Chapter 113: Enter Neuvillette
Trailing along behind the Hydro Archon came a tall, white-haired man, his lips pressed together, his expression faintly stern.
Noticing the children's stares, he glanced their way — and his expression softened a touch as he gave them a small nod.
Mitsuhiko dropped his voice to a whisper for the others. "You think that's him? The Chief Justice everyone talks about — Neuvillette?"
"Has to be," Moroboshi replied. "But why does it feel like the Gardes around here respect this Neuvillette even more than the Hydro Archon? Am I imagining things?"
"You're not imagining it," Haibara said. "Honestly, this Mr. Neuvillette feels more like an actual god than Focalors does."
Conan sided with her at once. "Yeah. He also seems a lot more dependable than the Hydro Archon."
Seeing how animated the discussion had become, Xia Yu quietly slipped in a piece of news she had dug up earlier but never gotten the chance to pass along. "Here's something for you all — this Neuvillette isn't human either, you know."
Met with the others' astonished stares, Xia Yu pressed on with a distinctly smug smile. "I couldn't dig up the details, but apparently, going back five hundred years, the man has been Fontaine's Chief Justice the whole time. So he definitely isn't human!" With that she gave a firm nod, sealing her own argument.
Conan: "..."
It was true, but something about the way Xia Yu phrased it made it sound suspiciously like an insult.
Focalors, entirely oblivious to the children's whispered conference, smiled and spoke up. "My, you're rather well-informed, aren't you? The case here only just happened, and you've already come rushing over to look into it. Not bad — only a small step below a god such as myself. Haha..."
The children: "..."
Ayumi whispered, "This Hydro Archon really doesn't feel very reliable, does she?" The others nodded their agreement.
"But I'm afraid you've come too late," Focalors continued. "I have already found the culprit behind the missing girl case — it's that magician. Unless you have a differing opinion and the evidence to prove it, the trial in two days probably won't need you to appear at all."
"Not that such a thing could ever happen, of course. I am the Hydro Archon of Fontaine, the nation of justice — Queen of all waters, all lands, all peoples, and all laws. How could my judgment possibly be wrong? So spare yourselves the trouble of fretting over the trial. And as for that prophecy I mentioned before — you needn't worry about it either. I am the Hydro Archon of Fontaine; leave everything to me, and all will be well."
"Of course, you're welcome to spend these next few days strolling around the Court of Fontaine, seeing the sights and so on."
Conan, for one, had a different opinion. "That's not right. We can't say for certain that the magician is the culprit yet."
"Are you questioning a god?" Focalors countered. "Every last piece of evidence points to that magician."
"But there's still no direct evidence proving he's the one who did it."
The Detective Boys believed in Conan and began arguing the case with all the logic they could muster, while Focalors stood her ground just as firmly. With neither side yielding, the disagreement steadily escalated into a quarrel.
Standing at the back of it all, Xia Yu watched this Focalors — a figure inside the game world built by "Noah's Ark" — with a complicated look in her eyes.
She truly hadn't expected Noah's Ark to be this capable. The face had been deliberately adjusted, sure, but recreating a character's personality this faithfully was impressive in its own right. Nahida's help had surely contributed too, of course — and yet the way the game's Fontaine scenery had been brought back so beautifully was genuinely remarkable.
She couldn't help wondering whether, once they secured ownership of Noah's Ark and the Cocoon, there might be a chance to recreate the other nations' scenery in the holographic game as well. That would be practically playing a holographic version of Genshin Impact — the thought alone was fun.
The commotion on this side grew louder and louder, until it reached Neuvillette, who had been talking with the Gardes a short distance away. He turned, took in the scene, furrowed his brow slightly, and walked over.
"Lady Focalors, might I ask what you are doing?" Neuvillette inquired.
"Ahem — I wasn't doing anything at all. I was merely upholding justice." Faced with Neuvillette, Focalors coughed awkwardly, smoothed down the clothes the argument had rumpled, and straightened her posture before answering.
"Is that so. Then—"
"Lord Neuvillette! New development — we've found the missing girl!"
Neuvillette had been about to say more, but a Garde came sprinting over and cut him off before the words could leave his mouth.
Hearing someone interrupt the Chief Justice, Focalors let out a discreet breath of relief. "Neuvillette, since they've found the missing girl, let's hurry over and get briefed on the case."
With fresh leads on the table, Neuvillette saw no reason to refuse, and moved to question the situation at once. Moreover, once he learned that Xia Yu's group were the very people intending to face Lady Focalors in a courtroom showdown, he brought them along as well.
As the party hurried toward the scene, the children tucked themselves behind the two adults — Xia Yu and Mouri Ran — and kept up their whispered conference.
"Just as I thought," Conan murmured. "These Gardes respect the Chief Justice far more than the Hydro Archon."
Moroboshi nodded. "Mm, Conan's right. When they found that lead, the first person they reported to was Mr. Neuvillette, too."
"And the Hydro Archon's attitude toward Neuvillette seems off," Haibara added. "She doesn't treat him like a subordinate. If both of them have lived five hundred years, they've known each other for at least that long — yet there's a certain distance between them, as if they hadn't spent five centuries working side by side at all."
"That part I didn't pick up on," Mitsuhiko admitted, "but I do feel the Chief Justice has more of the air of Fontaine's god about him."
Ayumi, Genta, Emori, and Kikukawa all nodded, siding with Mitsuhiko.
They had barely traded a few more words when they spotted her — the girl standing with the Gardes.
Through the questioning that followed, the group came to understand what had happened, along with one more truth: this girl, chosen as the "lucky audience member," was not in fact Fontainian.
And yet those very clues only deepened the shadow of suspicion over the magician.
When Focalors heard the news, smugness spread across her face. "Well, little boy? My accusation was right, wasn't it? As Fontaine's Hydro Archon, how could my judgment possibly err? All you need to do is trust in me, your god."
Even with every clue pointing at the magician, Conan still felt something was off. The culprit had been exposed far too easily — his gut told him someone was setting the man up, shoveling the blame onto an easy target.
Besides, the "lucky audience member's" non-Fontainian identity must have caught the culprit off guard — that was why the girl had come to no harm. Which meant the magician's assistant, the one who had run into trouble, was looking rather suspicious indeed.