“So be it then. You stay here. Don’t even set foot outside City Hall!” he commanded with a frighteningly stern face. Zelaide was dead serious. He was serious about letting them capture him.
“I don’t want that. I’ll fight. I’ll fight them all!”
“Don’t!”
The mood became so tense the air seemed to freeze over. Everyone watching flinched from the intensity of that single word. Zelaide’s normally low, rumbling voice echoed powerfully off the concrete walls.
“Don’t…involve yourself further.”
“No! I don’t want this, Zelaide! I want to protect you!”
“Yumi…”
“Zel, didn’t you hear me say I love you? I love you! With all my heart! So I’ll fight for you!” Euphemia shouted humanity’s most sacred word, watchful eyes be damned.
Obviously the Guardians, and even Zelaide, rolled back on their heels and stared at her in surprise.
“Love…you love me? Aah…is that it? Is that what it means?” Zelaide nodded with a look that seemed to say he finally comprehended mankind’s greatest mystery at the worst possible time. Then he faced Euphemia again. His eyes glowed even though it wasn’t dark. “I understand, Yumi,” he said, refreshed.
“Zel…?”
“Yeah, it’s okay. I get it now. Not with my head, but here.” Zelaide’s long finger pointed to his heart. “So do me a favor and back down, okay?”
“…!”
“Euphemia.”
The double doors leading inside the mayor’s residential building opened. Erica Saionji stepped through the threshold. She had changed into formal attire. Her battle started from here.
“Zelaide is correct. Keep out of this.”
“Erica—”
“Zelaide.” Erica directed her gaze toward Zelaide, completely ignoring her younger sister’s pleading voice. “You have served me well until now. You have my gratitude for protecting my sister with your life. However, it appears things have drastically changed. I will take over protecting Euphemia now. I swear it. Please do what you must. I will watch over how things play out with impartiality. I may directly hand down judgment if the need arises.”
Hand down judgment on Zelaide or his enemies?
Erica didn’t know which she meant when she said it either.
“I’d appreciate that…” Zelaide responded, satisfied despite the situation being against him.
Erica said nothing about the allegations against Zelaide and he didn’t touch on the topic either. Their eyes only met for a brief moment, but it was enough for them to both understand where the other stood and decide to move toward what they each needed to accomplish.
“Zel!”
“I’m going. Be good, Yumi.” Zelaide said nothing more and smiled with just a slight curve of his lips. Then he turned his back on Euphemia to leave with the Guardians flanking him. They didn’t dare touch him or get too close.
“I promise I’ll do something about this! I won’t give up on you!”
He merely raised one hand in the air, his back still turned to her and her heartrending cry. Then he disappeared around the corner of the building with the Guardians blocking his leather-clad back from view.
Euphemia turned on her sister. “I’m disappointed in you, Erica! We’re the ones who dragged Zel into our problems. He’s the victim here!”
“Be quiet. Whining about it won’t solve the problem. Know your place.”
Euphemia gasped.
“Take Euphemia into my residence,” Erica said to the aides who had followed her out. “Give her one of the guest rooms and keep her under surveillance.”
“No! I refuse to go! Let go of me! Why won’t you listen to me, Erica?!”
“Calm down first if you want me to hear you out.”
Cheeks flushed molten red, Euphemia struggled against the two aides who grabbed her by the arms.
Erica watched them secure her before shooting a chilling look at Ingalls and Haydn, who was soundlessly clapping his hands. “I sincerely apologize for the constant trouble my sister has been causing you these past few days. I’m ashamed for not having taught her better.”
“Don’t be. I heard your sister is a brilliant scientist. That was why I thought she would understand when I told her to stay out of this problem right now. The investigation will be intense. But he won’t be treated unjustly because he is a Beast Blood. I don’t like things to be unfair.” Ingalls sympathized with Erica and her harsh approach on family.
Haydn, however, watched Euphemia struggling with deadened eyes. “A word of advice to the young lady, if I may. You are still young and superficial in your thinking. I fully understand why you are attracted to rare things that look pretty. Your love confession was very touching. But your passion will burn out with the next thing that catches your eye.”
Haydn’s voice held a velvety quality. But Euphemia found his coaxing far more disgusting than Ingalls’s parental scolding. He was treating her like a girl who was in love with the idea of being in love.
“You’re wr—”
“Indeed, Senator Haydn. You are absolutely right,” Erica said over Euphemia.
“Erica! I meant what I said! I lo—”
“Bring Euphemia inside already!”
The aides rushed to obey Erica’s unusually dour command by dragging Euphemia through the double doors into the building. They kicked the doors shut behind them. The three mayoral candidates were left alone outside.
“Your little sister is a very entertaining young lady, if you don’t mind me saying so, Mayor Saionji. Though going by that behavior, she’s guaranteed to do something rash to save that Beast Blood. Imprudently shouting her love for him is not something to be praised…”
“I’m sorry, Mister Haydn,” Erica apologized like a businesswoman. “Giving her everything she ever wanted until now has made her into a selfish young woman. I’m responsible for that. Ever since she was a little girl she has had a thing for rarities and a bad habit of wanting things she can’t have even though she easily tires of them once she obtains it… After what happened the other day, I am going to keep her close for a while until she starts thinking straight again.”
“That’s a good idea. In that case, why not send her to my villa? It’s located in Romanesque City. It’s far enough that she can lay low until her lingering attachment for the beast dies out. There’s a research facility nearby that she would like. If you like, I can contact them and arrange for them to prepare a lab for her research. The rest of the world sees you, me, and Ingalls as political adversaries, and while that is true on many fronts, we are also comrades who care about the future of this city. Won’t entrusting your immediate family to me be a way of showing how open-minded you are?” Haydn suggested.
“You certainly have a different way of looking at things, Mister Haydn. Thank you for your generous offer. I would love to take you up on it, but for now I am going to keep her under close surveillance and reeducate her on proper behavior. She is my family, even if she doesn’t seem like it.”
“Is that so? Very well. Then be sure to take extra precautions around her.” Haydn bowed elegantly and left, leaving Erica scowling in his wake. Ingalls pat her once on the shoulder and left as well.
Only Euphemia’s loud curses continued to echo from beyond the double doors.