❝ 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐏𝐀 . ❞ - 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑟 '𝑠 𝐷𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑅𝑜𝑙𝑙

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 [ 𝐁 ]

 As Cinnamon emerged from the garden, he noticed Walnut approaching him.

"Walnut—! Did something happen?!"

"Yes! I found one of those machines in the library earlier!" She explains.

"You too?" Herb comes in with Lilac, who appears to be in decent condition, and exclaims, "We found one in the storage room—!"

[ "So there are more?" ]

"Me and Walnut saw one in one of the third-floor rooms—I think they're called telegraphs?" Cinnamon fumbled a bit before seeing a few more students running to the dining hall.

He found out that there were many more—some of them were in the same room, others were in obscure places, such as the furnace.

"But...What do these do?" Herb asked.

"Ooh—! Maybe it's those devices that those detectives use in the movies~!" Popcorn exclaims.

"It's highly unlikely," Lilac replied bluntly.

"Wait—we should divide and conquer so we can figure out what all of this means!" Cinnamon spoke up.

So everyone agreed—Lilac being brought to one of the rooms by his master—and so on. Cinnamon and Walnut returned upstairs, where the young detective discovered the first telegraph.

—

"Have you...Have you figured it out yet?" The magician asked timidly. The beeping seemed to go in an infinite loop, almost giving the man a headache.

"Not yet..." She replied, "I'm not familiar with most of the letters, but I'll figure it out!"

The magician had to be honest with himself: he had no idea what this machine was, nor had he ever seen one. He assumed that this was one of the bear's motivations—but why would this be a motive? Perhaps to have someone snap and kill someone?

"We should try to look into this later," Walnut said as she stood up.

"Yeah."

—

An hour goes by and the jewel thief decides to execute their plan—Take Lilac to the fountain in the middle of the garden and spill their feelings about him.

But—how would they execute it? Should the thief wait until Lilac was alone to ask them—or would they ask when Lilac was with their master? Perhaps Yogurt Cream could be left alone for a bit.

And that's what Roguefort did—asked Lilac to go to the garden with him—the other was a bit skeptical about leaving their master alone, but Roguefort assured them that he'll be fine for a few minutes.

Roguefort had led Lilac to the same garden where they and Cinnamon met before. They sat at the rims of the overgrown fountain and only started ahead.

"...Why did you bring me here?" Lilac asked, glancing at the jewel thief.

Roguefort didn't answer but brought Lilac closer to him, "To tell you something, mon chéri~"

After a moment, Lilac was pulled closer to Roguefort again, "Je t'aime chéri."

The other was perplexed by what the other was saying, but before he could inquire about what Roguefort had said, they drew him in for a kiss.

Lilac took a few seconds to realize what had just happened before their face turned a bright red as Roguefort grinned softly.

For a few minutes, they both sat in silence, Roguefort having their arm around their waist.

—