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It was evening. Berta was in the main plaza, everything around her bathed in crimson light.
Actually, she wasn’t exactly in the main plaza. She was just nearby, in the belltower of a building that was tall by Friedland’s standards. She was, however, looking directly at the main plaza from her perch. It was the focus of all her attention.
Berta. Yukinari. And Dasa. These three were up on the roof. Yukinari held Durandall and Dasa had Red Chili, as always. In addition, Dasa and Berta each had a sniper weapon—Derrringer.
Berta was watching the plaza through the weapon’s scope. Derrringer had a long barrel. She had asked Yukinari once why it was so long, but his explanation didn’t make complete sense to her—whatever the case, it wasn’t something you would normally just walk around with. Berta actually had a special Derrringer that Yukinari had given her for her use, but this was a different gun, one of the weapons Yukinari had lent to Fiona and the community watch. Berta and Dasa both had Derrringers back at the sanctuary, but Yukinari wasn’t willing to spare the time to go get them.
Berta didn’t understand what it was that had him so worried, but she trusted him from the bottom of her heart. Anything he wanted her to do, she would do it. Anything he asked her to do would not be mistaken. She wasn’t especially bright, so she would just do as he asked—that was what she had decided.
“If anyone down there has a strange response, shoot them,” Yukinari said.
Berta didn’t have any trouble with the actual shooting. She was quite used to Derrringer. It was highly accurate, and the distance between the belltower and the plaza wasn’t that great. Trying to hit one small, specific spot amid the hustle and bustle would be a very difficult shot—but just to land a round anywhere on a target the size of a human wouldn’t be so hard. She might even be able to deliberately miss any vital points, which soothed her resistance to killing things.
But there was still a problem.
“A strange response, my lord...?” She didn’t understand what he meant by that. “I’m sorry, but... what kind of response would be a... a strange one?” She thought it would be quite difficult to decide what was strange and what wasn’t.
For example, right at that moment, she could see two friends at one edge of the plaza, leaning toward each other and laughing about something. It made them stand out from the crowd; it was a little unusual. But they weren’t causing any trouble, and most people just passed them by. Surely he didn’t mean for her to shoot those two?
Berta hated how poor her judgment was. But...
“Um... hmm.” Yukinari frowned for a moment, perhaps realizing that his instructions had lacked a certain specificity. Finally he said, “Let me make the call.” He looked through his binoculars again. “Sorry, I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“No, it’s all right...” Berta shook her head. “I’ll just do what you say, Lord Yukinari.” She didn’t understand why he had ordered her to do this, but clearly, something was worrying him. Not that he had deigned to tell her what it was. That irked her. But still...
“Yuki...” Dasa spoke up suddenly. “He’s unsure.”
“What...?”
Dasa was doing an inspection of her own sniper rifle. It was basically the same gun as the one back at the sanctuary, but she was making sure that everything was in good condition.
“Do you know what’s going on, Lady Dasa?” Berta felt a short-lived flash of something she thought was jealousy. Perhaps there was something Yukinari had told Dasa, but no one else. She knew the two of them had been together for a long time before they arrived in Friedland, so perhaps Yukinari could say things to Dasa that he couldn’t say to anyone else.
Berta noticed her own envy, her own jealousy, and realized how shallow she was; it sent her into a spiral of self-recrimination.
But it was Yukinari himself who asked, “What are you talking about?”
Perhaps that meant this wasn’t some secret between the two of them.
Dasa methodically laid out her reasoning. “You’re staking out that... signboard, Yuki. And you’ve written... letters on it. Yet no one but... you... can read them. I think the letters are from... your home. And if you’re putting up a... sign with words no one else can read, it means there’s someone... else who can. Someone besides you. The words are like the ones at the crime scenes. And you’re watching them with a... gun, which means you expect to fight whoever... can read them.”
“Is it really someone from your... your home, Lord Yukinari?”
“I don’t know the details,” Dasa went on. “But I can guess that it’s someone who is... like you, Yuki.”
Yukinari was silent.
“In other words, someone else from the same place as you, whose soul... was used by the Church to make an... angel.”
Still he said nothing. He and Berta were both dumbfounded. Partly they were just surprised to hear the normally taciturn Dasa expound such a lengthy series of deductions—but even Berta could tell from the look on Yukinari’s face that Dasa’s guess was basically correct.
So we’re looking for someone from Lord Yukinari’s hometown...?
Berta didn’t know where Yukinari came from. But if someone he once knew had become an agent of the Church, that would certainly be very painful. Berta didn’t quite know what it would actually feel like, but she could understand that it wouldn’t be pleasant. She knew, for example, that if one of the other girls from her orphanage were to become her enemy, it would make her very sad.
“You’re right, more or less. Nice detective work,” Yukinari said.
Dasa nodded, a look of triumph passing briefly over her face. “It’s because we’ve been... together for so lo...ng, Yuki.” She almost seemed to be trying to make the point to Berta. Things that Berta couldn’t figure out, Dasa could. But considering the difference in the amount of knowledge each had, this was only natural.
Still, Berta had decided not long ago to stop acting as though this gap were something to resign herself to. It was something she had learned from the female mercenary, Veronika: not to give up, not to tell herself she could never win against Dasa. Even if she still sometimes felt hesitation.
Whatever the case, Yukinari said, “Anyway... To put it briefly, if the killer is one of the Church’s angels, I expect them to have some reaction to those words. People might be surprised at the sign, or laugh, or just look kind of suspicious about it. But if they do anything else, you can pull the trigger.
“We have to keep a constant watch on that sign,” he went on. “Including me, we have three snipers, so we’ll pull guard duty in three shifts. We leave two of the rifles here—one to use and one for backup, in case we have any problems with the first one.”
“Okay,” Berta nodded. Then she looked at Dasa. “Lady Dasa, you can feel free to rest for now!”
“Huh? Oh... All right.” Dasa blinked, uncharacteristically surprised, then nodded. “But—”
“Don’t worry,” Berta said. “I’ve got things covered here.” This seemed to be enough to cow Dasa into silence.
“First shift’s all yours, then,” Yukinari said.
“Yes, sir,” Berta answered. “You can count on me!”