Present - December 29, 1926
A short time after the date has changed, the long party was over.
A single man observed the small groups of Armed Librarians who were returning home.
Mattalast, Bonbo, Yukizona and Yuri, followed by Kyasariro, were all walking with satisfied faces. Only Yankuu went back with a somewhat long face.
The man intently observed all of the Armed Librarians as if he didn’t want to miss any of their expressions. No one there had noticed his gaze. No one there could see his true intentions.
Who was he? Where was he looking at the Armed Librarians from? The time to speak of that has yet to come.
“…”
The only ones left were Hamyuts Meseta atop the roof, as well as Olivia Littolet who came out late. The man watched those two.
“…So nothing’s happened.”
The party was over and Hamyuts swung around her empty gla.s.s her champagne while muttering this.
She had been watching Olivia for seven months. She had developed many thoughts and expectations as to what Olivia was planning and how she was going to destroy the Armed Librarians.
So were my expectations betrayed again? Olivia claiming that she would destroy the Armed Librarian was just a bluff. Although Lascall had transmitted the Violet to her, it vanished along with her memories.
Looking at the present situation, Hamyuts could only think this.
However, she simply couldn’t accept it. No way she was done with Olivia so easily.
Was this her premonition or just her desire? Even she wasn’t able to tell.
Suddenly, she looked down the roof. She found Olivia coming out of the party hall.
Olivia left the party hall. She had had fun. She had her doubts about coming there when receiving the invitation from Kyasariro, but she hadn’t imagined it would end up being so enjoyable.
Even the Armed Librarians, who she thought were all scary, turned out to be good people when she tried speaking with them. There were also some that she met for the first time today and got along just fine with. It will probably be fun again starting tomorrow.
“Lately I’ve been feeling bad for some reason.”
Olivia muttered. For the last two or three days her head felt fuzzy. She felt as if she was forgetting something.
But that discomfort disappeared the more she spoke with the Armed Librarians today. It was probably not a big deal.
Olivia set on her way home while humming to herself.
Three days ago, Kyasariro had deprived her of her memories and Mattalast had planted new ones inside of her. That also made Olivia’s personality change. The Olivia who was extremely doubtful, cautious, and possessed a persistent will to fight was nowhere to be found.
She now turned into a woman who was cheerful, sociable, liked to make fun of people, a bit lonely but an ordinary woman. Perhaps this had been her original personality.
“…Hmm?”
At that time, Olivia noticed someone’s gaze on her. She looked around.
“Here.”
She heard a voice coming from above. She was quite surprised to find Hamyuts overhead.
“Olivia. Are you going home?”
Hamyuts asked. Olivia answered without thinking.
“What’re you doing?”
“Well, just some thinking.”
Thinking of it, Olivia realized she hadn’t seen her this whole time. She thought that she just went back, but was she there all along?
“Why there?”
“Idiots and smoke like high place.”
Saying this, Hamyuts threw something off the roof.
“Come here for a bit. You don’t have any other plans, right?”
Olivia looked at the thrown object. It was the string of a sling. Even if she told her to come there, what should she do?
She grasped the string for now. It then wrapped around Olivia’s wrist as if it was a snake.
Olivia’s body was gently lifted. She was placed on the roof.
“You’ve surprised me, but it felt somewhat good.”
“Well, sit somewhere around.”
Walking fearfully on the roof, she sat at the most high place.
“So what did you want to talk about?”
“There’s a case that I just can’t seem to crack. I’m so interested in it that I can’t concentrate on anything else. There’s something that I just can’t seem to understand no matter how much I think about it.
I thought that I may not have any other choice but to ask some great detective.”
“Wouldn’t someone like Mattalast be enough? He looks the part.”
“Nah, he’s no good. He’s simply useless.”
Hamyuts promptly denied. It seemed that she wanted to consult with Olivia.
However, would she really be able to understand something that eludes even Hamyuts and Mattalast? Olivia was puzzled.
“Oh well. So, what is it?”
“Ah, so will you listen to me, miss great detective?”
“An impromptu detective though. Well, spit it out.”
“I’ll be counting on you.”
Olivia and Hamyuts smiled at each other and Hamyuts began speaking.
“So, I have some enemy right now. Let’s keep the ident.i.ty of that person a secret. But it seems like they want to defeat me no matter what.”
“Have you done anything bad?”
Olivia asked just in case. She didn’t know Hamyuts well, but she didn’t look like a good person.
“…It’s complicated. I mainly did some bad stuff, but they’re not really a good person either.”
“Something like that, huh. So, what about that person?”
“That person knows of a way to defeat me. It would be hard to put in practice, but they know of it.”
“And?”
“They’ve said that they have already defeated me. This is the important part. They didn’t say they will definitely defeat me. They didn’t say they can beat me either. They’ve said that my loss was already determined.”
“Hmm. So that means you’re in a big pinch.”
Hamyuts nodded.
“Supposedly. But that person hasn’t done anything. Here I am lounging on the roof. What does this mean, I wonder.”
Olivia started thinking.
“Aren’t they preparing for your defeat?”
“They should be, but they’re not doing anything. To the extent that I’m truly surprised. What the heck is going on?”
Olivia crossed her arms and thought. She never even considered the possibility this was talking about her.
Hamyuts was asking for the reasoning of the great detective and trying to make the culprit confess at the same time. It was a strange situation, but Olivia knew nothing about it.
Hamyuts and Olivia were conversing on top of the roof. Even the man, while observing them, could not completely hear them.
That’s bad, he became stressed. Was Olivia’s plan exposed? Or was it about to be exposed?
He was sure she had completely deceived Mattalast. But it seemed like Hamyuts has yet to throw away her doubts. As they thought, Hamyuts was the most frightening one of the lot.
The man’s body stiffened with tension. Until now Olivia’s plan was perfect. Will there be a setback just at the very end?
He observed them, still tense.
Only Olivia could understand her own plan. Hamyuts spoke to Olivia because she thought this way. However, Olivia showed her hand as if saying she had given up.
“It’s useless. I have too little information. No matter what I think I just have no idea.”
Hamyuts was slightly disappointed.
“So try thinking like this. If you were in their position, what would you have done? You wanted to defeat me and knew a way of doing so. At that time, what would Olivia Littolet have done?”
“If I were in their shoes, huh. And know of a way to beat you…”
It was a strange sight: Olivia tried thinking in Olivia’s shoes.
“Anyway, if it were me I would tell it to someone. To someone who wants to beat you. They probably have a grudge against you. Is there anyone like that?”
Hamyuts had also thought this far. Olivia had no way to fight, so she should have pa.s.sed the Violet Wish to someone else.
In fact, she had tried instigating Yankuu and Kyasariro to rebel against the Armed Librarians.
“I see. And, other than that, what would you have done?”
She wanted to ask Olivia about what came afterwards. The culprit-detective crossed her arms and thought.
“Other than that… But I think that would be about everything I can do…”
After thinking for a while, Olivia clapped her hands.
“I know. I would’ve concealed the ident.i.ty of the person I’d told about your weakness to. No, that’s wrong… I would’ve concealed the very fact that I’d done so.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s more advantageous this way. You wouldn’t know who you were being targeted by. You wouldn’t even know someone was targeting you in the first place.
Wouldn’t even someone like you be in danger if that happens?”
Hamyuts realized her own carelessness. She should have understood this by thinking a little. Hamyuts was too strong, so she couldn’t even imagine how a powerless person would fight.
She started thinking based on the hints given to her by Olivia.
Her aim was to tell someone of the Violet Wish. That person was neither Yankuu nor Kyasariro.
Then when and where had she done it? Hamyuts thought back on Olivia’s behavior ever since she came to Past G.o.d Bantorra’s Island. She shouldn’t have had such a chance.
“…No.”
Hamyuts was an idiot. Olivia’s goal was to tell about the Violet Wish in a place Hamyuts wouldn’t know of. She wouldn’t have done in the Past G.o.d Island which was under her supervision.
She had a chance. It was before coming to the Past G.o.d Island. Before she had been caught by Mattalast.
“…I see, I think I got it.”
Olivia curiously looked at Hamyuts who suddenly changed her expression as she started thinking.
Seven months ago, just before Olivia had been caught by Mattalast, he had met her in the Ismo Republic.
He aimed to fight against the Indulging G.o.d Cult and destroy Heaven. For him, meeting up with Olivia was the kind of luck that would come only once in a lifetime.
He came to know of the sole method to destroy Heaven, the Violet Wish. His fight, that seemed hopeless, now had a sliver of hope.
However, at the same time, a serious crisis had also arrived.
At the time, no one knew of his existence. Neither Hamyuts, Mattalast, nor the dead Kachua. Since no one knew of his rebellion, he was able to continue living.
However, after he had met with Olivia he lost that advantage. She was being chased by the Armed Librarians, and will probably not be able to avoid being caught by them for long. If that happens, Hamyuts and the rest would also come to know of that man’s existence.
As he was deep in thought, Olivia suggested a plan to him.