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Never Let Go

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Translator: Kell

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—Monologue 5—

We trudged down the flooded corridor, up the stairs on the bow side, and onto the deck.

Lee’s limp body was growing heavier and heavier on my back. My knees trembled with each step I took. But I was the only one who could carry her. The two boys were losing blood from the wounds Huey had inflicted, their faces gradually turning pale, while the other girl was crying from shock. I couldn’t just leave Lee behind.

I couldn’t tell if Lee was still alive. Her dark hair bobbed as I climbed up the stairs. Her chocolate-brown skin had lost its healthy color.

Finally, we reached the deck.

Dawn was breaking.

When we went up the deck last night, the deep darkness prevented us from seeing anything. But now, the pearly light of dawn from the eastern skies was shining on the deck. Waves rolled gently on the gray sea.

Legs shaking and covered in blood, we headed to the radio room, one step at a time.

When we opened the door, white smoke was rising to the ceiling, obstructing our vision like a fog.

The people in the room—nine grown men—all turned to us simultaneously.

Some were playing card games. Some smoked cigars. Some were looking down at their books.

Wisps of white smoke rose from the cigar to the ceiling.

When the men saw us, their mouths dropped open. Then they shouted in unison.

“Where are you from?!”

“Tell me your nationality! Who died?! Where were they from?!”

“This one’s from Sauville! Where are the Allies?!”

They grabbed us by the shoulders and shook us.

A man who had been drinking brandy stood up. He was relatively younger than the rest, seemingly in his mid-thirties.

He grabbed the arm of an elderly gentleman. “Now, now. First, we must applaud their efforts.”

“Maurice…”

“Come on.”

The man called Maurice regarded us as we stood there dumbfounded. He raised both arms and put his palms together.

“Welcome, brave Hares!”

The other men followed his lead and started clapping as well.

Their smiles almost drove me mad.

As soon as I relaxed a little, Lee fell from my back. “Lee!” I called, bending down.

One man looked at us. He studied Lee’s black hair and brown skin.

The man snorted. “Arabian, huh?” he said, kicking Lee.

I screamed out. Lee wasn’t moving. Maybe she was really dead.

I squeezed the heart-shaped pendant in my pocket tight. Tears welled up in my eyes.

The men studied us.

“I trust the English one is alive?”

“Of course. He’s a Hound. He came back alive.”

“As for the rest… France, Italy, the US, and Sauville.”

They exchanged looks and nodded.

There was a creepy person in the back of the room, sitting in a wheelchair. Their head was covered with a red cloth. Wrinkled skin hid half of their eyes.

It was an old woman.

In front of her lay a silver jar, a copper jar, and a glass jar. She grabbed a golden hand mirror with her wrinkled hands.

“A young man will soon die…” Her voice was soft.

The men turned around. “Madame Roxane!”

“It will be the beginning of everything,” she continued. “The world will turn to stone and start to tumble.”

The room fell silent.

“Fulfill the prophecy. If you do, this country will prosper.”

“Understood!” The men bowed.

I was petrified and confused.

Prophecy? What is she talking about?

Eventually, the old woman shook her head. “The Running of the Hares ends here!” she declared in a hoarse voice. “Sink the box immediately. And fatten up the Hares!”

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Chapter 6: Never Let Go

Julie finished her long confession.

The room was still and quiet.

Two thin wisps of white smoke rose to the ceiling from the pipes in Victorique’s and Inspector Blois’ hands. No one said a word.

“I never knew why they did it,” Julie finally muttered. “It was hard. Victorique, the little detective. Perhaps you can shed a light on the matter?”

Kazuya raised his head. Julie was biting her lip as she stared at Victorique.

Kazuya glanced at Victorique’s face. She seemed to have finished reconstructing the fragments of chaos and was pondering over how to verbalize it.

Inspector Blois’ brain had reached full capacity. He was watching a small bird fly past outside the window with a distant look in his eyes. The tips of his pointy blond hair glittered under the golden morning sunlight pouring through the window. He had removed the pipe from his mouth; it was smoldering in the hand of the pensive inspector, seemingly forgotten.

Slowly, carefully, Victorique opened her mouth. “I think it was a large-scale divination.”

“A divination?!” Julie snapped. She shook her head. “So many kids died. The ship sank. All for a divination? A divination for what? How? It must’ve cost a lot too.”

“Kujou, I’ve explained it to you before.”

Kazuya jumped. “Wh-What?”

“Ancient divination. Specifically, rhabdomancy, as performed by the prophet Moses.”

“Oh, yeah. I think you did.”

“In order to know from which tribe the future leader of the Israelites would be born, he prepared twelve sticks with the name of each tribe on them. The fate of those sticks determined the fate of the tribe.”

“Ahuh…”

“Roxane the fortune-teller kept Hares in her garden. Sometimes, she would set a Hound loose on them. Some are killed and some survive. The survivors are fattened up and raised with care.” Victorique paused. Julie’s face grew darker and darker. “I believe Roxane used Hares for divination. Each one was given the name of the person to be divined and they were released among hounds. She told the future based on which Hares survived.”

“Are you telling me that the Hares were us?”

Victorique nodded.

“But why? We’re not hares, we’re humans.”

“We can assume that a large-scale divination of the future was necessary, the kind that’s never been done before that. Data can be analyzed from several fragments of chaos. Eleven orphans of different nationalities gathered from all over the world. Roxane’s words: ‘A young man will soon die. It will be the beginning of everything. The world will turn to stone and start to tumble.’ The remark of a man who was present: ‘Where are the Allies? Huey’s words, ‘What happened here is the future. It’s your nationality that matters.'” She dropped her voice. “And it happened ten years ago, in the spring of 1914.”

Kazuya let out a yelp. They all looked at him, and he quickly said, “U-Uh, sorry. There was the Sarajevo Incident in June ten years ago that sparked the world war. It’s probably unrelated, right?”

“But it is. That is, in fact, the answer.”

“What do you mean?!” Julie demanded.

At the end of June 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated in Sarajevo. The Serbian government, with the support of other states, denied Austria’s demand for the extradition of the assassin. Austria-Hungary, Germany, and other countries joined together to start a war. Russia, France, and Britain fought against them, and the war soon expanded globally.

“We can only speculate now, though,” Victorique added. “I think that, ten years ago, government officials who sensed a foul atmosphere brewing over the world used a famous fortune-teller to know the future. They set up a large stage, a box called the Queen Berry, and released Hares from all over the world inside. An English boy played the role of the Hound. Inside the box full of traps, the boys and girls carried the future of their respective countries on their shoulders.”

“That’s absurd!”

“The divination came true.” Victorique brushed back her hair. “Recall the world war. Hey, mediocre egghead Kujou.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Tell us the outcome of the war.”

Confused, Kazuya reluctantly spoke. “The World war was fought between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers. It ended with the victory of the Allies. The Central Powers were comprised of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey…”

“And the Allies?”

“Let’s see… France, Italy, Britain, the United States, and Sauville…”

Victorique stared at Julie. There was no expression in her eyes.

Julie was biting her lip hard. “It can’t be…”

“The divination came true.”

“…”

“In that ship, the kids ended up in two groups, the Allies and the Central Powers. First, the Hungarian girl died in a trap, and the Turkish boy was shot dead. And the British boy survived by using deceit. Yes, the British were the tricksters of that war. The German and Austrian boys also died, and the Chinese boy was gunned down. And the Arab girl…”

“Lee…!”

“The Arabs got caught up in the war. They lost part of their territory and were left in tatters.”

Julie was crying now. Watching her, Victorique looked a little troubled. She took out an expensive-looking handkerchief from her pocket and gingerly handed it to her. After Julie wiped her tears, Victorique looked somewhat relieved.

“So they based their subsequent political activities on our actions that night,” Julie said, sniffing.

“Yes.” Victorique nodded. “Sauville joined the World War on the side of the Allies. History was set in motion. It’s hard to say how much of this was coincidence and how much was inevitable now that Roxane and the others involved are dead, but the divination came true. Of course, only subjectively, not objectively. Needless to say, the results of the large-scale divination, the Running of the Hares, served as a device for the politicians, aristocrats, and foreign officials to avoid responsibility.”

Julie lifted her head. “That’s just horrible.”

Slowly, she started to talk about herself. Unable to recover from the shock, she spent a long time in a sanatorium. When she finally calmed down and was released, she began looking into what happened back then.

Some of the surviving kids had committed suicide, while another was sentenced for murder. None of them were doing well. She didn’t know if Lee was alive or dead. She thought that maybe she already died back at the radio room.

The only one who was alive and well was Huey, who had changed his name to Ned Baxter. When she found an article about his success as a stage actor, she decided to add him to her list of targets for revenge.

Ten years later.

She had received a lot of money, presumably because of Roxane’s advice to fatten them up. She used all of it to build a replica of the Queen Berry. After that, she sent out invitations.

Her targets gathered. Except for Roxane, who had already been killed.

The room was so calm and quiet that it was hard to believe they were talking about something depressing and gruesome. It was probably partly because Julie herself was calm as she talked.

Julie looked up. “Since when did you know it was me?”

Victorique was silent for a while. “I became sure when you shot Maurice. But I first suspected you right after we woke up in that lounge.”

Julie was taken aback. “How?”

“You were right next to the door. When you tried to open it, you made a fuss about it being locked. But when another man tried it, it opened easily. Then an arrow from a bow gun came flying and killed him.”

“Yeah.”

“The door was never locked. The reason you made such a fuss about it being locked was to keep us in the room. You needed to rip off the wallpaper and show them the bloody words. To let them know what was going on. You decided to kill them afterwards. Am I wrong?”

“No…” Julie gazed at Victorique’s small face.

Victorique looked away first. “I had no proof. It was mere speculation at that point in time.”

“I see…” Julie chuckled, then pointed at Kazuya. “That’s why you were holding this boy’s hand so tightly. He was talking to me, not knowing that I was the culprit.”

Victorique gave a grunt.

“You were being mean the whole time, but you never let go of his hand. You were so worried about him.”

Victorique played dumb.

Surprised, Kazuya eyed them both. He recalled the time they were running inside the ship. He was holding Victorique’s hands to protect her, but he wondered if Victorique herself was concerned about him.

When it was time to leave the room, Julie mumbled, “Little detective.”

“Please stop calling me that.”

“Oh, come on now. You know, when I first saw you, I thought you looked familiar.” Julie peered at Victorique’s face. “I remember now.”

Inspector Blois, who was standing beside her, gave a jerk.

“From the sanatorium. I met a woman there who looked just like you. I wonder who that was.”

For a split second, Victorique’s green eyes widened. She shook her head. “Who knows?”

“Your sister? Or perhaps…”

“…”

Victorique didn’t answer. Instead, she waved Julie goodbye.

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The interrogation had ended.

They exited the room into the hallway. Uniformed officers and men who looked like detectives streamed past the wide corridors. Occasionally, they would glance back at Kazuya and Victorique, wondering what children were doing in a police station.

When they turned the corner, two men wearing hunting caps came running toward them. Inspector Blois stopped.

“Inspector,” one said.

“We just received information,” the other added.

They were swinging their linked arms.

“The maid who killed Roxane has been caught.”

“She’s being brought in now. Oh, look, here she comes!”

Julie Guile gulped as she looked at the direction he pointed at.

Policemen were escorting a beautiful Arab woman from both sides. Her dark hair and supple, chocolate-colored skin glistened under the light in the hallway.

When the woman looked up and saw Julie, she swallowed too.

Both of them had grown up; they looked so different now. But when they looked into each other’s eyes, they found the same sparkle from back then.

“Lee… is that you?” Julie asked.

Lee seemed in doubt as well. “Alex?”

Their brief ten-year reunion ended as they passed each other in the hallway.

“Inspector, is she the one who killed Roxane?” Julie asked as she watched Lee go.

“Yes.”

“I see… After ten years, you got your revenge too.”

Julie put her hand on her neck and grasped the heart-shaped pendant. She had kept it safe for the past ten years. Lee’s lucky charm. She had treasured it. She returned to the stairs to retrieve it and give it back to her, but she wasn’t able to. She pulled the pendant from her neck.

“Lee!” Julie tossed the pendant in the air.

Lee turned around. She shook off the officers’ hands, stretched her arm out, and caught the pendant.

“I’m returning your lucky charm,” Julie said.

Lee, who did not understand the language, nodded. She raised one hand and made a small waving gesture, before being taken by the cops. They then turned the corner, and disappeared.

Julie Guile stood there for a while, staring at the empty hallway.

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