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"I'm sorry, but I have to decline your request," Neuvillette says with an expressionless face to Furina and Charlotte.
"Huh?!" the pink-haired journalist sputters, her face a mixture of surprise and hurt. "Why not, Monsieur Neuvillette?! Everyone wants to see Miss Furina on the front page of The Steambird's Valentine's day issue! Why can't we take just one picture of her and use it for that?"
"Yeah, why not, Neuvillette?" Furina chimes in, looking equally displeased with her arms crossed in front of her body as she stares intently at the Iudex sitting behind his desk.
"Because… it is the law," he answers flatly.
The young women exchange glances.
"When Furina was the Hydro Archon," Neuvillette explains, "I passed a law expressly forbidding any reproduction of her image and the use thereof. To put it simply, it is illegal in Teyvat for anyone to take a picture of Lady Furina and mass produce it for public consumption."
Furina lets out a faint gasp of shock and disbelief. "This is the first time I'm hearing about this," she says in outrage. "I-I was sure that I have many photographs—"
"All of those were confiscated for being 'fruits of a crime'," Neuvillette says. "Every photograph taken of you, every portrait or any attempt to produce anything similar, has been seized from the public and kept in our vaults for centuries."
"But I'm no longer the Archon!" Furina protests.
"That is irrelevant," Neuvillette says plainly. "The law explicitly mentions you by name—Furina de Fontaine—oh, and it applies everywhere on Teyvat." His lips curl up into a small victorious smile. "So don't think about trying to circumvent the law or else you'll find yourselves—not you, Furina—spending the rest of your life in the Fortress of Meropide."
Charlotte blanches and swallows nervously at that.
She lets out a sigh of defeat. "Alright, Monsieur Neuvillette, The Steambird withdraws its request to have Miss Furina be on the cover of our Valentine's issue… But who do we put on the cover now? Our readers are most eager to see Miss Furina. We wouldn't want to disappoint them."
Neuvillette's smile grows as an idea occurs to him.
The next day, the Melusines titter as they admire the front page of The Steambird's Valentine issue.
"This is so unprecedented!" Liath says as she holds a copy of the issue in her hands.
"I know," Sedene nods, a bright smile on her face; "And we have Monsieur Neuvillette to thank for making this happen!"
"They definitely deserve this," Menthe adds; "They always work so hard for the people of Fontaine everyday."
On the front page of The Steambird's Valentine's Day issue are Elphane and Aeval, operators of the Fontaine's two Aquabuses.
Back in Neuvillette's office, he and Furina are having tea, each holding a similar issue. Neuvillette looks very pleased with how the photograph turned out while Furina steals a glance at him, smiling behind the newspaper.
"I suppose this way is better," she quietly thinks to herself as she looks at Aeval and Elphane again on the cover, a warm smile on her lips.