The Case Files of Jeweler Richard Vol. 8 by Nanako Tsujimura

Author:Nanako Tsujimura [Tsujimura, Nanako]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: light novel
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Published: 2024-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

The Tour de France was like the French cycling version of the Hakone Ekiden. In English, you might translate it as “one lap around France.” Cyclists, with their massive thighs, ride around all of France astride their bikes’ slender wheels. There are teams and strategy and a lot of very passionate fans. If you mention France and cycling, the Tour de France is the first thing that will come to any sports fan’s mind.

That evening, I felt like I was taking on the challenge of my very own solo tour.

I started off by heading to what looked like Aix’s police ­station and showing them the picture of Catherine that Richard had given me to ask if they’d seen her, but they just asked me if I was her manager or something. I guess they thought I was an employee looking for an actress. They all had the wrong idea. When I explained that she was a relative of a friend—I don’t think they would have believed me if I said she was his mother—who had run off after a disagreement and that I was looking for her, a woman police officer showed me some sympathy, saying “it happens.” I hadn’t memorized the villa’s address, so I just gave them her name, asked them to tell her that Seigi and Richard were looking for her if they found her, and then headed back into town. Even the older part of the city had a lot of hills. If she was hiding out in some spot only locals knew about, I was totally screwed.

I got a map from the tourist information center and asked people to let me know if they’d seen her, all while planning a cycling route around the city. The map had the rather dramatic title, “The Former Capital of the Kingdom of Provence” but it did feel fitting for a former castle town. Maybe the difference in scale of castle towns between here and Japan came down to the size of the country, but I had to wonder if the influx of different groups of people had been so commonplace that the castle didn’t really need to be able to withstand a siege.

I came out by the square fountain featuring three goddesses on Cours Mirabeau and hit the post office, city hall, and cathedral. I traced the northwestern edge of the city before turning around and returning to Cours Mirabeau, where I’d started, and looking around the supermarket we had gone to. It had easily been an hour, and I had struck out everywhere I tried. My only word from Richard had been a “disappointed” emoji. I guess she hadn’t come home.

The stone-built town was beautiful in the twilight, though I didn’t really have the time to enjoy it while on the hunt for someone. There were cafés all over in spots with good lighting, filled with both locals and tourists at leisure—such a quintessential European sight—but it did feel a little odd to see kids running around on roller skates and scooters.

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