Ch.79Two Face’s Guests – Charles Clichy, the Madman Wrapped in Storm (2)

No one wears a mask in broad daylight. The same was true for President Clichy. Last night’s massacre was last night’s massacre, and this morning he rose from the bed where his beloved wife lay.

Just getting up from bed in the morning felt like his joints were being gnawed away. President Clichy was all too aware that he was aging. It was far too rapid aging for an elf.

Elves living in the forest were once a noble, long-lived race. But now what were they? They had become an ordinary race, eaten away by urban pollution, having lost both their nobility and their long lives. President Clichy found it disgusting.

All that remained was the single fact that even as he aged, his face and voice aged more slowly. President Clichy gritted his teeth, clutched his aching knees, and got up. He headed straight for his study.

He was a man with many enemies. Now those enemies had even planted people among the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn, so it was better to be cautious. He called the detective using the phone hidden inside his study.

After several clicking sounds as the call was connected through different exchanges, the line connected. Despite the early hour, the detective was awake.

With the sensitive hearing typical of elves, he could hear faint humming and the sound of oil sizzling in a frying pan through the phone. He’s not alone. The sound of curtains being drawn followed. It shouldn’t matter.

“It’s me, detective. My daughter doesn’t seem to be in a position to come home. I’m thinking of visiting personally, and while I’ll leave the preparations to the corporation, could you wait at the station next week? I mentioned it to you before.”

The detective’s cynical voice rang out. However, it wasn’t as cynical as usual. Whoever he had let into his home must be someone who provided the detective with sanctuary. It would be good to know.

He didn’t feel guilty. This detective was someone he would have considered passing the company to if he were his son, so even while smiling, he was probably always looking for ways to cut my throat.

And he didn’t have a taste for being taken advantage of one-sidedly. There’s a saying that one should speak kindly but carry a big stick. I should assign someone to watch him.

“You mentioned that at the station, a little Orc who lost his parents to the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn came at them with a knife. If you’re afraid, wouldn’t it be better to just live virtuously?”

Charles Clichy burst out laughing at those words. Live virtuously? It sounded as if he had been trying to live wickedly. He had merely tried to survive.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Anyway, that’s all for business… may I ask you something?”

“A question or two is included in the basic fee, so ask away.”

When you know you’re both eyeing each other’s throats, it’s best to confront directly. President Clichy spoke with the humor gone from his voice.

“If, and this is just hypothetically speaking. If you were hired by someone to destroy me, how would you do it?”

A moment of silence followed. He’s thinking seriously. Whether he was recalling methods or judging how much to reveal was impossible to know.

“I would tell Rose Clichy that you’re the leader of the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn, then make her company’s newspaper publish it as headline news. I could handle the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn by telling the Italian matriarch, who suffered humiliation at your hands after I killed their branch leader, that her opportunity had come. And…”

The detective wasn’t someone he liked for nothing. If he did that, at the very least, his domestic peace would be shattered, and that was precisely what President Clichy feared most.

Still, he could protect the company. Although Rose worked with enthusiasm, the Golden Age Press wasn’t an influential newspaper. She seemed to be finding good material lately, but… that was all.

Either way, if he was willing to easily share his plans, it meant there was mutual trust or he was intimidating him by suggesting that knowing wouldn’t help prevent it. President Clichy didn’t dislike either option.

“Enough. That alone pleases me. Let me ask one more thing. Conversely, if I wanted to completely bury you, what would you do?”

At those words, laughter flowed from the other end of the line. The detective’s voice was full of confidence.

“Why don’t you guess?”

A smile also formed at the corners of President Clichy’s mouth. Much better than that Italian woman who had been frightened by his manic outpouring of words. Only then did President Clichy feel satisfaction.

“Good, good. Anyway, I’ll send a telegram midway, so I hope to see you at the station. Anything else?”

“No. I’ll see you at Central Station.”

Indeed, leading talented people was an endlessly enjoyable thing. After packing a small bag, President Clichy gave his wife a hug and departed for the train station.

A lawyer holding a large, square shield was beside him, and a bodyguard who brazenly concealed a submachine gun even in crowded places was reliably leading the way.

The streets were busy cleaning up yesterday’s riot that had passed like a storm. The sight of Orcs wanting to mourn and Elves gathering in groups to disrupt even that mourning was utterly disgusting.

Unity is strength. Of course, the strength didn’t go to those who united. Just as growing fruit is the farmer’s job but eating it is the consumer’s role, there are separate people who only pluck the fruits of power gained through unity.

After reaching the station, he boarded the train, led by station attendants who had come to greet the first-class passenger. A room that could fit twenty people if they squeezed in was all for President Clichy.

The train journey was uneventful. The only things worth noting were that April had ended and May had begun, and that at an intermediate station, he had called someone to send a telegram to the detective.

The scenery visible from the train was utterly horrible. The cities were dyed in terrible concrete colors without a single drop of green, and even the sky was gray. From the second day on, he covered the windows.

After nearly a week had passed, feeling strange to step on ground that no longer moved, President Clichy set foot in New York Central Station.

The tall station building with its glass-filled ceiling, where light from beyond the cloudy sky sparkled with natural illumination, was quite pleasing to the eye. Beauty needs abundance to grow, it seems.

Without needing to look around for long, the detective was sitting on a bench right in front, waiting. Although he had covered most of his body with a newspaper, there was no way President Clichy wouldn’t recognize him.

They didn’t greet each other. There was no exchange of glances, and all he did was glance briefly at the detective, who wouldn’t move a step unless something happened, before moving on to find Rose.

He was someone who could recognize family faces in any crowd. Finding his daughter’s face as she waited at a distance to avoid getting entangled with the exiting passengers could hardly be called work.

“Dad!”

Only when making phone calls did she show enough courtesy to call him “Father,” and when seeing him in person, she usually addressed him this comfortably. A smile appeared on President Clichy’s face.

After briefly embracing Rose who had run to him, he stroked her cheek, which seemed worn with anxiety. If he had known it would be like this, he should have had her work in Texas rather than sending her to New York.

President Clichy wasn’t usually the type to regret things, but he knew he was terribly inept when it came to family matters. No matter how good something seemed, there always seemed to be something better.

“Yes, yes, Rose. I didn’t send you to New York to make you look like this… But, having family nearby makes things a little better, doesn’t it? Be comfortable. Comfortable…”

Next to them was a newspaper displayed with a headline as big as a door: “Riot Breaks Out in Austin, Texas; Approximately 70 Orcs Believed Burned or Hanged from Trees.”

Paulina briefly bit her lip before standing to block the newspaper stand and shaking hands with President Clichy’s lawyer. It was an unnecessary gesture, but Paulina was one of those who knew the truth, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Ah, we can’t stand here for long, so let’s move somewhere else. I think there was a nice cafe on Fifth Avenue…”

At those words, Rose took another deep breath. She recalled seeing in the newspaper on her way here that a murderer who had killed fifty people in a single day had appeared in New York. The first murder must have been on Fifth Avenue.

“There was a big incident, so Cafe Caligula probably won’t be open. So…”

Instead of waiting for Rose to think of another cafe, President Clichy recalled Cafe Two Face, which he had discovered while investigating the detective. It was a bar at night, but would be a cafe until 6 PM.

Apart from being run by someone connected to the detective, it was quite a nice cafe, so it would be fine to take Rose there. President Clichy smiled kindly again.

“How can you know less about New York than me, who can’t even remember the last time I came here, Rose? Let’s go to 14th Street.”

They crossed New York in a car sent by the New York branch of Clichy Corporation. President Clichy was a man with no connection to this city. He hated the massive concrete jungle.

His expression only softened slightly when they reached an upscale residential area where some green was visible, perhaps because people had tended gardens there. Only when they arrived at Cafe Two Face, with its sign featuring a human face on one side and a wolf’s face on the other, and saw that it was decorated with potted plants, did he smile with satisfaction. So there are people who enjoy the beauty of plants even in a city like this.

The cafe was quite full of customers. He gathered mana at his fingertips and lightly flicked it. As the flow of mana spread around, most of the customers in the cafe turned their heads to look at the door.

They were all races skilled in magic. Several dragons who had come for coffee at this hour were noticeable, and the faint scent of blood indicated that vampires were mixed in as well.

True to its name, Two Face, it seems only races with two faces come here. He was the Forest’s Firstborn and Charles Clichy, and his daughter was Rose Leafman and Rose Clichy, so they should be qualified enough to enter this cafe.

He entered the shop, grasping the smooth wooden door handle that had been polished by countless hands. The bartender with brown hair tied back in a ponytail greeted them energetically.

“Welcome! We don’t have any tables left right now, so you’ll have to sit on stools, is that okay? We usually have outdoor tables too, but we’ve removed them to replace them with new ones…”

The interior looked like a cafe, but the shelf behind the bar could be rotated front and back. Seeing the coffee beans arranged by variety, they seemed to care about the cafe aspect, but still, a bar is a bar.

“That’s fine. Honestly, I’ve seen someone properly tending to plants in this city for the first time, so I felt I should compliment the bartender, but this might be for the best.”

The bartender also seemed to have not seen someone interested in plants for a long time. The ponytail that swayed like a tail as they moved busily behind the bar came to a stop.

“Oh, really. I knew at least one person would be interested. I don’t know why it’s so hard to find someone with such taste. What can I get you?”

Must be a werewolf. They looked mostly human, but their eyes had the golden color typical of werewolves, and their teeth were sharp. He sat Rose, who didn’t seem to have noticed their identity at all, beside him and sat facing the bartender.

“I’ve heard it’s better to take recommendations when visiting a cafe for the first time… Still, an Elvish style for my daughter. Just a regular one for me.”

Elven senses were originally superior, but in modern times, they had become so delicate they couldn’t even properly enjoy coffee or tea. The young President Clichy had disliked that aspect.

That’s why he had forced himself to drink coffee brewed like other races did, and now it had become almost a habit. Compared to Elvish food, the stronger stimulation was perfect for enjoyment.

“Usually it would be rude to serve an Elf coffee that’s not Elvish style, but you’re not asking me to be rude to you, are you?”

The tall bartender leaned halfway across the bar and looked at President Clichy. A sharp-witted wolf. Seeing how the other customers were sizing up the new arrivals, they must be well-loved by the customers too.

“You seem like the type who would serve Elvish coffee with just a darker color to an Elf who unknowingly ordered regular coffee. Is my judgment wrong?”

“You’re quite perceptive. Of course. When you meet many people, you can smell what comes from them. Oh, and it’s not because I’m the kind of race that howls when touched by moonlight.”

A grinning smile appeared on the bartender’s face. The bartender briefly smiled, revealing sharp canines, and gracefully began preparing coffee. “Can smell what comes from people,” huh.

“Then, what smell do I give off? You’ve already said it, but I smelled wolf from you.”

Standing in front of the kettle, the bartender playfully made an “Awoo” wolf sound before placing a regular coffee in front of President Clichy with a grin. The werewolf’s characteristic sharp pupils narrowed.

“I don’t know about anything else, but you seem to be a perfect fit for our Two Face, don’t you think? The way you looked around as if appraising our cafe, and how you spread mana when entering to roughly assess the customers… You seem like a very thorough and certain person. Am I wrong?”

After subtly conveying that they had noticed everything, they finished with a compliment that left no room for retort. No wonder this is where that detective frequents, and no wonder this is someone in that detective’s circle.

President Clichy raised both hands, palms outward, in a gesture of surrender, along with a good-natured smile. He felt pleasure from these words as sharp as wolf’s teeth for the first time in a long while.

“I didn’t think I was that obvious, but you caught everything. It’s a place I’m bringing my family to, so I need to know what kind of place it is, don’t I? This old Elf has a lot of caution.”

Just as he was beginning to understand why Rose had been so determined to live in New York, the bartender brought out Elvish coffee—warm milk with a little coffee added. It was the bartender’s peace offering.

It seemed to say that they had only revealed their insight because they were asked to, and they had no intention of preventing a customer from enjoying their time… an action that reminded of the distance between bartender and customer.

“Fortunately, I’m a wolf who knows how to ease your caution. Right?”

“Yes, I’d like to pick up this entire shop and take it to Texas. I’ll drink this gratefully.”

So, this is why Rose chose New York over Texas. It was at this moment that President Clichy decided not to take the child back to her hometown, despite her tired face.