Roxanne's Last Day

The bar fell into a long silence. At last, every one of Roxanne's strange behaviors made sense.

A staff member from the Imperial Union Bank had mentioned that on the day Roxanne ended his life, he'd seemed completely out of it.

His performance, one he'd rehearsed countless times, had gone wrong. There hadn't been a single laugh, and he'd embarrassed Marshall in front of the guests from Gear City.

He'd been thrown out of the banquet hall. On his way out, he'd stumbled and knocked over a glass of red wine by the door.

The owner's eyes widened. He raised a hand several times as if to say something, but no words came. He could only take out three glasses and fill them with liquor. Whether Ethan and Ivy drank or not, he didn't care. He picked up his own glass and gestured into the empty air. "To Roxanne, and his daughter."

Then he drained it in one gulp.

But one glass of liquor wasn't enough to ease his feelings. He simply grabbed the bottle and downed the whole thing. Then, as expected, his foot slipped, and he fell over the bar, asleep in an instant.

Ethan had no intention of touching his glass.

They were on duty, and his superior was right beside him.

"Want to go for a walk? We can head back if you'd rather."

Ivy spoke up without warning.

Strictly speaking, the case wasn't complicated. Once all the clues were connected, they understood what Roxanne had gone through on his final day.

Ethan also understood the reflection that had appeared in the apartment.

It wasn't a Magic Book, but a ledger. It most likely recorded the large loans he'd taken out from the Imperial Union Bank. That explained why Roxanne opened it every day after returning home from a performance. He'd been recording the extra money he earned from performing at the bar's night shows.

"The Cursed Object must be the ledger Roxanne left behind. Marshall had someone take it away, and that's why he was cursed."

Ethan gave his assessment, then gathered his thoughts. "It should be a 'CI'-class Cursed Object. Its effect is to make people develop uncontrollable laughter. That might be connected to Roxanne's identity as a clown. So far, it doesn't seem to be obviously lethal."

That brought the case concerning Roxanne to a close. The next steps were simple.

They needed to ask Marshall where the bill was, then hand it over to the Containment Bureau. Old Mu's shop in Fireplace Bay had a storage cabinet specifically for Cursed Objects rated below CI.

They'd completed the Imperial Union Bank's commission impressively in just half a night. That should earn the Riverside Town intelligence Base Station a good reputation.

Still, Ethan felt as though something was missing. Or, more accurately, even after finding the truth, he felt powerless to do anything about it.

The walk was unusually quiet. Two people and a chicken made their way side by side along the streets of the town. This was the darkness before dawn, the stillest hour in the world. Ivy had already made a plan. The Imperial Union Bank opened at seven in the morning, so they'd pass the remaining time, find somewhere to eat breakfast, then finish the commission once and for all.

Ethan had no idea how long he'd been wandering through the pitch-black streets. He'd never been one to go out much.

When he came to, they'd already strayed from the main road. This was the path to Baron Gladin's estate. The manor lay beneath the night sky, and all the servants had gone to bed.

Ivy walked up to the estate, then turned and gazed at the winding path up the hill.

"I saw him that day."

She finally spoke. She'd been on the second floor of the manor at the time, with the rainstorm obscuring the view beyond the window. Captain Haig had received orders and led the manor guards charging into the rain. They'd been in a hurry to investigate the town's water supply, and on their way down the hill, a figure hurrying through the storm had stopped them.

Back then, Ivy hadn't been able to make out the person's face in the rain. Now, she knew his name.

Roxanne, the town's clown.

She took a sheet of waxed paper from an inner pocket of her clothes and lit the powder inside with a match.

It was the first time Ethan had seen Ivy use a spell taught to her by the Enlightenment Society. Just as elemental magic came with being an Elemental Shaper, followers of the God of Truth learned all kinds of extraordinary abilities once they reached the second rank.

The powder burned with an eerie green flame. Once it had burned away completely, it turned into a wisp of smoke that drifted toward the winding path in the distance.

Before they knew it, fog had risen.

The white mist outlined several figures, though their faces were impossible to make out. But Ethan recognized the voice.

"Quickly! Search every water source in town!"

Captain Haig shouted. His distinctive booming voice carried far; even at a distance, it was easy to hear. Naturally, Roxanne heard him too.

Roxanne froze in place.

Only when Captain Haig was about to pass him did he hurry to stop the captain. His voice trembled. "...The rumors are true?"

Haig gave a noncommittal answer. "A Witch attacked Riverside Town. You should head back too; it's not safe to be outside. And don't drink any water until we finish our investigation."

Roxanne still wasn't ready to give up. "I mean, everyone in Riverside Town is dead? It's been confirmed?"

"Confirmed."

"Then..."

Roxanne stood there, gripping Haig's arm with both hands, looking as if he were desperately searching for something to say. At last, he found a glimmer of hope and asked, still unwilling to give up, "Could someone have survived? Maybe they managed to hide and escape the attack?"

"How would I know?"

Haig was getting impatient.

They were racing against time too. If they didn't deal with the danger in the town's water supply quickly, Riverside Town's fate would befall Brookwood Town. "I'm in a hurry. We'll talk about it later!"

Ethan watched Roxanne walk down the path, dazed, and sit by the roadside in the pouring rain. Before long, a figure galloping on horseback passed him.

Only then did Ethan vaguely remember seeing someone sitting on the path out of Baron Gladin's home that day. But the rain had been too heavy, and he'd been in a hurry to get back to the cabin in the woods, so he hadn't looked closely.

"Come on."

Ivy calmly invited Ethan to follow her. Seeking the truth was the mission of the God of Truth's followers. Their god had given them the power to peer into the past.

The two of them walked through the fog, witnessing fragments they shouldn't have been able to see.

Roxanne returned to his apartment, changed into his Clown Uniform, and went to the banquet hall where the Imperial Union Bank was hosting a party. It had been prepared for a distinguished guest from Gear City, and the lively atmosphere swallowed Roxanne whole.

They watched a painfully awkward performance. It was nothing like Roxanne's usual standard.

His halting lines made the party fall silent again and again. At last, Marshall lost patience and threw him out of the banquet hall.

Ethan also learned some things he hadn't known.

For instance, not long after Ethan had left, Baron Gladin had pulled himself together. He and Ivy and Haig rode out with a joint force of manor guards and guild hunters to Riverside Town. They didn't find the Witch or her minions there, so they ordered everyone to pile up the bodies.

They did their best to record every victim's name on a list.

After returning, Baron Gladin gave a speech in the town square. He said their courage and unity had made the Witch think twice about attacking Brookwood Town, but they couldn't let their guard down. The evil Witch could return at any moment.

Roxanne was among the crowd.

When the speech ended, he pushed his way to the front and asked Captain Haig for the list of the dead. He read every name on it. When he reached the third page, Roxanne stopped. It was as if time had been suspended for him. He remained frozen in the same pose until Haig patted his shoulder in consolation.

That was the final straw.

Back in his apartment, Roxanne checked the ledger one last time, then changed into a decent set of clothes.

He found a thick rope and stood beneath a ceiling beam for a long time. Then he fetched a carving knife and crookedly carved a line into the beam.

"Roxanne was here."

The fog gradually faded. The white figures dissolved into bubbles before Ethan's eyes, and Roxanne's apartment fell silent once more.

They were standing right beneath the ceiling beam. Ethan saw all the mist condense into a diamond-shaped crystal and float toward Ivy's head.

He'd read about how followers of the God of Truth advanced. They had to uncover enough truths and draw ever closer to the real world, and in doing so, they could share in greater power.

Perhaps that was how followers of the God of Truth collected truths.

Ivy's face still showed little emotion; there wasn't a trace of sadness. Ethan guessed that she'd seen so many partings and deaths while pursuing the truth that she'd grown used to them.

But perhaps that wasn't quite right.

He saw the diamond-shaped crystal get absorbed by the tuft of Golden Hair on Ivy's head.

Then the tuft drooped sadly at the "waist" and sank into her golden hair, disappearing from sight.

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