Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin - Chapter 523: FRANCE (2)

Gazing at the beautiful world that was spread under the envelope of the night sky, Fran?ois spoke without turning his back to his guests, “You know, when I asked my parents, may they rest in peace, why they called me Fran?ois… The answer they gave me was rather simple. They wanted me to have an ordinary life full of ordinary and genuine happiness. It’s a rather simple wish, all things considered, but every hunter knows how hard such a wish is for us in this line of work. They died not longer than ten years after I asked them the question. Dying as heroes while fighting vampires under the order of Dracula.”

He shook his head from side to side, his eyes melancholic, “Ever since that day, my outlook on life has changed drastically. I bought an ordinary house for myself, far enough from the residential district that I do not seem like someone rich but not so far that I would seem poor and worthless either. I am not married yet, unfortunate as it may be, but I do plan to settle down and adopt a child very soon. Officially, I worked as a mid-of-the-line salaryman in an ordinary bank for decades and am now retired. I get home every day by 10 PM at the latest. I don’t smoke, but I occasionally drink some wine, like any man born and raised in France would do. I’m in bed by midnight, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep as much as possible. Despite being nearly 200 years old, I am very healthy. Even healthier than many young men even…”

“Director.”

The voice of a young woman echoed from behind him but Fran?ois continued, unperturbed. His eyes were now filled with apathy, as though declaring to the world that he was doing his utmost to be polite and not simply curse out loud.

“What I am trying to say is… I’m a man who merely wishes to live a very ordinary life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me the ordinary happiness that my parents wished I would have. I like being ordinary and I love this city of mine, Paris, in all its beauty and horror. Rarely, do we have such big events.”

He turned around and finally faced his guests, still seated in the chairs in front of his desk. They were two women in their adulthood. Both were blonde and had surprisingly similar features. However, their features, their age, their descent, none of it really mattered to the ordinary old man. Their beauties did not shake his heart nor did it make him change his mind.

“Miss Holmes. You should understand without me having to explain it to you anymore. The fact that the Director of the London Paranormal Department is present in Paris without prior agreement from our respective countries is anything but ordinary. I do not appreciate things that make my ordinary life more difficult than it needs to be.”

There were many ways of making someone feel unwelcome but Fran?ois really took the cake with his absolutely brutal direct approach.

“Is the French headquarters still angry about Moriarty?”

Fran?ois’s eyes twitched ever so slightly at her remark, “You mean how you utterly failed to constrain Moriarty and now he has become our problem?”

“For what it is worth, I did not fail to catch him. I have indeed caught him in the past. But he managed to escape using the Great Fire of London that happened twenty years ago, as you may know.”

“Truly a disaster, I do accept. That is why my goal is not to reproach you or ask you anything. What I am asking is rather simple. What… are you doing in France, Miss Holmes?”

Holmes chuckled quietly as she leaned back on her chair. Even though it was just a normal chair, one would have the feeling that she was sitting on a throne, all due to the very aura she exuded.

“Before I answer, I would like to ask… why bother to make such a long monologue at the start.”

“You may be relatively young, but you are very renowned and it is not a secret that you inherited the [Eye of Deduction] of the very first Holmes. I have no interest in playing guessing games with you and neither do I have any secrets.”

“My dear Director. If more humans were like you, the world would have been a very boring place for people like me. But it would be a much happier place for ordinary people. What a shame! What a shame, indeed…”

“It is, and I would like to ask that you may not think you have managed to distract me from my initial question, Miss Holmes.”

Holmes nodded to his words and replied, “To start it off, you can call me Charlotte. I only use the name Holmes when I am on service.”

“And you are not?”

“At the moment no. I have come to France, not as a Director but as a simple tourist. You need not worry about the workings of the London division. Watson is taking care of it.”

“I will be honest. I care not for London. As long as the Queen is alive, only a Calamity level event could pose any threat to England and even then it’s a long stretch. Had she been present in London during the events twenty years past, the Vermillion Knight would not have even needed to raise a single finger.”

He squinted his eyes, “What I am worried about is you, Miss Sherlock.” Fran?ois made a great deal of calling her Sherlock, clearly showing he didn’t buy the tourist argument.

“You are wounding me.”

“You are a trouble magnet. Your simple presence is already like an open challenge to Moriarty and he might cause trouble. Furthermore, you are a harbinger of bad luck. Wherever you go, trouble is sure to come and people are sure to die. The situation in France is already akin to a powder keg full of explosives and you are most likely one of the possible detonators.”

He sighed but Charlotte Holmes simply shrugged her shoulders, as if she found this situation utterly amusing, “I will not bore you with statistics and probability. What I can say though is whether I am present or not, something big is bound to happen. Something you might not be able to handle. Wouldn’t it be better if you just happened to have a second Director on hand at the ready?”

Fran?ois sighed to himself. He could see his calm life flying away with the east wind. But he knew that she was right and chasing away valuable reinforcements at this explosive moment was counterproductive at best. He needed all the help he could muster.

Even if said help joined him in a completely unofficial way.

“Very well. Before that, however, I would like to know who the lady is with you.”

“Oh her?”

Charlotte grinned, “This is Themis Smith. She was part of the LAPD but soon she will be officially transferred to England. She is cute, right?”

Fran?ois had to fight the urge to facepalm himself.