MaruMA:SideStory01:Chapter 5
Chapter 5 - Heading to Frankfurt
Her upper body so bent it’s like she’s kneeling on the ground, April desperately tries to catch her breath, while the train’s rhythmic vibrations are stimulating the wounds on her feet again. Now they’re a long distance away from the train station, and DT and Regent aren’t onboard either.
What happened to them afterwards? After making such a huge protest, would they be taken away by the soldiers for interrogation?
Whatever.
April closes her eyes slowly.
There’s no point in worrying now. Back then they agreed that if anyone was forced to stay, the rest would still get on the train. Neither they nor she was wrong.
“…But… Oh, God, what to do? I left my luggage and passport at the station!”
The SS lieutenant’s voice came from above her head, because of the significant difference in their heights.
“Unbelievable. After abandoning your husband to get onto the train, you’re more worried about your luggage and passport?”
“That’s right, I apologize for not acting professional enough. But still, not all of us get around by stealing a tank or climbing cliff, after all. And besides, when taking an international flight, I can’t get to another country without a passport… You said, husband?!”
April is so agitated she forgot that she’s still wheezing for air, and straightens up her body.
“Who? Who are you talking about?!”
“That Asian, of…”
“DT? You said DT is my husband?! Unbelievable. Please, do me a favor, stop joking like that!”
Rikhiart Deuter’s unique, silver-shining eyes are wide as saucers with surprise.
“Don’t tell me it’s the one who was yelling in French? That’s quite a large age difference between you husband and wife. But it doesn’t matter who your husband is, I have a mission to fulfill, I can’t always be taking care of you.”
Deuter puts on his gloves again, and lifts a leather box.
“Wait a sec, hey! Look here, this is empty!”
April stretches her left hand in front of him, so he can confirm for himself that she’s not wearing a wedding ring.
“I have no interest in American culture.”
“That’s not it. Why are you so sure I’m married? Didn’t you just call me an eighteen-year-old kid yesterday?”
“My older sister got married when she was eighteen, though she died when she was 23.”
“Eh… I-I’m so sorry… But I still have to explain it to you clearly! Listen up, DT has a beautiful wife, and a baby on the way! I’m currently single, and I plan on keeping that way for quite some time!”
“Is that so? Because Coruna likes going after married people, that’s why I jumped to conclusions.”
“Eh? That man is interested in married people?”
Crap, what if he really does go after DT? April feels responsible for that, but she immediately forcing her thoughts back to the topic at hand.
“Ah, how did we get so distracted? That’s not right, is it? Richard, you should have other things you want to talk about, right?!”
Deuter raises his right brow, saying in an unrelenting tone before he’s cut off.
“I’m not called Richard…”
“Not that!”
She points at her foot wordlessly, and Deuter’s mouth goes ‘oh, that’s it’.
“You’re talking about your foot? Since you were running so fiercely just now, it should be fine, right?”
“Even if you think so, you should at least ask for courtesy’s sake! How can you been so bad at being human? You were the one who made me hurt my leg in the first place!”
His expression becomes troubled, but after figuring out that April wasn’t going to let him go so easily, he has no choice but to squeeze out the words,
“…So, how’s your foot?”
“Well, at any rate I can run now, so there’s no problem.”
“…Is that so? Then I’m going to the first class carriage.”
“All you have is ‘is that so’?”
“If I say anything else, you’ll just go all upset and say, ‘I’m not a kid any more, please don’t involve yourself with me!’, won’t you?”
“You know me pretty well!”
But his voice goes softer and softer, and he stares out of the window with a creased brow.
“…I’m really glad your foot recovered so quickly, but please don’t push yourself so hard next time…”
“I’m not your girlfriend, can you not involve yourself in my matters so much?”
Deuter puts the box on the ground, and it makes a deep ‘dong’.
“What on earth do you want? Don’t tell me you want me to bow my head and apologize, saying, ‘I shouldn’t have got a little heiress like you who just happened to be at the scene involved’?”
“That’s not what I meant! I’m just purely very angry, angry at myself for running around without wearing shoes, even I don’t know how I made such an unprofessional, embarrassing mistake!”
April realizes that her tightly-gripped fists are shaking unstoppably, and immediately hides them behind her back. And the wound on her large toe is starting to hurt too, so she can only lean on the wall.
“Because that was my first time making that kind of mistake!”
He falls silent for a while. But just as he opens his mouth to speak, he feels needle-sharp gazes on his back and turns around. That’s when he notices that it’s the passengers in the second class coach, looking at the unlikely duo with uneasy gazes, but then they hurriedly look away.
“…Come over here.”
Deuter grabs April’s wrist, walking briskly down the corridor.
“H-hold on a sec! Although I’m really grateful to you for pulling me onboard, but I have no reason to go on a happy vacation with a Nazi. And my ticket is in the second class coach…”
“Please, I’m the one who should be complaining! Who would want to ride with an American heiress?”
At that, he pulls her to his side, saying softly in a dissatisfied voice,
“But just us being here is causing trouble for the other passengers. You saw it too, it wasn’t easy for them to get past those pesky customs, if they see an SS officer in the same coach as them, what do you think they’ll think? And the next stop will be in the heart of Berlin, there will be customs officers ready to take any rings or money off of them, if the customs officers discover a foreigner onboard without permission too, do you know how bad things will get? If that happens, all the passengers will be chased off under the charges of hiding you! The problem is these passengers didn’t help you, they don’t even know how you got onboard, but those soldiers couldn’t care less about all that. Are you okay with silently watching several dozen lives who could have escaped be needlessly sacrificed?!”
“Sacrificed? That’s too cruel…”
Disappointment flashes in those pale brown eyes, and the silver glow from those irises also disappear.
“If it’s the Germany right now, anything is possible.”
Deuter releases her hand, turning his back to her and saying hatefully,
“Although this is such a shameful thing.”
The officer’s words ring true. At the next stop there really are a group of lightly-armed soldiers checking every compartment. Through the window, April watches a few unlucky passengers taken off the train, and a lot of luggage is piled up on the platform. Most of it are backpacks and suitcases, very obviously the passengers’ personal belongings.
“They’re going too far.”
“Don’t look like you pity them, you have to act like it’s only natural.”
There are officers coming into the first class coach too, but maybe it’s because it’s higher than second class, their attitude is a lot more polite. Just then, a young lower-ranked soldier knocks on the door lightly, and walks into their private room, saluting to them expertly.
“I apologize, Lieutenant. May I ask, where are you headed to fulfill your duties?”
Deuter looks at the newspapers and doesn’t raise his head.
“I’m sending this to Colonel Hughes in Frankfurt.”
“…May I ask what is inside?”
Since the person he is asking is a lieutenant on the SS, his attitude is obviously very humble.
“It’s an instrument. Apparently His Excellency the President insists on hearing a musical performance during the dinner party no matter what.”
“A performance for His Excellency the President! May I ask if Lieutenant will also be attending the dinner party?”
He doesn’t answer, just looks at the lower-ranking soldier.
“It’s no noisy outside, what’s the ruckus about?”
“It’s nothing, Lieutenant, just a standard customs check. Since we can no longer stand the matter of our resources flowing out of the country, starting from last week we’ve begun checking the customs thoroughly.”
“So, that’s one of the reasons the air route has been cut off.”
“That’s right, because the airport is filled with those rich Jews. It’s one thing if those bastards want to leave, but they even want to take away our Germany’s property. Oh, yes, Lieutenant, we heard that at the starting station a foreigner got boarded without permission…”
Crap, April keeps a low profile lest she be discovered.
“Pardon me for asking, but this woman is…”
“My wife.”
The soldier has looks even more surprised than April.
“You have a wife now! Please pardon my rudeness.”
And then, the man smiles politely, speaking to April shortly in English, but the contents of his question are the complete opposite of his amiable expression, everything that comes out his mouth are derogatory insults that would alarm any woman who understood English.
But she cocks her head wordlessly, asking him back in German, “What are you saying?”
At almost the same time, the lieutenant stands up and grabs the lower-ranked soldier’s collar, even knocking off a button in the process.
“Are you insulting her?!”
“N-no, I swear I didn’t mean to!”
April is stunned into silence at the side, because she has to pretend not to understand English. After pausing for three seconds, she finally walks up to calm them down with an expression of confusion.
“I-I just thought that the missus understood English, so I did that. I apologize profusely, missus lieutenant.”
“Can you use that kind of language when talking to ladies? What kind of education did you receive in the army?! Call your superior officer over! I want to talk to him directly, and have him apologize to my wife!”
“Don’t be like that, honey, it’s okay, I don’t mind, besides, I don’t even understand it, much less feel insulted by it.”
Hearing his wife’s advice, the lieutenant waves his hand, and the foolish lower-ranked soldier practically crawls out of the room. After the footsteps disappear into the distance, the two finally give in and start laughing out loud. They roll around laughing, hammering the back of the chair with their fists.
“Y-y-y-you actually said I’m your wife! I got goosebumps all over because of you!”
“You’re one to talk! You’re obviously just a brat, but you still acted so exaggeratedly, there was no need to go all ‘don’t be like that, honey,’ was there? I got the chills down my spine because of you!”
“Did that person really believe what we said?”
“Those young people rarely come into contact with ladies anyway, so even amateurish acting can take them in completely.”
“What, aren’t you pretty young yourself?”
Rikhiart Deuter’s expression suddenly becomes very solemn.
“No, I’m already 27, there’s not much more I can do in the time I have left.”
Just then the train starts spouting steam and shaking, and the wheels start turning with a deep sound. The scenery outside the window is slowly moving too, this time the train is truly leaving Berlin.
“Sit down!”
“You sit down too!”
At the end both of them can only sit down simultaneously. The room for six now has only the two of them, and the atmosphere is filled with an awkward silence. April looks at him, slanting her face slightly.
“This is a suggestion from colleague, my grandmother was still doing this business after she just turned fifty! And you’re only twenty-seven, but you’re already saying there’s not much left you can do, saying something like that is to a disappointment to the parents who gave birth to you!”
“Hazel Graves is my colleague? Stop kidding!”
“True, instead of colleagues, you’re more like arch enemies.”
She looks at the leather case on the seat, there’s definitely no instrument inside.
“We specialize in bringing cultural artifacts back to where they belong. But a robber like you, who wants to take away everything for your own selfish desires… If that in there really is an instrument, then that Colonel Hughes guy can’t be normal either. Why would anyone want to hear a brass pipe performance over dinner? And if that’s a trumpet in there, then it’d be way too big.”
“For all you know, this is an oboe… Oh, yeah, is using an instrument as an excuse too far-fetched? Though I’m clarifying now, I didn’t take it away out of selfish desires, this was always mine.”
That line sounds familiar. That’s mine, that’s right, the Box belongs to you! April Graves.
Deuter expertly opens the lock, the metallic lock bounces open with a ‘pa-chak’. He puts the sturdy leather case on the ground, and flips open the cover, which has brass buttons embedded on the sides.
The pure white arm is lying in the middle of the bright red cloth, even after seeing it for the second time, she still thinks it’s a lot like an intricate wax form. Because it’s just too pale and too cold, so it’s hard to imagine that it’s a human arm.
“This is my… This is my ancestor’s left arm.”
“This really isn’t a model?”
“It’s not, this is human bone and flesh, made of proteins and fat. It existed in my house long before I was born, though that was something that happened about 150 years ago.”
She touches it warily, it’s as elastic and cold as it was yesterday.
“But… How can this be possible? How is it preserved? Like specimens are soaked in formaline…”
“It wasn’t properly preserved in any way, just kept out of high temperatures, moisture and direct sunlight.”
“You’re saying that again! Do you think this is pickling cucumbers?”
“It’s true. I don’t know what kind of spell was put on it, but even though its owner is long dead, and the rest of the body has rotted underground, but only this little thing here remains perfectly preserved to this day, sleeping in the mansion storehouse. And even though its owner is gone, there hasn’t been one extra wrinkle on it.”
“Its owner? Who’s that?”
“A man called Robert Belal, he should be my grandfather’s… grandfather.”
And then he says as though singing, as though he’s reciting a poem.
“A hundred and forty years ago, one night when the moon was high in the sky, a one-armed man fell from the sky. He held his amputated left arm tightly, his whole body soaked with water and blood.”
“What’s that, a Mother Goose fairy tale?”
Although she’s purposely joking, April never suspects Deuter’s words, because anything is possible in this world.
“The only ones who would believe this, are probably me and the Nazis, and the priests.”
“Isn’t that Colonel Hughes person very trustworthy?”
“The Colonel… the colonel, is it…”
Deuter turns his face towards the window, staying silent for a while as he watches the scenery fly by. Maybe he trusts that the other passenger in the car won’t steal the arm, so even though April moves to another seat, he doesn’t look around.
She didn’t see it yesterday because it was covered with a cloth, but today she can even see the forearm completely clearly, and there are two dark grey lines near the shoulder, too. If she looks closely, they’re not solid lines, but instead they’re made of tiny symbols. She can’t tell if they’re words or patterns, those weird shapes aren’t anything she’s seen before.
“What’s written there? Or maybe they’re not words?”
“There are four things in this world that should never be touched.”
The owner of the left arm shrugs his shoulders, explaining, “Actually, it’s not impossible to decipher.”
“What I’m saying is the content, because this was passed down through the generations. Not only that Frenchman, I see that you know about it too. There are four Boxes in this world, with great power sealed within. The Boxes’ names are ‘Wind’s End’, ‘Ends of the Earth’, ‘Mirror’s Depth’ and ‘Inferno on the Tundra’ respectively. Each Box has a Key. Only the correct Key can open it, none of the others can.”
“But I heard that something similar to the ‘Key’ can force it open… Wait, what does this arm have to do with the Boxes? Don’t tell me this…”
“What are you playing at, Graves, how can you stupidly chase after the Boxes without knowing anything?”
Rikhiart Deuter effortlessly lifts the arm and the red cloth around it with one hand.
“This is one of the four Keys. It’s the first one, and also the easiest to use, or the easiest to be used.”
“…How can this be, wasn’t the Key to the Box pure water…”
She’s starting to get dizzy. The man in front of her is playing with the pale wax form, even comparing it to his left shoulder. No, that’s not any wax form, it’s a nearly a 150-year-old human arm…
“The one that need pure water is ‘Mirror’s Depth’, that’s probably the Box they’re looking for so desperately. This is the Key to another Box, ‘Wind’s End’, but it may be able to open the other Boxes too, that’s why I said it’s the first Key.”
The contrast between the black uniform and the pure white arm, is so jarring it’s ominous.
“In comparison, my arm seems to be thinner. But that’s hardly surprising, the muscles you use when shooting a gun are different from wielding a sword. But if anything happens, just this bit of different can’t guarantee it’ll work.”
“What do you mean, work? Don’t tell me you want to put it work?”
Actually what she wanted to ask was how to use the Key. Deuter gestures to the insides of the leather case with his chin, and after she takes off the cloth on top, she discovers a sturdy sword you only see in medieval museums hidden in the bottom.
“I plan on doing a switch, I want to use that… to cut off my left arm, and replace this arm that hasn’t rotted in 140 years with it.”
“How is that possible…”
“I don’t know if I can pull it off, but right now there’s no other choice. Only the Key and its true wielder can control the power released by the opened Box. Right now, the army has ‘Mirror’s Depth’, and I have in my hands the Key to ‘Wind’s End’… You should have heard that as long as it’s something similar to the matching Key, then it too might be able to force the Box open. In that case, this left arm that feels like a toy, can it close the Box too?”
“Richard!”
“Those guys just want to open that Box, and release the power of evil into this world. They don’t care about the consequences at all, all they want is to increase their strength… As long as I can stop their plan, I don’t mind sacrificing anything. Besides, all it needs is one of my arms, what’s there to lose?”
“Stop talking!”
April grabs the red cloth out of his hands, roughly covering the sheathed sword, shining darkly.
That’s too much! Even if he wants to stop the enemy’s plan, there’s no need to sacrifice his own arm.
“That’s ridiculous, it’s just a Box, is there a need to protect it with your life?”
“It’s not ridiculous at all, it’s the reason I joined the SS, and was forced into wearing this uniform.”
The lieutenant angrily takes off his army hat, and tosses it to the opposite seat.
“I even made myself wear this hateful outfit! I think you Americans might never understand it… The feeling on riding a train that has gone out of control, only the passengers onboard will know it.”
Burying his fingers into his hair, Deuter looks much younger than he did before.
He looks out of the window, while April looks at his profile. The initial impression he gave, expressionless and cold, is already slowly fading away, and now he looks more like a kind, normal young man.
“That’s why you joined the SS?”
“Yes.”
“To stop the train that has gone out of control?”
“That’s right. Although they don’t like the color of my hair and eyes, but at the end I still successfully enlisted. It’s probably because I’m the descendant of the family with the Key, so they want to keep me by their side.”
Although there aren’t any other outsiders here, April still instinctively lowers her voice. Because she wants to ask this man she just met yesterday a question that can’t be simply answered.
“So, you’re planning to betray your country?”
Rikhiart Deuter stops looking out of the window, and move his gaze to his tightly-clenched left fist.
“No. Although I betrayed the Nazis, I never betrayed my country. As long as it’s beneficial to the country, I’ll do anything, get rid of any obstacles. I’m not like you, looking for the Box so you can put it up in a museum for display!”
“It’s not what you think it is!”
Once the atmosphere sinks into silence, the vibrations from the train underneath them feel all the stronger.
April follows her grandmother’s advice, closing her eyes and counting slowly to five. When the train passes by ten tracks, she carefully considers how to deal with this man. Maybe she should use more time, but a little less probably doesn’t matter anyway. Finally, despite the fact that she never found any logical conclusion, she takes a deep breath.
Truth is, sometimes you have to go with your gut.
“That Box is mine, y’know!”
“Is it that old Bapu or something lady who gave it to you?”
“No. My grandmother gave it to Mr Bapu for safekeeping after she found it, and then Hazel Graves chose me to be her heir, so that Box is now my responsibility, I have a duty to get it back!”
Grandmother, surrounded by blue flames, would surely look at April with sad eyes in her dreams, shaking her head and saying, ‘Never touch it.’ Actually April had always know that what her grandmother gave to her, isn’t anything you can express with numbers. No one can touch that Box, and she can’t let anyone touch it.
| Back to Chapter 4 | Return to MA Series | Forward to Chapter 6 |
