
***
Clatter-clatter.
In the late afternoon, a carriage crossed Sanctum Hill, leaving Count Belheim's estate behind.
With all matters at the count's residence settled for now, the carriage was carrying the two of them somewhere.
The blonde, golden-eyed girl seated facing the front of the carriage—Charlotte—was silently counting the streetlamps outside.
Across from her sat the inspector, facing the rear of the carriage.
….
The man with blonde hair slicked back like Charlotte's was scanning a notebook with eyes that were impossible to tell whether they were open or closed.
Inspector Hauzen silently stared at the notebook, idly bouncing his right leg over his left.
By the time the count's mansion was no longer visible, Inspector Hauzen spoke.
“So it was star anise.”
Scratch, scratch, tap.
After leaving a perfunctory note with his fountain pen, he closed the notebook.
“As expected. It was star anise, just as I thought.”
“You knew?”
“I had my suspicions. For a curse to be aimed at them, the victims didn't hold enough of a role within Prince Auguste's faction.”
“Then do you know how the star anise ended up here?”
“Eastern star anise is poisonous, while western star anise is used as a spice. In the capital, where trade routes overlap, it's perfectly possible for a money-hungry merchant to mix the two up.”
A languid voice flowed through the carriage's rattling.
Charlotte's half-lidded eyes turned toward the inspector opposite her.
Her gaze went to the inspector's fingertips.
A speck of ink stained the tip of his right index finger, but the inspector made no move to wipe it off.
Charlotte took in the sight of him and let out a deep sigh.
“Then if you had your suspicions, why didn't you say anything?”
“I'm an inspector. Not a magistrate. I can't steal the work that belongs to a magistrate.”
Charlotte stared straight at the inspector's unblinking face.
“You're really dressing up the fact that you were too lazy to go all the way to the kitchen, Father.”
At her words, Inspector Hauzen took a brief pause and looked around.
Before long, after confirming something, he opened his mouth again.
“No need to call me Father anymore. We've gone far enough that there won't be any ears listening.”
“Okay, Michael, big brother.”
The moment she finished speaking, Charlotte put her legs up on the seat opposite her.
There wasn't a shred of the decorum expected of a young lady.
She held that posture and turned her palm upward.
Something hazy, like mist, rose above her palm.
The mist swirled faintly before beginning to take shape.
The outline of a small room, the shadow of a cradle, and two figures beside that cradle appeared.
A silent play made of mist unfolded above the girl's palm.
When the baby in the illusion began flailing its arms and legs and crying furiously, the countess beside the crib fed it tea steeped with star anise.
Charlotte dispersed the mist at that scene and spoke.
“I have to do this five more times today.”
Charlotte said, jerking her chin toward Inspector Michael.
“You have more than enough mana too, big brother. You already understand the truth, and the activation conditions are there too. In fact, you should be able to make it even clearer than I can.”
“Probably.”
“Then can't you do it?”
Inspector Hauzen said, sinking into the carriage sofa with his eyes gently closed.
“I came all the way out here specially because of you. Normally, by now, I should be in my office reading the report submitted by the Nihlrit magistrate.”
The inspector lazily waved a hand.
And then he let his arm droop as if that were the total amount of exercise allotted to him for the day.
“And the reason we're visiting the other houses now is to announce the contribution of the friend you made today, isn't it? Normally, this is something a formal letter would be enough for.”
….
“I did my best in my own way, so don't ask for anything more than this, Charlotte.”
Charlotte had no choice but to agree.
Considering this slacker's usual behavior, even this outing could be called an extraordinary move.
“You handle all the magical recreations for the rest of the families.”
“Haa... and yet I have to keep this as my one and only blood relative.”
Michael didn't even respond.
Instead, he loosened the lids of his half-closed eyes even more and simply accepted the drowsiness creeping up on him.
Then, as if something had come to mind, Michael narrowed his eyes.
“By the way, I was surprised when you suddenly said you wanted to come along with me. What got into you?”
“No matter what, you're an imperial noble. At sixteen, shouldn't you make your debut in society?”
“Then why ask me of all people?”
“I don't have a mother, and Father isn't the kind of person who does that. I figured I'd have to get help from my brother.”
Michael's mouth opened slightly at Charlotte's answer.
Entering high society at sixteen was something only people desperate for marriage did.
But the Charlotte Michael knew was not a girl who was desperate for marriage.
Both in terms of status and in terms of her personality.
But just as he was putting together the sentence, ‘You want to get married???’, he met his younger sister's eyes and shut his mouth again.
….
Because he could feel the murderous threat in her eyes, as if one more word would put a zero-inch punch straight into his solar plexus.
In a battle of wits, maybe not, but in a physical fight Michael was confident his younger sister could pin him before he could even lay a hand on her.
So he gave the safest possible answer.
“…Yeah. Still, I'm glad you made a new friend.”
That was the safest line he could return to his one and only blood relative.
*
By the time the siblings had visited all five houses, stars were already visible in the sky.
While Charlotte put on deduction shows at each house and used magic to convince the skeptical nobles,
Michael had spent the whole time sitting in a chair in all five drawing rooms, rolling a mint candy around in his mouth.
That was the full extent of the contribution he was willing to make today.
After everything was done,
The carriage turned.
The closer they got to the center of Sanctum Hill, the wider the cobblestone roads became, the narrower the gaps between the streetlamps, and the taller the buildings on both sides grew.
Before long, the outer walls of the imperial capital came into view beyond the carriage window.
“A business trip and overtime, huh.”
Michael muttered, pulling up his coat collar.
“The reports must be piling up. Just the ones submitted by the Nihlrit magistrate make three, and the others….”
A yawn swallowed the rest of his sentence.
After passing through the imperial capital's main gate, the carriage stopped at a fork in the road.
The left road led to the office district lined with government buildings, while the right led to the imperial family's residential district.
Michael got out first.
The hem of his coat fluttered once in the night air.
“Good work.”
Without even looking back, he headed for the office district lined with government buildings.
Charlotte leaned against the carriage window and watched her brother's receding back for a moment.
He probably said that, but once he reached his office, he'd brew tea before even opening the reports.
And he'd fall asleep before the tea went cold.
By the next morning, he'd be too lazy to even hold the reports, so he'd recite the contents he memorized on the way there.
That was the bureaucratic life of that lazy man.
Charlotte snickered and tapped the empty coachman's seat with her hand.
“Let's go.”
The carriage, without a coachman, carried Charlotte toward the imperial family's residential district.
Some time later.
Creak.
Charlotte stepped into a sparsely furnished room in the imperial palace.
The door closed, and the sound of the latch clicking into place rang softly.
Charlotte began taking off what she'd worn all day.
First, she loosened the navy cape.
Next, she removed the silver brooch, folded it, and draped it over the back of a chair.
She unbuttoned the vest of her detective outfit one button at a time, slipped off the shirt cuffs, removed the silver hairpin engraved with the Hauzen family crest from her hair, and set it on the table.
The silver coin in her pocket….
….
She placed it neatly on the vanity.
At last, Charlotte stood before the mirror.
Then she tapped her temple with the tip of her finger.
“———-”
With a whisper-like rustle, the girl in the mirror began to change.
The blonde color grew brighter.
From a gold like the yellow of sunset to a gold close to pale platinum blond.
The short hair that ended at the nape of her neck came loose and fell down.
A fragile softness settled into eyes that had once held decadent arrogance.
The daughter of Inspector Hauzen vanished from the mirror.
And in her place, a girl with eyes dulled by ennui was looking into the mirror.
“Haa...”
The girl's modestly rounded chest rose and fell for a moment.
The girl changed into sleepwear and began arranging her hair.
By the time she had brushed it more than twelve times.
Something trembled inside the vanity drawer.
The girl once called Charlotte opened the drawer.
Deep inside, a small crystal orb wrapped in cloth was trembling faintly.
Charlotte placed the crystal orb on the vanity and reached out her hand.
Soon, the scenery of an old study appeared within the crystal orb.
Through the stacks of books inside the orb, she could see an old man sitting in a leather armchair.
The elderly gentleman, with only one eye intact, was drinking tea with a white ferret on his lap.
“…Lord Lewis. Good evening.”
[Yes. It's been a while.]
Sip.
The great sage Lewis said, setting down his teacup.
“Charlotte. Have you been doing well in the palace lately?”
The girl set the comb down on the vanity and gave a bitter smile.
“It's the same as the last time you asked, Lord Lewis. And the same as the time before that too.”
Charlotte was a loner.
The reason was her nature.
[Hmm. Still haven't fixed that habit of peeking into the past when greeting people? Being with you makes it feel like my past is being exposed, and it's unbearably creepy.]
“What can I do? That's my talent as a mage.”
[Hmm. If that's part of your mental makeup, I have nothing to say.]
The great sage inside the crystal orb hid his awkwardness by sipping his tea.
Charlotte Hauzen Eschenvalt.
A child born between the emperor and his seventeenth concubine.
The seventeenth concubine gave birth to Charlotte late in life and, on the third night after that, came down with a severe fever and never opened her eyes again.
In the imperial palace, where even living concubines were swept up in rank struggles, how much worse would it be for a child of a dead concubine?
For this reason, Charlotte and Michael were what people commonly called 'forgotten royalty.'
Lewis was the guardian of Charlotte and Michael.
It wasn't because he felt pity for their circumstances.
There were nearly a hundred imperial royals in the empire whose names weren't even recorded, and the great sage didn't have enough sentimentality or time to feel compassion for all of them.
There was only one reason he became Michael and Charlotte's guardian.
Their talent had slightly piqued his interest.
[How was the magic I taught you?]
“I made good use of it. There's a condition that deduction has to come first, but even so, being able to visualize the past like a picture is certainly useful.”
[I'm glad you like it. If you master it a little more, you may even be able to see the future like your brother.]
“That man is so lazy he doesn't even move when he sees it.”
[You don't say. Tsk, tsk. If I'd known he was that kind of guy, I wouldn't have taught him.]
“Then what about me? Instead of just teaching me the basics, do you have no intention of taking me on as a proper disciple?”
[No matter how many times you ask, my answer will be the same. I already have one disciple for this generation. I don't even have enough attention to spare for that fellow, let alone you.]
“I was just asking.”
A brief silence passed beyond the crystal orb.
The ferret climbed the armrest of the armchair and up to the old man's shoulder.
Its white fur curled up in a fluffy heap on the old man's black collar.
The great sage tickled the fur with his finger and said.
[Speaking of disciples, how was my disciple? Was it worth meeting him?]
Charlotte's hand stopped over the crystal orb.
The great sage's disciple, Julian Schnabel.
He was someone the great sage had suddenly told her to meet one day.
For this, her brother was assigned to the Baron Nihlrit case, and she swallowed her pride to ask that lazybones for help.
— “A debutante at sixteen? No way, I never thought our cute little sister would finally want a man….”
Though there was a minor mishap in the process where she personally drove her fist into her one and only blood relative's solar plexus.
….
Charlotte delayed answering the great sage and looked at the vanity beside her bed.
As she looked at the silver coin on the vanity, everything that had happened today replayed in her mind.
Until just before arriving at Count Belheim's estate, she hadn't expected much.
Even the great sage found meeting her awkward, and his disciple didn't seem like he'd be any different.
But Julian was different.
Far from shrinking back at that first greeting, as if he could see right through the past, he looked delighted and studied the answer sheet together with her.
What's more, he was making problems based on the case for her and tossing out clues one by one.
In her sixteen years of life, it was the first time she'd met someone who already knew the answer but deliberately waited because he wanted to watch the other person solve it.
And it was also the first time she'd seen a gaze so purely acknowledging of her abilities.
…
Charlotte's lips twitched.
Before long, she spoke to the great sage about her impressions of Julian.
“I think he's the only one my age who can set problems for me.”
[You know that's not what I'm asking. I'm asking whether you like him.]
Charlotte, lips pressed tightly together, picked up the silver coin.
Before long, she answered in a voice so small it could barely be heard.
“If it's someone like that, I don't think I'd ever be bored even if he stayed by my side for the rest of my life.”
A long silence passed in the study beyond the crystal orb.
The ferret flicked its tail once on the old man's shoulder.
Steam rose in a thin wisp from the teacup.
Before long, the great sage clicked his tongue.
[Tsk. That's as blatant as a billboard.]
?
[Nothing. I just know you've been thoroughly smitten.]
At those words, the tips of her ears turned red as she said,
“I-it's not that! It's just curiosity, no, something like investigative curiosity….”
[Yes, yes. That's the best time of life.]
The old man waved his hand, cutting her off.
[Very well. Then I'll pave the way to the baronial house under the name of House Hauzen. If needed, I'll even arrange fake parents. However, that child has a bit of a situation too, so for the time being, meet as Charlotte.]
“Until when?”
[That's for you to judge. Once that child reaches a position where he can stand beside the princess, wouldn't that be the time to reveal it?]
“…Thank you, Lord Lewis.”
[This is all I can do as your guardian. My role is to hold the umbrella, not to meddle in what happens beneath it. The rest is up to you.]
The old man scratched behind the ferret's ears.
The ferret narrowed its eyes and stretched its neck.
That was the last image of the old man Charlotte saw.
The crystal orb's light went out, returning it to a cold glass sphere.
Charlotte wrapped the crystal orb in cloth again and shoved it back into the drawer.
And just as she was about to turn toward the bed to sleep,
the silver coin on the vanity caught her eye.
….
After hesitating for a moment, the girl looked around,
“I'll wake up on my own tomorrow morning. Don't come into the room.”
She left those words toward the other side of the door and picked up the silver coin from the vanity.
Then, clutching the coin tightly in her hand, she got under the covers and turned off the light.