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A Promise

Epilogue: A Promise

“…And so, after the ghosts of the past were avenged, the ghost ship Queen Berry sank back into bottom of the dark sea.”

It was a fine morning.

Behind the school building of St. Marguerite Academy, two teenagers were sitting on the three-flight stairs overlooking a flower garden, talking face-to-face.

Colorful flowers were in full bloom in front of them, glittering under the sunlight. The sweet scent of flowers tickled their nostrils. They could hear students talking as they walked along the small pathway between the flowerbeds. The staircase seemed to be a great place that no one knew about; there was no one around except for the two of them. It was a comfortable spot, like an empty air pocket in the crowded school.

One of them was a small, earnest-looking Oriental boy, while the other was a slender caucasian girl with short blond hair swaying in the wind.

The girl—Avril Bradley, an exchange student from England—was listening to the boy with her big eyes wide open.

Staring at her face, Kazuya Kujou felt triumphant inside.

Good, good, he thought. I totally got her. Hers was just a ghost story, but mine actually happened.

He nodded to himself, certain of his victory.

I win! Yahoo!

Avril burst into laughter.

“Huh?”

“Oh, come on, Kujou. Kyahahaha!”

For some reason, Avril was flailing her arms and legs, laughing hysterically. Her slender, smooth legs dazzled Kazuya’s eyes every time the breeze lifted her skirt.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because that’s not possible.”

Avril wiped away the tears in her eyes with the back of her hand. “Oh, Kujou…”

“It’s true!”

“Riiiiight. Just so you know, I’m never buying it.” Avril held up her forefinger in front of Kazuya’s face and waved it from side to side. “Nyeh!”

Kazuya’s eyes narrowed as he watched her finger. What does she mean by that? he wondered.

“That truant Victorique is actually a girl, a very beautiful one at that, and a great detective?”

“I-It’s true! If you want, you can come with me to the top floor of the library. Victorique is really there!”

“No way! I’m not falling for that one.”

Avril wore an infuriating look and stuck her tongue out at Kazuya. She looked very cute. Kazuya fell silent.

“Besides, I don’t want to go all the way up those set of stairs. I can’t believe someone would even do such a thing.”

“…”

Victorique said the same thing… Kazuya’s spirits sank.

“Also, there’s a story about the library too,” Avril said, dropping her voice low. “They say a golden fairy lives at the top… Kyaaaaa!”

Kazuya let out a shriek.

“Hahaha! You screamed. I got you again, scaredy-cat!”

“That one doesn’t count. Your scream surprised me. I’m not scared of anything. Besides, that story is actually true. She’s not a fairy, though, but a human being. Then again, she’s like, extraordinary, so I guess you can say she’s not human. Anyway, Victorique is—”

“All right. Enough with the bragging.” Avril snapped her fingers.

“…Sorry,” Kazuya apologized despite himself.

Am I imagining things, or ever since coming to this country, I’ve been apologizing nonstop to girls my age even though I’m not at fault?

Avril grinned. “I have no idea why you even came up with that story. I already know the source. I also read this morning’s paper.”

“…This morning’s paper?”

“Ta-da!” Wearing a smug look, Avril showed the newspaper. “It’s this one, right? I already knew everything.”

“A-Ah…” Kazuya stammered.

Avril was perplexed at his reaction. Her pretty face peeked from behind the newspaper.

“What’s wrong, Kujou?”

“H-H-He did it again.”

“Huh?”

The newspaper headline read: Inspector Blois Does it Again! The Case of the Ghost Ship, Queen Berry, Solved!

Kazuya grabbed the newspaper and stood up.

Avril looked at him, baffled. “Wh-What’s the matter?”

“Something came up. See you later, Avril!”

Leaving a startled Avril in the flower garden, Kazuya bolted away.

A petite woman was walking along the narrow path between the flowerbeds, her shoulder-length brunette bobbing. She had large round glasses and a baby face with droopy eyes like a puppy. It was their homeroom teacher, Ms. Cecile.

When she saw Kazuya, she smiled. “Kujou. Just who I needed.”

“Oh, Teach. I’m in a bit of a hurry…”

“If you’re in a hurry, that means you’re headed to the library, right?”

“No… Well, yes, actually. How’d you know?”

Ms. Cecile chuckled. “When you’re in a hurry, there’s only one explanation. Here, take this. Please give it to Victorique.” As usual, she handed him some printouts.

“Why is that the only explanation?” Kazuya mumbled, then took off.

Avril came a second later. “Huh. So he’s going to see Victorique,” she muttered as she watched Kazuya go.

Smiling, Ms. Cecile nodded. “Yes. They’re very close.”

“What kind of a boy is he?”

Ms. Cecile blinked a few times. She then waved her forefinger. “You don’t know? Victorique is a girl.”

“Whaaaaat?! So she’s actually a girl? I see… And her last name… Was he actually telling the truth?” She cocked her head, then shook it. “Nah, no way. He definitely made that up.”

A warm early spring breeze blew past, tousling their hair and the hem of their skirts.

The sky was a clear blue. It was looking like a good day.

“I see. Victorique is a girl. Hmmm…” Avril pouted. “Makes me a little jealous.”

Once more, a warm spring breeze whirled around.

Avril’s skirt and short blond hair fluttered. The colorful flowers blooming in the flowerbed danced in the wind.

---

“Victorique!!”

St. Marguerite Grand Library. One of the most historic buildings in Europe, with more than three hundred years worth of history behind it.

Shaped like a polygonal tube, the building’s entire walls themselves were giant bookshelves. Majestic religious paintings adorned the high ceiling. Only a narrow wooden staircase connected the bookshelves in this mysterious building. Its inside was like a giant maze.

It was said that a long time ago, the king deliberately built this maze to indulge in the company of his mistress.

This morning, Kazuya was running up the maze of stairs, calling out a girl’s name.

“Victorique!”

“You don’t have to shout. I can hear you.”

It came from the uppermost floor.

A wisp of smoke rose toward the ceiling. A young girl with long, beautiful golden hair hanging to the floor like a turban was smoking a pipe. The smoke from the pipe drifted up to the skylight, where bright light streamed in.

The girl was sitting on the floor of the dense and green conservatory, reading through several books spread out in a circle around her. She seemed bored, but she went through them at great speed. She looked like a broken doll.

It was Victorique.

Kazuya made it up the stairs, breathing hard.

Victorique shot him a glance. “Commendable effort coming here every day.”

“Now, listen here.”

“Your daily routine is to run up these stairs while screaming at the top of your lungs, placing a huge strain on your heart. You turn pale when you look down, and your thighs feel very sluggish. You are one very strange exchange student.”

“And you think you have nothing to do with it? I come here to see you.”

“I know that. I’m merely stating a fact.”

“Yeah, right. I can sense the spite.”

“And?”

“…Nothing.”

After returning to the acadamey, Victorique returned to her aloof—and a little cynical—self. The same Victorique that he was used to seeing in this library.

Realizing that he stood no chance in a verbal argument, Kazuya backed down. He then held out the newspaper he took from Avril.

“Anyway, look at this.”

Quivering with anger, he studied Victorique’s face, but she seemed unconcerned. After skimming the news article, she nodded.

“I see.”

“This is all your deduction. They caught the culprit because you tipped them off. Your explanation, your reasoning, they just copied it all. Back then, Inspector Blois was looking at the birds out the window. He had this distant look on his face, like he had no idea what was going on. I can’t stand this.”

Victorique yawned. “My brother is an egomaniac,” she said, looking uninterested.

“Exactly. That inspector is an egomaniac. Wait a sec… What did you just say?”

“My brother is an egomaniac.”

“One question: who’s your brother again?”

Victorique scowled in puzzlement. She removed the pipe from her mouth and blew out a white smoke. “Grevil.”

“…Oh, okay.”

“Yes.”

“Whose brother?”

“Mine.”

“Hmm… Wait, whaaaaaaat?!”

He fastened his eyes at Victorique’s figure, glamorous and well-proportioned, like an exquisite doll, but too small. Then he thought of Inspector Blois, handsome and stylish, but with a crazy hairstyle.

He could not process it. His head dropped to his hands.

His eyes fell to the printout he had received from Ms. Cecile. It had fallen on the floor. He’d been delivering them to Victorique every day, but he had never taken a good look at them.

He knew that Victorique was of noble blood. It was easy to tell by her demeanor and mannerisms. I think her name’s Victorique de something…

“Whoa…”

Victorique’s full name was on the printout.

Victorique de Blois.

Kazuya lifted his vacant eyes and looked at her.

Victorique was staring back at him with the pipe in her mouth. “Kujou, are you all right? Your face looks weird.”

“Why do you have the same family name as the inspector?”

“Because we’re siblings?”

Kazuya screamed. Now that he thought about it, Victorique and the inspector didn’t seem to have anything in common besides being nobles, but they shared a few habits, such as intently smoking pipes and blowing smoke into people’s faces. Their looks or brains were nothing alike.

“Why?” Kazuya asked with a serious look.

“…Don’t ask me.”

Annoyed, Victorique looked away. But no matter which direction she turned, Kazuya kept following her and asked, “Why? Why Why?”

Victorique eventually gave in. “All this time, you didn’t know?”

“Nope!”

“You are one odd fellow.”

“B-B-But you never mentioned it once, did you?”

Victorique tilted her head. Her golden hair bobbed, glistening like silk curtain.

“I didn’t,” she said, yawning.

“Then of course I had no idea!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, keep it down.”

Displeased by the topic, Victorique became grumpy. Ignoring Kazuya, she buried her head into the books, and immersed herself into reading. It almost seemed forced.

But Kazuya kept mumbling on and on.

Victorique lifted her head. “You’re too loud.”

“But…”

“To put it briefly,” Victorique began wearily, “Grevil de Blois, also known as Marquis Blois, is the heir to the Blois family. He’s an egomaniac, a womanizer, and an inept inspector, but he’s the eldest son. He is our father’s legitimate successor. We are blood-related, but we never see each other on official occasions.”

“…Why not?”

“Because…” Victorique frowned. “My mother was a mistress. Grevil’s mother is the official wife, with noble blood running through her veins. So we are half-siblings.”

“But that still doesn’t—”

“And my mother was a dangerous character. She was a dancer by profession, but she was also a madwoman. She got into some trouble in the last war, and… No, never mind.”

For a moment, Victorique became talkative when it came to her mother, but she immediately went quiet afterward.

Kazuya recalled the stories that were rampant in the academy. Some were eerie rumors about Victorique herself.

She was an illegitimate daughter of a noble. Her family feared her so they sent her to this school because they didn’t want her staying in the house. Her mother was a famous dancer who went crazy. She was the reincarnation of the legendary gray wolf.

Julie Guile, the culprit behind the Queen Berry case, mentioned seeing an older beautiful woman who looked just like Victorique in the sanatorium she was confined at.

Victorique hesitantly opened her mouth again. “In short, I was born to a noble and a dangerous person. And because I was different from normal children, I grew up in isolation deep inside the Blois mansion. Ever since I was sent to this school, I’ve been stuck here, unable to leave.”

“I don’t know what to say…”

“The only reason I was able to leave last week was because my brother gave me a special ‘permission’ to go out. On the condition that he accompanied me. He forgot about it and left, though. So I don’t know when I’ll be able to go out of this academy again.”

“Victorique…”

Kazuya was speechless.

He recalled their trip last week. Victorique seemed unaccustomed to the outside. She leaned out of the train and carriage, staring at the scenery. The sight of the sun rising over the sea had captivated her.

When she said that she liked beautiful things, and Kazuya suggested they come back again, she gave a forlorn smile.

Puffing on her pipe, Victorique said jokingly, “I’m a damsel in distress. Doesn’t fit me, does it?”

“…”

Silence fell over the garden.

Soft spring sunlight streamed in through the skylight, shining on the both of them. The green leaves of the lush vegetation swayed faintly in the gentle breeze blowing in from above. Unlike down on the surface, it was very quiet here. When the two remained silent, nothing else could be heard.

“And so the damsel is bored,” Victorique said.

“Ahuh… Huh?”

Kazuya’s face hardened. He had a bad feeling about this. When he looked up, he saw the same look on Victorique’s face when she was acting like a spoiled brat. He couldn’t explain what it was exactly, but he knew from experience.

“Ah, I’m bored.”

“Anyway, I gotta go to my next class…”

As he tried to get up, Victorique pulled on his pants, and he fell on the floor.

“Oww!”

“I’m bored. Are you listening? I said I’m bored.”

“I’m sorry…?”

He clearly had no reason to apologize, so his reply became a question.

Victorique started flailing around. “I said the damsel is bored! A mystery. I want a mystery.”

“You can cry all you want, but there’s nothing mysterious going on right now.”

“Then you go downstairs for a bit and look for a mysterious case.”

“No way. I’m not gonna find any.”

“Then create one. Get yourself in some deadly trouble.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Victorique was getting more and more agitated. She must be bored out of her mind. “Ahh, so boooring! I might die from boredom. I probably will. Kujou, you will lose one of your few friends.”

“…Too far. A little more, and I’ll get mad.”

“So bored…”

It was suddenly quiet.

Hmm? Finding the silence strange, Kazuya peered at Victorique’s face. Her small head plopped onto him.

“Huh? V-Victorique! Are you dead? Did you die of boredom? That can’t be right. No one actually dies of boredom. Hey!”

*snore*

“Oh, you’re just sleeping. Don’t scare me like that.”

Victorique had fallen asleep with her little golden head resting on Kazuya’s shoulder. She was yawning a lot earlier. She must be really tired.

It wasn’t uncommon for a weekend adventure to leave you sleepy on the first morning of the week. It seemed to be a rarity for Victorique, though.

Kazuya gave up on attending the next class and continued to lend his shoulder to Victorique.

Just sitting there made him bored. She was right, he thought. He picked up one of the books she had left open, a philosophy book written in difficult Latin. He tossed it aside without reading a single page.

Birds chirped in the distance.

Spring.

A fine season.

Hugging his knees, Kazuya whispered to the sleeping Victorique. “Hey, Victorique. Someday…” He felt a little embarrassed. Figuring she was asleep anyway, he continued. “Let’s go out and watch the sun rise over the sea again.”

Victorique’s green eyes snapped open. “I will hold you to that promise.”

Softly, she closed her eyes again.