Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [297]
At last, Wataru looked up at Kutz. “What are you saying I should do? What can I do?”
“You’re asking me? You should be asking yourself.”
Myself. The answer’s in me…
Hands back on the railing, eyes peering out into the darkness, Kutz spoke. “You say Mitsuru is your friend. But, Wataru, even if they’re friends, even if they’re relatives, even if they’re lovers, when someone does something that isn’t right, it isn’t right. If you feel in your heart that they are wrong, you need to follow those feelings.”
Kutz’s slender fingers gripped the railing tightly. “I once had an argument with a man I loved, a long time ago.”
Wataru looked up at her intently.
“It was more than ten years ago now. There was a man, a killer. He murdered many to satisfy his greed. And he was very clever, terribly clever. He spun lies to deceive those around him, never letting us glimpse the truth.
“But one day we took a chance and set a trap for him. It was a chance like none other we’d ever had or would never have again. I can’t tell you how happy I was.”
The trap backfired, said Kutz. The criminal was eventually released.
“We argued for days. But in the end, the killer was set free. It’s true, we baited him. That was the only way we could bring him to justice. And we were told we were wrong. We were indicted. The killer walked away and laughed at us.”
Within two weeks, the killer entered a merchant’s house to rob him and murdered the entire family. But his luck had run out, and he was caught at the scene of the crime.
“What happened next? He was hanged. But, if we’d never let him go in the first place, he wouldn’t have been able to rob and kill that one last time. Even if it was illegal, what we had done was clearly the right thing to do. I believe that even to this day.”
A spark of understanding went off in Wataru’s head. “Wait…the one who indicted you…”
“Boris Ronmel. At the time, he was a Highlander like myself. Now he’s Captain of the Knights of Stengel, of course. You’ve met him, haven’t you?”
Trone had told Wataru that, a long time ago, Kutz had been dumped by Captain Ronmel.
“Boris upheld the law above all else. He supported the Senate too. And the branch chiefs, they listened to his opinions. But I thought people’s lives were more important than all that. Yes, I went against the law. But I don’t regret it for a moment. That’s why I could never forgive him for indicting us. Nor was he able to forgive me.”
And so they had parted ways.
“You were in love with Captain Ronmel, weren’t you?”
Kutz looked at Wataru, a faint smile on her lips. “We were. But even still there are things one can’t forgive—that one shouldn’t forgive. In my mind, he’s responsible for the deaths of that unlucky merchant and his family. And I’m sure that Boris still thinks I was wrong. Oh, we’re both right in our own fashion, of course. It all depends on which side you choose to take. I wouldn’t give an inch, nor would he. I knew him better than anyone else in the world. And he knew to expect the same from me. That’s why he didn’t hesitate for one moment to indict us. That was the only way he knew to stop me.”
Wataru remembered Captain Ronmel, his clear blue eyes filled with incredible calm and wisdom, which looked as though they could see straight through to the back of his head. He shivered, imagining a face-off between Kutz and the captain.
Kutz moved silently over to Wataru’s side, stooping to put her hands on his shoulders. “Mitsuru is your friend. But if you feel what he does is wrong, you must act. You can’t stand silently by and