Chevreuse, Captain of the Special Patrol

Neuvillette sat in his office chair while Furina continued talking beside his ear.

Suddenly, the distant doors were pushed open without ceremony, and Wu Wanghai appeared.

"I'm back!"

A Melusine behind Wu Wanghai spread its hands toward Neuvillette inside.

What else could it do? Normally, it should have come in first to seek Lord Neuvillette's permission.

But this person was an attendant of the Hydro Archon, and he had just gone in directly with the Hydro Archon.

"Wah! You startled me!" Furina suddenly jumped, cutting off her account. Then she turned to him and asked irritably, "Why did you come back so fast?!"

"Of course, I found it!" Wu Wanghai hurried over to Neuvillette in a few quick steps and placed the map on the desk before them.

"Right here! The true culprit!" Wu Wanghai pointed at a location not far east of the Court of Fontaine.

"O? O" Neuvillette was puzzled. The true culprit? It sounded like something major was about to happen.

A lightbulb seemed to go off over Furina's little head as she suddenly remembered. "Ah, right, right. I forgot to mention something earlier. Wu Wanghai told me before~~~ that he knows the mastermind behind the serial young women disappearance case! And something about some kind of water?"

"Primordial Sea Water," Wu Wanghai reminded her.

"Right, right." Furina nodded beside him.

"Oh?" Neuvillette became interested. That term had reached his ears again.

Logically, that seawater had already been sealed beneath the Fortress of Meropide. It should have been perfectly safe.

Neuvillette looked at Wu Wanghai, his expression seeming to say: Explain in detail.

Wu Wanghai sighed deeply and said regretfully, "Unfortunately, the bodies of the young women involved in the previous disappearance cases are already gone."

Neuvillette remained expressionless, as though he had truly known that those young women were no longer among the living.

"By the way, since you can sense the taste of water everywhere, can you communicate with the consciousness within the Fountain of Lucine?"

"I know nothing about that," Neuvillette denied.

That made sense. Neuvillette held trials at the Opera Epiclese every day, so he would certainly pass by the Fountain of Lucine right outside the opera house.

If he could, this matter would be much simpler.

At the very least, it would be far better for those consciousnesses to ask Monsieur Neuvillette, the Chief Justice, for help than for an outsider like himself.

"Since I arrived early, I still don't know what happened. If only I'd come a few versions later..." Wu Wanghai had a headache. In truth, the later he had transmigrated here, the more characters, main storylines, and maps he would have known, and the greater his advantage would have been.

Neuvillette and Furina did not understand why he had suddenly said that. Weren't they discussing Primordial Sea Water?

"What about the water?" Furina waited a few breaths without hearing Wu Wanghai continue and could not help prompting him.

"Fontainians, as long as they come into contact with Primordial Sea Water, even a single drop! They instantly melt into a puddle of water! Then their consciousness gathers in the Fountain of Lucine? I'm not sure about that last part!"

"Maybe there's something wrong with your constitutions! Otherwise..." Wu Wanghai raised his index finger and waved it.

Furina looked utterly certain. "That's only because Fontaine has a prophecy: Fontainians are born bearing sin."

"Perhaps." Wu Wanghai did not confirm it.

With Primordial Sea Water and the serial young women disappearance case brought up together by Wu Wanghai, even Neuvillette easily connected the two.

"So you mean those missing young women all came into contact with Primordial Sea Water?" Neuvillette frowned in thought. Perhaps it truly was related to this.

"Yes. Someone used this dangerous Primordial Sea Water to conduct experiments." Wu Wanghai gave a thumbs-up. "Looking at it this way, this person deliberately chose young women. Otherwise, if any Fontainian would do, it would be a Fontaine-wide missing persons case."

"This person dared to use Primordial Sea Water, which means he wasn't a Fontainian! Because if anything went wrong, he would disappear too."

"As for why he would do such a thing... it's simple. The young woman he deeply loved also disappeared because of this Primordial Sea Water."

Neuvillette nodded, then shook his head. "What you said does indeed resemble a criminal's mindset. But there is still no concrete evidence of who this mastermind is."

"So after my earlier investigation, I directly identified the mastermind behind this case—Vacher! And his secret experimental base!" Wu Wanghai made a finger-gun gesture with one hand beneath his chin.

Heh heh, this was the confidence the plot gave me. This was probably the thrill of being a transmigrator—foreknowledge, with everything under my control!

"Then, have you found key evidence to show me?" Neuvillette's mood improved. This unsolved case from many years ago... perhaps the young man before him could help...

"No." Wu Wanghai shook his head.

"Rumble!" "Crack!"

Outside the window, the previously clear skies suddenly filled with dark clouds, and in less than a minute, heavy rain began to fall.

The Fontainians outside calmly took out the umbrellas they carried with them. Within a few breaths, the roadside vendors had either packed up their stalls or put up large umbrellas.

Fontaine's weather was unpredictable. Every Fontainian knew that.

"Then? What was the purpose of your coming here?" Neuvillette remained expressionless.

"To request support! There were a bunch of level-forty-something mechanical monsters over there! I was alone at the time! Weak little me hadn't even reached level twenty yet! Boo hoo hoo, so pitiful." Wu Wanghai clenched both fists and rubbed at nonexistent tears, looking utterly helpless.

"..." Although Neuvillette did not entirely understand, he got the general idea. A place like that would naturally be guarded by a large number of mechanical sentries.

There was no need to think about it. The origins of those guards were surely suspicious.

"I understand. I will contact the Maison Gardiennage for you." Neuvillette nodded, then called to the Melusine outside and instructed it to mobilize personnel from the Maison Gardiennage.

"We can't alert the enemy. The fewer people, the better." Wu Wanghai was afraid Neuvillette would make too big a spectacle of it.

"Understood." Neuvillette said nothing more.

Before long, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Neuvillette said.

The next instant, a young woman in red clothing and a police cap walked in.

"Chevreuse, Captain of the Special Patrol, reporting for duty. Lord Neuvillette, may I ask what case requires my assistance?" Her voice was crisp and efficient.

Wu Wanghai turned to look at her. He did not recognize this newly arrived girl.

She had flowing purple hair and purple eyes. Most notably, one of her eyes was covered by a golden eyepatch.

Her outfit somewhat resembled Amber's, with red, white, and brown as its main colors, but it had Fontaine's distinctive style and wrapped her body tightly.

Wu Wanghai looked around but did not see a Vision equipped on her front.

Perhaps she was some rather capable passerby.

But this character was far prettier than the ordinary NPCs found everywhere.

Her long purple hair was really nice. Now that he thought about it, she even had a bit of Sirin's vibe. As expected of miHoYo.