- 12 -

The lush garden of the Kamelot mansion was buried under the white blanket of snow; the barren trees drooped under the weight of the snowcaps, and the rose bushes, having shed the delicate petals, sparkled with rime. The snow-draped terrace stretched in melancholy outside the window, and the butler struggled to clean up the snow, scraping the walkway with the shovel.

The Noah Clan had assembled in the drawing room, except for Skinn, who was still away on a mysterious assignment, and Sheril who was urgently needed at a meeting for ministers. The fireplace was lit, emanating soothing heat and imparting a sense of coziness to the room. Everyone was seated around the table where they played poker the other day. A large coffee pot was steaming on the golden tablecloth embroidered with an intricate curlicued pattern.

Tyki drank his coffee strong, bitter, without milk or sugar, enjoying the flavor and the aroma. With his other hand, he was rolling the silver button about his pants pocket, thinking back to the memorable night when he killed its owner. He intended to give the button to Eez the next time he'd go to live with his human companions. The exorcist's name was etched on the back of the button, and if Momo or Clark could figure out the meaning of the inscription, Tyki's secret would be threatened. Nevertheless, Tyki didn't abandon his intentions. After all, he promised to bring the kid a keepsake, and he had worked hard to get it for him.

Tyki briefly wondered what Momo, Clark, and Eez would think about him if they discovered the origins of the button, but harboring a secret was part of the excitement of living a double life. It's what made such lifestyle interesting to him.

Across from Tyki sat Lulu Bell and quietly discussed something with Road. Tyki wore all black in contrast with Lulu who was garbed in an elegant white suit with a dark-blue tie. When the Earl gave her a sign, Lulu Bell set aside her cup and folded her perfectly manicured hands on her knees.

"Lord Millennium, Mimi and I successfully infiltrated the young Inspector's retinue," she said, lowering her eyes. "Your message was well-received in Central. The report of the peculiar manner of the exorcist's death got Lvellier's attention, and he immediately dispatched the Inspector to the scene of the crash. He is set to arrive today by train. He'll get off at the central station and head to a cheap hotel in midtown. I think he wants to avoid too much scrutiny."

"Excellent work, Lulu Bell," said the Earl, taking out his half-finished ugly, in Tyki's opinion, sweater and a pair of wooden knitting needles. "Did you find out what the carriage was transporting?"

"It was a prisoner transport. But as far as I'm aware, the exorcists were on the way to make the pickup, not drop the prisoner off. They didn't discuss the prisoner's identity."

"No matter. I'm not terribly concerned about this prisoner. How is the Inspector doing?"

"He is a very smart and focused young man. He reads a lot of books, plays chess, and disapproves of lazy subordinates—"

"He wouldn't like you very much, Tyki," said Road, hiding her face behind a teacup. "You've been lazing about these past few days."

"I think I deserve a vacation."

"It's not the time to let our guard down." The Ear buried himself in his knitting. "I appreciate all the information you've gathered, Lulu Bell. You've been very thorough. But we need to formulate a plan, and the interesting tidbit about the Inspector's passion for chess won't be of much use to us. The Inspector's reports to his superiors in Vatican have to motivate Malcolm Lvellier to personally visit our humble city."

"Does it mean we will give up Tyki to them?" Road giggled, stuffing a warm chocolate chip cookie into her mouth.

"No, of course, not. That's why Lulu Bell is here. We'll give our Inspector a false trail to chase… There will be a party at our dear Madame Crawd's this evening. Make sure the Inspector attends it."

"I'm coming to this party, too. I'll put on a proper disguise just in case."

"I was about to suggest that you accompany Lulu Bell, my boy." The knitting needles flickered so quickly in the Earl's hands that Tyki couldn't understand when he had the time to pay attention to anything besides his ugly sweater. "You won't mind, my dear Lulu?"

"I'll do anything for you, Lord Millennium."

The zeal in Lulu Bell's voice grated on Tyki's ears. "I bet Road is eager to show off her dancing skills," he said. "How about it, Road? Are you coming with us?"

Road's eyes flashed with annoyance. "You know what, Tyki? I'm a pretty good dancer. I took dancing lessons at my school."

"We'll see about that." It must have been her sore spot, so Tyki reminded himself to tease her about it later.

"Say, Tyki, how do you plan to disguise yourself for this party? Using those old scruffy-looking reading glasses? You'll stick out like a sore thumb in high society. We should all raise money for a pair of new glasses for Tyki."

Tyki knew how to rile up Road—it wasn't with another quip—so he flashed a wide, dazzling smile at her. Road glared at him with sullen defiance. Unfortunately for him, Road quickly figured out that he enjoyed nothing more than the thrill of a good, hard-played gambit.

"I'll take you up on your offer. I'm serious, Road. I'll wear the new glasses if you get them for me as a gift."

Road proudly raised her chin, turning her head away from him. "You're the one who should be giving me presents, not the other way around."

"Could you pass me some sugar, Road?" the Earl impatiently interrupted their bickering. "And some cookies, too." Apparently, Skinn wasn't the only one with an addiction to sweets. "Everyone is welcome to go to this party and mix business with pleasure, as long as the Inspector feels welcome in our city and hears a rumor that there is a witness who saw the crash."

"May I leave to prepare for the party?" asked Lulu Bell.

After the Earl dismissed her, she threw a fur coat over her shoulders, and Tyki followed her onto the terrace. He was curious about something. A short girl with light hair waited for Lulu Bell on the terrace and as soon as she saw her mistress, she rushed to her side to help her put on the coat. Tyki corrected himself when he realized his mistake—Lulu Bell's servant was an Akuma rather than a human girl.

"Did you need something from me?" Lulu Bell looked at him through the thick black bangs that fell over her eyes.

"Can you become anything you want?"

"I can't turn into something small like a cup but otherwise, I can take any form." She touched his wrist with her fingertips, and Tyki came face-to-face with his perfect reflection down to the beauty mark under his left eye and the rolled-up sleeves of his black shirt.

"It's fascinating," Tyki said softly. A bunch of scenarios ran through his mind, each more mischievous than the one before it. "Can you turn into the Earl?"

"It's my special ability to become anyone I want," said Lulu Bell, perplexed. She was herself again. "But why would you ask me to impersonate the Earl? I take my service to him very seriously, and I encourage you to work on your irreverent attitude, Tyki Mikk."

She strode off into the Kamelot garden with a purposeful gait, and her servant girl minced after her, glancing back at him from time to time.

Tyki lingered on the terrace for a short while to enjoy the sight of the snowdrifts in the garden before he went back inside the mansion. Road sat at the table alone and drank her aromatic herbal tea.

"What did you and Lulu talk about?" she asked.

"I wondered whether she could turn into the Earl."

"What kind of a prank are you planning now, Tyki?"

"Oh, I don't know." He contemplated Road's question for a moment. "Maybe this fake Earl could order sweet tooth to do a thousand pushups or something just as dumb."

Road gave a half-suppressed laugh, covering her mouth with her delicate palm. "You're so mean, Tyki. But let me guess, Lulu Bell refused to humor your request. She takes her duties very seriously."

"Is my proposition so bad, though? Evil should have a sense of levity to it, no?" Nothing went quite so poorly together than death and joy, and that's why the notion made perfect sense to him.

"You know I'm with you on it, but Lulu will never agree to play the Earl for you. I know her well. She cried for three hours straight after failing Millennie's first task."

There was a whiff of cold air when the door to the terrace was flung open, and Sheril walked in, stomping his feet to shake snow off his boots. His hair, though usually tied in a neat ponytail, was slick, wet, and slightly untidy.

"My beautiful roses!" he exclaimed, theatrically throwing up his hands in the air. "The cold ruined them! My garden looks so dreary without them."

"Yeah, I miss them, too," said Road. "Their bright colors were delightful."

"I don't get what's the big deal with your flowers. They'll bloom again in spring."

"My own brother has no sense of beauty!" Sheril said with mock horror. "You can't appreciate the beauty in anything, can you?"

His brother had a knack for asking obnoxious questions. "I suppose a moonlit night is pleasant," Tyki said without any enthusiasm. "Why didn't you come to breakfast?"

"I attended a meeting with the other ministers. We're in a deadlock regarding an important trade agreement with several neighboring countries. Lord Orro wants to drive up the tariffs. Others argue for the free flow of trade." Sheril hung his long coat on the back of a chair and sat down. "If we do as lord Orro wants, we can cut off the wheat supply to our neighbors' southern regions which were affected by a bad drought during summer. The regions will likely starve."

"Millennie wants to create more Akuma?" asked Road. "The Akuma Egg and the factory stood idle for a while now."

"I guess that's the goal. I'm in charge of the contentious negotiations."

"I'm glad the Earl doesn't need me to take part in some boring talks about trade."

"You'd be better at it than you think, little brother, with your charming personality, but you do lack assertiveness."

Tyki shrugged his shoulders. "If you think your teasing will convince me to prove you wrong, it won't work."

"Oh my, I'm appalled by your suspicions. My intentions were purely innocent." Sheril finished eating a cookie and rose to his feet. "I'll check on Tricia."

"There will be a party later this evening. Are you coming with us?"

"Do you know me to miss a party?"

"You didn't show up to celebrate my awakening."

Sheril groaned. "I thought we put it behind us. I apologized and explained why I couldn't make it to your party."

"Well, you asked, and I reminded you of a party you missed."

"I'm definitely going to this one. I bought Road a new dress because I want her to be the prettiest girl in the room."

"Show it to me!" demanded Road, tugging at the sleeve of Sheril's suit. "I want to see it now!"

"All right, let's find out if Tricia is awake, and I'll ask the butler to bring the dress to your room."

After Sheril and Road left, Tyki finished his cup of cold coffee in peace and began preparing for the party at Madame Crawd's.

"Somehow, these glasses look more ridiculous on you than before, Tyki," said Road.

Tyki sat in an armchair in full suit in front of a wall mirror and moved his opaque reading glasses back and forth on the bridge of his nose to see whether they fit well with his attire. Road stood behind his chair, leaning on its headrest, with one elbow on each side of his head. Tyki threw back his head to look at her when she tilted forward, and their faces ended up so close together that Road's bangs fell across his brow, tickling his skin.

"There's no way I'm changing my mind about the glasses," he said, brushing her hair away.

"Is it about the mole under your eye? Do you think everyone will stare at your face all evening?"

"The Vatican's golden boy is quite clever, and I don't want to ruin the Earl's plan. After all, we do as he commands us, right?"

"Yeah, right. I forgot that he connected the murders at the inn and on the ship… It was probably my misstep. I didn't cover my tracks." Road skirted round the chair and stood in front of the mirror, obstructing his view. "These glasses aren't going to look less silly if you keep staring at your reflection... I have an idea. I keep some makeup in my drawer. I can cover up your mole with cream and powder."

"I won't wear your makeup."

"Look, Tyki, I'm not suggesting you put on fake eyelashes. Just a smidge of—"

"Just give it up, Road. I was in the middle of an important thought when you distracted me with all this talk about my glasses."

"Oh, Tyki has clever thoughts?" Road quipped playfully.

"If you keep distracting me, I'll never remember what I was going to say… Ah, yes. I wanted to ask you about the annoying dreams I keep having. Sometimes I dream about places I've never been to. Faces of the people I've never met. What's up with these dreams? Do you have them, too?"

"You should know better than to ask me a question like that. I'm the Noah of Dreams, so I can't dream." Road smiled softly. "I exist within my dreamscape and that's where I go at night. But the rest of you… We carry seven thousand years worth of memories in our minds. They belong to the Noah from the previous generations. But we aren't conscious of every single emotion they felt or thing they saw."

Tyki had for a while suspected that he didn't remember much from any of his past lives. His memory was darkness on the edge of the horizon, a cold void full of stars. He preferred not to look too deep into himself.

"So, you think I'm seeing old memories?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't dwell too much on them. They don't mean anything. Just images from many different lives and epochs. But I guess these dreams can become a bit overwhelming and confusing."

"And this intense loathing I feel towards Innocence?"

"That's our hatred purified over seven thousand years. Innocence can harm us, but of course…" Road faltered.

"What are you thinking?"

"The Fourteenth didn't wield Innocence. That would be a sacrilege for a Noah. You know what that means, right?"

"Dark Matter can kill us, too… How do you know all of this, though? Maybe what's in your head is just some trick."

"You need to learn to trust your memory, Tyki." Road said with uncharacteristically quiet earnestness. "And if it gets bad for you, you can always come to me for advice."

Tyki felt oddly reassured by her words. If anyone understood the mysterious Noah Clan business, it had to be Road, and he caught himself thinking that he was glad to have her around. It's been mere months since his awakening, but Tyki had already gotten used to her company.

"By the way, I'm not going to the party," Road went on. "I'm staying home with the Earl."

"Worried you wouldn't find willing dance partners?"

"You're so witty, Tyki. No, the Earl needs me by his side."

"May I ask why?"

"He isn't feeling well today," she said cagily.

The Earl has done it again. One day everything would make sense to him, and Tyki would figure out what the Earl was going through, but the time for it wasn't right yet.

"No wonder why the Earl worries about being called a crybaby," he said on the way out of his room.

The lively soiree was held at Madame Crawd's house. Sheril reserved a separate table for them away from the bustling crowd of dressed-up posh nobles who laughed, drank wine and scotch, gossiped, flirted with each other, and flitted in an elaborate dance about a brightly lit ballroom. Faint music played in the background. Madame Crawd entertained some guests with her sharp-witted jokes near the piano, and in the vicinity of that jolly group sat Inspector Howard Link and his entourage. Lulu Bell, who posed as one of the bodyguards, pointed him out to Tyki.

Tyki twirled a slim brunette in a creamy dress across the floor in a slow waltz and craned his neck in the direction of Inspector Link every time he passed by him. Howard Link was a tall, long-limbed young man with thin features, a braid of blond hair and bushy eyebrows which imparted to his youthful face a morose expression. He wore a light-gray suit with a white blouse underneath it, and his formal outfit was complete with a large cross from olive wood hanging around his neck. In Tyki's view, he had a face that was much too gentle for an Inspector who worked for Central and a disposition that was much too mild. But then Tyki didn't know him at all, and it was his first impression of his new adversary. First impressions could be awfully misleading.

The young Inspector fixed a thoughtful stare on an object he had in his hand. Tyki noticed it the second time he waltzed around Link. It was his blood-soaked ace of spades. Taken back by surprise, Tyki faltered in the series of memorized steps and movements, clumsily stomped on the brunette's foot, and pushed her into a burly gentleman behind them. She glowered at him and, with an indignant toss of her head, walked away in the middle of the dance. Tyki steadied himself by shifting weight from his heels to his toes. His gaffe attracted attention of several nobles, one of whom said something rude to him under his breath, and the Inspector, distracted by the commotion, tore himself away from the intent contemplation of the card. Their eyes met above the swirl of vividly colored dresses and sparkling jewelry.

Tyki instinctively pushed the frame of his glasses up the bridge of his nose and tried to move away from the Inspector, but it was too late—Link noticed him and bowed politely to him. Tyki had no choice but to respond in kind, and then he hastened to disappear behind the broad backs of several young men before Link asked for a formal introduction. He wasn't supposed to interact with the Inspector and interfere with Lulu Bell.

Tyki returned to the table where Sheril sat in solitude, drinking red wine and gawking at the partygoers. When his brother saw him, he motioned towards an empty chair with his hand.

"That young Inspector is very handsome," he remarked.

"Why don't you ask him for a dance?" said Tyki. He was terribly amused by the idea. "Your wife isn't here, and I don't plan on ratting you out to her."

"Your offer sounds so tempting, little brother, but I don't think that the Earl will be happy if he finds out about my frivolity. It's a shame." Sheril crossed his fingers on his knee and leaned back in his chair. "So, I'll just sit here, enjoy the music, and watch you dance."

"Well, I screwed up a bit, so I'll sit here with you for the rest of the evening. I hope you had more success with Madame Crawd."

"I casually dropped a line about a sham witness. I'm sure Madame Crawd had mentioned it to everyone willing to listen to her. That crash became the talk of the town thanks to your amazing abilities. What happened with the Inspector?"

"It's best I avoid him today. I caught his attention in a way that wouldn't make the Earl very happy with us. I keep thinking that the dock workers gave him a description of me."

"You're probably exaggerating."

"Speaking of the Earl, what's going on with him? Do you know why Road had to stay behind?"

"Honestly, I don't have a clue. Maybe he was in one of his bad moods. Only Road can calm him down when he's not himself."

Conversing with Sheril about this, that and the other, Tyki didn't pay attention to the time, and at some point, he realized that he was craving a cigarette. Despite the earlier determination to spend the rest of the evening away from the dance floor and the piano surrounded by a group of garrulous nobles, Tyki stepped out onto an empty balcony for a quick smoke. But no sooner had he flipped open a cigarette pack than a shadow lurking behind him moved into the faint light that fell from the bright ballroom windows.

It was Inspector Link.

When Tyki scrutinized Link's face up close, he noticed the double red dots he had seen on the forehead of the nameless Crow in the French village.

"You're that guy in nerdy glasses," said Link and gave him a quick once-over.

Maybe Road had a point, and he did stand out in Madame Crawd's crowd in his glasses.

"Have we met?" Tyki feigned surprise. "I don't recall seeing your face around here."

"I'm sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Inspector Howard Link. I saw you dance inside."

"You must be new in our town."

"I've just arrived here on official business, and—"

"Oh boy, I forgot that I promised one of the ladies a dance." Tyki pressed a palm in a tight-fitting black glove to his chest and inclined his head. "I hope you'll continue enjoying the party."

After Tyki made his quick bow, he decided against smoking on any balconies where the persistent Inspector could run into him and returned to the ballroom. Howard Link owed him a fun, unspoiled party.

…At around ten o'clock at night, the crowd began to thin out, and the merry chatter had died down. A few guests mingled by the piano. Inspector Link left and took Lulu Bell with him, but soon she came back in a lush evening dress with Mimi—her Akuma maid—in attendance.

"The Inspector retired to his hotel room for the night. Tomorrow he will begin searching for the witness," she said flatly. "I have fulfilled Lord Millennium's orders."

"The Earl values your services highly," said Sheril, pouring her a glass of wine. "What did he say about the party? Did he mention Tyki?"

"Not by name, no. Several nobles aroused his suspicions, including our hostess, so Tyki is in the clear for now."

"That's a relief," muttered Tyki, but deep down he was certain that he wouldn't shake off the nosy Inspector quite so easily.