Since the root of the problem was now clear, things became easier to handle. Richard turned his gaze toward Clorinde.
That all-too-familiar look made Clorinde instantly feel a sense of foreboding.
Sure enough, Richard opened his mouth: "Clorinde, you, "
"I'd better be the one to explain things to Lady Furina," Lynette volunteered.
She had seen enough to realize that this matter required her personal involvement. Neither Richard nor Clorinde were suitable.
Richard's status as the party directly involved made his position far too awkward, and dangerous. What if, in trying to explain, the whole mess accidentally became true?
As for Clorinde, her tongue-tied nature meant she was equally unsuitable. Furina clearly wasn't thinking straight at the moment, and if Clorinde rambled nonsense, she could end up dragging Furina into it, and then what if it became true?
In Lynette's view, the safest option was for her to personally clarify things to Lady Furina.
After all, why would she deliberately make the "game" harder for herself?
Clorinde, seeing Lynette take on what she considered an extremely troublesome task, was deeply moved.
Richard hadn't expected Lynette to step up either and was a little surprised. But after thinking about it, he realized she was indeed the most suitable.
More suitable than Clorinde, in fact. But for some reason, Richard instinctively didn't want Lynette to get involved in this.
Still, since Lynette had already offered, and Clorinde had no objection, he let it be.
After all, Richard couldn't very well shove the task into Clorinde's hands by force, push a rabbit too far and it'll bite!
With the explaining left to Lynette, the next matter was controlling public opinion.
Thanks to Furina's habit of "showing off her ring to everyone she met," practically no one in the Palais Mermonia was unaware of it anymore.
Of course, to most people, a celebrity like Furina wearing extra jewelry was the most natural thing in the world. And Furina herself wasn't about to go telling everyone that the ring was a gift from Richard. Half of them didn't even know who Richard was. What use was there in bragging?
So she only mentioned it to those who knew Richard personally and were on good terms with him.
Naturally, his close colleagues knew that one trip to Mondstadt wasn't enough for Furina and Richard to suddenly come back as husband and wife.
But gossip spreads, and once it's passed along tenfold, the details twist beyond recognition.
Especially once Sedene got wind of it. As Chief Justice Neuvillette's secretary and assistant, Miss Melusine interacted with countless people each day, from ministers and secretaries to ordinary Fontaine citizens coming to handle affairs. And with her reputation as an "emotional expert," conversations naturally drifted in that direction.
Combine that with Furina's natural star power, and once the topic came up, it exploded.
The Palais Mermonia might house many people, but juicy gossip spreads like wildfire, whether true or not.
And since the Palais is Fontaine's political heart, the most information-dense place in the nation, even a small rumor could cause a storm outside.
If left unchecked, within days all of Fontaine would "know" that their Lady Furina had become "Madame Furina."
That would drag Richard unwillingly into the public spotlight, the one thing he dreaded most.
But sometimes, the more you don't want something to happen, the more likely it is to happen.
The very next day, "Furina's Ring" shot straight to the top of Fontaine's trending topics, dominating public discussion.
And it hadn't even started from the Palais. Two nights ago, when Furina impulsively joined a stage performance during a musical at the Opéra Epiclese, a reporter had snapped a photo of her.
The photo, published the following day, revealed a sapphire ring on Furina's left ring finger.
The discovery spread like wildfire. Add in some "insider leaks" from Palais staff, and soon all of Fontaine was talking about it.
The newspaper that printed the photo saw its sales skyrocket, copies were now nearly impossible to find.
Inside the Palais, Richard set aside one such "sold-out" paper, his expression blank.
There was one piece of good news and one piece of bad.
The good news: although speculation raged, no one had yet conclusively identified the ring as his gift.
The bad news: it was only a matter of time before people put the pieces together.
When it came to secrecy, the Palais might be clumsy, but when it came to leaks, Fontaine's civil servants were masters of their craft.
As the saying went:
"When news spreads in Fontaine, the first to know are the Fatui's Hearth House, then the Steam Bird reporters, and only last the government department that was supposed to receive the information."
Furina herself was just as troubled. Thanks to Lynette's crash course yesterday, she now wore Richard's gift on her right pinky finger, symbolizing "no time for romance, enjoying single life."
But it didn't help. Because of that one stage appearance, the image of her wearing it on her left ring finger was already burned into public memory.
Now, even changing it seemed like a clumsy cover-up.
Some unscrupulous paper could easily slap on a headline like:
{"Hydro Archon Focalors Back to Single Just a Week After Secret Wedding, Dumped?"}
{"Furina Abandons Husband; Victim Mr. Ri Speaks Out."}
{"Shocking! Hydro Archon Married, Guess Who the Groom Is?"}
Furina herself could think of dozens of such titles, professional journalists would come up with even better ones.
And they could just write some unrelated fluff beneath the headline, guaranteeing clicks while dodging legal trouble.
"Richard, what do we do now? Say something!" Furina slumped over her desk, drained.
"Lady Furina, it's just a ring. We never gave it any special meaning, and even if we did, it was purely as a symbol of friendship."
"Try telling that to the busybodies and see if they believe you," Furina shot back.
This wasn't about truth. Nobody cared how many bowls of noodles you really ate!
"How about an official statement?" she suggested.
"Do you ever read official statements?" Richard countered.
Furina fell silent. Who actually reads that boring stuff?
"Then what should we do?" she groaned, giving up thinking.
"In my opinion, instead of trying to clarify something impossible to clarify, we should shift everyone's attention elsewhere," Richard said.
"Shift it? To what? What could possibly be bigger than me suddenly becoming 'Madame Furina'?" She looked at him with weary eyes.
"Strictly speaking," Clorinde interjected, "according to proper naming convention, you'd actually be called Madame Richard."
"Shut it, Clorinde! I still haven't settled accounts with you about this morning!" Furina snapped.
Earlier that morning, Clorinde had been ambushed by a horde of reporters outside the Palais.
With no media experience whatsoever, the usually unflappable duelist had been toyed with like a rookie.
"Miss Clorinde, as Lady Furina's chief personal secretary, do you know if she's married?"
"No." Clorinde's face was taut with tension.
"No meaning, you don't know she's married, or no meaning she isn't married?"
"She isn't married."
"Then what about the ring?"
"It's a symbol of friendship."
"So it was a gift? Not self-bought?"
"Yes…"
"From a man?"
"No comment."
"Ah, so it was. Does he often meet with Lady Furina?"
"No comment."
"Often meets with her… then he must be a government official too?"
"No co- " Clorinde cut herself off, realizing she was seconds away from handing over someone's ID card.
"I have urgent business. Make way!"
Her face hardened, and the aura of the strongest duelist burst forth, silencing the reporters.
Only then did they realize who she was.
"She's that Clorinde, the strongest duelist who vanished for so long!"
"I thought it was just the same name! But why is she Furina's secretary now?"
"Who knows? Maybe dueling got boring?"
"Forget that, doesn't this make her words even more credible?"
"So Furina really did accept a man's gift, and wore it on her ring finger!"
"And he's a Ministry official! Probably not Lord Neuvillette…"
"Wait, you're all focusing on that? Am I the only one jealous of that guy?"
"Damn it, don't remind me! That bastard really deserves to die…"
Clorinde quickened her pace, determined to get away from the reporters and their chatter.