"- Raymond, I need to think about this for a little while, could I...?
-Evidently, miss, you can take all the time you need."
So she hastened into the small separate office without taking the time to lock herself in.
Layton and Luke, followed by Descole, rushed into the Bostonius, both breathless and soaking wet.
"-Raymond, set a course for Rosenberg, please!
-Right away, sir."
While Raymond was getting the device started, Descole scanned the room, looking for someone.
"-Mademoiselle is in the next room. She's thinking for a few moments."
Luke, now relieved after all this manhunt, gave the masked man a meaningful look, the latter having taken care to tell what had happened between him and the young woman.
Layton was rather amused by Luke's behavior.
"-So you were able to tell her?" Luke was all smiles.
"-I was more interested in showing her yes...
-You took off your mask! And I thought it was stuck to your face!
-Luke, come on.
-Sorry professor, it was too tempting," replied the boy, scratching the back of his head.
Descole preferred to ignore his remark. He avoided reminding him of the coward he had by his side five minutes ago. He sneered at the sweet thought.
"-I'm relieved everyone's better." Raymond added, calmly.
"-I owe you thanks, Descole.
-For escorting you to the Bostonius? Oh, but it's nothing."
He still had that grin stuck on his face.
"-It's a small victory today, but we'll deal with them again, I'm sure." Mumbled Luke.
"-We'll see about that..." Bid the masked man.
His answer was unusual coming from him, but justified. He will deal with TARGENT later, he had much more important things to deal with from now on.
Descole glanced approvingly at his butler and slipped into the main room...
She'd been quiet for a good ten minutes. She was thinking about everything that had happened.
What about the future now?
"Knock, knock, knock."
Three brief strokes that drew her out of her dreams. She breathed in, breathed out, and took on a most calm tone:
"-Yes?"
Unsurprisingly, it was Descole. She gave him a quick little smile, which he gave back to her, before he too rushed into the room, taking care to close the door behind him.
"-Is everything all right?"
she nodded silently, thinking back to the little conversation she'd had with Raymond earlier.
"-Descole, everything I've done I'm... I'm sorry.
-Don't waste your time with apologies,they were accepted a long time ago. Besides, it's not like you committed murder."
She looked up, surprised.
"-What were you thinking?
-Everything, nothing, me...
-So? What are you going to do after all this? Stay...You?"
He said that in an almost muffled voice. Meredith looked at him with an empty look on her face:
"-And you? Will I have a chance to see Professor Sycamore again?"
He hesitated for a moment and couldn't help but let out a sigh.
"-Possibly, but for the time being, no."
She was expecting that answer. She smiled.
"-You finally got your revenge then."
He didn't prefer to answer that.
"-Descole, could you please turn around?"
The request was strange but he complied. He didn't move for a few seconds.
"-You can turn around now."
Then he turned around. Victoria was now facing him, radiant and overjoyed. A radical change.
"-Victoria!?"
He seemed more fulfilled now. Why, he didn't know that.
"-There's no reason for me to stay Meree if Sycamore isn't here.
-But, you...
-I've gotten used to it, I feel even better this way, more confident and less of a target, you know?"
She winked at him, all smiles.
"-From now on I'll be your ray of sunshine, no more rain clouds over your head!"
She laughed.
"-And I promise I'll be sincere, no more manipulations...And I won't use my charm to get what I want...At least not on you."
Descole looked at her, falsely desperate. She was unbelievable. She was a piece of work.
"-And as for me, I won't take you for a TARGENT mole anymore, rest assured."
He laughed, to which Victoria replied with a simple, amused sigh.
She began to twiddle a lock of his hair with a teasing smile.
"-Do you know that she was the first thing I saw about you ?
-My incredible smile?"
He was being sarcastic.
"-Actually no, that's the second thing. It was your shoes.
-My...Shoes?
-Same pair as Sycamore. I concluded it was a coincidence. Well, if I had known..."
He looked at his shoes, surprised. Even Layton hadn't noticed when they saw each other again, while he looked like Desmond Sycamore. She had good eyesight as well as an eye for detail.
They still had a lot to say to each other, but they would see that later. Raymond knocked on the door.
"-We've arrived at Rosenberg.
-It's high time we brought that mirror back and got it over with."
Victoria nodded.
"-Oh, Descole, one last request.
-Who is it?
-If you think I've forgotten about the partition, you're wrong! I want to know everything!"
He sighed, amused.
"-It's promised...Vic."
The Bostonius had this time landed only a few meters from Rosenberg. TARGET would not return, so they had nothing more to fear.
Victoria apologized to Layton and his apprentice for the umpteenth time.
"-It will not happen again, I assure you."
They accepted without any harm. Everyone deserves a second chance after all? They had cooperated well with Descole when he had done far more unforgivable things...
The gang headed towards the main square in the valley, where to their surprise, Agnes and Celian were waiting for them.
"-We saw a funny flying thing in the sky, I deduced it was you."
Layton readjusted his top hat, smiling.
"-That's a nice deduction, Celian."
He took out the case in which the real mirror was carefully stored. As Victoria prepared to step forward to apologize for the theft, Layton cut it off:
"-It was TARGENT who stole the mirror, but we were finally able to recover it.
-I don't know how to thank you...
-There's no need, Agnes."
He nodded in the direction of the young woman, who was surprised. He hadn't denounced her...
"-Thank you..." she murmured.
"-You should keep it with you, safe and sound," exclaimed Luke.
"-The kid's right, Mom. The damage is done. Rosenberg must regain his former glory!"
Agnes thought for a moment and nodded positively.
"-Yes, you're probably right...
-There's no point in making war with this Duke!" Victoria added with a smile.
The archaeologist looked at the landscape for a moment.
"-Unfortunately we must leave...
-Yes, the professor still has a lot of work to do!" asked his apprentice.
Then they parted, with thanks again. The group returned to the Bostonius as they took off for London.
"-Congratulations Layton, you've solved a mystery again.
-He's solved even two mysteries! " Luke proudly added.
"-That's brilliant! I was proud to see all your intellectual abilities.
-Oh, but I only did my duty as a gentleman."
They kept talking about everything and nothing. It felt good, though. The Bostonius landed at London Airfield.
"- Well, this is where we part...
-What do you intend to do now, Miss Victoria?" Raymond asked.
Actually she had been thinking about it for some time and the problem was there: she had no idea.
"-Well...Nothing much to think about except moping around in my shabby apartment...and getting a job.
-Just that I have a job offer that you might be interested in." Descole replied, readjusting his tricorn.
Victoria arched an eyebrow, while the others didn't say a word, pretending to know how it would end.
"-Say always...?"
The masked man took a desperate false tone mixed with sweet, tender sarcasm:
"-It's just that I'm so busy with my work these days and I definitely need an assistant..."
Victoria opened her eyes and her mouth wide.
"-You want me to be your assistant?"
Her pupils had become stars, she'd guessed sarcasm, but she knew there was sincerity in what he'd said.
"-I'd love to, I mean, if you don't want me to, I'd totally understand. Of course you'll be housed, that goes without saying."
Luke chuckled silently in the back, he was impossible. Layton, he was pretty happy that it ended that way.
The young woman was motionless, so she would go back to her happy everyday life, like before... Wasn't that what she'd been looking for all these years? Her blue eyes glowed.
"-You...Are you serious?
-More than serious, yes.
-No, because you... Oh and !"
Emotionally she jumped up and down on his neck with tears of joy in her eyes. Descole was taken to class but let it happen, smiling and light-hearted. She stepped back and cleared her throat to look serious again.
"-Evidently it is with great pleasure that I accept to be your assistant Mr. Jean Descole."
She replied with a teasing smile and curtsy.
Raymond was happy, his master had finally regained some happiness. After the rain comes the good weather, doesn't it?
Layton and Luke said their last goodbyes, confident their paths would cross again sooner or later.
Another mystery solved.