Suspicious, Twice as Suspicious

While Nina was away from the house, the family members who had been quietly plotting over their plan found themselves banging their heads against the latest intelligence Chayson, in the role of uncle, had brought back.

"You're telling me there isn't a single new piece of information about the count's family where Nina Bones worked? Is what we dug up in Soltum really everything there is?"

Katahari, in the role of older sister, heaved a disbelieving sigh.

"The Kingdom of Ilite is your home country, Chayson. Doesn't anything ring a bell personally?"

At Natalisha's question, spoken in her role as aunt, Chayson let out a low hum and shook his head.

"Let's organize what we know. The Sezac countship is unquestionably a nouveau riche house that accumulated its fortune off the war boom. They're still running their business on styptics and hemostatics to this day."

"We know that much."

Exi, in the role of older brother, nodded along with eyes shining brighter than usual. It hadn't been long since he'd woken from the deep sleep induced by the sleeping poison Nina had slipped him. It was the first time he'd slept that soundly since entering the intelligence agency's training program, and his face positively glowed with health. Watching the sleek, sharp-edged air about him grow duller thanks to his freshly brightened skin, Chayson clicked his tongue.

"But their history before that is a mystery. With so little on record, there's a real chance they're parvenu nobility."

"Parvenu nobility? You mean they bought their title? Isn't that illegal?"

Chayson tilted his head at Natalisha's doubt. Title trafficking was indeed against the law in the Kingdom of Ilite.

"If they bought it before the war, they could be of defeated-nation origin. But it's all conjecture. There's no real intelligence here at all."

Exi drew in a breath through his teeth with a soft hiss.

"Suspicious, as expected. Nina Bones is suspicious. The place she just happened to work as a maid is suspicious. Twice the suspicion."

Then he glanced sideways at Juger Number 4, the domestic clockwork doll he alone had been forced to meet later than the rest of the family.

"That creepy clockwork doll is suspicious too. It needs to be dealt with."

Click-clack. Click-clack.

By some uncanny means, Juger Number 4 had already wheeled directly in front of them.

"What seems to be the problem? Might you be curious what flavor of lesson the Mossberg can teach you? In that case, shall we make our first. ac.QUAIN.tance?"

"Exi. I told you not to say things like that in front of this insane machine, because it threatens people."

As Katahari shot Exi a sidelong glare and scolded him, Natalisha spoke up.

"Spare us the introductions. I have a question, Juger Number 4."

"Speak, and it shall be answered-yes~"

"If you're Number Four and the one carrying the Remington is Number Three... then where are Numbers One and Two?"

Juger Number 4 produced a sound like a snickering teakettle, its eyes rolling in their sockets.

"Would you like to meet them? I could always arrange a gathering for you~"

"Just tell us where they are."

At the irritation lacing Chayson's words, the great rolling mechanical eyes ground to a halt with a squeak.

"That falls under matters I cannot answer. I strongly encourage you to ask no further. It is a private fam.i.ly.mat.ter-ter-ter-ter...☠"

"......."

When Juger Number 4 lifted the Mossberg with a menacing click, they found themselves with nothing more to say.

"Everyone, I'm home!"

Right on cue, their target—and newest family member—Nina returned.

The family turned away from Juger Number 4 and headed for the foyer, then flinched at the sight of what Nina was carrying. Something partially wrapped in white cloth, its shape unmistakable to anyone with eyes...

"Ni-Nina. That's not a machine gun, is it?"

"It is! Joel gave it to me as a present. Look how pretty it is—it's shaped just like sweet chocolate!"

Nina hugged the machine gun to her chest with an expression of pure satisfaction.

The family, eyeing the long barrel and stock of the mana rifle jutting out from either end of the white cloth, clenched their teeth.

What in the world did that sickly fool give our target—and why a weapon?!

Needless to say, the fewer weapons a target had, and the less she knew how to handle them, the easier she was to approach. They couldn't fathom what could possibly have been going through Joel's head when he gifted her a machine gun.

Exi rubbed his arm, where a stinging sensation still lingered.

"Th-that's dangerous. It's not pretty, it's evil."

"I showed a little interest in magic tools, and he so generously gave it to me as a gift. Now I'm really struggling to think of what I could give him in return."

Just then, Juger Number 4 glided over and spread her hands wide in an exaggerated flourish.

"My, what a masterfully crafted handmade mana rifle! Such a splendid machine gun, gifted so freely—our neighbor deserves our sin.CERE thanks~"

"Right?"

Nina answered with a smile, then suddenly blinked as something occurred to her.

"Oh! I should go check out the warehouse where I found Juger Number 4. I never got to see all of it, and it looked like there were antiques and all sorts of treasures in there."

"W-wait, Nina. You mean you're keeping that machine gun? Nina—!"

Not even hearing Natalisha's flustered voice, Nina bounded down to the basement in high spirits.

There were several storerooms in the basement. Nina deliberated over which door to open first, her face bright with anticipation, and reached for one of the handles.

"Careful now. Open that door without permission, and it means el. ec. tro. CU. tion-tion-tion~"

At Juger Number 4's voice behind her, Nina snatched her hand back in a panic.

"Ah! Then what about this one?"

"That one means mass. AC. ci. dent-cident-cident~"

"Grandmother must have really enjoyed her thrills, hmm?"

Breaking out in a cold sweat, Nina finally opened the door to the room where Juger Number 4 resided and stepped inside.

She still didn't know much about her grandmother, but the old gentleman who had come bearing the will had told her that Grandmother had been awarded a marquisate in the Kingdom of Ilite. Titles in Ilite weren't hereditary, but as the direct granddaughter, Nina herself was eligible to enter the Ilite Royal Academy without even sitting the entrance examination.

Not that I ever knew any of that while I was living my life.

As she wandered the storeroom, Nina found herself wondering what her grandmother could have done in the Kingdom of Ilite to earn a marquisate.

What's this?

That was when she spotted a palm-sized album on one of the shelves. Thinking her grandmother's photograph might be in there, she turned the lock clasp—and the instant it clicked open, a sharp spark crackled at her fingertips.

"Ah!"

Stung, she let go, and the album dropped to the floor with a thump, its pages fanning open in a cascade of photographs.

With eyes round as a rabbit's, Nina examined the pictures one by one, starting from the very first.

A young Rikita Bones stood in the photograph holding a fishing rod.

Seeing her like this, she really does look so much like me. Was Grandmother a fisherwoman, I wonder?

Then she came to a photo of her holding a clock and a set of tools, and revised her theory.

Oh, the fishing must have just been a brief holiday somewhere. So Grandmother was a clockmaker.

But with every page she turned:

Then she was a teacher, and after that she worked as a coachman... and then a priest...?

It grew harder and harder to guess what her grandmother's profession had actually been.

She was a mail carrier, then a magic stone miner, then a soldier. Wait—this uniform's from Kibon, isn't it? And after that...

Nina scratched her head, tilting it this way and that.

This one's a Lujein military uniform? This is a Soltum uniform, and this one's Ilite's?

Could one person really have had this many jobs? Lost in thought, Nina finally arrived at a perfectly sensible conclusion.

Grandmother must have been a model, or a fashion designer. She made every single one of these outfits in these photos herself, I just know it.

Either way, she decided, Rikita Bones had been a truly remarkable person, and she closed the album and set it back in its place.

Then she discovered an object wrapped in paper packaging and smiled in satisfaction. She had found exactly the thing to give Joel in return for the machine gun.

Nina beamed as she carefully picked it up.

Mm. This is the one! I'll bring it over tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Joel sat in silence on his balcony, unable to fathom what state of mind he'd been in when he sent Nina home with a freshly laundered handkerchief. He had contacted the intelligence agency afterward and had the fallen intruders cleaned up without a trace, but the scene that had unfolded there kept circling round and round in his head.

As usual, the whole incident had been nothing more than a foreign intelligence agency venting its spleen and trying to put a scare into him. Petty feuds were supposed to stay between Masters—not get passed down until the lowest foot soldiers were using them as an excuse to blow off steam.

Ryan, his senior at the agency, sauntered out onto the balcony.

"I heard all hell broke loose over here, but it's cleaner than I expected."

"You should have seen the way the intruders were subdued. It was no amateur's work."

"Show me the footage later. So—how's Nina Bones?"

Ryan had been curious about Nina Bones for some time now. The sole blood relative of Rikita Bones, and suspicious into the bargain—for a passionate intelligence operative, she looked like a deliciously tempting target.

But all he'd seen so far were blurry photographs, and he was desperate to see her in the flesh at least once.

Joel gestured with utter indifference toward the binoculars resting on the balcony rail.

"If you're curious, look across the way. You'll find a person sitting there, as useless as an inefficient magic tool."

"Ooh."

Ryan hastily snatched up the binoculars and peered through the window of the room beyond the opposite balcony, then turned back to Joel with a puzzled look.

Where exactly was this useless person supposed to be? All he could see was a spring fairy sitting there.

At that, Joel's brows knotted in open despair.

"Damn it. So even to your eyes, Ryan, Nina Bones looks like a spring fairy perfectly engineered for some grand design? Figures. So it wasn't just my eyes going crooked after all."

"......Are you insane?"