The Case Files of Jeweler Richard - Chapter 2.1

In this chapter, Richard invokes his inner Sherlock

This store, which only opened on weekends, was on the second floor of the multi-tenant building on a side street in Ginza. The real estate office that managed the building, and the third floor and above consisted of offices and vacancies.

Today in the store’s mailbox, there was a notice of construction. Apparently, the first floor office was having their air conditioner replaced. It was a minor renovation. It said that a number of workers would come in and pound on the ceiling. The construction was scheduled for next Saturday at two p.m. Since we couldn’t sell gemstones in all that noise, we were going to close up shop earlier than usual.

“Isn’t it fine to close for the whole day since we don’t have any appointments?”

“A ‘temporary closure’ is not desirable. You need not be here if it is inconvenient.”

“No, no, I’ll come, I will.”

Is that so , the store owner said, nodding. He was the holder of unparalleled beauty, but he was an old-fashioned and single-minded guy on the inside, and he had a bizarrely sweet tooth. Today’s snack was doll cakes* bought after I went all the way to Kabuki-za.* They were so hot that they weren’t even at the level of being soft and fluffy, but they nicely cooled down by the time I returned with them. They were delicious. I insisted that we should eat them with green tea, but that guy pushed through with the royal milk tea. It was a faith. This was already a religious faith. I couldn’t win against faith. I didn’t feel like winning either. To tell the truth, it was delicious when I tried them together.

(TN: Doll cakes or ningyo-yaki are small cakes baked in molds of different shapes such as animals. The Kabuki-za is the principal theater for kabuki in Tokyo, and they also sell doll cakes in the theater)

“…I’ve thought this for a while, but isn’t this reception room a little too bland?”

The beautiful store owner drank the royal milk tea I made without saying a word. His face said, “I heard you, but it’s not worth answering you.” I saw that face a lot.

“I feel like we could do with a little something more. The Kabuki-za souvenir store had a lot of trinkets that looked nice.”

“As I have said before, I will not put any interior miscellany or anything of the sort in here. There is no end to this with you.”

“…Isn’t just one cat ornament okay?”

“From those words, I can see very well that you never had the experience of being sent countless numbers of ornaments with the words, ‘I think you’ll like it.’”

“Ugh, sorry.”

Richard ignored my routine apology. It seemed that this man had all kinds of experiences most people would never have.

As I was putting the sweets away, the customer who had an appointment today arrived. It was Yamamoto-san.

“Welcome. We’ve been expecting you.”

“Hello…”

The female customer, who first came here the week before last and looked to be in her mid-twenties, only gave the name “Yamamoto”. On the phone, she said she wanted to see garnets. She described herself as an office lady at a foreign company. Apparently, her fiancé was going to buy her a ring and told her to find what she wanted in advance. The budget had no ceiling. It sounded like good business.

Yamamoto-san, who had her black hair tied with a scrunchie, matched a grey skirt with a plain blouse today. I remembered also thinking last time that it wasn’t that her outfit was drab, but that she probably didn’t like colors that stood out very much.

While preparing a new pot of tea and making small talk about how it was getting hot lately or how air conditioning was difficult on her with a sensitivity to cold, Richard, who had disappeared into the back room, returned to the reception room with Urashima’s casket.

When he opened it on the glass table, there was a flood of colors.

There was red, yellow, orange, green, and even purple. They were all garnets. There were dark and light-shaded ones. That reminded me, there were garnets in all colors with the exception of blue. In addition to the stones she liked when she visited the store before, there were a few new similar ones added.

Even if there were no customer orders, Richard’s Urashima’s casket contained all sorts of gems, but garnets had a high probability of being a regular member. There seemed to be some variation depending on the type, but they were probably not so hard to buy.

“Wow…”

“We have added several high quality rhodolite garnets. The demantoids are the same as the ones from before.”

He bowed, and then Yamamoto-san silently bent forward and began her staring contest with the gemstones on top of the black velvet cloth. The mood was not severe or solemn, like she was someone searching for a quartz for fortune-telling.

She was just looking.

Deliberately, without saying anything, with a very serious look on her face.

She illuminated the inside of the gems with the penlight Richard passed to her and used her finger to ascertain their feel.

For some reason or another, I imagined a detective from a mystery novel. Among the many counterfeit stones, the sole real gemstone that was requested by the client was mixed in. The great detective must splendidly choose the right one. It was serious business. This was ridiculous. This was a jewelry store, Yamamoto-san was just a normal customer, and Richard would say that any stone one chose was the correct one in the first place. This man didn’t stock stones that he couldn’t sell with confidence to his customers.

Silence filled the bland room.

Honestly, this was really nerve-wracking.

If it’s an engagement ring, wouldn’t it be better to choose one in a slightly more cheerful mood? No, since it was highly likely that it would be an once-in-a-lifetime item, perhaps it was natural to choose it seriously.

Perhaps becoming aware of my roaming gaze, Yamamoto-san looked up and let out an “Ah!”

“Oh, I get quiet when I’m concentrating so…please don’t mind me and feel free to talk as much as you like.”

“No, no, I’m an employee. I hope you don’t mind as well, miss.”

“I’m not sure which one I like…even garnets are so beautiful.”

“Even” garnets? The way she said that subtly bothered me. After I thought about it a little, I grinned. Since Yamamoto-san said she wanted to see garnets and came to this store, there was no need for her to be so indecisive. All that’s left was for someone to give her a gentle push on the back.

“Why, if it’s someone like you, miss, I think any garnet will be perfect! Doesn’t it just feel like that’s exactly Yamamoto-sama’s stone?”

I smiled with all I had, just as Yamamoto-san—frowned tightly.

Why. What happened. I looked to Richard for help. He was a man like a Western doll in a suit. The store owner, who noticed the bad countenance of his customer, gently called out, “How are you doing?” Yamamoto-san looked at Richard with her stiffened face.

Somehow, it was a pensive, brooding face, like she found her enemy here at last.

“…Um, there is something I want to ask you.”

Even as I got startled by that ominous feeling, Richard smiled warmly without moving a muscle.

“Yes, feel free to ask anything.”

“Beautiful people…have an advantage in life, right…?”

Huh?

Richard’s and my face were identical for an instant. If you were to give them a title, it would be “Bafflement.” What exactly was this person talking about? Richard was the quicker of the two of us to switch gears. Is that so , he said after a beat, then put his teacup on the table and shook his head.

“Are you asking me? I am flattered if you are complimenting my appearance, but if you are asking if it benefits me or not, then I personally do not think so. There is hardly any benefit to it.”

No, I definitely didn’t think that was the case?

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who thought that, as Yamamoto-san had an incredible look on her face. It was neither astonishment nor hatred. It was a face of despairing frustration. What was going on with her?

‘Then…I’ll ask the other way around. Between a person with average looks and a person who is really beautiful, which do you think would have a disadvantage in daily life?”

“That is a difficult question. Whether it is professional skills or communication skills, the essential parts have nothing to do with appearance, is that not so? Because, regardless of one’s appearance, race, or leanings, each and every person are like gemstones, irreplaceable existences.”

“People are, gemstones…”

Was she alright? Yamamoto-san’s voice was getting lower and lower. I asked if she wanted another cup of tea, with the intention of sending out a life raft. I told her that we had iced and hot royal milk tea. Yamamoto-san looked at me with lifeless eyes.

“…You served that tea last time too. It doesn’t taste like ready-made tea, so do you make it here? Isn’t that a lot of work?”

“Oh, yes. I make it in our kitchen. It’s the owner’s favorite.”

“So beautiful people could force things their way even at times like this…”

Even when I smiled wryly and told her it had nothing to do with that, Yamamoto-san did not listen. I shrugged my shoulders slightly, and Richard laughed faintly. Yamamoto-san became indignant, as though she had snapped.

“You don’t have to laugh, okay? I’m asking seriously!”

“I deeply apologize.”

“You, you don’t need to apologize for my unreasonable anger!”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

“…Going back to our conversation before, if I may speak for everyone who isn’t beautiful, then beautiful people definitely have more of an advantage.”

Richard wordlessly bowed his head. I was also quiet. We could only wait for the storm to pass. The Yamamoto-san who came to the store last time was a young lady who was sensible and quiet to the point of being too quiet, but currently she had a look of unsettled frustration. However, I had no clue what she was frustrated about.

“…I know that there are only a handful of stones lined up in stores like these, and that the ones with poor shapes or colors, even if they are the same stone, are sometimes used for industrial purposes or crushed and used as paints. I’m sure they had many existences before they were ‘gemstones’. If anything, aren’t people not ‘gemstones,’ but ‘stones’?”

“Are you talking about the selection process? You are quite knowledgeable.”

When the beautiful store owner smiled at her, Yamamoto-san, as though taken aback, covered her face and hung her head. She was blushing all the way to her ears. For some reason, this person seemed to be going out of control. But why? That’s right. I knew why Yamamoto-san’s expression suddenly changed.

It was because I complimented her.

Again? This again? Was it the usual pattern of my careless behavior dragging Richard into trouble? Forgive me. I couldn’t recall what exactly I said to her. I myself would have thought it was safe. If I were not mistaken, I said something along the lines of garnets suiting her or something like that. I haven’t got the slightest idea what was bad. Richard got mixed up in a huge mess.

The store owner with the beautiful face took a sip of tea, and then spoke leisurely.

“Of course, inorganic stones and organic humans are completely different entities. It is true that there are stones that fall outside the framework of gemstones, but even stones that are called gemstones can be compared, evaluated, and priced according to various criteria such as carat, quality, and clarity. This is also a world of comparisons. However, I think that the special characteristics of gemstones, which is that every one of them being an ultimate one-of-a-kind item as well as how they gently nestle close to people, is very much similar to humans. It is a common point for the ‘beauty’ of both gemstones and humans that they do not adhere only to strict standards, and discovering a world of beauty unbound by preconceived notions through interactions with stones, is also one way to love gemstones, is it not? In that sense, I, like him, also believe the garnet is the perfect stone for you, Yamamoto-sama.”

I remembered. That’s right. I told Yamamoto-san that “it feels like the garnet is exactly Yamamoto-san’s stone.” Since she wanted a garnet, I figured she wanted me to say that and give her a push.

But, was that actually not the case?

Yamamoto-san bit her lips, and her fists trembled, but she then opened her mouth again, as though she resolved herself.

“Thank you very much for the explanation! I can see very well that you are a jeweler who’s very good at talking! Gems are like people, and garnets are the perfect stones for me. If that’s the case, then please guess who I am! By that logic, someone who knows everything about gems can also know everything about people, right?”

I was at a loss. This was way past an unreasonable request. What should I do, would she calm down a little if I brought out doll cakes? She wasn’t the great king of sweets Richard, so she probably wouldn’t settle down so easily. I peeked at Richard to ask what to do next.

The jeweler with unequalled beauty was smiling, like he was enjoying himself in some way.

“Who Yamamoto-sama is, you say?”

“Who I am, what I like, and so on. I haven’t talked about them, have I? Or is a valueless stone out of your consideration, not even worth appraising from the start?”

That was never the case , Richard said. Then, you know? Yamamoto-san pressed. However, judging from that tone, victory seemed to be on Richard’s side. That is correct, the store owner said, filling time.

“If you are pressing it that far, then please pardon my rudeness a little. Yamamoto-sama, you are quite familiar with plants, especially flowers, correct? You are good with your hands, like handicrafts, and although your life is not especially uncomfortable or wanting because you live with your parents, something you absolutely cannot forgive happened recently, and you cannot control your anger—how did I do on this?”

There was a silence that fit the phrase “being lost for words” perfectly.

What was this guy saying all of a sudden?

As I was dumbstruck, wondering if he had hit his head a little, next to me, Yamamoto-san reacted on the sofa. Her eyes were getting a bit wet. No way. Did he hit the nail on the head? Huh?

“…I’m so sorry…!”

When Yamamoto-san disregarded me, who had been left behind, and prostrated herself before him, Richard only looked out of the window with a cool face.