[Nahida: "Fooling the people of Sumeru… even disregarding their lives. No matter what purpose the Akademiya people had for doing this, it is unforgivable."]
This sentence received widespread approval from the Sumeru people—the Akademiya fooled, deceived, and treated them like tools.
These actions truly enraged the Sumeru people—no words could forgive the Grand Sage.
What made everyone even angrier was that the Akademiya specifically chose the day of the 'Sabbath of the King of Flowers,' the day of little Kusanali's birthday, to cause trouble.
Suddenly they felt the previous discussions about punishing the Grand Sage were too gentle—they really needed to consider the 'conservative faction's' proposal.
You like making people dream, huh? Then how about Nahida giving the Grand Sage a dream where he experiences different deaths forever, never able to reach the reality of death?
The Sumeru people still prided themselves on being educated, so their quality was generally high—they previously thought this proposal might be too much; now they only thought it was good—could it be livestreamed so we can watch?
Quality? What quality? Put down quality and enjoy life.
You know what—Nahida really can livestream… she is the best and only internet celebrity streamer in all of Teyvat.
Everyone who read to this point was already very angry, but something even more infuriating appeared.
The next day, when the Traveler recovered the cycle's memories, she discovered Dunyarzad had disappeared!
[Paimon: "Dunyarzad disappeared? No way! Did we… not make it in time?"]
This was also what the readers wanted to say—they had clearly seen the 'dawn of victory,' so how could they fall here?
Diluc, where are you? Save her! The darkness before dawn needs someone to light it!
[Nahida: "What disappeared was indeed the true consciousness of Dunyarzad. Under excessive harvesting of dreams, her consciousness could no longer hold on."]
The readers who learned this news felt indescribably awful—they had finally found the 'truth,' yet it was just one step short!
Vihar, the 'Knight of Flowers,' felt his heart skip a beat—his pulse raced several times faster.
That feeling of being just a tiny bit short and falling at the dawn was truly heartbreaking.
Dehya couldn't bear to look anymore—she closed her eyes and turned her head away. Fortunately the Akademiya had been overthrown; otherwise if such a future really happened, Dehya would truly cry.
On the contrary, Dunyarzad remained calm and was even comforting Dehya.
She had long anticipated this day would come—she just didn't expect that in the original future, she still couldn't see the Dance of the Flower God at the very last moment of her life.
This was the regret that prevented her from resting in peace, but death had come after all—fortunately she had prepared herself mentally long ago.
It's just… she really still felt very regretful…
In fact, Dunyarzad's calmness was faked—she felt very regretful and wanted to cry, but she didn't.
Her friends were already grieving for her—she had to be strong. Indeed, she still didn't want to see her friends sad.
The readers had no mental preparation—they thought the matter was about to be resolved, had already seen the dawn, yet it turned out to be this ending…
Collei felt it the most—tears she couldn't hold back poured out.
How could this be? Dunyarzad had finally made friends—her 'dream' had only just begun—she just wanted to see the Dance of the Flower God.
Why make her leave with regret? Damn Grand Sage!
Collei thought: if she had agreed to go play with Amber, but had an accident on the way to Mondstadt.
At the very last moment, she could only see Amber rushing over—see her anxious expression, see her lips moving but hear nothing of what she said.
What would she say? I don't want to make her worry… Dunyarzad probably had this same regret.
What would Nilou's Dance of the Flower God look like? What would the Traveler's reaction be when seeing it? Would she be happy? Would she like it?
And and… if I just left like this, my parents, the Traveler, Paimon, Dehya, Nilou—even Lord Kusanali—everyone would worry about me, right?
The former Dunyarzad thought that if she could make friends, even if she left in the future she wouldn't have regrets—because she had once existed in their hearts.
But the current Dunyarzad finally understood: the moment she made friends was when she truly couldn't bear to leave—she wanted to create more memories with everyone.
Not only Dunyarzad couldn't bear to leave everyone—everyone couldn't bear to leave her either, including Nahida.
The real Dunyarzad in the dream had disappeared—the 'puppet' Dunyarzad remained, but this 'puppet' was far from the real Dunyarzad.
The real Dunyarzad was clearly a cheerful, lively, strong girl—yet that 'puppet' was only wooden, as if uninterested in everything.
[Nahida sighed: "This actually reminds me—back then, Dunyarzad perhaps… was also somewhat like a puppet."]
["Mm. At that time, she was overly protected by her family. No one cared about her personality or her thoughts—as if she was alive only to delay the progression of her Eleazar disease."]
Dunyarzad's parents felt some guilt—they had indeed only cared about whether Dunyarzad could live, while ignoring how she wanted to live.
["I merely gave her a little wisdom to re-recognize life… she could also have a 'self.' But the her now is also…"]
The 'wisdom' Nahida gave Dunyarzad was called 'desire'—it gave direction to Dunyarzad who didn't know what she lived for.
Reading this passage, Dunyarzad finally couldn't hold back—even though she forced her expression to stay composed, the tears that fell with each blink were like melting icicles, dripping little by little.
Lord Kusanali still remembered that past—this also stirred Dunyarzad's most vulnerable memories.
Back then she had no expectations for 'living' and no resistance to 'dying.'
She had never thought about why she lived—because just living already took all her strength.
Nihility enveloped her—she didn't understand what necessity such a life had.
In her most helpless moment when she most wanted to give up, it was Nahida's appearance that saved her.
Just as Nahida said—it was she who let Dunyarzad re-recognize life and understand 'self.'
Nahida was the moon—the moonlight was quiet and gentle. This light dispelled the 'nihility' enveloping Dunyarzad—she found the meaning of her existence.
The moonlight wasn't dazzling, so Dunyarzad looked straight at her own moon—at this moment, a devout believer of the Dendro Archon was born.
So in every sense, Nahida was the white moonlight—when the white-moonlight Nahida spoke of the memories between the two of them, how could Dunyarzad possibly hold back her emotions?
Actually, it wasn't just her who couldn't hold back—Nahida was the same.
===✧✦✧===
Character Voice Lines · Navia: About the Akademiya
"I'm so pissed off! Can I go beat him up one more time?"
"Itto seems really good at breaking out of prison—what about the reverse?"