Since this book began with a ring, it's fitting that it ends with a ring (Though there is a bonus chapter). Also, I noticed that the comments on this site doesn't work, which is a shame since I enjoy reading them. So, if you wanna contact me, you can send me a message on my tumblr, finalcinderella.tumblr.com, or dm me on the Foxholic discord (hazelnutpie). I'm not that active there but I'll respond if anyone messages me.

“Seigi-kun, what are you researching?”

There was a soft voice close to my ear, and I turned around with a start.

I was in the university's central library in the middle of the day. Tanimoto-san was standing with her back to the large staircase that led to the second floor. She was wearing a white one-piece dress and a light-yellow hoodie. Her bashful-looking face, like a mischievous child's, was cuter than an angel. After I became unable to breathe for two, three seconds, I finally started talking.

“…I'm finis.h.i.+ng up my paper. It's a management studies thing, about corporate governance.”

I had set up camp at the self-study s.p.a.ce on the first floor of the library, and spread out my notebooks and outline. There was a man with gla.s.ses sitting diagonally across from me at the rectangular table for six people. He was probably a literature student. He was struggling with old-looking literature in a Western language.

“Then, what's this?”

Tanimoto-san pointed at a mineral dictionary placed on the other side of my outline. There was a “for reference only” seal on the back.

“Are you studying rocks and minerals? For getting the GG or FGA or something like that?”

“Gee-gee?”

The man on the other side cleared his throat loudly. Oops.

I left the self-study s.p.a.ce with Tanimoto-san, and we went to the coffee shop set up inside the library. Even though it was a dead shop and rumored to be only used by outside professors, it seemed like an oasis at times like these. There were no other customers. I ordered coffee, and Tanimoto-san had cream soda. Cute. Beneath the lights, which I did not know if it was either indirect lighting or the lightbulbs were about to go out, the melon syrup juice glittered like a melted green garnet.

“Well, earlier I was talking about the qualifications for jewel appraisers. GG stands for Graduate Gemologist, it's given out by a big American jewel appraisal organization*, and it's a qualification that signifies that you are ‘someone who seriously studied rocks and minerals.' The FGA is British. There are schools for both, but I think you can also get them through correspondence education. There are honestly tons of specialized inst.i.tutions and qualifications for every stone, in addition.”

(TN: The organization is the Gemological Inst.i.tute of America.)

“Whoa! I wonder if my boss has any of that?”

“I think he probably does.”

You really do love gems, Seigi-kun, Tanimoto-san said with an innocent smile. For the current me, it made my chest hurt just a little.

When I was at a loss with my answer, she tilted her head slightly. I couldn't think of anyone who would understand the things that were on my mind more than her.

“Lately, I've been a bit troubled about stones.”

“What are you troubled about?”

“…There aren't any stones that are cla.s.sified as ‘gemstones' by nature, are there?”

“If you're talking about chemistry, then no.”

Little by little, force was beginning to fill Tanimoto-san's eyes. Her voice was gradually getting lower. It seems that her switch was flipped. The ice in her cream soda came apart with a clattering sound.

She told me that all stones were divided into “minerals” and “rocks.” Minerals were represented by chemical formulas, and rocks were aggregates, mixed versions of things like minerals and sand. The sparkly and transparent stones I often caught sight of at Richard's store were generally cla.s.sified as “minerals.” However, the lapis lazuli was a “rock.”

In short, what people called gems were only things that became clean when polished. If that were the case…

“Why are gemstones…only gemstones, so expensive?”

Tanimoto-san had completely gone into Gorgo Mode. At that languid-feeling and dandyish air around her, I gulped. Your heart was supposed to beat fast in situations where you were confiding your worries and anguish to the girl you liked, but I felt like my heart beating fast here was slightly different from love.

Continue, she said, urging me on with a hand. I nodded.

“When we talked about heating rubies before, you told me that arbitrarily deciding what the ideal stone is something that didn't really make sense. I think so too, and I don't think it's just about rubies. Because stones are stones, you know? I understand that the charge for labour is expensive, but it's like, on the contrary, natural stones are made more expensive on purpose…But they are gemstones because there are people who want them…What is the value of gemstones? I feel like the more I think about it, the more stuck and depressed I get.”

“So you're saying that it looks like gems are processed in order to sell them at high prices?”

“…Maybe. A part-timer at a jewelry store can't say stuff like this, huh.”

Indeed, Tanimoto-san murmured in a low voice, and then watered her throat with the cream soda.

“Seigi-kun, have you ever gone to a mineral show?”

“Mineral show? No, I haven't. I've never heard of it. Is that like a fas.h.i.+on show?”

“It's very different. Mineral means inorganic substances, but in this case it is the generic term for rocks and minerals.* It's a stone displaying and selling event that's held many times a year in j.a.pan and all over the world. There are lots of tables lined up side by side in the event s.p.a.ce, and each one of them is a booth for a stone seller. Some shops sell mineral specimens, while others sell jewelry. They sell meteorite fragments that are smaller than the tip of your little finger and huge stones that would be used to decorate the entrance of an inn. Anything is fine as long as it's a stone. The world's biggest show is America's Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, but the shows in j.a.pan's s.h.i.+njuku and Nagoya also have a lot of history, and at small shows you can talk to local rockhounds and it's fun. They are done all over j.a.pan, so I think you should try going to one at least once.”

(TN: Mineral in katakana (ミネラル) and the kanji for mineral (鉱物, koubutsu) are both used here. Katakana mineral usually refers to all inorganic material , and koubutsu refers to the naturally occurring natural substances)

“I, I should….!”

Suddenly, a corner of Tanimoto-san's mouth curved up into a smile. It was cool. How good it would be if I could tell her here, “Let's go together.” Though, in this atmosphere, for some reason, there was an ambiance that was like people with secret side jobs were proceeding towards dangerous work.

Tanimoto-san shook her head and followed up her words with “But, you know.” The look in her eyes was stern.

“For example, Seigi-kun, around how much do you think the most expensive rock specimen sold at a mineral show would cost?”

“Huh…? By rock specimen, you mean like your calcite rocks, for example, Tanimoto-san?”

“That is one kind, and there are lots of other stones too.”

I had many pictures of her rock collection on my phone. When I looked up the names of the rock online, there were many beautiful pictures that came up, so it seemed that there were a lot of people who truly loved and admired stones. It wasn't like there was no demand for them. But, how much was the market price for stones? What about the most expensive gem in Richard's Uras.h.i.+ma's casket? The ruby's ten million? That was the exception for carry-on items. Was it around five million at most? For rocks, would they be a little bit cheaper?

“…About four million?”

“At the s.h.i.+njuku show I mentioned before, a specimen of native gold that is attached to its host rock was twenty-four million yen.”

“T-twenty four!”

Even higher prices are common in Hong Kong and Tucson, Tanimoto-san added. What was it? What exactly was the kind of demand for them? Why would they buy a rock for twenty-four million yen, for decorating? Or was it owning it as an a.s.set? If that was the case, I felt like they should have checked “This Week's Gold Prices” and bought gold from a precious metal dealer.

As I was stunned, Tanimoto-san looked at me sternly with her large black eyes. I tensed up. She grinned.

“You were writing an economic report up until now, right? Do you think that price determines the value of things, Seigi-kun?”

“Huh? Yeah…”

When I looked at Tanimoto-san at times like these, I couldn't help but recall Grandma when she was healthy. She always had her back up straight and tightly, was cool, and little by little taught the small me about an unknown world.

"…I think that's not the case. It's the other way around. First, there has to be demand before price is decided. You forgot the obvious. When deciding the prices of what people want—rock specimens, gems, you're saying that they're basically the same thing.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

Tanimoto-san smiled with force still gathered in her eyes.

“I think that the store you are working at mainly deals in colored stones, if I remember correctly.”

“Colored stones? It's true that we have gems in all kinds of colors.”

“Then, in your spare time, how about researching diamonds?”

Diamonds?

I wrinkled my brow, and Tanimoto-san suddenly laughed.

“Have you ever seen them being sold at your store?”

“…No. Now that I think about it, we don't have any diamonds.”

“All stones other than diamonds are called ‘colored stones' in the narrow sense. There are stores that only deal in diamonds, stores that only sell colored stones, and specialty stores for each stone. Isn't it interesting?”

The diamond. A stone that was like the byword for the world of gems. I felt like I had seen the small decorative diamonds called melee diamonds several times in the store. I recalled Richard sticking labels on them where the carat numbers were filled in to the second decimal place, and stocked one or two at a time, but I never saw him sell big ones individually. Did that mean they were compartmentalized? I still didn't understand the world of jewelry very well.

“If you are interested in the ‘value' of gems, then there are no stones as interesting as the diamond. I think your boss, right or wrong, has his own opinion on it. Whatever its history, a stone that is well known to so many people in the current j.a.pan is rare.”

I didn't really get it, but I was sure that she was telling me to investigate by my own efforts with this. But if it was diamonds, I feel like I would be able to manage somehow. They were made of carbon, they were extremely hard, and they sparkled. Even I knew that much. Even if they weren't sold in Richard's store, if I drifted around a department store, I would probably find them being sold.

“Tanimoto-san…do you like diamonds?”

“Among the stones in the cubic crystal system*, it's all right. But I like the pyrite more.”

(TN: A crystal system is a group of crystals that have the same symmetry, I think. The cubic crystal system is one of the most common found in minerals.) 

“This ‘pyrite', around how much is it…”

“Lately, you can buy something cute if you pay a thousand yen. I recommend buying ones that are attached to their host rock. I think you'll definitely be surprised if you saw one.”

Tanimoto-san stared at me intently and then smiled.

“I think you will surely realize it as well, Seigi-kun.”

“…Realize?”

“The most important thing.”

There has to be love.

Tanimoto-san said nonchalantly.

Love.

She leaned over the table and nimbly rescued the seventy-percent melted vanilla ice cream with a spoon, and then heartily ate it. Her usual sweet angelic fairy-like face has returned. I was falling for her more and more. “This is delicious,” she said, smiling. I wished I could keep that treasure-like sight of her like this forever.

I have cla.s.s next, so see you, she said and stood from her seat. She quickly put four-hundred yen on the table. “It's fine, I'm paying,” I said, raising my face, and the angel smiled.

“Fufu. Show me your sportscar one of these days. I'm looking forward to it.”

“Oh, uh, yeah!”

Saying “bye-bye” as though singing, Tanimoto-san disappeared from the coffee shop.

I let out a deep sigh and hung my head. How many times did we have this exchange? Whether she was serious or it was an airhead Tanimoto-style joke, I still didn't know even now. I didn't know, but I couldn't check. And because I couldn't check, it was stressful.

If I could just tell her I didn't own one.

I let out another sigh, as bitter as the time enjoyed with her was sweet, and then left the coffee shop to return to my report. When night fell, a email from Tanimoto-san came. The subject was “Pyrite.” The attached photo was a specimen of a silver cuboid abruptly sprouting from a whitish rock. What the h.e.l.l was that. Was this kind of thing created naturally? It looked like an alien's parting gift.

She, who liked this more than diamonds, was a girl I liked more than any other girl in the world.

It was sunny in Ginza on Sat.u.r.day.

A visitor came to Richard's store without a reservation.

He was wearing wrinkleless, l.u.s.trous white pants, a light blue s.h.i.+rt tightly wrapped around his thick waist, and had cleanly arranged salt-and-pepper hair beneath a straw hat. He looked about sixty. When they say gentleman, they were probably talking about someone like him.

When we greeted him with “Welcome”, the gentleman chuckled at me, who was in the kitchen.

“The signboard now says jewelry store, but are you still running a coffee shop?”

When I peeked at the store owner's face, Richard smiled with a face that was, as usual, like the embodiment of beauty.

“You are talking about Hamadsama's store. Their store had closed last December. I have been working as a jeweler here since this April.”

“Oh…is that so. Were you acquainted with Hamadsan?”

“When I was doing business in Hong Kong, I had ties with Mr. and Mrs. Hamada, and then I moved here this spring.”

I see, the gentleman said, nodding. This was the complete first time that I, the part-timer, was hearing about coffee shops and the past of this store, but I understood from this the reason why multinational people came here even without advertising. They seemed to be regular customers from the Hong Kong era. This didn't seem to be Richard's first attempt at a place for business. So for how many years had he been a jeweler? And how old was he in the first place? Now that I thought about it, it had been like this ever since I missed the chance to ask him when we first met. Thinking about it, I'd been working part-time under a mysterious man.

The gentleman who came into our store placed his hand on a red sofa and looked at the carpet and gla.s.s low table.

“The store has become brighter. You kept the carpet…This is the first time I'm seeing the table and sofas. There were five wooden tables before, and two or three small chairs to each…”

“These sofas are given to me by Hamadsama in place of a store opening celebration, and the table is used as it was in the Hong Kong store. Please pardon me for not introducing myself sooner, I am Richard Ranas.h.i.+nha de Vulpian. I am the owner of this store.”

“I am Onodera Masahiro. Excuse me for getting lost in my memories. Vulpian…are you perhaps from France?”

“I am British.”

Richard offered a seat to Onodersan, who had come to talk about jewelry redesign, and prompted me for tea.

“Are you alright with royal milk tea? We also have green tea and barley tea.”

“This place is more luxurious than when it was a coffee shop. I am fine with anything.”

Onodersan smiled pleasantly. Based on his age or apparent age, even though it wouldn't have been improper for him to put on more airs, this person did not have anything like the grime of arrogance. His physique looked very youthful.

When I returned from preparing the tea, Onodersan was holding a small black jewelry box. There was a gold ring inside. There was a single gem in the center of the ring.

It was a stone that sparkled white, no, in the colors of the rainbow.

A diamond.

“…This is…”

“My late wife's engagement ring. I bought overseas a very long time ago. I have the appraisal doc.u.ment, but the store I bought from had gone out of business. Is that alright?”

“Of course, it is not a problem.”

Richard nodded, and Onodersan smiled happily with a “I see.” The diamond on the ring in the box at hand looked odd.

Both the ring and stone looked like they were half-painted over with pure black.

Only one side of the stone was emitting rainbow-colored light, and the other side was covered with black stains. It looked like clouded-over gla.s.s.

“I want to have it in a form that I can wear. I still haven't figured out how to redesign it yet, but…can I have the metal of the ring reused?”

“Of course. So for today, let me make a few suggestions on the form of the redesign. I shall bring you some pamphlets.”

“Let me see them.”

Richard drew back to the back room. Materials about redesigning were in a desk drawer.

Lately, female customers without reservations have been increasing. Their purpose was to see Richard's face, which seemed to have become a rumor somewhere, and most of them, seemingly incidentally, wanted rings or earrings or to have something cleaned. The minimum required materials were in the reception room. Even I might be able to guide someone before long.

If I thought about it, I had been working here for close to three months now. The number of times itself was small, but I had been getting used to all sorts of strange things. To the stunningly beautiful shopkeeper, the customers who were not always j.a.panese, and stones with absurd price tags.

I wondered if this was a good thing. I felt like the extent of all these experiences was leaving me behind.

Onodersan took a sip of royal milk tea and then smiled.