[Was it truly that terrifying?]
[Furina's face grew paler with every word Kael spoke.]
[So that was the truth. It explained everything. No wonder the blonde Traveler had left a trail of blood and chaos across so many nations.]
["The Hydro Archon poured her power into the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale for the people of Fontaine to use."]
["You are at your weakest right now."]
["If you keep acting on every whim, what happens when the Traveler arrives? What if something goes wrong?"]
["If people take advantage of the chaos to strike at the Hydro Archon, even I might not be able to protect you."]
["Hey! You're the Pope of Fontaine, you..."]
[Furina's voice cracked, her eyes wide and searching.]
["My point is, if the Hydro Archon runs around outside without a care, she might be kidnapped. The Treasure Hoarders would love a prize like you."]
["What if they lock you away where we can't find you?"]
["A damp, dark cell isn't the Palais Mermonia. There are no soft beds there. And certainly no little cakes."]
[The image took root in her mind.]
[She could almost feel the cold stone and the lack of sugar.]
[Her knees shook.]
[Kael's expression turned grim.]
[He let out a long, slow breath, his eyes softening just a fraction.]
["Of course, if the Hydro Archon could recover her power, we wouldn't have to worry about any of this."]
[Furina didn't react the way he expected.]
[She lunged forward, grabbing his arm with trembling fingers, her grip surprisingly tight.]
["You know my power is tied to the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale!"]
["I am weak. Vulnerable."]
["And that scepter in your hand? I gave that to you. It was mine!"]
["That means until my power returns, you have to protect me. You have to protect Fontaine."]
["Right?"]
["You are the Pope, after all."]
["I'm going. I'm going back to the Palais Mermonia right now."]
["As long as I stay inside and never leave, nothing can happen... right?"]
...
The people of Fontaine watched the screen, their minds racing in a dozen different directions.
In this life, during Furina's Trial, they had proven she was human. She had reacted to the diluted Primordial Seawater just like any other mortal.
The excitement, the fear... it was all too human.
"Wait, did Lady Furina become a commoner because she gave all her power to the Oratrice?"
"It fits. She stepped down because the Oratrice ran into trouble, didn't she?"
"I remember. The Indemnitium vanished. Then the word from the Palais Mermonia was that she gave her remaining strength to the machine before resigning as the Hydro Archon."
Navia bit her lip, her gaze fixed on the flickering images of the past. "Did we... did we really wrong her back then?"
"Wrong her how?" Lisa asked, her voice smooth but laced with a sharp curiosity.
Clorinde adjusted her glove, her expression unreadable. "It is as you see. Lady Furina gave her power to the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale. She was left fragile."
"Aha! I get it now!" Arataki Itto shouted, slamming a heavy fist into his palm.
Kuki Shinobu sighed, rubbing her temples. "Boss, what exactly do you get?"
"The Hydro Archon gave everything to Fontaine! She turned herself into a regular person for them!" Itto pointed a finger at the screen, his face flushed with righteous indignation. "And Kael, that Pope guy, saw his chance. He waited for her to be weak and then pounced! Brother Kael, that's not manly at all!"
Kael stared at the text scrolling across his vision, his expression flat.
"You still don't understand," Kael typed back. "True conflict doesn't care about gender. There is a saying... strike while the enemy is down."
Kujou Sara's eyes narrowed as she read the exchange.
"I thought the same at first. Kael wanted her to recover her power to see if she intended to take back control. But..."
She paused, her fingers hovering over the interface.
"If even Arataki Itto can reach that conclusion, the truth must be far more complex."
"Hey!" Itto barked. "What's that supposed to mean? Say it to my face!"
"She means you have no brains," Dvalin chimed in, his voice a low rumble. "Thinking isn't your strong suit."
"Kujou Sara! You want to go? One on one! Right now!"
Inside Kael's home, Furina wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
The world was guessing, theorizing, and debating, but she knew the truth.
Recovering power?
She didn't even know what Elemental Power felt like. There was no power to recover.
The idea that she had poured her strength into the Oratrice was a complete fabrication, a desperate lie told by a girl with her back against the wall.
She didn't even understand how that machine worked. To her, it was just a giant, mystical box that handed out sentences.
As for the Pope stealing power... she knew Kael better than that. If he truly wanted to seize Fontaine, he would have gone after Neuvillette.
Why bother with a girl who spent her days watching operas and crying over cake?
She had lied. She had told him her power was in the machine to hide her own emptiness.
And looking at the memories of her past life...
Kael had actually believed her.
A cold realization washed over her, making her skin crawl.
Kael wasn't the one playing a game of shadows.
She was the one who had deceived him.
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43章:
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Chapter 43: Don't Talk About Secret Crushes, It'll Be the Death of Me
[Back at the Palais Mermonia.]
[Entering the room.]
[Furina, fuming, kicks her shoes off with a sharp flick of her ankles.]
"This is too much!"
[She sits heavily on the bed, the mattress groaning under her weight.]
[Her eyes drift involuntarily toward the window.]
[On the horizon, a luxury suite glows with warm, inviting light. That is Kael's residence.]
"Thirty-two thousand, four hundred days without a single word."
"And the first time he opens his mouth, it's to restrict my movement."
[Furina stands up in a sudden rage, dropping to her knees to pull a handmade pillow from beneath the bed.]
[She lands three heavy, muffled punches into the fabric.]
"Die, die, die..."
[After the third blow landed.]
[She still looks unsatisfied, her chest heaving with indignation.]
"Trial!"
"Don't let me catch you slipping. When that day comes, I'll drag you to the Opera Epiclese and have Neuvillette judge you personally."
"What's the sentence for overstepping a god?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, my dear Pope, but the crime you've committed... it carries the Death Penalty."
"Executed repeatedly."
[After her monologue, the room falls silent.]
[She calms down, sticking her tongue out at her own reflection.] "Pah, pah, pah..."
"The Death Penalty is a bit much. Too scary."
"Considering your centuries of service to Fontaine, I suppose I can be lenient."
"I'll sentence you to be Lady Furina's personal masseur instead."
From the Death Penalty to a personal masseur?
The gap between those two sentences was wide enough to swallow the sea.
The residents of Teyvat were stunned, unable to keep up with her erratic logic.
Lisa: "What's wrong with Furina? She's all over the place."
Yae Miko: "She's angry, obviously. An Archon restricted by her own Pope... that's a bitter pill to swallow."
Kaeya: "The real question is... why does the Hydro Archon have a handmade pillow shaped like Kael?"
Thoma: "That's easy. It proves she's been annoyed with him for a long, long time."
Kujou Sara: "Makes sense. She probably vents on that pillow every single night."
Tartaglia: "What's the point? Punching a pillow is useless. She should regain her power. I want to see how strong the Hydro Archon really is. Last time in Fontaine, I was sentenced for no reason. I wanted to see her power then, but she refused to fight."
Neuvillette: "..."
'Regain what power? She has none to regain
The Puppet and the Pope
Arlecchino leaned forward, her eyes narrowing into cold, predatory slits. "If that is the case, the implications are far more severe than we anticipated. This has evolved beyond merely controlling the Hydro Archon. This is about replacing her."
"Wait, what?"
Arataki Itto barked, his voice booming through the room like a physical weight. "Are you telling me you can just... manufacture a god if you have a Gnosis?"
Dottore let out a low, dry chuckle that sounded like parchment rubbing together. "Heh. You would do well not to underestimate our methods."
"Dottore!" Wanderer spat the name like a curse, his knuckles whitening.
The doctor ignored him, his gaze fixed on some distant, unseen horizon. "Though, I imagine a Reincarnator possesses a certain... resilience. He wouldn't end up like those other, more disappointing, defective products."
"You!"
Lisa tapped her chin, a playful yet sharp glint dancing in her eyes. "What a tragic little drama. The Hydro Archon falls for her Pope, only for him to wait until she's weak to rip the Gnosis from her chest."
She paused, letting the silence hang.
"The man ascends to godhood. The woman is discarded, left to rot in the shadows of her own palace."
Furina's face paled to the color of bleached bone. Her hands trembled, clutching the fabric of her skirts until her fingers ached. "It... it wouldn't really be that tragic, would it?"
"Look at you, shaking like a leaf," Paimon huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Kael doesn't even use a Vision, let alone a Gnosis. If he wanted to become a god, he wouldn't need to steal anything from you."
Furina blinked, the suffocating panic in her chest subsiding just a fraction. "That's true. He can manipulate Elemental Power without any help at all."
'A Gnosis?'
'Is that what they think I'm after?'
'I have no use for a borrowed heart.'
Furina's mind was a total blank. She had never heard of such a thing, not in all her centuries of performance.
'I don't have anything like that,' she thought, her pulse quickening. 'You could strip me bare, hollow me out, and you still wouldn't find it.'
She stole a glance at Kael.
'Did the me from that life really... love him?'
The thought sent a strange shiver through her. As a Reincarnator, Kael was a variable... a piece of the puzzle that didn't belong to this world.
'Maybe, in that life, I wasn't quite so alone.'
In this life, Furina had never mentioned sacrificing her power to the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale. She had never even brought up the subject of her own strength.
If her past self had used that specific lie to deceive Kael, there was a reason for it.
A secret.
Something buried deep within the Cycle, hidden even from her own eyes.