Speak of the Devil
Yulia had drawn close to Blow before he quite noticed. She gazed at him steadily, then spoke.
"Young Master, do you know where this is?"
"No. I don't, really. It's my first time. I've never even set foot in a forest before."
"This is my secret place."
"A secret place?"
"Yes. I used to come here alone. When things grew hard, I'd come to sort out my thoughts."
Just as she said, the water was clear, and the air that entered with every breath held not a single impurity. It looked, indeed, like the perfect place to set one's mind in order.
"You shared a secret with me."
"......"
"So I wanted to share one of mine with you, too."
Thank goodness. Senior wasn't angry after all.
The tightness had already left Yulia's face, and Blow was still pressing a quiet hand to his chest in relief when she stepped slowly closer. Eyes brimming, she looked up at him and spoke as if making a plea.
"Young Master."
"Yes, Senior."
"I'd like to hold you, just for a moment. Would that be all right?"
"If that's what you want."
The words were hardly out before Yulia wrapped her arms around him. Blow's hands, startled and with nowhere to go, hovered uselessly in the air, and Yulia, her face buried against his chest, spoke in a voice thick with tears.
"Thank you, Young Master."
"Senior."
"Thank you for telling me your secret. It must have been hard to say."
"......"
"And I'm sorry. For not being a better person than I am."
"I'm the one who should apologize, Senior. I ought to have told you long before this..."
"No. If I'd been as good a person as Jane, you would have told me right away. From now on, I'll truly try to become someone like that. All right?"
"Senior..."
Tears were already slipping down as Yulia looked up at him.
She really does think of me. Not long ago, all I felt was the weight of it.
When Blow, thinking so, stroked her hair, Yulia closed her eyes for a moment, opened them again, and smiled at him.
"Young Master. I prepared something. Could you wait just a moment? There's something I brought."
"Of course."
A little later Yulia returned from the carriage with a basket. She drew out a cloth whose checkered pattern stood bright against the grass, then produced wine and cheese as well.
"Have a drink with me."
"All right."
"I've come here often, but this is the first time I've come with anyone—or had a drink here."
"You must have been lonely."
"Not anymore. So I'm all right."
They had each taken about three glasses when Yulia, her face flushed—whether from the wine or not—spoke first.
"Young Master. At first, I truly couldn't understand you."
"You mean when I dueled Greig?"
"Yes. Honestly, I thought you were a little foolish. I felt the same when I heard the rumors about Drenor."
"......"
"But when I read the notebook yesterday, I understood. If I had been through something like that, I think my feelings for the people around me would have grown deeper, too."
"They did. They still do."
"Yes. That's why Jane is... I envy her."
"Jane and I do go back a long way. She's always been the same."
"I envy that you can't help being special to her... and also..."
For some reason Yulia couldn't finish. She let out a faint sigh, then turned the talk elsewhere so plainly that the change of subject showed.
"And until yesterday, the way you think anything up, just like that, made you seem like someone I could never reach."
"I see. I'm sorry. I'm an ordinary person."
"No. You're a remarkable person, Young Master."
"I am?"
"I read the notebook carefully. You're the one who pushed through the dark and turned it into something good."
"......"
"If I had gone through that and come back, I think I would simply have been grateful for what I was given and settled there. Or I would have lost my mind the moment I spent my childhood in that world."
Thinking on it, Yulia had always seen him in the best light. No matter what he said, she was the one whose eyes shone as she told him it was good. For a moment Blow felt small—the self who had worried, however briefly, over what he would do if she thought ill of him.
"Today, I was being a little spiteful with you."
"Spiteful?"
"Yes. What I said to you earlier..."
"Ah..."
"I was just a tiny, tiny bit hurt. I did wish you had told me a little sooner."
"That hardly counts as spite. I was a little nervous, is all."
"How could I ever go further than this with you? No matter what happens from now on, I'll stop here. So if I start sulking, bring me back to this place."
When she said it like a plea, Blow nodded readily. Yulia smiled again and, with the lake behind her, lifted her glass once more.
"But, Young Master—are Jane and I the only ones who know this secret?"
"Yes."
"That's nice."
"Nice, how?"
"It's proof I've become someone important to you. Even Lady Rachel and Hervena don't know a secret that I do..."
"Now that you mention it, that's true."
"In that spirit, I prepared something. Give me your left hand, Young Master."
At her words, Blow held his hand out toward her. Yulia carefully drew out a watch and fastened around his wrist the one she had chosen and chosen again. It looked as though it had been wrought of platinum, a timepiece shining white. Startled at the sight of it, Blow spoke to her with care.
"Senior, this seems far too fine a gift."
"No. I wanted it to be this, more than anything else."
"I'm not sure I could bring myself to wear something this precious properly..."
"Wear it as roughly as you like. I can have another made for you."
"I'll be sure to repay you later."
"Instead of later, how about a wish I can grant right now?"
"If it's something I can grant, I will."
Yulia hesitated a moment. Then, as if embarrassed, she lowered the eyes that had met his.
"Sometimes, I wish you would look at me."
"At you, Senior?"
"Yes. I mean I want you to see Yulia simply as one person."
"......"
"We're excellent business partners, but I always see Blow as a person. I hope you might do the same."
"Senior..."
"I know. I only ever seem distant, and I'm not an easy person to grow close to. But with you, at least, I want to try."
Her consideration alone would have been enough to be grateful for, and now she was offering effort besides. Blow, whose heart could hardly help but stir, found himself with no choice but to nod to Yulia, whose eyes had already found his.
"Then I'll try."
"In that case, I, Yulia, have nothing more to ask of you."
"But now that you know all of my secrets, I'm afraid I'll have no choice but to lean on you a little more."
"Truly?"
"Yes. One way or another..."
"As much as you like—as much as you like, that's perfectly fine!"
Even so, a little of my sincerity reached him.
While Yulia thought as much, smiling softly at him and taking in the sight of Blow in her place, the lake and the trees of the short winter day were slowly steeping in the orange of the sunset.
By the time the carriage brought them back to Restaurant Hills, evening had already gone dim. Blow, sobered in the meantime, finished the night's service, while Yulia sat at an empty table and worked through the tasks that needed doing. After closing, Hills held only Jane, Yulia, and Blow, just as it had the night before, and for a moment nothing but an awkward quiet hung in the air.
"It was Jihu, wasn't it?"
It was the first time he had heard that name in this world. Blow flinched, cleared his throat, and could only look her way.
"Right? Jihu..."
"Yes. That was it."
"It all feels wondrous. Every last bit of it, doesn't it, Jane?"
"Yes. They're things I could never have imagined."
"Then that place Young Master Blow spoke of—the one that sells all manner of things. Did it truly exist?"
"Yes. It's called a department store. That's where I got the idea."
"It feels like hearing of a forgotten kingdom passed down from mouth to mouth. If I could go just once, I'd have no wishes left."
"I'd like to see it at least once myself."
Anywhere else, perhaps not—but if he could visit Grandpa's columbarium, Blow thought that would be good. And if at all possible, the convenience store where Grandpa had worked until the very end.
While Blow was lost in the thought, Yulia leaned toward him and went on.
"If that ever becomes possible, you must go with me, Young Master."
"Gladly, if there's a way..."
"Jane too. It would be nice if Jane came along..."
"If I ever went, I'd want to try the fried chicken, at least..."
"Ah, that food written further on? The one that's crispy?"
The two of them, as ever, showing a profound interest in food. Watching them, Blow let out a short laugh and told them so.
"Since it's out anyway, I'll look into it. I've picked up a thing or two."
"That would be wonderful! But since we were talking about lost kingdoms—were there places like that in your world? Forgotten kingdoms, and the like?"
"Plenty. Eldorado, a whole city said to be made of gold. Atlantis, buried under the sea..."
"Eldorado. Atlantis."
Yulia and Jane alike, as if the names were wonders, sounded them out several times. Then Yulia, her face bright, turned her gaze on Blow and spoke.
"The three of us—shall we call the circle of people who know your secret the Eldorado Assembly? What do you think, Jane?"
"I think it's a good idea."
"Everything you've been through can become an idea! If we give it a name like this and hold regular meetings, I think we'll be able to study it all the more seriously."
Yulia spilled the words out like an excited child. Jane, who had quietly been thinking that if she and Blow fell out it would make things difficult in all sorts of ways, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Blow, for his part, was simply grateful that Yulia was thinking it through with such fervor.
After that, Blow and Jane told Yulia what the two of them had sorted out the day before regarding Randolph.
"That tracks. I don't think we can conclude that Prince Randolph is a reincarnator. How certain are you, as a percentage?"
"I'm about eighty percent certain."
"That much?"
"What you get from popping corn is called popcorn. He put it in a roundabout way, but it was something you simply couldn't mistake."
"Eighty is quite high, isn't it, Young Master?"
"I'd say so. Truth is, if it's off at all, it's higher, not lower."
"But, Young Master, I thought of it this way, too."
With that, Yulia took a drink of water and added,
"If I assumed I were a reincarnator, and then I saw someone I suspected of being one, I think I'd test the waters. What sort of person are they, really? What are they thinking?"
"Test the waters..."
"Just as we don't know His Highness, His Highness wouldn't know Young Master Blow either. What he keeps inside..."
"That's true. Neither of us knows what the other is really thinking."
"That's what I mean. This is a rational judgment, not a generous one. His Highness is such a quiet man that it only makes it more so..."
"Then for now, all we can do is watch."
"We agreed to see him again when we go to the Imperial Capital in winter. By then, I imagine we'll have learned something more. I'll mobilize everything I can, too—once the election season is over."
"Ah. Only two weeks left, now that I think of it."
"Yes. If I become student council president, I'll be able to stand before you as someone even more assured."
Yulia's voice was full of certainty. Hearing it, Blow felt that there was more to worry over than before, and yet his heart grew easier.
"While we're on the subject—your experience of that other world is tied to the Spirit of Space, isn't it?"
"Yes. It's what took me to that world."
"Hmm. Prince Randolph's spirit is an ordinary one, as I recall. Isn't that right, Jane?"
"Yes. That's how I remember it, too."
"If we assume a spirit mediates between worlds, we may not be able to treat Young Master Blow and Prince Randolph as the same case."
"I think so, too. It could even be a case of being born and simply finding that this was already the world one was in."
"That seems the more rational view. It does make me all the more curious about the results of your experiment."
Talk of the Spirit of Space led naturally to the experiment. Jane, Yulia, and Blow alike couldn't help a certain anticipation for the second trial soon to begin. If it went very well, they might even find a way to pass between that world and this one.
"Young Master—now that I think of it, wasn't Lady Lisleia supposed to arrive around now?"
"Yes. Actually, I've been waiting to hear from Professor Mnevoir..."
Just then came the sound of someone knocking at the door of Hills. Jane rose and went to it. She ought to have kept the door shut in the middle of so important a conversation, but she paused and exchanged a few words with someone. Yulia, having seen who it was, offered Blow a faint sigh.
"Speak of the devil."
"What do you mean?"
"From the mana, it's Assistant Christina. Professor Mnevoir's..."
Before she had finished, Christina came in. Blow stood to greet her, and the assistant offered him a courteous bow.
"Student Blow. Professor Mnevoir asks to see you briefly tomorrow."