Information (2)
Information (2)
Still, Bella was a character who at least existed in the setting. Even if she died and never appeared in the main story, she showed up in flashback scenes. They only made do with a single illustration without any modeling, but still.
She was using that soft, gentle voice, but that was only because there were people around. In reality, her personality was far gloomier. Her eyes were always half-closed, and she wore a sardonic little smile at the corner of her mouth.
Though the way she practically always had her cleavage on display seemed to be one thing that never changed, no matter the situation.
And she was wearing exactly that kind of outfit.
She had on a tight-fitting tank top and a jacket with an extremely cropped hem, which left the space between her breasts entirely exposed. Honestly, if you saw someone dressed like that on the subway, it'd have been so awkward you'd have struggled to find somewhere to rest your eyes.
It was only a little embarrassing by my standards, having lived in the 21st century. In this world, it truly qualified as an almost unimaginable outfit. And a person who was an imperial princess was wearing it, at that.
"Ah."
Alice, who had been returning after finishing her order, made a disgusted face when she saw Bella sitting in the empty seat.
Of course, Bella didn't seem to mind Alice's reaction much.
This was why the relationship between Claire and Alice hadn't been easily mended in the original work.
Alice, who had been the emperor's daughter from birth, had been able to grow up without lacking for anything—setting aside how the emperor's way of expressing affection was somewhat bizarre. She wore clothes made from the finest materials and ate meals prepared with high-quality ingredients. She had worked hard herself, but honestly, her background was more than sufficient to support that effort.
But Claire hadn't had that. Having been sold to a brothel and endured all sorts of horrible things, Claire couldn't fully empathize with Alice's way of thinking, and they clashed at every turn.
The emperor's other children were no different. There wasn't a single one among the emperor's children who'd lived a life as uniquely bleak as Claire's. Bella, who'd been through her own share of hardships, was the one who'd managed to sympathize with Claire and stayed on friendly terms with her.
It wasn't strange at all that by the time she'd entered the academy, Claire had essentially become Bella mk 2.
Of course, in this version, instead of Claire being brought in as the emperor's child, I was here. I didn't know whether it was because they were cautious of me or because my existence had eliminated the need to infiltrate a dangerous place with a fake imperial princess or prince, but anyway, Bella had survived. The only thing that had changed was my existence, so it was probably reasonable to assume I was the reason she'd lived.
"...... Why are you here?"
Alice spoke as if thoroughly displeased as she took her seat. Bella, still resting her chin in her hand, merely shrugged.
"To see my little sisters' faces, it's been a while?"
"There's no way that's the reason. We're not exactly close like that."
"How hurtful."
Bella let out a sigh as if she were truly disappointed. Though it was easy to tell she wasn't sincere, since the gesture was visibly a little exaggerated.
"You might not be close with me, but our adorable youngest and I are fairly chummy, you know?"
"You and Sylvia?"
"......."
I didn't say anything and just quietly watched the two of them talk. I didn't think me butting in would stop them from arguing, and I also didn't get the sense that their verbal sparring would escalate to a dangerous level.
"Why? It's true, isn't it? Sylvia hardly forms relationships with anyone else. So with someone like me, wouldn't it be fair to call our relationship close?"
"If you want to split hairs like that, then I—"
"Isn't it a little too simplistic to think that just because you're close with her, we can't be close too? Relationships between people can naturally overlap."
"That's not something I'd expect to hear from you, considering how much you hate getting close to other people."
I turned my gaze toward where the waitress was. From the moment we'd first entered the shop until then, the waitress had been sitting down, nodding off drowsily. There were hardly any customers, so she probably didn't have anything to do. That might've been why Alice had gone straight to the counter earlier without waiting for the waitress.
"Saying that kind of thing to me is hard to believe anyway, so why don't you just state your purpose? Beating around the bush will only take you farther from it."
"What, are you trying to protect her because she's your little sister? Honestly speaking, it looks more like you're the one being protected, not doing the protecting."
"......."
Seeing Alice glare at Bella, I slowly opened my mouth.
"What business brings you here?"
"Well, obviously......"
"If you genuinely wanted to foster some goodwill, you could have come to see me whether I was at the academy or elsewhere."
I spoke while calmly looking at Bella.
"Isn't it rather that you had something to tell me, which is why you appeared like this? Lucas didn't show himself to me either until he had something on his mind."
"...... Did you hear something from Lucas?"
"He told me he'd kill me someday."
"What?"
"He really said that!?"
Bella asked again, sounding incredulous, and Alice was outraged.
Judging by Bella's reaction, Lucas must have left the emperor's side right after talking to me back in Winterfield. Well, if Lucas had still been there, there would have been no reason for Bella to come find me like this.
"...... Lucas said that? Really? *He* did? To *you*?"
Seeing Bella flustered with an expression she really didn't wear often, I thought I'd done well to bring this up.
"For what reason?"
Alice reacted with the same disbelief, but without bothering to explain separately, I just glanced sidelong at Bella.
"......."
Whether they understood my meaning or not, both Alice and Bella fell silent for a moment.
"...... Hoo."
Bella let out a heavy sigh, as if the table might collapse under it.
"Well, fine. Now that I think it over, I guess I have a rough idea why he might've said that."
Then she ran a hand through her hair.
"Looks like I'm going to get busy."
Having muttered that like a lament, Bella continued right on, as if to prove she meant it.
"You know about the casino near Northwood, right?"
"The largest casino in the empire, built by clearing out the middle of a forest."
Of course I knew.
And hearing the timing of just-entering-June combined with talk about that casino, something else came to mind.
"Has a Holy State faction infiltrated the casino?"
"A Holy State faction has—"
Bella, who'd started speaking almost simultaneously with me, closed her mouth when she heard my voice overlapping hers.
"...... You knew?"
"......."
I didn't bother answering.
Alice was also staring at me, her mouth hanging blankly open.
"Then do you know who infiltrated it?"
"Isn't it a knight from the Cathedral Knights?"
"If you just say a knight from the Cathedral Knights, you can't know exactly who. Though there are few enough of them you could count each one."
Bella asked, as if probing.
"If you wanted a method no one would suspect, it'd be best to send in someone no one would suspect."
"......."
At Bella's gesture of her chin, as if telling me to go on, I continued.
"All the female knights of the Cathedral Knights are also nuns at the same time. So if you dressed one of them in an extremely provocative outfit and sent her in, an ordinary person wouldn't even realize that person was a knight of the Holy State."
Because that's how it had been in the original work.
Who on earth would ever think a woman in a bunny costume was a nun, no matter how you looked at it?
Besides, her personality wasn't very nun-like either.
"...... And?"
Bella pressed me with an uncharacteristically serious expression.
"However, a devout Cathedral Knight would harbor a strong aversion to engaging in such unreligious behavior, and even the Holy State wouldn't want to deliberately provoke the resentment of knights who are each too valuable to lose. So the person who first came up with that idea would, by nature, have to be an unusual knight with that sort of personality to begin with."
And among the Cathedral Knights, there was exactly one woman character who was that out of her mind.
I mean, sure, most of the Cathedral Knights were crazy fanatics. But there was one person who was crazy in a slightly different sense.
"So, who do you think it is?"
"Isn't it Eliza?"
"......."
At my answer, Bella's expression stiffened slightly.
Alice still hadn't managed to close her jaw, which was still hanging open.
Well, that made sense. It was probably hot-off-the-press intelligence that even the empire had only just obtained. And on top of that, in the original work, it had been information acquired through an enormous coincidence.
Seeing me rattle off that information so casually, as if I'd known it from the start, would naturally be unnerving.
"......I think I'm starting to understand a little why Lucas said he'd kill you."
Well, that wasn't the reason he'd said it, but it was also true that he'd said he'd kill me because of my abilities.
"......."
Without any reply, I turned my gaze away again and watched the waitress, who'd finally woken up, start moving.
Right on cue, when the waitress picked up the two completed parfaits and began heading this way, Bella didn't press me for further details.
Though she did keep looking at me with eyes that seemed to hold suspicion.
...... Good.
Still, it didn't seem like I needed to completely abandon this whole 'mystique' thing.