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Dream at Dawn – Part 05

A moment earlier…

Victorique and the group had just returned to the Phantom Theater by carriage.

Everyone watched each other in silence, faces grim. What they saw earlier—the headless corpse of a noblewoman in an old-fashioned dress, and her decomposed head with a gleaming gold tooth—came back to them, sending a shiver down their spine like a curse from the ancient past.

Kazuya sat firmly beside Victorique, determined not to go anywhere. The Blois father-and-son were expressionless. Ms. Cecile had long removed her round glasses. Large tears glimmered in her droopy eyes.

Upon reaching the theater, they all disembarked. Ms. Cecile put her glasses back on.

“What did you learn?” Marquis de Blois suddenly groaned. “Tell me, now.” His voice was sharp.

Kazuya readied himself. Victorique was silent for a moment.

“Let us go inside first,” she said finally. “And then the show will begin.”

Marquis de Blois exhaled sharply.

Like a party exploring the inside of a beast, they stepped into the lion’s mouth.

The venue was stuffy and filled with the din of footsteps and conversation. Women in fine dresses and suited men with walking sticks were all looking forward to the show, heading for the shops and engaging in fun conversations.

As they turned left to go down a narrow corridor, Ms. Cecile suddenly bolted towards the middle of the floor.

Astonished, they all followed her with their gazes. Soon after, there was a familiar voice.

As Kazuya pushed his way through the crowd, he found Ms. Cecile and Sophie, fighting like young siblings.

“Why didn’t you invite me?!”

“I didn’t have the time. Anyway, what are you doing here in Saubreme?”

“I came in a suitcase. While you took a motorbike!” She slapped Sophie again and again.

“What are you talking about?”

It was Ms. Cecile who was angry, and Sophie was only explaining herself with a smirk.

Sophie laughed dryly. “Oh, shut up already. Who cares if I go out alone once in a while? Not like you like plays anyway.”

“No!”

“What? No?” Sophie blinked. Then she put her hands on her hips, threw her head back, and laughed. “You’re so weird!”

“Wh-Why?!”

“Because when I met you six years ago, I was just an invisible maid, and you were a noble lady. Every day I would wipe the sweat from my forehead as I wiped the windows and swept the floor, and I would watch you during class. Unlike me, Miss Lafitte was cute, happy, and always cheerful. It never occurred to me back then that I’d ever have the chance to have even a single word of conversation with you.”

Ms. Cecile grunted.

“Time has passed. Though your family has gone bankrupt, you’ve become a full-fledged working woman, teaching every day. And your students respect you.”

She looked at Kazuya and Victorique, then nodded. Kazuya was about to interject, but a sharp glare from Ms. Cecile silenced him.

“I spend my days washing and peeling potatoes, cutting carrots, while watching you in class through the windows. The desk had changed to a platform, but you’re still in a classroom, a magnificent place I could never enter. What I mean is, you’re still the same princess beyond the window.”

“What are you saying?”

“It’s just funny that you’re acting like a child just because I went out by myself. If I told the old me about this, she would’ve just smiled sadly and wouldn’t have believed me.”

“But we’re friends.” Ms. Cecile, her cheeks puffed out like balloons, stared sharply at her.

Sophie continued laughing merrily.

Stooping, Kazuya stepped in between them. “Now, now.” He tried to intercede like some wise old man. “Let us calm down, yeah? Ouch!”

“Men should keep quiet.”

“Besides, you’re just a kid.”

“Oh, come on. I’m just saying, you should calm down and try to reach a compromise. There’s a system in my country called ‘It takes two to make a quarrel.’ No, wait a minute. I think it’s a saying, not a system. Anyway… Ouch! Can you please stop?!”

“Huh? Roget?” Ms. Cecile said. “Who’s that?”

Kazuya’s breath seized in his throat.

Victorique, who had been watching the squabble, gave Kazuya a look that said to keep quiet. Kazuya nodded.

Just like that, the heated argument between the two women had ended without even a compromise; being longtime friends, they shared the same wavelength.

“Let’s watch together,” Sophie said. “There are empty seats next to mine. There were supposed to be two men sitting there, but the other guy was feeling uneasy so they left. Weird people, I tell you!” She was explaining with gestures.

“Was one of them called Roget?” Cecile asked.

Sophie nodded. “Yeah. Scary-looking guy, looked like a bureaucrat. When I bumped into the other guy at the entrance, he pushed me out of the way. And when I called his companion gramps, he got mad. Besides, isn’t it weird for a couple of men to go to the theater?”

“It is.”

“The other man was classy and quite cool, with short blonde hair combed smoothly. Can you guess his nickname? I almost laughed.”

“A funny nickname… Carp?”

“So close!”

“Close, huh… Flounder?”

“The correct answer is… Your Majesty!”

“Your Majesty? That’s just mean. It’s borderline bullying. If one of my students used it on a classmate, I’d give them a good talking-to. I’ll summon them in the dim teacher’s lounge after school and go on and on. I’d be like, ‘Are you calling him that because you’re good friends? Look at me when you answer. You’re not getting dinner tonight!’”

“Right?!”

“Wait a minute. I wasn’t close at all! Why are you always like this to me?!”

Victorique once again commanded Kazuya with a look.

“Um, excuse me. Please don’t fight,” Kazuya broke in, forcing himself between the two women. “I’ll keep things in order!”

“Back off.”

“No, I won’t. As Victorique puts it, I am but a dull simpleton. But keeping things in order is one of my forte.”

“Hold it,” Ms. Cecile said. “I won’t let a student of mine berate himself like this. You have a lot of good points—”

“Yeah, yeah. I understand. Now, allow me to continue.” Kazuya’s back hunched even more. “Dorm mother. One of the two men you ran into you at the entrance was named Roget, an bureaucrat-looking man, correct?”

“Yup.”

“The other was a classy, middle-aged man with short blonde hair, addressed by his companion as ‘Your Majesty’.”

“Ahuh.” Sophie nodded. “Oh, yeah. He mentioned something about being undercover. I wonder what he meant by that.”

“I see.” Squirming like a snail, Kazuya returned to Victorique, who was watching him with no expression on her face. Her green eyes flickered under the light of the chandelier. “So, Victorique. His Majesty and Roget came to the theater in secret. If he’s the Roget that’s pulled some strings in this case, then his companion can only be him.”

“Yes.”

“I wonder why, though.” Kazuya looked confused. “Then again, it’s a play about his queen. I understand why he’d want to sneak out to watch.”

Victorique nodded. Her deep, green eyes twinkled sadly, and her glossy cherry lips were pursed tight. She seemed to be hiding her nervousness. Concerned, Kazuya watched her tiny face with a frown.

The show was about to begin. There were considerably fewer people in the open floor now, and the buzz coming from the audience beyond the doors was growing louder.

Victorique took a slow drag of her pipe. “Sophie. There are two empty seats next to you, yes?”

“That’s right.”

“In that case, Kujou, Cecile, you go watch the play from there.”

“No,” Kazuya replied.

A group of officials from the Ministry of the Occult had gathered behind Victorique. They drew closer silently and soon surrounded everyone. Their faces were all devoid of emotion, empty like the homunculus that Marquis de Blois had once dreamed of creating, and terrifying at the same time.

Victorique took a step back. The men surrounded her.

Kazuya’s face stiffened. “I’m going with you.”

“This is as far as you go, Kujou.”

“But…”

“It’s okay.” Victorique’s voice dropped to a sigh. “I have my maman. A big hand always there to protect me.”

“B-But…”

“This matter involves state secrets to begin with. You’re an international student first, and my friend second. You are studying here in a foreign country on a government grant so you would grow to become a valuable personnel who would serve his own nation.”

“Victorique.”

“Your country and Sauville might be allies now, but who knows what will happen in the next storm? A very different map of forces than the first storm, a change so great that it will shake even the places of land and sea, and what will happen to your position.”

Kazuya went silent at the mention of his country.

“It’s dangerous from here on out.”

“Vic…”

Looking at the sorrowful face of her friend, Victorique bade goodbye in a hard voice. “Farewell, Kujou. My one and only, precious friend.”

The last part only reached Kazuya’s ears.

Her voice when she said the word ‘friend’ sounded like a sad declaration of love that would remain in Kazuya’s mind for the rest of his life. He silently accepted it.

Victorique turned her gaze away from Kazuya. Surrounded by the officials, she turned and walked away.

A mind that could shake the world, a descendant of the ancient tribe of Saillune, a human weapon hidden by the Old World.

For all that, she looked nothing more than a small child. Her hair swayed like a golden river flowing into the far distance.

Kazuya stood stock still.

A buzzer sounded, announcing the start of the Blue Rose of Saubreme.

Victorique is right. I’m just an international student from an allied country. I came here with a government’s grant so I could serve my nation in the future.

Kazuya studied his palms. Small, pale hands. Not those of a grown man. But he wasn’t a child anymore either.

What could these hands of his protect?

No. Sure, I have a duty to uphold. But there’s also someone I need to protect. I’m a foreign national first, and a friend second? No…

Kazuya looked back at the door leading to the guest seating.

Sophie pulled on Cecile’s hand. She glanced at him and gestured him to hurry up.

He looked toward the narrow corridor where Victorique was taken away.

“Kujou!” Sophie called.

Kazuya looked up to the heavens.

Pressing his feet firmly on the red-carpeted floor, he broke into a run.