She and Her Family (1)
Kaidal-4 was loud today, the way it always was.
From ordinary accidents all the way up to violent crime, a great many things had happened.
Among them, what Laurent had done was unexpected, but hardly anything special. On an ordinary day, a reporter from GBN would not even have come looking for him.
"So that's how it was."
Zack nodded. He had heard the story from the reporter who had come to the hangar.
"So you're saying Laurent pulled off something impressive?"
"Yes. Thanks to Mr. Laurent, the missing girls were rescued."
What the reporter laid out was complicated, and simple at the same time. The subjects of the missing-person reports that had poured in over the past few days had turned up in the hideout of a criminal organization.
"And that hideout just happened to be one of the organizations I crushed, you say."
"Yes. You saved those girls, Mr. Laurent."
"Good."
Laurent wore a thoroughly satisfied face. Anyone looking at him could see a man pleased with his own deeds.
"And what became of all those girls?"
"They went home. Maybe this taught them a lesson—they said they'd never run away again."
"Splendid."
Laurent drew up the corner of his mouth. It was a fine smile, well suited to a handsome face.
"Ah..."
The reporter lost herself entirely. Standing before the star she adored, she made no effort to hide the heart of a fan.
"If you have something to say, then say it."
"Yes?"
"Was an interview not your purpose?"
"That's right! Then I'll begin the interview!"
With Laurent before her, the reporter set to hammering at her laptop. Her eyes, however, could not stay on the screen. She was too busy stealing glances at his face from the corner of her eye.
"Life really is unfair."
Zack muttered something or other, but it never reached the reporter's ears. Those ears were listening to Laurent's voice alone.
A good while later, the hour became seven at night by Earth Standard Time. It was about time to bring the interview to a close.
"Thank you for making the time."
"Nay—it is I who should thank you. Did you not labor for the sake of my renown?"
"Labor? It's only what I'm supposed to do."
The reporter smiled brightly as she gathered her things. Outside, the lights had already gone dark.
"Hmm..."
Laurent gazed out the dim window. The neighborhood around this private hangar was none too safe.
"This will not do. I shall escort you."
"Pardon?"
"I mean that I will escort you until you reach the main road."
"Th-there's really no need to go that far! I'd be happy if you escorted me, of course, but...!"
"Then it is settled. Do not refuse."
While the reporter stammered and flustered, Laurent picked up her bags.
"You came all the way here to spread word of my fame. Therefore, you are worthy of my escort."
So saying, he left the hangar with the reporter. By the time he returned, an hour had passed.
"You were gone a long time. Did you do something with that reporter lady?"
"I did."
"What did you do??"
Zack swallowed, hard.
"I forged through adversity."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I struck down the foes who barred the way and completed the escort."
"Tsk... And here I thought it was something else."
Only then did Zack understand. Once night fell, unsavory types tended to prowl this area.
That was when it happened. Laurent drew out a translucent card.
"What's that?"
"A business card."
He set the card, with the reporter's name written on it, down any which way.
"She said we ought to share a meal sometime."
"You reeled in another one."
"I am no such man."
"Don't deny it. You've got a womanizer's streak."
Zack shook his head, as if the man were hopeless.
"Life really is unfair. What are space monsters even good for, if they won't come drag a guy like this off?"
"Even a space monster is naught but prey before my lightsaber."
"Showing off again."
"It is not showing off. I have merely stated the facts."
Laurent tapped the lightsaber at his hip, as if he would not be afraid no matter who became his enemy.
The sight left Zack a little uneasy. He granted that Laurent was strong, but now and then the man did not hesitate to do something foolish enough to be dangerous.
"You don't have to be quite so proud. Kaidal-4 isn't as peaceful a place as you think."
"A knight must stand proud."
"Proud or whatever, watch what you do for a while. After this, somebody might start keeping an eye on you. And not for any good reason."
"A knight is no coward."
"There's no talking to you."
Zack shook his head over and over, and he did it wearing an expression unpleasant enough to sour the mood of anyone watching.
"Then it seems I must offer proof."
Laurent shot to his feet and headed for the hangar exit.
"Hey, where are you going!"
"I shall prove my pride and my valor."
All he had was a lightsaber, a cloak, and the clothes on his back. He stepped out of the hangar leaving even his wallet behind.
"Come forth! Wicked conspiracy! Whatever scheme you employ, you cannot defeat me!"
Laurent departed. He departed with that proud voice, and that was the end of it.
"Damn it. I can't deal with this."
Left in the hangar were a lamenting Zack and Yass, sprawled out fast asleep.
What he had been waiting for never came.
He stayed awake through the whole night, but what wrapped itself around Laurent was not a wicked conspiracy. It was only Kaidal-4's artificial sunlight.
"Conspiracy... you truly are a cowardly wretch."
Laurent had come up empty and met the morning. He had drifted without destination through Kaidal-4, and time had slipped past him, indifferent.
"I hunger."
Before he knew it, morning had worn on toward noon, and he felt the emptiness in his belly. Leaving his wallet behind to prove his pride and valor had been a blunder. He had thought that facing a conspiracy would require no such thing as money.
The knight walked. He walked without a wallet. He was hungry, but still he walked.
Until he had proven his pride and his valor, he did not wish to go back. That stubbornness kept his feet from turning, even through the hunger.
Laurent stepped into an alley. Conspiracy could not be found in bright places. Only a dim alley was a place befitting conspiracy.
That was when a frivolous voice rang out from deeper in.
"Whoa! You're pretty! You here alone?"
A voice like a spoon banging on a tin pot. Laurent looked toward its owner.
"Three blondes."
It was exactly what his eyes held. Two men with dingy blonde hair were hitting on a girl whose blonde was bright and lovely.
"We've actually got a seat open. Wanna hang out with us?"
The taller of the blonde men said it. Both of them had dyed blonde hair and tanned skin, so height was the only way to tell them apart.
"We're not bad people."
"Yeah. We just wanna hang out."
The two were persistent. Even though the girl made her distaste blatantly obvious, they would not back off. If anything, it seemed to have stirred their appetite for a challenge, and they clung all the more doggedly.
"Tch. What a pain."
The girl chewed her gum. She blew a bubble, popped it, and promptly scrunched the corners of her eyes.
She did not seem to be an adult, and yet she carried an adult air. Judging by the school-uniform skirt and shirt she had taken in tight, she was a student at a nearby high school.
She rolled her eyes and scanned her surroundings. Then her gaze met Laurent's, where he stood watching her.
"Hmm?"
A brief moment passed. Objectively, it was no more than an instant. To the girl, though, it was a fairly long stretch of time. Having observed Laurent through it, she lifted one corner of her mouth into a smile.
"Oppa!"
She came running to his side, then seized his arm and linked hers through it.
"Who are you."
"It's me, me! Don't you know? Your girlfriend!"
She clamped down hard on Laurent's arm, showing no sign of caring whether her chest pressed against him or not.
"Just play along."
She whispered it with her head ducked low, and because of her, Laurent fell into thought.
What is this? Something's off.
More precisely, the one sunk in thought was the Laurent within. The Laurent on the inside of the filter worried endlessly, without end.
But the Laurent visible on the outside was different.
A pitiful, beautiful blonde girl was begging for help. She might reek of delinquent with every breath, but the filter did not quibble over trifles like that.
Her voice was pitiful as well. Her mouth chewed gum and muttered cheap little curses, but the filter ignored that sort of thing.
This is going to be a headache.
Laurent's face crumpled all at once. Only on the inside, of course.
"At last, you appear."
The outer Laurent rejoiced. The face that had passed through the filter filled with rapture.
Now he could prove his pride and his valor. Finish this, and he could return to the hangar where his wallet waited. At last, the conspiracy had shown itself.
"Come forth. You tanned blondes."
Laurent stepped forward. With the girl hanging from his arm, he meant to face the two of them.
"Uh, this guy?"
"I am Laurent!"
The tanned-blonde duo's eyes flew wide. The two of them enjoyed watching Armor Frame battles, and they were not ignorant of Laurent. The problem was that they knew him rather too well.
"Whoa! I'm a fan! Autograph, please!"
"Me too, please! Make it nice and big, right across my back!"
The tanned blondes' objective changed. The pair who had been trying to pick up a woman now turned heated gazes on Laurent.
They were not gay. They most certainly were not. And yet a hot current stormed through their stares.
That was love!
Even so, they were surely not gay!
Laurent drew out the pen he had carried with him ever since people had taken to calling him the Saint.
"Present them."
"You got it!"
"I'll present mine too!"
He signed large across the bare backs of the two men, who had stripped off their shirts.
"Thank you! Bro! I will absolutely never wash this back!"
"I won't wash mine either!"
The two looked at Laurent with eyes steeped in heat. But they were not gay.
"Cease trailing after women's heels, and devote yourselves to self-cultivation."
"Of course! I'm gonna become a man like you, Bro!"
"Khh! What magnificent words! I won't so much as look at a woman!"
The two departed. They had met Laurent, received his autograph, called him brother and been called brother in turn, heard their fill of fine words, and departed.
Now the only ones left in the alley were Laurent and the girl who had suddenly asked for help.
"Whoa! Oppa, you're somebody important?"
She said it with her eyes gone round.
"I'm Eri. Thanks for helping."
The girl gave her name. She had barged in without so much as a greeting and used a person exactly as she pleased, and yet, unexpectedly, she possessed a perfectly ordinary name.
"I am Laurent. A knight among knights, who knows honor and justice."
"Pfft! What is that, some kind of bit?"
"It is no bit. I said I am a knight."
"Heheh. Okay. You're a funny guy, Oppa."
Eri snickered, then blew a bubble with the gum she had been chewing. A vivid pink bubble swelled—and popped.
"But Oppa, you really are somebody important?"
"Important, yes. For I am a great knight."
"Not that. I mean, are you famous?"
Laurent studied Eri. On the surface, she was nothing less than the textbook specimen of a high school girl who knew how to have a good time.
Which was to say, she looked far more interested in dating and fashion than in Armor Frame battles.
"I am competing in the Armor Frame battles."
"Oh, that tournament? The one that Count Hogus or whoever put on?"
"Indeed."
"You must fight pretty well, then. Seeing how those thugs called you Bro."
"I am invincible."
"Ahaha! Oppa, you and humility aren't even in the same neighborhood, huh?"
"Humility? Humility is a virtue of the knight. But honesty, too, is a virtue of the knight."
"Got it. So that's the type you are."
Eri smiled like a fox. It was a smile she had already worn more times than he could count.
"Come on, let's go!"
"Go where, do you mean."
"I'll buy you a meal, at least. To celebrate meeting you, Oppa."
Eri grabbed Laurent and tugged him along, closing one eye.
"Oppa, you're broke, right?"
"For the moment, yes. I did not bring my wallet."
"I figured. You looked like you didn't have any."
"Your eye is sharp."
"I've got an eye for things. It's my specialty."
Laurent followed Eri through the alleys. No matter how he looked at her, she seemed to harbor no wicked intent.
It was a simple guess, but one he could trust well enough. The Chivalry trait lifted even the senses beyond the five, raising them past what was human.
"This is the place."
Eri stopped before an old, shabby sign. Then she gazed at it as if it were something dear.
"I'll introduce them to you, Oppa. My family."
The words that suddenly popped out were a little out of nowhere.