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The Hares and the Hound – Part 03

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Translator: Kell

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Chapter 4: The Hares and the Hound

The five of them plodded down the hallway in silence.

Victorique and Kazuya were walking side by side at the back. In front of them was Julie Guile, her red dress trailing behind her. Her long raven hair bobbed from side to side with each step. Ned Baxter was farthest ahead, while Maurice was alone, walking fast, away from the group.

The soft red carpet wrapped around their feet with each step. It was luxurious, but difficult to walk on. The overly ornate and ostentatious lamps shone brightly on all of them.

Ned stopped. “Wh-What’s this?!”

Everybody stopped and looked at it. A black wall was blocking the path to the bow. Every corridor on the floor was blocked by the wall, preventing them from proceeding any further.

Maurice clicked his tongue. “It’s the same from ten years ago.”

Ned and Julie closed in on him, and he began to explain with a dark look on his face.

“It would be boring if the Hares could easily reach the radio room. We had to reduce their numbers by killing them with traps, or letting them find weapons and kill each other.”

“Why do that?” Julie asked.

Maurice didn’t bother answering.

After a brief silence, he sighed. “We need to go down three floors. There should be a wall blocking the corridor on the floor below and the next one. If this was the Queen Berry, that is.”

They started back down the hallway to look for the stairs.

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Kazuya shot Victorique a glance. She had been silent for a while, but he heard a faint gasp from her. Worried, he peered at her face.

Beads of sweat dotted the pale forehead of the doll-like girl.

“Are you tired?” Kazuya asked.

Victorique didn’t answer.

“Do your feet hurt? Are you hungry? Oh, your stuff must be heavy. I’ll carry it for you.”

“…I’m fine.”

“Come now. No need to be shy. That’s not like you.”

“Listen here, Kujou.” Victorique looked up. Her cheeks were puffed out like a sulking child. She probably didn’t intend to look as adorable as a squirrel with its cheek crammed with nuts. “Your managing me is infuriating!”

“What?! How am I managing you?! I’m just worried, you stubborn sore loser!”

“You’re the stubborn one!”

“No, you!”

Kazuya took Victorique’s bag from her, grabbed her small hand with his other hand, and started walking.

Julie watched them in astonishment. Ned pretended not to notice.

As they walked, Kazuya spoke to Victorique. A lot of questions were popping up in his mind, and he needed to talk to someone.

“Hey, Victorique. What in the world is going on here?”

No reply.

He looked at her. She seemed to be listening to him, so he resumed talking, feeling relieved.

“What happened ten years ago on the Queen Berry? Why were children our age put on the ship? What on earth happened onboard? And why, ten years later, did they build this replica to recreate the incident?”

Victorique didn’t answer. She just kept walking along with Kazuya.

“Who in the world is doing this and why?”

Kazuya recalled the dinner at the huge dining area. The dark room. The guide who left by boat. An orange lamp moving away on the surface of the dark sea. The eleven guests seated in the dining room. They were moved to the lounge after the drug in their food put them to sleep. Someone who wasn’t at the dining table had joined them. Could they be the mastermind behind this bloody reenactment?

“Ned was there for sure.”

“You were sitting on his lap, yes,” Victorique finally said.

“Uh, yeah… In that case, Julie or Maurice is the twelfth guest. In terms of age, the younger Julie is more suspicious. She would have been in her early teens ten years ago. About the same age as the kids on the ship.” Kazuya was lost in thought. “But then, why did Ned get an invitation as well? Apparently, Maurice was the one who put the kids on the ship back then. That’s why he was invited, and why he was almost killed. But what about Ned? He would have been in his early teens ten years ago. He would have been a victim.”

“Kujou, you’ve been mumbling about nothing but the obvious.” Victorique seemed genuinely appalled.

“But there’s so many things I don’t understand.”

“…”

“Oh, right. Maybe Ned’s a culprit too, and he’s working with Julie. No, wait. If that’s the case, they wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble. They would just kill Maurice.”

“Yet another obvious observation.”

“D-Darm it… Oh, by the way, about Madame Roxane’s murder. She was invited to this ship, but was murdered, and the maid who killed her escaped.”

“That is correct.”

“So, uhh…”

“Yes?”

“Hmm… I don’t know.”

“Your chaos is really boring,” she mumbled in a clearly bored tone.

Dejected, Kazuya continued walking mutely with her hand in his.

Eventually they reached the stairs. Its glistening white tiles were only darkly lit for some reason, like darkness itself had enveloped the place.

In contrast, the elevator hall nearby was well-lit. The inside of the steel cage was also bright, and seemed safer. But when Kazuya pointed toward the elevator and suggested they take it, Ned turned pale and rejected the idea.

“Let’s take the stairs,” he said. “It’s safer this way… I think.”

Kazuya and Victorique exchanged glances.

Victorique shrugged. “So he says.”

They descended down the stairs carefully, slowly, and when they’d covered quite the distance, there came a short clang.

Maurice let out a muffled shriek. The rest jumped, feeling as if someone had grabbed their chest.

“Wh-What’s wrong, old man?!”

“Th-This…” Maurice’s trembling fingers pointed at something in the darkness.

They all stared at it. An arrow from a bow gun zipped past Maurice’s face and bore itself into the wall. A closer examination revealed an inconspicuous button on the tile floor. He probably stepped on it.

Slowly, Maurice’s eyes became crossed as he stared at the arrow.

“S-Screw you! Y-You did this!” He shot the others a scornful glare.

“Y-You all right?” Ned asked, but his voice only agitated the man even more.

“All right, my foot! The Hare among you set that trap for me! Or maybe you’re all in on it… You’re all trying to kill me!

“Just drop it already.” Julie scowled. Fiddling with her pendant, she added, “We wouldn’t have stopped you from getting into the lifeboat if we wanted you dead. Can you stop accusing us?”

They held each other’s gaze.

“Victorique,” Kazuya called softly to the girl standing next to him. His voice echoed in the tense silence. “You’d better watch out for traps too. I’ll be keeping an eye out for them too, of course.”

His earnest and gentle voice softened Julie’s stern expression, but what Victorique said next brought a puzzled look to her face.

“I don’t need to worry about traps,” she replied confidently.

Kazuya was taken aback. Sensing something from her words, the three adults looked at her.

Ned walked over, a dark look on his face. “What do you mean by that?”

His intimidating voice and demeanor did not affect Victorique one bit. “This ship is designed to kill adults.” She sounded as calm as ever. “That’s why it’s safe.”

“But traps don’t choose their targets. If you carelessly open a door, or a wrong step or touch, even you’d be in trouble.”

Victorique cocked her head and smiled. She looked like an angel. “All the traps are set to match the height of adults. Specifically, they are designed to pierce the brains of people who are about a hundred and seventy to a hundred and eighty centimeters tall.”

Kazuya let out a surprised grunt. She’s right, he thought. The arrow that killed the first man and the one that just flew by were all set up at that height. Which means…

Even if Victorique, who was only about 140 centimeters tall, triggered a trap, it would only fly far above her head.

“Kujou, you might want to stoop down a little too,” Victorique said innocently, like she was just stating a fact she knew. “Your brain might be safe, but you might lose a bit of your head.”

“M-My head?!”

Kazuya bent forward before he resumed walking. He was holding Victorique’s hand much tighter than before, watching her closely to see if she was tired.

Julie observed them from behind.

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