True Friendship

"Wait a second, Eugene, what do you mean Douglas is charged with murder?" revealed his question Arnold, Jessie joined him by leaning back on her chair with a heavy sigh, "I knew he was a vile person, but to think that he murdered someone!"

Eugene narrowed his brows and tilted his head towards Jessie, "He did not kill anyone! We spoke just briefly, so I do not know all the details, but we agreed to talk later today… though I doubt I will be of much help to him now."

While saying his last line, his eyes slowly shifted to Sylvia. Without her, this entire endeavour was pointless, since he did not know anyone closely related to law. Even if Sylvia was not a lawyer, she had status as the daughter of the la Avise family, and Douglas probably betted on this fact while deciding his way out of this predicament. But then he realised something, and looked at Arnold.

"Wait, don't you have any acquaintances who could help out?"

Arnold hurriedly shook his head and murmured while looking at Sylvia, "I do not, Eugene. Let's just say that there is a certain group of people I was allowed to engage with after the occurrence."

After hearing his explanation, Eugene clicked with his tongue, Sylvia quietly shrugged and Jessie raised her brow, but did not present any questions. Even though Arnold's reasoning was vague, Eugene understood that he meant his connection to the la Avise family. It seemed like he was not allowed to make new contacts with those unfavourable to the la Avise family. It made sense that they would not agree to let him near lawyers either, in the end, their agreement was more than unfair towards Arnold, thus they kept him on a leash.

This left Sylvia the only option he could count on, but she immediately refused this proposal. She was indeed not very fond of Douglas, but it would not hurt to be more tactful in her denial. Moreover, this is a murder case that was talked about, something Sylvia would enjoy, considering her newly found hobby. Maybe there was another reason why she did not want to delve into this subject?

"Sylvia, I understand that he is not very likeable, but Douglas is still my friend. Please, if you do not want to do it for him, then at least do it for me!"

Eugene tried to be sincere and press her for pity, however, it appeared to be a terrible mistake. Sylvia's eye twitched, and she lowered a cup of coffee from her mouth to say, "Are you really this dense? This is not how the courthouse works, you can't just put an unqualified person in the shoes of a defence attorney. And even if those monkeys will agree to let me defend that idiot, purely out of respect and fear towards my family name, what would I gain from this? Your respect? Do not make me laugh, Eugene! I would rather do nothing and let that trash succumb to his idiocy. He was a dead weight in Paris, nearly fumbled our plan to corner the Phantom Cormorant, and now he failed again. Just let the natural order have its way with him."

Eugene's jaw dropped from her words, he was truly hurt, but did not back down. Instead, he slammed the table with his palms and stood up, "He was not anyhow related to the hunt on the Cormorant, what are you talking about?"

"Oh, right, you do not know about it." Sylvia smirked and glared over at the painting, "He was present at the castle of Beaumont. Your little group arriving there was uncalled-for, but at least expected. However, his sudden presence shifted our attention, since he could as well be Cormorant's accomplice. He disappears a lot to do shady business. Once or twice he was noticed at spots where Cormorant stole paintings. If it was not for him, we might have caught Sophie right at the castle of Beaumont, but her pride and arrogance did not let her flee from the town, and instead she went right into our trap."

It was the first time when anyone from the trio heard about this story, Arnold and Jessie were visibly annoyed by the disaster that seems to be following Douglas. Eugene, though, did not give in just yet and instead continued defending his friend.

"This is all just a coincidence anyway, you would not blame a dog for knocking you off balance while it was chasing a rabbit. This is just the way he is and regardless of how mistakes he makes, he is still a reliable friend, whom I can't leave to his fate. Just this once, please, make an exception."

Sylvia did not react to his plea, nor said anything, just huffed before finishing her cup of coffee. Eugene glanced over Jessie and Arnold, begging for words of encouragement. Instead, all he saw was hesitation and condemnation. To his horror, Jessie and Arnold involuntarily turned their faces to Eugene and began defending Sylvia's point.

Arnold said, "Listen, Eugene, he is really not worth saving. There is no telling if he told you all the truth in the first place anyway. Just how much did he lie to you? He admitted his dishonesty in the past, let you down plenty of times, yet you still cling to this friendship? I understand it is hard to move on, but you really should think about that."

Then, Jessie added, "He is literally the worst, flirting with other girls while being in a relationship, borrowing money with no shame. You should really try in order to get in contact with him, once he is gone, but when he needs help, you are the first person he calls! This is just unfair."

Eugene listened to their reasoning in silence, but once they were done, he walked out of the table, where they all were seated, and marched towards the hanging stand. He put on his coat and glanced over at his boss and two women with a side gaze.

"I will be taking my winter break now, Arnold."

"Now!?" Arnold stood up, his voice becoming more stern, "Where the hell are you going, Eugene?"

"Somewhere further away from the likes of you!" exclaimed Eugene, dashed outside and slammed the entrance door. He heard Arnold screaming something at his back, but the man did not care. Never before had he noticed how stuffy it can be in Monso Rooster, even though cafés are designed to relax and relieve stress.

"Being discipled by a loser with no friends and two pipsqueaks, honestly!"

His way lay not towards his house, but rather to the university, where he met up with Maurice. He was still the only one in the dark about the situation, moreover, Maurice was far from being an idiot, thus Eugene decided to explain everything to him first. Alas, Maurice, even though felt sympathetic about the situation and was ready to help at first, soon grew hesitant and bailed out of this endeavour with his session being the reason why. Eugene did not press him too much, after all, education was like a battlefield for Maurice. He had high ambitions and could not force himself out of his path to success, thus his help was unfortunately out of the option.

Afterwards, Eugene searched for Lawrence and Cossette around the town, who already began hanging up posters of Douglas around town. It was a sweet sign, even though quite useless, considering that the man was in Liechtenstein. Once Eugene explained the whole situation to the two, they agreed to help without an issue. Despite the turmoil in his heart, that was caused by coldness at Monso Rooster, their enthusiasm put a smile on his face.

In the end, only three of them decided to help, which was not much, but at least they were sincere about it. After Eugene returned to his apartment, he waited for the call while listening to jazz and drinking beer while lying in bed. A few hours have passed before the phone call mixed with the quiet tunes. Once Eugene realised it was finally time to plan the course of action, he stood up and took the handle to hear Douglas's concerned voice.

"What did she say?"

"She refused."

"...I see, then I guess I am done for."

Never before have Eugene heard him so lifeless and hopeless. No complaints or denial were present, just acceptance of one's fate. Eugene further realised how dare the situation was for his friend, which made him even more determined in his proposal.

"Listen, tomorrow's Orient Express from our place to Liechtenstein will go in the early morning. I will be able to get there at around noon, maybe later. Once I get there, let's figure out what to do together, ok? Maybe we can convince your attorney to take this more seriously."

"That would be nice." said Douglas, his voice was trembling a little, "Thank you, do as you please."

Suddenly, the call was cut short, it seemed like Douglas hung up on him. It did not anyhow annoy Eugene, he said what he wanted. Now it was only a matter of waiting until a cold, sunless morning.