Ch.103The Third Entanglement – Clichy and Ragtime (2)

Rose Clichy should be able to handle things on her own now. She was a member of the Clichy family after all. Perhaps her indecisiveness was just a sign she hadn’t fully outgrown her childishness. That was probably it.

The air in Pennsylvania, where Gremory Chocolate Company was located, was different from New York. Here in Lancaster, where the headquarters stood, the air seemed to carry the sweet scent of chocolate. It was simply irritating.

The detective left the Gremory mansion and went down to the street. At this hour of the morning, there weren’t many people around the public telephone. Certainly no one close enough to eavesdrop on conversations.

Nevertheless, he stepped into a phone booth tucked away in a corner and called the Clichy president. After the connection tone rang once across state lines, it didn’t take long before Clichy’s voice came through.

“Yes, yes. Good. I’ve been waiting. Did you finish the job properly?”

He deliberately clicked his tongue once. Feigning annoyance, he paused briefly before speaking. There was no need to snap at him. Even without that, Clichy would be unsettled.

“You contacted me too late. Those people weren’t stupid enough to hide in the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn’s warehouse all day. They seemed to have headed straight for Pennsylvania, so I followed them here. They probably won’t contact the police. They know how much the angels hate them. Does anything come to mind?”

Clichy made another pained sound. He seemed to be getting irritated. A crackling noise rose sharply through the phone, as if electrical currents were surging around him.

Only after the static subsided did Clichy manage to speak calmly. The detective was already asking while knowing the reason. Clichy trusted the detective’s abilities.

“Continue your report.”

“I think they’ll seek out that orc broadcaster you were targeting. What other options do they have to survive? All they can do is whimper on the radio with apologies and confessions. I think you should use your Pennsylvania branch. I could escort them myself.”

Clichy wouldn’t entrust this job to me. I had just failed the task he’d assigned me to handle, and right now in Pennsylvania, there was something more important than the success or failure of the job.

The detective and Clichy knew exactly what kind of people they were. In this situation, Clichy would have the detective guard Rose’s side.

To Clichy, the detective or the two fugitives weren’t nearly as important as his daughter who might get entangled in this affair. No, compared to his daughter, they weren’t even as significant as a speck of dust.

Clichy understood exactly what parental love meant. The love of parents who embraced and protected him in the flames was tattooed on his body like a scar, and his hatred for those who set fire to his home ran deeper than love, staining even his bones and marrow.

“No, no. I’ll handle it. And, I believe I mentioned my daughter was on that train? I’m sure you remember. Find her and stay by her side. There’s going to be some commotion, and I don’t want my daughter getting hurt. If she asks you to do something, take care of it for her. I’m counting on you.”

The detective was grateful that his expression couldn’t be seen through the phone line. He would do as Clichy said, but not in the way Clichy wanted. His mocking smile didn’t travel through the phone line.

“Please tell me where she went. I can’t find her if I don’t know anything. And I’ll take my usual fee. You can pay it all as a completion bonus.”

Taking an advance payment was something done only between people who didn’t trust each other. The detective didn’t trust Clichy, but he had absolute faith in his ability to pay. An infrequent client was still a client.

“You know I don’t worry about the fee. And she said she was going to do some reporting. I think she mentioned someone good… it might be Gremory. She needs to meet a great demon but doesn’t have a pretext, so I could introduce her.”

“No need. I’ve worked for Gremory before, so I can go ask. If she requests it, or if it seems necessary, I’ll contact you. Well then.”

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. It was best to keep them close enough to hold them in your arms. After finishing the call with Clichy, he hung up the public phone.

He hadn’t lost Clichy’s trust, and he’d learned about his plan. The reporter would encounter the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn for a second time here. They would likely gather in front of the radio station to protest.

The Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn couldn’t be seen as conducting a peaceful protest. It needed to look like a riot. Fortunately, this was something he’d done often when breaking up unions and strikes.

He glanced around once. After confirming that no elf was following him, he returned to Gremory’s mansion. The detective saw the confident-looking reporter.

“Ysil also said she’d help if needed. If I try to publish an article in New York, my father will block it, but Ysil can stop that external pressure. She’s a capitalist in her own right, isn’t she?”

“I can understand everything else, but I still can’t get used to your standards. Are you dismissing the president of a company that supplies mythril to the military as merely ‘a capitalist’?”

Until now, the two had been looking in different directions, but their focus was gradually aligning.

The reporter no longer spoke about how kind Ysil was or how she could help her. She was saying that Ysil had authority similar to Clichy.

“I’ve already reported to Clichy. I leaked a bit of the plan. If we take these two to that orc, the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn will be lined up in front of the broadcasting station. They’ll be calling for blood. First, persuade the orc broadcaster. Tell him it’s dangerous work, then say you can provide protection. Gremory can vouch for that. I can handle the practical aspects.”

He knew well how the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn operated. Even if the Forest’s Firstborn gave direct orders, they were inefficient without someone to lead them.

That’s why Clichy had created some kind of hierarchy, he’d said. To make them believe they were important, he’d given them titles like Druid and Arch-Druid.

It wasn’t to the detective’s taste. Instead of Arch-Druid, the detective used the term “branch manager,” and instead of Druid, he used “action leader.” He used the same terms as those used for gangsters.

The reporter likely had two goals: to show that the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn would step in if anyone tried to expose Clichy Corporation and Clichy himself, and to widely demonstrate how pathetic they were.

The reporter didn’t want to create an element of uncertainty. Would the orc broadcaster, now aware that he had nearly been killed by the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn, be able to broadcast properly in such a situation? She couldn’t be sure.

“Still, those… Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn will gather in huge numbers. Can you handle them alone? Even if it’s you, Michael…”

“I don’t need to do it myself. If Gremory makes one phone call, the angels will form a line in front of the broadcasting station to prevent them from throwing Molotov cocktails or stones. And it won’t just be angels. If word gets out that angels requested by Gremory are facing off against the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn who are trying to stop a broadcast that Gremory wants to proceed, workers will gather too.”

The reporter recalled when she first arrived in Lancaster. The crowd that had gathered just to see Gremory at the cafe in front of the station was enormous. If Gremory made a request…

Gremory, who had been listening, came down in front of the detective, expressing her displeasure. She washed away the reporter’s thoughts that Gremory might also be kind for the sake of efficiency.

“My workers are not expendable. I want to make that clear.”

“That’s why they’re more useful than the expendable Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn. And if the angels do their job well, only the Followers will get hurt, Madam Gremory. Does this look like something I’ve only done once or twice?”

Gremory gritted her teeth. It seemed like tears might fall from those moist eyes, but they didn’t. There was only a chilling sensation, like cold water running down one’s spine.

“If you’re trying to persuade me, this time try saying it’s for a good cause, Detective. I have no intention of involving my people in something when I don’t even know what the plan is.”

“When they’re facing each other, I’ll fire a shot from behind the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn. I’ll aim at the angels, and to avoid any accidents, I’ll use a pistol. How do you think the angels will react when they hear gunfire from the Followers, who are already creating trouble for them, while they can’t touch them because of Madam Gremory’s orders?”

The detective already knew the answer. The fallen angels would gleefully draw their clubs, and the emotionless angels would do the same. Ordinary angels wouldn’t be happy about it, though.

A single gunshot would give them justification. It would make beating up those unsightly elf fanatics an act of maintaining social order and protecting civilian safety.

Gremory gritted her teeth again and made a pained sound, but she answered properly. Everyone wanted the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn gone. They simply didn’t want blood on their own hands.

“So you’re asking me to make another choice, Detective. Very well, the fallen angels will happily suppress the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn. Then my workers will be safe, and the Followers will be seen as having shot at civilians to cover up Clichy Corporation’s shame… They’ll be easily crushed by the angels, making them look pathetic. Is that the goal?”

The detective nodded with satisfaction. Working with people who understood was always a pleasure.

“That’s the goal. It creates more justification. The clearer the reporter’s justification, the more people will gather. Will you help?”

Gremory nodded. At least it seemed more righteous than what the detective had done last time. People didn’t need to fear the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn.

They were just poor people with large numbers. They were ordinary people who could have become diligent workers if they had relied on Gremory instead of the Forest’s Firstborn.

People feared the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn because there were many of them. Because they were fanatics who killed dozens of people in a single night while wearing creepy masks.

It was like watching shadow puppets—seeing something different from reality. To show their true face, doing what the detective suggested would help. Though there might be more moderate methods.

“I’m not helping you. I’ll leave the decision to Miss Rose. Is that how we’ll proceed?”

The reporter nodded without hesitation. She hadn’t even taken a deep breath after seeing the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn die. It was all because they had decided to wear masks.

Like stupid lemmings, they had just kept running without checking whether the lemming at the front was falling into the sea or jumping off a cliff. It was practically the same as standing still.

“I’ll ask for your help, Detective. And yours too, Madam Gremory. While the detective goes to handle things right away, I’ll look into how to recruit that orc broadcaster. I can count on your help, right, Madam Gremory?”

The reporter believed she was acting righteously. She had several cards in her hand. She had the detective, Gremory and Ysil. She could probably hire Willem as well.

Using all those cards to fight seemed quite fair. She knew it was rationalization, but her opponent was her father. Clichy, Charles Clichy, the Forest’s Firstborn.

Despite knowing he was her father, the guilty pleasure didn’t disappear. The sensation of confronting someone powerful, of doing something right… the feeling she had dreamed of since becoming a reporter was with her.

Gremory looked at the reporter with a much different gaze than when she looked at the detective. Gremory liked the reporter.

From the beginning, Gremory had never disliked someone who struggled hard and tried to move earnestly for a righteous purpose.

“Of course I can help. I’m a local, and I know who that orc broadcaster is. And you know, Rose. For better or worse, I’m a beloved demon in this city. I’ll make the call for you. But are those two people prepared?”

Still, Gremory didn’t yet trust the two Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn that the detective had brought. The only difference between these two and the other train attackers was that they had thought of escaping.

They were the same fanatics. They might have lost their faith in the Forest’s Firstborn after being abandoned, but they would become fanatics again if they found another belief.

The two elves nodded as if to say not to worry about them. Before them stood a great demon, the daughter of the Forest’s Firstborn, and even the Forest’s Firstborn’s enforcer.

They had never been in such a safe environment in their lives.

“We, we didn’t fire a single shot, so even if we end up in prison, we probably won’t rot there for too long… and, well… if we go back to the Forest’s Firstborn, we’re dead. We failed the job, and, um… the Forest’s Firstborn’s daughter was on that train. We’ll be struck by lightning and die, really…”

The reporter saw for the first time people who feared her father. He was a father who had taught her how to love and be loved, but… to others, he was a fearsome figure who inspired awe.

In that sense, the name of Cafe Two Face, where she had gone with her father, suited him perfectly. He had two faces: that of a purely caring father and the Forest’s Firstborn.

“I won’t say I can protect you myself, but I can always have someone around to protect you. If you fulfill your responsibilities, I’ll do my best to watch over you. Can you do that?”

The reporter approached them with nothing but honesty. They didn’t seem to think badly of her. Whether they saw a new Forest’s Firstborn or Rose Leafman, she couldn’t tell.

Nevertheless, the elves nodded. Though there was some anxiety mixed in, they seemed to have become convinced that choosing this side over the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn would be more beneficial for them.

Now the plan was somewhat organized. It was time to act. The reporter extended her hand to the detective for a handshake, and the detective took off his glove and took her hand. It was his way of showing respect for a partner.

“Let’s see each other again after we finish our jobs! Come this way, Michael!”

Everyone present knew that their methods of handling things would be completely opposite. Still, for now, they were on the same side.