The morning sunlight streamed through the leaves of the plane trees, dappling the living room on the second floor of the agency. Vivian sat upright in a high-backed chair, her…
“Three hundred francs?” Vivian stared at the few lonely silver coins on the table, her eyes nearly popping out. “And that’s before taxes.” Inspector Jacques sprawled on the office’s leather…
Golden fragments drifted slowly down over Concorde Square. “Cough, cough…” Cicero knelt on one knee, barely managing to support himself with his cane, which was now covered in cracks. Blood…
“My ‘Abnormal Property Damage Compensation Form’… My ‘Overtime Hours Calculation Sheet’…” Jacques knelt among the oil-stained papers scattered on the ground, looking more miserable than someone mourning his own father.…
A massive shadow stretched across the cobblestone ground of Concorde Square. Accompanied by a clamor of clashing metal, the three-story-tall steam automaton slowly rotated its torso. Two rows of Parisian…
“So this is ‘noble grace’?” Vivian crouched behind a fractured gilded relief, poking out half her head as she watched the figure squirming in the pile of shattered glass, clicking…
Vivian was about to be roasted alive by the metal core in her pocket. Cicero weaved through the labyrinthine corridors, with Vivian grimacing and baring her teeth as she followed…
“Huff… So hungry.” Vivian felt like her stomach was staging an armed rebellion. Especially after the “Versailles Hall of Mirrors Hundred-Meter Dash” and the “Big Head Syndrome Impromptu Performance,” her…
“I think I’m going to throw up.” Vivian covered her mouth, her face looking even worse than day-old baguette. “Hold it in,” Cicero said coldly from behind her. “Is this…
The wind at Louvre Square carried a faint burnt smell. Vivian pulled her tattered felt hat even lower and hid half her face with her tall collar. Clutched tightly in…
Stranger