The Iudex's day off

Chapter 75 - The source

 After some more urging, Lady Furina took the two away and I was left alone with Neuvillette.

 "Neuv... Just what did you find down there?" 

 It is starting to worry me.

 "That- It might be better for you to see for yourself, it's just that..."

 "Just what?"

 "I don't feel comfortable bringing you down there." He muttered. 

 Huh?

 "Neuv-"

 "I will only bring you over if I can hold on to you." He interrupted.

 "Sure?"

 If holding hands makes him feel better-

 Nope!

 It was not holding hands!

 He meant-

 He actually meant-

 Aaaah!

 Why again?!

 "Neuv dear. Is this really necessary?" I asked.

 The princess carry!

 Why the princess carry again?!

 "If you don't like it, I can always take you back." He offered.

 An offer he knew damn well I wouldn't take!

 Because of his stupid dragon strength, I can't even hope that gets tired and puts me down at some point.

 Tsk!

 However, I really couldn't go back at this point.

 Neuvillette had first teleported us to a cave, which alone was more than enough to look at, but as we walked in deeper and through a glass tunnel, he pointed out just how close we had gotten to Meropide.

"If we weren't so deep, you could easily see it from here." He commented.

 Soon, we arrived in a large control room, or at least something like that. It was then that I noticed-

 "Unless you spent the better time of when you were gone wandering around in this one room, there was definitely some sort of activity down here recently." I pointed out

 The place was far too clean overall to be hundreds of years old, but there were still traces of human presence everywhere.

 Suddenly, there was a loud sound as the large door on the other side of the room opened shocking me half to death.

 "That was me." Neuvillette reassured me.

 We went in through the door and-

 "Archons..."

 What the hell is that?!

 A machine that size-

 "Good god..."

 On top of that, the ancient machine was surrounded with clearly new technology.

 Someone has definitely been coming down here to research that. Whatever that is.

 "Hold on tight."

 "What?"

 "We're going down." He said.

 He's been short of words ever since he returned from here. It was to the point where I was really getting worried.

 He was clearly worried about something.

 That's why I stopped him before he could jump down.

 "Neuv dear. What did we agree on last night? You said you would tell me if something was bothering you. Right now, something clearly isn't right, so tell me."

 There was a short silence before his hand under my knees slipped away for just a second. By the time it returned, I found myself holding a small bottle of-

 "Primordial Seawater?"

 "Furina snatched this one off the market in the Court three months ago. It wasn't the first and as it turns out, it wouldn't be the last either. Apparently, someone was selling bottles of this while managing to avoid the sight of not only the gardes but even the Phantom. We've been trying to track these people down but to no avail."

 That-

 "I never knew-"

 "Of course you didn't. It was kept strictly confidential. Aside from Furina and myself, only a few of the girls know. To be exact, you are the sixth person in all of Fontaine to know that this little business was even discovered."

 Damn...

 "How did you find out?"

 "Furina did on one of her usual outings. She was out in disguise after we argued about... something. She said a man had approached her after he heard her mumbling about wanting to well... in simple terms, murder me. He offered to give her an easy way to get rid of anyone of Fontainian origin."

 "He offered her Primordial Seawater?"

 "Correct. Though, had he known that she was Furina and the one she wanted to be rid of was me, I reckon he wouldn't have done so this freely." Neuvillette chuckled.

 "And the guy?"

 "He wasn't arrested, if that's what you're asking. We've been keeping an eye on him trying to find his supplier with little success as of yet. We have, however, been slowly purchasing all of his stock. Mostly Furina wearing different disguises."

 "From your expression, I rather that that has not solved the problem as well as you had hoped."

 "No. There is a... There is another case of serial disappearances." He spat out angrily.

 "What?!"

 Again?!

 "Obviously, he is not the only one selling Primordial Seawater. I've been going around trying to find if not another supplier, at least the source of the water, but..."

 "No success."

 "Not until today."

 Wait.

 Today?

 "You mean it's-"

 "Right here."

 And with that, he jumped down.

 Within mere minutes, we had arrived at a small cave connected to the initial large one, and within it...

 "Archons..." I couldn't help but exclaim.

 There was a pool of shining water. Next to it, crates upon crates filled with bottles full of it.

 But, it appears that Neuvillette wasn't finished yet.

 "That cavern where I dove down, there is a place where you can exit Meropide."

 In other words, an unsupervised smuggling route.

 "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that our problem on the surface and the group that wants you dead have some sort of connection. If not..."

 "They could also be the same group..."