The case files of jewele.., p.1
The Case Files of Jeweler Richard Vol. 3, page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyrights and Credits
Table of Contents Page
Case 1: The Sought-After Topaz
Case 2: Unsettling Turquoise
Case 3: The Jade Inheritance
Case 4: Angelic Aquamarine
Extra Case: Fluorite by Your Side
Newsletter
I’D BEEN WORKING part-time at a jewelry shop for almost six months now. Étranger had opened in April of this year on Ginza’s Nanachome, and I worked there every weekend. You might be surprised by the idea of a college student working part-time at a jewelry shop, but it was a small business—I was the only employee, other than my boss. Besides, my work mainly consisted of serving tea and cleaning up. There were probably plenty of shops like this, and I’d just never been aware of it before.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Oh my, iced milk tea? Goodness, this could be a little café.”
“It’s royal milk tea. The milk isn’t added to the tea after it’s brewed, but the tea is actually steeped directly in the milk. Is it to your taste?”
“Of course it is, but it’s definitely an unusual choice.”
“Hagino, enough about the tea. Please focus on the stones—they’re what we came here for.”
“I know, I know.”
It was a Saturday. The sun’s rays were still intense, but in another month, we’d be in weather more suited to warm drinks than iced ones. Well, maybe that was wishful thinking. The weather had stayed warm into October last year, so maybe it’d be more like two months. While the only extra step involved was chilling it in the fridge, making iced royal milk tea took longer. So as the resident tea monkey, I was looking forward to cooler weather.
“Seigi, you can serve the dessert later.”
“She’ll just get distracted. Right, Hagino?”
The man currently giving us his best customer-service smile was Richard Ranasinghe de Vulpian, who held some rather extremist opinions about the preparation of royal milk tea. He was also some sort of mysterious creature that never gained an ounce of weight despite consuming no less than four cups of said tea a day, along with the fanciest of desserts. To add insult to injury, he was beautiful—like a living gemstone. And despite being a white guy with blond hair and blue eyes, he spoke Japanese, and several other languages, fluently. I had no idea exactly how many languages he spoke, but I was sure I didn’t have enough fingers to count them all.
The Tamuras, who’d come by that afternoon, looked like they were both in their mid-fifties. They’d made an appointment two months ago to see some imperial topaz. This was their first visit to the shop, but Étranger had apparently earned itself a good reputation among their acquaintances, so they were looking forward to seeing my boss’s skills firsthand. Richard matched their enthusiasm by preparing a number of high-quality stones for them to look at.
Several orange stones, the color of summer sunshine, were lined up in his velvet box. They came in a variety of sizes, ranging from no bigger than the tip of my pinky finger to the size of my thumbnail. There were greyish, beige, and even pink stones, all lovely, but the ones that really caught my eye were intense orange with hints of brown. All the stones were extremely clear, so they reflected the light well, making them sparkle. They looked so cool. I bet it’d be easy for a man to carry off wearing a stone that color.
In my limited layperson’s knowledge of gemstones, I’d thought topaz was blue. But it seemed the “imperial” variety was this color. Does that mean orange is some emperor’s color or something? But the emperor of which country?
Richard flashed a dazzling smile, as if to keep my burgeoning curiosity in check. The inscrutable beauty of his smile was quite frankly terrifying. I know, Richard, I know. I knew I had a tendency to get a little too comfortable and say things I shouldn’t. I’d lost count of how many times Richard had scolded me for it at this point, but it was an uphill battle and I hadn’t made much headway yet. Not every customer enjoys being treated like a friend, after all. I decided it was best if I stayed quiet for the time being.
“Wow, what wonderful specimens. Unlike amethyst and garnet, you rarely have the opportunity to look at so many pieces of imperial topaz in one place. Does Étranger have ties to a Brazilian mine or something?”
“You are correct that most of these stones originated in Brazil. However, we’re a Sri Lankan company. You’re quite well versed in the origins of various stones, Mr. Tamura.”
“Am I? Ah ha ha! Well, I have been collecting for over ten years now—loose stones, I should specify, not jewelry. I just really love stones. I know it’s not a terribly masculine hobby. My friends make sure I never forget that.”
“Is that so? The collectors I’m personally familiar with, at least, are more men than women. The most famous of them donated his collection to the American Museum of Natural History.”
“J.P. Morgan, right? I know the collection. The blue topaz at the museum in New York was incredible. Do you remember that, Hagino? We saw it together.”
“I don’t remember. That was so long ago.”
“As you can see, my wife doesn’t really share my passion,” Mr. Tamura said with a smile, before going on to tell us more about himself. His name was Teiichi Tamura and he was 53 years old. He was the assistant manager of a large department at a securities firm and had a loud, boisterous manner.
His wife Hagino, on the other hand, was a slight, pale woman wearing a loose-fitting dress with a white shawl around her shoulders. Her salt-and-pepper hair was done up in a bun with a beaded hair pin. She was beautiful. And while she may have seemed a bit at odds with her husband, Teiichi, in his business shirt and slacks, she was clearly someone who had her own strong opinions about things. But she didn’t speak much, come to think of it.
“Hey, Hagino, what about this one? It’s beautiful. Pick it up.”
“You can say that all you like, but I don’t know how to tell good from bad where these things are concerned. Sir, are these all the same type of stone?”
“Indeed, they are all imperial topaz.”
“Of course they are! I told him to show me imperial topaz, after all. Come on, look at how pretty it is—pick it up and actually look at it. I’ll get my flashlight.”
“I just don’t know what I’m even looking at…”
Teiichi seemed like the kind of person who wanted everything his way. Not even Richard could get a word in edgewise, let alone Hagino.
The black flashlight he pulled from his bag was the same kind Richard used. Jewelry Étranger seemed to be mainly frequented by enthusiasts—we rarely got window shoppers, and many of our customers were quite familiar with gemstones. There were some regulars from when Richard was working in Hong Kong, collectors of particular kinds of jewels, the sort of people who were more interested in getting a nice stone for their jewelry than brand-name items, and so on. As a random layperson who only got this job by coming to the owner’s rescue on the side of the road by complete coincidence, I was often the least knowledgeable person in the store. Whenever I asked Richard stupid questions after the customers left, he always explained things so a layperson like me could understand and never looked annoyed to have to do so. And he’d answer each and every one of my questions. I enjoyed his lectures—he was so good at talking that I could listen to him forever. I appreciated that special talent of his.
“Hagino, topaz isn’t a soft stone like opal, so you don’t have to be so scared about handling it. You’re holding it wrong, too—this is how you should do it to get a better look at it. The cut is immaculate. Do you have a lapidary in-house?”
“This stone and that one came from an American, but they were already cut when I acquired them. They were cut in Sri Lanka.”
“This one is a lovely safflower color. Ooh, and that pink one is so cute.”
“They didn’t used to call the pink ones imperial topaz! They say that the best color is that pretty sherry brown, right?”
“Well, I guess that’s true.”
“See, I told you! Look, orange stones are rarer than the pink ones, and the brown ones are even better than that. They really are incredible.”
Teiichi was as excited as a little kid in a toy store. Richard managed to keep up with him, never letting his smile falter, but Hagino’s expression only grew darker as she sat next to him.
With Richard’s permission, Teiichi rearranged the stones in the box into a single line. Apparently, this was his way of rating them, with the worst at one end and the best at the other. The best one in his estimation was the sparkling one with the rich brownish-orange color. He put the pink and pale orange ones on the low end—the pink one Hagino had liked was third from last.
“How’d I do? Did I get it right?”
“Well, I’m not sure ‘right’ is the best way to put it. Every customer has their own preferences.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about price. Did I get the order right?”
“In that case…” Richard said with a nod, “…you were rather close.” He swapped two of the orange stones in the middle. Teiichi made a face like he was one point off a perfect score on a quiz, pounding his fists in his lap in celebration. Then he looked at Hagino like he was expecting praise, but her expression had completely soured by that point.
“So, Hagino, did you pick one yet?”
“Why are you asking me? Why don’t you just pick?”
“Huh? But it’s for your ring.”
“You’re the one who’ll be paying for it, after all. Pick whichever one you prefer.”
“…I wish you wouldn’t say things like that. I thought we talked about picking one together. We’re supposed to be celebrating thirty years together.”
“Oh, please, not here.”
Teiichi apologetically explained that their thirtieth wedding anniversary was coming up with a bashful smile on his face.
“Huh? I thought the thirtieth anniversary was pearl, not topaz,” I said.
“Oh, you may be young, but you do know your stuff. There probably isn’t a topaz anniversary. I know there’s a sapphire and ruby one. But she already has a pearl necklace, and she was born in November, so I figured her birthstone, topaz, would be nice instead.”
Hagino looked away without saying a word, as if to say she had no interest in looking at stones. Teiichi hurried to try to cheer her up. They looked like such a cute married couple to me, but I knew if I said that out loud, my boss would strike me down where I stood.
Richard gave me a look, signaling me to serve some snacks as a change of pace. But before I had the chance to do so, Hagino sighed and seemed to give in. She leaned over Richard’s box of wonders to look over the stones, then sighed again. She seemed unable to bring herself to examine the stones this way.
“…I imagine this is the stone you’d recommend?”
“Yeah! That’s the best one!”
“I don’t have an eye for this sort of thing at all. They all look the same to me, but…isn’t this one nice, too?”
“Uh, I guess.”
Whether you’re in a college course with only a few other students, a high school debate, or a junior-high assembly, there are certain unwritten rules that everyone just understands. For example, when a teacher or moderator or whoever happens to be in a position of authority claims that they want to hear people’s honest opinions, but clearly favors one particular position, you know no one is actually going to give them an honest opinion. They’re not going to go out of their way to say something they don’t think will be well received.
I scrambled to figure out how to get a man in his fifties working at a large company to listen to a sanctimonious lecture, but Teiichi seemed to assume the cause of my strange behavior was something else entirely. He smiled at me cordially.
“You don’t know a lot about gems, do you? Is there anything you were curious about?”
“No, uh… Well… Y-you know, I have been wondering why they call it imperial topaz.”
It was going to be a while before I forgot the look of joy on Teiichi’s face and the look of disappointment on Hagino’s in that moment.
Teiichi cheerfully reassured me that it wasn’t really common knowledge before proudly launching into the history of imperial topaz. Apparently, topaz had always been popular in Europe, all the way back to ancient Rome. But in the middle of the eighteenth century, it was discovered that heat could be applied to amethyst to produce a yellow stone resembling topaz, which we now call citrine. It was sold on the market as “golden topaz.” Quartz was a common mineral, so it had always been less expensive than topaz, but yellow topaz and citrine were so similar that they were easily confused for one another. These days, that was the sort of thing the Consumer Affairs Agency in Japan would step in to deal with, but there was no such body back then. And so, “imperial topaz” was given its name to differentiate it from the stones that weren’t truly yellow topaz.
“Imperial topaz comes from Brazil, but at the time of its naming Brazil was an empire. And it was named ‘imperial’ topaz in honor of Emperor Pedro II. Brown stones are especially rare, even among imperial topaz. Make sense?”
“It does, thank you. You really…do know your stuff.”
“Aw, shucks!”
Teiichi proudly lifted his beaming face. I imagined he was an easy boss to get along with, since you could make him this happy just by praising something he liked. Meanwhile, his wife Hagino had been totally left out of the conversation. She was now asking Richard about how royal milk tea was prepared, and Teiichi was not amused.
“Did you follow that too, Hagino? There’s a reason it’s called ‘imperial’ topaz.”
“That’s wonderful, honey. You know everything there is to know, so there’s no need for me to know it, too.”
“What… I don’t even know why we’re here if you’re going to be like that.”
“That’s my line.”
Her beautiful face snapped into a grimace. This was definitely not good.
“Oh, you want to know why we’re here? Trust me, I know why we’re here—you just wanted me to tag along while you buy another one of your precious gemstones. I don’t know anything about this Brazilian emperor’s stone, or whatever it is. I’m only here because you asked me to come with you to pick a stone for my ring together. If you want to pick it on your own, who am I to stop you from enjoying the process to your heart’s content? I’m going to go have some tea at Mitsukoshi in the meantime.”
“Huh? Wait, you’re serious?”
“I hope you have a nice day.” She waved her hand and rose from her seat. The door’s electric lock opened promptly, and Hagino slipped out of the shop, like a cat sneaking through a cracked open door. The closest café to the shop was on Hanatsubaki-douri, but Mitsukoshi was a ten-minute walk. Was she really going all the way over there?
Teiichi let out a faintly remorseful sigh and apologized to me and Richard.
“She just…seems to be in a bad mood today.”
“I should really be apologizing, I’m the one who asked a silly question.”
“Oh, no, it’s not your fault. You know, we’ve been married for thirty years, and I still don’t feel like I understand her at all. Look at all these quality stones we have to look at, too. I just don’t get it.”
“……”
It was a little concerning to think that he might be completely serious. I had the feeling their relationship wasn’t going to last much longer.
Richard was a half step ahead of me before I had the chance to snap at our customer. “Sir,” he said, sounding like he was about to ask a question in an extremely gentle but resolute tone. “I noticed you seem to be quite preoccupied with the idea of ‘quality’ stones or the ‘best’ stones. Did you come here simply to acquire the ‘best’ stone?”
“Huh? Well, of course I did. It is for our thirtieth anniversary,” he said with a smile.
I noticed he’d gotten a lot quieter once Hagino had left. I guess when his wife was sitting next to him, he relaxed and acted like he was at home.
“I mean, who wouldn’t want the best for someone they love?”
I understood how he felt there. It was a positive impulse, if anything. My doubts weren’t about whether his love was real but whether he would be able to effectively convey it to the object of his affections.
As I struggled to keep myself from saying anything, Richard smiled again, “You are correct that a stone’s value will directly impact the financial value of the ring it’s set in. I certainly understand your desire to offer something of the greatest value as a gift, and I’m sure you can be even more assured of that stone’s value given your excellent eye, Mr. Tamura.”
“Oh, you flatter me.”
“However.”
Richard’s voice was like an ice-cold knife as he interrupted Teiichi, giving him no opportunity to object. His friendly smile remained as perfect as ever.
“Why, exactly, is it that humans desire to gift items of significant value to others?”
Teiichi fell silent. Richard’s point must have gotten across to him, because he blushed awkwardly and got up with a little groan.
“Sorry, I’m a little worried, so I’m going to go check on her. She made it a point to mention that she was going to Mitsukoshi, so she’s probably waiting for me to join her, acting like nothing happened. I should be back in twenty minutes.”
He apologized and bowed to us before leaving the store. I let out a little groan. Richard wordlessly picked up his glass of tea, which he hadn’t been able to drink while customers were present, and downed it silently and rapidly. I had to imagine the European socialites of old probably used similar techniques when they were hungry. There was a certain, familiar elegance to his actions.
“…You went easy on the sugar today.”
