Isaac looked at the witches who were, in turn, looking back at him in silence.
To others, the sight of such witches looking at them might have been considered a blessing, given their status and feats.
But to him, these witches gave him nothing but dread and confusion. He felt like he was a little bug under a rock suddenly being picked up by a giant.
...and those giants know a little too much about him.
'Have they been watching me?'
Such a notion wasn't impossible for these witches. And to be honest, for them, watching his life must have been quite worthwhile given how he was essentially an anomaly in the world different from the Traveler.
So, in his mind, he had conjured the possibility that, from the moment he had transmigrated into this body of his, the witches might have already noticed and started watching him from afar.
'They know what I like and act like they've known me for a long time now...'
Isaac had seen that kind of behavior before in his past life, stemming quite commonly in a certain demographic that were rampant in the age of the internet.
Parasocialism.
People who, by watching someone through a screen, developed emotional investments and started thinking that they and the person they were watching knew each other just because they witnessed that person's life a lot.
This was one of the pillars of his speculation as to how they could have possibly known a lot about him and their uncanny familiarity.
As Isaac's thoughts scattered all over the place trying to make sense of everything, a voice once more entered his mind.
[You can relax here, Isaac. Be not afraid.]
'Funny you say that...'
But even in a situation like this, he still couldn't help but subtly make out some kind of humor to cope.
He turned to look at Nicole who was looking back at him with a gentle expression and a small smile on her lips.
Out of everyone here, she was perhaps the only person he could count as trustworthy, given that she was formerly an angel that guided humanity.
He lingered for a moment before asking her, as calmly as he possibly could, "Tell me, how exactly can I relax?"
His gaze then shifted back to Alice.
"I don't mean to disrespect you, or any of you here. But please... I just need some answers."
Once, he had heard someone say that the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
And truthfully, that quote couldn't have been more accurate.
For there was nothing more frightening than knowing nothing.
The witches, after hearing that question, all lingered in silence for a while before the silence was eventually broken by none other than Alice.
"I see, that's my fault for rushing things too fast." She said after a soft sigh. "I didn't mean to frighten you, young man. I was just too excited at the notion of meeting our knight once more."
"Knight...?"
The moment Isaac heard that, more questions bubbled up in his mind. His head was so jumbled that he genuinely felt nauseous again.
With furrowed brows, he said wryly, "No... You've got to be mistaken, surely. Your knight, isn't your knight Varka? Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius?"
"Hm?" Barbeloth, the witch that was controlling the doll as an avatar, hummed. "You're not far off, but you're not correct either."
"Varka is indeed our Hexenzirkel's current knight, but he wasn't our first." She added.
At that point, Nicole nodded.
[That's right. Varka passed the trials of the Hexenzirkel and had henceforth served as our knight that we occasionally invite with us to have a chat with. But...]
Nicole smiled.
[He wasn't our first. There had only been two men that had challenged the Hexenzirkel and passed to become our knights.]
[The first one was a person similar to the literary figure that I have on my person, Don Quixote. A long, long time ago, he challenged the Hexenzirkel for an audience with all of us present and overcame our trials. From henceforth, he had served as our first knight.]
[He had always treated himself harshly and would often go around Teyvat to eliminate Abyssal creatures, tainting himself in their blood. It even got so bad that, at some point, he had temporarily lost his sanity and genuinely believed himself to be a chivalrous knight with his blade serving as his knight errant.]
[If not for the Cryo Archon finding him out in the wilderness of a frozen tundra devouring the flesh of an ancient being, and taking him in under her care, he might have continued his rampage against the Abyss, traveling in a mad state with no reason...]
Nicole yapped on and on, as if every word that had left her mouth was being generated on the fly without a break.
For an angel who was unable to speak, she sure did talk a lot telepathically.
But to Isaac, who was listening intently, the lore she was spewing was far more valuable than he could ever thank her for.
And as he listened, he couldn't help but get a bad feeling about the story.
After she finished speaking, he lingered with a puzzled expression for a moment before asking, "That's a great story to know, really, but... What does that first knight have to do with my original question?"
"You still don't get it?" Alice hummed as she leaned over him. "Come on, think a little harder about it."
Alice then smiled slightly, as if it were tinged with melancholy. "That knight then served under the Cryo Archon shortly after her ascension to her status of Tsaritsa of all Snezhnaya."
"Under her orders, he began vanquishing her political enemies, subduing rebellious plots, aiding her in her consolidation of the Snezhnograd Veche, and even intimated countless snowland Faes who dared to stand up against Her Majesty."
She then sighed. "During those times, that knight of ours didn't even spare any time left for us. Ah, but what could we do? He chose his own path and we can't convince him otherwise."
Isaac, overwhelmed by all of the information being given to him, couldn't even afford to follow up with another question because of how much they were giving.
And now, he truly can't ask any more questions with the next person speaking.
The pair of floating gloves, which was controlled by the witch who was also a Sinner, finally put down her teacup and spoke to him.
"Shortly after being given orders by Her Majesty the Tsaritsa to explore the Abyss to find something, he had returned as a changed man."
The witch who had unleashed countless monstrosities across Teyvat, who was now merged with the Shade of Life, spoke with nonchalance.
Even though she wasn't physically here, her words alone made Isaac think that each and every cell in his body felt fear.
In silence, he let her continue the story.
"In that deep darkness, he had found something that had tainted him. And so, he sought us for help."
Although Isaac couldn't see her face, he felt like a smirk had formed just now. "And I answered."
"Shortly after that, the knight made a pact with Inazuma, then to Sumeru for answers, a trade with Liyue, and lastly..."
She paused, then said, "An unknown task in Fontaine."
Isaac lingered for a while, not sure what to do anymore.
He wasn't an idiot. He knew what the witches were trying to convey, but for the life of him, he just couldn't understand any of it.
...or rather accept any of it.
"Why..." He opened his mouth and spoke wryly. "Why are you telling me all of this?"
He needed confirmation.
Alice smiled softly. "When certain records are lost, it's hard to recover them. And so, they are replaced with vague placeholders to fill the gap."
"That was how we still remember our knight."
With a snap of her fingers, Alice then summoned a series of books out of thin air and showed them all of Isaac.
As he reads all of their titles, his eyes widened.
"By jotting down his life and experience into these allegorical tales, we were able to remember our knight all the way from back then." She explained. "And you..."
A book then descended and hovered before Isaac.
"You just remind us a bit too much of our Knight of Witches, hehe."
---
A/N:
Chapter might seem a bit off today. Sorry. I'm feeling a bit sick and have nausea.