Upon returning to Palais Mermonia from outside, Yuto did not go straight to his room to rest but headed directly to his office.
Clorinde watched his tall figure gradually recede down the corridor and couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.
"No wonder he's so popular among the common folk. This is truly what 'strict with oneself, lenient with others' means, isn't it?"
Clorinde gently shook her head, her evaluation of Yuto rising another notch.
She had met many people, and a good number of them were workaholics, but he was truly the only one as dedicated as Yuto.
"But then again, Palais Mermonia has a month of vacation every year. In these past four hundred years... how much vacation has he accumulated?"
...
Unlike Clorinde, who was still pondering how much accumulated annual leave Yuto had, Yuto was calculating how long he needed to work today.
He looked at the closed office door in front of him and sighed softly.
"Have I really gone mad with overtime... I feel ants crawling on me if I don't work for a day..."
"But it's not quitting time yet. Any bit of work I can lighten for myself two days from now is a bit, better than being buried alive by paperwork..."
As Yuto thought this, he pushed open his office door. Before he could even sit down at his desk, a girl's startled cry reached his ears.
"Chang... Yuto?! Didn't you take leave? Why are you still coming to the office?!"
Furina looked at Yuto, who had just entered the office, with a shocked expression, unsure what to say for a moment.
Hearing Furina's voice, Yuto calmly looked up at Furina, who was sitting in his seat, holding Little Sanhua, and said softly:
"I finished earlier than usual today, so I came back early. I didn't want to pile all the work until the day after tomorrow, so I came in."
Yuto shrugged, uttering words in a remarkably calm tone that every worker would never dream of saying.
Furina, hearing this, blinked, thought for a moment, and then sighed softly:
"Oh, you... Fontaine is already on the right track now; it's no longer the Fontaine where a slight disturbance would occur if you were absent for a day."
"Haven't you seriously considered resting? Like... reopening your old cake shop?"
As Furina said this, she made space for Yuto, while she herself sat opposite the desk—after all, he needed to work.
Hearing this, Yuto was first stunned, then looked at Furina, who was playing with Little Sanhua in front of him, with a half-smile, and whispered:
"Are you sure you want me to rest, and not just so you can more conveniently eat small cakes?"
As the Assistant Administrator who had been by Furina's side for over four hundred years... he knew Furina's true personality all too well.
Her little schemes... the abacus beads were practically bouncing off his face.
Hearing her true intentions easily seen through by Yuto, Furina coughed twice, as if trying to establish the authority of a God.
"N-no, it's not that at all. I was just purely thinking of you. I am the Hydro Archon Focalors, you know? How could I possibly deceive my most loyal subordinate over a small cake?"
Looking at Furina, who was a little embarrassed because her little thoughts had been exposed, a smile unconsciously appeared on Yuto's face, and he suddenly had an idea... to tease Furina.
He looked up and down at the girl in front of him, who was already blushing with embarrassment, and deliberately drew out the end of his words:
"Ah~ so that's how it is~ Then... I won't make any small cakes tomorrow, okay?"
"Ah?!"
As soon as she heard she wouldn't have small cakes tomorrow, Furina suddenly looked up, her beautiful heterochromatic eyes widening instantly, looking at Yuto with some disbelief.
However, when she saw that he was smiling meaningfully at her... Furina then realized—she had been outmaneuvered by this guy again!
After realizing this, Furina's cheeks puffed out slightly, like an angry little pufferfish, and then she tilted her little head upwards, as if saying, "I'm not talking to you anymore!"
Yuto looked at the pouting girl in front of him with a wry smile, then hastily began to appease Furina.
Of course, for Yuto, who possessed the "Anti-Furina Special Attack Treasure," such a thing was... effortless.
In just five minutes, Yuto exchanged the high price of three extra small cakes for the opportunity to share afternoon tea with Ms. Furina, Fontaine's well-known superstar, tomorrow.
Looking at the girl who continued to happily play with Little Sanhua, a smile from the bottom of Yuto's heart appeared on his face.
Although Furina didn't say it, he could feel that her mental pressure was growing heavier.
And the root cause of all this... stemmed from the Oratrice Mecanique D'analyse Cardinale's guilty verdict on Tartaglia.
Although Yuto had already proposed a conjecture that could be openly discussed, namely that Tartaglia's Northland Bank had a cooperative relationship with the Kabrie Commercial Guild, which led to him being deemed "guilty."
But in this environment where people are generally thrill-seekers and fence-sitters, Yuto's words and deductions might not be effective, and a portion of the population still insisted that it was the Water God Furina's problem.
After all, upon learning that everything in The Prophecy might come true, the Water God did not directly offer a solution but gave an answer that was as good as saying nothing.
This answer made some people uneasy, believing that the Water God lacked the ability to deal with the prophetic crisis.
At this critical juncture, the "misjudgment" of Tartaglia occurred, directly escalating the conflict, and her identity was therefore questioned by many.
What Yuto could do now was to present enough evidence that could be brought to the table, stabilize the majority of the populace, and delay that fated Judgment.
Or rather...
He might actually be able to win this Judgment for Furina as a Licensed Agent.
After all, his current elemental alignment perfectly matched the definition of a weekly boss, and he didn't mind exchanging a few blows with that foreign Traveler.
"You want to judge Furina, huh..."
"Then let me, this Assistant Administrator, see if you even have the right to judge a God!"
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