“Um, that fortune—”
Not noticing Vincent’s internal turmoil, Ada spoke, shyly:
“It made me really happy, Vincent-sama.”
At this point, he should have responded to her tactfully, but the words slipped out:
“Curl up and die.”
“Huh?” Ada looked blank.
“No, it’s nothing.”
He’d cut it close, but in the blink of an eye, Vincent managed to gloss things over with a bright, flawless smile.
Ada tilted her head, puzzled.
The sky was as clear as ever. Their date was nowhere near its end.
4
After they’d spent time on the wide avenue…
Next, under the slanting afternoon sunlight, Vincent was taken to a small care facility in the heart of town. There was a plain, two-story building, and a yard that wasn’t all that spacious, with a splendid elm growing in its center. The facility was surrounded by a low wall.
Haaaaah…
Inwardly, Vincent heaved a long sigh. He’d lost track of how many times he’d done this.
I want to go home. That was the only thought left in his head.
“Ada-sama, what is this place…?” Vincent asked.
The gate of the care facility was standing open, and Ada had gone on ahead, passing through it.
Vincent followed her, and just as he went through the gate:
“Yaaaaaay, it’s Ada-sama! ” Voices called out from around the yard. Several children who seemed to have been playing there crowded around Ada and, behind her, Vincent. Startled in spite of himself, Vincent recoiled.
With a warm smile that was different from the one she wore when she and Vincent were alone, Ada said:
“Yes, children, hello.”
From the way the children were dressed, they all seemed to be commoners. Some of the children who pressed around them latched onto Ada’s skirt, but Ada was apparently used to this, and she let them do as they pleased. She didn’t seem to mind that her dress would get dirty.
Vincent hung back behind Ada, and several children approached him as well, looking up at him with faces that seemed to ask, Who’s this?
“…It’s an orphanage. Children who aren’t able to stay with their parents for one reason or another come here.”
As Ada answered Vincent’s earlier question, she looked toward the building and nodded a greeting. When Vincent followed her gaze, he saw that an elderly lady had appeared in the entrance to the building. She bowed her head reverently to Ada.
I see. Vincent understood. The elderly lady was probably the facility’s proprietress.
As she stroked the heads of the children who gathered around her, Ada spoke:
“Uncle Oscar told me that the House of Vessalius helps to fund this facility… I thought there might be something I could do, too. And so, every so often, I stop by to visit and read picture books to them.”
…What, you simply wanted to show me how very kind you are?
Deciding that had been Ada’s reason for bringing him here, Vincent smiled coolly.
“Bright, sunlit places like this—They really do suit you, don’t they.”
The words he spoke were intended to be a harmless compliment to Ada. However, once they were out, they had a cold, ironic edge to them that surprised even him. At his words, Ada looked a little perplexed.
“Vincent…sama?”
“Ah, I don’t get out very much myself… I was a little envious, that’s all.”
Vincent spoke as if in jest, and Ada gave a little giggle.
“Reading outside is nice every once in a while, you know.”
As Ada spoke, the children who clustered around her pestered her to read the rest of the book she’d read the last time she came. Some of them even ran to the facility to get it, without waiting for Ada’s response.
Once she started reading aloud, she’d keep the children company for a while, leaving Vincent on his own. Possibly it pricked her conscience to do this in the middle of their date: Ada looked at Vincent, her face troubled. Vincent shook his head, telling her it was nothing to worry about.
“Go ahead and read to them, Ada-sama. I’ll keep my distance.”
“What?”
Ada looked confused, and Vincent told her he was a little tired and intended to rest in the shade of the trees.
…I refuse to spend time with silly, noisy brats.
“‘A young lady of the House of Vessalius pays a charity visit to an orphanage,’ hmm…?”
From a bench in the shade of the trees in a corner of the yard, Vincent turned cold eyes on Ada.
Ada was sitting on a floral-patterned sheet that the children had brought and spread at the base of the elm in the center of the yard, holding an open picture book. The children had formed a circle around her. She was reading aloud, but her voice didn’t reach Vincent.
However, he could tell that she was reading in a gentle voice, and that the children were listening eagerly.
…I suppose Gil and I were about that age when we were abandoned, Vincent thought as he gazed at the children.
Still, even if they had no parents, no doubt the children at this facility had warm beds to shelter them from the rain and dew, and were given enough food to keep them from being hungry.
How fortunate they were.
He reflected on his own past. It hadn’t been at all unusual for him to sleep outside, freezing and exposed to the elements, and he’d sometimes been so hungry he’d eaten food that was all but rotten, practically garbage. With his red eye, as a “child of ill omen,” he’d been driven away from care facilities like this one.
If a facility had taken them in back then, what would have happened?
“………?”
Abruptly, Vincent’s eyes came to rest on two children in front of Ada. Two boys, sitting companionably, shoulder to shoulder. They seemed to be brothers.
The slightly smaller one who was probably the younger brother was leaning forward, listening to Ada read; sometimes he clapped his hands and bounced up and down. Next to him, his older brother admonished him, but even as he did so, he seemed to be enjoying himself. As she read, from time to time Ada would pause for a moment and smile at the brothers.
Oh…
In the soft, dappled sunlight under the tree.
Depending on the viewer, the gentle sight might have given the impression that the flow of time itself had slowed.
Of course, Vincent wasn’t in possession of such naive sensibilities.
However.
Oh…
For a moment, Vincent felt something like dizziness. His vision blurred.
Then, to his hazy eyes…
The figures of the two brothers who were listening to Ada as she read, the ones Ada smiled at…seemed to overlap with those of another pair…
That’s…
“Aaaah! This guy’s staring!”
Abruptly, a voice spoke from beside the bench where he was sitting, and Vincent came back to his senses. It felt almost like waking from a dream. The memory of what he’d seen, and even of what he’d been thinking, evaporated in an instant.
When he looked in the direction of the voice, he found an energetic-looking little kid standing near him, in front and a little off to the side.
Apparently he hadn’t joined the ring, and instead had kept playing by himself, even when Ada had started reading.
…What did he just say? Vincent thought.
He hadn’t caught the words clearly, but a strange irritation was growing inside him.
He didn’t have to go to the trouble of asking him. The kid repeated himself, cheerfully:
“He was staring at Ada-sama! I know he was! I saw him!”
Vincent wanted to shout at him, tell him to quit spouting nonsense, but he only answered in a cold voice:
“……I wasn’t really staring.”
It was silly to deal with a mere child as an equal.
The best policy was not to take him seriously, he
thought. He let his eyes drift away from the boy, focusing on the middle distance. He planned to ignore anything else the kid said. Once he knew he couldn’t get a rise out of Vincent, the boy would get bored and go off somewhere.
However.
With the beings known as children, adult expectations seldom hold true.
The boy raised his voice even further, yelling:
“Staring-staring-staring!! I know! He was looking over there and spacing out!! He looked all dazed and soppy!! Nyah-nyah, he’s blushing!!”
“……………”
In that instant, what welled up inside Vincent might have been unmistakable bloodlust. —Maybe.
He no longer felt like holding back just because he was dealing with a child.
The boy’s shouts must have carried.
When Vincent shot a glance in her direction out of the corner of his eye, Ada had stopped reading and was looking at them, as were all the children around her. It was a tiresome situation. However, fortunately, at this distance, his voice wouldn’t reach Ada if he lowered it slightly. Vincent gave a warm smile, as though he was speaking in a friendly way.
Then he said it.
…In an icy-cold whisper that was very close to absolute zero.
“Powerless little monkey. You couldn’t even survive on your own. Do you want to be completely exsanguinated and killed?”
It was so sinister, Death himself might have run away in tears.
However, although the boy had heard it…
“Huh?”
…He didn’t understand what Vincent had said, and he only stood there, openmouthed. Tch! Mentally, Vincent clicked his tongue. Once more, he quickly checked the relative distance between Ada and himself. Then he put out a hand to the boy’s cheek and pinched it. Hard.
From where Ada was, it would only look as if he’d set his hand against the boy’s cheek.
He wouldn’t be satisfied unless he made this kid cry at least.
Go on, cry disgracefully! Scream and wail! Twist that filthy little face and beg for forgiveness!
However, the child must not have felt much pain, and he began grinning, as though they’d started playing a fun game. Then he said, “Yah!” and stretched out a hand toward Vincent’s face. He grabbed Vincent’s cheek, just as Vincent had grabbed his, and pinched it hard.
There they were, pinching each other’s cheeks.
It looked exactly as if he was playing with the kid.
“Tee-hee! They look like they’re having fun.”
From the middle of the ring of children, Ada watched the scene in the shade under the trees.
The boy Vincent was playing with was one of the most difficult children at the facility. When Ada read picture books, he always kept playing by himself, never joining the circle. She’d never seen him have so much fun playing with someone else before.
To Ada’s eyes, the scene looked truly heartwarming, and it seemed to shine.
“I’m so glad I came here with Vincent-sama.”
Ada’s murmur came straight from the heart.
Go on, cry! Writhe in agony! Scream your lungs out!
How long had Vincent spent pinching cheeks with the child?
Abruptly, as if he’d tired of the game, the boy let go of Vincent’s cheek, shook off the hand that was pinching his own cheek, and ran away. Vincent thought it was odd for the boy to just run off like that, but when he glanced over, Ada had come up beside him.
“Thank you so much for playing with that child.”
“Huh—?”
Vincent blinked.
“You’re good at making friends with children, aren’t you, Vincent-sama? Even though you were tired…”
Ada’s voice and expression carried gratitude, envy, and, on top of that, respect.
Finding himself the focus of that dazzling look, Vincent…
“Ha, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, oh, it’s nothing so impressive.”
…gave an answer that couldn’t possibly have been more cheerful.
He sounded slightly broken.
His fatigue and the pain of his smarting, burning cheek ran around and around in his head, getting all mixed up together.
Then, in the back of his mind:
All that, and I still didn’t manage to make him cry…
Today was, without a doubt, a plague day. It didn’t feel as though anything he did would go right.
—There was nothing to do but laugh.
Then, when Ada had finished reading the picture book, just as they were leaving the facility…
At the gate:
“Ada-sama, you’re leaving already? Noooo, don’t go!” the children said, crowding around Ada, not wanting to say good-bye. Some of them even grabbed her dress, determined not to let her leave. Ada smiled, looking a little troubled, and soothed the children:
“I’ll come again. Okay? I promise.”
Vincent wasn’t interested in the exchange, and he let his gaze drift away from Ada. Then his eyes found two children standing by themselves, a little apart from the rest.
It was the two brothers.
The younger brother was fidgeting nervously, and the older brother was speaking to him intently. A closer look showed that the younger brother held a small paper tube in his hands. The older brother’s voice came to Vincent faintly, and he gathered that it was a picture the younger brother had drawn for Ada.
“Look, you’re going to give it to Ada-sama, aren’t you? You drew it and everything.”
“But…it didn’t come out very well…”
“If you keep saying things like that, Ada-sama’s going to leave.”
Even though the older brother urged him on, the younger brother didn’t seem to have the confidence to move.
“I guess I’ll have to,” the older brother said. He took the paper tube from his little brother’s hands and broke into a run, heading toward them. Apparently he was going to give it to Ada for his brother. However, he wasn’t paying enough attention to his feet: The older brother stepped on a round rock that was lying on the ground and took a terrific tumble.
Vincent just watched. His expression was blank, and it held absolutely no emotion.
“………………”
Silently, Vincent walked over to the older brother. He stood beside the boy, who was groaning softly.
He hadn’t done it because he had some sort of goal or idea. There was no reason.
The older brother looked up at him with tears in his eyes. Wordlessly, Vincent reached out and picked him up. He lowered him to the ground, setting him on his feet.
As the boy looked at him, bewildered, Vincent silently dusted off his clothes for him.
“Th-thanks,” the older brother told him, and Vincent…
“………………”
Silent as ever, he moved away from the boy, returning to the gate.
—Then.
His eyes met Ada’s. She was watching him from where she stood at the gate. Surrounded by children, Ada clasped her hands in front of her chest, and her expression was a mixture of delight, deep emotion, and respect. The atmosphere around her was soft and sweet, and she looked like a starry-eyed dreamer.
Her entire body was exuding ardent affection.
…………Huh?!
Vincent froze slightly, as if he’d been caught at something he couldn’t afford to be caught at.
5
The final item on the agenda was “Tea and conversation at a salon.”
Salons were places where the aristocracy mingled socially, and there were all kinds of them. The salon to which Ada took Vincent was an elegant, two-story mansion. A certain great nobleman seemed to have opened his entire private residence as a salon.
Because of the abundant silverwork placed throughout its beautiful garden, the salon was known as Silver Moon Garden.
It had one distinctive feature that set it apart from other salons.
Twice each month, for three days each time…
An event known as “the Sport of th
e Masks” was held at Silver Moon Garden.
“I thought the orphanage was the last thing… Will this really be the last one…?”
In a costume room on the first floor of the Silver Moon Garden mansion, just off the entry hall, Vincent muttered wearily.
All four walls of the room were buried behind a wide variety of costumes, hung in rows. They were really more like fancy-dress disguises than costumes: things like a set of vampire fangs and a cape, or fairy clothing with ornamental insect wings fixed to the back.
The costume room held all sorts of disguises from all eras and countries.
—All for the Sport of the Masks.
For three days, they gather in the salon and play dress-up… This is why I can’t stand aristocrats, Vincent thought contemptuously, scowling.
His eyes slid to the side, glancing at one of the walls. Vincent was in the men’s costume room; Ada was in the room next door, on the other side of the wall, picking out a disguise and changing into it. Vincent remembered how Ada had looked when they’d parted ways in the entry hall to enter the costume rooms.
Ada had seemed excited about putting on something she normally couldn’t wear.
What a day this has been. It really is a plague day…
As he muttered and complained, Vincent searched for a fairly normal costume. Before long, he found an old, outdated nobleman’s costume and decided to wear it. Once he’d settled on a disguise, the male costume attendant who waited near the door came over and helped him change.
After he’d dressed, he returned to the entry hall. Ada wasn’t there yet. He was well aware that women took time to change their clothes. Vincent was bored stiff; he turned his back to the door to the women’s costume room and watched the passing guests and servers.
He quickly tired of this and turned his gaze to the chandelier that hung from the ceiling of the entry hall.
That woman—
He thought of Ada, in the dressing room.
What sort of ridiculous getup is she planning to appear in…?
He remembered the witch costume he’d seen her in before, the one with the peaked hat, at the secondary Vessalius residence. He really couldn’t tolerate drinking tea and chatting with Ada when she looked like that. Privately, he decided that if she came out wearing something weird, he’d leave immediately.
PandoraHearts ~Caucus Race~, Vol. 3 Page 13