Chapter 11

Auction Kurumi “How baffling…,” Kurumi Tokisaki murmured to herself on the patio of a café on the Saito University campus. She had long black hair held back with barrettes and wore a well-tailored blouse with a long skirt. Her perfect posture and general poise only enhanced the elegant silhouette this outfit provided her. Set out in front of her was a leather notebook, writing instruments, a smartphone, and a single book. Next to these, a teapot and cup sat somehow uncomfortably as her excuse for occupying this seat. She dropped her gaze to the page of the book open before her and let out a short sigh. This was the inventory register of the Artifacts once kept in the Sukarabe family storehouse—to be more precise, it was an incomplete copy of that register. She looked at each of the Artifacts’ names listed and set her mind to work. It wasn’t that she was trying to memorize the names and powers of the Artifacts. Nor was she thinking about methods of use for the Artifacts they’d already recovered. She’d more or less done those things the day she borrowed this register. Kurumi was now toiling with the question of the thief’s objective—the one who had raided the Sukarabe manor and stolen the Artifacts in the first place. At Matsurika’s request, she had solved several cases up to that point and succeeded in recovering several Artifacts. But while the culprits in each of these cases did in fact have an Artifact in their possession, she could find absolutely no connection between them and the robbery. The culprits all said the Artifact arrived at their home one day in a mysterious package. Naturally, she’d investigated them all since there was also the possibility that their testimony was false, but so far, she hadn’t found anything to disprove their statements. This meant, essentially, that the person who raided the Sukarabe storehouse had sent the Artifacts they’d worked so hard to obtain to totally unrelated third parties. And that did not make sense. Kurumi frowned. What on earth were they thinking? They couldn’t have actually been trying to create a world filled with chaos, as Matsurika had proposed. There had to be something—some kind of reason for sending the Artifacts to ignorant, unrelated individuals. “Oh! Kurumi!” a bright voice abruptly called out from behind. She looked in that direction to find two girls. One wore a brilliant smile. Her long hair was the color of the night, and her eyes as wondrous as crystals. The other was expressionlessly doll-like and had pale hair reaching her shoulders. Tohka Yatogami and Origami Tobiichi. Like Kurumi, they were first-year students at Saito University. They were likely here for lunch, given the trays in their hands. There was a coffee, a sandwich, and an energy bar on Origami’s and a mountain of hamburgers piled up on Tohka’s. If Kurumi looked up contrast in the dictionary, she’d find a picture of these two. “Goodness! Tohka, Origami. How have you been?” Kurumi greeted them with a wry smile. “You seem as full of life as ever, Tohka.” “Hmm? Mm-hmm, I’m good.” Tohka gave her an exaggerated nod. “Wasn’t expecting you here, Kurumi. What are you up to?” “So ‘what are you up to?’ is your way of greeting me, then,” Kurumi noted. “I am a student at this university, you know. I do occasionally make use of the facilities.” “Well, yeah, but you hardly ever come to school. Are you gonna have enough credits to graduate?” Tohka asked worriedly, and Kurumi laughed. It wasn’t a nice comment, but Kurumi never imagined the day would come when Tohka would worry about her graduating. “Huh?” Tohka frowned. “Something funny?” “No, nothing.” Kurumi shook her head. “I’ve done my calculations, and I won’t need to repeat a year, so I’ll be fine.” “Yeah? That’s good.” Tohka nodded slightly and continued. “Anyway, it’s been a hundred years! Mind if we sit with you?” “That would be lovely,” Kurumi said and cleared some space on the table.