Seeing the Magic Assistant's reaction, everyone knew he was hiding a secret, and the crowd immediately grew expectant.
Sensing the Magic Assistant's distress, Lyney was certain his theory was correct: the man had indeed seen something in the box's hidden compartment. He pressed further.
"Monsieur Assistant, please tell us what you saw."
"Everyone wants to know the truth, and you're the only one who knows it now."
"No... no! Please, don't force me! Let me go!"
"I can't bear to relive that scene..."
Just then, a member of the Maison Gardiennage rushed in, urgency etched on their face.
"Monsieur Neuvillette, I've discovered a crucial clue!"
"The deceased and the Magic Assistant were lovers."
The crowd froze for a moment before realization dawned on their faces.
They finally understood why the Magic Assistant was on the verge of collapse: he had likely watched his lover die right before his eyes!
"Still, refusing to testify and clear Mr. Lyney's name, even under these circumstances, seems excessive."
"There's no reason to sympathize with Lyney! His loyalty has always been to the Fatui, even at the cost of harming the nation that raised him!"
"That's not fair. Mr. Lyney, Miss Lynette, and Miss The Knave have all contributed greatly to Fontaine."
"I believe they're genuinely working to find a way to counter the Prophecy..."
The audience erupted into another heated debate. However, Lyney had no time to pay attention to the commotion. He turned back to the Magic Assistant and said:
"Monsieur Assistant, if you still refuse to reveal the truth, can you really live with yourself?"
"She was your lover!"
"Do you really want the true killer to walk free?"
"Or... could it be that the scene you witnessed was actually your lover taking her own life?"
Hearing Lyney's words, the man trembled violently. He stared at Lyney in disbelief, stammering:
"H-how do you know about this?"
"You weren't even in the underground passage at the time!"
"No, even if you'd stayed in your box the whole time, you couldn't possibly have seen something like that..."
Seeing the man's reaction, the audience gasped in shock.
Suicide?
This was the last thing they could have imagined.
So there had been no murderer all along? No wonder the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale had delivered a verdict of innocence.
But then their eyes lit up, and their excitement surged.
Yes! This was exactly the kind of sensational case that would give them bragging rights for ages!
"I didn't see anything—it was just a simple guess," Lyney explained.
"I suddenly noticed that all the wounds on the victim could have been self-inflicted."
An expression of surprise crossed Lyney's face as well. He had only arrived at this unconventional conclusion based on the other man's reaction, never expecting to hit the mark.
"At the time, apart from you and me, there was no one else who could have been considered a suspect."
"But why the victim would commit suicide... that is difficult for me to understand."
"I'm hoping you can provide the answer, Mr. Assistant."
Faced with Lyney's quite sincere words, the Magic Assistant remained silent for a long moment before finally speaking.
"Because she wanted to frame you for her death, Mr. Lyney."
Lyney had expected to hear any number of reasons, but this one—this reason—left him momentarily stunned.
"Why? If she hated me, why go to such lengths?"
"Because she was a member of the Cult of No. 6."
"The Cult of No. 6?"
Upon hearing this name, the audience's expressions turned to disgust.
This infamous organization had recently emerged, its members lacking No. 6's abilities. Most of their terrorist plots had been foiled by the Court of Justice, leading to numerous arrests.
Yet, like No. 6 himself, the cult members were all lunatics. They periodically held "return rituals" in crowded public spaces—or, as outsiders saw it, they were simply pouring Primordial Sea Water over their heads and committing suicide.
A flicker of guilt crossed Neuvillette's eyes. The Cult of No. 6 remained stubbornly entrenched in Fontaine, and as its leader, he bore an undeniable responsibility for this failure.
The Magic Assistant pressed his hands to his face in anguish, pausing before continuing.
"I only learned of her cult affiliation when she took her own life. As for why she framed Mr. Lyney, it seems she was trying to complete what No. 6 had failed to accomplish."
Upon hearing these words, Lyney's fists clenched, his body trembling slightly.
Even after all this time, the events of that day remained indelibly etched in his mind.
The murderous magic he had witnessed that day nearly made him abandon performing magic altogether. Every time he used those magic props, he could almost see fresh blood continuously flowing from them...
At that moment, the Magic Assistant continued speaking.
"According to her words, the salvation No. 6 offered you back then wasn't enough. As followers and worshippers of No. 6, the Cult of No. 6 has now made you their target."
"Today marks the Cult of No. 6's first plan against you, and my lover was chosen for it..."
As he said this, extreme anguish resurfaced on the Magic Assistant's face.
"Can you even imagine what I felt at that moment?"
"When she was carving wounds into her own body with that dagger, she wore a fanatical smile, not uttering a single cry of pain."
"And then, she seemed to see me through the cracks of the box. Right before my eyes, without hesitation, she plunged a dagger into her own heart, then immediately withdrew it. All I could see was the spurting blood..."
After hearing the Magic Assistant's description, the audience couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines. Even without witnessing it firsthand, they could sense the bone-chilling horror of the scene.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Lyney."
"It's not that I didn't want to testify; I was just terrified..."
Hearing the assistant's words, Lyney, who had been momentarily stunned, snapped back to his senses and quickly reassured him.
"Don't blame yourself. I understand how you feel."
"You know, I've been through something similar myself..."
As Lyney spoke, his tone grew heavy.
"I watched my friend—my family—die before my eyes..."
Lyney's words instantly transported the crowd back to that day—a nightmare they wished to forget...
Though No. 6 was dead, the Cult of No. 6 remained active throughout Fontaine.
Sensing the crowd's emotions, Neuvillette sighed softly.
-
With the truth revealed, the audience was preparing to disperse, eager to share what they had witnessed today with others before the reporters could break the story.
Just as the Magic Assistant was about to turn away, Lyney addressed him again.
"Mr. Assistant, may I ask why you were hiding in the box's hidden compartment earlier?"
Upon hearing Lyney's question, the Magic Assistant's expression immediately turned peculiar.
"C-can I decline to answer that?"
Lyney smiled. "Of course you can."
"However, Mr. Assistant, you should understand that if you can't explain why you were in the compartment, you'll likely face a very thorough investigation and interrogation by the Maison Gardiennage."
"Moreover, if the reason you're unwilling to disclose is connected to the deceased, you could face additional charges."
"Am I correct, Monsieur Neuvillette?"
The Magic Assistant turned his gaze to Neuvillette, who slowly nodded in agreement.
Seeing this, the Magic Assistant finally resigned himself to his fate, reluctantly revealing the reason he had been hiding in the compartment.
"Actually, my lover and I had a fight."
"It was because I woke up too late that day and didn't have time to make breakfast for her and the neighbor. She got angry and even refused my request to hide in the cabinet and secretly watch them..."
Lyney and Lynette: "?"
The audience: "???"
As soon as the Magic Assistant opened his mouth, both Lyney and Lynette, as well as the audience, were left utterly bewildered.
Yet the Magic Assistant seemed oblivious to the crowd's bewilderment, or perhaps he had long anticipated their reaction and had already resigned himself to it.
"I wanted to beg for her forgiveness, vowing to have breakfast ready for her and the neighbor before they woke up every morning, and to prepare warm milk for them each night before bed."
"But this time, she refused to forgive me no matter what. She even stopped seeing me altogether and broke up with me."
At this point, the man clutched his chest.
"When she broke up with me, my heart ached terribly, and I was filled with anxiety."
"One night, I mustered the courage to go to the neighbor's door, hoping to talk to her one last time."
"But in the end, I was beaten up by the neighbor and never even caught a glimpse of her."
"If I had one last chance, it was during this magic show. I heard Mr. Lyney had chosen her to play a volunteer from the audience for the trick."
"That's why I hid in the interlayer shortly after the show began, waiting for her to appear before me. But I never imagined I'd witness... that scene."
"Waaah! Swallow, my Swallow, how will I live without you, my Swallow...?"
The Magic Assistant finally broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. His grief was so raw, anyone could feel the depth of his devotion to the deceased.
Yet none of the audience members felt moved by his grief. The unfolding narrative was so utterly bizarre that they were momentarily speechless.
Though they thought they'd seen enough unbelievable cases lately, reality kept outdoing itself, becoming increasingly outlandish, even bordering on the surreal.
Neuvillette was currently lost in thought, utterly baffled by the Magic Assistant's actions.
I feel like I understand the human race less and less these days... he thought.
-
"Um..."
A long moment passed. Just as Lyney felt he should say something to break the increasingly awkward silence, another Maison Gardiennage officer hurried over.
"Monsieur Neuvillette, we found a love letter addressed to Mr. Lyney in the deceased's room."
Lyney: "???"
Lynette: "!!!"
The audience: "??!!"
Neuvillette took a deep breath and accepted the evidence from the officer.
It was an envelope containing a photograph of Lyney performing magic and a letter filled with unabashed declarations of love. The letter's contents revolved around themes of "inverted life" and "reversed fates."
Neuvillette frowned. Deeming the letter's explicit content unsuitable for public display, he instructed the officer to show it only to Lyney, Lynette, and the Magic Assistant.
After reading the letter, Lyney realized that the Cult of No. 6's choice of the deceased for their scheme might not have been random. It was even possible the deceased had volunteered.
This led to an even more terrifying deduction: the leader of the Cult of No. 6 might be someone adept at identifying and exploiting the weaknesses and flaws in human nature.
If this theory were true, could their adversary truly be an incompetent fool who repeatedly devised plans riddled with loopholes?
Lyney suddenly felt the familiar dread he felt when facing No. 6. The leader of the Cult of No. 6 might very well be a member of that mysterious organization.
The organization hadn't been inactive in Fontaine all this time; they had been operating in the shadows for far longer than anyone realized...
Just as a suffocating fear began to overwhelm Lyney, he suddenly felt his hands being grasped.
Startled, Lyney berated himself for becoming so engrossed in his thoughts that he had let his guard down. He focused his attention on the person before him and was astonished to see the Magic Assistant, who had somehow appeared before him unnoticed.
The Magic Assistant's face was streaked with tears, his nose still wet, as he spoke in a voice filled with desperate sincerity and pleading.
"Mr. Lyney, I have a request that I implore you to grant."
(Spy-The following request is way to graphic to put on this platform.)
(Spy- Bc wtf...)
(Spy-I've been told to tell readers that if u want to see it, go check the discord)