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The Show Must Go On! – Part 07

Meanwhile…

The phone was ringing in the underground hall of the Phantom Theater, the fortress of the Ministry of the Occult.

When in the past the spacious area was filled with dancers running around on roller-skates, heels clacking, singing as their skirts fluttered, now there were officials in black suits working restlessly with grim faces, sorting out papers, talking, making phone calls.

In a large chair in the middle sat an older man, one of the Ministry of the Occult’s key figures. After receiving word of an incoming call, he took the phone.

As he listened to the voice on the other end, his face gradually contorted.

“There’s no signs of her giving birth?” He cocked his head to the right. “Are you sure about that? The headless corpse found in Nicole Leroux’s grave, the one covered in wax. Coco Rose’s body. She gave birth to a bastard child, which led to her demise.”

After a while of silence, he hung up.

He put a finger to his chin, blinking. “What does this mean?” He racked his brain. “Coco didn’t give birth?”

A moment later, the man sighed and stood up. Turned up the collar of his coat, he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He called the other officials and gave a report. There was confusion, murmurs, and anger.

The man then stared at the ceiling, as if trying to see through the distant past.

“I must tell Marquis de Blois,” he mumbled to no one in particular. “But either way, there’s no way of knowing anymore. It all happened so long ago. No evidence either.”

The lamps flickered, illuminating the man’s face faintly.

His trembling arms then slammed onto papers, the phone, chairs, throwing and smashing them, scattering stacks of papers all over the place. The other officials grunted in rage, kicked the walls, roared like beasts.

The lamps continued flickering.

---

“A Christmas gift?” Ms. Cecile asked.

In front of a steel carriage parked on the street corner, Kazuya, Cecile, and Sophie, were talking among themselves. Kazuya was wearing a serious look, arms folded, while Sophie was wiping her tears and blowing her nose, still not recovering from the emotions of watching the play.

The group was loitering in front of the carriage that would take them back to St. Marguerite Academy, the same one that brought Victorique to Saubreme. But Inspector Blois had gone shopping because the department stores and retail shops were still open. Victorique was already sitting inside the carriage, looking out the window melancholically.

Kazuya, however, was anxious. “I heard that in the west, people send each other cards and gifts on the day of Christ’s birth. I’m gonna go buy something. So um, Teach, if you don’t mind…”

Blushing, he pointed to the window of a shop just in front of where the carriage was parked.

There was a cute dollhouse on display, modeled after a simple village house, with plastered walls and red wooden frames. Inside were dolls of a boy and a girl. Snow had accumulated on its roof.

“Oh!” Ms. Cecile nodded.

She studied Kazuya’s face, peered at Victorique in the carriage, and then looked at Kazuya’s face again.

Kazuya turned even redder. “And also this one.” He pointed at an item beside the dollhouse.

It was a sparkling gold pendant.

“I got it!” Ms. Cecile nodded with a look that said she understood everything.

“What are you guys talking about?” Sophie asked, wiping her tears.

Ms. Cecile smiled. “You want to give it to Victorique, yes?”

“Um, yeah.” Kazuya hesitated for a bit. Then steeling himself, he clicked his shoes together and straightened his back. “Yes, Ma’am!”

“In that case, do I have a great intel for you. Remember when we went to Sam’s bakery? There was something I couldn’t tell you. Christmas is also an important day for you.”

“Oh, right.” Kazuya nodded. “You did mention that.” His face was still red.

Ms. Cecile stood on tip-toe, brought her mouth close to Kazuya’s ear, and mumbled something. Kazuya listened with a straight face.

“What?!” he yelped. He stretched and looked at Victorique in the carriage.

Ms. Cecile pressed her forefinger against her lips. “Ssh! Ssh!”

“I see. I didn’t know that. In that case…”

“Hehe. I told you it was great intel.”

“It really was.” Kazuya stood at attention and bent at a full ninety degress at the waist.

Ms. Cecile flared her nostrils. “Uh-huh.”

“Thank you, Teach. I’m, uh… going to buy something, then.” He fidgeted. “A Christmas gift, and another extra.”

Ms. Cecile nodded. “That’s right. Buy two.”

A gust of wind blew. Pedestrian’s collars and scarves flapped.

Kazuya dashed toward the dollhouse store. As Ms. Cecile watched him through the glass window, he straightened his back and walked stiffly. He then pointed at the dollhouse by the window. Back when he just arrived in Sauville, he was thinner, childlike, and somewhat incompetent, but now he looked like a full-fledged man.

Ms. Cecile smiled a smile that was both sad yet happy. “They grow up so fast.”

Inside the dollhouse, the dolls seemed to be smiling happily.

Ms. Cecile peered closer at the dollhouse through the window.

“All right. I’m going home,” Sophie said.

Ms. Cecile turned around, and blinked. “What do you mean you’re going home? You’re riding in the carriage with us, aren’t you?”

“What are you talking about, Miss Lafitte?” Sophie shrugged, then put on a helmet. “If I join you, who will take the Chairman’s new motorcycle back to the academy? I’ll drive home alone. You, Kujou, Victorique, and that weird, pointy-headed police inspector with the rabbit can go together.”

Ms. Cecile put her hands on her hips. “Why are you always like this?!”

Sophie mounted the motorcycle, which had been left parked on the street.

“I’ll listen to your lecture tomorrow.”

The shop’s door creaked open, and out came Kazuya with a large bag in both hands. One was a Christmas gift, wrapped with a red ribbon, while the other, larger package was adorned with a yellow ribbon.

He stopped, and looked at Sophie in astonishment.

“Hmm?” Sophie looked puzzled.

Ms. Cecile was on the back of the motorbike, her arm wrapped around Sophie’s stomach. She wanted to go home together, it seemed. She looked grumpy, and her lips were pursed tight.

Sophie was deep in thought for a while, then said, “Well, whatever.” She revved the engine.

Kazuya scuttled to the motorbike, but the large packages slowed him down.

“Ms. Cecile!” He tried to stop them. “That motorbike is very dangerous! You could crash into a field, end up racing against young noblemen, or go the wrong way. It was dangerous during the day, and when it’s this dark out… Ah, Ms. Cecile!”

The sound of the engine instantly drowned out Kazuya’s warning.

The engine growled as if alive, then took off, meandering recklessly through the main road of Saubreme.

“Teeeach!”

He could hear her faint shriek from the distance.

Standing there blankly, Kazuya saw the motorbike dangerously turning left at the intersection, then vanished from sight.

“Teach…”

Kazuya opened the carriage door and placed the bags inside. He then stood on the street, put his palms together, and prayed.

“Namandabu… Namandabu…”

“What on earth are you moaning about, Kujou? Do you have a stomach ache? Must be terrible.”

Kazuya turned around with a start. He spotted a golden pointed cannon with a red-eyed, white rabbit riding it.

“Whoa!”

“I’m done shopping. Oh, did you buy something too? We have good chemistry.”

“No, we don’t. Please don’t even joke about it, Inspector.”

They jostled into the big, black carriage.

Victorique, sitting in the window seat, glanced over at them, brows furrowed. They were pulling each other’s hair, pushing the other with their elbows. She turned her eyes back outside.

Her golden hair hung loosely. Green eyes gazed silently into the distance.

Kazuya sat down next to her and breathed a sigh. Inspector Blois looked away, ignoring them completely. The rabbit on top of his head was staring at them.

“You’re so quiet, Victorique. What’s wrong?” Kazuya asked hesitantly.

“It’s nothing new, is it?” Her voice was far from depressed. She turned her head slowly and looked Kazuya straight in the eyes. “I was simply thinking how yet another piece of this kingdom’s past had left.”

“Right.” Kazuya nodded. “The truth behind Queen Coco’s murder, which had been a mystery for so long, was finally revealed. Tonight was a very frightening night for Sauville.”

“Ahuh.” Victorique put her pipe in her mouth. “A stone that had blocked the river’s flow is gone. This might speed up the fate of this country. How will the Ministry of the Occult, the Academy of Science, and His Majesty the King move after this? What will happen to the balance of the world? Will it collapse and rebuild itself anew? Or…”

“Or what?”

“…I do not know. There’s not enough fragments of chaos.” Victorique shook her head a little uneasily. “All I can feel is that something big is moving. A disturbing presence. And it will come soon. That’s all I can say for now.”

Kazuya looked up. He straightened his back and looked into the distance. “Either way, we’re in this together.”

Victorique didn’t argue or ignore what he said; she only smiled thinly. A drop of life fell on her cold, doll-like features, sparkling like a beacon in a vast darkness.

It was faint, but to Kazuya it was a firm answer. He smiled back.

The rabbit stirred on top of the cannon.

Soon after, the carriage lurched into motion. Two black horses galloped down the main road, hooves clattering. Gaining speed, the carriage left everything behind—the Phantom Theater’s lion mouth, the wax models—in the past.

And moved towards the future.

Bury the past and head onto tomorrow.

The steel carriage drove away quietly from the cold winter streets of Saubreme, carrying Victorique, Kazuya, and Inspector Blois.