The Trial Is Underway (Part 3)
"Rejoice! Cheer! My dear people, you are about to witness a moment that will go down in the history of Fontaine!"
"I, the Hydro Archon Focalors, hereby submit myself to judgment!"
"And in this trial, I shall show you all what true justice means!"
I will... protect you all... no matter what it takes...
Then Focalors placed one hand over her heart and swept the other out toward the audience below the stage in a grand gesture.
"And now — the most momentous event in all of Fontaine's history, the trial of the goddess Focalors herself — is about to begin!"
Thunderous applause erupted from the seats below.
"Well, well, this Hydro Archon of ours is pretty impressive," Haibara said, clapping along with everyone else. "Staying that calm under these circumstances — I almost admire her for it."
Ayumi nodded eagerly. "Yeah, yeah! She didn't really seem like a goddess before, with all her funny antics, but what she just said actually felt really amazing."
"I agree," Emori chimed in. "It kind of gives you goosebumps, doesn't it?"
Conan looked over at his friends clapping earnestly beside him and fought the urge to sigh.
Seriously, guys — could you at least remember which side we're on here?
That said, watching Focalors's performance just now, even Conan had to admit the woman had genuine talent — at the very least, she was a master at working a crowd's emotions.
Seeing that Focalors had resolved to accept the trial, Neuvillette turned to Conan. "Now then. May I ask upon what grounds you bring this judgment against Lady Focalors, the Hydro Archon?"
"One moment, please," Focalors cut in suddenly. "Allow me to make something clear first. It is only natural that mortals cannot comprehend the ways of a god — and that alone must not be treated as grounds for a divine conviction."
Conan and the others exchanged a quick glance, and in the end, just as they had planned beforehand, Xiayu stepped forward to speak. In a situation like this, an adult making the case simply carried more weight — and if anything was left unsaid, they were all standing right together, ready to fill in the gaps at a moment's notice.
Xiayu moved to stand slightly ahead of the group and looked straight at Focalors. "We're well aware of that. Which is exactly why the grounds for this trial are as follows — you're not a god at all, are you, Focalors?!"
A wave of confusion and shock rippled through the audience.
Neuvillette turned to the accused. "Lady Focalors. Do you acknowledge the accusation brought by the prosecuting party?"
At Neuvillette's question, Xiayu and the others fixed their eyes on Focalors as well — and it was easy to see the goddess's head dip ever so slightly.
Moroboshi raised an eyebrow. "Looks like our guess was right on the mark. The so-called 'Hydro Archon' must be rattled right now — the Chief Justice had to ask twice before she could bring herself to deny it."
Kikukawa still sounded uneasy. "But are we really sure we haven't guessed wrong? Because if we have, then the game..."
"Relax," Conan said reassuringly. "Judging from everything we know so far, the odds that Focalors isn't a god are very high. This is our one chance to get her talking about the prophecy — that's the only way we clear the game."
Arms crossed, Focalors answered Neuvillette's question, then turned her gaze on Xiayu. "You believe I am not a god?! Hah! How utterly absurd. And may I ask what your reasoning is? Better yet — explain this to me. If I am not a god, then how, precisely, have I survived these five hundred years?"
"Surviving five hundred years doesn't prove you're a god," Xiayu shot back. "The Iudex, Neuvillette, has lived just as long. You could be some other long-lived species — or a human in unusual circumstances, say, someone laboring under a curse or a blessing."
Conan added with feigned innocence, "That's right — haven't you heard? In fairy tales, princes and princesses get cursed to live for ages and ages, and only a true love's kiss can break the spell. Lady Hydro Archon, is that what happened to you?"
Through their several encounters with Focalors over these past days, Conan had grown only more suspicious of her claimed divinity — though the reason she had lived so long remained uncertain. His own hunch leaned toward her being a long-lived being of some other kind, much like Neuvillette.
Haibara, however, had proposed a different theory: the woman was very likely human. Her reasoning was that Focalors lacked the faint, unmistakable inhumanity that Neuvillette carried with him. The Chief Justice gave off the subtle sense of someone set apart from ordinary people — faint as it was, Haibara had still caught it with her sharp instincts.
Focalors, by contrast — for all her exaggerated theatrics as Fontaine's Hydro Archon — had never once given Haibara that feeling.
Moroboshi sided with Haibara's view. Even Ran, trusting pure intuition, thought Haibara's guess was the more solid one.
Majority rules — with Ran's intuition lending extra weight — and so they had settled on the theory that Focalors was a cursed human, and had phrased their questions to her accordingly.
Then Neuvillette himself confirmed that he had indeed sensed the aura of a curse upon Focalors, lending indirect support to Haibara's deduction.
Unbothered by Conan's little fairy-tale jab, Focalors spread her hands wide. "Very well. Suppose I do carry some so-called curse. That hardly proves I'm not the Hydro Archon, now does it?"
"A god is a god precisely because that being can do what ordinary people cannot. So let us set aside the matter of lifespan. Ladies and gentlemen — the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale standing before you. Surely a miracle no mortal could ever accomplish is proof enough of my identity..."
"But you can't prove that you're the Oratrice's master," Xiayu countered. "And if you are, then pray tell — what was that voice the magician heard near the Oratrice's core not long ago?"
Focalors gave a dismissive laugh. "Heh. How should I know? And how can you be so certain the man wasn't lying? Yes, it's been established that he wasn't the culprit in the girls' disappearances — but he is a foreign spy, that much is fact. Perhaps he simply spouted nonsense right here in this very hall, hoping to sow doubt about the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale..."
"Then what about the disappearance case?" Xiayu pressed. "As the Queen of all Fontaine's waters and all her people — how is it you didn't know that Fontainians dissolved in the water become Hydro Eidolons? And that they end up in the Fountain of Lucine, of all places?"
"As I understand it, Hydro Eidolons are the attendants of the Hydro Archon, and the Fountain of Lucine sits just beside the Opera Epiclese. If you truly are the Hydro Archon, then why, passing by that fountain, did you never sense what was happening there — and use that knowledge to catch the culprit early?"
Xiayu left out the fact that they themselves had heard the very same voice near the Fountain of Lucine — after all, no one else present had heard it, and there would be no way to prove it.
Even so, what Xiayu had already laid out was more than enough to set the audience murmuring.
"She's right — if Lady Focalors really is the Hydro Archon, why didn't she notice something wrong at the Fountain of Lucine sooner?"
"Exactly. If it had been found earlier... maybe all those girls wouldn't have vanished..."
"No way... Could it be that Lady Focalors really isn't a god at all?"
Hearing the faint thread of doubt drifting up from the audience seats, Focalors felt a flicker of panic — but she held her expression firmly in check, letting none of it show.