Chapter 38
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 38
Let's review the situation so far, Detective Luka.
The person who bullied Barbara most directly was Calesa Kano. But Calesa was only following Giselle's orders, which meant Giselle was the true instigator of the bullying.
And yet, the one Giselle actually feared was Barbara herself.
'Judging from the circumstances... Barbara wanted to be bullied.'
It defied all common sense.
'Giselle Custoria is terrified of Barbara.'
Giselle was utterly paralyzed, as though Barbara held some kind of leverage over her.
'This case is slowly slipping beyond my control.'
That thought struck me hard. If Giselle was being blackmailed, I had to report it to the Imperial Guard Captain. If his daughter was in trouble, he would surely act.
I relayed everything that had happened so far to Imperial Guard Captain Heilas through the hologram on my terminal. He listened to my report without so much as a flicker of expression, then replied:
—Luka, continue to act on your own judgment, exactly as you are now. I'll leave it to your discretion.
At first, I wondered if I'd misheard. I wanted to press him immediately, but a soldier's instinct sealed my lips.
"......Understood."
I frowned the instant the connection cut off.
'There was a reason he sent me to Cracia Academy. Assigning Giselle Custoria to my side was part of it too. The Imperial Guard Captain was certain I'd get tangled up in Barbara's Curse.'
My deep involvement in this case was no accident.
'Why?'
The question lingered.
If the Imperial Guard moved in earnest, they'd uncover the truth in no time. Unlike the Public Security Guard, they had that kind of authority. And yet they'd chosen to intervene indirectly, through me, and simply watch.
'Even though it's a case involving the Imperial Guard Captain's own daughter...'
I dragged a palm down my face.
People were painting a grand picture far above my head. I was nothing but a pawn, moving at their beck and call. Fair enough—that was a soldier's role.
'Still, it's irritating.'
I peered out through my fingers. I didn't like this one bit.
'Barbara's Curse...'
My gut told me it was Barbara's own fabrication. But so far, no one had found a shred of evidence that the androids had been manipulated.
'Investigator Jillian is no fool either. From the way he handles things, he's clearly competent. As he pointed out, it would be nearly impossible for Barbara—someone from a lower-class background—to manipulate androids.'
Using every scrap of information I'd gathered, I began fitting the puzzle together. I held more data than anyone else who'd ever tried to investigate Barbara's Curse. No one had come as close to the truth as I had.
I accelerated my cognitive processing, assembling the pieces of the case from every angle. I ran through each possible assumption, filtering out everything but the scenarios that made the most logical sense.
Through deduction and elimination, the tangled thread began to unravel. And when my thoughts finally settled, my eyes went wide.
"......Giselle and Barbara are accomplices in the android rampages."
I let out a dry laugh. If my deduction was right, this was going to be an enormous headache.
Giselle belonged to the Custoria Family. If she were exposed as the culprit behind the android rampages, the prestige and honor of the entire Custoria line would be dragged through the mud.
Fiddling with my terminal, I contacted Enrico Lagan—the boy who harbored a one-sided crush on Giselle.
* * *
Cracia Academy had a number of secluded corners. Since noble students made up the bulk of the enrollment, they needed plenty of places to hold private conversations. To protect student privacy, patrol drones and androids traveled only along the main thoroughfares.
The garden where I stood was quiet. The sunset washed the grounds in shades of crimson—a view lovely enough to make any sentimental heart flutter.
Concealed behind a tree, I watched the scene play out.
"I... I like you, Lady Giselle Custoria."
Enrico Lagan was bravely pouring out his feelings. Standing before him was Giselle, who had come at his request.
She looked haggard, as if she hadn't slept in days. She glared at Enrico with hollow, sunken eyes.
"Is this the 'important matter' you wanted to discuss?"
Enrico wilted under Giselle's sharp, thorny tone. A pang of guilt made me close my eyes.
I was the one who'd pushed Enrico to confess. I'd told him that if he did it now, he was sure to succeed.
"Ah, I... um..."
Clearly he hadn't expected to be rejected so bluntly, and now he was completely at a loss for words.
"Since we're alone, let me be perfectly clear, Enrico Lagan. I have no interest in you. In fact, your very presence makes me uncomfortable. I'd appreciate it if you stopped hovering around me for no reason."
Wow. I hadn't expected her to be that harsh.
If Enrico Lagan ever needs my help down the road... I'll gladly lend a hand. I do have a conscience, after all.
"Ugh... hic, sob..."
Enrico stood there dazed for a moment, then burst into tears and bolted from the garden as if fleeing for his life. Giselle pressed a hand to her forehead, as if fighting off a sudden headache.
She turned to leave as well. I waited until Enrico's presence had completely vanished before stepping out.
"Giselle Custoria."
She scowled at my sudden appearance.
"No wonder..."
She grasped the situation instantly.
"I resorted to this trick because I figured you wouldn't answer my call. And even if you did, you'd have dragged Barbara along. Or maybe you'd have just sicced the androids on me again."
As long as Barbara was at her side, I'd never pry the truth out of Giselle. From her reactions, her fear of Barbara was lodged deep inside her like a thorn.
"I won't tolerate this any longer. I'll report your insolence to my father—"
"It won't do you any good. I've already told the Imperial Guard Captain about your involvement in this case. He barely reacted. So it's one of two things—either he doesn't care about his daughter, or he already knows the truth to some degree. Or perhaps both."
Giselle staggered as though she'd been struck.
"Y-you told my father? My father? You—you actually did?"
Her reaction was far more violent than I'd anticipated.
"It's only natural for a subordinate to report to their superior."
She didn't answer. Instead she gnawed anxiously at her thumbnail, glaring at me with pure venom, her grimace twisting an otherwise pretty face.
"Father knows? Father... h-how much did you t-tell him?"
"I have no reason to tell you that. You're not my superior, and you've done nothing but obstruct me."
Giselle began pacing in tight circles, utterly lost. She was in a state of sheer panic, plainly incapable of rational thought.
I felt a twinge of guilt, but driving her into this panic was exactly what I'd intended. The more frightened a person is, the more desperately they yearn to lean on someone. In extreme panic, humans will cling even to those they despise.
"I can still help you—right now. Tell me everything you know."
"It's... it's all because of you. If you hadn't come, none of this would've happened! It's all your fault..."
Her vocabulary was crumbling—a clear sign that anxiety was devouring her mind.
"I'm on your side. Don't forget, I'm an Imperial Guard Cadet."
I stepped closer. Giselle first tried to shove me away, but in the end she clutched at my collar to steady herself.
"I... I did nothing wrong. I..."
"Cooperate with me, and I'll help you."
"You... you can't help me. This is about my standing within my family. You're nothing but a lowly cadet."
I parted my lips and spoke in a low voice.
"And what if I were to become a member of the Custoria Family?"
Giselle looked up at me with tear-filled eyes.
"W-what did you just say?"
"Believe it or not, it makes no difference to me. But I may very well join the Custoria Family in the future. Even if I'm just a cadet, didn't you find it strange that someone of your noble rank was assigned to act as my guide?"
I spoke calmly. It was the truth, so there was no reason to lie.
"You... join the Custoria Family?"
"It's highly likely, if my career keeps progressing smoothly. I'm regarded as a prodigy—the kind that appears only once every few years among the cadets. I even received a Military Medal recently. It wouldn't be strange in the least for a military family to adopt me. It's embarrassing to say myself, but the Imperial Guard Captain thinks rather highly of me. If I join the Custoria Family, my standing won't be trivial."
I gently eased Giselle back a little to look her in the eye.
"Is that... is that true?"
"Whatever mistake you made... I'll back you. The more successfully I resolve this matter, the greater my chances of being adopted by the Imperial Guard Captain. When mutual interests align, trust comes easily."
I guided Giselle to a nearby bench and sat her down. She stared blankly at the ground for a while, then finally spoke.
"I... no, I manipulated the androids. Barbara's Curse was my creation."
And so the truth behind the curse—and their ill-fated bond—finally spilled from Giselle's lips.
* * *
I organized the details in my head as I listened to Giselle's account.
The connection between Barbara and Giselle had begun three years ago, when they'd entered Cracia Academy at the same time.
Barbara had been admitted under the sponsorship of the Custoria Family. Sponsored students were expected to serve as retainers or vassals of their sponsors upon graduation.
Knowing Barbara would eventually become a vassal of her house, Giselle had gone out of her way to grow close to her. It meant securing another loyal supporter for the future.
Since the two shared similar majors and interests, growing close came easily. In fact, they'd bonded at an almost alarming speed.
"...The truth is, Barbara was like my very first friend. It was the first time I had someone I could call a true friend—not just an acquaintance."
Giselle added the words wistfully.
It was hard to picture the cold, prickly Giselle as close friends with someone of lower-class origin. But perhaps... her haughty noble persona was only a mask. Her true nature was probably gentle and fragile. I'd caught a glimpse of that vulnerability during her panic.
Barbara had been a sociable girl, quick to smile. Giselle had been drawn to her bright, cheerful nature. On top of that, Barbara was a prodigy who'd won special admission through the Custoria Family's sponsorship. She had so many admirable qualities that it was hard to believe she'd come from the Lower Districts.
"Around that time, a boy started actively pursuing Barbara. She was popular—that bright personality, that warm smile. I assumed she wouldn't be interested in him, but then she confessed to me that she liked him. And I... I didn't want to lose my only friend to some boy. I was still young and immature back then."
It had started with petty jealousy.
"At first I just resented the boy, wanted to play a prank on him. So I built a fake android—a robot designed to look like the real thing."
Giselle had used the robot to threaten the boy. She loaded it with an audio file warning him to stay away from Barbara, then programmed it to stalk him in the dead of night.
But that minor prank spiraled into consequences far beyond anything she could handle.
"The boy tripped and suffered a severe head injury. The aftereffects were so bad that he eventually had to drop out."
Giselle immediately dismantled and disposed of the robot. But because the incident had caused a serious injury, an investigation was launched.
"Barbara was the first to figure out what I'd done. I used to assemble robots right in front of her all the time."
I instinctively sensed that this chain of events was no coincidence.
'Giselle walked straight into a trap.'
Everything had spun completely out of control.
"Barbara told me she had a brilliant solution. She said if I became a victim myself, no one would ever suspect me."
"Since it was an internal academy matter, the investigation wouldn't have dug very deep anyway. If you'd just stayed quiet, it would have blown over eventually."
I cut in. Giselle clenched the fists resting on her thighs, the backs of her hands trembling.
"I was too young and naive to know that back then. I was just terrified."
"So you volunteered to become the second victim of the curse?"
Giselle nodded.
"I used to help maintain the school's androids. Back then, I attached a chip Barbara gave me to one of them. It should've been impossible to manipulate an AI through external input, but whatever the mechanism was... after that, the android sought me out, malfunctioned, and went on a rampage. That's how I became the second victim."
"And that's when the rumors started. That anyone who gets close to Barbara gets swept up in an android rampage."
Giselle bit her lower lip so hard that blood began to trickle down her chin.
"It was from that point on that Barbara started to change. She began making bizarre demands. She claimed she had to be completely isolated within the academy for the perfect crime... and that she needed victims at regular intervals..."
"She didn't change. She was always that kind of person."
"Looking back, you're right. I just wanted to graduate quietly. That's why I truly hoped no one would ever try to get close to her."
A few questions lingered after hearing Giselle's story. But I doubted she was lying. This was likely everything she knew.
Crackle.
Static hissed. At first I thought it was coming from my own terminal.
—You told... our secret... to a man, didn't you?
The noise was coming from Giselle's terminal. As the daughter of a prestigious house, her device's security rating should have been exceptionally high. And yet it had been hacked.
—A traitor, Giselle... and yet, my lovely Giselle.
I strained my ears. The voice from the terminal wasn't the only problem.
Whirrrrr.
A faint whirring of propellers. A drone was nearby, though I couldn't pin down its exact location right away.
My intuition and combat instincts screamed a fierce warning. I had to get out of here—now.
"Lu—"
I threw my arms around Giselle, hurling us both to the side and rolling hard across the ground.
Thwip!
The muffled, sharp crack of a silenced gunshot.
...Damn it. A hot flare of pain tore through my left flank. Looking down, I saw a hole wide enough to fit a finger, blood gushing out like a wide-open faucet.
"Ngh."
I didn't panic. I bit down on my sleeve and tore it free, rolled the fabric into a tight wad, and jammed it roughly into the wound. That would hold back the bleeding for now.
"D-does it not hurt when an Imperial Guardsman gets shot?"
Giselle asked the stupid question while staring at my abdomen. She seemed so utterly panicked that her brain had short-circuited.
"Of course it hurts! What kind of question is that?"
I snapped in irritation, my eyes sweeping the surroundings.