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["Eh? We can talk directly inside our heads?"]
["Yes. Paimon, and Lumine and Victor Wang as well—I've pulled all of you in. Everyone can converse like this."]
Paimon sounded slightly excited. ["That's so fresh! But what should we talk about?"]
Lumine asked curiously, ["What exactly is the truth Nahida mentioned—the one that could move Scaramouche?"]
Nahida asked in return, ["Before we talk about that, I should first ask—how much do you already know about Scaramouche?"]
After recalling for a moment, Lumine replied, ["Two years ago, there was a meteor shower that swept across Liyue and Mondstadt—that was our first clash with 'Scaramouche.' After that came the Delusion incident during the Inazuma Resistance period, the Raiden Gokaden incident at the Irodori Festival, and later the Akademiya's god-creation plan… Victor Wang went through all of those with me. Since you possess Scaramouches' memories, Nahida, you should already know all of this, right?"]
["Mm."]
["Then I won't elaborate on those,"] Lumine paused, then said considerately, ["There's also what we learned from Haypasia—some fragmented hints about the three times Scaramouche was betrayed. Victor Wang probably isn't too clear on that, so I'll roughly go over it."]
No, no, maybe I know even more than you, Victor Wang thought to himself.
What Lumine knew was indeed only fragments—extremely brief ones. After she finished, Nahida, who held Scaramouches' memories, said, ["These matters are closely related to the truth I mentioned. I'll recount the full details myself."]
Nahida then began narrating slowly, and her account was no different from what Victor Wang remembered.
The first betrayal naturally referred to Raiden Ei.
At the time, Ei was pursuing an immortal vessel and attempted to create a puppet capable of containing a Gnosis, and thus created 'Scaramouche.'
She later discovered that even in his sleep, Scaramouche would shed tears. Ei judged that he was too fragile, whether as a tool or as a human, and so abandoned him, choosing instead to create the Raiden Shogun.
Ei, frankly speaking, had put all her points into combat ability, and her way of handling matters was indeed somewhat thoughtless. What she wanted was an immortal body; under normal circumstances, any vessel that failed to meet the requirements should have been destroyed. Yet Scaramouche possessed self-awareness.
Ei could not bear to destroy Scaramouche, but also found it troublesome to keep him, so she took a middle path and allowed Scaramouche to continue sleeping.
To call this a betrayal was, honestly, somewhat of a stretch.
The second betrayal referred to Niwa Hisahide.
Scaramouche had been placed in the Shakkei Pavilion and might have remained there quietly until the end of the world, but Katsuragi discovered him and brought him to Tatarasuna.
The time he spent in Tatarasuna was the happiest period of Scaramouches' life. During that time, he briefly became human, made many friends—but sadly, good times did not last long.
Tatarasuna was a place that lived by forging. There existed crystallized marrow left behind after the death of the god Orobashi; handled properly, it could produce high-quality forging materials, but handled improperly, it would generate Tatarigami corruption—this was the premise.
In order to improve forging standards, the people of Tatarasuna invited a Fontaine engineer named Escher to perform technical upgrades on the Tatarasuna furnace. The results of this upgrade were extremely significant; efficiency and output in processing the crystallized marrow both increased.
However, from that point on, the largest furnace in Tatarasuna gradually began emitting black smoke. At first it was subtle and went unnoticed, but once it accumulated to a certain extent, the furnace became contaminated by Tatarigami.
The contamination severely affected the craftsmen's health, even proving fatal. Deaths increased, the furnace spiraled out of control, and no one could approach it—shutting it down became an enormous challenge.
As the primary person in charge of Tatarasuna, Niwa chose to send people to Tenshukaku to seek help. Yet for reasons unknown, none of those who went ever returned.
Scaramouche regarded Niwa as a friend. Knowing that Niwa needed help, he ignored the danger and voluntarily went out to sea to seek aid. He successfully reached Tenshukaku, but did not know that this was precisely the year when Raiden Ei had just created the Raiden Shogun and entered seclusion.
After being repeatedly refused an audience with the Raiden Shogun, Scaramouche turned to seek Yae Miko instead. Yae Miko promised to send help immediately, but Scaramouche had already lost his patience. Carrying the despair of Tatarasuna being abandoned, he returned there on his own.
Upon returning to Tatarasuna, Scaramouche did not see Niwa. Instead, Escher informed him that Niwa had instructed him to take a certain device into the furnace to shut down its core.
His friend had chosen self-preservation and handed such responsibility to him… Though heartbroken, the naïve and inexperienced Scaramouche still complied. Carrying the protective device Escher gave him, he entered the furnace, endured immense pain, had his hands burned, and yet survived long enough to shut down the furnace.
But what awaited him afterward was even crueler news. Escher told Scaramouche that Niwa had already fled in fear of punishment, and that the "gift" he left behind was the very device that had protected him… inside which was a heart taken from an innocent person—a heart that Scaramouche, as a puppet, had yearned for most.
From Scaramouches' perspective, this was indeed a brutal betrayal, and the only one among the three that could truly be called a betrayal. It had an extremely severe impact on Scaramouche, and its effects on many others were also far-reaching.
So far-reaching that they deserved special mention.
After the incident subsided, Niwa, the primary person in charge of Tatarasuna, fled in fear of punishment. Scaramouche, who had shut down the furnace, quietly left Tatarasuna, and the next in line, Mikoshi Nagamasa, took over responsibility.
But what was Mikoshi Nagamasa doing in Tatarasuna in the first place?
Mikoshi Nagamasa was the human adopted son of Mikoshi Chiyo—the Torachiyo who had been twisted by darkness during the Inazuma calamity five hundred years ago and who had betrayed the Raiden Shogun.
Mikoshi Nagamasa entered government service and worked diligently in order to wash away the stain on the Mikoshi family name. He had always been conscientious and upright, so suddenly becoming responsible for such a massive catastrophe was nothing short of a bolt from the blue.
He had a loyal retainer—the same Katsuragi who had brought Scaramouche out of the Shakkei Pavilion. Unwilling to see Mikoshi Nagamasa's aspirations shattered, Katsuragi voluntarily took all the blame upon himself.
Although Mikoshi Nagamasa could not bear it, he also carried the heavy burden of restoring his family's honor. In the end, he personally slew Katsuragi with his beloved blade, "Daitatara Nagamasa."
After that, Mikoshi Nagamasa could no longer bear to look at the sword and threw it into the forge. Another retainer named Aoi could not stand to see such a treasured blade destroyed and leapt into the furnace to retrieve it—Aoi also died. The blade was later renamed "Katsuragikiri Nagamasa" and thus preserved.
The shogunate's "refusal to save," Niwa's betrayal, and perhaps resentment toward Mikoshi Nagamasa for killing Katsuragi… Mikoshi Nagamasa not only had to kill Katsuragi, he also had to shift all responsibility onto him to avoid wasting Katsuragi's sacrifice. Yet in the eyes of Scaramouche, who knew only half the truth, this was undoubtedly another grave betrayal, fully exposing the ugliness of human nature.
In the end, it triggered a chain reaction—Scaramouches' hatred toward all Inazuman swordsmiths and toward the entire forging industry of Inazuma.
After gaining a certain level of power, Scaramouche began targeting the famous Inazuman forging families known as the Raiden Gokaden, exterminating three of the five lineages.
When he reached the Isshin lineage, the remaining head of the Kaedehara clan, Kaedehara Yoshinori, happened to be an adopted son from the Niwa family. By that time, the Niwa clan had already completely declined. As the last bloodline of the Niwa family, and bearing a resemblance to Niwa Hisahide of Tatarasuna, Scaramouche may have softened—or perhaps truly grown bored—and halted the extermination of the Raiden Gokaden.
Even so, the Kaedehara clan had already been dealt a heavy blow and declined. Kaedehara Yoshinori was Kaedehara Kazuha's great-grandfather, and from that point onward, the Kaedehara clan rarely forged blades again.
With the Raiden Gokaden suffering such a devastating blow, the Yashiro Commission—namely the Kamisato clan, which managed the Raiden Gokaden—was subjected to numerous punishments. The head of the Kamisato clan, already advanced in age and wounded by Scaramouche, passed away soon after. The Kamisato clan declined from that point on, only recovering in Kamisato Ayato's generation.
The third betrayal involved a child who did not even leave behind a name.
Disheartened, Scaramouche left Tatarasuna and later became friends with a child.
That child's parents had been workers in Tatarasuna and had contracted a strange illness while working, already having passed away.
The child himself was young, frail, and sickly—someone who needed care even more than 'Scaramouche.' Perhaps Scaramouche also enjoyed the feeling of caring for others and being needed.
Unfortunately, not much happened. In the span of a single night, the child succumbed to illness and died.
To call this a betrayal might be somewhat farfetched… This was more like the aftershock of the betrayal Tatarasuna had suffered, finally erupting from Scaramouche at the moment of the child's death.
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