Chapter 08
While Nina was away from home,
her family, who had been secretly plotting their plans, found themselves struggling to process the latest information brought back by Chayson, who was playing the role of her uncle.
“There’s absolutely no new information about the count’s family Nina Bones worked for? You’re telling me that everything we investigated in Soltum was really all there was?”
Katahari, who was playing the role of Nina’s older sister, sighed in disbelief.
“Chayson, Illyte is your country of origin. Don’t you know anything about them personally?”
At Natalisha’s question, who was playing the role of Nina’s aunt, Chayson let out a low groan and shook his head.
“To summarize what we know, Count Sezak’s family is undoubtedly a nouveau riche family that amassed its wealth through the war boom. They’re still in the blood-clotting agent business, after all.”
“We already know that.”
Exi nodded, his eyes gleaming with an unusual degree of intelligence.
He had only recently woken up after falling into a deep sleep from the sleeping poison Nina had slipped him.
It was the first time he had slept so soundly since entering the intelligence agency’s training camp, and his face was positively glowing.
Seeing how his newly radiant complexion had softened his normally sharp appearance, Chayson clicked his tongue.
“However, their whereabouts before that are a mystery. There’s so little known about them that they might even be a family of newly ennobled aristocrats.”
“Newly ennobled? You mean they bought their title? Isn’t that illegal?”
At Natalisha’s question, Chayson nodded. In the Kingdom of Illyte, the buying and selling of noble titles was illegal.
“If they bought it before the war, they might have been from a defeated nation. But it’s all speculation. We have nothing that could really be called information.”
Exi drew in a sharp breath through his teeth.
“As expected, suspicious. Nina Bones is suspicious, too. And, by a remarkable coincidence, the place where she worked as a maid is suspicious as well. That makes it twice as suspicious.”
Then, unlike the other family members, who had already met it, he cast a belated glance at Jugeo No. 4, the wind-up doll that served as their household automaton.
“That creepy wind-up doll is suspicious, too. We need to dispose of it.”
Click, clack.
Click, clack.
As though it had somehow understood him, Jugeo No. 4 immediately moved over to stand in front of them.
「What seems to be the matter? Curious to see what sort of taste Mosbergi has to offer? If so, how about a first. En. Coun. Ter with Mosbergi?」
“Exi. I told you not to say things like that because this insane machine threatens people.”
After Katahari shot Exi a glare and scolded him, Natalisha spoke up.
“Enough with the introductions. I have a question, Jugeo No. 4.”
「Please, go ahead.」
“If you’re No. 4, and the one carrying the Remington is No. 3, then…… where are No. 1 and No. 2?”
Jugeo No. 4 rolled its eyes and emitted a sound resembling a snickering laugh.
「Would you like to meet them? I could arrange a meeting for you.」
“Just tell us where they are.”
At Chayson’s irritated demand, the machine’s rolling eyes came to an abrupt halt with a creak.
「That is information I am unable to disclose. I recommend that you refrain from asking any further questions. That is a private fam. I. Ly mat. Ter.」
“……”
When Jugeo No. 4 lifted Mosbergi with a click, they had nothing more to say.
“Everyone, I’m home!”
Just then, Nina—their target and newest family member—returned.
The family ignored Jugeo No. 4 and headed toward the lobby, only to flinch at the sight of the object Nina was carrying.
That thing, with part of its body wrapped in white cloth, was unmistakably……
“N-Nina. Isn’t that a magic gun?”
“That’s right! Joel gave it to me as a present. It looks just like sweet chocolate, and it’s so pretty, isn’t it?”
Nina hugged the magic gun to her chest, looking thoroughly pleased.
As the family’s eyes shifted between the front and rear ends of the long magic rifle protruding from beneath the white cloth, they gritted their teeth.
What the hell did that frail lunatic give our target?!
Naturally, the fewer weapons a target possessed, and the less capable they were of handling them, the easier it was to approach them.
They couldn’t understand what Joel had been thinking when he gave her a magic gun.
Exi rubbed his arm, where a lingering stinging sensation remained.
“D-dangerous. Not pretty. Bad.”
“I showed an interest in magical devices, and he happily gave it to me as a present. Now I’m really struggling to decide what I should give him in return.”
Just then, Jugeo No. 4 glided over and spread its arms dramatically to either side.
「A handcrafted magic rifle of exquisite precision, I see? What a magnificent magic gun to receive as a gift. You must be truly grate. Ful. To your neighbor.」
“Right?”
Nina responded with a smile, but then she caught sight of Jugeo No. 4 and suddenly remembered something.
“Oh! I should go to the warehouse where we found Jugeo No. 4. I haven’t finished looking around yet, and there seemed to be lots of antiques and valuable things in there.”
“W-wait, Nina. Does that mean you’re planning to keep the magic gun? Nina……!”
Nina was too excited to hear Natalisha’s flustered voice. She hurried downstairs.
There were several storerooms in the basement.
Nina looked around eagerly, wondering which one she should open first, then reached toward a doorknob.
「Be careful. If you open that door carelessly, it will result in a dis. As. Ter.」
At the voice of Jugeo No. 4 coming from behind her, Nina hastily pulled her hand back.
“Ah. Then what about this one?”
「That one is a ca. Tas. Tro. Phe.」
“Grandmother must have been someone who enjoyed a thrill, huh?”
After breaking into a nervous sweat, Nina eventually opened the door to the room where Jugeo No. 4 had been found and stepped inside.
She still didn’t know much about her grandmother, but the elderly gentleman who had brought the will had told her that Rikiyta Bones had been granted a marquessate in the Kingdom of Illyte.
Although noble titles in Illyte weren’t hereditary, he had explained that Nina, as her direct granddaughter, was still eligible to enter the Illyte Royal Academy without taking the entrance examination.
Not that I’d known any of that until now.
As Nina wandered through the storeroom, she suddenly grew curious about what her grandmother had done in the Kingdom of Illyte to earn a marquessate.
What’s this?
Just then, she spotted a palm-sized photo album on a shelf.
Thinking there might be a picture of her grandmother inside, Nina turned the clasp and opened the album.
The moment she did, a spark jolted against her fingertip.
“Ouch!”
The stinging sensation made her drop the album. It landed on the floor with a soft thud, and the photographs fanned out in a cascade.
With wide, startled eyes, Nina examined the first photograph.
A young Rikiyta Bones was holding a fishing rod in the picture.
Now that I see her like this, she really does look a lot like me. Was Grandmother a fisherman?
But after seeing a photograph of her holding a clock and some tools, Nina changed her mind.
Oh, perhaps she was just fishing during a short vacation. Grandmother was a watchmaker.
However, as she turned through the photographs one by one……
After that, she became a teacher, then worked as a coachman…… and even a clergyman?
It became increasingly difficult to guess what her grandmother’s actual profession had been.
She was a mail carrier, too, then became a magic stone miner, and even a soldier. Wait, that’s Kibon’s uniform, isn’t it? And the next one……
Nina scratched her head and tilted it in confusion.
Lujein’s military uniform? This one’s Soltum’s uniform, and this one is Illyte’s……?
After pondering how anyone could possibly have so many different occupations, Nina arrived at what seemed like a reasonable conclusion.
Grandmother must have been a model or a clothing designer. She probably made all the clothes in these photographs herself.
Concluding that Rikiyta Bones must have been an extraordinary person regardless, Nina closed the album and returned it to its place.
Then she spotted an object covered in paper wrapping and smiled with satisfaction.
She had found something suitable to give Joel in return for the magic gun.
Nina smiled brightly as she carefully picked it up.
Hmm. This will do! I’ll bring it to him tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Joel sat silently on the balcony.
He had no idea how he’d managed to send Nina home with a freshly laundered handkerchief.
Afterward, he contacted the intelligence agency and had the incapacitated intruders discreetly removed, but the scenes that had unfolded before him continued to replay in his mind.
As expected, the incident had been nothing more than an attempt by another country’s intelligence agency to vent its frustration and issue a warning.
They should have kept their little power struggle between the masters. Instead, they always ended up taking out their frustrations on everyone below them, right down to the lowest-ranking operatives.
Ryan, a senior colleague from the intelligence agency, sauntered out onto the balcony.
“I heard there’d been quite a commotion. It’s cleaner than I expected.”
“That’s because her skill at subduing intruders was extraordinary.”
“Show me the footage on a viewing orb later. Anyway, what do you think of Nina Bones?”
Ryan had been curious about Nina Bones for quite some time.
She was Rikiyta Bones’s only blood relative, and she had suspicious aspects to her as well. To an enthusiastic intelligence operative, she seemed like an exceptionally intriguing target.
However, all he’d seen so far were blurry photographs, so he desperately wanted to meet her in person at least once.
Joel nonchalantly pointed toward the binoculars on the balcony.
“If you’re curious, take a look across the way. You’ll find an utterly unimpressive person sitting there, as useless as an inefficient magical device.”
“Oh?”
Ryan promptly picked up the binoculars and peered into the room beyond the balcony opposite. Then he turned back to Joel with a puzzled expression.
“Where’s this person you’re talking about? I only see a spring fairy sitting there.”
Joel furrowed his brows as though he’d just suffered a terrible setback.
“Damn it. Does Nina Bones look like a spring fairy, perfectly designed for some grand scheme, even to your eyes, Senior? So that’s how it is. My eyes weren’t deceiving me after all.”
“……Are you insane?”
