Chantal

[Chantal]

Bernard lowered the Diary. The wrinkles on his forehead became even more pronounced for a while as his mind started processing the significance of the entry he just read. He slowly turns to Delcroix.

"Agent, stop sifting through the rubble for a moment. Connect with the bureau database, find out who lived here." Pierlot could only vaguely imagine how the area looked like before he was called here. The sheer force of the cascade transfigured the face of several square miles into a grotesque broken shadow of the dignified pomp of the district that was the pride of Ile du Palais just a few days ago. To Bernard it almost felt as if the force of time peacefully brought on the change over eons for a second, right as his rational mind quickly reminded him of the calamity and terror of what happened here just this week. Before he gets lost in trying to re-imagine what has been, Lucas, with the same out of place enthusiasm as before raises his voice.

"It was the mansion of Baron Robert de Marais Monsieur" the rookie reported. Bernard briefly sifted through his memory. He could rely on it as much as anything else he believed in, all his solved cases, all his interrogations he so excelled at in part thanks to the merciless and often ruthless commitment to his duty. But he knew he wouldn’t know the name of one of the former nobles. Those who remained on New Paris, not committed to The King but instead continuing to draw on their vast riches, clinging to their titles that now didn't mean too much in The Union besides nostalgia and admiration of "commoners". Those that stayed behind were unlikely to ever cross paths with the investigator. They weren't the fighting or bold types to begin with.

Why then here though? Why would the terrible unexplainable accident's epicentre originate in an arbitrary Baron's mansion? Ile du Palais was littered with former nobles and their homes. Why here? "What about any women besides servants and staff Delcroix - perhaps a daughter" Bernard inquired, in an attempt to gain more insight into the story of the young woman who's innocence oozed from the entries of the object he held in his hand.

"Baron de Marais. No children, only one registered non-staff occupant along with him." Lucas was reciting the data entries Neural Net was feeding him straight from The Intelligence Database.

"His wife, Chantal de Marais"