"What was that?! What happened? I didn't see anything!"
Paimon couldn't hide her shock.
"Wasn't the box sealed?! How did Lynette get out?!"
"As expected of a renowned magician. He's really amazing," Lumine said, also surprised.
"If we could easily figure it out, it would mean his skills still need improvement," Neuvillette said, not feeling too surprised, but very appreciative.
"The appreciation of magic should be in the process on stage, not in the deliberately hidden techniques."
"That's right," Paimon agreed with Neuvillette. "I was really startled when Lynette came out just now. It was so cool!"
Lyney and Lynette took off their hats and bowed to the audience. "Thank you for the applause! Did you all enjoy the performance just now?!"
"Momoshiki, how did she do it?!"
Furina, still feeling incredulous, asked Momoshiki in her mind.
[If you'd opened your Sharingan just now, you could have seen everything clearly. But magic should be appreciated, not investigated. If you know everything, there's no fun, right?]
"Okay, you're right. But did you see the whole magic trick just now?"
[Yeah.]
"I knew it. No wonder you weren't that surprised."
Furina pouted slightly, feeling a little dissatisfied.
This Momoshiki, saying magic should be appreciated, but he still used his abilities to peek at the whole thing.
Momoshiki has a secret he can't tell.jpg
Next, just as Momoshiki had expected, Lyney had his magic assistants push out two large boxes, preparing to perform a teleportation magic trick.
One was placed in the center of the stage, and the other was placed in the central aisle of the audience seats.
Then, using a random number generator, he selected a lucky audience member in the 7th row, seat 3, inviting her to participate in the magic trick and putting a magic mask on her.
"I'm sorry, the space inside the box is a little small, but we've made careful arrangements for you, hoping to ease your nervousness."
Lyney first chuckled and said a few words of concern, then instructed:
"Don't do anything. Even if you have a strange experience, don't come out. If the magic trick is interrupted, I don't know where you'll end up. Maybe in Meropide, haha~"
"Uh... okay..."
The lucky audience member was very nervous, especially when she heard the word "Meropide." She was clearly flustered.
Next was the counting part. Lyney and the lucky audience member both went into the boxes, and the people in the audience counted down 60 seconds.
During this time, a loud bang was clearly heard from underground, attracting the attention of Paimon and Lumine. But the other audience members clearly didn't care and continued counting.
So, Paimon and Lumine stopped paying attention to the sound and continued to stare at the stage.
During the countdown, the magic assistant occasionally knocked on the box on the stage, asking if Lyney was still in the box.
Lyney was definitely still there, and he pretended to fail repeatedly, making the people in the audience laugh.
Just as the 60 seconds ended, with a snap, all the spotlights focused on the two magic boxes.
Furina had almost stretched half her body over the railing, watching the magic boxes nervously and expectantly.
The central aisle of the audience seats opened first. A cloud of white smoke and confetti floated out, and Lyney appeared in front of everyone in a flamboyant pose.
Thunderous applause erupted again, and even Neuvillette couldn't help but applaud.
Lyney stretched out his hand, pointing towards the magic box on the stage. Everyone followed his gaze.
Logically, the lucky audience member should be coming out of the magic box next, but things definitely weren't that simple.
The sound of a rope snapping came from the ceiling, and Lynette's escape water tank fell straight down from above, smashing the magic box to pieces with a bang.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
"Whoa! What's going on?!"
"That scared me! Is this part of the magic trick?!"
The audience was first frightened, then reacted and asked Lyney in surprise.
Furina was also startled and almost fell off the VIP platform. Fortunately, Momoshiki used Almighty Push to right her posture.
"Momoshiki! What's going on?! Is this part of the magic show or not?!" Furina asked impatiently, her heart in her throat.
The situation on the scene didn't look like a magic show at all. It looked like an accident!
[The magic trick had an accident.]
Momoshiki directly confirmed Furina's guess.
"Wh-what's going on..."
Paimon fearfully huddled next to Lumine, who was also clearly startled, but habitually protected Paimon behind her.
"Mr. Lyney! Are you going to restore the stage to its original state next?!"
"Yeah, yeah! And will that lucky audience member come down from the sky?!"
"As expected of the great magician Lyney! Every move exceeds our expectations!"
The audience was still guessing, completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation, and didn't notice Lyney's dazed expression.
At this moment, Lyney's pupils were trembling, his eyes filled with disbelief. He opened his mouth to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat, unable to make a sound.
After struggling for a long time, he barely managed to utter, "How could this happen..."
This was completely beyond his expectations. It wasn't just a magic trick gone wrong. More importantly, it meant someone might have died in an accident.
Under the broken wooden box, a human hand could be vaguely seen limply lying on the floor, not moving.
"The show is over!!"
At the critical moment, Neuvillette was the first to stand up, resuming his role as Chief Justice. He shouted to the surrounding guards, "Medical personnel, come with me! The guards protect the scene! Control all participants! Temporarily seal off the entrances and exits of the opera house!"
Lyney, who was already stunned, was surrounded by guards without any resistance. The other assistants were also taken into custody.
"M-Momoshiki!! What the hell is going on?!" Furina also panicked, especially since she was standing on the VIP platform and could see the clearest, naturally seeing the human hand.
She was so scared she almost fell back into her seat.
[That lucky audience member was a thief. She was splashed with water in the tunnel used for the teleportation magic trick, and then someone came to catch her.]
[Because Lyney mentioned Meropide, she didn't want to be caught, so she knocked out the person who came to catch her, put them in the box, and hid in the box where the costumes were kept after changing her clothes.]
[Then the accident happened.]
[Now it's your turn to perform, right?]
"I see... um, okay. It's definitely time for me to speak now."
After listening to what Momoshiki said, Furina first calmed her nervous mood, then coughed a few times to attract everyone's attention.
"Alright, everyone!"
Everyone in the audience looked at Furina, seeing her looking confident, clearly knowing a lot about the whole incident.
A big question mark appeared over Neuvillette's head.
How was Furina's expression different from usual this time? She seemed more confident.
"I'm sure you all have a lot of questions and panic in your hearts right now, but don't worry. With I, Furina, here, all evil will be brought to justice."
[Where did you learn that last line?]
"Don't interrupt me... I'll forget my lines..."
Furina complained softly, then continued, "If it's an accident, we'll find out the cause. If it's not an accident, then it won't escape the judgment of the God of Justice!"
"What's the Hydro Archon doing again?"
Lumine rested her chin on her hand, racking her brains to try and understand Furina's meaning.
Could she know the whole story?
"For me, knowing what happened is as easy as drinking water. I only need to move my fingers, and I'll know what happened."
===
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