𝐍𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 - Wriothesley x Neuvillette

Fountain of blood (Chapter 15)

Neuvillette made it to the Opera house just in time for the trial. He took a seat in his chair, overlooking the audience. The trial wasn't interesting at all, and even Ladu Furina didn't try to engage the audience in the trial. Time ticked slowly as the truth was slowly pieced together. But as Neuvillette was about to read the judgment of the Oratrice mecanique d'analyse cardinale, a man from the audience suddenly jumped up and towards Neuvillette. He did not seem to possess a vision, yet he was able to wield electro-elemental powers. He was as fast as the lightning he wielded and he dumped a bucket of water everyone in the room recognized, all over Neuvillette. 

People saw the odd-colored water, the Primordial seawater getting dumped on the Iudex, expecting to see him disappear in front of their eyes, but nothing happened. The water drenched Neuvillette, but he was still there. Neuvillette stood up and reached out to grab the man, but he dodged. He saw Clorinde prepare for combat but signaled for her to stay put. He would deal with this himself. Everyone in the Opera house leaned forward in their seats, including Lady Furina, to see what would happen. 

The man stood on the scene with a sword, prepared to fight the Iudex. As if the sword would make any difference. Neuvillette jumped down onto the scene, and the man immediately attacked him. He dodged and grabbed the man's wrist, twisting it and throwing him to the ground. The force would have been enough to knock out most people, but the man quickly got up and prepared to attack once more. It had been a long time since anyone had dared to even try to harm him or even interrupt a court session, and despite his anger, he felt a bit of excitement at the thought of a fight. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to have a little fun with this and put on a show for Furina and the people of Fontaine. 

The man attacked and attacked, and Neuvillette repeatedly dodged and threw the man into the walls and down into the ground. He could just knock him out or restrain him, but this man deserved a bit of pain for interrupting court. But as the man attacked again, Neuvillette was distracted by someone yelling, and instead of giving the man a small blow, he accidentally hit him so hard, that the blow alone threw him into the wall, which shattered. 

He quickly went over to check on the man, who was barely breathing. Whispers went through the audience as people realized Neuvillette had almost killed someone. The court session was canceled, and the man was sent to receive medical attention. He had hoped to just go back to work but was dragged aside by a furious Lady Furina.

He tried his best to apologize and explain he got distracted and accidentally used too much power. But Furina didn't buy it.

"If you can't control your powers, you should not be here!"

"Lady Furina, please-"

"What's going on with you, Neuvillette!?"

He went silent. She was right. He had never acted like this before, and he had never lost control of his powers before. He had no 'accidents'. What was up with him? It was about time they got to the bottom of this. This was the second assassination attempt on an authority figure in Fontaine, and you don't have to be smart to guess it's the same person behind it. This person had both times tried to use Primordial seawater, but who in Fontaine had such resources? And who had people who could wield elemental powers without vision? He knew the Fatui had their delusions, but why would the Fatui want to take out him or Wriothesley?

Suddenly a scream could be heard, and both Furina and Neuvillette went outside the Opera house, to see a crowd circled around something by the fountain. As they got closer, they could see the water in the fountain was red, and lying over the edge was a body. He couldn't identify the poor victim, as the body looked like it had been torn apart and boiled in the fountain. This was unlike anything he had seen before.

 He went closer to inspect the body, and on the chest, a word, or a name, was engraved into the skin, 'Ciel', it said. The bloody letters cut into his skin were infected, so the person had definitely had the word engraved into their body for a while before dying. How had he not heard of a person disappearing? Wouldn't someone have reported this person missing? The infection proved this person had at least been gone for two or three days for the wounds to get infected. 

The body was taken away for further inspection and the Phantom managed to get people to leave. Neuvillette couldn't help but think a lot of people would need counseling after seeing this view. The therapists will be busy.

When word about the whole court incident and the body in the fountain reached Meropide, Wriothesley immediately got the news. He felt the unease once more settle inside him as he stood up. He thought the person behind everything had been Matheo, but he seemed just as shocked as everyone else. 

He knew he had to get to the bottom of this. And he knew he refused to do it without the Iudex. He couldn't understand why, but he felt safe with Neuvillette, and since whoever was behind all this had tried to assassinate them both, it would be nice if they could investigate it together and protect each other. He wouldn't mind having the literal hydro dragon protecting him. 

He knew Matheo was useless now, that he didn't know more than they already did. But should he turn him in? Let him go? Or perhaps... serve justice himself? He knew Neuvillette wouldn't be happy if he got rid of Matheo, but on the other hand, the asshole deserved to die for helping his 'parents' back then. He should die for hurting his siblings. He should die for being so disgusting. Who the hell sells kids anyway? But in the end, he decided to not upset Neuvillette, so he just locked Matheo up before departing from the fortress and heading towards the court of Fontaine.