Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded - Book 3: Chapter 1: (9)

As Tilarna started thinking that Matoba was behaving strangely, it finally dawned on her. He was getting drunk already.

「Kei. Are you drunk?」 「I am drunk, honey!」 「H- honey?」

He started fooling around in silence. Then he laid on his back on the sofa, stretched, and started muttering softly something in Japanese.

「That’s right… I have heard a story like this somewhere. About ten years ago. It was the story of a soldier that was campaigning in the Semani world.」 「A soldier?」 「That soldier had a promise to meet with his younger sister on his free days, when he could return to Earth, to San Teresa. It was just a normal family meeting. They would hang out for two or three days, and he would be sent back. That man would communicate with his sister via mail. He would tell her to not walk alone, to not wear her miniskirt too short, and to not get near North Brook no matter what… However, that younger sister would ignore her brother’s warnings, and go out to that place. She had confidence in her Karate and Jujutsu abilities, and she believed she could protect herself all on her own. To the point of actual stupidity.」 「…」 「The following day, that man had to see his sister’s remains face to face. According to the police, she had been shot by some street junkie. Seems like several people had taken her to a back alley and assaulted her, but when she tried to resist something awful happened to her… and then she was shot. Something like that, though I never heard any of the details」

His voice sounded like it was someone else’s problem. Almost like he was explaining the argument of a movie or a novel. And with that same tone…

「Of course, that man resented the criminals. He wanted to find them and kill them all. He swore in his heart that he would do that.」 「And then what happened?」 「He never found them.」

Matoba took a cigarette and lit it up. He inhaled deeply, and while he numbly looked at an empty space, he said

「Nothing to do about it. The real problem came afterwards. At the same time, the man was extremely mad at his sister. “Even though I told her so many times. Why did she do something so stupid? She was obviously going to get killed” He would think, and for some reason the pain in his chest would subside by doing that. “It was my sister’s fault too”. That theory would defend his heart from all the mess it had become. And that man felt extremely embarrassed at his miserable self who did that」

Tilarna, who was listening to the entire story in silence, and then carefully asked 「Was that all… about you?」 「Why do you think so?」 「Well when you tell a story like that… it’s obvious that I’ll think that normally, right?」 「Well, I see… Nah, this is just a story from a film I saw a long time ago. Basically it was just a joke」 「That’s not funny at all」

Tilarna puffed her cheeks, and Matoba who was mindlessly staring at her, simply muttered

「I know, right? It’s a boring story. Ah… why am I telling you something like this? Maybe I had too much to drink」 「That’s right, you drank too much. Just leave it already」

Tilarna snatched the wine glass away from his hands, stood up and tightly pulled Matoba by the hand

「What? What?」 「Go to sleep. I’m taking you to bed」 「To bed? With you? No, no, I can’t do that…」 「What are you talking about? Come on, let’s go」 「Look, you can say that but… It’s not right to do it while I’m drinking. Or rather, I can’t do it with you. No, I don’t mean it to say that you’re not attractive or something, so don’t feel down. And I think that I don’t have a single type, but… how could I say this, like this is crossing the line, or I don’t feel right doing it…」 「I don’t get what you’re saying. Come on, this way」

Tilarna grabbed Matoba by the shoulders as he flimsily stood up, and led the way as he tumbled to the neighboring room. It should have been obvious, but he was incredibly heavy. She was pondering about using some muscle enhancing Mildi, but rather than using that sacred craft, she was thinking it would just be better to leave a guy like this out on the floor and let him catch a cold.

「You’re pretty small. And really soft too…」 「Stop saying creepy things, you idiot!」

Tilarna got flustered, and after a giant effort, got to the bedroom. She threw the drunk Matoba on the bed with a thud, and finally took a breath.

「Okay, come here! Let’s sleep together」 「Are… are you kidding? What are you even-」 「Come, Kuroi. That’s right, stretch right there and sleep」

The silent cat that had been following them from behind, jumped next to Matoba and fell asleep. 「Oh! What a good boy… You’re just like a dog, aren’t you?」 「Suit yourself. I don’t care」 「Nevé shiiya¹, Bona Tilarna」

Leaving Matoba and Kuroi there, Tilarna left the bedroom. She turned the lights off, and headed to her room on the first floor. She threw herself on her soft bed and curled up.

Her heart was throbbing again. That was the first time she had ever seen Kei behave so carelessly. Alcohol was definitely something indecent.

However…

That dead younger sister thing. That was true. She had heard it from Cecil before. Cecil had told her to keep her mouth shut, so she tried to act as if she didn’t know anything.

So does Kei really think of his late sister every time he sees me? No, no, what am I even thinking? I have to stop it with the uncomfortable ideas. Besides, I have to go to school tomorrow, and I still haven’t written today’s report.

Tilarna stood up, turned on the lamp on her desk, and started writing the report with her fountain pen. Even though the second hand notebook Matoba had pushed onto her was laying right there on the side, she didn’t even think about opening it up.

~o~O~o~

For the next few days, no special incidents took place. Tilarna would go to Sherwood High in the morning, and commute all the way to the police department headquarters downtown in the evening. She would go to meetings, do paperwork, study law and so on. Then near midnight she would head back home in New Compton, write the report, and sleep tightly. Then repeat again the next day.

For most days Matoba was working on a different case until early in the morning, but in an unexpected act of consideration, he would still drive to Sherwood High’s neighborhood when he had the time, and he would stay there as backup just in case. No matter how much Tilarna said things like “I’m already used to it so there’s no need”, he would not listen. It was almost as if he didn’t trust her. Maybe not telling him about the entire mess at the cafeteria the first day would have been better.

Leaving that aside, Tilarna had been building a sort of “group of friends” rather naturally around her, without making any sort of positive effort to approach them. Mainly Emma Sehlam’s group of popular girls.

There were three other members, aside from Emma herself. Jessica, Rin and Donna. The three were tall and beautiful. When it was time to have lunch, Emma would call out to them and Tilarna would just naturally become one more of the girls that surrounded her. Their conversations were all very superficial. About how the new boutique that had opened in the Upper Valley was the hottest, or about who was close with whom, or who broke up. It was all gossip.

But just as Tilarna was thinking about that, the conversation topic changed to the history class they had taken in the morning. They started wondering about how Rome during its imperial government period had made use of slavery.

「Tilarna, you grew up in Semani, right? I’ve heard that there are some countries over there that still have slaves, is that true?」

One of the girls in the group asked carelessly

「Well yeah. Some countries still use slaves」 「Your country did as well? No, I’m not trying to protest or anything. It’s just that I got curious. I mean… with those films you know, about the muscular slaves fanning the king, or the girls all dressed in sexy clothes bringing him food, there’s a lot to think about. I was just wondering if it really was like that, you know…」 「Ah」

15 years ago when the Mirage Gate that created a bridge with Earth opened, a lot of bizarre films started being made. They were passed off as “true story” dramas, and they painted an image of a weird and extravagant Semani world. Though most of them were filled with stereotypes and prejudice.

Tilarna had glanced at one that Matoba was watching on TV a while ago from the side. One of the Peacekeeping Soldiers (PKF) from Earth that had been transferred was the protagonist, and in the story he helped Semanians who longed for freedom, and fought alongside them to overthrow the tyrant.

Matoba, who personally knew what the real PKF looked like, and Tilarna who knew what the real Farbani army looked like, were both irritated at the amount of nonsense in the film.

There even was a scene just like that in that very movie. The Semani tyrant would whip the slaves for fun, or rape them, all kinds of stuff. However, starting a ruckus because of those lies was also ridiculous. She would just try to provide a historically informed opinion and fix the misunderstanding.

「My country, the Farbani kingdom, has outlawed slavery for more than 200 years. We did it about 50 years earlier than the Americans」 「Oh… is that so?」

Seemed like they only knew the specifics of Earth history.

「There was a large slave uprising. And after ages oppression, the king of the time finally decreed the abolishment of slavery」 「What an upstanding king. Any other person would’ve probably tried to suppress it.」 「I don’t know about upstanding, but at the very least he was a wise king. His actual reason for it was to take power away from some noble families by cutting off their economic power, solidifying the kingdom’s power. It’s said that one of his main reasons was to build the kingdom’s economy without depending on slave workforce. Around that time, there had been some modest improvements in the fields of metalwork and agriculture, so the large-scale food output grew considerably. This gave rise to different situations and interests for each industry and field of work, which ended up in slavery being outlawed. Basically, it wasn’t so different from the context in which your North-South civil war was held. King Saramaya is as popular among the people as President Lincoln.」

As Tilarna remembered a discussion she had had with a private tutor from Earth, she arranged her thoughts calmly. She hadn’t intended to ramble with any grand intent, but Emma and the others all looked puzzled and had blank stares. Tilarna, who was already gulping down her Caesar salad with a fork, finally realized that everybody was staring at her in confusion

「What?」 「No. It’s just that you were talking non stop like a history teacher. I think we’re impressed」 「Oh, okay. I mean, you’d expect anyone to at least…」

“… know this much if they are a Farbanian noble” is not something that she could afford to say, and she finally realized that. And although it was easy to forget about it, Tilarna was also older than those girls. The education she had received probably also covered some topics that went beyond what was studied at that school.

「…Ah, no sorry. I was just repeating some theory I watched on a History Channel TV show.」

She bluffed with the name of a Channel that she had barely remembered

「Ah, so it was something like that」

The girls laughed. Seemed like they were expecting something more unique coming from Tilarna. The girls didn’t want to hear something so serious, but rather a more gossip-like topic.

In that case… what about this?

1. Nevé shiiya means good night