Alternate title: A question shocking enough to decrease Wriothesley's EQ
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Wriothesley's POV
Uhm...
Neuvillette has been staring at me an awful lot.
Especially after Zhongli was tossed out of his office for attempting to say something Neuvillette didn't seem to like.
It's not a bad stare or anything. He's just... staring.
Like he is trying to figure out something.
"Something troubling you?" I asked eventually.
I couldn't take it anymore.
My question seemed to snap him out of some daze.
"Oh. My apologies. It wasn't my intention to stare."
He pulled back a bit and that reminded me of just how close to each other we were sitting.
And if that wasn't enough...
"The mister obviously thinks you are handsome, Dad. It's only natural to stare at something you find nice to look at." Sigewinne chimed in from the couch across.
God!
My daughter will be the death of me!
"Sigewinne-"
"Hmm... That's not entirely wrong..." Neuvillette mumbled, effectively cutting off all of my thoughts.
??????
Can you-
Can you not say something like that so casually?!
I swear, these two were born just to make me lose my mind!
"But I am also troubled by the whole matter of the engagement. It creates a whole mountain's worth of work for me."
"As your brother's lawyer?"
"As both of their lawyers. These two and another... far more troublesome person who will want a lengthy conversation with me about this." He sighed.
Oh?
That's some important information.
Zhongli I understand and expected, but to think Neuvillette is Childe's lawyer as well.
And...
A person more troublesome than these two?
What troublesome person could have something to say about this engagement?
...
It took me some time to finally come to a name. No, rather than a name, it was more of a title.
"The Tsaritsa?"
As soon as that came out of my mouth, Neuvillette gave me a look with a clear meaning.
That's the end of that conversation.
But I suppose I got a whole lot of information already.
So Neuvillette is her lawyer as well, huh...
That would mean he probably knows her name, her weakness-
And... I should stop right there.
It's not like he'll just tell me.
I don't expect him to tell me, either.
He's just doing his job hiding it and I'll have to do my job better to find out.
"Are you two done looking at each other lovingly?" Sigewinne spoke up suddenly.
And...
This is where I drop dead.
We were not looking at each other lovingly!
I had yet to say anything but she gave me a look that seemed to say: Convince yourself of that before trying to convince me.
"Since Dad won't spit out what he wants... Mister, can you look at this?"
Sigewinne pulled a small stack of papers from her bag and handed it to Neuvillette.
It was the test he gave her last time.
"You finished it already?" Neuvillette asked surprised.
"I finished it on the second day, I just took some more time to go through it a few times." Sigewinne explained.
Neuvillette nodded and stood up to go to his desk and grab a pen to mark potential mistakes.
I was expecting him to sit down at his desk but instead, he came back and sat down right next to me.
And when I say next to me, I mean so close that his leg was against mine. Caused mostly by Sigewinne squishing herself on the couch on his other side.
...
Both were silent as Neuvillette read through the questions and answers, but Sigewinne could keep her calm less and less as Neuvillette went through the pages without marking anything wrong.
Wow!
My daughter is really cool!
This is the LSATs were talking about!
It was only at the later pages that Neuvillette stopped for suspiciously long to look at a question and started frowning.
"This question here. Why did you say they shouldn't settle? If they don't settle for attempted murder, there is a chance the victim will die during the trial in which the defendant tries to argue against the sentence, effectively turning attempted murder, into murder." Neuvillette pointed out.
"But mister, instead of arguing that the attack didn't happen at all, the defendant could argue intent. Take the attempted murder down to aggravated assault." Sigewinne argued.
"Oh?"
"The question states that the witnesses saw and heard nothing aside from the fight they broke up. Essentially, aside from the statement from the plaintiff, there is no other proof that this was indeed attempted murder and not a fight gone too far."
Damn...
She put a lot of thought into this huh?
And...
She sounds a lot like Neuvillette right as he's about to snatch someone we spent months to capture from under our noses.
Suddenly, there was a small chuckle and I looked up to see Neuvillette smiling.
"Something wrong with my reasoning mister?" Sigewinne asked confused.
"No, no. Nothing of the sort. Please give me a moment."
He stood up and walked over to the shelf to take a blue binder. He flipped through it for a bit before taking out a small stack of papers.
"Here. Read through this while I finish reading yours."
He handed it to Sigewinne and sat back down to continue looking through her test.
I leaned over slightly to look at what he had given her.
It was a copy of the same test, filled out and answered, filled with notes on the side.
Notes in Neuvillette's handwriting, I recognized instantly.
Curiously, Sigewinne flipped to the page they had just been discussing. Next to that question was a note as well.
'Argue intent and take sentence down to aggravated assault. Reasoning: lack of evidence.'
I knew it
It did sound like Neuvillette.
They thought about the same thing.
It was just far more impressive on Sigewinne's part as she was lacking the more than a decade's worth of experience Neuvillette had.
"So, was this the correct solution?" Sigewinne asked.
"Depends..." Neuvillette mumbled.
"Depends on what?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Depends on who you are asking. If you are talking about whether or not the answer to this question was not to settle, then no, it isn't the right answer. The creator of this test thought that further trial would be too risky and they want the examinees to see that. But if you are asking me, then yes, it is the correct answer. I for one am more than confident that I could get the sentence down to aggravated assault before the defendant kicked the bucket." He explained.
"I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, mister." Sigewinne commented.
And I couldn't agree more.
And...
"Neuvillette. Just what are you teaching my daughter?"
Isn't this topic a bit too heavy?
She's only six.
"I'm not really teaching her anything. I just gave her some books to look through."
"What a way to avoid responsibility."
"I am a lawyer after all. It's my specialty."
"Not even hiding it?"
"Trying to hide it from you of all people would get me too far, now would it?" He shrugged his shoulders.
That's true.
He has been making my life difficult for too long for me to believe he is all nice and innocent.
Sigh...
"Hey, Neuvillette. When you get married, try not to sabotage your partner's work so much. I reckon it would get you banished to the couch." I chuckled.
...
What the hell am I going on about?!
Why did I start this topic?!
Please don't follow up on it!
Please don't follow up on it!
"Not divorced?" He asked hesitantly.
Damn it!
Now I'm in for this conversation.
Way to go, Wriothesley!
"Nah. I doubt any decent person would divorce you over that. Work is work. If they marry you despite that, they shouldn't divorce you because of it." I answered eventually.
Putting his job aside, Neuvillette is an amazing person.
Whoever gets to marry him should count themselves lucky.
Sigh...
That kind of makes me sad since I have about zero chance there.
With how much Neuvillette loves kids, I reckon he would want a few of his own and while I have Sigewinne, I can hardly provide him with biological children.
Not that I don't think Sigewinne is enough. My little princess is a wonder.
I personally never wanted any children to begin with.
Neuvillette, however...
I doubt he of all people wouldn't want kids.
"Would you?" Neuvillette asked suddenly.
Huh?
"Marry me, I mean." He clarified.
HUH?!!?!
What?!
Marry?!
WHAT?!?!?!?
"Hypothetically. Looking at the work situation between us." He added.
Oh.
Oh...
Hypothetically.
Phew...
That shocked me half to death.
"Yeah. Yeah, sure. I don't see why not." I managed to spit out.
Enough, Wriothesley.
It is only a hypothetical situation.
Just an innocent question.
But...
Why is he smiling so contently?
Does he have someone he likes who has a similar work situation to me?
"You two..." Sigewinne spoke up.
We both turned to her to see her frowning.
"Could we go get some lunch before you continue flirting?" She asked bluntly.