An Apology No One Saw Coming

"……"

A frigid silence settled over Nina's room.

Everyone except Nina was staring at the towel lying on the floor, doubting their own eyes. Even Joel, unwilling to believe that the thing was actually down there at his feet, pulled his robe tighter around himself and stood there in sheepish stillness.

"……"

"……"

Chayson was trembling as he tore a single button from his shirt cuff and crushed it in his fist — a tiny bomb that would detonate the instant it was thrown. Katahari, who had been glaring at Joel as if she meant to kill him on the spot, had already unclasped her sharp-edged bracelet and closed her hand around it.

'These insufferable Soltum bastards.'

'Insolent, fox-faced wretches!'

Whatever their different affiliations, they were officially collaborating — and yet these people kept barging in however they pleased. No doubt he'd crept over the balcony with some bizarre magitech contraption again, and probably intended to hide the fact that he'd come at all.

This was something that could only happen if you regarded all four nations besides Soltum as an outright joke. They decided they would not stand for it any longer.

"Joel Smiler! You handed Nina a magic rifle without so much as consulting us!"

"And now a honey trap that wasn't even part of the plan, you— mmph!"

"Mmph?!"

Natalisha and Exi clamped their hands over the mouths of the two men before they could lunge.

"Chayson, dear brother. You've got something on your mouth."

"You've got something on your mouth too, sis."

Natalisha and Exi dragged the kicking, struggling Chayson and Katahari out of the room.

"Nina, you and the young gentleman next door wait here for a moment. No funny business."

"We'll go wipe our uncle's and our sister's mouths and be right back. Ah — Sister. A word of advice: do not bite."

The moment the door slammed shut behind the two hauled-out stragglers, they were unceremoniously dumped onto the hallway floor.

"Oof! My back!"

While Chayson rubbed the throbbing small of his back, bruised by the sack of gunpowder he'd hidden back there, Katahari rounded on Exi with fury in her eyes.

"I was about to put that Soltum fox down for good today — why the hell are you interfering, you lunatic?"

"You already bit my hand. Grabbing my collar on top of that is excessive violence."

"Drop the infuriating way you talk! How would you like to die in my place?"

「Did someone call for Juger?」

"Gyah! You scared me!"

The domestic clockwork doll Juger Number 4 had poked her head smoothly around the corner, and the two of nearly jumped out of their skins. Exi shook off Katahari's grip and slipped soundlessly back into the shadows.

"You're a tin-can robot on wheels. I'd love to know how you managed the stairs."

「When you call for Juger, I will find you anywhere in this house. Of. course. nat-u-ral-ly.」

Juger Number 4 opened her mouth in an unnaturally stiff smile of perfect helpfulness — and the simmering Katahari hurled her bracelet at her.

"Nobody called you, so get lost!"

THWANG!

Tap.

Juger Number 4's gaze followed the bracelet as it bounced off her face and dropped to the floor. Then, when the clockwork doll lifted her head again, one of her eyes was glowing a furious red.

「You would do well to correct your uncivilized manner of speech. I can assist with that, you know? An excellent pri. vate. tu-tor.」

Click-clack.

Before anyone realized it, the wok in Juger Number 4's hand had become a shotgun Mossberg, radiating menace. Exi pressed her back flat against the shadowed wall and spoke up hurriedly.

"I retract Katahari's remark on her behalf. We apologize."

"……?"

Katahari turned to stare at her in disbelief, and Exi added gravely:

"That thing is a clockwork doll. Poison doesn't work on it."

Poison hadn't worked, but the apology apparently had — Juger Number 4 slotted the shotgun back into the wok.

「How commendable, that you can read a situation? Should you ever require my assistance, simply call. It is all. part. of. my. rou. tine.」

With a grinding of gears, she vanished down the stairs. Natalisha listened warily for the sound of wheels, half expecting Juger to circle back, and finally let out a sigh. Her gaze, sweeping the cluttered hallway, was ice-cold.

"Chayson. Katahari. Pull yourselves together and focus. Have you forgotten that playing the role of Nina Bones's family is our assignment?"

"……"

"In a situation like the one just now, a real family would be furious because there was an half-dressed man in Nina Bones's room. Not because of some magic rifle."

The gentle warmth Natalisha had shown in front of Nina was gone without a trace, leaving only something bleak and frost-glazed. Chayson and Katahari, with nothing to say in their defense, quietly stowed away the bomb and the bracelet.

"You're right, Natalisha. Let's go get angry all over again."

"That fox-faced bastard makes my blood boil just looking at him. It won't happen again."

Natalisha regarded the two of them coldly, then turned away. They straightened their clothes and readied themselves to reenter Nina's room.

Before opening the door, Exi offered Katahari a casual piece of advice.

"You're far too emotional. That fiery temper of yours needs killing."

"Why should my perfectly innocent personality die? Quiet down before I kill you instead."

"I am a virtuoso of poison."

"That was my knife grazing your ribs just now."

"……I shall be quiet."

The moment Exi opened the door, Chayson and Katahari bellowed as if they'd been lying in wait.

"You scoundrel! How dare you seduce sweet, innocent Nina and slink into her room!"

"You degenerate pervert! Lay so much as a fingertip on Nina and you're dead, do you hear me?!"

"Oh my!"

Startled, Nina covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes going wide — while Joel, defying their expectation that he would brazen it out, simply bowed his head without protest.

"I apologize for calling without giving any notice beforehand. And for appearing in attire unsuited to the occasion…… I have been terribly rude."

"……!"

All four of them were plunged into shock.

'……He's apologizing?'

This was the Joel who, when people shouted at pre-meetings that they hated the noise, had emergency chairs installed behind them to catch them when they toppled over backward — and never once thought himself at fault. The Joel who, complaining that meetings ran too long, had emergency escape hatches installed under everyone's feet and sent anyone who talked longer than five minutes straight down to the basement — and never once felt sorry about it.

And that man had apologized.

The first to recover her composure was the levelheaded Natalisha.

"Nina. Are you in a situation where you need help? I can't imagine why the sickly young gentleman from next door would be in here."

She barely managed to swallow the words 'that hideous, disgraceful sight of a man.'

Nina glanced at Chayson and Katahari — who seemed to have gone from furious back to calm — and summoned an awkward smile.

"Everyone, please don't misunderstand. Joel is a gentleman who would never sneak into a lady's room uninvited. As it happens, I invited him."

Suddenly stripped of his gentleman status, Exi sulked and retreated into the shadows. Chayson eyed Joel's scant attire up and down, still dubious.

"You invited him, Nina? You?"

"Of course! If anything, it was me who visited Joel's balcony uninvited."

Nina answered with a bright smile, then moved to pick up the towel.

"Oh, Joel — by the way, you dropped this."

"Nina. Please, do not bend down. I'm begging you."

Joel shut his eyes tight and flicked the towel up with the toe of his foot, catching it over his shoulder.

"So you do have a sense of shame in you after all."

Katahari murmured in genuine admiration, as though she'd made a startling scientific discovery.

"You didn't hear the lobby's front door open — so how exactly did you answer an invitation from Nina?"

At Natalisha's question, Joel pointed to the rope that ran out to the balcony.

"Nina crossed over to me on that rope and carried me here in her arms."

"That's a lie. Nina's arms are slender and delicate. How could Nina possibly…… how could Nina……?"

Exi, who had been ready to fire off an accusation, found herself unable to finish — the more she turned it over in her mind, the more it somehow seemed entirely plausible that Nina could have done exactly that.

Sensing that the atmosphere between her family and Joel was turning distinctly sour, Nina bit at the tip of her fingernail.

"Oh dear. Whatever am I to do? Was it because I invited him over too hastily?"

"That isn't it."

"Really?"

"Yes. Though as it happens, I came over in rather thin clothing. The weather is warm, certainly — but for a sickly young gentleman such as myself, it may be a touch too cold, so I believe it would be best if I returned home for today."

"You came all this way, though? And if the cold is the problem, then here — how's this? Warm, right?"

Nina draped a black wool cloak over Joel's shoulders. Chayson flinched and swept his eyes over the cloak with practiced speed.

'Is that a blade gash? That one looks like a bullet graze. There's even a scorch mark from an explosion. It looks sturdy, but what on earth did she wear it for that it ended up like that?'

Nina beamed with pride as she tidied the cloak around his shoulders.

"It's the cloak I wore back in my maid days, so it has quite a few marks on it — but I wore it to keep warm even in Ilite, which is colder than here, so it should be nice and cozy."

It was a cloak that looked fit for a covert operation, but Joel's imposing frame left it far too short to close properly. Every time the hem flapped open, the robe beneath was displayed in its entirety, seizing the gaze of everyone in the room.

"If you like the cloak, shall I give you that as a thank-you gift?"

"Nina. Please reconsider."

Watching Joel struggle in vain to fasten the cloak shut, Exi squeezed her eyes shut.

'I give up on sight.'