Ch.94009 Investigation Record – Towards Gremory (1)

I could capture the detective. He was someone I could finally catch. The person who always disappeared like the wind when I turned my eyes or couldn’t lift my head was now within my grasp.

I wanted to make up for the indecisive behavior I’d shown last night while drowsy with sleep. If my indecisiveness had been due to drowsiness, there would be no need to worry, but I had shown such behavior while completely sober.

Why had I been so indecisive? I couldn’t figure out why. Well… no, there’s no way I could remember. My forgetfulness subsided somewhat when doing serious work, but not by much.

Instead of trying to remember reasons I couldn’t recall, I looked up at the detective. I looked up at him as he seemed to devour the article word by word. The article came back to me.

He appeared to understand the article but didn’t seem to empathize with it. This man probably had less empathy than the walls of the house or the plants in the communal garden.

The detective wiped his forehead at my upward gaze and pulled out a business card holder from his pocket. After rummaging through it briefly, he took out a card with blue lettering bordered in gold with Gremory’s name on it and handed it to me.

“Yes. The article isn’t bad. The article Giuseppina snatched wasn’t bad either. The writing is full of goodwill and warmth, and it knows what to aim for. But that’s all there is to it. Take this. That woman was the only demon who remembered the word ‘shame.’ She’s also the only person I’ve seen who acted kindly while still being successful.”

It was hard to tell whether this was a gesture of goodwill or if he was telling me to stop being so frustrating. He spoke well but wasn’t one to easily reveal his intentions. Still, I decided to take it as goodwill.

He left again after saying only what he needed to say. Since his original purpose for coming was to deliver money, he had already stayed longer than necessary. Only then did I look down at the business card I had received with both hands.

President Gremory of the Gremory Chocolate Company…. Gremory was a demon, wasn’t she? If she used such an elegant business card, she must be a greater demon, but was it okay to introduce someone like that so casually?

I wasn’t sure, but if the detective introduced her, it would mean something. He was certainly capable… no, wait. Madam Gremory had also said that the detective would become her shame, just like he was for me.

Then mentioning the detective might actually hurt my first impression. But still, I was introduced to her by the detective….

Feeling like I was becoming indecisive again, I shook my head as if that could shake off my anxiety. It wouldn’t help, of course, but after doing so, I ran my fingers through my disheveled hair.

Why had I been like this since dawn? It started when the detective asked me to help cover the truth with lies. Something, something felt disturbed. It felt like fear was climbing up my ankles, turning into a chill.

I swallowed the anxiety that visited like delirium, shaking my mind. I knew what to do at times like this. I had to move. I had to chew and swallow my anxiety one by one, like chewing grape seeds left in my mouth.

I took a deep breath at the sudden feeling that washed over me. It was the same suffocating feeling I had when Golden Age Press was swallowed by the mafia. Instead of looking for commonalities, I picked up the telephone.

I simply dialed the number on the card the detective had given me. I decided to just do it before thinking about whether it was rude or not. There was a click as the connection crossed state lines, and soon after, the call connected.

“I wasn’t expecting any calls today. Who is this?”

A woman’s voice about my age came through the phone. Even through the phone, her voice seemed to have a moistness to it, and it sounded somewhat fragile.

“Ah, this is Rose Leafman, reporter from Golden Age Press! Well, Michael Husband gave me your card as if suggesting I should contact you, ma’am….”

When I mentioned the detective’s name, something like a groan traveled through the phone line and hit my ear. It was easy to tell what feelings she had about the detective.

Displeasure. Aversion. But also a feeling of necessity—that she couldn’t keep him too far away. The elves’ sensitive perception made it easy for us to know, easy for us to feel.

“If you’re calling me ‘madam,’ then you must know who I am. Yes, I’m Gremory, president of Gremory Chocolate Company. What’s your relationship with that detective? I’m not… particularly fond of him.”

Gremory was putting up a wall. The detective would surely have broken through such a wall and made her listen to him. Honestly, I wanted to do the same if I could.

But all I had in my hands were the tools I always used. A master doesn’t choose their tools, but people can only work with tools they’re familiar with. I approached as I usually would.

“You’ve hired him before, haven’t you? I did too… after watching him work, I said he would become my shame. I heard there was a demon who said the same thing to me.”

“He’s someone who cares about how things get done but doesn’t care at all about why they need to be done. Still, his work was certainly clean. Isn’t that what makes him so unpleasant?”

Gremory’s voice softened a bit. This seemed more like her natural voice. I giggled at her words, knowing it was rude. I showed her that I empathized.

“Exactly. He’s someone who gets what everyone wants using methods I hate. What did the detective bring you, Madam? Oh, if it’s something you can’t talk about, you don’t have to tell me.”

Gremory’s laughter traveled back through the phone line. I heard the sound of a leather executive chair being pressed as she leaned back comfortably.

“He brought me peace. He protected my wish to make Pennsylvania a place where only machines shed tears, not people. By killing people. What did you receive from that detective?”

This time, I didn’t force a smile. I didn’t know what expression to make at such a surreal story. The surrealism was exactly like that detective.

“He found… no. He rescued forty children who had been kidnapped. With a gun in hand, he wandered around for about ten days, and suddenly a case involving high-ranking officials and adoption agencies was resolved. Of course, the method…”

Gremory naturally cut me off. She didn’t seem to want to take control of the conversation. She just seemed to want to express her empathy.

“He used methods that will remain our shame because we know how he did it. So, that person gave you my card? For what reason?”

Now Gremory was speaking more comfortably too. Her voice, which bounced like that of a European noble girl, was both fragile and quite pretty. I could understand why the detective remembered Gremory.

“I think it’s because I was being indecisive… Actually, he just pulled out the card and gave it to me. Maybe he wanted me to learn something from you, ma’am?”

From the other end of the phone, I heard fingers tapping on a wooden desk a couple of times. Gremory whispered “excuse me” in a small voice, then deliberately made the sound of hitting the desk.

“What a terrible human! It’s quite unpleasant that he’s trying to fix a good person like you just because I don’t suit his taste. Don’t you think? You don’t seem like someone who would say such things. I don’t need your thanks. Oh, you said you’re a reporter? Instead of playing along with that human’s tricks, how about doing an interview? It’s not often that a reporter gets to meet a greater demon. Well, not here in Pennsylvania anyway.”

Her voice sounded like she was venting, like she found it satisfying. I knew why. I wanted to pour out words like that too, if I could.

I must have been about to talk about good and evil, but then got tongue-tied by the detective’s eloquence and had to just nod and swallow my words. A smile crept onto my lips. It was a guilty smile, but it felt good.

“Shall I? Oh, then I’ll need to get permission from my editor, and I’ll have to book a train ticket separately, so it might take a while… Pennsylvania is new to me. I think I said the same thing when I first came to New York.”

Somehow, a hopeful outlook emerged. The opportunity to meet and interview Madam Gremory, president of Gremory Chocolate Company, which sells teardrop-shaped chocolates across America, would certainly be a great opportunity.

Gremory’s voice also seemed to become somewhat dreamy. The moistness remained, but she was speaking in a much more natural voice than when she was forcing herself to speak ill of others.

“I always try to make it a better place, but everyone says it’s already a good place. Oh, there’s a worker at our factory named Johnny White… hmm, hmm. It would be better if you came and heard this story. Anyway, contact me again when you get permission. I’ll be ready to welcome you, Reporter Rose Leafman.”

It would be good for balance too. After working with the detective for a while, seeing a good person would improve my mood. And if I could learn something from that good person, even better.

We seemed to laugh together about not playing along with the detective’s intentions, but in the end, we ended up right where he wanted us. It was a bit unpleasant… no, no. I could say it wasn’t unpleasant. It was a good thing.

After hanging up the phone with Gremory, who had helped wash away my anxiety, I turned on the sofa and looked out the window. The city wasn’t glowing in various colors from the afterglow of one phone call.

New York is New York. No matter what storms rage or how many people die at the detective’s hands, not even the slightest trace remained in this city. The city was always gray, a mixture of black and white.

After taking a deep breath, I picked up the phone again and this time called my editor. I should deliver the article I wrote today, and I needed to let him know about the potential scoop.

The call connected after just one ring. The sound of a typewriter could be heard in the background.

“Editor! Um, this is reporter Rose Leafman…. I’ve finished the article about the infant kidnappings, and I think there might be a scoop. Well, I… through connections, I have an opportunity to interview someone from Gremory Chocolate Company, and I can cover the travel expenses myself, so may I go?”

A choked laugh, almost a snort, came in response to my offer to cover the travel expenses myself. The editor’s voice no longer seemed shadowed.

“If you’re going to interview a company like Gremory Chocolate, that’s fine with us. And we can cover your travel expenses, just ask. Why are you spending money so freely as a rookie reporter? Oh, and could you tell me exactly who you’re going to interview? We need to be careful these days with so many scammers impersonating company executives. You’re a good person, so you might be easily deceived.”

Well, I was a rookie reporter who always brought along a lawyer and… last time, I even hired a detective and seemed ready to wage an all-out war against the mafia.

The editor probably thought I had some backing after seeing the identity of my sources, but he was an editor who thankfully treated me as an ordinary rookie reporter. Fortunately, I wouldn’t worry him this time.

“Well, it’s… the greater demon Madam Gremory herself…?”

The editor burst into laughter at my sudden words over the phone line. It continued for quite a while, but the laughter soon subsided. A suspicious voice returned.

“Seems like it’s real…. Why on earth are you working at such a small newspaper? I mean, you know. A small newspaper with no dedicated legal team that outsources legal matters to individual lawyers.”

“Golden Age Press is where I wrote my first article, where I was during tough times… I’ve always been here. You always told me to have a sense of ownership, right?”

If my father heard this, he would talk about acquiring and merging Golden Age Press at the mention of “sense of ownership.” But I wasn’t that kind of person.

“Even the owner wouldn’t have that much sense of ownership…. Anyway, fine. We’ll support your travel expenses, so go ahead. You write articles that can warm people’s hearts. Madam Gremory is a greater demon who sheds tears on behalf of others. If the two of you connect well, it seems like a good article could come out of it…. I’ll be counting on you.”

A good article…. I shook my head at the anxiety asking if I was just using connections to get a good article. This was a connection I earned by having the courage to trust a detective who had tried to break my neck, so it was something I accomplished.

After that, I was hungry again. You can’t do anything when your stomach is empty. Paulina’s cooking skills were excellent today too, and although I was already awake because I knew the detective was coming, I felt a bit of guilt for not thinking to help her, which left a slightly bitter aftertaste. Next time, next time I should help….

After breakfast, I picked up my camera for a while. I left one roll of film containing the detective’s photos undeveloped in the darkroom, loaded a new roll, and approached the window. The buildings blocked any good shots.

Walking around the room, I entered the corner guest room I had given to the detective and opened the window there. Now I could see the city properly.

I gathered mana at my fingertips. Feeling the mana flowing through the circuit, I took a photo. The sky was blue, the buildings were ivory-colored stone and gray concrete. The cars were black, and people were in various colors. All those colors mixed together to become gray. Perhaps black and white never existed in the first place.

The city was gray not so much from a mixture of white and black, but from a mixture of all bright colors and all dark colors. It was a pleasant morning, feeling like I had gained something just from talking with Madam Gremory.

Dichotomy became a spectrum, and the spectrum now became a palette. It was a pleasant change. I developed that photo in the darkroom, hung it on a line, and walked out.

“Once that photo is developed, let’s leave right away, Paulina! Oh, I should probably contact my father before leaving, right? He’d be sad if I left without saying anything after he came all this way.”

Though Paulina’s bangs still covered her eyes, making her gaze invisible, I could feel that she was looking at me. She smiled with just the corners of her lips as she listened to my voice, which had quickly lost its vigor and just as quickly regained it.

“I’ll contact your father, Rose. You don’t distrust me just because you’ve been using other bodyguards lately, do you, Rose?”

“Of course not! You’re better than that bodyguard. He wasn’t even a real bodyguard, was he?”