The three of us followed Hanna into the room. The one who greeted us was nothing but a surprise, given the circumstances.
Anya, the foolish woman found in a box, stared at us with a grin that stretched from ear to ear, silently boasting about deeds unseen. I'd expected a dark look to cloud her pretty eyes, but I guess even fools have their own ways of keeping themselves sane.
She was sitting up on a medical bed, propping herself against the metal bars at the head of the bed. Anya wore a church medical gown that clung loosely at the waist but strained across her chest. A fresh set of bandages covered her right arm from the shoulder down.
Looking back at the state we found her in, this seemed a bit excessive. But there was only one woman in the room with medical knowledge; this might have been Hanna's way of covering up that she couldn't perceive blood. Perhaps even wounds too.
Anya was next to her friend who was still sleeping thanks to Kili's drugs.
Seeing her rest with such a peaceful expression made me a bit envious, even though I felt a little bad about having her sit here like this.
"Hehehe…" Anya's cheerful giggle pulled my attention back toward her. She looked at me with a shine in her eyes, an expression I hadn't expected, given the danger she put herself in to help me even after I told her no.
She was like a child, like Rinne in a way, as if she were expecting praise for something. Yet how am I supposed to praise someone for being comatose?
Anya's grin only grew wider the longer I stared. "Mister Axien!" she said cheerfully. "Erase the scary look from your face. I have good news!" She then puffed out her chest, blissfully unaware of her current attire and how distracting it was.
"She's boasting like she did something," Rinne muttered. "Did all that nutrition go to her chest instead of her brain?" Rinne patted her own chest discreetly and spoke in a hushed tone. "Luckily, I seem to have more of a brain than she does." A frown creased her lips as she sighed and looked down.
"What possible news could Sleeping Beauty give us that we wouldn't already know?" Lilas muttered skeptically, rightfully so.
Anya's right eye twitched. "You know how quiet this room is, don't you? Which means your muttering could be heard loud and clear." She then looked down at Rinne. "Though I don't know if I should be complimented or insulted by you."
"Now now," Hanna interrupted. She sat behind the doctor's desk in a far corner, watching with her head resting in her hands. "No fighting with the sleeping patient who may or may not be drugged in the room with us. And listen to the pretty woman who holds an item that she refuses to let me see."
An item that Anya refuses to let Hanna see? I must admit that the thought itself was intriguing. But more importantly: "How do you know she was drugged?" I asked Hanna.
From the soulless gaze she gave me, I saw a proud shimmer in her eyes. "Mister Axien, you should know that Mira is a very smart and wonderful woman who has taught me all kinds of stuff. Like, for example, did you know that you can pretty much trick most of the men that visit us into trying various experimental drugs as long as you lie about sleeping with them? That really helped Mira experiment with her drug-making skills."
"That was oddly scary coming from a beautiful woman like you," I said, unable to process everything she'd said. All I knew was that I saw this woman in a new light. However, I should have expected nothing less from two women who survived in the lawless lands of the Lower Layer.
"Ahem!" Rinne cleared her throat with a slight blush on her face. "Can we get back on topic?"
"Right, as my trusty assistant said—Hey!"
As I was trying to compliment Rinne, she turned around and kicked me in the back of the leg. Her face was a brighter shade of red than before.
"As Rinne was saying…" I paused to look at the girl once again. She made no additional effort to attack me from behind. Rinne simply played with the ends of her hair, staring at the ground. "We are here for a job, Anya, not a visit."
"Yeah, yeah." Anya's cheerful expression vanished. "I wish you'd at least value me more, though." She tossed me a small box.
It fit in the palm of my hand. The outside was engraved with what looked to be a family crest. These weren't common anymore, except among the upper class who lived in the city. They still used these to show their history in the city's development.
"…" Lilas let out a soft grunt.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her bite down on her thumb. A thin trail of blood raced down her hand, staining the white vestments she wore at the edge of the sleeve. She noticed me staring and offered a hollow smile.
Did something about this box bother her? Was it the crest?
The crest meant nothing to me. I didn't usually come across this during my investigations, yet I felt like I had seen it before. It had to be during a talk with Muller years ago, but I couldn't remember who this family was or why they mattered to the city.
"Where did you find this?" I turned to Anya, whose grin reappeared, brighter than ever.
"Well, after you ran off to chase that thug who broke the boss's counter, he gave me the keys to R's room. Inside was cleaned out. Only those…disgusting toys remained. But between a chair and a wall sat a box. It seemed like it might have fallen out of R's pocket."
Given the context, R must be referring to Ritair. That was smart of her, given that Hanna was in the room with us. Losing her as our key to finding him would make the investigation harder, especially with a time limit. One that I still need to figure out. I didn't often get to gaze at the moon, so learning the moon phases wasn't important to me.
"I picked it up," Anya continued, "and slipped it between my goodies. But the second I did, someone came up from behind. As if waiting for me to pick it up. Then…well, I woke up here. The only thing I heard before I blacked out was: 'Henry made the wrong target come up here. Damn him and his hounds.'"
"Do you know who the voice belonged to?" I asked.
Anya tilted her head. "Ciel…?" Her uncertainty would have made me question the attacker if I hadn't heard the bartender's side of the story.
"I don't like this," Rinne muttered.
I shared her sentiment. It felt like no coincidence, as if the playwright's hand was pulling us all toward the climax of his design.
What was Ciel's goal?
I looked at the box skeptically. Then, I glanced at Lilas out of the corner of my eye.
The seeds of doubt had already been planted. Opening this box would only water them. Ciel, why was he doing this? It's like he's luring us toward an answer we would be better off never knowing.
I opened the box. Inside was a folded note and a locket. The locket shimmered with a golden shine. The design looked more than a few decades old, yet its exterior appearance gave me the impression that it was well-maintained.
I unfolded the note. The entire page was written in neat black ink. I felt two bodies press up against me from opposite sides. Rinne and Lilas silently read along with me.
Never forgive. Never forget.
That day. Mother's crimson flesh and pale white bones. Never forget the sight of how that man with the metal arm embedded her in the wall. Never forget the chunk of meat that flew into my mouth while hiding.
She wanted nothing more than to rid the city of its loneliness. She opened orphanages in the Upper Layer to give the children something more. Boys raised to be acceptable members of the Upper Class. Girls raised to accept everyone and everything.
But I will never forgive them.
The cult, the very thing Mother worshiped with all her being. She gave them more followers than they had in years. They used her.
The cold rain the next day told me something. The attack on Mother's orphanage, her dream, wasn't spur-of-the-moment. There was a girl. A girl that the church wanted. Both the cult and the church used Mother.
This message is to remind me never to forget the truth, so I will never forgive them. A man from the cult approached me and asked if I wanted to carry on my mother's dream. He called himself the fifth seat.
Little does he know that I will be coming for his head the moment I tear down the Church.
I flipped the note over. A small message was scribbled in blue ink.
The second seat holds two artifacts that I need to take. Maybe I will take his head first. With both the dagger and the sheath, I can carry on Mother's dream.
"Heh…"
"What…?"
"…"
The three of us stared at the note, each with a different reaction. There was no way that box was left behind by accident. Had the cult themselves found out, they would murder him on the spot. This could only mean that Ciel planted this.
I looked up at Anya.
Was she working with him? Was this entire thing a ruse? It had to be; she insisted on going up there before Henry interrupted. Once I left to follow Henry, she went to tell him. Perhaps even the bartender was in on this.
Father would be mad at you, Aster.
"Axien…"
Two voices merged together. I turned left and saw only one person here with one of those voices; the other was somewhere far away. Rinne looked at me with worry.
The seeds have sprouted.
If this message was to be believed…
I turned to Lilas. Her expression was blank, not by force, but by genuine disbelief. She looked as if her entire world had been shattered from within. She gripped her wrist tightly; her nails were far past the point of tearing flesh. Her single eye jumped to me, sending one message: Open the locket.
I did just that. The moment I did, Lilas left the room.
"T-that woman." Rinne squirmed uncomfortably.
Inside the locket was a picture of two people. A young man, dressed nicely, stood behind a woman dressed in a black dress. She sat in a chair, looking at the camera with a twisted smile, as if it were etched into her face.
The young man behind her was Ritair. Meaning…
"She ran most of the orphanages in the Upper Layer," Rinne continued. "Including mine."