Chapter 9 (1/2)

It was when she flicked the bathroom switch in preparation for a bath that she first noticed that the lightbulb was broken.

Izumi had already taken off her clothes.

Too lazy to go search for a new one in the nude, she got in the bath after deciding that the street lights and neighbours’ lights were plenty.

Suddenly, a small light in the corner of the room caught her eye.

A gentle light like the collected glow of a firefly.

It was attached to the silver helmet that had fallen from Azayu’s head.

When she looked at it, the memories of last night came flooding back, clear in their embarra.s.sment, and forcing Izumi to stifle an incoherent scream.

Izumi had a friend that never remembered what happened while they were drunk.

They could rampage and grumble, strip or turn into a kissing fiend, and the next day they wouldn’t remember a thing. Apparently they didn’t even get hangovers, and they’d be cheerful as ever the day after.

Right now Izumi deeply envied that friend of hers.

The pain and discomfort of her hangover was one thing, but worse than that were the fresh memories of last night.

Rubar’s face filled with astoundment. Azayu’s troubled face when she started something with him. The Head Chef’s round face. What did they think when they saw her dead drunk and immodest? She was sure that they had thought her an incredibly slovenly woman.

‘But that’s wrong! It’s wrong!’, she wanted to scream.

Perhaps her only solace lay in the fact that she would never see any of these people again.

And although she wanted to see the child in the tower saved with her own two eyes, she also believed it was best not to get too involved. One-time meetings. That was best.

But still… to think that she actually had a exhibitionist streak.

Up until now she had decided that it couldn’t be helped because she was in a bath, but not even in her wildest dreams had she imagined that the day would come that she would strip of her own accord.

‘Bathroom or not, I’m never going to drink that much again.’ swore Izumi as she tried to wash away her shame with a shower.

Finis.h.i.+ng her head, and then body, before she got into the bath she spotted the helmet and noticed that it was still s.h.i.+ning.

Izumi picked it up.

And then her vision overflowed with light.

As though fireflies in a small box were suddenly released into the wide night sky, the room was suddenly filled with light.

But only for an instant. In the next moment, the light suddenly weakened, and returned to its weak glow.

Izumi stared dumbfounded at the thing in her hands.

“What the heck is this…”

There was n.o.body to answer her murmur.

She found the silver helmet felt very heavy. There was a palm-sized flat stone embedded in the area that corresponded to the forehead. Its surface felt rough, and it twinkled.

“Light… GET?”

Although the light was unstable, it would probably serve plenty well in place of the lightbulb.

Leaving the helmet on the rim of the bathtub, Izumi soaked herself in the water.

While stretching her legs out in the bath, she decided to fold her arms above her head and stretch there too.

The warm water gently loosened her body.

It was just as Izumi sighed that it happened.

The low voice that was probably a man’s could be heard outside the window. Hearing this angry-sounding voice, Izumi drooped her head.

Wasn’t the plot advancing a little quickly?

When the shouting stopped, this time it was the sound of metal. Clanks a little deeper than the sound of a ladle striking a saucepan.

Izumi had wanted to relax in peace for today at least. Although she decided to wait things out without opening the window, the shouting and clanking grew closer and closer.

She took the helmet into her hands and placed it on her head. It was too big for her, but she wore it just in case.

Slowly, she opened the window. Something shone white. Or so she registered, immediately before a shock ran through her head.

With a deep clank, light surged forth.

Although she threw her head back, the light was just too dazzling.

Around the time that the light began to settle, Izumi spotted two men outside her window.

One was dressed from head to toe in black, with only his eyes showing through the cloth wrapped around his face.

The other was wearing a light blue uniform. A long-sleeved top in light blue, and loose long pants. Inside the sash around his waist seemed to be something like a sheath. He too had cloth around his head, but unlike the other, his face was visible. His dark brown skin matched somebody else she knew.

The black-clothed man closer to the window raised his arm to Izumi.

When she saw the curved shortsword in his hand, Izumi let out a scream.

And her scream made the man flinch for just an instant.

Izumi took off her helmet and pelted it at the man.

Just before it hit him, the man in black cloth struck it to the ground with the pommel of his sword.

And when he did, light overflowed the area.

Through squinted eyes, Izumi saw.

The man in light blue had taken the black man’s back. A thud rang out like the sound of a baseball bat on sandbag, after which the black man’s chin shot up and he collapsed and convulsed.

The man in light blue then looked at Izumi.

An indescribable sense of tension was born between the two of them.

“G-, Good evening.”

“…Yeah.”

“Um, is that man in black clothing d-, dead?”

If he said “Yeah.” with a nod, Izumi was determined to immediately shut the window.

But the man shook his head with a no.

“He’s just unconscious. The guy is an important witness, so I’ll tie him up later.”

Saying that, he bent down to take the short sword that had fallen from the black man’s hand.

As Izumi watched him to see what he planned to do, the man rolled him over with a kick, before reaching into the chest of the now face-up man. From there, he had withdrawn a scabbard. After sheathing the shortsword, he placed it into the cloth around his waist before tuning back to Izumi.

Sky blue eyes seemed to scrutinise Izumi with a stare.

He had a squarish chin, and a very powerful build. To the man, pinning down somebody like Izumi would be like taking candy from a baby.

Feeling pressured, Izumi placed her hand on the window.

“Ummm~ Well then, I’ll be going.”

Just as she tried to close it, the man grabbed it first.

“Wait.”

Izumi let out a pathetic shriek in her mind.

“You’ve forgotten this.”

With his hand still on the window, the man kicked up the helmet at his feet.

Sand and helmet flew through the air.

Grabbing the helmet with the other hand, the man presented it to Izumi.

“The moonstone was broken. It must have been expensive… Sorry.”