The day of the interview arrived. Furina said I needed a suit to attend an interview, but what kind of suit would an orphan without a guardian have? So Furina paid out of her own pocket to have one tailored for me.
"A suit personally tailored by Lady Furina herself~ You should be grateful, you know~?"
"Thanks, Furina."
"Eek...! Wasn’t that too straightforward?!"
"But I am grateful."
I tried the suit on and found it slightly too large. Why had she made it bigger?
"Furina, doesn’t this seem a little big?"
"You’re still growing, aren’t you? You’re supposed to wear it one size bigger."
"I see. You even thought about that. Thanks."
"Hehe~ Naturally~"
After thanking Furina, I headed to the Opera Epiclese today.
After getting off at Marcotte Station, I walked toward the Fountain of Lucine. There, people who had passed the third stage of the bar exam, like me, were gathering in small groups and heading toward the Opera House. I could even hear them whispering among themselves.
"Is that him? The kid who came first..."
"A child like that placed first? You really do live long enough to see everything."
"To study that hard despite being an orphan... Isn’t that the very definition of overcoming adversity?"
Doing my best to ignore the many voices, I took my assigned seat in the Opera House. Maybe because I had ranked first, my seat was in the very front row.
I sat there quietly, not knowing what to do. Maybe I should have brought a newspaper...
But there were barely any people seated in front of me. Why was everyone sitting behind me? This was making me nervous...
Once enough people had gathered, Neuvillette appeared before us.
"Greetings. Welcome, everyone, for having made it through that difficult bar examination. I am Neuvillette, the Chief Justice of Fontaine."
Applause rang out. I joined in as well.
"This examination is an unusual one, having been held in March. Accordingly, there have been several changes, including an increased number of candidates to be selected and adjustments to the examination’s difficulty. However..."
I continued listening to Neuvillette go on and on. This was seriously making me sleepy... Did I really have to keep listening to this?
"There is also one exceptional individual among this year’s candidates. Mr. Avrora Snezhevich, seated at the very front."
Neuvillette suddenly singled me out. What was this about, Neuvillette? Why make me nervous like this?
"Despite his young age, this individual has alternated between first and second place in the bar examination. And as you all know, he bears the label of being Fatui."
Whispers rose from the audience. Did you really have to bring that up here?
"However, it is an indisputable fact that he is from Fontaine, and there was no issue with his taking the examination. Therefore, the Court has decided not to discriminate against him merely because he is Fatui."
Right. That was how it should be. Otherwise, I’d seriously lose my mind. Do they have any idea how hard it was to get this far?
"We will now proceed with the interviews. You will be called in numerical order, so please come forward when your number is called."
Let’s see, my number was... fifty-five? This was going to take a while.
"While the interviews are underway, please wait here. You may do as you please so long as you do not leave the Opera House. If you are bored, you may read the newspapers provided at the entrance."
I immediately went out to grab a newspaper. Which paper would I read? Obviously The Steambird. Taking a copy of The Steambird, I returned to my seat and sat down.
[Fourth-Round Interviews Held at the Opera Epiclese]
[Avrora Snezhevich Attends as Scheduled]
[Special Report: Where Have the Missing Women Gone?]
That bastard Vacher... It looked like he was working hard. He really had gone mad, if it was enough to become a newspaper special report.
I kept reading the newspaper as I waited for my turn. One copy of The Steambird left me with far too much time, so I even read the Fontaine Legal Newspaper. I checked out the legal comic for children that they had supposedly prepared with great ambition, but it was still boring. How could it be less entertaining than the Chinese-character comics I read as a kid? Put some effort into it.
"Mr. Avrora Snezhevich, come in."
Neuvillette called for me. Leaving the newspaper I had been reading behind, I headed for the interview room.
As expected, the interview was one-on-one with Neuvillette. I was scared of what he might ask.
"You are Mr. Avrora, correct?"
"Yes, that’s correct."
"And you are thirteen years old...?"
"Y-Yes?"
My real age had been revealed out of nowhere, and I was startled. How did Neuvillette know this?
"When we audited the orphanage last time, I saw your documents. They stated your age when you entered the orphanage. You entered at eight years old, and five years have passed, making you thirteen now."
"Yes... that’s right..."
"Why did you falsify your age? Of course, your age is registered as fifteen in Fontaine’s administration, so this question has no bearing on whether you pass the examination, but..."
"The director deliberately falsified my age and registered it with the administration. Her intention was to have me take the bar exam sooner."
"I see... Why did the director have you take the examination, even going so far as to falsify your age?"
"She seems to have judged that getting close to you, Mr. Neuvillette, would be the quickest way to achieve her plans. That is why I was selected."
"That choice was successful, then. A young child of thirteen achieved both first and second place in the bar examination."
"She never dreamed it would end up undermining her own plans."
"Undermining them...?"
"Even if I had not placed first and merely passed as the youngest candidate, I would have been in the newspapers. But since I ranked first, the attention became even greater. That attention spread to the orphanage where I lived. Once that hellish place was exposed to the entire world, the director saw me as an obstacle and tried to kill me."
At the words tried to kill me, Neuvillette visibly faltered.
"She tried to kill you?"
"Yes. She tried to kill me. But there were kind people who saved me. Those kind people met a different fate, however..."
I clenched the fist resting on my leg.
"That is why I hate that damned House of the Hearth. I truly hate a place that trains orphans and uses them however it pleases. That is why I decided to become a lawyer. I absolutely refuse to let orphans be sent into places like that. Because I will stop it."
"That is quite a righteous answer. However, lawyers in Fontaine receive public attention, because there are so few of them. There may be times when you must handle dirty work. Will that be acceptable to you?"
"I would rather die than do something dirty."
"That is rather extreme. What made you this way?"
"It would not be an exaggeration to say the Fatui made me this way. There are bad Fatui, but there are good Fatui too. You can think of me as having been influenced by both sides."
"Then let me ask you something else. What is your relationship with Furina?"
"...What?"
Why was Furina suddenly coming up here?
"Furina’s behavior has changed recently. Like a girl in love. She smiles when she sees newspapers bearing your name, frequently changes her schedule, and... she moved the examination period forward by six months..."
I flinched. I had not expected Neuvillette to ask so directly. How was I supposed to answer?
"We’re just... close friends."
"Close friends... I think moving an examination forward by six months for such a friend is excessive."
"I was very surprised too. So I gave Furina a piece of my mind."
More precisely, I gave her a few spanks.
"Hm... I understand. Mr. Avrora, you have passed. The falsification of your age was carried out without your consent, so there is nothing we can do about it on our end. However, we will publicly announce that your age was manipulated."
"Yes, understood."
"Then go see Furina. I have heard you well."
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Neuvillette."
I opened the interview room door and walked out. After walking a little farther down the hall, I found the room where Furina was waiting. I waited for the person ahead of me to come out. Then...
"Sob... I really passed..."
The person before me came out crying. Were they really that happy?
"Lady Furina was one of the interviewers... I thought I was going to die from nerves..."
It seemed they had suffered quite a lot. Given Furina’s personality, she did seem like the type who might fail anyone she disliked, so perhaps that was part of it.
I knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
"You may enter~ My subject~"
That smug tone—Furina was really getting into character.
I opened the door and went inside. Furina was seated with her legs crossed, looking at me as though she were gazing down upon a servant. Had she treated the other candidates like that too?
"W-What! It’s Avrora! You should’ve given me a signal first~"
Furina rose from her chair and approached me.
"You know, you were sitting there awfully arrogantly."
"I didn’t want you to see me acting like that... Ugh..."
Furina blushed in embarrassment. That was kind of cute.
"Do you remember the promise I made before? I said I’d grant you anything you wanted, didn’t I? Go ahead and say it here~ And just so you know, the soundproofing is perfect, so no one will hear us~"
Did she want something beyond a kiss? The way she kept bringing up soundproofing made it seem that way, didn’t it?
"Sigh... Can’t you just pass me here, and we can do that later?"
"No!! If we do it outside and your sister barges in, we’ll be ruined!!"
It really looked like my guess was right. This Furina... seemed to want something more than a kiss.
"So... satisfy me... Avrora..."
Furina suddenly slipped into shy mode.
"If you satisfy me... I’ll let you pass..."
"You heard from Neuvillette, right? That I’m not actually fifteen?"
"I heard... You’re thirteen... But... can’t you do it anyway?"
"...The soundproofing really is perfect, right?"
"Yeah..."
A little while later.
"Avrora~ You passed~! Congratulations~"
"Yeah... Now I just need to become a lawyer..."
"What?! I told you to work directly under me, didn’t I?!"
"Can’t I be a lawyer working directly under you?"
"If that’s what you mean... I’ll allow it..."
"But I’m setting up my office outside, all right? If there’s a problem, you come find me."
"Fine! I get it! Now get out. I still have more interviews to conduct, you know?"
"Understood, interviewer."
And so I left Furina behind. I had passed, proudly(?) enough.
A week later, The Steambird published the following article.
[Youngest Successful Candidate: Avrora Snezhevich, Age 13]
[Mistake Caused by an Administrative Error. Administration: We Will Ensure There Are No Further Errors.]
[Avrora Gives an Exclusive Interview to The Steambird Today]
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