A Drop of Justice 1 (Patreon)

A Drop of Justice - Or ‘Playing Ace Attorney has never been so French!’ (Genshin Impact AU, Lawyer!SI)

EDIT: This is an AU where neither Lumine or Aether are around. Most of the crazier stuff of the Archon’s Quests are getting solved by other characters.

In the world of Teyvat there’s many things people can do. Since the world is so vast and yet so brutal, the ample space of land and the possibilities of making a fortune for yourself are indeed extensive.

Yet, not all jobs are meant to pay a lot, or are meant to be a pleasant labor for many to enjoy. Sometimes, it even comes to mind the fact that not all jobs are seen in a specific lens. Lawyers in particular were a peculiar beast to discuss.

Not many nations in this crazy world followed a specific conduct beyond the classic ‘if it’s a small case the bailiffs will do, if it is big then the Justice Ministry shall tackle it’. Fontaine is not that, and its legal system is by far the closest to the one I had from back home.

My name is John Bukharin, and I am an Italian in pseudo-France. I didn’t have any dislike for the French folks, nor I had a real opinion towards them, but I had a deep distaste for the French Language for very Italian reasons.

Still, the matter at hand is that my narration prior to my introduction is not crazy talk. It is a statement of truth on what my new life is all about: law… and order.

I am not a cop, but the duty of a lawyer within the Court of Fontaine is no less important compared to a law enforcer. I was mostly a Defense Attorney, but I made some prosecutorial jobs from time to time.

And my day starts within the office/flat that I was able to acquire after my first successful trial. It was fairly small compared to other lawyer’s offices, and I wasn’t even the only occupant of the place.

In fact, my ‘housemate’ decided to leave her room right as I got breakfast prepared with some omelets and a glass of orange juice. Yawning as she fixed her cute yellow night-dress and hat, the blue-and-white-furred midget that sat by one of the chairs by the table, squinted her pretty blue eyes at me. Her red hair was a mess, but she didn’t seem to care as she focused on her meal.

“Good morning, Maeve,” I calmly greeted, the little thing that was known to be part of the Melusines smiled back.

“Morning, boss.”

“Had a pleasant night?”

“Yep,” She yawned, peeking at the newspaper resting on the side as I had read the thing right before I made the meal. “Any interesting news?”

“Same spectacles, same experiments and a few rumors about the usual individuals,” I replied calmly, almost disappointed as things had been a bit frenetic when I started my new life’s first days in the Hydro region. “But knowing fate, we’ll have a case to work with quite soon.”

Maeve was my assistant and secretary. The reason that led a Melusine to trust someone that isn’t native to Fontaine to become her boss is… peculiar. But it would be too long of a tale to explain, and I will just leave with the notion she felt slightly indebted with me and kind of fell in love with the job.

Melusines are, after all, a peculiar species of mini-humanoids that has a particular thirst for good work. And I was quite confident Maeve had ditched the ‘life debt’ thingy she had going when we started to work together at this point.

Now, after breakfast and getting ourselves refreshed by our respective bathrooms, we took our usual seats for the work hours. I would wait in the office, and Maeve would read some books by her desk just outside the office and right by the entrance door as we waited for the client.

Today proved to be a fruitful day as we got an interesting case in our hands.

Manager Boucicaut of Damoville Purveyor was indeed an important client considering his relevance, not much in regard to his revenue. And I could tell he wasn’t going to be a ‘paying’ client when he took a seat by my office and mentioned his current issues in hiring a lawyer.

“I-I was told that you wouldn’t ask payments from- from clients if they have a good enough case-”

“We are keen to make business when the court could urge the guilty side to refund the legal fees, yes,” I admitted. “If there’s not such a good case, then I would have to show you the door.”

He nodded as he understood my point, but the shopkeeper was not completely clueless on his situation and offered me a big stack of documents to sort out while he explained to me what was going on.

Turns out that someone had tried to set him up or something as he was hit by a random tax revenue control and found to have some products extra compared to what was listed in his index.

Considering some specific taxes in buying and keeping items among shopkeepers, that warranted a legal action on Boucicaut. It should have been an open-and-shut case for the ‘government’, but the ‘suspect’ raised a fair opinion and even fairer questions.

“T-The controls were sudden and without motivation for their lack of notice. Not only that, but those that found the irregularity seemed aware of where to find the irregularity itself.”

A most perplexing detail, and one I nodded at. “I believe this is quite the good case, Manager Boucicaut. So, your trial is set to happen within the next week?”

“Yes, Monsieur Bukharin.”

I nodded, claiming the documents. “I will see to have enough evidence and be present for the trial. To convalidate the deal, I suggest you have my secretary procure you the right paperwork- you will be able to keep a copy.”

“T-Thank you, Monsieur.”

“Don’t thank me until we are through with this and keep an eye out for any other ‘suspicious’ behaviors. Got it?”

Boucicaut left shortly after, but I found myself frowning over the name of the accusing party as I had read it somewhere. And as I remembered where, I was soon smiling at today’s newspapers.

I knew where I had to look, and I knew I was going to find a lot more than just an irregularity in the index of a shop.

—--------d-d-d-d—-------

A week passed, and Maeve and I were sitting in the Tribunal Area of the Opera Epiclese, the location where all trials were held and, if there were any, theatrical spectacles unfolded.

Today was going to be a big ‘work day’ for us all as Manage Boucicaut stared at the four large towers of papers sitting in front of Maeve with pure awe. It was all the proof we could find, and the prosecutor on the other side was sweating profusely at the sight.

The crowd was already whispering over what kind of ‘show’ I was about to show them, and the intrigued gaze owned by the Hydro Archon, Lady Furina the ruler and deity of Fontaine as she decided to take a seat and see the resolution of this trial further unnerved me. Not enough to worry about this ending well for us, but the kind of attention this was going to generate.

I just didn’t like how bratty the ‘Goddess’ could be after all…

Now, the reason why the trial hadn’t started yet was due to the fact that the Iudex, or the Chief Justice of Fontaine, was a man known to be strict with precision, especially with the notion of starting trials within the right time frame.

As the time neared, Monsieur Neuvillette finally appeared and took his elevated seat over the courtroom.

A man known for his integrity and his capacity to be understanding of many things but his lack of flexibility for when it comes to the ways the judging system truly worked, I found him more of an ally than a foe on most occasions.

Hopefully, today he was going to be a dear friend towards us.

“Since both parties are present, I declare that the trial regarding this potential tax fraud is now in session.”

Turning towards our booth, and specifically Boucicaut, Neuvillette continued to speak.

“Manager Boucicaut, due to the circumstances you found yourself here today, could you explain to the audience the reason why you find yourself here today in court?”

I shared a look with the manager. I coached him to come out as honest but also formal as it was possible for him. To not add any opinionated detail and to keep his mind on the facts as those would define him as an honest man. And people loved honesty in trials of this kind.

He nodded, standing up and turning to Neuvillette.

“A little more than a week ago, I was visited by two agents of the Taxation Bureau. They refused to explain the reason for the visit despite agents being required to present proof of their unwarranted visit. They started to investigate my storage room within the shop and found irregularities.”

Neuvillette turned to the other booth. “Why wasn’t a motivation brought up by the agents?”

“Perhaps a case of misunderstandings, Monsieur. But the reasoning is simple- a trustworthy anonymous contacted Tax Officer Fernand Danglars in regard to this anomaly tied to Manager Boucicaut and thus acted earnestly to see this case solved.”

Neuvillette nodded slowly and then turned his attention to me.

“Monsieur Bukharin, I have received your notes from yesterday. And I am very confused about the major request you are raising. Could you please explain to this court what you seek through your counter-claims?”

I nodded, standing up and giving a quick look to the rest of the people around. I had a bit of a following, but I bet I was going to see it doubled by the end of this big trial.

“Monsieur Neuvillette, within the lines of Article 5 of the Fontaine’s Constitution, I have the duty to establish a request to enforce the potential issue of a high-level conspiracy that has seen numerous victims, my client now among them, which threatens the economic stability of this country.”

“T-That’s a preposterous claim!”

“But not one that one would levy without reason,” I rebuked the prosecutor. “Monsieur Neuvillette, the notes I sent also had a particular document. I believe you have noticed that too.”

A nod, and the Iudex spoke back. “The Chief of the Garde has signed documentation which confirms that the proof requested and given by the Garde is authentic and valid for use in a legal trial such as this one.”

“Now, with that confirmation, I would like to finish my proclamation as it is within my rights of constitutional use. Within regards of the application of Article 5, I wish to extend the reach of such a trial to include with Tax Officer Danglars also Trade Masters Mondego, Caderousse, and de Villefort within the side of the accused, while also including a list of several shopkeepers that have seen their shops razed down by anomalous ‘fire accidents’ that allowed for those Trade Masters to buy the emptied lot and built upon it.”

“This request is outrageous! The exertion of such a claim is based on hypotheticals without any trace of truthfulness!” The prosecutors screeched back, but I smiled.

“In truth, there’s plenty of evidence to support this request. After all, using a letter to menace shopkeepers not once, not twice, but well over seventeen times is actually the true outrage- it’s outrageous that there is enough here to see your client and all those implied in this conspiracy are known friends through the public interviews published on last week’s Steambird release despite this being a clear violation of ethics!”

My sharp rebuttal caught the prosecutor off-guard and Neuvillette was blinking at the man himself as he sat down in utter silence. As I heard a few familiar clicks, I turned to see that the main source of ‘judgment’, the mechanical bane of my sanity, was turning in our favor.

The Oratrice Mecanique d’Analyse Cardinale was the ultimate judgment system. How did it work? I have no fucking clue. What I know is that if a side made more sense than the other, then the machine would favor them. In this case, I was being compelling enough within the case to get the machine to ‘like me more’.

Once again, while there was a tone of complexity within Fontaine's trials, the truth is that this was just a spectacle like a magic trick or an opera show.

So, if any lawyers in the real world would appear offended by my spin into a more ‘Law and Order’ sense of the fictional lawyering I was employing, that’s why it was working. It wasn’t just a matter of logic, it was a matter of spectacle and shock.

Which is how things shaped into a complete demolition of the prosecution’s case as the lawyer was not prepared for how things were turning for his side. The rest of the trial’s parties were rallied an hour into the trial itself, some even escorted into the booths forcefully- specifically the Trade Masters with their own lawyers in tow.

Despite an effort to counter my exposure of evidence to the court, the Oratrice kept on clicking in my favor. Four hours later and many shouted threats promptly ignored, Monsieur Neuvillette ruled in my favor with the Oratrice confirming his judgment first to free my client and then to see the new defense party guilty of the conspiracy trial.

My client and the other victims were compensated and my fees paid through the absurd costs the losing side had to provide. Plus, considering the conditions behind the conspiracy addendum, most of their properties were going to be seized around the time they were sentenced to a lengthy prison time.

All of which was going to be redistributed to the city itself so… it was a good enough reason for me to leave the documents there for the court’s clerks to handle, quickly shake hands with Boucicaut, and then, after snatching up poor Maeve, bolt for the closest rear door.

“On your six, journalists!”

I nodded at the Melusine’s cute screeching, both of us rather unwilling to get boxed in by the news-thirsty journalists. Too many of them, and not enough mental strength to endure it all.

The Paparazzi were just not my thing. Same for a certain Hydro Archon that would try to set up an ambush to any of the available exits. Luckily for us, we have done this long enough to know our way out of the courthouse without getting hunted down.

Once in the office, we called it truly a victory.

We made cash, we helped the innocents and we went home victorious for another big win in court.

The papers were going to nag us for the next few days, but we could manage to weed out the worst rags out so we could dodge any potential rumors. It was just… a never ending cycle.

Win in court, get targeted by the media, then get praised, then win in court again and so on.

‘At the very least, it was a good life,’ I thought as I lay on the couch, Maeve snoring cutely while resting on top of me, happily smiling as I rubbed her head softly.

—-------d-d-d-d—-------

AN

Life in Fontaine is quite a blast. Especially when the next case may be the potential ‘last’ one for someone like Lawyer Extraordinaire John Bukharin. Why? Well, it involves… the Fatui.