Chapter 245: This is pure luxury
Leon found himself pondering over her name.
’Irene Adler... Irene Adler...’
He tried to recall, but no matter how much he tried, he was confident that it was his first time hearing this name.
’Is she lying about her name?’ Leon thought.
If not, then why did it feel like he had known her for ages? He got a sudden feeling of deja vu when Irene introduced herself as a detective.
’Wait. A detective?’ Leon blinked, then looking back up at her face he made a few quiet deductions.
What if this deja vu was coming from Shin’s fragmented memory within him?
If this feeling was not coming from Haru’s own memory then it had to be connected to Shin’s past.
’Did Shin ever visit Evana?’ Leon considered the possibility.
In the game’s storyline, Shin’s name only ever came up whenever Lumina was mentioned. Otherwise Shin had no real presence in the story’s main plot., and had no direct influence on the protagonist either.
Which meant this feeling had no clean answer yet.
"Do you need something?" Irene asked, looking at Leon, who had been quietly staring at her face for the last three minutes.
Leon startled slightly. He coughed, averted his gaze, and replied.
"Ah, nothing. It was just that we were exhausted after crossing the forest and getting turned around out there. Seeing you here was a relief."
He kept his tone as natural as he could manage.
"Is that so?" Irene tilted her head, then reached across the small table beside her and picked up a rectangular device, checking the time on it. "If you three are not in a hurry, you are welcome to wait here. I will be leaving for my office in the city in about an hour anyway. You can follow me there if you like."
Ethan spoke before anyone else could.
"Oh, there is no need to trouble yourself, we will be perfectly fine on our own—"
Leon cut him off without looking at him.
"That would be appreciated."
"H-hey." Ethan muttered low enough for only Leon to catch. "Something about this girl does not feel right to me. I do not know how to explain it, but something is off."
"Same thought," Leon replied under his breath.
"Then why are we staying?" Ethan whispered back. "I have the map. We can navigate to the city without any help, there is no reason to—"
"You do realize I can hear both of you?" Irene said.
She had not raised her voice. She was looking directly at Ethan with the calm and specific expression of someone who had been politely ignored once already and was not going to let it happen a second time.
She looked rather annoyed.
Ethan went very still.
He looked at Leon. Leon didn’t look back at him.
Ethan looked back at Irene, who was still waiting for their response. He straightened up and cleared his throat.
"My apologies." He said apologetically.
"We have had a long journey and I am perhaps being overly cautious. It is nothing personal." He paused before adding...
"We would be glad to wait."
Irene held his gaze for one more second. Then she nodded once, apparently satisfied, and lifted her cup back to her lips.
"Good," she said simply. "There is a spare bench around the side of the house. You are welcome to sit."
Cyan and Leon walked ahead, and sat, while Ethan simply rolled his eyes and followed behind them.
For the first time meeting this girl. Ethan already didn’t liked her at bit.
As he sat down, he looke at Cyan and asked.
"You don’t feel anything?"
Cyan just said one line, "Her aura reminds me of Maria."
"Say what?"
"Nothing," Cyan added coughing, "anyways, it’s better to ask a local, and to be honest, I don’t really trust that prism thing in your hand. So, I am with Leon here."
Thirty seven minutes had passed.
Ethan leaned forward on the bench and looked toward the side of the house for the fourth time.
"Is she not coming yet?"
Cyan did not look up and said. "Girls need time to prepare Ethan."
"Prepare for what?" Ethan said. "She is going to her office. Not a banquet."
Cyan said nothing to that.
Leon was leaning back with his eyes half closed, listening to the forest’s sound around them.
"You seem to not like her," he finally said.
Ethan blinked. Then smiled despite himself.
"That is not the case at all. Why would I dislike her? I just met her."
"Fair enough," Leon said. "Though from where I am seeing, it looks like the feeling is mutual."
Ethan turned to him.
"Hm? What does that mean exactly—"
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
All three heads turned at once.
Irene came around the side of the house and stopped in front of them.
She was no longer wearing the loose casual gown from before.
What she had on now was a long flowing dress in blue and white, the fabric falling in clean structured lines to the ground. The collar was made of cotton and decorated with small white shaded flower petals and blue roses, sitting neatly at her shoulders.
Leon glanced at her wrist, there he saw white gloves covering her hands to the wrist. On her head sat a wide flat brimmed hat with a blue rose pinned at the top.
From one glance she did not look like someone heading to an office.
She looked like someone heading somewhere considerably more formal than that.
Leon looked her over once from where he sat and said without getting up.
"A case at the royal palace?"
Irene blinked.
"...Yes." She looked at him with genuine surprise. "How did you guess that?"
Leon stood up slowly and gestured with one hand, keeping his tone completely flat.
"The dress is too formal for a regular office visit. Which means you are going somewhere that has a dress code. The white gloves narrow it down further. If I have to guess, people only wear white gloves when they are going somewhere really important, or to meet with someone with high status with an official invite. That points to either a banquet or a royal visit."
He glanced at the hat.
"The hat’s brim is wide. It’s wide enough to make me think that you are expecting to be outside at some point, maybe after your visit. So not a fully indoor event. This aligns with your profession. A detective needed field work."
Then his eyes moved to the ornaments at her collar.
"Now those are the most interesting parts out of all. They look expensive at first. But they do not match the dress. The dress is new, it is clearly chosen for today it seems. The ornaments are old though... But you wear them comfortably, like you are familiar with them, not something you put on to make an impression. That means someone gave them to you a long time ago."
He tilted his head slightly.
"But they are too well made to be a gift from a friend. The quality is the kind that comes from someone with serious money or serious status. And since you introduced yourself as a detective, the most straightforward explanation is that someone important gave them to you as a reward for solving a case."
A pause.
"Someone from the palace, most likely. Well anyways, I wouldn’t be surprised if this person turned out to be a royal friend of yours."
’No normal royal could hire a third party detective if they do not trust each other.’
Leon’s guess might be spot on. Leon was getting curious, because this might hinder their own task.
He needs to find out about this case.
Irene stared at him for a moment. Then she smiled.
"Impressive." She said it without any performance behind it. "It is exactly as you said. I have been assigned a case that occurred within the royal palace. Involving our princess Bianca—"
She stopped.
Then she knocked herself gently on the head with one knuckle, stuck her tongue out slightly to the side.
"Cough. Ahem." She straightened up and adjusted her hat. "Regardless. It is getting late. We should leave for Evana now."
Ethan stood from the bench.
"Haah... more walking."
He started toward the tree line and then stopped.
Irene had not moved from her place.
He looked back at her. "Are you not coming?"
Irene looked at him with a mildly patient expression.
"There is no need to walk though."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the same rectangular device from before. She tapped the screen once.
Zzing.
The sound came from directly ahead of them.
All three pairs of eyes moved toward it at the same time.
Something was appearing out of nothing.
White with a dark gradient finish, low and flat and structured, metallic surface catching the filtered light of the forest around it. It has no wheels. In the place where wheels should have been, four booster units sat at each corner.
It reminded Leon of a supercar from his old world with everything unnecessary removed.
Irene tapped the device again.
The four boosters ignited with a clean sound and lit up with purple flame. The vehicle rose smoothly to waist height and hovered there without shaking. The doors lifted upward on both sides.
"Come on in," Irene said.
Ethan and Cyan stood completely still with their mouths open.
Leon tilted his head at it for a moment.
Then looked at Irene and asked simply.
"What is this called?"
Irene patted the side of it once with one gloved hand.
"A Voltstreak," she said. "Fastest ground and air vehicle Evana has produced. Runs on astral matter with almost zero delay from ignition to full speed."
She paused, winking at Leon.
"It was a reward for a job well done."
.
[A/N: 2 extra chs for every 100 Golden Tickets.