Chapter 3
At his instruction to the coachman, the coachman nodded with a tense face. Rafael turned his back before the carriage disappeared. If he kept watching, he felt he would want to grant the wish of the girl who was like the double of his soul. Life had been alone, after all. He had thought he would live alone and die alone, but she was the first woman to make him think that perhaps he was not alone in the world. Just by existing, she gave him that feeling fully. Perhaps people who said they had gone into a temple and burst into tears had felt this. That relief, as if someone were whispering that you are not alone.
But Rafael did not want that. He could not do as she wanted. She was only a young bride-to-be, made sensitive by her approaching marriage. Rafael sincerely wished that she would marry and become the most noble woman in the world and live seeing only beautiful things.
Her name was Marie Trijia.
“I had no idea you were a fan of the queen consort!”
The fence he sometimes dealt with spoke in a suggestive voice, but Rafael ignored him.
“Is this all?”
At Rafael’s words, the fence shrugged his shoulders. Even so, he was running his eyes over the body of that famous killing machine. People were so afraid of the killing machine Rafael that they did not even give his body or his face a glance, but the fence, though he feared the killing machine, had a taste for that body, and he always ogled him like this with his eyes.
The killing machine, no, calling him that over and over is a turn-off, so Rafael’s body was truly far removed from his profession. For one thing, Rafael Evans was as short as most women. And he was very thin, and at a glance no muscle could be felt in him at all. It was a story everyone knew that Rafael Evans was a man of monstrous strength, but Rafael had never shown off that strength, and to the fence’s eyes he looked only like a beautiful, introverted, pretty boy. What is more, this pretty boy was small and slight enough that he looked as if he would suit being dressed as a woman.
Rafael looked over the things the fence held out. He said they had come out of Moon Place after the queen consort died. When the queen consort killed herself, her palace, Moon Place, had become a ruined palace, and the maids had quickly sold off the queen consort’s personal belongings to line their own pockets. What Rafael’s gaze fell on among them was a small feather pen.
“This is…”
“As expected of Rafael. I didn’t think you’d recognize it right away.” The fence swallowed a bitter smile. Rafael was skillfully turning the pen shaft the opposite way from usual. When he skillfully worked several devices, the feather pen became a key with a feather attached. It is a method commonly used in noble society, but most people use a hairpin or a pipe. To disguise a pen, and one as thin as this feather pen, would have taken no ordinary craftsman’s skill.
“What was she hiding, to have such a fine secret key?” The fence whispered in Rafael’s ear.
“Where could the lock be that this key fits?”
“Do you know where it is?”
“It must be Moon Place. It came from there.” The fence asked as Rafael stared at the feather pen with his mouth shut.
“Why are you showing interest in the queen consort? Even the fans who were interested are all turning away now, so is there some hidden inheritance of the queen consort, by any chance?” the fence asked. Of course, there could be no such thing. The king had little interest in the queen consort, and all the property she had brought with her when she entered the palace had been recorded in an inventory. Of course, things had come in from outside or gone out in between, but nothing so enormous could have come in or gone out as to be called an “inheritance.” Even the feather pen before his eyes now was certainly an expensive item made of ivory, but it was not something that could be called enormously expensive.
“Has the Shore family retrieved the queen consort’s corpse?”
The fence was only saying whatever came to mind. As he did, he stealthily pressed his own body against Rafael’s. Just touching him sent a tingling sensation up through him, and he smiled slyly. Rafael’s questioning voice might be dry, but his breath felt fragrant enough.
Rafael frowned.
“Dan?”
Dan the fence, who had been pressing his body against Rafael’s and falling into ecstasy, hurried to answer.
“Ah, the Shores. The Shores couldn’t retrieve it either. It’s a suicide’s corpse, after all. The greatest and heaviest sin, one not even a goddess was forgiven for. Would humans who fear that sin might spread try to retrieve the corpse? Besides, it’s already been over a month. The corpse is rotting, and there’s even less chance of finding someone to bring it back, and it’ll probably only get worse as time goes on. In the end, I expect they’ll cut it into small pieces with a saw and carry it away with shovels.” That is the most common way to move a suicide’s corpse, but it was certainly no way to treat a corpse that had once been a queen consort.
Rafael’s hand stopped briefly in midair, then moved naturally as if nothing had happened.
“If any of the queen consort’s things come in, show them to me once before you sell them. Can you do that?” When Rafael asked, Dan asked playfully, “Put this on credit, shall I?” All the while he was stealthily groping Rafael’s body. He was not without worry that Rafael might get angry and break his neck, but Rafael had never done that before. Crossing the line little by little, hoping this neat, gloomy, beautiful young man might somehow fall into his hands, Dan was asked by Rafael,
“What do I need to get into the royal palace?”
“Probably, a letter of introduction.”
“A letter of introduction. From whom?”
Even as Dan casually slipped an arm around his waist, Rafael seemed only to be waiting for an answer. Should he push things further here or not? That was Dan’s worry these days. But as always, the killing machine’s ill fame made his hand timid, and in the end he stepped one pace back from Rafael.
“Well, a letter of introduction from someone who can get you into the royal palace. A letter from the Royal Guard, or a noble, or a member of the royal family.” A letter from the Royal Guard, or a noble, or a member of the royal family.
Rafael muttered it under his breath. A letter from the Royal Guard, or a noble, or a member of the royal family… At that moment, a name came to mind, and Rafael slipped the feather pen into his sleeve.
You’re the only one.
Marie’s tearful voice was still vivid. As Rafael was about to leave, Dan caught hold of him.
“This is awkward, Rafael, but you still have to pay, don’t you?”
“Money? Ah… I forgot to collect my pay.”
Searching his clothes, Rafael realized he had come without collecting his fee from the guild, and he frowned. Rafael thought for a moment. He did not want to leave the feather pen here. Not even for a very short while, he did not want to. Rafael turned around and looked up at Dan.
“Put it on credit.”
“Where is there credit trading in stolen goods? Rafael, pay with your body, or else put it down.” Dan smiled brightly, and Rafael looked at him quietly. Rafael, taking “pay with your body” to mean kill someone for him, frowned. He did not kill people when no money was involved. And yet, to be told to kill someone over a single feather pen like this, this man must have a lot of nerve. Rafael was annoyed that he would act like this even knowing what a fine customer he was. He had no intention of killing anyone, but should he teach him a small lesson? It was just as he was thinking that.
From far away came the sound of footsteps, their presence muffled.
“If you pay with your body… Rafael.”
Dan’s voice dropped, intimate and secretive. But Rafael, without noticing the clumsy sexual appeal he was offering, was listening to the footsteps outside the door.
One, two… six… ten. Eleven. It seemed to be about ten or eleven people. It might be about three more than that. That was quite a lot of people, and for this many people to be gathered in broad daylight meant this was a raid by people acting openly. Those who must hide themselves in darkness do not go about in a crowd like this, nor do they attack in the daytime.
Rafael looked up at Dan again. Dan Lowe. He was the Black Water fence. Rafael had been seeing the man who fenced the stolen goods Black Water had acquired for four years now. Whether he lived or died did not matter to him, but if he stood by and watched him die and walked away, things would get quite noisy in Black Water.
“Fine, I’ll pay with my body.”
In that instant Dan looked down at Rafael with a foolish face. What? He doubted his own ears, wondering if he had heard correctly. But Rafael was a man who did not speak idly, and Dan’s ears were fairly good. So Rafael must certainly have said it properly.
He ran his eyes over Rafael’s body once. As he ogled him openly, he swallowed hard. Rafael Evans was a killing machine, but he was beautiful. He looked even more boyish than the boys Dan liked. Dan’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and his trousers bulged, but Rafael did not notice.
It was the moment Rafael and Dan each reached out a hand.
Rafael seized that arm and, slinging Dan over his shoulder, began to run toward the second floor as fast as an arrow.
“R-Rafael?!”
“Shut up, Dan.”
You… you wanted to do it like this too?
While Dan was having that absurd thought in his confusion, Rafael was running up to the second floor and opening the door to Dan’s bedroom. When he threw Dan onto the bed, Dan murmured with a shy face, “I’m not really into being pinned down…” Rafael, without even giving Dan a glance, raised the window.
“Dan, the police are going to raid the place. Come here.” Dan’s face went white.
“Wh-what? No, the ledgers are downstairs!”
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