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Friend – Part 02

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Translator: Kell

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“The fact that you’re aware of it means you’ve gotten a little smarter, Kujou the idiot.”

St. Marguerite Academy’s Grand Library.

An old and majestic building that was more than three hundred years old. After surviving the Great War, it became known as one of Europe’s finest bookhouses.

But since only students and related personnel were allowed inside the academy, very few knew of its existence. The library was always quiet, filled with dust, dirt, and the smell of intelligence.

Inside, a maze of wooden stairs lead all the way up high. That afternoon too, Kazuya had spent several minutes climbing the stairs to reach his friend at the top.

On the top floor was a skylight where bright sunlight poured in, and a conservatory filled with tropical plants and flowers. And there was petite girl with beautiful features reminiscent of a porcelain doll. She was there that day, as she always was.

The girl—Victorique de Blois—was buried in a pile of books, as calm as if their weekend excursion had never happened. She had not heard from her half-brother, Grevil de Blois. If only there would be no repercussions for what she did… but a tinge of uneasiness still remained.

A white wisp of smoke rose from her small mouth holding a ceramic pipe to the skylight. Kazuya used the smoke as a beacon to find Victorique’s small body in the pile of books, and sat down next to her.

“Can you stop calling me an idiot?” Kazuya grumbled. “I’ve been getting it from women all day. I’m kinda down in the dumps right now.”

“You reap what you sow. I don’t really care about the details.”

Kazuya clicked his tongue in irritation.

Victorique remained cool. “You’re a buffoon. You talk like you know people when you don’t, and then you get mad at them for something ridiculous, ending friendships.”

“Wh-Where’d that come from?!”

“How about you ask yourself?”

“What’s your problem? Whatever. By the way, do you want this? I don’t know what it is, though, so I can’t tell you what to use it for.”

Smoking her pipe, Victorique lifted her head from the huge, thick book. She glanced at what Kazuya was holding, then returned her head back.

“Wh-What is that?!” she exclaimed.

Kazuya slowly pulled back the golden skull. “I’m not really sure. A paperweight, maybe?”

“Kujou, you are, for the most part, a very dull simpleton.”

“Get off my case!”

“Sometimes you just stop making any sense.”

“That’s not a compliment, is it?”

“Is this some kind of oriental mystery? Or are you the only one who’s weird?”

Kazuya couldn’t take Victorique’s sharp tongue any longer, so he shut his mouth. “I’ll just leave this here,” he mumbled, placing the golden skull on the floor.

Then he noticed something on the floor. The strange Indian turban that he had given her. She really didn’t like it, it seemed. It was on the floor, upside-down. Inside was a pile of whiskey bonbons and macaroons.

Victorique’s Wellspring of Wisdom, it seemed, had decided to relaunch the turban as a container for candies instead. Kazuya placed the skull next to the turban.

A bizarre spot, he mused.

“Speaking of oriental mysteries,” Kazuya said.

“What is it, Kujou, the foolish reaper from across the sea?”

“You always have to get in a word or two, huh?”

Despondent, Kazuya took something out of his bag. It was the book sent to him by his oldest brother.

Victorique lifted her head impassively, but when she saw it was a book, she snatched it away and began flipping through it with great interest. The unfamiliar language brought a cute wrinkle on her forehead, and she let out a groan.

The book was filled with images of two people grappling with each other.

“What kind of a book is this?” Victorique asked.

“It’s a book about oriental martial arts. My father and brothers are experts, but I don’t know anything about it. So I asked my eldest brother to send it to me.”

“A book on martial arts, you say?” she mumbled curiously, and glanced up.

Kazuya turned his head away, blushing a little.

Last time, he and Victorique ended up in a terrifying ship, and after experiencing danger, Kazuya felt a tinge of regret. He had always been awful at the hand-to-hand combat techniques that he had learned from his father and older brothers, so he tried to avoid them at all costs. But when he was alone with Victorique on the ship without any help, he wished from the bottom of his heart that he had practiced harder.

With that in mind, Kazuya wrote a letter to his eldest brother, telling him about his grades and the country he was in, and asked him to send him a book on martial arts if possible.

However, it got delayed a little, and the book arrived after he had returned to the academy following his second adventure.

Come to think of it, he’s always been like this. He gave me candy after dinner and helped me with my studies after exams. He’s a nice guy, but he’s always just a little late.

Perhaps that was why his eldest brother, despite being smart and good-looking, kept getting his heart broken. One time, he visited the house of his beloved with a love letter he had written all night long, only to find that she was in the middle of her wedding ceremony. His brother eventually overcame his grief after some intense kanpu-masatsu^[1].

“There’s a letter in here,” Victorique said.

“What, really?”

Kazuya took the letter from her. It was written in large, crude handwriting. Definitely from his oldest brother, he thought. Kazuya opened it and started reading.

What’s gotten into you? I never expected you to ask for a book like this. Your brother and I are wracking our brains trying to figure it out. But this is a good sign. Dad and us were just talking about how we wish you would become bigger and manlier.

Kazuya felt his heart sink.

On another note, father is very pleased with your excellent academic performance. We are very proud of you. It would seem that your leaving to study abroad was the right choice. Your mother and sister miss you very much, though. Even though your brother and I are here, they still find it boring without you. It’s what they call favoritism, I suppose.

Kazuya smiled a little.

But I told them that a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. You are currently in the process of becoming a man. I told the women not to stand in your way. Kazuya, you come back as a full-fledged man as soon as possible. Be successful and become a man who will serve his country. Do not become someone worthless, who ignores his own nation. Be a splendid man. We await your return as we devote ourselves in serving the country. From Your Eldest Brother.

Kazuya closed the letter with a sigh.

His eyes took on a distant look, and he went quiet.

Victorique looked at him, slightly worried. But when her interest in the rare oriental book returned, she buried her head into it.

Then she gently lifted her head up again from the book, and glanced at Kazuya.

He heaved another sigh.

For a brief moment, Victorique wondered what was up with him, but then turned her face away again nonchalantly.

Brother… Kazuya was dejected, sitting about halfway between the stairs and the conservatory, looking down. He was brooding. I’m afraid I’m not going to be the splendid man you want me to be. Besides, is service to your own country the only way to measure a person’s worth? I…

Bonk!

Kazuya felt a sudden sharp pain in the back of his head. He tried to turn around, but he lost his balance, and he screamed as he tumbled several steps down the labyrinthine stairs.

He had tumbled at an angle so that just a few more centimeters and he would have fallen into the abyss far below. He managed to cling to the railing. He got up and found Victorique looking down at him with shock, her balled fist thrust out in front of her.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were still there,” she said.

“So that was you just now, huh?”

Victorique yawned loudly and put the book down.

Kazuya crawled up the stairs. “Victorique?!”

“I just followed the illustrations in the book, and you happened to be in the way.”

“Yeah, right! You did that on purpose! Because you think it would be funny. Am I wrong?”

“So what if I did?”

“What are you going to do if I die?”

“Nothing.”

Kazuya returned to sit down beside Victorique. Holding his knees, he turned his back to her. Without saying a word, he took one of the macaroons from the candy container, peeled off the wrapper, and popped it in his mouth. Victorique shot him a glare, but did not complain.

“You’re lying,” Kazuya finally said.

“Lying? Lying about what?”

“You doing nothing. You don’t want me gone, do you?”

Victorique did not reply.

You were crying a little back when you asked about your future, Kazuya thought.

The thought made him uneasy, so he recalled a different moment as well.

And you helped me once. You tried so hard back then. Am I right?

But he didn’t say the words out loud.

It was getting darker in the library as the sun slowly went down.

The sunlight streaming through the skylight turned to a lonely, subdued glow.

Victorique sat there, as she always did, reading a book.

Sitting beside her, Kazuya was still, leaning against the pile of books. Victorique, keeping her face buried in her books, listened closely.

*snore*

Kazuya was breathing softly, asleep. Victorique frowned. She ignored him and continued reading her book.

A few minutes later, Victorique lifted her head back up.

“Kujou, are you asleep?”

No reply. There was only the sound of Kazuya’s faint breathing.

“Are you sleeping?”

*snore*

“So you’re asleep, then,” she repeated.

A slightly strong breeze came through the skylight, along with the warm light from the sun. The garish flowers in full bloom and large palm leaves in the garden rustled in the wind.

“I care more about my friends than books,” Victorique said.

Kazuya bolted upright. Victorique gave a start.

The wind blew again, ruffling their black and golden hairs.

Kazuya giggled, looking pleased.

A second later, Victorique’s rosy cheeks turned a little red.

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