PandoraHearts ~Caucus Race~, Vol. 3

by Shinobu Wakamiya

  Ten minutes passed. Then fifteen.

  Becoming first irritated, then exasperated, Vincent was enrobed in a prickly aura when he heard the door open behind him. As it did, he heard Ada’s voice.

  “Thank you for waiting, Vincent-sama. I’m sorry I’m late…”

  Vincent instantly extinguished his black mien and turned around. His face wore a perfect, flawless smile.

  “No. For men, the time women spend polishing themselves is supreme bliss—”

  Before he could finish the insincere line, it died on his lips.

  —Huh?

  Vincent looked at Ada, who’d come out of the women’s dressing room.

  He watched her as she came toward him timidly, blushing as if she was embarrassed.

  As he gazed at her, in the costume she’d changed into…

  …—

  His thoughts went pure white.

  Wh…why…?

  The thought was practically a gasp.

  Ada was dressed as a man.

  And when dressed in men’s clothes, she resembled someone Vincent knew very well, someone he could never forget.

  It was an inexplicable feeling, as if time had been wound back into the distant past. Back to his world… His and his brother Gilbert’s world, the world of a hundred years ago.

  It was as if Vincent was being drawn toward Ada; he couldn’t look away. Finding herself stared at silently, Ada said, “I had a hard time making up my mind, but I knew I’d never be able to wear men’s clothes at any other time, so… Is it odd?” She shrank into herself a bit.

  However, her words didn’t reach Vincent’s ears. In a hoarse voice, too faint for anyone to catch, he murmured:

  “………Jack?”

  Jack Vessalius. The man known as the hero of the Tragedy of Sablier, a century ago.

  The first person who’d taken the young Vincent and Gilbert under his wing, when the world had rejected them. To Vincent, the young man was…or had been…irreplaceable, precious, in a way that was different from his brother Gilbert.

  Involuntarily, Vincent took a step forward. Unconsciously, he drew nearer, reaching for Ada in her men’s costume.

  He caught her arm, pulled her nearer. He wanted to get a closer look at her.

  Vincent’s eyes began at Ada’s head and traveled down. Hair bound into a braid, emerald eyes, the slender bridge of the nose, the lips.

  Jack

  His eyes traced her figure, and soon reached her chest.

  —Not Jack?!

  Vincent gave a full-body shudder, as if he’d been struck by lightning.

  Even in men’s clothing, there was no way to hide Ada’s chest. It pushed up the jacket from the inside, asserting its ample curves. It was a magnificent bosom, the sort that no doubt earned her the envy of many women.

  “What’s wrong?” Ada looked at Vincent anxiously. Then, following the direction of his gaze, she realized what it was focused on. A small cry escaped her, and she covered her chest with her arms.

  Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment, and although she was trying to say something, the words wouldn’t come.

  “I, um, uh, Vincent-sama…”

  What in the world is this woman?! Must she be so confusing…?!

  He stared at the chest Ada was trying to hide as if it had been his enemy for long years. He glared.

  The blood rushed to his head; it felt as if his veins would burst. Combined with the accumulated fatigue, it made his head reel.

  He staggered. Hastily, Ada put out her hands to support him.

  “Are you all right, Vincent-sama?!”

  “I’m fine… I’m just a little tired; that’s all. If I could rest on a sofa…”

  He spoke faintly, and Ada hastily called to a nearby server.

  Guided by the server, the two of them entered a guest room.

  Vincent lowered himself weakly onto a sofa by the window, leaning into its back.

  Soon he drifted, sinking into a light doze. His consciousness receded.

  Then, for a little while, he dreamed.

  Jack was in the dream. A distant scene from a century ago. Himself, very young, playing with Jack.

  He was also in the dream somewhere, watching the two of them from up above. It was that sort of dream.

  The child-Vincent was smiling with an innocence he couldn’t even imagine from his current self.

  I look like I’m having fun…

  As he thought this, his mind surfaced again.

  He was aware that he was in a private room in the salon. However, his mind was still half-asleep, and he felt light, as if he were floating.

  Without much thought, he looked to the side. Ada was there, sitting on the sofa just as he was, looking at him. Her gaze was solicitous, kindly watching over him. When his dazed eyes met hers, she gave a faint smile.

  Jack

  In reality, Ada didn’t look all that much like Jack.

  However, those emerald eyes were just like his. Although the resemblance might have been emphasized by the men’s clothes she wore, her features certainly seemed to make it clear that she and Jack belonged to the same bloodline. These things made them overlap in Vincent’s mind, although their genders were different.

  The shape of someone he thought he’d never see again.

  “Vincent…sama.”

  Ada spoke softly.

  Her voice came from right beside him, and yet it also seemed as though he was hearing it from somewhere far away.

  As she looked at him, her emerald eyes were filled with an endless calm.

  “You had that expression in your eyes when you looked at me earlier, too. Have you mistaken me for someone else?”

  Ada’s voice reached Vincent’s mind like water slowly soaking in.

  “Yes. Someone who was kind to me, long ago…”

  For some reason, he answered honestly. Ada’s voice responded to his, gently, as if embracing him: “I see.”

  She hadn’t urged him on at all, but Vincent continued:

  “He always had a kind smile… When I was with him, before I knew it I’d find myself smiling, too… It made me happy just to be with him.”

  “You liked him, didn’t you.”

  “Yes. He was special… A very special person—”

  Thoughts he’d never spoken of, had never intended to speak of, to anyone, fell from his lips without any resistance.

  Even so, it didn’t feel unnatural to him.

  However.

  “Truly precious—”

  Why am I blabbering on so? I’ve never told these things to anyone…

  As he kept speaking, a tiny doubt was born in a corner of his mind.

  Gradually, little by little, it expanded, until Vincent came back to himself with an awful jolt.

  !!

  Immediately, he flushed red. He started away from the backrest as if stung, clapping a hand over his mouth. It was as if he was trying to swallow the words he’d spoken back down again. Even as he was engulfed by shame and confusion, Vincent managed to speak in a strangled voice:

  “…I’m sorry. I’ve been saying odd things. Forget…”

  He trailed off without finishing the sentence.

  His eyes turned to Ada. This time, she was the one leaning against the back of the sofa, breathing lightly, fast asleep.

  She must have been tired as well: While she was waiting for the rest of what he was saying, she’d fallen asleep.

  Vincent gazed at Ada coldly.

  With a small snort at her defenselessly sleeping form, he leaned back, resettling himself. At that, Ada promptly stirred, and her head came to rest lightly on Vincent’s shoulder. Ada leaned on him, and her sleeping face was perfectly at ease.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but in the end, he shut it again without saying anything.

  It would have been easy to shove her head away.

  But.

  Today really is a plague day—

  Vincent let her stay that way for a while.

&nb
sp; When they left Silver Moon Garden, the sunlight was slanting, and the sky had begun to turn vermillion.

  Back in their own clothes, Vincent and Ada walked away from the mansion’s gate. All that was left to do now was return to the memorial park where they’d met that morning and go their separate ways. The two of them didn’t speak much as they walked. The long day was finally over.

  Vincent thought he couldn’t remember ever living through a day that had tired him so much.

  “Um, could you leave the choice of where we go today to me?”

  “Thank you, Ada-sama.”

  If I’d only refused her then, the day wouldn’t have turned out like this…

  He felt like lodging a complaint with his former self.

  As Vincent walked down the cobbled street, a black carriage passed by him, traveling in the opposite direction. When, absently, he turned his head to watch it, following it with his eyes, he saw the carriage stop in front of Silver Moon Garden. A new visitor, apparently.

  Vincent’s gaze grew contemptuous. A lowbrow aristocrat, come to play dress-up, he thought, acidly.

  The carriage door opened, and a man emerged.

  That’s…

  At the sight of the man who’d disembarked at the gate, Vincent stopped, and his eyes widened slightly.

  …Basil.

  The man who’d left his carriage and hurried into Silver Moon Garden certainly was the head of the Basil family. It was the man Vincent had been pursuing for a while. The obnoxious fly that was snooping around the House of Nightray.

  To think he’d spot a man in a place like this who’d been so careful not to give himself away…

  I may be able to use this.

  A thin smile appeared on Vincent’s lips.

  Seeing Vincent stop, Ada stopped, too. “What is it?” she asked.

  He shook his head—It’s nothing—and began to walk again.

  He felt as if this plague-ridden day, during which he’d been dragged around endlessly, might have finally paid off a bit.

  In the end, even this woman was mildly useful…

  When he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, Ada seemed to sense his gaze. She turned to him, smiling shyly.

  He smiled back at her.

  “That was a very nice place, Silver Moon Garden. I liked it.”

  6

  By the time they reached the memorial park, the sunset had dyed the whole sky vermillion.

  Beside the main gate, in front of the bench on which Ada had been sitting when they met, Vincent said good-bye:

  “All right, Ada-sama. Let’s meet ag—”

  “Um!”

  Ada spoke, interrupting him. Her expression was uncertain, as if she wasn’t sure whether it was all right to ask.

  “What is it?”

  “Well, um… Did you enjoy yourself today?”

  Apparently she was concerned about the results of the date she’d taken charge of.

  How should I answer that? Vincent thought. Even if he couldn’t outright rail at her, Ada was dense, and she probably wouldn’t notice a little abuse.

  “I did…Ada-sama.”

  The line he spoke wasn’t the least bit sincere. Ada looked relieved.

  Vincent continued:

  “Only next time—”

  He was planning to lace the following words with sarcasm.

  However, when he’d gotten that far, a scene unexpectedly surfaced in Vincent’s mind.

  The yard at the care facility.

  Ada reading a picture book, surrounded by the orphans.

  The brothers, listening eagerly.

  The warm smile Ada had given them.

  For a brief moment, these things flickered through Vincent’s mind.

  “Next time—”

  His lips moved, half-unconsciously. Ada was waiting for his next words.

  “Would you read a book of some sort to me as well?”

  Even he didn’t know why he’d blurted out such a request. Ada didn’t seem to have expected it, either; for a little while, she looked blank. Then she realized that Vincent was referring to her reading aloud at the care facility, and she broke into a delighted smile.

  When she spoke, Ada looked straight at Vincent:

  “Yes. When I do, I’ll read it just for you, Vincent-sama.”

  That warmth—

  She spoke with the same warm smile she’d given the brothers at the facility.

  Having parted with Ada, Vincent walked down the road to the Nightray manor.

  He was tired. He wanted to hurry back to the manor and sleep. He shot a cold glance up at the evening sky.

  I wish it would hurry up and get dark.

  He hated bright places. He felt as if he didn’t belong in them.

  Under a clear blue sky, under a warm evening sky… Neither world was meant for him.

  Vincent preferred night. Especially black nights with no moonlight, when darkness covered everything.

  It was as if he hoped it would blot out his own existence as well.

  …But for just a little longer—

  Yes. As long as it was at the very end of this plague day, the likes of which he’d probably never see again.

  For the time until I reach the manor, I suppose it’s all right…

  Vincent walked along, under the evening sky.

  As he walked, he wondered what sort of book that woman would bring, next time they met.

  ~ Fin ~

  · 5:30 AM

  Got up at usual time. …A lingering sense of dreaming. Content unclear.

  · 8:12

  Lots of stuffed animals Vincent-sama ordered from a tradesman were delivered. More than thirty. Vincent-sama was holding his scissors, and he looked very happy.

  · 8:30

  The sound of scissors cutting things apart is coming from Vincent-sama’s room.

  · 9:30

  The sound of scissors cutting things apart is coming from Vincent-sama’s room.

  A new servant went into Vincent-sama’s room.

  A few seconds later, there was a scream. A minute later, the servant came out of the room looking half-dead.

  Apparently it was the first time the servant had been in that room.

  · 2:47 PM

  Vincent-sama gave new orders that begin tomorrow.

  An undercover investigation at Silver Moon Garden, a high-class salon.

  The subject of the investigation is the head of the Basil family.

  Basil? Don’t know that family.

  · 6:29

  Remembered part of the dream.

  Think Oz Vessalius was in it.

  1

  Undercover investigation. Surveillance. Sometimes personal security.

  These were Echo’s main duties as Vincent Nightray’s valet. If Vincent told her to go, she’d go anywhere, and if Vincent told her to observe someone, she’d watch them no matter who they were. If Vincent said to investigate, she’d investigate absolutely anything.

  There were many people around Vincent who took his orders and acted on them, but for particularly secret activities, no one was better than Echo. That meant that when Echo received an order to investigate, the matter was one for which failure was not an option.

  Of course, Echo had no intention of failing in any case. No matter how difficult the order, she had to carry it out and bring back the result Vincent wanted, full stop. Echo was well aware that this was the only thing that gave her existence value.

  As a result, she’d never objected to any order, had never complained, and had never even thought of giving up.

  She was a doll.

  She considered herself a doll that moved as her master wished her to.

  But.

  Th-this is…awful…

  In one of the guest rooms at the Silver Moon Garden salon, Echo was shivering all over. The room held several aristocratic guests who were seated around tables, wearing fanciful costumes and chatting happily. Their eyes were turned eagerly on Echo.

  The nobles s
ent compliments and demands at her, one after another.

  “All right, twirl for us once, right where you are.”

  “Make sure your skirt flares out. That’s key.”

  “Don’t forget to give us a ‘Meow ’ at the end.”

  “Yes, and look a bit embarrassed when you say it. I must have that.”

  Echo, who was dressed in a maid costume with a cat-ears headband, remained outwardly calm, but mentally, she was already close to her limit.

  If someone would give her just ten seconds, she thought, she’d happily carve up these aristocrats right this instant.

  However, unfortunately, she couldn’t do that.

  Why not? Because, at present, Echo was in the middle of waiting on customers as a server at Silver Moon Garden.

  She couldn’t understand it.

  According to what Vincent had told her, Silver Moon Garden was a high-class salon with traditions and status.

  …And yet, the scene that was playing out in front of Echo was far from words like “tradition” and “status.”

  “What are you doing, girl? Go on, spin. Make it energetic. Go!”

  As the nobles urged her on, Echo couldn’t help wondering to herself:

  Why is this happening to Echo…?

  She didn’t even have to think about it. She knew why. Her master, Vincent Nightray, had ordered it.

  Infiltrate Silver Moon Garden as a server and investigate the head of the Basil family, who would appear as a customer.

  Echo hadn’t heard the name Basil before. Apparently he was a low-ranking noble whom Vincent had been investigating for a little while. “An obnoxious fly,” he’d called him.

  Vincent had also said, “At the longest, this will be settled in three days…”

  Twice every month, a special event was held at Silver Moon Garden, running for three days each time. He’d said that Basil was certain to appear at the salon at some point during those three days.

  He hadn’t told her what went on during the special event. If Vincent wasn’t inclined to talk about it, Echo didn’t have the right to question him, but now she regretted not having asked anyway. …Although it was true that, even if she’d known, there would have been nothing she could do about it.