Translator: Mr. Steak

Proofreader: Yuranon

2

Horokusa’s room was full to the brim with miscellaneous objects. An electric guitar was propped up in the corner, and Takanashi Nerina was staring at it fixedly. It looked like an expensive one. Except, he had never once seen Horokusa playing it. He supposed it must be some sort of souvenir, or just for decoration.

A piece of slightly yellowed paper was stuck to the wall by the desk. The four kanji 林選弱桑 were written there. They were penned so sloppily, it looked intentional. Nerina didn’t have any idea who’d written them. And he’d never asked Horokusa about their meaning either.

“Ehh? That’s just paranoia, isn’t it?” Takanashi Nerina put his thoughts into words. “This just doesn’t add up, like, at all. There’d be no point going out of their way to send advance notice of their crime, right?”

Upon hearing Horokusa’s explanation, Nerina’s first impression had been a single word: ridiculous. Those past incidents may have actually happened, sure, but the basis for linking them together and making future predictions was extremely weak, so worrying about it to the point of hiring someone to keep watch for her was beyond unreasonable.

“But the incidents all happened right around here.” Kaguyama Murasakiko was on the sofa, knees in her arms. “If you’re asking for a basis to her logic, those matching numbers are enough, I think.”

“How do I put this……” Horokusa dropped his head slightly and sighed. “That discussion is meaningless. It won’t change anything. I couldn’t care less what the reality is. Whether or not there’s a killer putting some ominous meaning into those numbers, that has nothing to do with us whatsoever. All we know is…… it’s pretty much confirmed that she got an implicitly threatening letter in her mailbox. Though there’s a chance that was a lie. Maybe this is just a storyline she’s doing for her party to get everyone excited together. But whichever it is, that has nothing to do with us. First and foremost, as long as it’s earning us money, we have no complaints. This is business. Our concern is simply how much we can earn in a single night. All we have to do is perform the duties we’ve been hired to do. If a client came to me afraid a UFO would come to attack her, asking me to be her bodyguard for the night, I’d gladly accept without hesitation. For the right price, that is. Yeah, I think that’d be worth around half the price of a case where it’s the yakuza instead. You see, it’s about the expected value of my service. I believe in yakuza more than I believe in UFOs, so yeah. But anyway, that’s as far as we need to care about the likelihood of the threat actually coming to fruition.”

“But if a real murderer shows up, what’ll you do?” Murasakiko asked. “If worse comes to worst, you won’t be able to collect your fees in the first place.”

“It’s all been paid in advance, so that’s not an issue,” Horokusa a.s.sured.

“How much did you get?” Murasakiko lifted her gaze to stare into Horokusa’s eyes.

“Asking that is against the rules,” Horokusa answered curtly, then took out a cigarette and lit it. “We’ve already settled on the amount you two will be paid. You don’t have any objections, do you? If there’s anything you’re unsatisfied with now, after hearing the whole plan, please speak up at once.”

Takanashi Nerina shrugged his shoulders to indicate his apathy. Murasakiko silently nodded her approval beside him.

The job had turned out to be guarding Odawara Shizue for the night. Apparently, as long as she could get through tonight, everything would be fine. In other words, all the had to do was let the date of June sixth pa.s.s by, and the danger would leave. That was the opinion of the client herself, Odawara Shizue. Whether that was a pessimistic or optimistic thought, however, remained to be seen.

“So like, should we be hanging around here so casually right now? If she’s really in danger, we should start guarding her as soon as possible……” Murasakiko said in a concerned voice.

“That’s not a concern. All the incidents until now occurred late at night. And besides, until she starts getting ready for the party at 7 o’clock, Miss Odawara told me she’s not going to set one foot outside her room.”

“She’s not gonna leave the mansion at all tonight, yeah?” Nerina said. “Then we definitely have nothing to worry about. There’s no way a killer would go to all the trouble of showing up.”

“I told you to stop that discussion,” Horokusa said with smoke in his breath. “I’ve already expressed repeatedly that I don’t care.”

“Hmm, I guess there won’t be any fighting then” Nerina sighed. If he had to choose, he would have found it more interesting if a threat actually did show up; such insensitive thoughts were going through Nerina’s head at the time.

“While the party’s going on, Shiko-chan will be on guard duty inside. Oh, right, I’d also like you to explain the situation to Negoro and see if he’ll help out too. Well, only if you’re worried, but yeah.”

“Kay, I understand,” Murasakiko agreed with a sincere expression.

“Wait, in that case…” Nerina cut in, pouting. “You could’ve just hired Mister Negoro for the job directly, instead of getting Shiko-san to do it.”

“Yeah, and it would’ve caused a scene, right?” Horokusa answered with a grin. “What do you think would’ve happened if I tried talking to that guy? I bet he’d whip out a samurai sword on the spot, probably.”

“Who do you think he is?” Nerina said, shaking his head.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, leave it to me. I’ll talk to him.”

“Alright, so Nerina and I will be on patrol duty outside the mansion.”

“Huh? Outside? For the whole night?”

“Yes.”

“What about dinner?” Nerina asked, voice suddenly hoa.r.s.e.

“It’ll be arranged.”

“Aaaahhh…… so you’re saying Shiko-san gets to shovel away at the buffet inside, while I’m gonna be catching a cold and collecting dew? That’s kind of unfair, isn’t it? Hey Shiko-san, trade with me?”

“Mleh!”

“Come on, why do you think I’m paying you extra?” Horokusa said exasperatedly. “Quit fooling around.”

“Why don’t we all just guard from the inside, though?”

“No good. That’s not an option. It’s a specific request from the client. Apparently, she wants to keep it a secret from her husband as much as possible, that she’s hired guards.”

“Why? This is just like the private tutor stuff.”

“Well, anyway, the party’s opening up at around ten. Even if the worst happens, it’ll be after that time, at the very least. I’ve only gotten a rough overview of the mansion’s layout so far, but either way, this is the plan. If a murderer does show up, they’d have to come from outside, so it’d be easiest to apprehend them while they’re sneaking around the gardens beforehand. That’s the safest way, right? At times like this, it’s best to be proactive.”

“Wait, how can you be so sure they’ll come from outside?” Murasakiko inquired with a puzzled expression. “The one who sent that threatening letter could have easily been someone from inside the family, couldn’t it? You said there wasn’t even an address on the envelope. That means they carried it to her mailbox all on their own, so it’s obvious to suspect someone close to her…”

“What was their goal in sending the threat, anyway?” Nerina mumbled to himself. “It’s so weird. None of this adds up. There’s no objective there.”

“Agh, just stop it already. Don’t think so much,” Horokusa said, holding his hands out in front of himself. “I’ve got it covered, so stop thinking about the details. This is a job and nothing more. A way to earn money. As long as the client is left with a good impression of our services, that’s all that matters. Sacrifice your own sense of satisfaction for the sake of earning a profit in return. That’s the principle of business. Understand?”

Takanashi Nerina and Kaguyama Murasakiko’s mouths tensed, and they fl.u.s.teredly nodded in agreement.

Translator and Editor Notes:

Lol, I love this scene because it completely flies in the face of mystery fiction conventions. Nerina and Murasakiko keep trying to start a logical conversation, while the supposed “detective” character is only laser-focused on the money.

Also, I’m totally waiting for these random things in Horokusa’s room to suddenly be vital clues in the last chapter lmao. Like, somehow those kanji are gonna be super d.a.m.n important. By the way, I left them untranslated for probably obvious reasons. As for my personal impression, I have no clues about what they could mean. They’re all very common kanji used in a lot of common words, except for the last one, which I’d never seen before now. Well, JMDICT has it tagged as “common”, but it only refers to a specific type of tree, so it makes sense that I’ve never encountered it. If you want to see the individual meanings, just search them up on jisho.org. I considered that it might be a name, of course, since that’s where most random nature-related kanji would be used like this, but the middle 2 characters aren’t ones I recall ever having seen in names before. And it just really doesn’t look like a name. If I ever notice a conspicuous usage of these kanji (particularly the last one), I’ll be sure to mention it in these notes.