Wriothesely's POV
"Good evening, Duke Wriothesely!"
"Good evening."
I put on my most natural-looking smile as I greeted the girls when they opened the door.
"Is something wrong?"
But they still noticed.
I guess that's melusines for you.
"Nothing major. Could you do me a favor, Trow?"
Look at that! I've been here so much I'm starting to remember their names.
"A favor?"
"Please get everyone and go upstairs for a little bit while I talk to Monsieur Neuvillette about something."
Just a simple chat.
A simple violent chat.
"Alright!"
Luckily Trow suspected nothing.
I watched from around the corner as all of them rushed upstairs giggling about something and only then did I go inside.
"Good evening, Duke Wriothesely." Neuvillette greeted me as if nothing had happened.
As if he hadn't just...
And now that he was in front of me I couldn't hold myself back anymore.
I grabbed his collar and pulled him away from that pile of paperwork that somehow seemed taller than last night, slamming him up against the wall.
"Duke Wriothesely. This is incredibly rude." He said without even flinching.
Rude...
Rude?
"I'm being rude, you say?"
"It most definitely wasn't me who slammed you against a wall."
Argh!
This damn frustrating-
"You- You came into my territory and told me to behave! Behave, I repeat! What do you think I am?! Some kind of dog?!"
"If I would compare you to an animal a wolf would be a far more accurate comparison, Your Grace. But if it's a dog you compare yourself to-"
"Neu-vil-lette."
This damn dense bastard!
"If the girls weren't here I would beat you to death, laws be damned!"
"I'm afraid to disappoint you, but with your strength, you are far from capable of, as you so crudely put it, beating me to death."
I'm aware, you bastard!
But I would still try to punch you in the face nonetheless.
"What? That's it?" A familiar voice suddenly sounded.
I immediately froze.
Oh, gods...
I slowly turned my head and sure enough.
Lady Furina was sitting right across from where Neuvillette was.
"Oh, don't stop on my account. Please continue." She waved, munching on some snacks.
I quickly turned away from her to glare at Neuvillette.
"You did not give me the chance to warn you, Your Grace." He pointed out.
And that's true, but...
Archons! This is embarrassing to the extreme!
And just like that, all the arguments I spent the day thinking about, all the insults I had in store for him just slipped right out of my mind.
In the end, we both ended up sitting across from Lady Furina.
"So... Neuvillette, the ever-serious Neuvillette, told you to behave?" She asked.
She sounded rather amused and I honestly couldn't blame her.
"I merely warned him against punching the seal I placed on the Primordial Sea. Besides, I do the same for the girls from time to time." Neuvillette said calmly.
"The melusines are pretty much your children, Neuvillette. Duke Wriothesely is, in human terms, a full-grown adult."
A long silence ensued after this comment and just as I thought that he finally understood...
"Do I have to remind you that I was forced to do the same for you as well, Lady Furina?"
The archon's face turned completely red in an instant.
"Neu-vil-litte! What nonsense are you spouting?!"
"Last time when you-"
"Shut your mouth this instant!" She shouted.
And just like that the room fell silent once again.
Is this how the two interact outside the Opera?
No matter how I look at it, Neuvillette is treating our archon like a misbehaving child.
Wait.
Was he treating me like a kid as well this morning?
Lady Furina suddenly jumped up.
"I'm leaving."
And with that, she ran off towards the door only to be stopped by a wall of water.
"Leave the box."
"No."
"Leave it."
"No!"
"Furina."
Her name came out more like a low growl and I could see the archon stiffen.
With the snap of her fingers, a box appeared on the counter.
"Happy now?"
"I will be once you place the original contents back inside."
And she did eventually, but not before grumbling about how rude and unmannered Neuvillette was to speak to an archon as such.
When she did eventually leave, Neuvillette just sighed as he picked up the box.
"So, what's in it?" I asked.
"Primordial Seawater."
"Of course it Primordial- What?!"
He said it so matter of factly that at first I just nodded along but...
"Why the hell do you even have that?! No, wait! How do you have that?!"
No. Actually, never mind.
If it's him it would be all that weird if he had a bottle of Primordial Seawater.
Hell.
I wouldn't be surprised if he could drink it.
Instead of answering he brought the box toward the other side of the room, coming still in front of a painting.
Now that I take a better look at it, that painting was handing off the wall a bit crooked.
Really?
Neuvillette, THE Neuvillette, hangs his paintings up tilted?
He took the painting down to reveal a safe.
Hmm...
That safe is pretty scratched up.
Did someone try to steal from the Chief Justice of all people?
As I was thinking this, I saw him frown, and right after an intimidating wave of power swept through the house.
"Girls! Come here this instant!" He shouted.
Neuvillette sounded angry.
To be exact, he sounded incredibly pissed.
I found myself frozen in place, unable to move a muscle.
This was the first time I had seen him this angry.
No...
This was the first time I had truly seen him angry at all.
I've seen him mildly annoyed or a bit bothered, but...
Angry?
No, never.
The girls were downstairs in an instant, none of them daring to make a sound as Neuvillette glared at them.
"When I allowed you inside my house for the duration of your recovery, what was the one rule that I made?"
Silence.
"What was it?!"
Another wave of power swept through the room.
This time, a small voice sounded from within the group.
"Don't touch the safe."
Oh...
It seems like this won't end well.
"Right. Don't touch the safe. That is the ONE SINGLE rule I have in place and someone went and broke it. It could have been neither Furina nor Wriothesely as I keep an eye on both of them every second of their stay, so if I don't hear exactly touched it, I will personally bring every single one of you, including the ones that have already gone back to work, right back to Merusea Village for the next decade the very least!"
He completely exploded and at the melusines of all people.
The sweet little creatures he cared about the most.
At this point...
"Neuvillette."
I felt the need to intervene.
"Neuvillette, that's enough."