Tenshukaku, Inazuma City.
In the vast main hall, Raiden Ei circled the starship Liyue brought—the one Lumine had produced—as curious as a child.
"A marvel—truly a marvel. A device that ignores gravity and keeps itself in perpetual motion," he murmured. "And it even compresses into a small sphere for easy carrying. So this is technology from outside this world? Or is it only so wondrous because it came from Su Xuan's hand…"
On the dais, Lumine and Paimon sipped tea, amused by Raiden Ei's wide-eyed fascination. At their side, Yae Miko swayed her head idly.
On the matter of the Workshop Bureau, Ningguang had already sent a letter: when Su Xuan's Jade Chamber was complete, she would invite Guuji and others—plus Mondstadt's Acting Grand Master Jean—to discuss resource allocations for the Bureau's output. Miko wasn't very interested. As long as Su Xuan was still strolling around Teyvat, whoever "managed" it hardly mattered.
Seeing Lumine and Paimon giggling at the curious Shogun, Miko changed the subject. "By the way, Lumine… I remember Su Xuan once said you and your brother can absorb energy in special ways. Has he ever passed you his own powers? I mean those that can't be simply bestowed on others—telekinesis, electromagnetic might, things like that."
Lumine set down her cup, a hint of pride lifting her chin. "I tried to bully him into it," she admitted. "But every attempt failed. According to Su Xuan, my brother Kong and I have a uniqueness that might only apply within this universe."
Miko blinked. "Only in this universe…?"
Universe… outside the universe?
Lumine waved off the cosmic headache. "He's too mysterious. Talking about him doesn't get us far; even together we can't touch the edges of what he is. Let's switch topics. For example… do you know the 'son' Rosalyne wanted to introduce to Su Xuan?"
Lumine had not been pleased to see Rosalyne "recommending a son." Rosalyne, for all her arrogance, had been treating Lumine and the others decently—thanks to Su Xuan. But introducing a son? That sounded like staking a claim as head consort and overturning everyone's rice bowls. Absolutely not. Fortunately, Su Xuan had been thoroughly displeased—especially at the name Scaramouche.
"You mean that executor called the Balladeer?" Miko suddenly glanced, worried, at Raiden Ei. "He's actually a puppet made by Ei."
Lumine: "?"
Paimon: "Wha—made by the Shogun?!"
They exchanged looks. How did a puppet made by Raiden Ei become a Fatui Harbinger? And why did Su Xuan sour the moment he mentioned him? From Miko's instant frown, there was clearly a juicy scandal here.
"But the Shogun…" Paimon looked toward Raiden Ei, still propping her chin as she studied the starship. Miko was plainly worried that Su Xuan's distaste for Scaramouche would touch on Raiden Ei—yet Raiden Ei herself acted as if it had nothing to do with her.
"Ahh…" Miko sighed. "Ei doesn't even know the Balladeer is one of her puppets."
"Doesn't know?" Lumine and Paimon gaped. You make a thing and don't know?
Miko nodded. "He only took the name Scaramouche—codename Balladeer—after joining the Fatui. So Ei never connected him to herself. And that puppet, in Inazuma, is…" She trailed off as the diary hovering before them began to update. She swallowed her words and focused.
[Speaking of Scaramouche, I prefer to call him "Thunder Cannon."]
[I dislike him mostly because he's more arrogant and obnoxious than Rosalyne, and his mouth is foul enough to sour the air.]
[If "Thunder Cannon" had Albedo's temperament, maybe I'd consider it: I call him "bro Cannon," he calls me "Dad," everyone minds their own business.]
[Since he was made by A-Shadow, she does count as his 'mother.']
"Mm!?" Raiden Ei snapped her head up, interest in the starship forgotten. "Guuji, when did I make a puppet called Scaramouche? I only made two: Kunikuzushi, the failed prototype, and the consciousness-body Raiden Shogun based on myself."
"Oh? Only realizing it now?" Miko chuckled. "Kunikuzushi was his name before he joined the Fatui. After he became a Harbinger, he took the new name: Scaramouche, codename Balladeer."
Raiden Ei trembled. "You mean the one Su Xuan dislikes… is actually a puppet I made?"
"Yup! Ei! Now what do we do?" Miko's heart sang at Ei's startled shiver; she fanned the flames sweetly. "Honestly, Rosalyne—terrible timing. Su Xuan's nearly in Inazuma, and she had to bring up someone who puts him in a foul mood. If Su Xuan blames you because of the Balladeer, oh, poor Inazuma, boo-hoo…"
Raiden Ei: "?"
The diary scrolled on.
[Even so, I'll admit his identity is special in Teyvat.]
[Why? Because from his birth, he dreamt and even shed a tear.]
[Ei judged that such emotion disqualified him from upholding Eternity, labeled him a failure, and abandoned him—]
[—then made the Raiden Shogun as the true "Eternity's Warden."]
[From this alone, it's clear he was born with a will to breach the foundational logic of Eternity.]
[Where that will came from—innate, or bestowed by some "admiring" higher existence—we can't say.]
[But he bears a title no other does: "A god-wrought transcender"—or the seed of transcendence.]
[And there's a line about him:]
["Born as a god-forged transcender, discarded as useless."]
[It reads like the heavens sneering at Ei's ignorance. Hehe…]
A puppet favored by the heights of the sky? What sort of existence would that make him… and why did Su Xuan respond with such scorn?
The girls leaned in. There was a melon to slice here—and Su Xuan's tone carried open contempt for "the heights."
[What happened to him, and why do I say he's special?]
[After Ei sealed and abandoned him, he awoke—somehow—]
[—and, again "somehow," broke the seal of the Great Narukami Shrine and left.]
[That's twice now.]
[He kept a grudge against Ei—felt betrayed—and wandered.]
[At Tatarasuna, he met kind Inazumans: Katsuragi, Mikoshi Nagamasa, Niwa Hisahide…]
[He lived like a normal person and took them as family.]
[But the Fatui Doctor, Dottore, disguised as a Fontaine merchant, brought a device sealed with a demon's filth—]
[—triggering an irreversible accident in the furnace.]
[To be fair, "Thunder Cannon" did run to Narukami to beg for rescue—alone—]
[—but by then Ei had entered the Plane of Euthymia.]
[Miko moved to organize help, but he, hot-headed, ignored her and decided the Shogunate had abandoned Tatarasuna.]
[He returned to find Dottore's plot complete and the workers butchered.]
[Immune to the filth, he shut down the core himself—]
[—and, via Dottore's arrangements, concluded the workers 'fled in guilt.']
[He decided his 'family' had betrayed him.]
[That was betrayal number two.]
[Afterward, at a ruined hut by the sea, he found a frail, parentless child—]
[—a Tatarasuna orphan. 'Abandoned like me,' he thought.]
[They promised to face the future together.]
[But the child died in a single night while he was out seeking food.]
[He took even that as betrayal.]
[Three betrayals: Ei. Tatarasuna. The child.]
Brows knit all around. Whatever else he was, Scaramouche had defied Ei's bindings twice from birth—something even the Raiden Shogun could not do. You could blame inexperience for an early "failure," but how did he break free of seals again to awaken? Hard to explain.
What was easy to see: he judged by impulse and never questioned his premises. In Tatarasuna, with countless subordinates at his command as a Fatui executive, he never truly investigated Dottore's "flight in guilt." And to call a child's death betrayal… who among the living faces death as choice?
[Here I must complain about A-Shadow.]
[She's ruthless when softness is needed, and soft when ruthlessness is required.]
[Miko, seeing he could breach Eternity's logic, advised destroying him.]
[The pretty pink fox has sharp eyes: he was trouble and should not be kept.]
[But Ei couldn't bear to unmake something she had made. "Too cruel," she said, and sealed him instead.]
[She never expected he'd wake and walk away.]
[Round and round, three 'betrayals' later, he blackened—]
[—took the Fatui's invitation, became the Sixth: the Balladeer.]
[He vented his spite on Inazuma, nearly annihilating the Raiden Gokaden (the Five Sword Traditions).]
[Even Kamisato's clan head—Ayaka's grandfather—was injured by him and later died of his wounds.]
[The Gokaden's catastrophe sparked the craftsmen's 'defection,' dragging families down with them.]
[Kamisato lost many retainers and suffered heavy censure.]
[Ayaka's parents strained themselves to hold the clan together and died early.]
Ayaka's breath caught. "Grandfather… was injured and died because of him?" She'd grown up with the official story: master smiths' betrayal led to sanctions; the Kamisato bore the burden. To learn it had been orchestrated by Scaramouche…
Her gracious composure cracked. "Three betrayals? How laughable. All these years as a Harbinger with troops beyond counting…and he never sought a single thread pointing to Tatarasuna's truth? And to call a child's death betrayal—what shamelessness."
Anger flared in her chest; grief burned with it. If the Kamisato had suffered purely from the Gokaden's failings, she would have borne it. But to be crushed by a plot—this was a bitterness she could not swallow.
The diary's tone shifted again.
[And yet… what I've said so far is drizzle on his life.]
[What came after taught me a vulgar truth: compare goods and you'll toss them; compare people and you'll die of spite.]
[It even made me feel…]
[…that among all living beings in Teyvat, he might be the most exalted of all.]
All the girls: "?"
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