Chapter 83: Oil, Water, and Something Else [2]
Last night, after Furina bid farewell to Isaac and returned to Palais Mermonia, she entered Neuvillette's office to discuss a matter with him.
"I'm here. What is it that you want to discuss so badly?" After closing the doors behind her, Furina slowly walked over to Neuvillette with a bored expression. "I was supposed to have a delicious Chicken Confit tonight... So there better be a good reason as to why you called me."
"I don't believe you were the type of person to overly indulge yourself in dishes?" Neuvillette, who was compiling a stack of paperwork on his desk, glared at Furina with his sharp eyes as he commented on her behavior. "Or has your recent involvement with your cherished assistant affected you so much?"
"Hey— don't bring Isaac into this." Upon hearing Neuvillette's suspicious remark, Furina turned her head and looked at him while crossing her arms. "What makes you think he can alter my behavior?"
"..." Neuvillette stared at her for a moment before putting away his pile of paperworks. He then rested his arm on the desk in front of him and looked at her once more before opening his mouth. "Well, taking into account what the two of you had been doing behind everyone's backs... I have a decent guess."
"Lady Furina."
"What you have been doing lately has been too unfit for the role of Archon of Fontaine." He blatantly said to her without sugarcoating anything. His sharp, calm eyes then glared at her heterochromatic eyes. "You should know very well about the serious consequences if word of this gets out, Lady Furina."
Furina, upon hearing Neuvillette's words, couldn't help but widen her eyes in bafflement. She then clenched her fist in response. "You... You investigated me? And knew?"
"Why?" Still looking at her solemnly, Neuvillette's face stern expression said everything about the gravity of the situation. "Have you not also been investigating him before? Whatever happened to that?"
"What changed your suspicion of him?"
"..." Furina became silent for a moment and thought of retorting him, but when she tried to speak, she found no words that could support her. "...that's..."
In retrospect, what Neuvillette had said was indeed true. She did have suspicions about Isaac and even wanted to figure out the truth— but he still managed to slip past her grit.
Faced with Furina's silence, Neuvillette's solemn face remained unchanged as if he had expected this outcome. With the same solemn voice, he said, "You've realized it too, haven't you?"
"That the assistant you call Isaac is related or might even be the most controversial criminal in Fontaine currently."
"That's why you started the whole investigation in the first place."
Neuvillette, being the Chief Justice of Fontaine, as well as the current head of the Marechaussee Phantom, has more than one way of finding out information he desired.
Truth be told, Neuvillette had never taken his eyes off Isaac since he had saved Furina. Although the latter always managed to act clueless and well in front of the agents that the former planted around him, his real actions still couldn't get through Neuvillette's keen intuition and judgement.
Not only does Neuvillette know that Furina frequently visits Isaac, but he also knows about Isaac's strange habits and odd customers.
"Lady Furina, you can still salvage this situation." Seeing Furina stay silent and not try to talk back to him, Neuvillette decided to keep speaking. "Regarding this, I've called you today to discuss another matter."
"My informants have told me that they found the Dame de Eaux which was stolen months ago." Neuvillette said before standing up and pulling out a paper from the stack of paperwork in his desk. "The very same painting that sparked a nationwide controversy questioning Fontaine's capabilities."
Neuvillette then placed the paper in front of Furina where it showed a certain location and a few details about the painting.
After placing the paper down, Neuvillette walked over by Furina's side and told her solemnly. "Lady Furina, if you want to settle the nation's unrest and uncover a major breakthrough to this case, then I suggest you to see it for yourself."
Faced with Neuvillette's excellent reasoning— a skill he had made as the Chief Justice— Furina wasn't able to refute any of his claims.
She took the paper and read it in silence for a few moments before putting it back down.
Clenching her fist, she looked at him with her heterochromatic eyes before speaking, "...the painting's location... is your source reliable?"
"..." Neuvillette remained silent for a moment before opening his mouth and uttering a response, "This investigation was personally overseen by me, so you can be assured that the reliability of this is reasonable."
"Although we still don't know why that Masked Clown placed that painting there, considering what he and that mysterious visitor did in Poisson... " Neuvillette placed his hands behind his waist and started explaining. "Then this aligns well with their modus operandi."
"The World and The Tower... Those are the only tarot cards found to be related to the Masked Clown and the Mysterious Visitor in Poisson." He continued as he sighed. "It's obvious that this sort of organization consisting of tarot card code names are into performances, and would most likely do this for a reason."
"Hold on— The Tower?" Furina, unaware of the other person Neuvillette mentioned, looked at him with exasperation. "Also... That tarot organization... Isn't that...?"
"Indeed. It was the theory Isaac mailed to us— his speculation about an organization full of actors using tarot cards as their code names. I decided to adopt this theory." Neuvillette nodded his head as he recalled the first time Isaac reached out to Palais Mermonia. "As for The Tower, he was an enigmatic individual who once delivered dead bodies inside a gift box to Poisson one evening. His tarot card was inside the gift box."
"If you've already known this, then why didn't you tell me?!" Furina yelled at him with irritation, however, despite this, she still retained her elegance. "This was a major clue!"
"..." Neuvillette looked at her for a moment as if he was contemplating something before opening his mouth, "Then would not this be a great opportunity to find it out for yourself?"
"That's..." Faced with this, Furina instantly got silent as she turned her head away from him, her mind in turmoil of who to believe.
As for Neuvillette, his impartial eyes remained constant, unyielding to Furina's open emotions. He remained upright, standing before her as if silently judging her.
A few moments of silence would pass by with only the sound of the clock ticking acting as the only source of sound in this quiet space. The two, remaining in silent contemplation, never broke it.
However, this changed when Furina turned her head and looked at Neuvillette directly in the eyes.
"I'll do it," She declared, her heterochromatic eyes full of determination. "But I have one condition."
"Please speak." He gently nodded his head and agreed to her compliance. Although he was impartially strict, he too was understanding.
Furina, after pondering for a second, shook her head and opened her mouth, her voice full of dignified determination. "Accompany me there."
Neuvillette, upon hearing this, almost let go of the cane he was holding. He then looked at her with disbelief in his face,
"...I beg your pardon?"
---
The next morning.
"...Neuvillette, please lighten up." Furina, looking at the Chief Justice beside her, commented with an annoyed tone.
"..." On the other hand, Neuvillette remained silent as he merely took out his umbrella.
"A good sunny day... Immediately turned bad." Furina placed her one hand on her hip and shook her head. Still looking at Neuvillette beside her, she continued, "What made you upset now?"
"Well if it isn't for a certain individual... This would not have happened." Neuvillette replied coldly, as if he was not interested in speaking with Furina. "You know very well how busy my work is yet you still had the idea to drag me out with you."
"Hmph, this is only because I wanted to show you..." Furina paused for a moment as if thinking of something for a moment before continuing, "I wanted to share the results with you— to prove whether Isaac truly is connected to everything."
"...Very well." He responded while shaking his head. "However, this will not happen again. Understood?"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Furina rolled her eyes as she too opened her umbrella. Looking at him, she said, "If there's nothing else then let's go."
With that said, the Chief Justice and the Hydro Archon of Fontaine both set off whilst wearing their respective disguise as to not stand out.
With the help of the Melusines— personnel Neuvillette trusts— they didn't get much hindrance during their travel and arrived at the Weeping Willow of the Lake relatively fast.
"Hm?" While walking, Furina sensed something and extended her hand out of the umbrella. "The rain is getting weaker..."
She then turned her head to the person next to her, Neuvillette. With a sly smirk, she teased him. "Are you feeling better now, my dear Iudex?"
"I am merely treating this as leisurely work." He replied as he looked at the distance, watching the gentle rain fall down. Watching each raindrop fall from the tip of his umbrella, Neuvillette made a comment. "Rain is... intrinsically serene and induces tranquility— such is my eternal fascination for it."
"Is that not just because you're the hydro dragon?" Furina crossed her arms and inquired about his comment. "Oh Hydro Dragon, would you also love hot molten lava if you were the Pyro Dragon?"
"...such crude humor." Hearing Furina's sarcastic joke, Neuvillette shut his eyes as he looked away from her. "Where did you learn such a thing?"
"A certain someone has rubbed off on me." She replied as she thought of Isaac, who always has something sarcastic present in his mind that he may or may not tell her. "Moreover, it's fun to do when I'm not around other people."
"So he did alter your behavior." Neuvillette said after hearing Furina's response. "You admit it yourself just now."
"This is different!" She puffed up her cheeks in response and turned around, ignoring Neuvillette. "Honestly, Neuvillette, not everything that's changed about me is caused by Isaac. Some of them—"
Furina was just about to continue with her banter with Neuvillette, when suddenly, she heard a distant voice coming from near the lake.
"My genius is... It's almost terrifying!"
"That's cheating!"
"Skill issue!"
Hearing distant shouting, both Neuvillette and Furina looked at the direction of the sound, only to see two figures racing down a hill as though they were children playing.
"Hm? Is that not..." Neuvillette immediately recognized who the man was and was just about to mention who he is, when suddenly, he was interrupted.
"That... Why... Is he with her?"
A deep, foreboding tone escaped Furina's mouth, hinting disbelief and a bit of frustration.
Just a moment ago, Furina and Neuvillette were having their usual casual banters, but now, the latter had completely changed.
"..." Looking at Furina, whose eyes were wide open as if devoid of any life, Neuvillette remained silent for a few moments before opening his mouth.
"You seem upset."
"What? Upset? Me? Haha!" Furina, who heard Neuvillette's words, turned her head to him and chortled wryly. She then looked at him with an irritated stare, "I'm just... Wondering what my dear assistant Isaac is doing with someone else."
"If I remember correctly, Isaac's other job is a private investigator," Neuvillette, holding his umbrella, said. "He might have been hired for something... Much like what you did."
"I know that." Furina said as she continued to look at Isaac and Navia in the distance. "It's just... Why didn't he tell me?"
"...?" Upon hearing her response, Neuvillette looked at her with a curious gaze and asked a question, "And why would he tell that to you?"
"..."
Furina remained silent for a few moments before she turned her head and looked back at Neuvillette.
With a cold stale smile and deep eyes devoid of any positive emotions, she laughed at Neuvillette's question. "Haha, why wouldn't he?"
"We're... The best of friends, after all." She said as she continued smiling sweetly with no emotion— only using a fake mask. "Shouldn't I constantly be kept in touch with him and... Be there to advise him on his choices?"
"...is that truly what you think?" Looking at Furina's emotionless smile, Neuvillette solemnly spoke to her. "I'm sure Isaac already knows how to decide for himself."
"Hehe, of course." Taking her gaze off Neuvillette, Furina looked back at the distance and at Isaac's figure. Her smile deepened while a faint tinge of red spread across her face as she continued to speak, "However..."
"No other adviser is better than the God of Justice herself, after all— and that's me, Furina de Fontaine!"
"I'm the only qualified person that he should solely rely on— no one else."
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