I carefully opened my eyes.
I had been sitting cross-legged on the green, grass-covered Guili Plains when I heard a strange sound at my ear and ended up opening my eyes.
Well. It wasn’t as if I had been meditating so deeply that [heart-demon] would have set in, so it hardly mattered.
“What is it, Yatta?”
“Oh? Were you meditating?”
Yatta, also known as the Dragon King Yata, was walking toward me slowly with a broad smile on his face.
“It’s nothing much. I was just curious about what my friend was doing.”
“Friend...”
“Yes. Did I not help you become close with the people of the village?”
Ah. Right.
For some reason, unlike the other adepti, the Dragon King Yata had an especially strong desire to grow close to humans.
The proof was that human form he kept almost all the time.
But it wasn’t easy. A being who did not know human culture in detail might be able to get along with humans, but it could not truly sink into their lives.
So for eight years, I had crammed everything about humans into Yata.
Human culture, ways of life, and all the tiny details in between.
And at the end of those lessons, Yata had finally come to understand humans completely.
He could perfectly “imitate” them.
“Do you enjoy spending time with humans?”
“Of course. It is like looking at flowers.”
Yata laughed and sat down beside me, cross-legged just like I was.
“Flowers bloom for only a short time, and yet they are beautiful for that very reason, are they not?”
“Yes. Flowers trade time for the beauty and fragrance that let their existence spread.”
“Hahaha! To trade time for beauty and fragrance! What a splendid metaphor.”
With a hearty laugh, Yata looked out beyond the Guili Plains.
...Strange. Normally this would be the moment he would keep talking.
I opened my half-closed eyes fully and looked at Yata.
The higher I climbed in martial attainment, the more I came to understand people.
Because I had dug and dug into the being called “me” until I had seen all the way to the bottom, I could read another’s emotions with ease.
I knew the name of what Yata was feeling right now.
Sadness. And emptiness.
“...Did someone leave you?”
“How did you know?”
Yata asked back in a flat voice.
“You learned about emotions. Who was it?”
“The grandfather of a child. His name was Gonkyun.”
I quietly waited for Yata to continue.
“...He was an interesting man. Even though he was born and raised in the chaotic age of the Archon War, he never lost that cheerful spirit of his. A human like that.”
“......”
“When the child’s grandfather died, the child cried.”
Yata turned his head and looked toward the distant houses of Guili.
“The child’s name was Okgu. A spirited child, I was told. At least, until his parents died.”
“......”
“The child’s parents were taken by the Jiaolong before you arrived. They had gone to gather medicinal herbs for their sick child, but they ventured too deep.”
“......”
Yata lowered his head.
“Spending time with humans is enjoyable. It feels like watching nature in constant change. When I spend time with them and speak with them, I feel as if I too become a flower that changes with the seasons, rather than an unmoving rock.”
“...That is what humans are.”
I looked at Yata.
His eyes, once as cold as stone, were now like petals blooming with the moisture of dawn.
“Because the time we can spend together is so short, we carve one another into our hearts, or carve ourselves into each other’s hearts. And we remember forever. And when we part, we look forward to meeting again.”
“...A custom our kind does not have.”
“It is not a custom. It is closer to instinct.”
I closed my eyes and recalled the countless bonds carved into me.
“Humans call that [karma].”
“...Karma.”
Yata clutched his chest and looked up at the sky.
“Is my heart hurting like this because Gonkyun’s existence was carved into me? And because Gonkyun died... was something cut out of me?”
I was silent for a moment before speaking.
“Yata.”
“...Speak.”
“Do you know what thread is?”
“...I do.”
“Bonds are like thread. When a bond is formed, a single strand of thread is joined. If each holds onto the other’s thread, onto the bond, and remembers.”
I smiled as I said it.
“Then someday, you will meet again.”
“.......”
Yata chose silence for a while.
“I... do not know. It is still difficult to fully understand humans. I live through eternal ages beyond counting, while humans live only a span that is but a tiny fraction of my life.”
“Humans do not fully understand one another either. You do not need to understand everything perfectly.”
“...Is that so.”
Yata chuckled and scratched his head.
“Well now. I came here and ended up grumbling at you out of nowhere. Morax said something similar to me a few days ago, so I suppose I was a bit confused.”
“Not at all. I happened to be bored as well.”
I stood up.
“It seems His Excellency has not returned yet.”
“That’s right. The Archon of Mt. Tianheng is quite strong.”
At present, His Excellency had led the adepti to subjugate the Archon of Mt. Tianheng.
Naturally, Yata and I had been left to defend the village.
So we were spending the time like this.
“...And Lord Marchosius? How is he?”
“...Hngh. He has lost a great deal of strength. Lady Huiliya is doing what she can, but it seems impossible to completely block disease. ...Gonkyun also died young because of that illness.”
“......”
Even if we disinfected everything with Huiliya’s special salt.
Even if we developed the village with the adepti’s abilities.
There was nothing we could do about the remnants of resentment that had crawled out of the corpses of the gods.
“Haha. By the way, didn’t you say you were bored?”
Yata suddenly rose to his feet and beckoned to me.
“Draw your sword. This will be your first time against me, won’t it?”
“...Ha. So that’s why you came?”
“No. And besides, I thought you might be the one to suggest it first someday, so I did it. Was I wrong?”
...He was right.
I drew my sword and stood up.
Then I gathered my energy.
Pure white telekinetic force and pitch-black demonic energy burst out in streams at the same time, surging up into the sky.
“...Hah. Every time I see it, you really do seem less like a human.”
Smiling as he said that, the Dragon King Yata leveled his fist at me.
Stone rose across Yata’s entire body, and before long he had transformed almost like a dragon.
How long had it been since I last fought?
For ten years, I had been too busy with the village to do so. And while teaching Giyeon, I had swung my sword without forcing my qi to the limit.
At last!
I gathered my energy.
And someone.
Was.
Looking down at me.
“...Huh?!“
I collapsed onto the spot in shock.
“...Gumu? Why are you acting like that?”
I could not answer Yata’s question.
I was too busy sitting cross-legged and frantically gathering my energy, hiding it.
Something.
Something was looking down at me.
I glanced up at the sky.
Who was it?
Who in the world was looking down at me from the heavens!
A sinister gaze was pouring down from the sky I had once loved.
I could feel it.
Ordinary people probably would not have sensed it until that gaze actually reached them, but I, whose senses had been pushed to the limit by climbing to the peak, could feel it.
Someone.
Was.
Searching for me.
I broke out in a cold sweat and hid my energy again and again.
“Gumu?! Why in the world are you doing this!”
I ignored the Dragon King Yata and waited for that gaze to pass.
And after waiting several minutes like that—
“...Haaah!”
The gaze vanished!
Only then did I suck in a breath and get to my feet.
“Gumu? Are you all right?”
“Yes... I’m... fine.”
I steadied my dazed mind and rose.
And then.
Very slowly.
I looked up at the sky.
...Who was it?
Why was it looking at me...
...No way?
No. Why would that being be looking at me...
...Come to think of it, that was a close call. If I had been discovered by the being that toys with the fate and lifespan of every existence in Teyvat...
...?
I turned around.
The moment I did, Yata widened his eyes and threw his gaze toward the direction I was looking.
“...Yata.”
“...I felt it too.”
I poured my internal energy into my eyes and looked far away.
And saw them approaching.
“...Yata. May I ask you something?”
“...Go ahead.”
“Which gods currently exist in the sea?”
“Osial, his wife Beisht. And... Baqiu.”
“...Damn it.”
They were... determined to find me after all?
“We need to order the villagers to evacuate immediately!”
“Understood!”
Yata shot off at a fierce speed.
I watched him run, then turned my gaze toward the sea.
Energy was boiling up.
Fierce.
Overbearing.
Oppressive.
Three currents of energy.
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