Irritation.
This had been La Signora's constant emotion these past few days, but she didn't know why she was irritated.
Everything was normal, all within the Fatui's expectations.
The dragon disaster in Mondstadt was thwarted?
That didn't matter, because their primary goal wasn't destroying Mondstadt City or using the situation to send troops to Mondstadt or anything like that.
The Anemo Archon Barbatos had already appeared during the disaster. By drawing her out, Stormterror had served its purpose.
For the next steps, they just needed to follow the plan step by step.
These past two days, she often dreamed of Rostam, dreamed of that rainy dusk in Mondstadt City, dreamed of those days. She had already buried her maiden past, burning it along with that fire back then. But for some reason, these nightmares inexplicably revived.
Dark, damp, cowardly emotions, like the fungus on the dark side of the city, usually hidden from the grand sunlight, but a rainy spell could make it grow.
La Signora dreamed more than once of becoming that weak and powerless girl again, returning to that big fire, but being unable to do anything.
She must rid herself of these chaotic emotions.
This evening was the time for the envoy group to officially visit Mondstadt City. What they would do was nothing more than pressure and threats.
The course of the meeting was easy to predict: "the two sides candidly exchanged constructive opinions," "the Knights of Favonius and the Fatui delegation held cordial negotiations," "the two sides fully exchanged views on the proposed handling of Stormterror Dvalin"...
The character of the Mondstadt people, especially the Knights, La Signora had long been clear about. How they would respond, she could also predict.
They were hypocritical, pretending to be righteous; weak, yet determined to protect everything; despicable and arrogant, just as they had been centuries ago... The Knights would never permit them to kill the demon dragon Dvalin. They would still spout grand words about protecting it!
So this meeting would have no result, utterly meaningless. Only when the situation became more serious would they abandon the so-called "knight's arrogance". Truly laughable.
La Signora had no patience to waste time in this kind of meeting. The Fatui's attachés would solve everything for her.
But once she was truly idle, she didn't know what to do.
Let's go out for a walk.
She hadn't returned to Mondstadt City for a long time.
Mondstadt City was located above Windrise, adjacent to Springvale, perennially swept by the fragrant winds from Wolvendom.
The city-state's streets seemed not to have changed much from hundreds of years ago. The streets were paved with bluestone, with a thin layer of moss between the cracks. Entering Mondstadt City, one first had to cross a bridge. A limpid moat surrounded this city-state.
Mondstadt City's ancient bridge also had a history of several hundred years. The sun was setting. People walked on the bridge in twos and threes. A few white pigeons stopped on the bridgehead, flapping their wings to beg for food.
When Rosalyne was still a girl, she had also come here to feed the pigeons. Rostam made the little shrimp he caught from Cider Lake into feed. They scattered the feed into the sky. A flock of white pigeons fluttered down, like passing through one clump of white clouds after another.
Crossing the bridge, facing up a long, long stone staircase, with various shops and stalls along the way, La Signora ascended the steps. One could see the huge windmills creaking and rotating with the evening breeze.
These windmills also seemed to have never changed, just turning like this, sha sha. Things had remained the same, but there were still places that were gone.
Although just taking a stroll, she wandered back to that plaza in her memories. The plaza was large but already nearly abandoned.
She didn't approach.
Just looking from afar.
That was enough.
The stone pillars had been scoured by years of wind and sand. Daylilies, knotweed, and goosegrass grew in ragged clumps across the desolate ground. La Signora clearly remembered the great field of dandelions that had once bloomed there.
When the wind blew, the flower clusters scattered in the air, as if it had suddenly snowed a fluttering, swirling light snow. Those dandelions had all died, the rotten flower centers rotting in the soil of Mondstadt City, making a creaking whimper with that fire.
Rostam had once confidently said something about a "knight's oath", appearing at their agreed place every day regardless of wind or rain. Hah, what a ridiculous knight's oath. Five hundred years had passed. Where are you now?
Mondstadt City still made her feel irritated.
It was already very late. It was about time to go back.
"You stirred my morning dream, then quietly slipped away."
A faint singing.
"Your scent—tart berries and sweet lilac."
Her footsteps paused.
"A far-off breeze pulls at my heartstrings,"
"And every rustling leaf sings of my longing."
The clear boyish voice, like a soft fragrant breeze, sanded the pebbles by Cider Lake, accompanied by a melodious tune and the gradually descending sunset, with a bright sorrow. The wind gently sang. Hundreds of years had passed, the world had changed, many places in Mondstadt City had changed, but only the sound of the wind remained unchanged.
The singing was originally just a cappella, but then, the gentle tones of an accordion joined in, the two perfectly blending together.
Mondstadt City was indeed a land of pastoral songs.
La Signora looked toward the source of the accordion. On the far side of the plaza, a bard in pale green stood with eyes closed, gently playing the instrument in their hands.
The bard's appearance made their gender impossible to discern. They seemed merely to have been passing by, only to hear the song and join in without thinking.
Noticing La Signora's gaze, the bard stuck out their tongue, stopped playing, and darted away, vanishing in an instant.
'Rainy Night at Cider Lake'
This was a lost tune. The Mondstadt people had long forgotten "Rainy Night at Cider Lake". Why were there still people singing it?
There was no reason.
She slightly frowned.
—
Kiyono Fugin sat boredly on a broken pillar, watching the falling sun.
His silvery-white long hair cascaded down with the wind, carrying the rosy hue of the setting sun.
He had overestimated his speed.
He was late.
When he rushed back to Mondstadt from Starfall Lake without stopping, the meeting between the Fatui and the Knights had already begun. Being late, he couldn't enter the meeting anymore.
There was no help for it. He could only console himself with the reason that "the meeting contents are all just big talk anyway". Leaving the Knights' headquarters, he first went to eat a meal at Good Hunter. As if led by a ghost, he came to this long-abandoned dilapidated plaza.
In his awakening memories, the place Kiyono appeared most often was this plaza.
As Rostam, it was in this secluded plaza that he developed and perfected the "Favonius Bladework". He practiced the sword here day and night, from morning to dusk.
This plaza was vastly different from how it looked in his memories.
The dandelion field was gone, and so was the singing from deep in his memories.
He couldn't help but sing,
"The west wind carries the scent of wine,"
"The mountain wind brings word of victory."
"On a rainy night at Cider Lake, I would follow the wolf into the storm."
The story this song told was very simple. By Cider Lake, there was a pair of lovers.
The man had gone to war for many years without returning. The woman thought of the man's news day and night. In the war-torn years, letters couldn't get through, but the winds of Mondstadt became the messenger for the lovers on both sides. It brought the fragrance of the hometown's cider to the man fighting far away. It sent the man's victorious news to the woman longing for him.
It was a beautiful ending.
As he sang, someone suddenly accompanied him. The accordion melody was very pleasant and nostalgic. Kiyono looked towards the source. The bard in light green clothing waved at him, but quickly, that bard froze.
He stopped playing and ran off.
"Ah... What the."
Kiyono said softly, "I thought I could make a friend."
There was only him left in the plaza.
Dusk had completely receded, and the night was beginning to fall. Kiyono Fugin should also leave. He suddenly had an illusion that he had left alone dozens of times, hundreds of times in the past. He was waiting for a girl, from dawn to dusk.
But that girl never came, so he left alone, like an abandoned little wolf.
This sense of misalignment made him a bit confused. The erosion of memories was hurting his body again. He coughed a few times, the exhaled air carrying ice shards.
La Signora quietly watched the boy on the stone pillar. She had an inexplicable sense of displacement, familiar yet unfamiliar. This feeling arose from nowhere and didn't know where it would end. It made her feel irritated.
When she was a girl, she had also gazed from afar countless times, countless times wanting to go down and talk to him, but ultimately chose to give up. If not for that heavy rain, she might never have met Rostam again in this life.
Thinking of the past useless timid things again, La Signora grew even more irritated.
Was he waiting for someone?
[Kiyono Fugin]
Irritation.
She remembered this person's name.
This boy should have died long ago, should have died on that ship. As long as she killed him, this irritation would be able to disappear forever, right?
The dragon disaster was also stopped by him. Now it seemed that he was undoubtedly a knight of Mondstadt City. Then appearing in that sea area was definitely not a coincidence.
He pretended to fall into the water and infiltrated the ship, probably as a spy to gather information.
So without a doubt, he was an enemy of Snezhnaya.
And to achieve the pure white ideal, La Signora could abandon any morality.
La Signora lowered her presence.
Kill him, make a move here, no one was around.
Even if he died here, the Knights had no evidence.
Kill him...
Kill him.
But for some reason, before killing him, La Signora wanted to talk to him.
She had never had such a strange premonition before, as if not doing so, she would regret it. This premonition was really inexplicable, just like that rainy night five hundred years ago, her premonition told her that if she didn't do this, she would regret it.
For the first time, in her light-colored eyes under the scarlet eye shadow, there was confusion.
"You..." Finally, La Signora wanted to say something, but was interrupted.
—
"You tricked me again!"
The one saying this was a girl with golden ear-length short hair. She had bright golden pupils, like beautiful goldfish. She put her hands on her hips, those eyes revealing a hint of reproach.
It could be seen that she was angry, but this anger wasn't very furious, lightly pursing her lips, slightly frowning, like a kitten that lost its fish jerky and was angrily acting spoiled.
Her words, although accusing, were more like complaining and coquettish, or it could be said to be aggrieved.
"Ah."
Kiyono saw the girl, and he showed a helpless smile. He sat on the high stone pillar, the pale remnants of the setting sun gilding the contours of his body. He lowered his head, and the girl also stubbornly raised her head, the two gazing at each other.
La Signora watched this scene expressionlessly.
"Where did I trick you?" Kiyono said stubbornly.
"Still quibbling." Lumine was even angrier, that gaze already bordering on resentment. "You said we would eat grilled fish together. I grilled all the fish, but you ran off!"
"Ah... Ah."
Kiyono said,
"I don't eat it if I didn't catch it myself."
"Hanging it on the fishing hook counts as catching it!"
"That's bought by you!"
"Dummy, of course I have to buy it if I can't catch it. The merchant even said it was on sale, one fish for eighty, only a thousand for ten fish. I spent a whole thousand mora."
"...You're really a fool."
"I'm not a fool. Actually, I spent your money."
"You're both foolish and bad!"
"How did you know I was here?"
"Just now, a suspicious person in green clothes ran over and told me, even told me to hurry!"
They argued like children playing house, and the topics they argued about were not profound, but daily trivial matters like oil, rice, firewood and salt. How many mora for a fish, discounts... Insignificant little things in life, but for La Signora, they were as far away as the other side of the river.
The afterglow of the sunset shone on them as they laughed and talked.
That inexplicable irritation grew bigger and bigger.
La Signora had thought her heart was like an icy abyss. The centuries of freezing by the Delusion had extinguished the flames in her heart. She found it hard to have emotional fluctuations anymore.
Undoubtedly, this person was an enemy of the Fatui. Leaving him alive was an obstacle. Both for public and private reasons, he should be eliminated.
But now killing them quietly was a bit difficult.
One was fine, but another one came.
Killing them was simple, but if they couldn't be dealt with instantly,
it would be meaningless.
They would definitely be exposed.
The Fatui couldn't openly clash with the Knights now. Compared to killing one or two pawns, they had a greater mission to accomplish.
Was it that poet who went to report...?
The eyes under the brilliant gold mask were cold and stern, but in the end, La Signora lightly clicked her tongue.
Kiyono Fugin vaguely sensed something. The Fudoshin perception captured that wavering killing intent. He subconsciously raised his head and looked into the distance.
At the edge of his vision, a noble figure appeared.
[Fatui] Harbinger, Kiyono Fugin's enemy.
La Signora.
She wore a red trailing gown, two ribbons like burning flames hanging from her waist. Her face was covered with a red butterfly-shaped mask, her light-colored eyes calmly gazing at Kiyono's seal. Perhaps noticing the latter's gaze, her thin lips parted slightly, mockingly saying,
"The next time we meet will be when I kill you."
She flatly dropped this sentence, her figure slowly fading, her slender graceful silhouette melting into the sunset, about to turn into fluttering fire butterflies and leave.
This woman was still so irritable.
Were all the Fatui Harbingers like this?
That guy called 'Kunikuzushi' too...
The injury in his body hadn't fully healed because of this woman.
But even without this injury, he couldn't last long anyway.
Eroding like this, he might really become a genuine 'short-lived guy'.
Seeing La Signora about to completely dissipate, Kiyono seemed to think of something. He said loudly from afar,
"Hey."
"If you really kill me, remember to take my heart too."
La Signora didn't respond. Perhaps she didn't even hear this sentence. The evening breeze blew past, the fire butterflies scattered. At the edge of vision, there was nothing left, only the howling cold wind.
Kiyono had only said half of what he wanted to say when she had already left.