Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 9 - Chapter 2.06

  Red and black

Leaving the aquarium, we took a taxi to the musical’s rehearsal site. I dropped Saikawa off at the venue, then went to a nearby café to kill time until she was done.

It was a nice, old-fashioned place. A bell tinkled as I opened the door, and the proprietor showed me to a table on the second floor. I was the only customer there. I took a seat by the window, ordered the house blend, and put my feet up a bit. I probably should have avoided caffeine this late in the evening, but I really doubted I’d be able to sleep that night anyway.

After a short wait, my coffee arrived. I didn’t add any sugar. Enjoying the aroma of the gently swirling steam, I took a few tiny sips.

“A mere human, summoning me. That is a capital offense.”

The seat across from me had been empty a second ago, but a figure occupied it now: Scarlet, the white-suited vampire. Although he grumbled, he appeared satisfied with his coffee.

“Ethiopian, hmm? It has quite a nice aroma.”

“So you’re a fan of coffee, too.”

“Even vampires have their indulgences.”

Was that what the wine from the day before had been? It sounded like the human blood he occasionally drank from a glass was just for nourishment.

“I assume you cleared the area.”

“Yeah. This café was picked out by the Men in Black, so you can rest easy.”

“You use the Men in Black when you aren’t a Tuner? Another capital offense.”

“Quit executing people at the drop of a hat. I do my best, all right?”

I wished he’d give me a bit more credit for surviving this long despite my knack for getting dragged into things.

“…So, Scarlet. That thing at the aquarium was an undead mummy, right?”

Saikawa had also noticed that flickering shadow I’d glimpsed. It had almost definitely been one of Elizabeth’s minions, and I was just as sure that Scarlet had dealt with it immediately.

“It was the girl’s big moment; any interruption would have spoiled it,” Scarlet said with a faint smile. Even though he’d left guarding Saikawa to me, apparently he’d been watching over her from the shadows.

“What is the enemy trying to accomplish here?”

“Who can say? If I knew that, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee right now.”

…I guess not. It might not have made a whole lot of sense, but he did have a point. I changed tack. “Say, Scarlet, why did you become a Tuner?”

Silence. The only sound was the clink of the vampire returning his cup to its saucer.

Scarlet had already told us why he was hunting his own race: There were evil vampires in the world, and it was his mission to stop them.

Why, though? I’d never heard how he’d first become a Tuner. Siesta had decided to become a hero in order to defeat Seed, and Reloaded, to kill the Seven Deadly Sins. What about the Vampire, then?

“Am I under any obligation to answer that question?” Scarlet asked, crossing his legs arrogantly.

“You formed an alliance with the detective, remember?” That had to mean he didn’t mind cooperating a little.

“That is true, but you are not the detective.”

“Detectives and assistants are a package deal, so don’t worry about that. Any information we gather is shared; Natsunagi and I always bare everything with one another.”

“I’m impressed you managed to say that with a straight face.” Scarlet looked mildly appalled. “You humans always seek the answer to the story immediately. You want to know the truth. It’s an abysmal habit. The boundaries between matters aren’t so cut-and-dried that you can separate them into red and black.”

“Don’t you mean black and white?”

Or was it “red” for blood? And “black” was the color of night. Thus “red and black.”

“No. It’s Stendhal.”

“Oh, you mean The Red and the Black…?”

Who’d have thought vampires would be fond of French literature?

“Well, no matter. Ask your question once more. Such is the duty of an ally,” he said.

From past experience, I knew very well that Scarlet was particularly sensitive to alliances and contracts. That was why I used them to back up my question when I asked it again: How had he come to be a Tuner?

“I was born thirty years ago in a slum of sorts where vampires lived, which is where I was raised,” Scarlet said, beginning his story. “By the time I was old enough to be aware of the world, my parents were gone. They may have abandoned me in that town soon after my birth, or they may have died young. Since vampires only live around thirty years, the latter possibility is quite likely. Regardless, by the time I had begun to develop an idea of who I was, my life was already lacking in most things, including food.”

Scarlet gave a self-deprecating smile. He wasn’t criticizing himself, though, nor was it the expression of a tragic hero. It was an expression of dignity.

“I certainly wasn’t unhappy. Had I been human, no doubt I would have been unable to avoid malnutrition, but fortunately, I was a vampire. While we are not immortal, for the duration of our short lives, we are more resilient than any other living creature. The occasional morsel of human blood was enough to allow me to survive. I was fortunate.” This time, Scarlet gave a genuine smile.

“Not having family or friends doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhappy. I’m with you on that,” I told him. I was speaking from my own experience.

Being completely on my own, not having a family. A long time ago, I’d had someone in my life who’d told me I didn’t even have to tack those things onto the end of my profile.

“Well, I simply had no blood relations. I did have an old friend.”

“No way. You’re selling me out?”

Seriously, how did a guy like this manage to have friends?

…Come to think of it, hadn’t he said he’d known our common enemy Elizabeth for a long time? Was she the “old friend” he was talking about?

“There were many things about life in that town that were illogical, but it wasn’t necessarily dull. This world built by humans has pleasant food, literature, and music. Even for vampires, those things sometimes become a source of hope.”

As he spoke, Scarlet’s gaze grew rather distant.

His mention of music tugged at me a little; Scarlet had told Saikawa that he’d stopped listening to it. He still seemed to enjoy reading, though, so why had he started distancing himself from music?

“However, one day, a vampire burned my town to the ground.”

The air instantly grew colder, and I couldn’t say a word.

“The flames that swallowed the streets consumed all buildings, and all life. Naturally, that included myself and my kin. Unfortunately, we have exceptional regenerative abilities; every time the flames destroyed our cells, they would regrow, only to be burned and reborn again and again. That hell went on for days—until every vampire but myself was dead.”

Scarlet gazed out the window at the moon.

There was nothing frightening about him in that moment. His profile was full of deep sorrow.

“It appears that even among vampires, my powers of regeneration are particularly strong. When the flames at last died down, I stood alone amidst a sea of blackened corpses, and laughed. ‘I have these amazing regenerative powers, yet I have only fifteen years left to live?’”

Scarlet was thirty now. What he was telling me about must have happened fifteen years ago.

“That was when the authorities arrived at the scorched wasteland that had once been our town.”

“Federation Government officials?”

“That’s right. They asked me if I would become a Tuner. If I would help them defeat evil vampires.”

…I see. In the other cases I’d heard about, Mia had been recruited into the Tuners by Siesta, and Stephen had recruited Rill. However, the Federation Government had made contact with Scarlet directly.

“But aren’t vampires and the Federation Government on bad terms? After all, the ones who gave the order to create your race in the first place were—”

“Only fools let nearsighted personal grudges and fleeting emotions obscure their goals,” Scarlet said, cutting me off. “I considered how best to use my remaining fifteen years, and I made my decision: I would use my strength to destroy all the evil vampires. That was what I was born to do.”

Scarlet drained the last of his coffee, as if he’d said all he had to say.

He still hadn’t told me the most important piece of information, though.

“Who was the vampire who burned your town?”

Who was Scarlet’s true enemy?

Was he saying it had been Elizabeth?

“Foolish human.” Scarlet gave a contemptuous snort. “As I said: Matters cannot always be delineated in terms of red and black.”

“…You mean there’s no need for you to know who actually did it?” I asked.

Scarlet’s gaze returned to the moon in the night sky.

“I will simply carry out my mission until all vampire blood is extinct.”