Chapter Eighty-Six: A Stunning Second Trial!
Was this the way it was solved after all?
From the bench of judgment, Neuvillette’s expression also shifted, a trace of surprise crossing his face. The way he looked at Furina changed as well, though his first thought was not how formidable she was, but rather:
At last, this child can let me worry a little less.
A faint, relieved smile slowly appeared on his face, and he let out a deep breath. In the years Furina played the part of a god, Neuvillette had always protected her in his own quiet way.
Otherwise, with Furina’s acting, how could she have deceived the people of Fontaine for five hundred years?
Pure performance has an absolute limit to how long it can fool the masses. There will always be people like the Maid, who seek to challenge what others believe. Most of those crises were settled by Neuvillette, and so Furina passed safely through five hundred years.
Watching the surging crowd, a barely visible curve touched Neuvillette’s lips before he quickly returned to solemnity and pronounced:
“Lady Arlecchino, though known as the fourth of the Fatui Harbingers, the Maid, her strength was not sufficient to threaten the safety of Focalors, the Hydro Archon. Moreover, her assassination attempt was merely to confirm and relay information, conveying the crucial truth of Fontaine’s prophecy. Such information is of great significance to the people of Fontaine, and thus the merits and faults offset one another. Therefore, I shall rule—”
He paused, his gaze falling on Furina. After receiving her approving look and a slight nod, he continued:
“Not guilty, and released immediately.”
Yes, I understand now. Besides the first two meanings, Furina’s gesture of sending me a chair carried a hidden third intention, a second layer of arrangement!
Yes, I should have realized it sooner. I should have realized it back in the Fortress of Meropide. She arranged so many false fathers to obscure my vision; surely it was not merely to toy with me. There had to be something deeper hidden within it.
“...Yes, Father.”
She is far more formidable than I imagined.
“What happened?”
Furina was baffled. She did not understand why the Maid’s gaze toward her had changed so drastically after Neuvillette’s clearly deliberate second trial.
So this is Neuvillette’s wisdom!
So this is the wisdom of the Dragon Sovereign of Water!
Since the law could no longer restrain me, you actually went to such lengths to design a scheme especially for me, Focalors. As expected, you do value me after all, and you have also proved your own intelligence. I suppose I should start behaving a little more properly.
Though I do not know how the mechanism works, Neuvillette has already executed a beautiful combination, successfully changing the Maid’s attitude—
No, that can’t be right! Wasn’t he supposed to be ignorant of the human heart? When did his grasp of human nature become this terrifying? What is going on?
The Maid’s eyes were already on her. Furina could hardly keep staring at Neuvillette and asking questions, could she? So she quickly put on the same smile, one that carried kindness yet also a deeper meaning. She felt this best suited the role she had fashioned for herself.
Neuvillette lightly tapped the floor with his cane and turned to the Maid.
“Lady Arlecchino, regarding the charge of publicly damaging property in the courtroom, do you admit it?”
Furina: Σ(д|||)
Audience from Fontaine: ? → Judge her! Judge her!
In the dream, I know exactly how deep my psychological aversion to chairs of this style runs. She could not possibly not know. She chose this kind of chair on purpose, one that would provoke the fire in my heart to the utmost, yet still keep me from erupting. That way, I would unconsciously crush the chair with pyro energy, and then a second trial could be held.
What exactly will happen next?
The Maid abruptly turned her head back and once more gave him a fierce glare, her eyes cold and cutting.
The anger in the Maid’s heart grew even stronger; she even felt a sudden urge to strangle Lyney to death. What kind of “not simple” scheme was this? This clearly was not a move she should have made. The scheme was so absurdly blunt and crude that it was almost offensive. A deity as wise as she should never have done this; she should have used far more brilliant means to control him.
On the other side, the Maid on the judgment dais also let out a small breath of relief. If the verdict was not guilty, then she would have more room to maneuver in the future.
The Maid rose gracefully to her feet, and when she turned to look at Furina, her face wore a soft smile, gentle and compliant.
Though the Maid’s status was high, in the minds of the people of Fontaine, the Fatui Harbinger had still performed a rescue, and thus stood a little below their own Hydro Archon. So it was perfectly understandable that the Hydro Archon would not care about the assassination attempt. More than that, the Maid had also brought the news of Fontaine’s prophecy, and the reason to open the Opera Epiclese and begin the trial. A verdict of not guilty was only natural.
Lyney awkwardly finished the last word and instinctively shrank back. The Maid’s gaze was slicing into him like a knife, each cut painful.
As expected, Furina is far from ordinary!
“Not ordinary? Shut up!”
If that was the case, then the thought that had just arisen in my mind must also have been foreseen by Furina. She provoked my will to the point of explosion, then used this method to prove that my judgment was correct, to prove how profound my wisdom is, so that I would attain a higher recognition of my own intelligence, and thereby acknowledge her strategy and brilliance.
After all, respect is mutual. If you are willing to go to such lengths to devise this splendid plan for me, then I ought to show you my respect as well.
Why would Father think this is complicated?
The audience in the Opera Epiclese did not react much, because they had already guessed this outcome. What they cared about more now was Fontaine’s prophecy, and the murmurs related to it had not ceased.
Truly, worthy of Focalors.
After her relief and emotion, Lyney, who had been watching from the side, finally let out a small breath. Ever since a moment ago, he had felt that the way his father looked at him was somehow a little off.
“Hm?”
So Lyney broke into a smile and congratulated him with complete sincerity:
“Father, you have been found not guilty. At last you are free. Lady Furina is truly a kind soul—she can even disregard being assassinated herself, how wonderful—”
Furina, you have truly disappointed me. I thought you would use a more advanced method and means to control me. I never expected you to be so crude. Have I expected too much of you? Did I raise you to a height that never belonged to you? Is that truly what this is?
At this moment, the Maid’s heart was in turmoil. If this was real, then what had all her previous recognition of Furina amounted to? Empty flattery?
She had just said Furina was no simple matter, and then Furina used such a blunt and unsophisticated scheme.
What a terrifying betrayal!
“Father, she really is no simple matter.”
Terrifying.
What has become of Father?
Is she going through menopause?
The innocent Lyney had no idea that every word he spoke was like wildly dancing on a minefield in the Maid’s heart, stepping perfectly on every single trigger.
The Maid stared fixedly at the surprised Furina. She did not believe this woman knew nothing, did not know what was happening now. She must know something. With her command of human nature, she may have already foreseen the result and was only putting on a theatrical performance.
The Maid immediately realized something was wrong. She looked at Lyney in shock, understood at once, and then turned toward Furina with eyes blazing like fire.
All eyes turned to Neuvillette. Almost no one could understand why there was to be an immediate second trial now. Who exactly was being tried in this second hearing? The Opera Epiclese had not seemed to announce it in advance. Was this a hidden surprise?
The Maid quickly steadied herself, staring at Lyney’s fearful eyes, and said in a frosty voice:
“Remember this: Furina is nowhere near as shallow as you imagine. Every judgment you have made was built upon insufficient understanding of that Hydro Archon. Her wisdom is so extraordinary that it has long surpassed the realm of what ordinary people can comprehend. Do not indulge in reckless speculation.”
A scheme, a scheme, um...
Hiss... what could she possibly be plotting?
Although the atmosphere inside the Opera Epiclese was perfectly pleasant, he still felt as though he had been thrown into a freezer for three days and three nights, taken out, and then sliced piece by piece, each cut slowly flaying him away.
A method that even Lyney’s intelligence could see through—
Wasn’t that far too crude?
No, something is very wrong. She should not be such a shallow goddess. There must be something hidden here that I do not know. Perhaps this was an accident for her as well.
“Phew...”
Lyney frowned slightly. He felt that he was gradually beginning to understand his father’s thoughts. Beneath what seemed to be a simple trial, there was an even deeper trial hidden. The one being tried in this second round was most likely him, and this trial would become the chain that bound the Maid.
She has grasped my will and my thoughts!
She even calculated this far ahead!
As expected of you, Furina. I was right after all—you are the god who understands the human heart best, the one most skilled in strategy!
Not guilty? That was Furina’s scheme!
Freedom? I have never been free at all!
Kind? Do you know how many times I have died?
Wonderful? Right now I truly want to give you—
“Phew...”
It seems using a cruder scheme would have been simpler.
At this point, Furina could have directly judged Lyney guilty of his offenses and had him taken to the Fortress of Meropide, using him as a hostage to control the Maid’s actions.
Is she perhaps a little...
Well, never mind. She is Father, after all. Since she said it that way, she must have some deeper meaning.
If the verdict were guilty, then that would mean the Hydro Archon was still afraid of being assassinated by the Fatui Harbingers, and that her own safety could indeed be threatened. In the end, it would most likely still not be treated as an assassination attempt. Besides, that would make things more dramatic and more reasonable.
But even so...
With that Hydro Archon’s strategy and calculations, I’m afraid I would have little chance of escaping her grasp. So-called pardon and freedom are probably nothing more than being confined within a larger prison. The Fortress of Meropide is a prison in plain sight; her scheme is an invisible prison, vaster and far more terrifying.
Bang!
A flawless plan...
And yet, such a simple, direct, brutally blunt plan that I find almost offensive—how could it possibly have been devised by the god I considered the wisest and most adept at controlling the human heart? The sense of incongruity is simply too strong.
This is such an obvious answer!
Why, in Father’s eyes, does Furina’s choice seem so full of hidden meaning and implication?
Even if the Oratrice declared me guilty, I could still use all manner of arguments to refute it and achieve the same effect, making the trial dramatic as well, more in line with Fontaine’s dramatic literature, a performance shared with Furina. She would probably be very willing.
“The first trial has concluded. We shall now begin the second trial immediately,” Neuvillette said, gazing at the Maid below.
“...Done.”
Furina, oh Furina. I thought that with your wisdom and status, you would never stoop to something like this. Yet you truly would use such a simple and inferior scheme to threaten me. I am deeply disappointed in you.
Her thoughts were simple: there were only two people on trial, herself and Lyney. She had now been released as not guilty, and Furina had no reason to keep restraining her. Thus, it would be very difficult to bind her with some high-level stratagem.
What a marvelous plan!
This is Furina, this is the Hydro Archon!
The Maid: Hm?
Lyney: Huh?
When did this happen...
When did this happen...
Why did I do something like that?
“Hm?”
Besides, this trial probably was not as complicated as Father imagined. Outside Fontaine, public opinion had already pushed the Hydro Archon to this position.
Looks as though he might whip out a disciplinary belt at any moment...
I was scared to death.
He lightly patted his chest, feeling that Father’s attitude just now must have been due to the trial, or perhaps because the psychological pressure of this period in prison had altered her mindset only a little. And now, her mood seemed to have improved somewhat.
The Maid was stunned. She had not even realized when she had publicly damaged property, but she quickly lowered her head and looked at the chair she had been sitting on. The armrest was already covered in marks where she had scorched and crushed it.
Lyney’s face gradually turned bitter. He felt that Furina had simply been toying with him, preventing him from communicating with the Maid and exchanging information. There could not be any other purpose.
“I... plead guilty.”
And it was not only him. More children from the House of the Hearth might even become hostages, because he had once made such arrangements. Having those children serve as hostages was entirely feasible, and it truly could control me to some extent.
Yes, I should have acted exactly like this!
And so...
In the Maid’s eyes, Furina’s smile, gentle yet brimming with kindness, became the best confirmation of her earlier suspicions.
So this really was calculated!
The Maid let out a soft sigh and thought: Furina is a goddess full of wisdom, but alongside that wisdom, she is also like a child who loves drama. Her thoughts are impossible to fathom. After all, she is a god. Those who would try to understand her, or even believe they can understand her...
are no different from the foolish child in my own household.