“What’s going on there?”
She thought Marie had been awfully quiet…but hadn’t expected it to be due to a hangover.
This is a critical summit! Did she really keep drinking all night?! Lloyd’s not the only one I can’t handle here! Reckless drunks are just as bad!
Calming down, Eve pointed to the door.
“Uh…out that door, end of the hall, left.”
Marie clapped a hand to her mouth, and Selen and Riho each took a shoulder.
“You are such a mess.”
“Once Selen… Oh, you know.”
“I’m…I’m so sorry… Urppp…”
Barely managing an apology, Marie stumbled out of the room, a pitiable sight.
Once he saw her out, Lloyd turned back to Eve, wincing.
“Basket clams might be the best choice this morning.”
“Classic hangover cure.” Eve nodded. Her mind was on how to control this meeting.
Then this pure boy threw out an honest question.
“But why are we talking about miso soup? That’s unrelated!”
Eve flinched. A straight shot right down the center.
There he goes again! He doesn’t get subterfuge, banter, or jokes!
Eve took a deep breath and subjected herself to the ultimate humiliation—explaining your own joke.
“I was trying to lighten the mood before this grim summit. That can help everyone put their opinions out there. It’s always best to start with a joke!”
Lloyd gave her a look of deep respect.
“I had no idea! I can see why you’re in charge of a whole country! But why did you go with miso soup?”
This is insufferable!
It was bad enough that she had to admit she was joking, but now he wanted to know the reasoning behind the specifics! And his praise was echoing back around the room and making her feel mocked. She was entirely off her game, rocking on the boy’s obliviousness ripples.
Threonine was just as flummoxed by this and decided he’d better step in.
“Perhaps we should get down to business?”
“Ohh, please do, Threoniny. I owe ya!”
Threonine had not been trying to bail Eve out, but she felt like a basketball player who’d been badly winded right before the other team called a time-out. She was genuinely grateful.
The game had yet to actually begin, but she felt worn out, as if they’d just finished the third quarter. She waved him on, trying to get back to the main topic.
“Today’s summit— I’m sure you’re aware, Lady Eve, but the evil schemes you’ve carried out beneath the surface have grown too great for us to let pass unchallenged.”
“I have no memory of these thiiiings.”
Anzu leaned across the table, smacking it so hard it nearly flipped.
“We haven’t even leveled a charge yet!”
“Anzy, I’ve never done anything bad in all my life! Whatever I’ve done or intended to do, I have always done what I believed to be right.”
She was acting like she’d never consciously done anything wrong or harbored any ill intentions, and that just pissed Anzu off more.
“Get real! You were funding experiments on prisoners in Hell’s Lock! We’ve got hard evidence, a manual on how to modify prisoners! You can’t worm your way out of this!”
“Uh, Lady Anzu…!” Sardin hissed. She was getting ahead of them…and not slowing down.
“What? That evidence stands! Show that and she’s done!”
“Urgh, sit down, Lady Anzu!” Mena said, getting up and pushing her into her seat. She leaned in and whispered. “You can’t show your best card first.”
“Why not, beady eyes? This ain’t daifugo! You ought to play your piece when you can!”
Anzu still didn’t realize how bad she’d blown it, and Sardin and Threonine were both rubbing their foreheads.
Eve was smirking in her suit.
I was right to go after Anzy first. Ah-ha, the manual for the inmate modification machine was their key evidence. That’s pretty weak. If they’d played it late, it might have hurt, but if I see it coming, I can deal with it.
Sardin and Threonine had likely planned to advance things slowly, only bringing out that evidence when it would prove a contradiction—Eve knew that trick all too well.
But I can wriggle right out of an accusation like this, boys.
If she knew their story, she could line her excuses up with it.
Speaking calmly, she began with an apology. “Sorry for concealing my investments in Hell’s Lock. That did seem to have resulted in problems for everyone.”
“Problems? Understatement of the year! Why would you even need to hide that?”
“Well, I was concerned about the growing threat of international crime, so I invested heavily in the prison specializing in criminals committing international crimes,” Eve said, sounding deeply concerned. “I mean, I’m usually such a goof! Bragging about my altruism would be rather embarrassing.”
“Ha?!”
This was such a bald-faced lie that nobody knew how to react.
“Lady Eve, Hell’s Lock’s research into human modification has clear ties to the string of bizarre incidents in recent years. Were you unaware?”
Without a trace of guilt, Eve nodded.
“Yes! I thought it would help! Finding out all that money was going to human experimentation… I suppose I do bear responsibility for not keeping proper tabs on things.”
“Gonna play dumb, huh?” Anzu growled.
“Hell’s Lock was run by Warden Urgd. There were ugly rumors about him, but he was doing an excellent job keeping the prisoners in line. I mean, he even handled those mobsters that were such a thorn in your side, King Sardin. If he can do what you can’t, then I’m inclined to overlook a few nasty tales.”
“Gah…”
A logically consistent excuse that also hit him where it hurt.
“I figured you needed a lot of money to keep that type of crook in line,” Eve added. “We can’t let the mob escape, can we? When they asked for more funding, I never doubted it. I’m as shocked as you are to discover what they did with it!”
Eve was now claiming to be the real victim here.
“You said something about a manual? I’m sure they were trying to turn prisoners into weapons and start their own organized crime syndicate. Good thing you stopped it before that happened! Gotta count our blessings.”
“You bitch—”
Phyllo and Mena were forced to physically restrain Anzu.
“……Down, girl.”
“Hngggg!”
Eve was winning, but then Lloyd’s hand shot into the air.
“Um, Lady Eve.”
“……………Yes?”
Her hackles went up. She’d played this perfectly. What else could he say here?
“I gather you’re denying any involvement with that duplicitous training camp?”
“Huh? Duplicitous training camp?”
Where did that come from? The phrase was a hook shot curving in from out of sight. She’d never once heard those words in that order—how could it not shake her?
“Huh? We’re talking about prison. What’s a training camp got to do with it?”
Lloyd took a deep breath and launched into an explanation.
“Let me start from the beginning. I responded to an invite to a self-help training camp to improve my mental fortitude. But the people running it were unscrupulous, and I found myself incarcerated.”
Uh-huh. Well, that makes no sense.
“As their investor, I’m sure you know that average citizens are not normally sent to jail. I thought it was a training camp, but it was actually prison! And they disguised it so well that I didn’t even figure it out until someone told me. Can you really insist you weren’t involved? That it wasn’t an investment designed to line your own pockets?”
No, what? How do you not notice you’re in a prison? You’re the weird one!
Eve was now in the dubious position of needing to explain that there had never been a training camp. She clutched her head inside the costume, sighing. Totally thrown off pace again.
I gotta think of excuses for nonsense, too?
And worst of all was the fact that Lloyd was clearly very serious about this.
Are they trying to use Lloyd’s confusion to corner me? Not a bad plan!
She glanced at Threonine, impressed. However—
“Uh, Lloyd…”
“What’s this about a training camp?”
You didn’t know, either?!
They were on his side, but every bit as flummoxed.
Lloyd kept pressing the point, looking very serious.
“Lady Eve, I can’t believe Profen knew nothing about this scam. It’s time you told the truth.”
Eve had no clue what he even meant by that, so she just spoke her mind.
“Maybe you won’t believe this, but I genuinely had no idea. Sorry I can’t help.”
She sounded convincing enough that Lloyd just said, “Oh, really?” and backed off.
Sardin and Threonine both frowned here.
“If she sounds that sincere…it’s hard for a boy as nice as Lloyd to keep after her.”
“A straight shot for a straight shot. Lady Eve’s been in this game a while, and easily shook off Lloyd’s attack.”
The heads of state praised Eve’s skills.
But the lady herself was utterly baffled.
Er? What? Did I just apologize?
Lloyd made his next move before she could recover.
“But giving Warden Urgd free reign to continue his abuses was a failure of oversight on your part, yes?”
“Yes, I’ll do anything, forgive me, it’s all true.”
Eve sat bolt upright, and bowed low like she was running an apology press conference… astonishing herself.
“What’s going on?!”
“Um, don’t ask us…?”
Puzzled, Mena whispered to Phyllo, “Something’s off, here. A minute ago, she was half slimy lawyer, half murderous mastermind.”
“……Yeah…… Something’s wrong.”
As they whispered, Renge gave Eve a long, hard look.
“I-I’ve heard of this!” she cried.
“What’s up, Renge?”
Renge folded her hands in front of her face, eyes gleaming.
“This is a love frequency. It’s making Eve honest!”
“……You’ve lost it,” Phyllo scoffed.
But Renge maintained her exaggerated pose and expression.
“Selen told me all about it! A gentle ripple, like a sweet, forlorn breeze brushing across the surface of a pond. That’s the love frequency.”
“You gotta start with the source, here, Renge. You’re making me regret listening to a single word of it.”
“Naw, look closely and you can sense it plain as daylight. The aura’s bleeding out of the costume!”
A source like this rated lower than your average gossip magazine, and this frankly bizarre demand to perform a visual inspection of her aura just gave Mena a headache.
But Phyllo diligently attempted to see Eve’s aura.
“…………………Hngg.”
Making observations. Please stand by.
After a long, careful look—Phyllo’s eyes snapped wide open.
“……It’s love!” she declared.
“Er, what? Phyllo?”
“……A comforting sound like the wind blowing the leaves of a bamboo thicket. So this is what Selen spoke of—the world beyond!”
“Don’t you dare cross over, Phyllo!”
His sister was taking a very wrong turn. Mena did not approve of any foot set into Selen’s domain. Few sisters would.
But while some perceived love in the air—Eve herself would not, could not, did not admit that.
What? What?!
In all her life, she had never once apologized from the heart or made an unconditional promise. Eve’s own actions terrified her.