Collina di Luce.
The ancient capital was the jewel of Island No. 11, and boasted one of the richest histories in the entirety of Regule Aire. Many a poet had dedicated odes to its beauty, splendor, and glory, and as many playwrights had also chosen its streets as a stage to portray tales of romance, comedy and tragedy.
Honestly speaking, Feodor was a complete stranger in the realm of aesthetic appreciation, but he did have a good understanding of the powerful, inexplicable force called “love.” Some lived and died only for love, while some accomplished the impossible in its name, yet there were also others who became utterly useless upon being blinded by it. Having heard the masses’ fervent praise for the city, an imp like himself, who made charming others his bread and butter, might even come to hold some respect for it. Yet…
“…It’s not quite what I imagined,” he murmured.
As a whole, the stone-built streets were adorned with bright colors. One could feel the meticulous details that went into the city’s design from the picturesque scenery. Rich with centuries of history, the streets exuded a regalness that was more keenly felt in one’s bones than seen through one’s eyes.
It was a beautiful city, no doubt. It was beloved by many, no doubt. Of course, that’s not to say it wasn’t beautiful anymore, or that people no longer loved these streets. Still, the Collina di Luce he was looking at was a pale shadow of its golden years. And the reason for that is none other than…
“Is something on your mind?”
The question brought Feodor back to his senses. “…Oh, not really.”
He hadn’t meant to ponder so deeply, but it seemed that he still got lost in his own thoughts. He glanced around inconspicuously to try to regain his bearings. It was slightly after noon, and he was in a narrow alleyway with Lakhesh next to him.
The city was large, but not as crowded as one imagined it to be. As soon as they left the popular sightseeing areas, the subdued residential district they found themselves in was reminiscent of Lyell City. In Collina di Luce though, this quiet area seemed to also have a sort of mystical aura to it, owing to its centuries-long history.
“These Heaven’s Arrival posters are getting a bit much.”
“Now that you mention it, they are pretty unsettling to see.”
He was referring to the alley’s walls which had been plastered with old posters. Heaven’s Arrival was an organization preaching a heretical school of thought whereby death and nothingness were pathways to redemption. He couldn’t even begin to comprehend nor sympathize with those who subscribed to that belief, for he saw them as cowards unable to face reality, seeking the easy way out through death.
Of course, the number of posters doesn’t equate to the number of believers. They may simply be a vocal minority, yet he supposed it was regrettable that these voices had gained a foothold in the city.
“It’s a shame that these once-pristine walls have been defaced. I mean, if you’re gonna take up all this space, shouldn’t you at least give more thought to the arrangement?”
“Huh? That’s the point you’re picking on?”
“Would there be any other reason?” she asked blankly.
“…Never mind, forget it. Anything in front of us?”
“All good. No suspicious individuals ahead… Speaking of which, aren’t we the ones who stand out a bit too much?”
Lakhesh spun around. She wasn’t in a military uniform anymore, but rather a set of clothing that Giggir had arranged for some local merchant to prepare. Now she looked like a slightly androgynous local youngster. Unlike in the practically-empty Lyell City, this disguise was highly effective in the sprawling streets of Collina di Luce.
“You look great.”
“Thanks. For the courtesy,” she readily replied. “Your getup, uh, suits you very well too, so much so that it’s a little unbelievable.”
At her words, Feodor looked at his own clothing. He was in an all-black suit with a matching overcoat and hat, along with dark sunglasses thrown in for good measure. All in all, it made one wonder how much he loved the color black. Frankly, I look like some two-bit crook.
“…You’re just trying to be polite, right?”
“No, I mean it… It kinda feels like you’re this spoiled little prince who just started learning how to be a bad boy. How cute.”
What the hell is that?
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?!”
“Of course it is.” Lakhesh started giggling, which put a damper on his spirits.
As a matter of fact, Feodor was a bona fide princeling (though his homeland had long since been lost). And technically, though it may not have been major, he had committed several crimes, which was why her comparison didn’t quite sit right with him.
“You’ve always got this slight glare going on, you see? I dunno if that’s why you’re always misunderstood despite being a total sweetie deep down, orrr if it’s the image you’re going for. So that’s why this small-time hoodlum look that screams ‘bad boy’ really suits you.”
“You’re not complimenting me now, are you?”
“I am complimenting you, y’know.”
He didn’t mind the meaningless banter, but he never slowed his pace for they were about to reach their destination.
“Alright, let’s hope we can get in without any issues.”
“If we wanna enter, can’t we just ring the doorbell?”
“Because he isn’t in. According to his usual schedule, our target—Dr. Margomedari Brompton—only returns from work late at night.”
I mean, that’s the whole reason we’re here now, to avoid him. It’d be quite a pain if he was home at this hour.
“Besides, we’re here to seek his cooperation in the long-term, which is why I don’t want to meet with him empty-handed.”
“You mean you want to find something to get a hold over him?”
“I won’t deny it, but that’s not the whole reason.” Feodor stopped at the end of the alley.
Back pressed tightly against the wall, he scanned across the corner. No one’s around. Truth be told, they stood out like a sore thumb regardless of their outfits. Let’s keep out of sight as much as possible.
“Before engaging a third-party contractor for a job, you must have a fundamental understanding of the following: What instructions to give, how they’ll interpret them, and what it is you actually want them to carry out. That is the least a commander must know.”
“Er, what?”
“This time especially, we might not be able to establish an amicable relationship. He might say he’s willing to help, but secretly plan to backstab us. We’ll need to analyze every single one of his actions in order to gauge his true intentions. At the same time, we must not carelessly reveal what and how much we know. Basically, we must always remain at least two steps ahead.”
“…I don’t get it. What you’re saying is too difficult for me.” Lakhesh was confused. “In other words, before poaching this guy, you wanna put on airs and act like you’re a smart and capable boss?”
“Uh… Yeah, yep, exactly.” Feodor nodded vaguely.
She’s got the gist of it, I guess. Though it seemed some of the more minute details had been lost on her, or rather his wit didn’t get across, which disappointed him a little.
The district they were in was massive in the literal sense. Every feature of the street was at least a size larger than anywhere else: buildings, windows, doors, streetlights, paving stones, metal fences, and even the trash cans. Although the trees were the only exception, being that they couldn’t be enlarged in the same way.
“Woah, what a humongous street,” Lakhesh mumbled. “It’s like we’ve walked straight into a fairytale.”
“Says the faerie, no less.”
This place housed those of the physically larger races in Collina di Luce. As all kinds of races called this city their home, their different needs were also taken into account in the district planning.
In general, racial and cultural differences were a high wall to overcome. No matter how much mutual understanding was forced or how the rules were rewritten, it remained a challenge getting those unalike to coexist in harmony. Not to mention the physiological differences which were fundamentally impossible to bridge. For example, it was physically impossible for a cyclops to enter a boggard’s house no matter how they bent down.
Hence, the city districts were loosely segregated according to race…or rather, by body type and preferred place of residence. Winged races lived in high-up areas with good ventilation, while aquatic ones lived on the shores or depths of man-made lakes. Races of small stature settled in areas where everything was built to their size, and conversely, so too was the architecture of the place where large races congregated built to match them.
Right now, Feodor and Lakhesh were in one such district.
“We’re too late,” Feodor tsked as they stepped inside the house.
Everything was a mess. All the items on the bookcase had been thrown to the floor, and the table was clearly out of position. The wardrobe had been overturned along with its contents, and someone had even lifted up the carpet.
“Someone else got here before us, right?”
The interior of the house was similarly sized as the outside. The ceiling was high, the walls very far apart, and the chairs so tall they had to climb up on them. What’s more, the tabletop was even above Feodor’s eye level. I can’t help but wonder if this was how the world looked like when I was a child.
“What a bunch of barbarians. Did they not consider how much of a pain it’d be to clean up a mess like this.” Lakhesh briskly scanned through the rooms at the back—it still took her a while as even the corridor was long—and shook her head. “No luck, they all look the same.”
Feodor pondered for a moment. “Anywhere left untouched? How were they messed up?”
“No, it was like this in all the rooms, but it didn’t look like they were searching for valuables.”
“Any sign of a struggle?”
“None at all.” She replied. “What now, shall we return for the time being?”
“No.”
Shaking his head, Feodor put on a pair of thin gloves, intending to pick up a book that had fallen to the ground. But it was simply too heavy and he had to give up. Letting it rest on the floor, he quickly skimmed through its pages. Simple recipes you can cook at home: a compilation of whole-lamb specials.
“Is there something about that?”
“No, it’s just an ordinary cookbook.”
He examined another book, finding it to be a collection of ancient fairytales. When he finished flipping through it, he immediately moved on to the next, a catalog of stores that sold barrel-aged wine. After going through a few more and finally a hardcover novel (it was particularly heavy owing to its large size), he proclaimed: “So that’s it.”
Having figured something out, he picked up a fragment of the shattered clock face that was lying on the thick carpet. He examined it from several different angles to confirm his conjecture.
“But then, that means… Oh no, I never thought the situation was this bad.”
Just then, he felt a tug on his sleeve.
“…Hey, don’t just stand there with your epiphany written all over your face. What is it you figured out?”
Feodor was a little hesitant. I still can’t draw a complete picture from the information and connections we have so far, because only the broad strokes can be seen.
Oh well, since she asked, I might as well answer her.
“Firstly, whoever ransacked the place wasn’t doing it with theft or vandalism in mind—that much is clear. Secondly, they weren’t just one person but likely a team of five to ten people—hell, there might even be some full-time crooks among them.”
“Most likely, they’re around our size and not like the titanic races that live around here. What they’re searching for is probably something as small as a slip of paper, something that they can identify at one glance, and it’s quite likely they’ve already found it. Either that or they’ve left here to avoid clashing with another group.”
Lakhesh nodded along as he spoke. “How do you know all this?”
A fair question. It’ll take a while to explain though, so let’s keep things simple. Hmm…
“About the number of people—it’s because there are some discrepancies in the ways the rooms were searched. Some were trained to conduct a search, while some weren’t, though it seems they all took care to keep the noise to a minimum. Look, even though they broke stuff all over the place, there’re no marks on the walls or the floor, and the remnants were all dumped on the carpet where it wouldn’t make a sound. From this, I can deduce that while their skill levels differ, they are by and large an organized group.”
“As for their body size, it’s simply due to the fact that everything they tossed around was within our reach. If any titanics combed through this place, the affected area would likely have been larger. As for the mystery item they were searching for…”
His gaze fell on the scattered tomes by his feet. “There’s no common theme to all these books, but they all show signs of being flipped through. See, even this hardcover had its cover torn off in order to check the inside, which means their item of interest is small enough it can be stuffed between the pages of a book. The same conclusion can be drawn from where else they searched, like under the carpet and inside the clock even.” Let’s stop here. “That’s the brief outline. Did you get all that—”
He came to the sudden realization that he had been droning on too much. Part of it was to organize his jumbled thoughts, but he had unconsciously kept on going. Normally, he’d manage to restrain himself since the other party would likely find it unbearable, but in his excitement, he couldn’t contain himself this time.
That was probably too much for her, wasn’t it? He turned around to look at Lakhesh.
“Huh?”
What’s with her expression? He saw surprise and confusion, those he had expected. But more than that, there’s also…
“Wow, leave it to you to figure all that out!”
“Huh?” Is that faith? But how could that be?
“It’s not a stretch to call you a master tactician. Your insight, observational and analytical skills are far greater than I imagined.”
“Oh? Uh, really?” I didn’t expect that. Usually, people would say that I’m stuck in my own little world.
Take those girls. Tiat would’ve frowned and gone “How disgusting!” Pannibal probably would’ve smiled and said “That’s very much your style.” Collon would’ve laughed while saying “Sorry, I wasn’t listening.” And the old Lakhesh would’ve been like “S-s-s-sorry, I didn’t understand any of it, but I think that’s pretty clever of you.” She would’ve tried to speak for me, yet she wouldn’t really have been of any help…
“And then? You aren’t finished, right? Weren’t you saying that they might’ve found whatever they were looking for, or were trying to avoid another group or something?”
“Right.” Coming back to his senses, he continued laying out his train of thought. “This part’s simple. That’s just because there’s no one here anymore. Therefore, two scenarios come to mind: Either they’ve achieved their goal and left, or they met some resistance and fled. I’m afraid the former is more likely, because if it were the latter, the ‘resistance’ might be…” He cut himself off.
“…These guys?” Lakhesh asked.
“Yeah. Good grief, I don’t even know if I should call it a coincidence or not.”
He cursed up at the dizzily high ceiling, then pressed himself against the wall and peeked outside through the gaps in the curtains. Several suspicious figures could be seen encircling the building stealthily.
“There’s ten of them… No, probably more. Looks like they aren’t entering just yet.”
“If we count those that circled to the back, it should be sixteen in total. I suppose they plan to storm this house—after all, their formation is pretty similar to the one in the officer’s manual for urban warfare. They’re probably expecting to face numerous intruders.”
“Numerous?” Lakhesh’s ear twitched. “There’s only two of us.”
“Yeah.”
In other words, those outside had taken the pair—who just happened to be at the scene—as the group who had rummaged through the house.
They sighed in unison. What rotten luck.
“Any chance of resolving this misunderstanding if we talk nicely to these guys? Say we’re just passing by or something.”
“Brilliant idea, we ought to try that when love and peace have filled the world.” Yeah, like that’ll ever happen.
“Are we fighting then? I’ll wipe them all out in three minutes flat.” Though barehanded, Lakhesh rolled her shoulders.
Seniorious was large and cumbersome, so she hadn’t brought it with her. Therefore, she wouldn’t be able to demonstrate her full strength. Still, she wasn’t bluffing or being overconfident in the slightest. After all, the fact of the matter was that a group of sixteen professionals posed no threat to a faerie with her venenum ignited all the way. Yet…
“No, you can’t, they’re probably from the Winged Guard.” Keeping his gaze on the newcomers, Feodor stopped her. “If you use venenum, our identities would be exposed. I don’t want to show our hand before we’re ready to make our move.”
“So you’re saying to leave no survivors?”
“I liked you better when you were gentle and had some respect for life at least!”
“Just kidding,” She replied, though he wasn’t sure how serious she had been. “In that case, we’ll just have to break through the hard way. You can keep up with me, right?”
“Of course.”
Standing in front of the window, they exchanged a glance. They drew their caps low, and concealed their faces by pulling up their scarves.
“In any case, this Dr. Margomedari really is popular, huh?”
“I know, right? We’ll have to rethink how best to approach him.”
They bantered lightly while waiting for the right opportunity.
“One, two…” Lakhesh mouthed, eyes fixed on whatever lay beyond the window.
Watching her, Feodor suddenly thought of Tiat. Who knows what that idiot’s up to now. Maybe she’s sitting alone at the top of that abandoned theater on Island No. 38, gazing at the faraway skies? All the delicious bakeries have shut down, and star chef Lakhesh isn’t there anymore, which means there’s no one to make donuts for her. So she probably hasn’t eaten or spoken to anyone, and she’s just sitting there staring into space. Just like the time we first met.
“Three!”
Time marched on unforgivingly, even as he paused for a moment’s recollection. They flung the windows open and jumped out onto the street.