Yuto looked at the retreating figure of the young woman, who was like a golden rose, and then at Neuvillette, who seemed to be in a somewhat off mood beside him, and gently sighed.
"I'll come find you later, Mr. Neuvillette."
Hearing Yuto's words, Neuvillette nodded slightly, then walked to the floor-to-ceiling window of his office, staring at something unknown.
Seeing this, Yuto gently shook his head, then quickened his pace and chased after her.
He remembered... Navia hadn't brought an umbrella today due to staying up late and other factors, and given Neuvillette's state just now... Fontaine would probably turn from clear skies to a thundery shower soon.
Thinking of this, Yuto hurried back to his office, grabbed an umbrella, and then rushed non-stop towards the main entrance of Palais Mermonia.
—After all, he was considered Navia's elder. At times like this... a reliable elder was needed to appear and comfort the child.
What Yuto didn't know was... as he rushed out of his office with the umbrella, a white strand of hair popped out from behind his open office door.
Looking at the gradually receding figure, Furina blinked slightly, then looked at the appointment schedule in her hand, and finally chose to follow them out.
Furina and Yuto had been together for over four hundred years; while not knowing everything about him... she could certainly say she understood Yuto's way of doing things very well.
She had never seen Yuto so anxious.
No.
It should be said... this was the second time Yuto had been so anxious within her sight.
The last time was three years ago, when Cares, the President of Spina di Rosula, chose to use a duel to defend his innocence.
"What happened this time...? Has something else occurred?"
...
Outside Palais Mermonia, Navia looked at the unchanging street scene before her, her expression momentarily dazed.
Three years.
She had been investigating the Serial Disappearance of Young Girls for three years.
She had finally found some crucial clues through a case, but... he just cut it off.
Neither Auxiliary Officer Chang Ming, who dealt with the myriad affairs of Fontaine daily, nor Chief Justice Neuvillette, who meticulously recorded every case... had any information about this person.
This person seemed to have vanished into thin air, as if... his life trajectory in Fontaine had completely disappeared, as if he had vanished without a trace.
To Navia, it was like being given a ray of light, only for it to be extinguished by hand.
She found it hard to accept this fact, but...
What else could she do?
The young woman, like a golden rose, slowly raised her head, looking at the gloomy sky of Fontaine, which mirrored her mood, her heart filled with mixed emotions.
—Is it going to end like this?
—Will Father's injustice remain unredressed?
These questions lingered in Navia's heart, like a persistent nightmare.
Lumine quietly watched the young woman standing not far away, saying nothing.
She knew very well that what Navia needed now was not comfort, nor words like "It's okay, there's still Yuto's information," but a short period of quiet time.
—At least... comforting her shouldn't be her job.
Just as she was still considering how to communicate with Navia, a somewhat hurried footsteps sounded behind her.
Lumine subconsciously turned around and saw the Assistant Administrator rushing out with an umbrella in his hand.
"Navia..."
Yuto called out softly.
The young woman, like a golden rose, naturally recognized whose voice it was behind her, and she gently shook her head.
"I'm fine, Mr. Yuto..."
Yuto slowly walked to her side, sighed slightly, and then said:
"Neuvillette... he didn't mean it that way."
"I know, I didn't control my emotions well."
Navia's eyes were downcast; she knew very well that she had displayed some unwarranted emotions towards Neuvillette just now.
As the current boss of Spina di Rosula, she was well aware of the importance of rules.
Rules are rules because they are unbreakable.
Although some rules can be appropriately changed, those are merely minor details.
A rule as inherently weighty as 'Duel' absolutely cannot be influenced by even the slightest external force.
No one is an exception.
fontaine law Article 3: Once a Duel application is initiated... it shall not be revoked in any form or for any reason, and no one shall interfere with the Duel process for any reason.
If Neuvillette and Yuto had both agreed to intervene then... the loophole in fontaine law would have been torn wider and wider, eventually becoming a joke.
While this was correct from a broad perspective, she was still just a young woman, and she couldn't always consider the bigger picture.
She... also had feelings.
Looking at the silent Navia, Yuto sighed once again.
He knew very well that to restore Navia's emotions to normal now... what was needed was not comfort, but genuine guidance.
As a transmigrator with a script... Yuto knew exactly how to provide appropriate hints.
Or rather, Navia was currently in a state of "being too close to the situation to see clearly."
All she needed was a few words of reminder.
Thinking of this, Yuto immediately spoke:
"Navia, why don't you consider it from a different angle?"
"Since this clue is dead, and more direct clues will take some time to find, why not start directly from the case itself from back then?"
"You are far more mature now than before, and you have much more information than you did then, aren't you?"
Hearing this, Navia's gray-blue eyes looked at Yuto beside her with some shock, speechless for a moment.
At this moment, a slight coolness fell upon Yuto's head. Without hesitation, he immediately opened the umbrella in his hand, shielding himself and Navia from the rain.
"I remember very clearly, the day the incident happened was just like today, with heavy rain."
"Back then, you didn't know that people in Fontaine could be turned into water, but now... you do."
Hearing this, Navia's pupils contracted violently, and the young woman's originally somewhat lifeless face instantly shone with new radiance.
"Are you saying... that all traces of the people who were turned into water... were washed away by the rain?!"
Yuto said nothing, but stood quietly to the side.
His sea-blue eyes, as gentle as the ocean, quietly watched the young woman before him, as if wanting her to calm down in that way.
After a brief moment of thought, Navia softly said, "Thank you, Mr. Yuto, I need to go back to Bai Song Town first."
"My good partner, do you want to come with me to reinvestigate what happened back then?"
Lumine looked at Navia's renewed vitality, a slight smile curving her lips, then gently nodded.
"Take the umbrella with you."
Yuto smiled as he handed the black umbrella in his hand to Navia, then walked back into Palais Mermonia without looking back.
His mission... was now complete.
However, everything Yuto did was clearly seen by a small blue cake hiding by a stone pillar at the main entrance of Palais Mermonia.
Watching Yuto's hurried retreating figure, Furina blinked slightly, lost in thought.