The Impossibly Innocent Niece

Could every suspicious thing he'd witnessed so far be explained away as an impossible stack of coincidences and misunderstandings? The question had barely formed in Chaison's mind as he gazed at Nina's bright, guileless face.

"Uncle! Look out!"

"...!"

Nina's expression hardened in an instant. She snatched a pebble off the ground and hurled it desperately in Chaison's direction.

Thwack!

"Urgh...!"

A groan sounded behind him, followed by something clattering to the floor. Chaison, frozen stiff, whipped around in alarm — and caught a fleeting glimpse of someone's retreating back slipping away through the slats of the wooden blinds covering an open window.

They must have planted watchers all over the place to track Nina's movements. But aiming through a gap that narrow and actually hitting it?

Chaison rubbed his stinging cheek and swallowed dryly. Where the pebble had grazed him, a thin line of blood was welling up.

"I'm sorry, Uncle. I was hoping to handle it without anyone getting hurt."

Nina hurried over, on the verge of tears, and drew out a handkerchief to press gently against his cheek.

Chaison pondered, very seriously, what exactly an ordinary girl was supposed to be — then asked, keeping his voice level.

"Nina. Why did you do that? Being looked at shouldn't surprise us by now. Everyone knows your aunt donated to help build this street."

"Oh, did Grandmother do that? But you can stare out of curiosity all you like — this is going too far."

Pouting, Nina plucked something from the back of Chaison's coat.

The moment he laid eyes on the small, round, fingernail-sized object, his face went ice cold. Someone — he had no idea which country's agent — had planted a listening device on his collar.

Not Nina. Me? They're bugging me?

Any spy could see that the street they were visiting, peaceful and leisurely on its surface, was nothing of the kind. The end of the war had meant the end of the five-nation alliance, too. However amicable the public diplomacy might be, wherever the spies of rival nations gathered, a constant back-and-forth over secrets was simply par for the course. Even now, fierce battles of wits were surely unfolding inside one building or another down this very street.

There was, of course, one exception. When it came to the hunt for the Remnants of the Defeated Nation and the project to obtain intelligence on Rikita, everyone was bound to cooperate.

The foxes at Soltum do cut corners now and then, but they wouldn't dare lay a hand on other spies directly...

Chaison gently lifted the blinds to get another proper look inside the window. But the hidden operatives had already stormed the building and were conducting their search. Apart from a sliver of glass one of them lifted with a pair of tweezers, they didn't seem to have found a single trace.

"Uncle, what would you like to do with this?"

Nina held up the listening device for him to see.

"I'll hold on to it for now."

"Huh? You want to keep it? I was asking how you'd like it disposed of. Honestly, just how naive are you planning to be...?"

"Let me say it again — the most naive person here is you."

Chaison held out his hand for the device.

"Well, if that's what my uncle wishes, I suppose I have no choice. Like this, it'll be rather hard to bug anyone."

Nina peeled the foil off a stick of gum and wrapped the device inside. The crumpled, wrinkled foil gleamed like a tiny mineral.

Chaison stared down at it with a complicated expression.

"Did they teach you that at the estate, too?"

"Oh, I only picked it up over the young master's shoulder, during his private lessons."

Watching her smile with her eyes folded into crescents, Chaison quietly retracted the thought he'd had just moments ago.

Telling myself to get a grip, and I nearly slipped again. A maid who carries a harpoon gun simply cannot be called ordinary.

His revised opinion only hardened the moment they stepped into the tea house.

"Nina?"

"Oh my — May!"

Nina lit up at the sight of a familiar face. May, dressed in a simple dress with a shawl draped over her shoulders, approached with light steps and a radiant smile.

"I heard you were leaving for Soltum, but I never dreamed I'd run into you here."

"I know! What brings you here?"

"A vacation, I suppose. Soltum is such a warm, free country — people like us do love to visit."

Nina clasped May's hands in delight, then remembered herself and turned to Chaison, whose expression was full of curiosity.

"This is May — we worked together back in Ilite. May, this is my uncle."

"A pleasure to meet you. I'm May."

May greeted him with a soft smile and a courteous bow, and Chaison returned a light nod.

"I'm called Chaison. Though... you worked together?"

"Yes! We served as maids together at the Sezac County Estate. May made it such a happy time — running into her like this feels like a dream."

"..."

A chill crept into a corner of Chaison's heart as he discreetly scanned the street beyond the glass window.

Natalisha, when exactly are you getting here?

It wasn't suspicion of May merely because she was a maid from the Sezac estate.

There's no powder room in this place, yet she's just now touched up the makeup around her eyes. Subtle, I'll grant her — but you don't fool a trained spy that easily.

Deciding he couldn't simply let this maid May slip away, he offered her a seat at their table.

"Meeting like this must be fate, even if only for a little while. Sit with us. We'll be spending plenty of time with Nina from here on."

"Oh! Thank you so much, Uncle."

Grateful to a fault, Nina settled into the round table alongside May.

"Thank you for your consideration. I won't be staying long."

May ducked her head shyly and began quietly.

"After you left, my lady grieved so terribly."

"What can I do? I miss her terribly too."

While the two exchanged the usual pleasantries, Chaison pressed the button on his ring and started recording. May, keeping the conversation warm and cheerful, rolled her eyes this way and that before asking Nina, ever so casually:

"By the way, Nina — you haven't happened to run into Heidi, have you?"

"Oh my, is Heidi in Soltum too? No, I haven't seen her."

As Nina lamented, Chaison asked as if merely curious.

"Is this Heidi a colleague of yours as well, Nina?"

"Oh, yes. Heidi was the mischievous one — she used to love hiding under my bed."

"Under the bed..."

Chaison found himself recalling the someone he'd discovered under Nina's bed not long ago.

May shook her head with a wistful smile.

"I don't know if she's in Soltum, but Heidi took a vacation too. That's why I asked — I thought she might be here."

"How lovely it would be if we all reunited here. We spent all those days together in the cold, and now we get to meet again somewhere warm."

"You can say that again."

Just then, Nina and May turned their heads toward the same spot at the same moment. The operatives who'd been surveillance-watching them from the building across the street scrambled out of sight.

A moment later, Natalisha appeared from around that building's corner.

"Oh my. That would be my aunt."

"What a beautiful, magnificent woman she is."

May murmured this with a placid smile, then rose from her seat right away — true to her word, she wasn't staying long.

"I should be off, Nina. I'd love to pay my respects to your aunt before I go, but my appointment is coming due."

"I had no idea you knew anyone in Soltum."

"I don't know anyone here. My lady asked me to convey her greetings to Baroness Lilie, since she's staying in Soltum."

"Busy even on vacation. It was lovely seeing you, May."

After May gave a courteous farewell and left the tea house, Chaison widened his eyes at Natalisha and gestured to her. Through the glass, Natalisha caught the signal, glanced sideways at May as she brushed past, and then — with a ring identical to Chaison's — gave hers a quiet turn and listened to the conversation he had recorded.

"...!"

The moment the dialogue began, Natalisha went rigid, whipping her head toward the direction May had gone.

The maid from the Sezac estate — the one whose whereabouts have been unknown?

And the longer the conversation ran, the worse it got.

The Sezac family and the House of Baron Lilie actually had a connection? How is this going to play out?

And yet — unexpectedly — a thought struck her. If Nina herself knew of Baron Lilie's household, perhaps something could be pried loose.

"Nina. I'm a little late, I'm afraid."

Natalisha joined them at the table as naturally as anything.

"Welcome, Auntie. Were the actors at the theater all right?"

"No one seriously hurt, it seems. And the fire brigade had the blaze under control quickly enough."

"Phew. Thank goodness."

As Nina smiled in relief, Natalisha delivered a sharp kick to Chaison's foot beneath the table. Taking the hint, he adopted the manner of a man dying to hear the gossip.

"Nina. I'm curious whether you know anything about Baroness Lilie. They say she has quite the discerning eye for art collection."

"Hmm. She did visit the estate as a guest, but I wasn't her assigned maid, so I don't really know her. I've never left Ilite, you see."

Well, that's a shame, if true, he murmured to himself — but Nina kept going.

"She prefers coffee to tea, and she never wears the same garment twice. She commissions all her jewelry from a single designer, and she's terribly particular about the material of her gloves. When she's in a good mood, she wears lavender perfume, and she likes to watch the opera up close, from the front rows."

"...And that's what you mean by 'don't really know her'?"

When Natalisha stared at her in bewilderment, Nina answered with becoming modesty.

"What allergies she might have, which poison she'd be most vulnerable to, whom she holds dearest, how she reacts when she's terrified... those are the important things, and I know none of them."

Struck speechless, the two of them wet their throats with warm tea in silence.