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Alone Together on New Year’s Eve – Part 04

“What is it, Victorique?”

“There were only two people in the room, C and D, but they were able to fool the maid into thinking there were four people inside. Do note that this is just a theory.”

“Explain yourself!” Inspector Blois barked.

“Kujou,” Victorique said softly, “according to your account, the man bought hats and the woman a fishing vest. You found both of these purchases strange.”

“Yeah.”

“However, my Wellspring of Wisdom tells me that those items were extremely important.”

“Huh, why?”

“First, C.” Victorique’s voice was quiet and monotonous. “The man with the long hair—if he wears the hat, he could hide his hair.”

“What?”

“And then D. Fishing vests are often used as a tool for women when they dress as men. When worn under clothing, they broaden the shoulders and thicken the chest. Not ordinary people, though, but government agents.”

Kazuya swallowed as he stared into the dollhouse. The miniature room, furnished with various items, looked quite luxurious.

Gradually, it started to resemble what the maid had glimpsed from the inn’s corridor—the scene within the room from the previous night.

Two men were there. One had his hat pulled low, standing with his back to the door. The other, also wearing a hat, sat deeply in a chair, making it difficult to gauge his height. Their wide shoulders and chest marked him as a man, but he had his back turned to the door, hiding his face.

A chilling scene—C and D pretending to be A and B after they shot them in the woods, acting calm.

“But wait!” Kazuya raised his head and gave Victorique a puzzled look. “That doesn’t add up. If A and B were there, that means C and D weren’t. But the maid said all four were in the room.”

“To prove this theory, Grevil, you need to question the maid more thoroughly,” Victorique said wearily.

She gently pointed inside the dollhouse, the purple ring on her finger gleaming. “There were only two people inside. First, the maid guessed from the figures that they were A and B. And then, upon hearing voices, she further thought that C and D were also in the same room.”

“Voices?” Inspector Blois breathed.

“Kujou, you mentioned that C had a high-pitched voice for a man, and D, the woman, had a foreign accent. They were in one room, playing two roles each. Using their disguises to portray A and B, and their distinctive voice and accent for C and D. Of course, this would be difficult for laymen, but I believe…” Victorique rose and took her pipe. “They are no laymen,” she said, puffing out smoke.

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm… That’s why this fellow here insists on them being the culprit. Am I right, Grevil?”

With astonishing swiftness, Inspector Blois sprang to his feet, executing a complex maneuver of standing up while backing away from the two. He accidentally bumped his rear against a tree trunk, causing him to jump. Without uttering a word, he hastily made his way towards the elevator hall and into the iron cage. His legs got tangled, and he almost tumbled to the floor.

Kazuya stood up, anger flaring. “Inspector! Leaving again after letting Victorique solve the case?”

“S-Sorry, but I’m in a hurry!”

“Grevil.” Victorique’s voice, deep and raspy as an old woman’s, reverberated quietly in the conservatory.

Kazuya froze and looked behind. Inspector Blois slowly turned to look at his sister, his face twisted with worry.

Clad in a striking red-and-black gown, Victorique exuded a haunting beauty, a blazing torch in the world beyond. Her cascading locks of golden hair stirred softly like a tail.

Her lips parted. “The fact that you’re so flustered suggests that this is a government-related case.”

“Wha—?!”

“The husband and wife suspected of being the culprits are not ordinary people. Probably agents of some sort. In which case, the two male victims are also involved with the government. Most of the people evacuating to the village are women, children, their governesses, maids, and young ladies. A pair of men showing up isn’t exactly natural.”

Inspector Blois made a clucking sound.

“And then, the husband and wife who approached them are not who they appear to be. My Wellspring of Wisdom is telling me, Grevil, that the reason you rushed into this conservatory so early this morning…”

“Keep your mouth shut.”

“…is because the victims were Father’s allies. Meaning, A and B were most likely officials of the Ministry of the Occult. If that’s the case, then the suspects C and D might be operatives from the Academy of Science. This begs the question: why would they come to a remote village at this time? After identifying each other, the other pair was killed. It’s unlikely that they came here to evacuate like the women from Saubreme.”

“…”

“Their objective was to secure a weapon that will soon prove useful.”

“I’m leaving!”

“A certain something hidden in the secret armory that is St. Marguerite Academy. In other words…”

With a clank, the iron cage closed and descended, creaking sharply. The gleaming drill vanished.

Victorique watched in silence for a while, then sighed softly, reaching for a book that she had placed on the floor. She was well aware that no matter what happened in the outside world, she couldn’t leave from here. The same daily routine went on, days of gaining vast amounts of knowledge, fiddling with all sorts of phenomena arrived at by her intellect to keep the monotony at bay.

Today, too, books lay open in a semi-circle around Victorique. English, Latin, Sanskrit, Ancient Gaelic. Collected from all over the Old World, the books spanned a wide range of genres and languages. Victorique skimmed through all of them simultaneously with vacant green eyes. A thin wisp of smoke rose from her pipe.

“How much longer can I stay here?” she mused softly.

She looked around slowly. Then, she let the tension leave her body, threw out her legs, and looked up at the ceiling. She took a puff from her pipe and exhaled gently.

Realization struck, and she blinked several times, holding the pipe in one hand.

“K-Kujou?” she called for her servant.

This time, she looked around frantically. Somehow, Kazuya had vanished from the conservatory, leaving Victorique truly alone.

She shuddered, rose to her feet, and trotted to the railing to look down the hall.

Kazuya was running down the labyrinthine staircase that stretched on far below. He was alarmingly fast. Victorique watched him move further and further away in no time at all.

“It’s almost like he has wings. Black wings. Hmph!”

Frowning slightly in concern, she continued gazing at Kazuya as he hurried away.

---

He exited the library and sprinted straight down the snowy path.

The chilly French-style garden resembled a frozen world of ice. Hedges trimmed into the shape of various animals were coated in a blanket of snow, towering like monsters in the middle of winter. The gazebos stood frozen, and the fountain was hidden beneath a thick layer of ice.

Inspector Blois was hurrying down the pathway, his golden horn glittering.

“Inspector!”

A voice that belonged to a boy, thin but firm, sounded from behind, causing Inspector Blois to furrow his brow.

He didn’t stop. He continued forward.

But the boy, Kazuya, quickly caught up with the inspector.

“What was that about just now? What was Victorique talking about?!”

“Go ask her.”

Kazuya blocked the inspector’s path. The inspector pushed him aside and continued walking, but Kazuya moved in front of him again.

“I highly doubt she would tell me. She’s probably keeping it to herself. Reading books while curled up on the floor. She wants to avoid endangering others, not caring about her own safety.”

“And that’s none of your business!”

“It is!”

“…”

Kazuya fell in beside the inspector.

Droplets of melted snow fell from the tree branches. The sun was growing stronger, turning the white garden even brighter.

“Why did officials from the Ministry of the Occult and agents from the Academy of Science come to the village at the same time? The latter might have killed the former. Why would they do that? What purpose would they have here in this remote village in the mountains?”

“Kujou…”

“Is it Victo—”

“Kujou!” Inspector Blois snarled, then lapsed into silence.

Kazuya continued walking with a grim face.

The two trudged down the snowy road that led to the village. As soon as they reached the inn, they spoke to the maid once more and confirmed Victorique’s deduction to be correct.

However, there was no sign of the couple, C and D, at the inn. Inspector Blois told the anxious Kazuya that police officers had been deployed on the road that ran from the village to Saubreme.

Despite their efforts, the pair wasn’t found. C and D had vanished like smoke somewhere in the village.

The village police station quickly turned chaotic. The only other path leading out of the village was a treacherous mountain trail that led deeper into the Alps. Had the pair fled into the mountains, or were they still hiding somewhere in the village?

News of the culprits’ flight spread like wildfire, plunging the village in turmoil, leaving no room for New Year’s Eve celebrations.