Son of the Dawn (6)
"I am deeply sorry to have shown you so unsightly a sight."
The Japanese still carried a slightly peculiar accent. Heavy shadow lay beneath the woman's eyes, lending her a strangely weary air, and she spoke with a faint, quiet smile.
It was a composure so complete that the scene from only moments before became impossible to imagine. The atmosphere was such that Hitomi even caught herself wondering whether the woman had been swapped for a twin without anyone noticing.
"I am Eleanor Thomson, Grand Master of the London Hall."
"Ah, um, I'm Ninomae Hitomi..."
"I have heard the name. To meet in person the wife of Bartholomew Margarita — it is truly an honor."
There was something thoroughly mature in the way the conversation proceeded. Both in looks and in manner, she left the impression of someone oddly grown.
The fashion, at least, defied comment. And yet it wasn't that the clothes failed to suit her when one actually looked, which only made them harder to judge. Hitomi made a point of turning her eyes elsewhere.
"In any case... thank you, truly, for bringing Hellel — Lucifer — back to us. To think you found him wandering out there, unable to come home."
"Ah, um, yes. You're very welcome...?"
Lucifer himself had sounded as though he would rather die than go back. Hitomi swallowed the words that had climbed all the way to her throat. Point that out to someone who had just shown them a side like this, and there was no telling what sort of rampage might follow.
"By the way, how did Lucifer come to escape... to end up outside?"
It was Seoyeon who put the question. Slipping free of confinement under an obsessive like this could not have been easy, and she found herself curious what method had been used.
"A close aide betrayed me."
"...Oh dear."
The sigh was a courtesy of sympathy offered to her, and at the same time a lament for the end that aide must have met. The details were unclear, but there was no chance the person had died cleanly.
Even so, the pity did not run deep. Lucifer may have been put through a rather miserable ordeal, but he — or she — was a great demon the Church regarded as a dangerous element beyond any hope of rehabilitation. Simply unleashing a Demon King who had been properly sealed was cause enough to be hunted down and killed by the Church. Of course, in that case one would at least have had the distinction of dying cleanly.
"I could not believe it. To dare kidnap Hellel and sell him off."
"Was money the aim?"
Given her distorted perception, of course, the one who had paid was almost certainly Lucifer himself. He would have promised gold and jewels in exchange for being let out. Even so, to go so far as this, the aide must unquestionably have needed cash in a hurry.
"Yes. More precisely, it seems the money was required for this."
So saying, Eleanor Thomson reached into her bosom.
"W-wait, where are you putting your hand?!"
Ninomae Hitomi recoiled in horror. Undeterred, Eleanor drew something out and set it on the table. It was a slip of paper about the size of a banknote.
"...Huh?"
A question mark rose over Hitomi's head. It wasn't that she failed to recognize the thing. Quite the opposite — she knew it so well that her first thought was why on earth it was turning up here.
"Hitomi, this wouldn't happen to be..."
"Yes. It's a festival ticket..."
Han Seoyeon, as if she too had realized what it was, looked to Hitomi for confirmation. It was an admission ticket to the music festival Hitomi had been scheduled to attend under the name Mary — and not just any ticket, but one for day one, the day of Mary's stage.
"Perhaps because it is Sarah Groothuizen's first performance, I am told the tickets are exceedingly difficult to obtain. By the person's own account, the price came to roughly this much..."
"...That's in yen, right?"
"Dollars."
"Euugh... Though I suppose that figures."
The value, at least, was something even Hitomi had no choice but to accept. In the VTuber industry, Sarah Groothuizen was one of those names you reached quickly counting down from the top. If someone of that standing was giving a stage performance she had never once attempted, the demand could only be staggering, and it was easy enough to understand why scalper prices had shot through the roof.
"Mmm. But at this rate, won't the actual fans be the ones who can't come...?"
Understanding it as logic was a separate matter from being glad of it. The more scalping flourished and resale multiplied, the fewer chances remained for the real fans.
"Ah. I am told the scalping problem is not so severe."
At Hitomi's worry, Eleanor gave a light shake of her head.
"Everything concerning scalped tickets appears to be under extremely thorough control by Hyakuren's people. Few even attempt it in the first place, and those who do rarely succeed — and that is how a sum like this comes to be."
Demand was demand, but the price had also been born of a supply that had simply collapsed. Hitomi nodded, somewhat relieved by Eleanor's explanation. Well, even among those trying to attend through proper channels, the war for tickets must have been ferocious.
"In any case, allow me to thank you once more for your cooperation on this occasion."
"Not at all. I only did what ought to be done, as a Holy Knight."
"He was truly difficult to find. He went so far as to invert his sex to cover his tracks, which made the search exceedingly hard."
With that, Eleanor bowed her head once more in thanks.
"Hellel in particular limps a little on the left leg upon becoming a woman. To wander for any length of time must have been quite the ordeal, so it is truly fortunate he was found so quickly."
"Uh... pardon?"
The words that followed left them no choice but to tilt their heads.
"Did Lucifer limp on his left leg?"
Once Eleanor had taken Lucifer and departed, Hitomi put the question to Seoyeon. He had been restrained for nearly the whole of the time, so there had hardly been a chance to look, but at least so far as Hitomi had seen, his legs hadn't seemed impaired. What was more, it hadn't been "he always limped," but "he limps once he becomes a woman," and something about that phrasing sat wrong.
"Has he taken a female form before, maybe? Did she check his legs then?"
"I believe there has been no such occasion. This would be the first."
"Then what on earth was that just now?"
"A setting she invented on the spot, I imagine."
To Hitomi, whose face said she understood none of it, Han Seoyeon offered a bitter smile by way of explanation.
"A setting? No — that isn't for a real person, that's for a character..."
"It has its meaning. Do you remember why you became a True Ancestor vampire, Hitomi?"
"Huh? That's... because Mary is a True Ancestor, right...?"
"Correct. Where there is sufficient faith, it is possible for a particular setting to encroach upon reality."
In Hitomi's case, almost no one truly believed she was a real vampire, and she was a human in possession of a material body, so the influence remained slight. A demon that did not depend upon a body, however, was bound to be affected far more.
"Of course, in her case, satisfying all by herself the faith required for such a thing is remarkable."
Eleanor Thomson, Grand Master of the London Hall. After "crazy yandere," the nickname she heard most often was the Walking Human Ranch — or the Ranch-Human.
"She has come to believe, in all sincerity, that a Lucifer turned woman is like this. Before long, I expect Lucifer really will be limping."
Others had to lock human beings away and build a ranch of prayer just to obtain a single meaningful fragment. For her to establish the same thing entirely on her own was a level of absurdity beyond words. Had this talent of hers come to light even a few years sooner, and had that frenzied obsession not been fixed on Lucifer alone, the Seven Sisters might well be known by another name.
"...She's a dangerous person."
"Leave her entirely alone and she not only seals the Demon King, but weakens him besides, so from the Church's perspective she is someone to be grateful for."
That, of course, was a separate matter from wanting anything to do with her. Say one wrong word, and it was all too common to be made to sit through an hour of the self-published Hellel-chan Setting Collection she had written.
"Anyway, our part in this is finished, so shall we head back? It's already late. You must be tired?"
"Mmm... how do I put it. Sleep's gone completely."
It had been, in every sense, a storm of a night. Han Seoyeon had said she would step out for a moment and come right back, only to return with an archdemon in bonds. A senior from work had turned out to be a Freemason. A yokai Hitomi had forgotten about had shown up to drive them. And then, on top of all of it, someone who seemed distinctly unwell in the head...
Hitomi's need for sleep had already dwindled since she became a vampire, and with one incident detonating after another, even what remained had been startled clean out of her. Well — if she lay down meaning to sleep, it wasn't as if she couldn't. She thought for a moment, then seemed to land on another idea, and gave Seoyeon's sleeve a light tug.
"Um, since we're already out, would you like to go on a date tonight?"
The words took a little courage. The two of them had both been so busy lately that they hadn't set a day aside just to go out.
"...Of course, Hitomi."
From the way Seoyeon's eyes went wide, she clearly hadn't expected any such proposal. A moment later, though, she let out a soft breath of a laugh and drew Hitomi's shoulders lightly into one arm.
When the yes came back, Hitomi looked up into her face and smiled, shy and bright.
"Honestly. How is it that you are this adorable."
"Eep."
She was still a little shy of a name she wasn't used to, not having said it often, and Seoyeon kissed the bridge of her nose.
"Hm."
The bear that had been watching from a corner of the room rummaged out a notebook and began writing a letter of regards to a friend in the north, on the thinking that the house was likely to be lost before long, and that it would be wise to keep a room open at the Mary Shrine.