Bernard's powerful memory started churning once more. He knew he heard that name before. It didn't take him long to realize that indeed his paths have crossed with Eloise Lefevre, the woman that must have been Chantal's mother before. It was right at the turbulent time of Minarchy, Duchy and Republique forming The Confederacy. Gallia came together in a great compromise that finally marked the end of the war in Gallia proper, and this was exactly when The Investigator was recruited to the newly formed Intelligence branch of The Confederacy to help tie loose ends.
Not everyone was fine with the compromise - there were those that hated that The Duchy was accepted, that the Nobles that remained on New Paris were to be also given a free pass. Those that were once a great help to The Council, those that Gallic Royal Intelligence Service hated the most. They were useful during the war, but threatened the all-important peace and harmony in The confederacy. They were a loose end that needed to be tied.
He remembered Eloise Lefevre. He remembered her because he spend many hours with her, intimately. She was one of the recipients of Berand's experience in his persuation methods. She was the crown jewel in Bernard's achievements. She was the person that finally revealed the exact location of Mazagran. The symbol of those that opposed the joining With The Duchy, who's brutal demise at the hands of The Confederacy cemented the peace between the joined states.
Bernard could feel the waves of cold sweat moving across his spine. The very same being he felt to connect with through the mere pages of the diary is the very same who's path he has so drastically and unknowingly affected. He didn't mean for her mother to die, her heart gave out after he has gotten what he needed from her. A very rare occurrence, but one that nonetheless was part of getting what needed to be gotten. Could this be a coincidence that he is holding her diary he so conveniently found in the midst amidst the Cascade's originating point? Shaken, he moved onto the next entry.
Date Once again, no date is visible The Day Has Come
Getting around The District wasn't hard. I have built up a reputation of a prominent baroness, the life of every party, always impeccably dressed and ready to dazzle even the pompous nobles around me with my sophisticated elegance. The man in a Black Coat needed an in, and he got it in the form they would least expect.
Bernard now knew. The gas explosion cascade that shook New Paris was no accident. It was a deliberate attack on the nobles that remained, and those that re-joined them and re-claimed their mansions after The Union was formed and took them back.
A terrible feeling took over him - he looked around him, saw young Lucas, full of ideals, excited to climb the ranks and excel at his duty for The Union. All the Clerical grunts that were trying to figure out how did the "accident" happen. Was she corrupted, or did she see clearly? Was his lifelong sense or ruthless duty wasted?
He knew something was wrong - the mysteriously intact diary was just too easy to find. Just like it wasn't hard to guess that he - the most accomplished investigator on New Paris - would be the one sent to examine a disaster of this scale. Before he could warn Lucas and sound the alarms his peripheral gaze touched upon The Diary, that now without any of Bernard's motion automatically switched to the last entry.
I betrayed my own parents and my foolishness led to their doom. My father died at Mazagran, betrayed by his own people. I believed in the wrong ideals. I sided with my husband who's unworthy corpse now lies here in the puddle of his own blood. Red like everybody else's, yet in many ways inferior. Putting an end to his worthless life was the last thing I had to do before setting the purifying cascade into motion.
Now there is just one last loose end before the scrambled IFF Aurochs picks me up. And that loose end... is you Bernard Pierlot.
Know that your death will echo throughout Gallia, know that your sense of duty was terribly misplaced. And know that The Maquis, and the memory of Richard and Eloise Lefevre, send their regards.
It wasn't a large explosion, but the small fusion device that automatically activated was enough to level good 100 square metres around the rigged Diary. There were no survivors.
Shortly after a hacked Neural Net feed started transmitting a copy of Chantal's diary to most of Gallia's homes, along with avictorious propaganda message of The Maquis, claiming they are one step closer to saving Gallia by purging The Nobles by a devastating gasline cascade, right in the heart of their opulent homes, all thanks to the actions of a Baroness who finally started to see clearly. In bold letters the name of Bernard Pierlot's death was celebrated, as a story of a collaborator responsible for Mazagran who finally faced justice.
Chantal fled New Paris, shedding her pomp and elegance, and became one of the faces of The Maquis movement, in her mind honoring her parents' legacy.
