Chapter 8: Volume 1 - CH 2.5

He had a dream. In that dream Seymour was younger than now, more stupid than now, and had a niggling feeling that he might actually be a hopeless fool that was beyond all help.

And, back then, he regarded his car as his home.

After his father died, he got into his car and just drove, never returning to his family home. He lived his life not going home. As such, it was possible that he had merely thought of his car as home, when in reality he had just been running away from home for several months.

But, because he eventually ended up renting the garage he lived in right now, he actually did manage to leave home for good, though he did visit occasionally.

And if you were to wonder what exactly Seymour was doing spending all that time in his car, the answer would be: he observed the city.

He and his car would drift through the city all day long, stopping on random street corners so that he could just watch people. Well, it was a little more proactive than simply watching, but it wasn’t like he was actively searching for something either. Yes, it was a bit like trying to read a difficult book.

And in a way, he was trying to read something.

He hoped that something was written somewhere in this world. For example, how to come to terms with the death of his father, and how irrational it had been. He believed that there had to be something. That the answer was written somewhere, and he simply couldn’t read it because his eyes, his head, or both weren’t up to par.

Otherwise, it’d be weird. After all, the world had just been through a war, and a tremendous number of lives had been lost on the battlefields. The sorrow collectively felt by the city should be as if Seymour’s own sorrow had been multiplied by the number of stars in the sky.

And yet, against all expectations, people glorified their everyday lives and appeared, by all accounts, to be happy. People walked the streets, had casual chats in the shade, and enjoyed their food in restaurants. Because of that, he believed that they must have been taught somewhere ─ maybe in one of the school classes that Seymour had slept through, or maybe not ─ what to do in times like these.

Of course, he was well aware that this wasn’t true. And although he should know better, he had no intention to stop his life on the road. Even though he understood it intellectually, emotionally he just couldn’t make sense of it.

Fortunately, he didn’t live in need. A car is, when you get right down to it, a closed, moving room. Because the wall separating people from immorality had collapsed after the war, all sorts of people seemed to desire closed spaces in compensation.

『Hey, wanna get in?』

It was fine for him to simply call out to a random girl like that. Just doing that granted him a reasonable rate of success. The girls would get into his car, treat him to some food, chat with him a bit, receive some cash, and do what a man and a woman would do in a closed room. It wasn’t bad, being able to rely purely on the fact that he had a car, rather than his name or education.

The end of his days living, driving, and watching like that came on a very normal spring day.

『Hey, if ye got some spare time, could ye drive my girl over to mine?』

The one asking him was Michael Touring, a senior from his student days.

『Ye see, I’m dating this girl right now, but just the other day we found out that her parents’ company and my parent’s company are business rivals. Our parents would be against us going out with each other』

Seymour didn’t remember what he answered. He felt like it was probably something along the lines of 『Man, Shakespeare is so dated, dude』. But he clearly remembered the expression on Michael’s face that day.

His passion for her had driven him to ask this of Seymour, despite the awkwardness and embarrassment that was involved, and the joy on his face reflected that. Seymour had always had a strong impression that Michael was the kind of guy who always had a crooked smile on his face and a bit of a nihilist, so he was surprised that Michael could even make an expression like that.

『I mean, look, ye got that car of yers. I’d like for ye to bring her to our dating spot so our parents don’t find out. Please! I’ll also pay ye!』

Per his request, Seymour drove Michael’s girlfriend Ms. So-and-so ─ he felt like Michael had told him her name but he had completely forgotten about it by now ─ to the locations of their clandestine meetings for some time after that.

His memories about the girlfriend were quite vague. All he really remembered was her bowing.

From Michael’s point of view, Seymour was an old friend, but she couldn’t possibly say the same. All things considered, she was probably quite reluctant to get in a car alone with a stranger. More so, when that guy was in the middle of running away from home, and lived inside his car like a homeless person.

For this reason, the girlfriend was terribly wary of Seymour, and Seymour himself had no particular issues with it either. After all, it was reasonable behavior for any woman possessing a somewhat decent set of values.

Be it on the first, third, or umpteenth drive; she always held onto the handle of her bag tightly and glued herself to the door whenever she got in Seymour’s car. Her posture always indicated that she was ready to jump out of the car, whether it was moving or not, if Seymour made the slightest move or if the car ever turned into some shady back alley.

Come to think of it, she seemed to be a frail woman, but she definitely had a sharp glint in her eyes ─ which reminds me, she might be the reason why I consider my slanted eyes a bad thing nowadays ─ and that look of hers was always stabbing the back of my head in the driver’s seat like she was trying to drive a nail into it.

From the beginning to the end, no normal conversation ever took place between Seymour and that woman. And thus, it was impossible for any kind of relationship to form between them.

Nevertheless, she always got into the shady stranger’s car for the sake of meeting with Michael, and whenever Seymour took her home, she always bowed to him courteously. Her politely bowing, a short and quick bob of her head, was the only thing he could clearly remember. Because of that, he thought that she was a lovely woman each time he saw the whorl of hair on her head. And each time he saw the smile she directed at Michael, he thought that their love was beautiful.

In short, this became the first job of the courier Seymour Road. It was completely devoid of any drama, and for that very reason, it was a precious memory.

He had somehow managed to acquire a somewhat exaggerated title 『courier who always delivers』, but it all started with him playing a fake cupid.

However, Seymour Road believed that this very first job was the most valuable among all the jobs he had done so far ─ although it was unfair to compare jobs.

Maybe Michael did his best, maybe his girlfriend did, or maybe time resolved the issue, but eventually their parents acknowledged them as a couple, and they no longer needed some shady, suspicious guy to act as their go-between. Thus, around the time Seymour finished his first job, he decided to throw his lot into becoming a courier.

It’s an important truth that I’m no one of importance, and I mustn’t forget my starting point either.

Probably because of his belief in this, Seymour occasionally dreamed about this first request.

❖ ── ✦ ──『✙』── ✦ ── ❖

“Hmm….I don’t think there’s an issue.”

Kicking the ground, Seymour slid the trolley and himself out from underneath his Essex, stretched, and grabbed the nearby coffee cup all without getting up. But, realizing that drinking coffee while still laying down would be difficult, he carefully put the cup back.

“Is…that so……? I’m glad to hear that.” Lumi, who had anxiously waited on the side as Seymour inspected the entire car despite his repeated reassurances, sighed in relief and drew closer.

Last night, Seymour’s car had been blown across a considerable distance and had experienced a rather significant impact upon landing.

Under the circumstances, they hadn’t had a choice. Therefore, even if the Essex had come out of it as nothing more than scrap, Seymour didn’t think that he’d blame Lumi, although it’d have put him in something of a bind on how he would continue to earn money. But even so, it wasn’t so bad to experience something like the innate goodness of man like this.

“I guess there are a few parts that need replacing, like the tires, but they’re all repairs that an amateur like me can handle. The car suffered no major damage.”

Sniffing his hands and grimacing in disgust, Seymour rolled onto his belly on the trolley.

“Haah, it’s been a while since I did repair work. So tired…… Go ahead and eat breakfast without me.”

“Mr. Seymour, you must eat something as well.”

The aroma of bread being toasted on a gas burner had wafted over him during his work. Apparently Lumi had prepared French toast. A sugary sweetness, in sharp contrast to the metallic-tasting space, filled the air.

“Sure, if you say so, that’s fine, but you see…my hands are dirty, so I’d like you to feed me.”

Seymour had mostly said this as a joke. Because of this, he was suspicious of Lumi’s intentions when she approached with a plate loaded with the French toast she had made.

Lumi crouched down in front of him, allowing Seymour a clear look at her white, healthy shins when he arched back and lifted his head.

“Here you go.” Lumi said, in a carefully flat voice as though it would cover up her blushing cheeks.

In her right hand she held a piece of toast on a fork. Seymour decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and quickly ate what had been offered.

“Hotch! Schweech! Still, somebody seems to be particularly nice today?”

“Mr. Seymour, you were kind enough to help me. Besides, umm…” Lumi lightly shook her head.

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Her long hair obstructed Seymour’s sight. It still carries the faint scent of the sea from yesterday.

“……Mr. Seymour, you were really cool when you were doing your best to complete the request yesterday, you know?”

Before he could answer, another piece of toast was shoved into his mouth. It was apparently at this moment that Lumi remembered that they only had one fork. She stared at the fork she had just pulled out of Seymour’s mouth, and then awkwardly began to eat her own breakfast. She was bothered by very peculiar things, Seymour thought.

After chewing and swallowing what was in his mouth, Seymour looked in her direction, his mouth open like a baby bird as he continued to lie there. As if using the occasion, Seymour said, “While you’re at it, you should tell me I’m cool more often, you know?”

“Would it be better for me to bring you a mirror?”

“Ahaha, nice one.”

“How was the French toast?”

“It rocks. So much so that I want to eat it every day.”

“I wonder why your praise sounds so much like empty flattery… Anyway, I’m glad. This is a recipe my mother taught me.”

She always gave off a somewhat happy aura whenever she brought up her mother, and it always caused Seymour’s chest to tighten a bit.

“By the way, there’s a serious issue we need to talk about as soon as possible.”

Though, even as he said this, Seymour prioritized breakfast. After relaxedly eating another bite of sweet bread from Lumi’s hand, he nonchalantly tilted his head to the side.

“About your 『safe place』.”

“────Ah.”

“In other words, it’s about where I need to take you so that you’d be 『safe』.”

Seeing Lumi about to return to her stiff posture, Seymour silently demanded the next bite of toast. Maintaining a solemn expression while feeding a grown man sprawled on the floor was fairly difficult, and Lumi gave up immediately, holding the fork out towards him with a sigh.

“Well, having said that, I’ve already got a rough idea.”

“Oh, you do?”

“Lumi, I think you need to leave this city. This city is a mafia den, and you won’t find any peace here, no matter where you go. Conversely, if you leave the city, it should be possible to find somewhere peaceful.”

“You say somewhere, but…”

“Broadly speaking, there are five mafia families in this city. And, those five mafia families have pretty much split this city up into five different territories.”

He felt her eyes on him, silently prodding him for more detail, but Seymour ignored her demand by pretending to be caught up in trying to figure out how to drink his coffee lying down. Well, it was a fact that drinking in such a weird position would only result in him choking.

He coughed and spit up some of the coffee.

It’s best to not get involved with the mafia.

If he felt like it, Seymour could expand on his layman’s knowledge of what influence each mafia family held, which families were fighting each other, or how this peculiar metropolis, where five huge mafia organizations competed ruthlessly, was structured, but he didn’t think that it was necessary knowledge for Lumi.

The city operated on several levels, and each of the levels affected the others but it was impossible to understand the city on a level other than your own. That was the kind of shape this city had taken. And although Seymour, a courier, operated in multiple layers, not belonging to any particular one, he fully understood that it was pointless to sift through mud that had already settled at the bottom of the bucket.

“You were captured, got chased around, and are now being targeted by some mafia family. In other words, if you reverse it──”

“You mean I will be free as long as I stay away from that mafia family’s territory…?”

“You got it. That’s the basic idea here.”

Lumi’s immediate reaction to Seymour’s nod was bewilderment. She was confused as to whether she’d really be able to get away by doing something so simple.

No, even before that, she’s probably been too caught up in the misfortune associated with her birthright. I’ve got no doubt that having the goal right in front of her all of a sudden must seem like a cruel joke after she resolved herself to keep running away for the rest of her life. But, that’s just the way the world works – it doesn’t care about the wishes of any one person. Dramatic lead-ups to the end only happen on cheap, third-rate radio plays.

“But, that’s something the mafia family chasing me should know as well, right?”

“Lumi, you haven’t conveniently heard a name or something to clue us into which family it is, have you?”

“Unfortunately, no……”

“I thought as much,” Seymour shrugged. “Anyway, don’t worry. If I feel like it, I have a way of figuring out what kind of person has come to hire me.”

“You can do that?”

It’s a means I don’t really want to use, though, Seymour added in his mind.

“I knew it. Mr Seymour, you are amazing and fantastic!”

“Don’t praise me too much just yet. We don’t know if it’ll work as planned. Either way, as I said…,” he pulled himself upright then slouched on the creeper, his lips quirking into a smile, “As soon as we learn which mafia family is chasing you, we’ll also know the escape route. The mafia attacks in the last few days tell us that they aren’t that serious about it. I wouldn’t expect them to chase you if we manage to get you out of their sphere of influence. In other words, our farewell is actually not that far off.”

“……Ah.” A small exclamation escaped her as her face filled with honest sadness.

Having a beautiful girl reluctant to part with him made Seymour quite happy. But, her honesty only highlighted how unsuited she was for this city and strengthened his resolve to let her get away at any cost.

“Get ready to say goodbye. If you leave me with an extraordinary smile, all my efforts will have been worthwhile.”

“……Okay!” Lumi nodded assertively, but her face was already scrunched up in gloom.

“Ah, come on, I really suck at handling such depressing stuff.”

Seymour reflexively ended up searching for words to cheer Lumi up with, though at the same time he felt like it wasn’t so bad having this kind of exchange between them.

Besides, he thought, yesterday she willingly exercised her nature as a vampire.

Although she had hidden her bloodsucking, the trait that would most prominently identify her as a vampire, she had still manifested her vampiric nature for the sake of gaining Seymour’s trust.

I must respond in kind to such complete trust.

“By the way Lumi, I don’t think there will be any other attacks for a while, and I can’t really say that staying at home or at the Holiday is safe either.”

“Okay?”

“So, won’t you come with me while I work?”

❖ ── ✦ ──『✙』── ✦ ── ❖

————— End of Part 5 —————

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