Noonien Turquoise.

The man was caught in the web set up by the Constabulary. However, was it enough to keep him in chains or would he just walked away from all this with a brush of his sleeves.

The Judge offered a little prayer to the heavens, and began his first attack.

“Mr. Noonien.” He bellowed, “You are brought here for questioning in regards to the murder of the famous Courtesan, Fae Fae of Celestial Dreams Brothel. What have you to say for yourself?”

“H-how dare you!” Noonien yelped. He tried to leave, not wanting to with anything with this farce, yet the guards prevented him from walking more than five steps. Without much of a choice, he had to face his sudden indignation. “Explain yourself! You called me in with good faith, now you put me to trial like some common criminal. I will make sure the rest of the Turquoise family knows about this when I return!”

“Stop dodging the question!” The Judge tried to intimidate the rich scholar with a slap of his lion dog gavel, in hopes to have the upper hand... Didn’t have much of an effect. Darn. He couldn’t help a short stutter, “D-did you know Fae Fae? Did you murder her?”

“Preposterous! I don’t even know who she is!”

Inspector Lee stepped in with a huff, “Liar. The entire staff of the Heavenly Garden House of Pleasure can stand as witness, they all saw you with Fae Fae. She was assigned to refill your wine cup and keep you company, the whole night at the party I might add. And you say you don’t even know her at all!?”

“I surely do not!” Noonien objected with indignation. “My father-in-law and I were invited by the Governor to celebrate his retirement from office. If it wasn’t a personal invitation, neither of us would have stepped foot in such a place of immorality. I paid little attention to who was serving me, for every women there were always trying to tempt righteous scholars and officials like ourselves.”

“You little bas—” Inspector Lee was cut off from cursing, when the Judge cleared his throat loud enough to remind the former to be professional about this. The Inspector gave up his cursing with a growl and continued, “Every guest at the Heavenly Gardens knew Fae Fae, be it by face or reputation. Are you saying you didn’t even get a hint of her name the entire time?”

“Like I said,” Noonien curtly turned away with a scoff, “The entertainers were nothing but noise and temptation. I am a man of virtue and a faithful husband. I do not pay attention to the women there, let alone ask for their name. So no. I do not know Fae Fae. Because of that, why would I kill her?”

Inspector Lee wanted to press on, but he guessed pushing down this road wasn’t going to do them a lick of good. So he had left the next turn to the Judge.

The chief of the Constable station then asked the following question, “Men. Bring in the first evidence!”

Some court guards bow and head out, only to quickly return with one small box. They carefully opened it to display it before everyone. Especially Noonien Turquoise.

“Mr. Noonien,” the Judge spoke up, “Do you recognize this?”

Noonien Turquoise eyes widen a bit. Inside of the small box was a beautiful golden hairpin. Although it was gorgeous in craftsman ship, half of it was caked in blood, the ‘handle’ was slathered in dried mud and dead worms’ and it was bent. The rich scholar turned away, trying to block out the disgusting dirt and blood from his eyes.

“I ask again, do you recognize this hairpin?” The Judge demanded.

Noonien took a short breath and answered, “Yes. I do. It belongs to my wife, the Young Mistress of the illustrious Turquoise Family. She ordered it in preparation for attending a convention, a gathering of intellects from every nation beyond the borders of the Jade Empire. She wanted to match a special dress she had custom made for such an event.”

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“Yet.” The Judge grumbled, “It somehow ended up being the exact murder weapon that killed Fae Fae. We’ve looked into this hairpin. It was made by Starlight Fortune Jewellery, who boast they only make a single copy of their products in the world! So tell me, Noonien Turquoise, how did your wife’s one of a kind hairpin become evidence in this murder investigation?”

Noonien let out a long sigh, before saying, “I confess, it was entirely my fault. It was stolen.”

“S-stolen!?” The Judge choked.

“Yes.” Noonien shook his head with shame. “When the hairpin was ready, I took it upon myself as husband to pick it up on my wife’s behalf. It was the least I could do to help... Shortly after I picked it up, a pick pocket ran into me and took both the hairpin and my money pouch. My mind was occupied elsewhere and it never occurred to me what happened. It was only when I returned home and tried to present the hairpin to my wife as a surprise – did I realize too late it was plucked out of my robes. I am still feel terrible for such clumsiness.”

Guilty, for messing up a delivery run. Unfortunately, that was not a heinous enough crime to detain the man. And what worse punishment could he receive other than a tongue lashing from his wife.

This angle of attacked was once again countered by smooth words.

The Judge pinched his nose bridge, “Meaning, you have no idea what happened to the hairpin after it was...stolen?”

“That is absolutely correct your honour.” Noonien nodded with a level headed voice, “Could have been sold off, pawned off...or...perhaps was misused in the murder you speak of. Surely, you can’t hold me accountable for this Fae Fae’s murder, right? I too am a victim in some form!”

“Tell me,” The Judge went on, “Have you ever left North Cloud City in the past few months?”

“No sir, I have not.” Noonien replied, “I am currently tutoring for several Honorable families in North Cloud City. I barely have enough time to come home in time for dinner with my wife, let alone travel out of the city for leisure.”

“You don’t say,” the Judge chuckled. He then gave Inspector Lee a nod. “Bring them in.”

Them? Who? Noonien Turquiose couldn’t figure it out at first, so he turned around to see where Inspector Lee was going. The investigator went to a doorway of the court room and waved a hand. Several constables escorted a group of men in plain blue uniforms.

They came to the floor of the courthouse to join in the questioning. As Noonien was an Imperial Scholar, a licensed bachelor, he was exempt from kneeling before higher powers. On the other hand, these men weren’t so special, thus they followed the norm for commoners to kneel before the Judge.

“Noonien,” Inspector Lee called out, “You recognize these men right? They were your horse wagon some time ago. Ring a bell?”

The rich scholar glanced at the kneeling men. They glanced back. Immediately the two try to break eye contact, but it was far too late to hide anything. So Noonien simple adjusted his sleeves, “I have a terrible memory, your honour.”

“Says an Imperial Tutor!” snapped Inspector Lee, “Come on, I thought you scholars have bigger brains!” He then nudged a foot to the men kneeling at the ground, “Go on, jog his memory.”

“Er.” One of the men in the group would bow to the Judge and answer, “Y-yes. He was our client. He asked us to, to uh, bring him to a place outside of the Capital. Er. To a gazebo resting spot n-near Green Lion Valley.”

Checkmate, thought the Judge and pushed on, “So, Mr. Noonien? Anything to say about that?”

Noonien shook his head, “I can’t recall, not exactly. My job can be stressful at times and I have a habit of drinking heavily. There have been many occasions where I hitch a random horse wagon, or palanquin, to take me around town on a dazed joyride, so to speak.... I cannot recall exactly if I met them.”

The audacity of this man! Stop tip toeing around the truth!

Inspector Lee took it upon himself to play the bad cop in the scenario, “Stop making up stories and what ifs, scholar. These men took you to Green Lion Valley, so you can meet with Fae Fae and pay her off to break up your affair!”

“A-affair!? How dare you!” Noonien shouted. If he could, he would slap the Inspector in the jaw. The brute of a man he was! However, he was in a court room so any action made would only press more charges against him.

So he could only snort off the remark. “I have no affair with any woman. My heart is loyal only to my lover of the Turquoise Family. Now enough of this charade and let me free! These accusations sicken me! I keep telling you, I know not a Fae Fae or Fei Lee or whatever woman from a brothel of any kind. Now, I demand you end your inquiries right now and let me return home. If you do, I am willing to reconsider my actions to report you for abuse of authority on baseless grounds!”

The Judge clapped his lion dog gavel on his desk to shut him up, “Summon Fae Fae’s Brother!”

...Oh hell no.