The Iudex's day off

Chapter 111 - Recap

Neuvillette's POV

 Girls...

 Oh dear...

 I truly should tell them to mind their language, but...

 Sigh.

 I'll let them do as they wish this time.

 Now where were we?

 "During my stay in the Fortress of Meropide, quite a few problems came up, starting from the first day already.

 Duke Wriothesley was informed that while he had been out of Meropide for a short while, one of the valves used to flood a part of the prison was sabotaged. The crisis that this could have caused was luckily avoided thanks to an inspection that discovered this, but it was alarming nonetheless.

 Later the same day His Grace was gifted some tea by an unknown sender. The tea had been watered with Primordial Seawter when it grew and if consumed, would cause the consumer to lose the use of their body for a short while.

 Fortunately, we discovered this before His Grace had time to try the brew, as such the emergency that followed was handled well.

 A short while after Duke Wriothesley should have consumed the beverage, a man by the name of Mallory Roche came into the Duke's office in an attempt to assassinate His Grace.

 While Duke Wriothesley had not consumed the tea, he still pretended to be immobilized and struck up a conversation with the assassin in an attempt to reveal some information behind this attempt at his life.

 The assassin revealed that the reason he and his group wish for His Grace's death is to place one of their own in his place to take full control of the Fortress of Meropide. He also didn't forget to threaten to kill not only His Grace but myself as well, with the bottle of Primordial Seawater that he revealed to possess.

 I immobilized the man when he pulled out a knife and lunged at His Grace. For everyone's safety, he was knocked unconscious and put in handcuffs before being taken into a specialized holding cell and interrogated."

 This time no one spoke even though I purposefully took a pause before the next part of the story.

 Even Gerald held his tongue.

 That's good.

 At least he behaves himself now.

 Since there were no further interruptions, I continued with my story.

 "It was merely two days later that the second disaster struck.

 Duke Wriothesley was called to the surface for an emergency. A batch of gardemeks had gone missing without a trace. While His Grace hurried to the Court, he gave me the authority to act in his absence should there be an emergency. It is safe to say that neither of us expected that authority to be used that day.

 Not an hour after Duke Wriothesley left for the surface, an emergency occurred within Meropide. Someone had fastened a set of explosives to one of the valves and was threatening to blow it up, thereby flooding the Fortress's production zone.

 I gave orders for the guards to evacuate as many as possible while I went to try and salvage the situation.

 The perpetrator turned out to be Terrance Lemair, a man who had been sentenced to 4 years in prison for smuggling explosives into Fontaine. Looking at his circumstances I was sure that an action this drastic was highly out of character.

 I tried to gently push for a confession and soon found out that someone had captured his daughter and was holding her hostage to force him to do this."

 Exclamations once again sounded through the Opera Epiclese.

 "Just in case something like this could have happened, I had sent someone to inform the Phantom to find Mr Lemair's daughter and place her in my subordinate's care. News that my orders were completed arrived just in time to convince the man not to go through with his plan.

That wasn't the end of the plot, however. Even after I had Terrance Lemair in custody the bombs, along with three others were still set off by a third party. Fortunately, the water flooding into the Fortress of Meropide was quickly stopped and the third party was captured as such no heavy damages or loss of life was incurred during this incident.

 In the meantime, however, a different disaster had befallen Duke Wriothesley. While he was investigating the case of the missing gardemeks along with members of the Marechaussee Phantom he was met with yet another assassination attempt. Lady Furina was the one who stopped this attempt from succeeding.

 A later investigation revealed that the leader of this group of assassins was a man by the name of Tristan Albert. He had been approached by another group sometime before that to lead this ambush against His Grace. His reason for agreeing to do this was..."

 Oh, dear Teyvat...

 Do I really have to say it out loud?

 Just as agitation started to build up in the room, I somehow managed to finish my sentence.

 "He agreed to it out of hatred for His Grace. Apparently, a few months prior his fiancee had caught sight of Duke Wriothesley and fell deeply in love. She left him in favor of pursuing His Grace."

 Ugh...

 I am not repeating that again.

 Ever.

 My dear Wrio...

 Can you be just a bit less charming?

 "Another plot of this group was discovered and stopped not too long ago." I redirected the topic.

 I don't think I can handle listening to gossip.

 "An attempt was made to... kill all of the melusines residing within the Court by dissolving them with Primordial Seawater.

 Luckily, this plan was fruitless as it turned out that the melusines don't dissolve when in contact with the water."

 I locked eyes with the girls and subtly smiled at them as tens of curses and sighs of relief sounded within the room.

 Obviously, this move in particular had not earned Gerald any favors from the people of Fontaine.

 "Was that a satisfactory explanation, Miss Navia?" I asked her.

 "Yes, thank you, Your Honor. Now the prosecution will present the evidence against the defendant-"

 "Wait." Gerald interrupted.

 "It is not your turn to speak, Mr Traver."

 "Oh, but I merely wish to point out a few key points within your story, Monsieur."

 "Mr Traver-"

 "Or should I call you the hydro dragon?" He smirked.

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Congratulations to completelyranom and  Mystery_Rose1 for being accepted as aunties to the melusines!

I advise you against giving the girls too many sweets if you don't want to attract Neuvillette's ire.