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The Headless Lady Comes at 3 A.M. – Part 05

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Translator: Kell

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Stillness filled the conservatory.

Bright sunlight poured in through the skylight.

Palm leaves stirred in the gentle spring breeze.

A wisp of white smoke slowly drifted from Victorique’s ceramic pipe.

For a while, no one said a word. Kazuya just gawked at Victorique’s pretty little face. Victorique herself was silent, wearing a composed look.

Inspector Blois, who looked the most surprised of all, finally regained his composure. “Time to go,” he said.

Slowly he turned his back on the conservatory and hurried to the hydraulic elevator, as if running away.

Kazuya snapped back to his senses. “Inspector! Are you leaving again after borrowing Victorique’s wisdom and pretending you didn’t? You will thank her this time, Inspector.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Inspector Blois mumbled. “I simply came here to talk to you.”

Kazuya had heard the same excuse over and over.

“Grevil,” Victorique suddenly said in her husky voice.

Inspector Blois gave a start and shot Victorique a glare.

“Wh-What is it? I’m busy. I have to find the treasures that Ciaran hid all over the academy. If you’ll excuse me.”

“I’m afraid you won’t find this one, no matter how hard you search.”

Victorique took a small cloth bag from somewhere and hurled it at Inspector Blois. Despite the huge wind-up, the bag failed to maintain altitude and crashed to the floor less than a meter away from her. Kazuya reluctantly picked it up, walked over to Inspector Blois, and handed it to him.

It was a small bag embroidered with flowers. Inspector Blois stared at it for a while, flummoxed. Then he gasped, took out the list of Ciaran’s stolen goods, and compared it with the bag. Kazuya checked the list as well.

Among the list was a picture that looked exactly like the one on the cloth bag that Victorique handed over. Seeds of a rare flower found in a remote part of South America by a famous plant hunter.

Inspector Blois quickly opened the bag and looked inside. He turned it upside-down and shook it. Nothing came out.

“It’s empty!” Inspector Blois shouted.

He turned to see the mysterious, beautiful girl staring at him with unmoving green eyes from inside the conservatory.

“What happened to the seeds?” the inspector demanded.

“…I ate them.”

“Y-Y-You what?! Are you a squirrel or something?! Tell me you’re lying!”

“I’m not. It was quite good. My worst enemy is boredom. A different meal does well to provide some thrill.”

Victorique gave a satisfied nod, and turned her back. The wisp of white smoke from her pipe wobbled. She must be trembling from trying to hold back laughter.

Clang, clang.

The elevator’s steel cage started descending. Kazuya’s eyes darted between them both, until Inspector Blois’ face, contorted in frustration, disappeared from his view.

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Kazuya trotted back to the conservatory.

“Did you really eat those valuable seeds? Is your stomach okay?

“…”

Victorique did not even look up; she simply responded with a snort. Kazuya remained silent for a while with a startled look on his face.

Then he broke into laughter. “Did you see the inspector’s face?!”

“Kujou… do you like pretty flowers?”

“Flowers?” He thought about it for a bit. “I do. Back home, my mother used to take care of the garden. It was quite beautiful, with all kinds of flowers blooming depending on the season. But this conservatory is pretty nice, too. What about you?”

No reply. Only a sniff.

Kazuya looked baffled, not sure where this abrupt topic came from. He was beginning to worry that his presence here was unwanted.

The case is closed, so there’s no reason to come here… anymore…

Ignoring everything around her, Victorique started reading, flipping through several books at the same time at great speed. Kazuya felt sad to have to leave this weird, tiny girl.

I can’t keep climbing those stairs every single day. I wonder if I will ever see this mysterious girl again. Man…

“Kujou,” Victorique said without lifting her head from the book. “In about ten days.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong? Your face looks a little red.”

“I-I-It doesn’t! In ten days!”

“It definitely does… What’s in ten days?”

“Um… Come here then.”

Kazuya’s face went blank, then lit up. “Are you sure?!”

“Come back in about ten days and look around that area.”

“Which area?”

Kazuya looked curiously in the direction Victorique was pointing, toward the soil in the conservatory where Victorique had been playing all morning.

Victorique blew her pipe. “In about ten days, rare tropical flowers will bloom there. You may come and see them.”

Kazuya gasped. “So you planted the seeds?!”

“I-I didn’t notice. I saw the bag on the floor, so I planted them. Then the list came later.”

Face crimson, Victorique swung her small hands around. Kazuya stood dumbfounded, while Victorique continued making excuses. Eventually she went quiet and cupped her crimson cheeks.

Palm leaves shook.

A spring breeze blew gently, stirring the smoke from Victorique’s pipe.

“So I can come back then?” Kazuya asked, a little happy. “I thought you found me noisy and annoying.”

Victorique only sniffed sharply in response.

Kazuya’s face was growing brighter by the second. Victorique shot him a glance, and frowned deeply. She opened her mouth to say something.

But the usual harsh insults in her husky voice did not come out of her cherry lips. She closed her mouth and sniffed again.

A breeze blew through the skylight and ruffled Victorique’s magnificent golden hair that looked like an untied velvet turban. Palm leaves rustled.

Kazuya turned around to leave the conservatory. Placing his hand on the railing adorned with scroll-leaves, he glanced over his shoulder. An illusion flashed in his eyes momentarily.

One day, in this mysterious conservatory located at the top of the gray tower, rare exotic flowers would sprout and bloom radiantly. The wind from the skylight ruffled the strange flowers. And watching them was a small, strange girl named Victorique, a peculiar, exotic flower herself, with him by her side.

Like a gardener watching over a mysterious flower, Kazuya gazed at Victorique, sitting with her luxurious ruffles spread out like colorful petals.

While Kazuya gaped at the momentary mirage, Victorique glanced up. Their eyes met.

Holding his breath, Kazuya continued staring in wonder at Victorique. She regarded him curiously, and then, with an extremely weary sigh, she said, “I’m always here. If you need me, just climb those winding stairs.”

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A warm spring breeze blew across the campus, stirring the grass on the lawns and the blooming flowers in the flowerbeds.

Kazuya left the library and walked along the white gravel path, eventually stopping in front of the school building. Inspector Blois’ two men were just leaving, one carrying Countess Ashenden’s necklace, the Poison Flower, and the other the famous painting, the ‘South Atlantic’.

Avril Bradley, an international student from England, watched them go regretfully. As Kazuya approached from behind, he noticed that Avril was staring not at the sparkling necklace, but at the large painting.

“I always thought girls liked jewelry more than painting,” he said.

Startled, Avril whirled around. When she saw Kazuya, she smiled.

She pointed her long, graceful arm to the painting. “That painting is of the South Atlantic Ocean, right? It’s so beautiful! Actually, my grandfather is no longer around.”

“Oh…” Kazuya breathed as he walked alongside Avril.

Kazuya had also read about Sir Bradley’s last moments in the newspapers back home. After turning sixty, the famous adventurer took a balloon ride one day, and…

“He went on a transatlantic adventure trip in a balloon and disappeared. People said he was reckless and growing senile. But when I saw that painting, it looked so beautiful.”

Avril smiled forlornly. Tears welled up in her big blue eyes. Kazuya quickly handed her a handkerchief. She wiped her tears with it, blew her nose, and returned it back to him.

“His balloon disappeared into the sea, but I have this feeling that he saw a beautiful blue sea in his last moments. A paradise.” She gave a dry chuckle.

“I don’t know what to say…”

Kazuya put the handkerchief back in his hip pocket. I’ll wash it later.

A sweet and fresh fragrance wafted from the flowers in the flowerbeds. Their shoes clacked along the gravel path.

Avril flashed a smile as bright as a blooming flower. “I want to go on an adventure like my grandfather, travel as far as I can. Your country must be a very wonderful place too. I want to go there someday.”

“I’ve never heard anyone say that before. The students at this academy seem to think that countries across the sea are terrifying, uncivilized places. They even call me the Reaper.”

“Really?”

“Oh, you didn’t know that yet? Crap.” Kazuya frowned.

Avril chuckled. “I suppose people find the unknown creepy. Especially Sauvillian girls of noble descent. But I love it. New countries, new cultures. There are always exciting discoveries to be made there. I’m sure what’s on the other side of Europe is fantastic.”

Kazuya was thinking of another girl. A girl of noble descent in Sauville.

“One day,” Avril said.

The small, bizarre, rude, enigmatic girl who never stepped out of the mysterious conservatory at the top of the library tower, let alone Sauville.

“One day, I will travel somewhere far away.”

Kazuya’s mind was somewhere else. Victorique…

Victorique, wrapped in a dress as magnificent as flower petals. Victorique with a stunning intellect.

“Kujou, are you listening?” Avril frowned.

Kazuya snapped back to reality. “Huh? Uh, yeah.”

Avril smiled once more.

A stronger wind blew.

A still-chilly spring breeze.

Soft sunlight fell on the campus, gently shining on Kazuya’s black hair.

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A few weeks later, Avril Bradley, an international student who loves horror stories, tells Kujou Kazuya about the mystery of the ghost ship Queen Berry. Victorique and Kazuya become embroiled in a bizarre case involving the ship, and a great adventure unfolds.

Their second adventure is a case involving a hidden settlement in the mountains called the “Nameless Village” where they learn the secret to Victorique’s birth.

Their third adventure is the mass disappearance in the capital of Saubreme, in which Kazuya was involved.

Together Victorique and Kazuya would go through adventure after adventure over the next several months.

Letting their feelings ride upon the winds, the seasons change from spring to summer.

The academy is about to enter a long summer break.

On the first day of the summer vacation, Kazuya received a letter from his brother. It contained the answer to the ‘colt puzzle’ that Victorique had given, as well as a new riddle that he challenged Victorique to solve. Summer memories intertwine—Victorique’s, Kazuya’s, and another girl’s.

But that, too, is a story for another day.

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