The First Silver Coin
The kitchen interrogation was finally over. I was on my way up to the second floor to reveal the truth.
“Young Master Nihilit.”
Charlotte, who had been trailing behind me, spoke up from the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me. “You were quite startled when I ate the star anise just now.”
“Of course. I’m a healer. To see someone swallow poison right in front of me…”
I couldn't finish my sentence. The girl at the bottom of the stairs was looking up at me with a triumphant smile. Just as I was wondering why she was making that expression, it hit me.
‘Ah.’
“…Did you eat it on purpose?”
“It’s the best way to elicit an honest reaction. You already knew it was poison before I even arrived, didn’t you?”
I’d been had. I never dreamed she would use the method from The Bohemia Kingdom Scandal in this way. It was my mistake. I should have considered that a sloppy lie wouldn’t work on this girl.
“…Why did you think that would be the case?”
“Because you, who are on a similar level to me, arrived an hour earlier than I did. There’s no way you wouldn’t have known.”
Hmm. That’s an overestimation. I only solved it because I had encountered the exact same case in my past life. To use an analogy, she solved the problem from scratch, while I solved it having already memorized the answer key. Wouldn’t it be rude to the former to call them equal?
However, that thought was brief.
“Correct, Miss Hausen. As expected, I knew you would see through it.”
I decided to ride the flow of her misunderstanding. I had been worried about my lack of substance being exposed, but I calculated that it would be fine. ‘I only need to get through this once anyway.’
I had no intention of competing with her in deduction after this case was over. My goal was to have a relationship like the one-armed Emperor and the Great Swordsman in a certain pirate manga. I would just take the title of having gone toe-to-toe with her during her debut, and then just watch as my reputation rose along with her future exploits. So, I didn’t need to worry about the aftermath of this case.
“Excellent. Although our methods differed, you reached the same conclusion as I did. And you even brilliantly saw through my lie.”
At my response, Charlotte wore a triumphant smile.
“Then, can I consider this duel my complete victory?”
“Since when was this a duel?”
“Oh my. Didn’t the duel begin the moment Young Master Nihilit posed the problem?”
“If my actions were interpreted that way, I have nothing to say. Understood. I shall accept my defeat.”
She, who had been at the bottom of the stairs, walked past me and took a position on a higher step.
“The winner never looks up at the loser.”
Hehehe. Looking down at me while humming as if she were in a good mood, I let out a bitter laugh and pulled a silver coin from my vest pocket, handing it to her.
It was a minor custom in imperial noble society. Acknowledging defeat and paying the price was a way to buy back the honor lost to the winner. If the winner accepted the silver coin, it meant they acknowledged the loser’s skill. It was similar to exchanging hostages after a war.
Knowing the custom, she accepted the coin I handed over without a word.
“You accept defeat more cleanly than I thought.”
“Defeat itself is a good lesson.”
“That’s a good attitude.”
Charlotte, staring intently at the silver coin in her palm, opened her mouth.
“Do you know? This is the first time I’ve ever received a silver coin.”
“That’s surprising. It’s unexpected that someone of Miss Hausen’s caliber has never won before.”
“That’s not it.”
The girl rolled the silver coin between her fingers. “Winning was a daily occurrence. It’s just that no one ever handed over a silver coin. Whether it was sorcery or magic, nobles would come up with all sorts of excuses to avoid handing one over.”
“My, my. Defeat is not a disgrace, after all.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Charlotte flipped the coin once and caught it. Then, she smiled as she tucked it into her cape pocket.
“Thanks to you, it was fun. I’ll make sure to tell my father well about revealing the truth. If my father handles it, other nobles won’t be able to drag it into factional strife.”
She had decided to shoulder the weight of the truth behind this case. It was what I had hoped for. Aside from Director Shun, the truth of this case was too heavy for a 16-year-old teenager named Julian to handle. Naturally, it would have been a bit much for my father, who was merely a Baron.
Charlotte must have known that fact and was being considerate of our family.
“Of course, I don’t intend to take all the credit for Young Master Nihilit’s efforts. I’ll make sure to speak well of you to other nobles so that your performance reaches their ears as well.”
“I would appreciate it if you could tell them that I was on equal footing with Miss Hausen.”
“That is the duty of a winner who has received a silver coin.”
Charlotte turned and walked up the stairs. “Let’s go up.”
I followed her up the stairs. On the way to the second-floor room, I watched her blonde hair swaying left and right above her neck. The fact that the outline of her small ears, visible through her short blonde hair, seemed to be blushing was probably just my imagination.
Clatter, clatter. Late in the afternoon, a carriage left the Count Belheim estate and crossed Sanctum Hill. With all the events at the Count’s estate settled, the carriage was heading somewhere with two people inside.
Sitting and looking toward the front of the carriage, the blonde-haired, golden-eyed girl—Charlotte—was silently counting the streetlights outside the window. Opposite her, the Inspector sat facing the back of the carriage.
“….”
The man, who had the same blonde hair as Charlotte swept back, was scanning a notebook with eyes that were hard to tell if they were open or closed. Inspector Hausen, who was silently looking at the notebook while twitching the right leg he had crossed over his left. By the time the Count’s mansion was no longer visible, Inspector Hausen opened his mouth.
“To think it was star anise.”
Scratch, scratch, thud. Leaving an indifferent note with his fountain pen, he closed the notebook.
“As expected. It was star anise, just as I predicted.”
“You knew?”
“I had my suspicions. The role the victims played within Prince Auguste’s faction wasn’t significant enough to warrant being targeted by a curse.”
“Then do you also know how the star anise ended up here?”
“Eastern star anise is toxic, while Western is used as a spice. In the capital, where trade routes overlap, it’s entirely possible for a merchant blinded by money to mix the two.”
A languid voice flowed through the rattling of the carriage. Charlotte’s half-closed eyes turned toward the Inspector opposite her. Her gaze moved to the Inspector’s fingertips. There was a spot of ink on the tip of his right index finger, but the Inspector didn’t wipe it off. Charlotte sighed deeply as she took in the sight of the Inspector.
“Then why didn’t you say anything when you had already guessed it?”
“I am an Inspector. Not a Judicial Officer. I shouldn’t steal the work of a Judicial Officer.”
Charlotte stared intently at the Inspector’s face, not blinking once.
“You’re just dressing up the fact that you were too lazy to go to the kitchen, Brother.”
At her words, Inspector Hausen hesitated for a moment and looked around. Having confirmed something, he opened his mouth again.
“You don’t need to call me Brother anymore. We’re far enough away that there are no ears to listen.”
“Understood, Brother Michael.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Charlotte put her legs up on the opposite seat. It was a posture where one couldn’t find a shred of formality as a young lady. She spread her palms upward in that position. Something hazy like mist bloomed over her palms. The mist swirled faintly, then began to take shape.
The outline of a small room, the shadow of a cradle, and two figures visible beside that cradle. A silent play made of mist unfolded on the girl’s palm. When the baby in the illusion began to fuss violently, kicking its limbs, the Countess beside the cradle was feeding the baby tea brewed from star anise. Charlotte dispersed the mist at that scene and opened her mouth.
“I have to do this five more times today alone.”
Charlotte gestured toward Inspector Michael. “You have plenty of mana too, Brother. You’ve already grasped the truth, so the activation conditions are sufficient. Actually, you could do it more vividly than I can.”
“I suppose so.”
“Then can’t you do it?”
Inspector Hausen replied while burying his body into the carriage sofa with his eyes closed. “I came all the way here specially because of you. I should be in my office reading the report submitted by Judicial Officer Nihilit by now.”
The Inspector waved his arm languidly. And he let his arm hang limp, as if that were the total amount of exercise allocated to him for the day.
“And visiting other families now is also to make known the contribution of the friend you made today. Normally, sending an official document would suffice.”
“….”
“I’ve done my best to look out for you, so don’t ask for anything more, Charlotte.”
Charlotte had no choice but to agree. Considering this lazybones’ usual behavior, this outing could be considered an exceptional move.
“You do all the magical reenactments at the remaining families.”
“Haa…. To think I have this as my only sibling.”
Michael didn’t even respond. Instead, he just relaxed his eyelids, which were about to close, and accepted the approaching drowsiness. Then, suddenly, Michael thought of something and narrowed his eyes.
“By the way, I was surprised when you suddenly said you wanted to follow me on my work. What kind of wind blew into you?”
“Even so, I’m an imperial noble; shouldn’t I have my debutante at sixteen?”
“Why on earth are you asking me of all people?”
“Mom isn’t here, and Dad isn’t the type to do that sort of thing. I have to get help from my brother.”
Michael’s mouth opened slightly at Charlotte’s answer. Entering the social world at sixteen is something done by those desperate for marriage. But the Charlotte Michael knew was not a girl desperate for marriage. Both in terms of status and the person’s personality. However, as he was assembling the sentence ‘You, getting married???’, he met his younger sister’s eyes and closed his mouth again.
“….”
It was because he could feel the sharp murderous intent in those eyes, as if she would plunge a 0-inch strike into his solar plexus if he said one more word. Michael was confident he would be subdued by his younger sister without even being able to lay a hand on her in a physical fight, let alone a battle of wits. Therefore, he gave the safest answer possible.
“…Yes. Still, I’m glad you made a new friend.”
That was the safest sentence he could return to his only sibling.
By the time the siblings had finished visiting all five families, stars were already visible in the sky. While Charlotte held a deduction show at each family and showed magic to the nobles who couldn’t be convinced to persuade them, Michael had been sitting in a chair in all five drawing rooms, rolling a peppermint candy. That was the total amount of contribution he could concede today.
Having finished everything, the carriage turned. As it headed toward the center of Sanctum Hill, the paved roads gradually widened, the spacing between streetlights narrowed, and the buildings on both sides began to grow taller. Before long, the outer wall of the Imperial Palace became visible through the carriage window.
“Business trip and overtime,” Michael muttered, adjusting his coat collar. “Reports must be piling up. There are three just from what Judicial Officer Nihilit submitted, and other cases…”
A yawn swallowed the latter half of his sentence. Passing the main gate of the Imperial Palace, the carriage stopped at a fork in the road. The left was the administrative district lined with government offices, and the right was the path leading to the imperial family’s living quarters. Michael got off first. His coat hem fluttered once in the night air.
“Good work.”
Without even looking back, he walked toward the administrative district. Charlotte watched her brother’s receding back for a moment, leaning against the carriage window. He probably said that, but once he arrived at his office, he would boil tea before opening the reports. And he would fall asleep before the tea got cold. When the next morning came, he would be too lazy to even hold the reports, so he would recite the contents he had memorized in his head. That was that lazy man’s bureaucratic life.
Charlotte chuckled and knocked on the driver’s seat, where there was no coachman. “Let’s go.”
The carriage, without a coachman, carried Charlotte toward the imperial family’s living quarters.
Some time later.
Creak. Charlotte stepped into a modestly decorated room in the Imperial Palace. The door closed, and the sound of the lock engaging rang out softly. Charlotte began to take off what she had been wearing all day. She untied her navy cape first. Next, she removed the silver brooch, folded it, and hung it on the back of the chair. She unbuttoned the detective vest one by one, took off the shirt cuffs, and pulled the silver needle engraved with the Hausen family crest from her hair, placing it on the table.
The silver coin in her pocket was….
“….”
She placed it neatly on the vanity. Charlotte stood in front of the mirror for the last time. And she tapped her temple with her fingertips.
“———-”
With a small sound like a whisper, the girl in the mirror began to change. The color of her blonde hair became brighter. From a gold like a yellow sunset to a gold close to a pale platinum blonde. The short hair that ended above her neck loosened. A pitiful beauty settled into the eyes that had held a decadent arrogance. The daughter of Inspector Hausen disappeared from the mirror. And inside, a girl was looking at the mirror with eyes weary of boredom.
“Haa….”
The girl’s rounded chest rose and fell for a moment. The girl changed into her pajamas and began to tidy her hair. By the time that brushing exceeded twelve times, something trembled inside the vanity drawer. The girl who had been called Charlotte opened the drawer. Deep inside, a small crystal ball wrapped in cloth was trembling minutely. Charlotte placed the crystal ball on the vanity and reached out her hand. Before long, the scenery of an old study appeared inside the crystal ball.
An old man sitting in a leather armchair visible between piles of books in the crystal ball could be seen. The old gentleman, who had only one intact eye, was drinking tea with a white ferret on his lap.
“…Lord Louis. How have you been?”
[Yes. It’s been a while.]
Sip. The Great Sage Louis said as he set down his teacup. “Charlotte. Are you doing well in the palace these days?”
The girl set the comb down on the vanity and gave a bitter smile. “It’s the same as when you last asked. It’s the same as when you asked before that, too.”
Charlotte was a loner. The reason was her nature.
[Hmm. Are you still not fixing the habit of looking into the past when greeting people? It feels too ominous, as if the past is being exposed when I’m with you.]
“What can I do when that is my talent as a mage?”
[Hmm. If that is part of your inner workings, I have nothing to say.]
The Great Sage in the crystal ball sipped his tea and hid his awkwardness. Charlotte Hausen Eschenbalt. A child born between the Emperor and his 17th concubine. The 17th concubine gave birth to Charlotte at a late age and was unable to open her eyes along with a severe fever on the third night. Even a living concubine is crushed by the struggle for rank in the Imperial Palace, so how much more so for the child of a dead concubine? Because of this, Charlotte and Michael were what are commonly called ‘forgotten royals’.
Louis was the guardian of such Charlotte and Michael. It wasn’t that he felt sympathy for their situation. There are nearly a hundred royals whose names aren’t even recorded in the Empire, and the Great Sage didn’t have enough emotion or time to feel pity for all those children. There was only one reason he became Michael and Charlotte’s guardian. It was because their talents piqued his interest slightly.
[How was the magic I taught you?]
“I used it well. There is a condition that deduction must precede it, but it is certainly useful to be able to visualize the past like a picture.”
[I’m glad you liked it. If you master it a little more, it will become possible to see the future like your brother.]
“That human is so lazy that he doesn’t even move after seeing it.”
[That is true. Sigh, tsk tsk. If I had known he was that kind of guy, I wouldn’t have taught him.]
“Then how about me? Instead of just teaching me the basics, don’t you have any intention of taking me on as a full-fledged disciple?”
[No matter how many times you ask, the answer is the same. I already have one disciple this generation. I don’t have enough interest to spare for that guy, so how could I spare any for you?]
“I was just asking.”
Silence flowed across the crystal ball for a moment. The ferret climbed up the armchair armrest to the old man’s shoulder. The white fur curled up fluffily on the old man’s black collar. The Great Sage tickled the fur with his fingers and said.
[Speaking of disciples, how was my disciple? Was it good to meet him?]
Charlotte’s hand stopped on the crystal ball. The Great Sage’s disciple, Julian Schnabel. One day, suddenly, he was the person the Great Sage told her to meet. For this, her brother was assigned to Baron Nihilit’s case, and she had to swallow her pride and ask that lazybones.
— “You, a debutante at sixteen? No way, to think my cute younger sister would finally want a man….”
There was a minor mishap where she personally punched her only sibling in the solar plexus in the process, but….
“….”
Charlotte postponed her answer to the Great Sage’s question and looked at the vanity at the head of her bed. As she looked at the silver coin on the vanity, the events of today played back in her head. Until just before arriving at the Count Belheim estate, she hadn’t expected much. The Great Sage was uncomfortable with meeting her, so it didn’t seem like his disciple would be any different. But Julian was different.
Far from being intimidated by his first impression of seeming to see through the past, he looked at the problem set together with a happy face. Furthermore, he created problems for her based on the case, throwing clues at her one by one. She had never met anyone in her sixteen years of life who would deliberately wait because they wanted to see the process of the other person solving it, even though they already knew the answer. And it was also the first time that a gaze acknowledging her ability had been so pure.
“…”
Charlotte’s lips parted. Before long, she told the Great Sage her impressions of Julian.
“I don’t think there’s anyone else my age who can pose problems for me like that person.”
[You know that wasn’t my question. I’m asking if you like him.]
Charlotte kept her mouth shut and picked up the silver coin. Before long, she answered in a voice that was barely audible.
“If it’s a person like that, I don’t think I’d be bored even if they were by my side for the rest of my life.”
In the study beyond the crystal ball, silence flowed for a long time. The ferret flicked its tail once on the old man’s shoulder. Steam rose thinly from the teacup. Before long, the Great Sage clicked his tongue.
[Tsk. The probability is the signboard.]
“?”
[It’s nothing. I just know that you’ve been completely bewitched.]
At those words, she turned the tips of her ears red and said, “Th-that’s not it! It’s curiosity at most, no, something like a spirit of inquiry….”
[Yes, yes. It’s a good time to be.]
The old man waved his hand and cut off her words. [Good. Then I will build a bridge to the Baron family under the name of the ‘Hausen Marquis family’. If you need it, I will even arrange fake parents. However, that child also has his own circumstances, so meet as Charlotte for the time being.]
“Until when?”
[Judge that for yourself. When that child is in a position where it’s okay for an Imperial Princess to be by his side, wouldn’t it be natural to reveal it then?]
“…Thank you, Lord Louis.”
[This is as far as I can go as a guardian. My role is to hold the umbrella, but I have no intention of getting involved in what happens under the umbrella. You two handle the rest.]
The old man scratched behind the ferret’s ears. The ferret narrowed its eyes and stretched its neck. That was the last image of the old man that Charlotte saw. The light of the crystal ball went out, and it returned to a cold glass marble. Charlotte wrapped the crystal ball in cloth again and pushed it deep into the drawer. And just as she was about to turn her body toward the bed for sleep, the silver coin on the vanity caught her eye.
“….”
The girl hesitated for a moment, looked around, and then left those words toward the outside of the door, “I will wake up on my own tomorrow morning. Do not come into the room.”
She left those words toward the outside of the door, picked up the silver coin on the vanity, and while clutching the coin tightly in her hand, she entered the blanket and turned off the light.