Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 7 - Chapter 2.5

 “Elder Brother” is tempting, too

“Thanks for the ride,” I told Noel, climbing into the waiting car.

The interior of the shiny black luxury car was roomy enough for me to stretch my legs out. They even had champagne back there, although since it was only ten minutes from here to the hotel, it wasn’t like we’d have time for a drink… Or so I thought, but Noel held out a glass to me and said, “Please have some.” I guess I’ll do that, then.

“Of course I’d come to pick you up. You’re an important guest.”

Noel was as doll-like as ever, and her expression never changed much, but she was smiling gently. I wished the other government officials would take a page from her book. Siesta and Nagisa too, actually. They’d just straight-up left me.

“Besides, I’m the one who’s grateful. Thank you very much for rescuing me—Brother.”

I spit out my champagne.

“Oh! Are you all right? I’m sorry. Did it not suit your preferences? Driver, take us to a vineyard at once—”

“It’s fine; just head for the hotel. You don’t have to harvest grapes or let them age or anything.” I mopped up the spilled champagne with my handkerchief. “Did you call me your brother, Noel?”

“Um, did I say something strange?”

Basically everything you said was strange, yeah.

I regretted impulsively running my mouth at the airport now. What scared me the most was that she might call me that in front of Siesta or Nagisa.

“I seem to have offended you. I’m very sorry.” Noel bowed her head respectfully. “Would this do, then?” She gazed into my eyes. “Bro.”

“Ngh.” I had a heart attack and collapsed.

“Are you stupid, Kimi?”

Even Siesta was showing up in my head. I was terminal.

“Heh-heh. I’m sorry. That was a little sister joke. Forgive me, please.” Noel did her best to keep her usual serious expression from slipping, but from time to time, she kicked her feet a little. She might not have known she was doing it.

“Now then, Mr. Kimihiko.”

“You’re going back to calling me that already?”

“Could we speak about that other matter for just a moment?”

Apparently, we were done joking around. When I heard the phrase “that other matter,” only one thing came to mind. “You mean Bruno?”

That mystery letter which had been sent to our agency a few days earlier: The world’s wisdom is about to perish. We’d promptly shared that information with Noel, but we hadn’t discussed it in detail yet.

“The thing is, we know almost nothing about it, either. We haven’t looked into it enough yet.”

“…I see. No, there’s no helping that. It isn’t technically a job for the Ace Detectives.”

Siesta and Nagisa’s initial orders had only been to get through the unknown crisis and make sure the Ritual of Sacred Return was completed. This business with Bruno was a curveball.

“If Bruno really is in danger at the ceremony, though, our detectives won’t just stand by. They won’t care about the specifics of their roles or missions.” We’d just talked about their resolve in the plane on the way here. “What about you, Noel? Do you have any suggestions for ways to protect Bruno?”

“Yes. Frankly, I think it would be safest to cancel the Ritual of Sacred Return entirely… But practically speaking, that would be difficult. The Federation Government wants to host the ritual, burn the origin text, and bring about world peace as soon as possible.”

Noel had told us as much the first time we’d met her: They planned to put a permanent end to the world’s disasters by burning the origin text and returning the Oracle’s power to the gods.

“It’s really true? If we complete the Ritual of Sacred Return, global crises will never happen again?”

That might be something Mia, who possessed the origin text, would understand instinctively. As someone who wasn’t directly involved, though, I could only take that statement as hearsay.

“…Yes, there’s no mistake.” Noel’s eyes wavered slightly. “It’s corroborated by several millennia of records. If the Ritual of Sacred Return is completed, you and the detectives will never be dragged into global crises again.”

When I heard Noel’s words, I had the feeling I knew why she had hesitated.

If it was “corroborated by several millennia of records,” the Ritual of Sacred Return had been held before. If they were trying to hold it again anyway, that probably meant… No, that wasn’t important now. She’d told me what I wanted to know. For now, I just said, “I see,” and went on. “Could we just have Bruno stay home, then?”

People were attending the ritual by invitation, so he had to have the right to decline.

“I really would have preferred that. However…”

I knew where that sentence was going. Bruno must have refused.

An understandable choice, given his position. He was the one who’d asked Siesta and Nagisa to fight the unknown crisis, so the danger to himself must not have been enough of a reason for him to leave the battlefield.

“It would help a lot if the enemy’s demands were a bit easier to understand, at least.” We would have had room to negotiate or put together a strategy, then. However, the messengers from Another Eden wanted something specific from the Federation Government, but we didn’t know what that thing was.

“…As a matter of fact, I’ve heard a rumor about that.”

“Really?”

“Yes. They say the officials of the Federation Government once hid a certain important secret in Pandora’s box. At this point, no one knows what it is… However, the messengers of Another Eden may have managed to find out.”

Noel told me it was a rumor she’d first heard only after she became a government official. The enemy had learned about an important secret the Federation Government had kept hidden for ages, and was threatening them.

“What should I do? How can I protect both the world and Grandfather?” Noel murmured. There was something almost self-deprecating about the way she said it.

That worry was based in her complicated position. First and foremost, as a Federation Government official, she needed to have Bruno—a former Tuner—fight the unknown crisis. After all, that was the system of justice they’d built for this world.

However, Noel had another relationship with Bruno. He was family. If she treasured that relationship, of course she’d want him to stay away from the ceremony.

“Bruno’s presence in your life is just that big, huh?”

“…Yes. Grandfather was my only ally, and my only family.”

Then, quietly, Noel began to tell me about herself. Fifteen years ago, she’d been born into the Lupwise family, which was of French nobility, with ties to the Federation Government. However, the head of the family had fathered her with one of the maids. Noel’s mother was promptly run out of the mansion, and both her father and his legal wife had distanced themselves from Noel’s birth.

“The Lupwise family always treated me as someone who didn’t exist. No one spoke to me or answered my questions. Not my grandparents, or my parents, or my older brother, or even the servants. In that house, I was invisible.”

“And Bruno saved you from that?”

Noel gazed out the car window. “Yes,” she said, smiling very slightly. “One day ten years ago, Grandfather rescued me from that house. I’d never spoken with anyone before, but he gave me language, and taught me how to smile and how to get angry. I was invisible, but he made me human again.”

Noel and Bruno’s relationship wasn’t something I could make sense of on my own. There was a decade-long bond between them that only they could understand, just like the one I had with the detectives.

“However, I’ve been on my own again for the past year.”

Noel’s voice was low, but it reached me without being drowned out by the noise of the traffic.

Three years ago, Noel had begun to work as a Federation Government official in place of her older brother, who’d disappeared. Last year, Bruno had formally dissolved their relationship, and she had left the Belmondo family entirely.

“I’m sure the real reason he schedules dinners for the two of us every once in a while is that… Hm?”

Noel’s cheeks deflated, and her lips got narrower—because I was pinching her cheek.

“He taught you how to smile, didn’t he? You’re supposed to do what your parents taught you.”

“Mrph,” Noel said.

I pushed the corner of her mouth up. “Let’s try talking to Bruno one more time.” When I let go, Noel stared at me, surprised. “There may still be something we can do. Some way to protect both the world and Bruno. We’ll think about it together a little more.”

Right now, Noel couldn’t afford to lose Bruno.

As she wavered between her mission and self-interest, she seemed like a mirror reflecting a certain someone else.