by Yuu Kamiya
“Yes...”
“If this is the Japanese’s idea of a joke, it isn’t funny at all.”
“I, I’m sor...!”
Unable to even apologize properly anymore, the man looked at the girl to gauge her current mood. She was staring at him with a stiff expression fixed on her face. For some time, the chief of transport felt practically like a death-row convict before the gallows.
In reality, that wasn’t too far from the truth. This was far past the dimension of blunders that could be settled with an apology and reparations. It’d be fortunate if things ended with just his dismissal. Depending on the girl’s mood, the company itself could be dissolved—but...
The girl smiled. Sweetly and as brightly as a flower. The man’s figure was reflected in her gentle-looking green eyes, and her light-pink lips were warped in what appeared to be happiness.
—With a spin...
The girl swung her suitcase sharply and smashed it into the man’s face. His nose broke and sprayed blood everywhere. As the man writhed in agony and screamed like a pig, the eyes of the girl who looked down at him were ablaze with flames.
As if she were spitting out something nasty, she said, “Incompetent in his job, feeble excuses, terrible jokes—I heard that Japanese were diligent and capable, but that must be a thing of the past. I get it now—Halter!”
In response, a man with a buzz cut who had been waiting in the corner of the room began to walk toward her. He was a large man, with a muscular body easily exceeding two meters in height and dressed in a dark-gray suit. No matter how one looked at him, he had the appearance of someone from the underworld, perhaps a hitman or a terrorist.
The man said in a calm voice, “Dr. Marie—I find it questionable for a lady to raise her voice like that. Violence is no good as well.”
The girl called “Dr. Marie” snorted and said, “Halter, who was it that hired this incompetent hack?”
The man being questioned—Halter—looked pitifully at the chief of transport sobbing away on the floor. “Wellllll, his career is a praiseworthy one, and I recall that those who handled the loading are veteran workers. Wasn’t the schedule in fact too tight after all?”
“So what? Dropping luggage from a cutting-edge transport aircraft—Such a blunder is absolutely unheard of, and the excuse is that ‘We were busy’?”
From her breast pocket, Dr. Marie took out a “chrono-compass”—an intricate timepiece with nine clockfaces of varying sizes that was the proof of being a Meister. She looked at it and sighed.
“—However, it’s true that we don’t have any time. Ahh, sugar, sugar...”
She fetched a colorful lollipop from her pocket, unwrapped it, then stuck it in her mouth. As she took a lick, she grumpily hurled out instructions.
“Please assemble a recovery team. I don’t know about the container, but the contents are definitely safe. She’s invaluable. Use any means necessary to secure her.”
“As you wish.”
After Halter took a butler-like bow, he began tapping away on the telegraph installed in the reception room. Confirming this with a sidelong glance, the Dr. Marie exited the reception room and headed towards the lobby.
“...It’s true that there wasn’t any leeway timewise.”
In the present world, cities were built on top of gears.
Since the gears were constantly turning, the methods of moving things were limited even between adjacent cities. The only options were the “cylinder train” and air transportation.
However, the structure of the cylinder train didn’t allow for sudden changes to its schedule, and in addition, there was a considerable distance to travel this time, so transport by air was chosen out of necessity, but—
102 clocksmiths,
500 automata,
and 3,558 containers.
They’d been ordered to transport such a large load from Canada to Japan, and in just one day at that. The girl thought it was unreasonable as well, no matter how she looked at it.
However...
“Even so, there’s a limit to acceptable blunders...!”
Upon arriving at the entrance lobby, Dr. Marie saw that her staff members had already collected their baggage and were gathered together. These first-rate clocksmiths varied by gender, age, and race—and as soon as the girl showed herself in front of them, they closed their mouths and straightened their backs.
They all focused their eyes on her as they stood at attention, yet she wasn’t intimidated in the slightest as she coolly questioned them.
“Are you all ready?”
“Of course, Dr. Marie.”
“Good.”
Addressing an elderly man who had nodded as their representative—the chief mechanic—the girl continued. “I was told the unloading will be done within an hour. Please finish unpacking the necessary containers for our job out of those transferred to Kyoto’s Core Tower by the end of the day.”
“Please leave it to us.”
“Right after I finish the paperwork for the job at the administration bureau, I’ll be joining you all at the scene. We’re scheduled to begin work tomorrow morning at 06:00 local time. Make sure to wind the automata’s springs beforehand. I’ll be leaving organization of the workflow to each team leader. Are we good?”
“Understood.” All the staff saluted as they answered the girl after she gave out her concise instructions.
Standing in the center of the lobby and seeing off her staff as they started to move, Dr. Marie caught her breath. She couldn’t help but think that the job this time was full of ill omens. Both how short the preparation time was and the accident mid-transport were unprecedented affairs.
“...I have a bad feeling. Hopefully my concern turns out to be unfounded.” She muttered the last part inside her mouth.
Just then...
“Excuse me. I take it that you’re Doctor Marie Bell Breguet from Meister Guild?”
When she heard a voice behind her, Marie turned around. Standing there was a group of around ten men. All of them were wearing black suits that looked like funeral wear, with collars neatly tightened by drab neckties.
Repulsed by the homogenous fake smiles they all had on, Marie opened her mouth, feeling uneasy. “I don’t like being called by my full name.”
“My apologies, Dr. Breguet. We’re honored to meet you.” The men continued with the eerie smiles pasted on their faces. “We’re from the ‘military.’ On behalf of Kyoto Grid, we welcome you.”
“We’re sorry. As things happened so quickly, we weren’t able to prepare accommodations for your team in time on our end. However, we’ve booked a room for you, doctor, at Central Hotel, so if you’d like, we can take you—”
“I’m fine.” Marie interrupted the man speaking. “I’m thankful for your consideration, but I have to go inspect the scene and set up a repair plan right after I’m done with business at the administration bureau.”
“Right... but where will you stay then, doctor?”
“My staff sleep huddled together under a single blanket at the scene when they’re not working. Naturally, I’ll be doing the same.”
“You, the daughter of the Breguet family...?”
“We didn’t come here to sightsee.” As if to declare the conversation over, Marie turned her back on the men and walked towards the entrance. The men chased after her in a hurry.
“Please wait, Dr. Breguet. In that case, please stay at the hotel just for tonight. We’ve already completed preparations for a dinner meeting as well, so...”
“I don’t have time for that.” Marie continued to walk without giving them even an inch.
Behind her, one of the men rubbed his hands together as he clung on. “Dr. Breguet, I don’t think you need to rush so much.”
“That’s right. There are always four thousand clocksmiths and over ten thousand automata conducting maintenance on the gears in Kyoto. The safety measures are exhaustive.”
“Of course, for the duration of this job, we’ll give
orders for them to follow your command as well—”
“That’s unnecessary.” Marie turned her head back and informed the men indifferently, “The work will be done by my staff only. To that end, one of my subordinates will go to receive the measurement data in my place later on.”
“Right, that’s fine... but I don’t think there’s anyone who grasps the city’s functions as well as we do; Kyoto is under the jurisdiction of the ‘military,’ after all.”
“Tuning a city is delicate group work. If our coworkers aren’t fellow master clocksmiths, we won’t be able to cooperate smoothly.”
“Dr. Breguet, with all due respect, they are the top engineers of our entire country...”
“—This country’s jokes really are the worst. No one understands unless you put it bluntly.” Marie brought a kind smile to her face and said, “Amateurs should get out of the way—is what I’m saying.”
“What...?”
Marie pierced the men, who were flabbergasted from her all-too-abrasive words, with a chilling gaze as she sneered. “Why don’t you say what you really think? ‘This is the “military’s” turf. Don’t act by yourself, let us get involved too.’”
“N, No, by no means are we thinking such things...”
“If you spill a drop of wine on mud, it’s still just mud; but if even just a little bit of mud mixes with wine, the wine becomes undrinkable.”
“......”
“I only demand one thing from you all. Wait obediently in the corner with your mouths closed. Of course, you can do that much, right?” Leaving them behind without bothering to check their reactions, Marie turned on her heels and passed through the entrance gate.
Halter had gone on ahead and was waiting for her with a luxury car reminiscent of a black jewel at the roundabout in front of the airport’s entrance gate. Handing her heavy luggage over to Halter, she got in. After he finished loading the luggage into the trunk, Halter got into the driver’s seat and tightened his seatbelt.
“Start the car, please.”
“Roger.”
●
“—Things are proceeding just as planned, aren’t they?” one of the men in black suits uttered as they saw the luxury car fading into the distance. Strangely, there was neither anger nor frustration on his face from being told off by a little girl. If anything, he looked like he felt relieved; he even had a small smile on his face.
They exchanged words ridiculing the girl as base smiles came to their faces.
Another one of them grinned from ear-to-ear as he agreed. “Thankfully, she’s a haughty little girl, just as the rumors say. She’ll be truly easy to manipulate.”
“Now then, we just have to let her work hard for us.”
There was no one else around to hear their conversation.
●
“Ah—...I’m tired.”
Inside the running car...
Whoosh. Marie deflated like a balloon and laid her face onto the adjacent seat.
Watching her through the rearview mirror, Halter smiled bitterly. “Thanks for your hard work.”
Marie answered him in a childish tone as she flung off her summer coat and kicked her boots off. “Thanks doesn’t cut it. Having to deal with hyenas wherever I go, you’ve seriously gotta be kidding me.”
She took out a chocolate bar from the pocket of her bag and began chewing on it.
“Both the ‘guild’ and the Japanese government weren’t any help at all in making the necessary arrangements for the job. Why should I even have to negotiate with local organizations when it’s not my job as a clocksmith?” The noble princess who had ordered an adult man around with her chin was nowhere to be seen as the girl grumbled, curled up in a fetal position on the rear seats. She just looked like a wanton, cheeky girl in her early teens.
Grinding his teeth to keep from laughing at the gap between her two personalities, Halter chided her. “Hey now, princess. Please don’t forget to act befitting of a lady just because you’re in a car.”
“Leave me alone.”
“It’s my job, so I can’t. Ahh, see, the bottom of your shirt is all rolled up.”
“So? What, do you want to see?”
“I ain’t interested in kids, but don’t tempt me like that in another ten years.”
“Die.”
Wham. Marie kicked the back of the driver’s seat forcefully. Halter’s face hit the edge of the steering wheel, but he laughed it off.
“If the brats at the academy saw you like this, they’d faint.”
“Like I care. Do you know who I am?”
“Well, of course,” began Halter as he smiled devilishly.
Ahem. He cleared his throat before answering, “You graduated top of your class from several famous universities. You became the youngest student ever when you enrolled at age thirteen, and you were able to become one of those who stand at the top of all two hundred million clocksmiths in the world—a Meister. You’re the great Dr. Breguet, the young and beautiful genius. That I’m given the privilege to be your secretary is more than I could ever ask for my humble self.”
“You’re making me sick, so stop!” Marie screamed like she was in distress while Halter paused, grinning. With a gentle gaze, he continued chiding the girl, who puffed her cheeks up.
“However, princess, try not to make unnecessary enemies.”
“What, are you lecturing me?”
“I’m giving you advice. Well, I understand that you feel fed up. However, even as they are, the transport company and its employees are still an undeniable part of the gears of society. There’s nothing to be gained from buying their resentment, only things to be lost.”
“I think I was plenty kind, though? If it was ‘Elder Sister,’ the entire company would have been effaced from this Earth.”
“You can’t compare yourself to such an atypical case...”
“To begin with, what can those imbeciles possibly do to me?”
“—Indeed, they can’t do anything. Nothing at all.”
That was what was scary about them. The young girl still didn’t realize that. That she was still so green despite standing at the pinnacle of ability throughout the entire world caused Halter to droop the outer ends of his eyebrows in concern.
“...Well, it really is strange, though.” As Marie leaned back against the seat while chewing her chocolate bar, she tilted her head to one side. “Those military men were annoying, so I drove them away. But still, why did we have to come in such a big hurry when there’s a military base nearby?”
“Hmm...? Now that you mention it, what was the reason we were dispatched this time?”
“A common gravitational irregularity. An error occurred in the Core Tower and the gravitational force won’t return to its normal value. In terms of numbers, it’s one percent stronger than normal right now.”
“That is indeed strange. It seems like the regular maintenance should be enough to take care of something like that.”
“No kidding. It isn’t nearly enough of a problem to summon us from Canada in a rush. ‘The safety measures are exhaustive,’ my ass. If that’s the case, then don’t call us.”
“Wellllll, their numbers may be one thing, but the military’s engineer corps can’t compare to us in terms of technical prowess. From the Japanese government’s standpoint, they’re probably afraid that if they don’t send a request in to Meister Guild just in case, they’ll be made to take responsibility if something goes wrong.”
“It’s always politics, politics, politics... Having my vacation thwarted for the sake of stinky geezers keeping up their appearances is simply insufferable. Ahh, how I yearn for the absinthe in Paris.”
“That’s not something a pretty young girl should drink.”
“Shut it.”
“Sure, sure—So, I take it you want me to head to the administration bureau first?”
Marie nodded in response as she broke the chocolate bar into pieces with several snaps. “Ahhh—, yeah. Please do. After I finish
the paperwork there and write up an operation plan for the job, I’m going to sleep for today, but if she is found, wake me up at any time.”
“Roger.”
Visible through the car window, the center of the metropolis—the Core Tower that would be their workplace for a brief period starting tomorrow—towered high into the sky, and the Equatorial Spring, as if to divide that same sky, was turning today as usual.
This world that was composed of countless gears, more than there are stars in the universe, drew the entirety of its energy from the gravitational force of the moon. The Equatorial Spring was what converted that potential energy to mechanical energy by turning, freeing up that enormous amount of energy for use.
—The Clockwork Planet.
A mechanical world where everything was governed by gears, whether it be the wind, the temperature, the weather, or even gravity. Both the dried-up oceans and the lifeless landmasses had been entirely shaved off, including the earth’s crust that they sat upon, and replaced with gears.
Nowadays, there was nothing left. It was a clockwork void floating somewhere in the universe. That was the current state of the Earth, a continuation of what had been in place since a thousand years ago.
However, even for this world reminiscent of an incredibly intricate, mechanical timepiece, it was imperative to have regular maintenance done to function properly. As long as it was mechanical, it couldn’t tick away forever. Someday, it would break, grow old, rot, and in the end, come to a stop.
Before it came to that point, someone had to use their hands to conduct maintenance on the mechanisms of the planet.
That was her—Marie Bell Breguet’s—job.
“Seriously... I want to drink absinthe.”
Basking herself in a decadent mood, Marie gazed vacantly out the window at the scenery passing by.
●
Naoto slowly approached the “coffin” in front of him.