To Rage Trouble (7)

I wasn't tired in the body, only in the mind, and I was sprawled on the sofa with my eyes shut when Franc and Hwayeon said they had things to do and disappeared into the office wing.

Miho, who had sat quietly through our talk, fetched a game console and crept over to my side. She flopped down in the same posture as me, turned the volume down, and started playing.

I reached out and toyed with her soft, warm fox ears. The insides were covered in fine down, and the backs were a plush fur like hair and yet not quite, absurdly pleasant under the fingers.

"Tickles~."

I was resting like that, fiddling with Miho's soft, fluffy ears, when the visitor-management system chimed to say a guest was on the way.

We don't receive visitors as a rule. Anyone likely to come is already registered, and ordinary callers get stopped at the entrance. So who was this?

Too lazy to stand, I swept the place with Spatial Perception to see who was coming up. The elevator was still on the first floor, and inside it Lydia was waiting with the triplets.

Suhan came out of the utility room, checked the intercom, and turned to me.

"Master. It is Princess Lydia Isla Marietta."

"Yeah. Let her up."

She was still in her school uniform, so she'd probably come from hanging around with Han Go-eun and the others after the closing ceremony. Come to think of it, it was Christmas Eve. Even if I couldn't manage a proper event for my lovers, I ought to at least get them gifts.

What would make a good one? I turned it over. Accessories were out—I'd already given a necklace back in the spring. I was busy, and going out to play just because it was Christmas Eve felt wrong. Maybe I should raid every flower shop in downtown Seoul and fill the house with roses.

I was still turning the idea over when the elevator chime sounded, and Lydia and the triplets stepped into the living room.

Each of the triplets carried a neatly wrapped round gift box. A look through Spatial Perception showed them packed with cookies of every shape.

"Hello, Sir Seoha."

"Welcome, Lydia. You too, kids."

I waved from where I lay sprawled, and Lydia came over with a small smile.

"I'm glad you're safe. Not that any group out there could actually do anything to you, Sir Seoha."

She laughed softly, took one of the round cookie boxes from the triplets behind her, and held it out to Miho.

"Miss Miho? This is a Christmas present."

"Huh? What's this?"

"Why don't you open it and see?"

Miho, who had been playing her game, tilted her head, then tore the wrapping off without a second thought. Her eyes went round at the red tin inside, round and dressed up with an elegant finish.

She twitched her small cute nose, sniffed, popped the lid in a flash, and pulled out a cookie to smell that too.

"It smells yummy."

Each cookie, wrapped in thin soft paper, was about the size of Miho's palm. She took one big bite, her eyes flashed bright, and her hands flew as she started deleting cookies from existence.

"Miho. If someone gives you a present, you say thank you."

"Mmph mmph—thanks for the present!"

"Hehe. Don't mention it."

She passed a cookie to Darky as well when he reached for one, and Miho, nibbling away bit by bit, swished her tails without stopping, plainly delighted.

I sat up a little and asked.

"Have a seat. Today was the closing ceremony, right? Anything happen at school?"

"No. Nothing, aside from our friends being disappointed that you couldn't come, Sir Seoha. And these are the school notice and the winter-break event guide."

I'd told her to sit, and she went and planted herself in Hiarid's designated seat. The other two handed the gift boxes they were still holding to Suhan and formed up behind Lydia.

I glanced at Lydia, who was watching with a pleased face as Miho inhaled cookies, then opened the two thin booklets.

One was an ordinary winter-break notice. Have a good break, come back healthy, that sort of thing. The event guide, though—

"Looks like they're holding the winter festival again this year."

"Will you be attending, Sir Seoha?"

"No. I've got too much to do over winter break."

The winter festival is exactly what it sounds like: a festival the school puts on in winter. If enough snow falls, they use it to build snowmen and sculptures all over the schoolyard. If it doesn't, they bring in snow machines, pile the grounds a foot or two deep, and run the event anyway. Winning comes with prize money, and more than that, the whole thing is held in Yeongeun's name and carries a fifty-year tradition, so every winter famous sculptors from all over the country show up to take part. Last year my sister dragged me along against my will. I helped her carve ice and spent the aftermath groaning in bed with a cold.

Lydia didn't actually seem curious about any of that. It felt as if what she really wanted to ask was something else, and she'd reached for a different subject because she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Then maybe I ought to drop a few pieces of bait through Britain as well. Something along the lines of a Peak-Rank or Calamity-class aberrant possibly turning up now and then, the way one had this time, ought to be enough. She'd come because of the kidnapping, so if I simply told her to speak freely, she'd get to the point herself.

"Don't watch my mood like that. If you've got something to ask, ask. I'll answer what I can."

"Yes! Then... may I ask what you intend to do about the United States?"

See? Let her ask, and she jumps straight to the point. Once I'd given her permission, Lydia looked noticeably more at ease.

"The way I feel right now, I'm thinking I won't lift a finger for America no matter what happens over there."

"No matter... what happens?"

Sharp enough, and no fool, Lydia seemed to catch something off in my tone. She looked at me, unsettled.

"Master, mmph mmph, you're really mad. Mmph. Franc and Hwayeon and Yeongeun are all mad."

Miho crammed her mouth full of cookies and mumbled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it out, and Lydia went quietly silent. Watching her, I stroked and toyed with Miho's busily swishing tails and spoke.

"Of course I don't plan to leave it at that. Donald Trumpet almost certainly gave the order to kidnap Hwayeon and hold her hostage, so I intend to destroy that man personally as well."

"Even granting that he's the president, the scale of what came to light wasn't something a private individual could mobilize on a whim."

"Right. I'm grateful for the help you give me now and then, Lydia. Even so, there's a limit to what I can tell you. Information controls and the like. You understand?"

"Ah, yes. It's as you say."

"Still, you've helped me a few times, so I'll tell you this once. I don't intend to wrap this up as neatly as I did the business with those Japanese outfits, the Patriotic Subjects Association and the Imperial Radiance Society. And a Calamity-class aberrant has already appeared in reality once. I figure it's only a matter of time before another one shows up."

At the words out of my mouth, Lydia's face and the triplets' went frighteningly stiff.

"And I've found more aberrants living here and there than I expected. You follow? That's the whole of why I said I won't help, no matter what happens."

Of course, what I'd actually gone out of my way to confirm was on American soil, but Lydia and the others seemed to think I meant the sea. Their eyes had begun to tremble.

The ends of Lydia's long straight hair stirred, as if she were weighing the fallout should my words ever go public. Whether it was terror, or fear welling up, I couldn't say. Probably both.

Apparently even this much was enough. Lydia forced a smile and bowed her head.

"Th-thank you for telling me. Regarding this attempted hostage-taking, the British royal family and government will extend a hand whenever you ask, Sir Seoha. If you need us, please do say so?"

"Got it."

As if her business were finished, she traded a few formal goodbyes after that, put on a smile that looked deliberately assembled, waved, and rode the elevator down with the taciturn triplets.

The moment she stepped in and the doors closed, she switched on her Certifier and placed a call. Passing along what she'd heard from me to Queen Arthea, no doubt.

Good. Then I'd better get the Christmas Eve event ready. There wasn't much time, so I had to move.

Miho was eating the cookies Lydia had bought her—Bens Cookies—and she seemed to like them, but her face said something was missing. I'd tried one myself. Subtly sweet, soft, a refined little thing flavored with milk and a touch of sugar. But our Miho's palate is pure grade-schooler. She likes her snacks and candy harder and sweeter. Chocolate slathered in Nutella, that sort of thing.

"Miho, Darky. Move out."

"Move out?"

"Move out!"

I paired Darky with Miho, handed her one of the two credit cards I was carrying, and ordered them to sweep every flower shop nearby for every bloom in flower, no exceptions, and fill the house.

"I just buy all of them?"

"Everything except white chrysanthemums!"

"Okay!"

While Miho and Darky, as a set, bought out every last flower from every flower shop in Seoul, I went around choosing gifts for my lovers, the pets, and the maids.

I puzzled over what to give my lovers. Presents for Hwayeon and Yeongeun came easily enough, but choosing something for Franc was genuinely hard. I'd thought of jewelry to adorn her, but Franc, being a projection, had lately taken to shaping her skin into clothing rather than wear ordinary clothes that snagged when she passed through walls. Clothes were meaningless, and so was makeup.

Hmm. What about perfume?

Scent... scent. Come to think of it, not long ago she'd said she liked the fragrance of camellias very much.

For Yeongeun, I settled on a women's watch from a Cartier boutique, the Ballon Blanc de Cartier. Looking it up online, the piece had a band of diamonds no bigger than grains of rice and an elegant finish that would suit her wrist. The price ran into the hundreds of millions of won, but that was pocket change.

A search for the shop put it, fortunately, in a department store within the range I could be apart from Franc, so I could buy it without her catching me.

I used Space Leaping to the front of the watch shop. Passersby flinched and stared, but my face had thickened enough by now that I ignored them and walked in.

The Cartier store was crawling with young couples. When I paid for the watch—somewhere around a hundred and fifty million won—in a single lump sum and asked them to wrap it, every woman who'd come in with a boyfriend turned to look at me.

"Sir? This credit card is coming up as declined. Do you have another?"

"You sure you didn't do it wrong? I was told this card works for everything. Try it again."

"I'm sorry? What kind of card is this, that..."

What? Aunt Hyeryeong had had the Black Sapphire Card made for me, saying it had no spending limit and would be convenient to use.

More likely the clerk didn't know it than that Aunt Hyeryeong had it wrong, so I asked again. The woman looked troubled, glancing between my face and the card.

"I'm sorry. It seems you may be mistaken. Could you show me a different card?"

I heard people snickering nearby. I frowned and turned, and they snapped their eyes away and pretended to be interested in something else.

Tch. I'd come out in a good mood to shop, and this is what I get.

Fine, then. I was about to take the card back when a door behind the display burst open and a woman in a finer suit than the clerk's came rushing out. She practically shoved aside the woman who'd been serving me and bowed, deep and polite.

"I apologize for the discourtesy. She's new, hasn't been with us long, and it seems she made a mistake. Allow me to apologize. Miss Young-ae! What are you doing, not apologizing!"

"Y-yes? Ah. Ah—"

At the woman's behavior—shop manager or whatever she was—the people around us went wide-eyed and fixed on me. I snorted inwardly at the attention, waved the flustered clerk off once, and spoke to the woman whose nameplate read Chief Manager.

"Ignorance isn't a crime. Just run the payment."

I handed her the card, black with a faint blue sheen. She received it respectfully in both hands.

"Yes, could you wait just a moment? Paying with a Black Sapphire Card requires a special terminal."

So that was why it wouldn't go through.

Just then a woman dressed a little cheaply, standing nearby, turned to a man beside her—similarly thuggish, dressed with no sense of occasion—and spoke through her nose.

"Oppa~ you can buy me thaaat one, right?"

"What? Are you insane? Didn't you hear what that watch costs? Over two hundred million won. Two hundred million!"

The man looked so dumbfounded he drew up the corners of his eyes, and the woman watched him in silence before coming out with it all at once.

"Oppa, you don't like me, do you?"

"What?"

"You don't like me, so you can't even buy me something like that."

"Ha, I... Are you crazy? A hundred million won isn't some stray dog's name, and you think you're worth that? Fuck, you're so pathetic..."

"Did you just swear, Oppa? Did you swear at me?"

"If you had a single working brain in your head, you wouldn't say that shit to me. You have any idea how much I've spent on you? What? You don't like me? I'm sick to death of the shit-stink pouring off the rotten slop in that skull of yours, you bitch! Get lost!"

One perfectly good couple appeared to have just been obliterated, but that wasn't on me.

An in-house guard came over to break up the couple as they started fighting. I watched the show while I waited, and the manager returned with the card and an elegantly wrapped watch case, offering them with both hands.

"Thank you for honoring us with your visit. If anything is inconvenient, or if you have any other questions, please contact us anytime. We'll see to it at once."

I felt a little sheepish, wondering if the card really warranted that kind of treatment, but I had one more thing to ask, so I asked the chief manager where a person could buy high-end women's lingerie.

"Ah, high-end women's lingerie—one moment!"

The chief manager left her post, came with me, and guided me up to a place on the top floor of the department store marked as a VVIP floor.

I'd heard some of the big department stores kept a mall for VIPs only. This must have been one of those. As if to insist on how much effort they'd spent, even the elevator was plated over brass, with lavish ornamental metalwork fixed over the gilding.

And at the entrance to the VVIP mall, two men and two women in black suits stood to either side, radiating pressure. Ability users, no less. Hired to keep ordinary people out, by the look of them—H Class physical reinforcement types.

The two men in black sunglasses didn't move so much as a muscle, only their eyes, checking what I was wearing. The two women stepped forward to stop me—I had on nothing but a white shirt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and black cotton pants—then faltered when they saw the Cartier clerk coming up behind me.

"This is a VVIP customer! Sir, I'm sorry, but this area requires a card for entry. If you'll wait here a moment, I'll be right back!"

The clerk dashed off somewhere. The two women, hands still half-extended, bent at a perfect ninety degrees and apologized.

"We're terribly sorry."

Nothing to be sorry for.

I was standing there blankly in front of the two men and two women, back at attention, when the chief manager returned in under a minute and held out a translucent card of metallic material, with the words written elegantly in gold.

Metal, and translucent? Curious, I turned it over in my fingers, and the clerk explained with a face full of smiles and courtesy.

"Using the VVIP Premium Place at our Infinite Department Store requires several conditions. Issuance also takes time, but you meet the standard, and we judged that you needed access immediately, so we've issued you a pass, if only on a provisional basis."

Hoh. So this is what they call VIP marketing.

At any rate, I declined the clerk's kindness in offering to walk me all the way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the shop and stepped into a store called Victoria's Secret Honor Horizon. The two women shopping inside, and the two employees, glanced at me and chuckled the way you'd chuckle at a cute animal.

"Welcome. It must have been difficult, coming in alone as a man... Is there something you're looking for?"

"I want to get a gift for my lover. Could you recommend two—one on the innocent side, one on the sensual side?"

"Hehe. Standards like that tend to differ from man to man. Why don't you look around the shop and choose what appeals to you?"

Don't they usually ask what the budget is, or how much you want to spend?

Either the people who used this place didn't much care about money, or the clerk simply never mentioned price. Against a base as black as pitch, she guided me through the lingerie displayed in a pink show window.

I'd thought Victoria's Secret only did underwear, but there were bags, cosmetics, perfume, scarves, and a bizarre round pink tin whose purpose I couldn't begin to guess. Among them I found a sexy black garter set that called flowers to mind, and a two-tone lace set split white and black, seven to three, that felt innocent.

"Wouldn't it be lovely to get lingerie like that from a lover."

"Oh, Madam Seon, really. We're past the age for gifts like that."

"That's true. Still, it's a shame. If a young bachelor like that gave me lingerie like that... aigoo. Hohoho."

I can hear every word, ladies!

The two customers picked through lingerie while sneaking glances at me and chatting. From the sound of it they were ajummas, but to look at them you'd put them in their early to mid-thirties, sex appeal dripping off them. If they got lingerie from a bachelor like me, then what? Didn't they have husbands? A lover, was it?

Anyway. I held out my card to the employee who was wrapping what I'd chosen with quick, precise hands, and her eyes blew wide.

"A B-Black Sapphire Card...? I-if I may, what is your name?"

Huh. The clerk at the watch shop hadn't known it, but this one seemed to recognize the card. And why was she asking my name?

"Jung Seoha."

The moment she heard it, not only the clerk but the two alluring ajummas looked ready to have their eyes pop out of their heads.

"Ghk!"

"The chairman of Grand Blue?!"

"Oh my!"

The clerk took my card with trembling hands, her expression shifting by the second as she stole glances at my face. Then, slowly running the card, she started looking me over with open curiosity.

The stare was uncomfortable enough on its own, and a peculiar heat seemed to be coming off the ajummas' faces too.

The moment the payment went through, I snatched the card and the prettily wrapped lingerie box—you couldn't tell what it was from the outside—out of the clerk's hands and got out. I'd meant to buy a few more things, but those eyes were too much. The two ajummas and the clerk had exactly the look my lovers get in bed. It was seriously unsettling.

Next I went looking for a high-end perfume counter, to buy a scent for Franc.

The perfume shop on the same floor gave off a soft, cool fragrance from the entrance itself, the kind that seemed to draw the eye. The woman at the counter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠carried an elegant, bewitching scent of her own, and when I said I wanted a camellia perfume, she smiled gently and quietly shook her head.

"Camellia is an extremely faint note, so a single-floral type hardly exists. I don't imagine you'd want that sort of fragrance either, sir. But when that scent is blended with other materials, it becomes extraordinarily alluring."

"So there is no camellia perfume?"

"Not exactly none... Hehe. Would you like to smell them yourself?"

With that she brought two sample bottles, opened them in front of me, and handed me the caps. I'd seen how it was done somewhere, so I didn't put my nose close. I stirred a little air with my hand and breathed it in, and the fragrance matched Franc's nature—deeply gentle and soft, and it lingered long at the tip of the nose.

This was the one.

"This is Étude Parfum Camellia, a floral bouquet made entirely of natural fragrance oils. An eau de parfum, twenty-two percent concentration—heavy, and long-lasting. That's its charm."

"I'll take this one."

I chose it on the spot, without a second thought. The clerk smiled faintly, the way she had when she first heard my question, and quietly began wrapping it with care.

I wonder what faces they'll make when they get their gifts~.