Raven frowned at Octavia, who had nodded all too easily. He glanced back down. After a moment, he slowly opened his eyes again, and a smile crept across his lips. Octavia shuddered and nearly pulled herself back, along with her chair.
“Why, don’t you want some detective work?”
“Huh? Let me tell you, pretending to be someone’s lover is not the business of a detective.”
“I’m asking you to solve the mystery of the doll. Mrs. Smile herself, concerned about her reputation, has already made calls to a detective’s office. This, with the added purpose of establishing a scandal centered on me.”
Well, solving mysteries was the business of a detective, after all. As Octavia fell silent, Raven leaned forward.
“I’ll recommend you to Mrs. Smile. Because a Demonic Heirloom might be caught up in this case, no detective is likely to take it on, so she’ll be delighted.”
“But I don’t know if she’ll be happy with a detective like me, with no track record...”
“Don’t worry about that. After all, you were recognized as a worthy adversary by the Phantom Thief, Crow.”
On hearing that name of her adversary, Octavia’s voice lowered. “Huh?”
“The Phantom Thief specializes in Demonic Heirlooms. As a detective, you’ve caught the thief’s attention. Therefore, people in society have started to whisper the rumor that you might be able to deal with him, and they seem to accept it.”
“Why would they say that?”
“Because Crow, the Phantom Thief, mentioned you by name on the overnight train.” He was talking about the card that Crow had left. Octavia would never forget its humiliating contents.
“You are something of an underground celebrity now, expected to do great work as a detective.”
Thunderstruck by this news, Octavia grew flustered. “Th-Then why hasn’t a single job come my way?!”
“Because no one wants to get involved with someone associated with Demonic Heirlooms, of course.”
If anyone were to bring their case to Octavia, other people might begin to suspect that it was somehow tangled up with Demonic Heirlooms. Indeed, people were feeling apprehensive of late.
As a matter of fact, part of the reason I started work as a detective was to reclaim the Heirlooms! That wasn’t Octavia’s only goal. Even her grandmother had taken cases that weren’t related to the Heirlooms, and Octavia had listened to many of her accounts, which sounded like adventure stories, with her eyes sparkling. In spite of that, Octavia herself had fallen at the first hurdle.
“I-In other words, it’s the Phantom Thief’s fault that I have no work and am struggling to make ends meet?!”
“I suppose it would be,” said Raven, hesitating.
“No matter how you look at it, of course it’s his fault! That frivolous Phantom Thief!”
Stealing a kiss from Octavia’s very lips was bad enough; stealing the food from her table as well was taking irresponsibility too far.
“Next we meet, I’m going to break both his legs, after all. I’ll be taking some of his money for compensation, too!”
After a pause, Raven replied, “Let’s take the opposite view, shall we? Everyone is reluctant to discuss any matter related to the Demonic Heirlooms. Because it’s too dangerous, there are no detectives, and so there’s no investigation agency specializing in this field.”
“Isn’t that the same as saying that there are no jobs?!”
“That means it’s an untapped market—a wide, blue ocean of jobs, in fact. If you factor in hush money, you’ll be richly compensated.” Octavia, whose fists had been trembling, looked Raven hard in the face. He went on, “The fee offered by Mrs. Smile has continued to increase, and has already reached quite a large sum.”
“A-About how much?”
Raven gently leaned across the table, and Octavia offered him one of her ears. Upon hearing Raven’s whisper, her eyes grew wide.
“Th-That much?” she gasped. “But what happens in the event that the doll really is a Demonic Heirloom?”
“Naturally, if you can dispose of it neatly, so that no blame comes down upon her daughter’s head, I’m sure she’ll pay extra.”
In other words, whether or not it really was a Demonic Heirloom, she was to make it as if the case had never existed in the first place.
That sounds manageable, right? Seeing as all I have to do is recover it... And could it be that she really was standing at a crossroads before a wide, blue ocean, just as Raven had indicated? But am I all right with doing this? As things stand, that almost sounds like...
“I-It almost sounds like a scam, the way you’ve put it.”
“But you’ll accept the request, won’t you?” As if he were making Octavia an accomplice in one of his cons, Raven smiled, quite calm.
Octavia balled her hands into fists atop her lap. She couldn’t allow herself to be dragged along by him too easily. “Under what conditions will I be able to meet Mrs. Smile?”
“I really don’t know whether you’ve misunderstood me or understood me perfectly,” muttered Raven quietly, before slapping another perfectly calculated smile on his face. “If you aren’t able to solve the mystery, I’ll have you ‘take responsibility’ by getting engaged to me.”
“Mrs. Smile may be excessive herself, but you really take things too far, Raven.”
“Well, it sounds more fun this way.”
Again with the fun? If Raven seemed childish in contrast to his appearance, it was because he acted entirely based on his curiosity. Octavia felt more amazed than angered by his particular brand of haphazardness.
Still, without hesitation, she nodded. “Understood. Introduce me to Mrs. Smile.”
“Really? If you aren’t able to solve the mystery of the doll, you’ll wind up engaged to me.”
“Then I’ll just have to solve it. Besides, don’t you believe in marrying for love?”
Raven, who’d had that smile—the one that Octavia absolutely detested—plastered all over his face, blinked as if he had misread Octavia’s intent. Then cheerfully, naturally, the corners of his mouth turned up again.
“I think you’d probably end up calling off the engagement yourself. I’ve had no success with men; I’ve been told that I’m burdensome.”
A romantic marriage wouldn’t take shape unless both participants fell in love. It was well within her expectations for Raven to respond to her warning with an expression of slight astonishment. Her love life had been lackluster, but as the daughter of an earl, at least a few men had attempted to court her in the past. For the most part, after she had declared herself unfit, they would tell her, “That’s not true,” and a string of flippant promises would follow. The gentlemen never understood that Octavia was speaking sincerely, and they only ever ended up embarrassing themselves. Therefore, she had a rough idea of just how “burdensome” she was.
In spite of that, Raven returned Octavia’s warning with a defiant smile. “Is that right? That’s just how I like it.” He didn’t take his eyes off her.
She felt a shiver—only a slight one—go up her spine.
Raven’s deftness in negotiations was truly superb, and the very next day, Octavia was clutching her trunk, ready to travel to the harbor town where she had been told Mrs. Smile and her daughter lived. The harbor town was a few stations away from the Royal Capital by steam train. It was a distance such that if one departed in the morning, one would arrive just after noon.
However, after Octavia had finished preparing for travel, she was not picked up by a steam train or a horse-drawn coach.
“A motorcar?”
“Hop in,” said Raven encouragingly.
Octavia’s eyes were like saucers. She had heard the word “motorcar” before, but she had never seen the real thing. Although it had four wheels, it was, unlike a coach, propelled entirely by a machine. After she had thrown her luggage in the back seat, Raven opened the door for her and directed her to sit in the front passenger seat. She gingerly sat down.
After the car started moving, Hat raised his voice. “Well, well! You have some nice stuff, don’t you? It’s been a while since I’ve ridden in a car! I guess the ban on technology of this level has been lifted.”
“I-It’s amazing,” breathed Octavia. “Are such things commonplace in the Royal Capital?”
“They’ve not yet been adopted widely. Petrol would need to become even cheaper. The roads also need paving.”
With Octavia in the front passenger seat, Raven took the wheel. “When I’m just traveling within the Royal Capital, I guess I’d use a coach, too. Only, I have a weakness for novel things, and I find I always need to get my hands on them.”
“This fellow really is a ball of curiosity. It’ll land him in deep trouble, one of these days,” muttered Hat.
“I-It’s so clean inside, too.” The car was comfortable, but because the road was bumpy, Octavia’s voice was shaky.
Nonchalant, Raven replied, “Well, today is my first time driving it.”
“Huh?!”