Chapter 88

Prologue There Are People Ruling the Midgar Kingdom from the Shadows? I’m So Jealous! Skel and Po lie sprawled out across their desks. “It’s over.” “It’s finally over…” The three of us just finished up our Midgar Academy final written exams. “You guys wanna go over the answer sheet and see how we did?” I ask. Losing Isaac was a major blow, but I managed to pull through by cheating off the crib sheet I got from Nina. I’m actually pretty proud of how I did. I tailored my scores for each topic so I would just barely avoid failing in each of them. “Are you outta your mind?” Skel replies. “It’s not like we can change our scores now,” agrees Po. “Besides, the practical exams are next week.” “Yeah, fair,” I admit. I was pretty sure there was no way in hell they would be interested. That was the whole reason I asked. Thank goodness they weren’t, or that could’ve backfired badly. It’s been about a month since the terrorist attack with the white fog, putting us about halfway through the second month of the year. Things got kind of hectic when the Knight Order came in and did their investigation, but things at the academy have settled down since then. Still, it’s awesome how many terrorist attacks this fantasy world has. Back in my old world, all I got to do was occasionally hunt down hoodlums. Oh, and Claire’s been in a coma ever since. I’m honestly not that torn up about it, and I’ve certainly been enjoying my newfound freedom. Zeta says she’ll wake up sooner or later, so I’m sure she’s probably fine. It might affect her job-hunting prospects, though. Actually, wait a minute. She never took her final exams. Please tell me they’re not gonna hold her back a year. The sooner she graduates and gets out of my hair, the better. “So what do you guys want to do?” I ask. “We could study for the practical exam—” “Are you outta your mind?” Skel replies. “Now that we’re done with the written test, we’re free to screw around as much as we want until the practical exam comes up,” agrees Po. “Yeah, fair.” “And if you think you can just take our money and run, then you’ve got another one coming. We’ve got fat bankrolls, and we’re coming for you.” “We have the power of Mitsugoshi Installment Payments on our side!” Skel gives me a seedy grin as he flashes me a stack of bills, and Po starts shuffling a deck of cards. “Now, onward to our battlefield!” Skel cries. “I assume you mean my room, right?” “You should go ahead and take a shower first,” Po says. “We’re not letting you sleep a wink tonight.” “I shower in the mornings like a normal person.” They carefully pin me in from both sides. Then I hear Christina’s voice. “I’m sorry, Kanade. This is all my fault.” “Oh no… What am I going to do?” The girl standing across from her looks oddly familiar. “I can’t believe Miss Eliza is going to walk away scot-free…” Tears run down the girl’s face. Oh, now I remember. She’s the one we saved back in the fog. “C’mon, let’s do this thing,” Skel urges me. “Don’t go getting cold feet on us, now,” Po says. “All right, all right, I’m coming.” As I leave the classroom, there’s just one thought on my mind: Being a major noble must be sweet. They can get away with anything. “There’s always something so hollow about total victory,” I mutter to myself as I lie on my bed of money. Skel and Po bailed before the clock even hit midnight. Midway through the game, I started cleaning them out with mechanical efficiency, and my winnings gradually piled higher and higher. Once the passion fades, all that remains is boundless emptiness… “Heh-heh-heh… I sounded like a real high roller there.” I get up from my bed and start gathering up the stacks of bills I spread across it for the bit. All told, we’re looking at two million zeni. Thanks, Skel and Po. And thanks, Mitsugoshi Installment Payments. “So this is the limited-edition deck Mitsugoshi put out, huh? I hear these are wicked expensive…but it’s also kinda creepy.” The theme of the design is “horror.” I should probably just sell it. It’s still too early to go to sleep, so I guess I’ll get some training in. Right as I start working my magic, though, I spot a gleaming card that has fallen by the side of my bed. “Huh, what’s that?” The card is gold and shiny and looks super fancy. The front says “Royal Mitsugoshi Deluxe Bar Membership Card” in beautiful lettering, and the back says “Member #001, Cid Kagenou.” “Oh, right. Mitsugoshi was opening a fancy members-only bar, and Gamma gave me a membership card.” I completely ignored it because I assumed they were gonna use the knowledge they stole from me to rip off everyone who went there. “A fancy bar, huh…?” I snatch a glance at my fat bankroll. I do have a soft spot for those scenes you occasionally see in spy movies where people have a secret conversation in a quiet bar. “And hey, maybe I can get them to give me a friends-and-family discount.” Worst-case scenario, I can always dine and dash. All right, let’s do this. If you’re gonna do spy stuff, you gotta do it in a suit. The one I wore as John Smith is in tatters, so I decide to wear the Mitsugoshi-brand suit I got from Alpha. After polishing my shoes and giving my hair a slight part down the middle, I head out for my nighttime jaunt through the capital. “I think this is the place…” To my surprise, I find the fancy bar underground just off a tiny alleyway. Its door is unobtrusive and features the Mitsugoshi logo and a delicate engraving. I guess this place is going for a “secret hideout” kind of vibe. I’m a little bit nervous as I open the door and head in. The room is quiet. The whole place is indirectly lit, and the array of dim pendant lights above the bar counter makes it look like a glowing sea of stars. The floor is made of wolfking stone, and it looks like each table is made of a single plank of Yggdrasil wood. We’re talking hundreds of millions of zeni worth of stuff, and that’s just at a glance. A shiver runs up my spine as I calculate the risk and returns of looting the place. “Good evening, sir.” “Oh, uh, hi.” My reply comes out dumber than I intend, possibly because I was thinking about something unscrupulous. “I’ve got my membership card right here.” I reach into my pocket to pull out the shiny golden card, but the hostess shakes her head. “I assure you that won’t be necessary, Mr. Cid Kagenou. Welcome to our humble establishment. We have a VIP room in the back, if you’d be interested…” She turns her heterochromatic eyes to the seats over in the corner. “Nah, I’ll go with the counter.” It takes me a moment to make up my mind, but if you’re doing spy stuff, you gotta sit at the counter. “Very well. Please follow me.” “Sorry, but…have we met somewhere?” She’d turned away to lead me to my seat, but when I ask the question, she looks back at me in surprise. She’s a half-elf with dark hair and different-colored eyes: gold and silver. “We met at Mitsugoshi,” she tells me. “Oh, right, you were there with Gamma.” “I’m honored that you remember me. My name is Omega. Now, your seat is right this way.” I follow Omega to the counter and sit down. The bartender looks familiar, too. She’s a blond elf with bobbed hair wearing a men’s uniform. “You were there at Mitsugoshi, too, weren’t you?” I ask her. “You honor me. My name is Chi.” “I’m Cid Kagenou.” “Oh, I’m well aware.” Chi gives me a composed bow, but for some reason, her fingers are trembling. Maybe she hasn’t been tending bar for very long or something. This is the person you’ve got working at your swanky bar? “I’ll have…” I’ve already got my order all picked out. I’m in the mood to reenact everyone’s favorite spy movie. “…a vodka martini.” I then drop my voice to a low, resonant bass. “Shaken, not stirred.” At times like these, it’s important to carry yourself like a hardened badass. I can’t let them find out that this is my first time going to a bar like this. Instead, I need to lay on the silent pressure like I’m the one testing them. “One shaken vodka martini, coming right up.” Chi’s expression is tense, and she takes a deep breath to steady her shaking hands. Now that I think about it, maybe that shaking is actually part of the cocktail-making process. The more I stare at her, the more intense the shaking gets. “I see…,” I mutter. I dunno much about cocktails, so this is valuable info I’m learning. Apparently, the trick to being a good bartender is how badly your fingers are shaking. At that point, a question dawns on me. Since when has this world had vodka? “How strange…,” I say. Chi freezes. It’s okay, I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about the fact that vodka even exists in this world. The moment I start questioning it, though, I realize that the answer is obvious. The girls did this. “I never took you for a vodka martini drinker,” comes a clear, beautiful voice from behind me. I know who it is without even having to turn around. “Hello, Alpha.” “It’s been too long.” “True that.” She seems a little more grown-up than the last time I saw her. She has gorgeous blond hair and blue eyes, and her understated dress matches the bar’s ambience perfectly. “I thought you didn’t care for liquor,” she notes. “Did I say that?” “Not out loud. I just can’t think of a single time I ever saw you enjoying a drink.”