In the end, Furina agreed to let Fidelle and Lumine travel to the Sumeru Desert to search for the contingency plan left behind by Sumeru's "she."
Furina seemed somewhat downcast. She pulled Fidelle aside and meticulously lectured her for over an hour, going into painstaking detail.
Throughout the entire lecture, Fidelle listened intently, not missing a single word. She relished Lady Furina's concern and care.
The departure time was set for tomorrow morning, leaving Fidelle with plenty of time to spend with Furina and Focalors today.
-
Palais Mermonia.
At the end of a long corridor carpeted in deep blue velvet, two almost perfectly overlapping figures appeared, like the most exquisite mirror reflection.
This might be Furina's last visit to Palais Mermonia. Neuvillette had taken her to Sumeru to have Rukkhadevata reshape the physical bodies of Fidelle and Focalors.
Now that they had returned, they naturally needed to inform Neuvillette of the outcome.
But since this was her last visit, Furina felt no need to be meek or obsequious. After all, she had Focalors behind her, and Fidelle right after!
The moment Furina and Focalors appeared in Palais Mermonia, the air seemed to freeze.
A secretary Melusine, rushing past with documents, widened her eyes in shock, completely unaware as the papers slipped from her hands and scattered across the floor.
Several Court of Justice members, who had been conversing in hushed tones, froze mid-sentence, their mouths slightly agape. Their gazes darted back and forth between the two exquisite, near-identical faces, their eyes filled with disbelief, shock, and bewilderment.
Suppressed gasps and stifled cries of astonishment rippled through the sudden silence.
"Lady Furina?... Two Lady Furinas?!" an elderly clerk murmured, subconsciously rubbing his eyes.
The "Furina" on the left curved her lips into a familiar, slightly smug smile and winked playfully, breaking the silence first:
"Good afternoon, everyone! No need to panic~"
That distinctive, upward-inflected cadence left no doubt: this was indeed the genuine Furina they knew so well.
The woman to her right, Focalors, responded with a gentle, slightly awkward smile. Her clear eyes shone with a hint of curiosity and focus as she mimicked Furina's posture, offering a slight nod in greeting.
The pair didn't linger. Under the weight of countless stunned gazes, they moved in unison toward the heavy office door, a symbol of ultimate authority.
No sooner had they departed than Fidelle appeared in the spot they had just occupied.
The staff gasped anew:
"F-Fidelle?! Someone punch me awake! I need to know if I'm dreaming!"
"If Fidelle's back, then the woman just now... could she have been Lady Focalors...?"
At this revelation, the entire staff surged forward, chasing after Furina and Focalors.
Fidelle's thunderous roar halted them in their tracks:
"Get back to work! Don't follow them! Lady Furina and Lady Focalors wouldn't approve of this!"
For the staff of Palais Mermonia, Fidelle's usual scolding might have held little sway. But the moment she declared, "Furina and Focalors wouldn't approve!" the effect was immediate. The staff retreated, gradually returning to their posts.
Yet even through their hushed whispers, Fidelle could sense their simmering excitement.
-
Neuvillette's office.
Furina pushed open the door, and a heavy, oppressive atmosphere immediately enveloped her, a stark contrast to the shock rippling through the outside world.
Behind the massive desk, Chief Justice Neuvillette sat with one hand propping up his forehead, his brow furrowed with unyielding fatigue and gloom.
The office was dimly lit, the only source of light being a solitary lamp on the corner of the desk, casting a faint yellow glow that illuminated the mountain of case files. The air felt thick and heavy.
"Neuvillette, truly deserving of your title as Fontaine's most dedicated Judge," Furina chirped, her lively voice like a stone tossed into still water. She took Focalors by the hand and glided lightly to the desk.
Focalors remained silent, standing quietly beside Furina. Her gentle gaze settled on Neuvillette, carrying a hint of understanding and an almost imperceptible concern.
Neuvillette raised his head, his deep purple eyes sweeping over the astonishing "twins" before him.
"Welcome back," he said.
Focalors offered a faint smile, acknowledging Neuvillette's greeting.
"Neuvillette, hurry up and guess! Which one of us is who?" Furina urged.
Neuvillette's gaze lingered for a moment on the two nearly identical faces, yet whose auras were worlds apart.
Furina's eyes sparkled with familiar mischief and a hint of slyness, while Focalors remained serene as water, her gaze imbued with a profound depth and boundless understanding, a lingering trace of her divine essence.
Almost instantly, he pointed to the left: "You are Furina."
His finger then shifted to the right: "And you are Focalors."
"Tsk! How boring!"
Furina immediately pouted, her earlier smugness vanishing without a trace, like a child whose prank had been instantly exposed.
"How could you tell at a glance? We even made sure every strand of our hair was identical!" She stomped her foot in frustration.
Neuvillette lowered his hand from his forehead, leaned back against the wide chair, and let out an almost imperceptible sigh.
"It's about your aura, Furina. No matter how similar your appearances, the true colors of your souls cannot be concealed. Focalors' gaze..."
He paused, as if searching for the right words.
"...carrying the weight of deeper time and a heavier sense of being."
Focalors responded with an even gentler smile.
"Alright, alright, you win." Furina pouted, temporarily abandoning the game.
Her gaze fell once more on Neuvillette's face, his exhaustion barely concealed, and then on the endless downpour outside the window. Her tone softened.
"But work is never truly finished. Even a Complete Dragon needs to breathe, right? Look at you, and then look at this weather—the people of Fontaine don't want to wear raincoats every day."
She walked to the window, her fingertips lightly tracing the icy glass as if trying to brush away the gloom outside.
"Don't push yourself too hard, Neuvillette. Fontaine has weathered the Prophecy. Now more than ever, we need a Chief Justice who's sharp and clear-headed, not a Dragon Sovereign worn to the bone."
Focalors stepped forward, her voice flowing like a tranquil spring, carrying a soothing power.
"Furina is right. Duty is important, but balance is wisdom. Your very existence forms the cornerstone of Fontaine. There's no need to demand perfection in every matter, nor must you bear all burdens alone. Occasional rest is essential for the long road ahead."
Her gaze was gentle yet unwavering, imbued with an understanding born from worldly insight.
However, this heartfelt concern seemed to do little to dispel the shadows clouding Neuvillette's heart.
Instead, he leaned further back in his chair, his brow furrowing even deeper. The drizzle outside the window seemed to intensify, as if mirroring his inner turmoil.
"Precisely because the Prophecy has been broken, everything must be rebuilt from the ground up," he said in a low, resonant voice that carried an invisible weight.
"The backlog of cases, the reconstruction plans, diplomatic coordination with neighboring nations, monitoring the Fatui's movements... and the potential cascading effects from the change of the Divine Throne."
"And... most worrying of all, the Abyss's prying gaze... These are tasks that cannot be entrusted to others. Rest..."
He paused, his gaze sweeping across the mountain of documents piled on his desk.
"...is a luxury."
A faint, almost imperceptible curve touched the corners of Neuvillette's lips.
The office fell into a brief silence, broken only by the soft patter of raindrops against the glass.