Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded - Book 3: Chapter 1: (4)

Nyath, who was running late, finally arrived at Sherwood High, and the first period classes had already started. The school grounds had gone quiet.

「Shit…」

It was the worst morning. He had crashed into and was cursed at by a girl, got on the bus late, stuck in traffic, and sat right next to a middle aged man with a pungent body odor. At least getting to see up that girl’s skirt was lucky, but it was just a second anyways.

Seemed like he definitely had to save up at his part time job, and get a used car. He wondered if that used Nissan he had seen at the dealership for about 800 dollars was still on sale. The paint was starting to fall off, the hood was bumpy and the panoramic was starting to crack, but as long as he could drive it, anything was welcome.

He thought as he quickly walked through the hallways, past the stairs, almost crashing into somebody right around the corner.

「Woah!…」

It was the same girl as before. This time, however, they both managed to dodge each other, and it was over with only a slight struggle.

「Hmph」

She took a few steps and took distance from him. For some reason she readied her bat case at the hip and scowled at Nyath.

「Ah… I’m sorry. You are… the girl I met earlier, right?!」 「What are you talking about?」

She asked while casting a wary glance at him, without relaxing her pose.

「Ah, this morning. Just before getting on the bus in North Zalze.」 「I don’t remember」 「How cruel! Even though crashing into you was the reason I ended up being so late. Don’t you have anything to say?」 「Oh」

Finally remembering what he said, she relaxed her pose. She looked down and faintly blushed at the recent memory of the young boy seeing her in such an indecent position.

「… I’m sorry」

The girl didn’t even notice her absent minded expression. He didn’t have the time to observe her like before, but she was probably another Farbanian native like him. Putting it in Earth’s terms, her beauty was “just like a doll’s”.

He had heard that there were a lot of Farbanian nobles that looked like that. Of course Nyath, who had been brought to Earth as a peasant when he was younger, had never even seen a Farbanian noble before.

「It’s my first day as a transfer student. I didn’t want to be late either」 「Oh… you’re a transfer student? I’m Nyath. Nyath Maybell. Nice to meet you」

He stretched his right arm. She looked wearily at his hand. 「It’s a handshake. Just a handshake.」 「Ah… Even now Earth’s greetings are my weak point. I’m Tilarna Elnebara. Let’s just ignore the Thaph¹.」

Elnebara… that was a name Nyath had heard somewhere before, but he just couldn’t remember. Tilarna shook his right hand. It was cool to the touch. And while being elegant and slender, it felt firm and strong. 「Nice to meet you, Tilarna. Can I call you just Tilarna?」 「… Sure, fine. You’re the first person I’ve met since I came here. Call me whatever you want」 「Thank you. So, let me guide you around. You’re going to your classroom, right?」 「Yeah, I have science class. I heard that’s Theza Kiffer’s² classroom.」 「You’re kidding, what a coincidence! I’m also going there. Thanks to being the one guiding the transfer student now I’ll have an excuse for being late. 」 「I see. I don’t get it, but good for you」

For some reason his heart was racing. Why did he always start feeling like that whenever he was with someone beyond his reach? Like with Norune, or now with Tilarna. Speaking of Norune, she had not been coming to school for that entire week.

That was way too long for a cold, maybe something happened to her?

Matoba who was waiting right outside the school, merely listening on the wireless device, realized that Tilarna was infiltrating her first class after running into this male student that was taking her to the classroom.

To Matoba, who had been raised in Japan, the tradition of introducing the transfer student in front of the class on the first period homeroom seemed logical, but in this San Teresian school that kind of practice didn’t exist. There wasn’t even a division such as classes, and transfer students were simply suddenly thrown into the crowd of students.

「Nevermind that, though…」

This looked like nothing more than a peaceful elite school. There were other schools where student dealers gathered, like Seven Miles or North Brook. They were built with much cheaper concrete and steel materials, and anywhere on the wall that the brats could reach was covered with graffiti.

Student dealers. They were not particularly smart, or good at football or basketball. They mostly grew up in apartment complexes for minimum wage workers, so for them drugs were just another possibility. It wasn’t right, but to Matoba there were several logical things about that.

However, kids who grew up in privileged environments like this school did not have any need to get involved with drugs. Selling them here could only be more playtime. That didn’t sit well with Matoba.

He looked at Sherwood High again from the car window. It was a school building built with brand new cement blocks. It was a well designed blend of modern architecture and Semani-styled architecture, that while being modest, still was grand and elegant. It’s closest style was probably Gaudi’s architecture. A wide inner garden was surrounded by a pentagon-shaped building, and although it bore no resemblance whatsoever, it gave off the vibes of a European middle ages fortress.

Right, it was a fortress. Matoba noticed just then, looking at the school building. That kind of school was with that its own city state. For instance, even the police could not barge in at a moment’s notice.

Wasn’t that extremely dangerous?

「Nyath… Maybell, huh?」

That was the kid that crashed into Tilarna. He was definitely a Semanian, but he was speaking in an extremely fluent English. Maybe his almost destiny-like two or three encounters with Tilarna were more than just plain coincidence. Perhaps Tilarna’s cover was discovered, and he had been sent to keep an eye on Tilarna or something- no, that was definitely not it.

Matoba accessed the mobile police department database.

Nyath Maybell. He had a profile. But it was just a record of a regular police questioning. About ten months earlier, Nyath had been returning home from the mall on his bicycle, and an officer from branch 14 called him out while on patrol. He had just run a red light, but the bicycle was his, and there was nothing suspicious about him, so he was just given a warning and went home. Just a bored officer.

He lived in northern North Zalze, a mid-class estate neighborhood. Guessing from his name, he was probably a Semanian orphan that was taken in by Earthling parents. If that was his parents’ address, then paying Sherwood High’s expensive fees was probably rough for their finances. Maybe he had gotten a scholarship.

「I worry too much」

Matoba criticized himself, closed the database, and looked at his watch. It was almost time of his appointment. He had managed to get an interview appointment with Norune’s father Moda Norbam, so he had to go to his office next.

“I’ll be back by 3. Just get used to the general atmosphere today.”

He sent by mail. He started worrying whether Tilarna even knew how to read emails right after sending it. Oh well. She could always use her phone if anything happened.

「Even though I told you that I didn’t understand emails…」

Muttered Tilarna reproachfully during lunch break, as she gazed at the screen of the smartphone that she didn’t know how to use at all. Notifications were popping up in a corner of the screen. She only knew that some kind of mail by Matuba seemed to be coming in, but it wasn’t much more than that. What button did she have to press to see its contents? She didn’t have the courage to give it a try, no matter what.

She was sitting alone in a corner inside the cafeteria located on the first floor of the west part of school. That way she wouldn’t be called out by anybody or anything. Though if she had to choose, it would probably only be okay if it were that Nyath guy. He had to go to a different classroom from the second period, so she had not seen his face since then.

And she didn’t have the time to speak to anybody else, so right now her friend count was zero.

However, the classes she had attended had been extremely interesting. Science, maths and history were all much easier to understand that the Dorini books she had read back home. They had satisfied her intellectual curiosity. She was finally able to forget about work, and get immersed listening to them.

But no, she couldn’t get careless. She was on a mission. At a first glance the place looked like a peaceful education environment, but at any moment anywhere the drug dealer may have spotted her and come attack her. That’s right, even, for instance, while she was struggling to read her mail…

「Hey! Is this place free?」

Suddenly a voice came from behind her, and someone tapped her shoulder.

「?!」

Even before she could think, the combat skills that had been drilled into her during training came out. Tilarna grabbed the arm that was extended behind her, twisted it, and in a fluent motion threw her opponent from his upper body. Her opponent rolled in the air once, and crashed by the back into the table right in front of her.

It was a piercing noise. The table creaked aggressively, and silverware and food came crashing down as her opponent let out a short scream.

Tilarna removed the cap off her bat case, readied her stance, and finally she came to her senses.

「Ah…」

She had done it now. Of course this wasn’t a drug dealer. It was a male student she had no memory of. He was robust and handsome. He was a young guy far larger than Tilarna, but his eyes were turning without him quite realizing what had even happened to him.

「Sorry. Are you okay?」

The surrounding students were watching while keeping their distance, while they were making questions nervously.

「Wh- what are you doing?!」

The kid jumped up on the table, and was screaming angrily at her. It was the appropriate reaction.

「I’m sorry. I just did it without thinking.」 「Without thinking? You go around almost killing people “without thinking”?! Look at this mess. I’m covered in sauce! What are you going to do about it?!」 「I will apologize for my violent reaction. However, you also have some responsibility for grabbing people’s shoulders from behind without warning-」 「Shut up, you fucking bitch! Is that how you apologize to people?」 「Ugh…」

Blood had started rushing to his head. The student stretched out his hand without minding all the attention from onlookers, and reached for Tilarna’s hair.

「What the-」

My hair. Grabbing the hair of a daughter of the Exedilika household, with those filthy hands of his! No matter the altercation, behaving like that with a noble lady is unforgivable! But I am a compassionate woman, so for his atonement I will only cut off one of his hands. I could take your life, so you should be thankful, kid.

… Well, he probably would be taken to a hospital, and his hand would be immediately reattached. She had heard that among the healers they called “surgeons”, there was a rumor about “going to San Teresa if you wanted to learn how to perform reattachment surgeries”.

He should be thanking me for only making that necessary. That’s right. I’ll cut it, I’ll show him and I’ll cut it off. I’ll try not to dirty myself too much with his blood, just take half a step here and… yeah, something like this.

She took off the lid of her case, and just as she was about to pull out her Krége,

「Ghili! Let that girl go!」

Called out a new, harsh voice.

1. Thaph means full name in Farbanian
2. Theza means Mister in Farbanian