"This little thing... couldn’t we just eat it raw? Looks like it’d slip right down in one bite."
"Don’t say weird things. Do you want to die from parasites?"
"Parasites?! This tiny thing has parasites?"
"It might. That’s why we’re grilling it like this."
We came to the fire pit inside the drum barrel where I had been chugging plain water earlier. I carried over several pieces of firewood, built a fire, then skewered the smelt and the salmon Peruere had brought and began grilling them.
"That Pyro Vision of yours is really convenient. I want one too..."
"What are you talking about? Work on your swordsmanship. The odds of a Vision falling into your lap are about the same as a shooting star falling on you."
"Doesn’t that mean the odds are basically nonexistent?"
Cravie immediately chimed in from beside us. She was right; shooting stars almost never fell in this world.
"Anyway, let’s eat this and go watch. Seeing the older kids fight should help us too, shouldn’t it?"
They had endured Crucabena’s hellish training several years before us. With that much experience, they might serve as useful examples for the battles ahead.
"Avrora, I heard some of the seniors competing this time have even gone on operations with the Fatui and returned! Their fights are definitely going to be spectacular, right?"
As expected, all Citra knew was things going boom inside her head. Well, she was a kid. It reminded me of my own childhood, collecting tiny firecrackers and setting them all off at once in a playground.
"This should be cooked enough. Let’s eat."
I divided the smelt among us according to our numbers. The salmon? I gave that to Peruere. She needed to grow big and strong if she was going to fulfill my wish.
"Hey! Aren’t you playing favorites with Peruere? You’re giving her an entire salmon?"
"She caught it, so it’s hers. Citra, if you bring me a fish in your hand like Peruere did, I’ll grill one for you too."
"It’s all slippery! How am I supposed to catch it?! Peruere’s the weird one!"
I remembered the scene in the animation where Citra tried to catch a fish with a wooden spear and took a nasty fall. Catching it with her hands would have been easier.
While Citra and I bickered, Peruere tore apart the grilled salmon with her hands and offered some to Cravie.
"Cravie. Here."
"Mm... thank you, Peruere."
Watching Peruere tear apart salmon with her bare hands and hand it to Cravie reminded me of my mother feeding me fish when I was little. It was faster to grab and tear it by hand than to pick at it with chopsticks, at least. Except your hands ended up smelling like fish.
After the four of us thoroughly cleaned off the fish, we entered the restroom inside the arena to wash our hands. When we came out, the arena was packed with seniors and Fatui personnel.
While waiting for the children to come out, I looked over the people walking around. I spotted what players would commonly call generic Fatui mobs. Naturally, they were wearing Delusions. A Delusion might be a knockoff Vision, but it was a device that granted effects similar to a Vision. The risk was enormous, though. If an ordinary person used one without knowing better, they could lose their mind or waste away like Teppei from Inazuma. Yet these Fatui mobs handled them just fine. That meant they were fairly capable among the Fatui—an elite force, in their own way. Maybe that was why, among the mostly House of the Hearth children here, they strutted around with their shoulders thrown back as if they wanted to throw their weight around.
"Man, this brings back memories. I trained like crazy because I wanted to join the Fatui too. Seeing juniors in training brings back those feelings."
"Hey. Don’t get sentimental. Have you forgotten our mission? We were ordered to capture and bring in a black-haired brat with a Vision. Hurry up and find him."
"Come on. How hard can it be to find one little brat? If we look around here for a bit, a black-haired kid should be—huh?"
"What is it? Why did you suddenly stop... hmm?"
The pair of generic Fatui mobs stopped as they spotted me waiting in front of the restroom.
"Hey, Yuri. That’s him, right? The kid wearing a one-handed sword on his back like it’s a claymore?"
"Looks like it. This is Fontaine, not Liyue. There aren’t many black-haired kids here to begin with."
The two of them started approaching me. I had a bad feeling about this. First things first—I needed to run.
I immediately broke into a sprint. But where was I supposed to run?
"That kid’s got sharp instincts! Mikhail!"
"Tch. What a pain."
The Fatui using an Anemo Delusion rushed toward me in an instant. But I had a method of my own. First, take off my shoes...
"Why is he taking off his shoes? Is something wrong with his head?"
If I condensed Pyro power beneath the soles of my feet and pushed off...!
Fwoooosh!
Flames burst from my feet, launching me into the air. I learned this from The Legend of A-X, too. As long as I could visualize something properly, apparently anything was possible. That might be why Crucabena wanted to keep me around.
"What the hell?! I’ve never seen anyone use fire like that!"
"Mikhail! He flew up to the second floor of the arena! Is he planning to hide among the crowd?!"
"Idiot! Why would someone with black hair do something that makes him stand out immediately?! Get up there quietly!"
"Got it!"
The Fatui pair headed up to the arena’s second floor.
"The smell finally came off..."
"Honestly, I knew this would happen when you gave Cravie salmon. Why did you give it to her with your bare hands?"
"There wasn’t a fork..."
"Even so... huh? Where’s Avrora? Didn’t he say he’d wait here?"
"Yeah. Peruere, didn’t he say anything to you?"
"He didn’t say anything to me. Wait... is that a burning smell?"
Peruere ran toward the source of the scorched smell. There, the traces left by Avrora’s flame jump practically announced, I was here.
"Pant, pant... Peruere! Why are you suddenly running?!"
"I think... Big Brother is in danger."
Peruere looked around the traces, trying to determine where I had gone. Then, as though she had found the answer—
"You two stay here. I’ll go alone."
"Huh? By yourself? Will you be okay?"
"Isn’t that too dangerous, Peruere?"
"Don’t worry. I won’t die here. Big Brother said so."
Holding firm faith in her brother, the girl ran off.
"Damn it! Why are there so many rooms down here?"
"It looks like some kind of storage area..."
The Fatui pair had quickly followed me to the second floor, and I had escaped them by heading underground. It said No Entry, but if I worried about that, where was I supposed to run?
But the Fatui pair ignored the warning and came underground as well.
"If a place says No Entry, it’s the perfect place to hide. No one will be there, so you’ll hear footsteps clearly. He’s a rat in a trap now."
"But there are too many rooms. When are we supposed to search all of these? It’s a complete maze."
"So what? We just open every door and look. Like this."
The Fatui soldier using a Pyro Delusion flung open a door. Inside was—
"Shackles? Why are these attached to the wall? Is this somewhere they restrain people?"
The two of them did not know that this was where children who lost duels and were judged unnecessary were bound before being sold to Dottore.
Of course, Avrora did not know either.
"It’s too wide... and there’s only one exit... what do I do now?"
Hearing the Fatui pair’s voices from far away, I hid my body inside what looked like a storage room.
Knowing them, they would open every single door. That meant I had no choice but to prepare to fight... but how was an eight-year-old supposed to beat adults?
The difference in size was overwhelming. If I met them head-on, I would be helplessly taken down. An ambush was my only option, but there was nowhere suitable to ambush them in this narrow room. And even if I did ambush them, unless I took them out in one strike, I would be counterattacked. Think. Think...
"Hey, Yuri. This one’s a storeroom."
"The other rooms had nothing but shackles. Maybe he’s hiding here? Get ready before we go in."
"All right, opening it. Three, two, one!"
Bang.
The door opened, revealing various swords and things resembling smoke bombs. There was no sign of a person.
"What? He’s not here either? Where the hell is that little bastard hiding that he hasn’t shown himself—"
As the Pyro Fatui entered the room, I dropped from the shelf above the door, smashing the back of his head with the Alley Flash Capitano had given me.
The instant I struck him, bright red blood sprayed from his head and splashed across my face. When I pulled the sword free, the Pyro Fatui collapsed limply to the floor.
"Eek!!! What the hell are you?!"
The Anemo Fatui reflexively threw up a wind barrier. Having lost my chance to attack, I lit a smoke bomb and hurled it with all my strength.
Fwoooosh...
Smoke spread around the Fatui soldier.
"Tch, you bastard! A smoke bomb is nothing—I can just blow it away with wind!!"
That would be true if I had only detonated one. But how many smoke bombs had been in that storeroom earlier? Even I had no idea.
Even with the power of wind, the smoke began to thicken. Only then did the Fatui soldier regain his senses and charge toward the sound of my footsteps.
"You dare kill Yuri?!!!"
The Fatui had gone mad with rage at his companion’s death. Anyone would lose it after seeing their comrade get struck squarely in the head with a sword and die before their eyes.
I ran as hard as I could, but a child’s sprint could not compare with an adult charging like a crazed zombie. I was screwed. He was going to catch me.
Swoosh!!!
"I’ll capture you alive and torture you until you beg me to let you live—urk!!"
Something had just gone swoosh past me, hadn’t it?
When I turned around, someone who should not have been here stood with a sword held to the throat of the fallen Anemo Fatui.
"Peruere? Why are you here...?"
Peruere stared down at the Anemo Fatui with her usual expressionless face.
"Mister... who sent you?"
"There’s no reason for me to answer a brat’s question—eek!"
The blade at his throat dug deeper, and blood began running down his neck.
"I’m not very patient... so I’d like you to say just one thing from now on."
"Lady Arlecchino! Lady Arlecchino sent us!"
"Really? Thank you for answering. Then I should keep my word too."
Peruere immediately slit the Anemo Fatui’s throat. Blood sprayed as far as where I stood, soaking Peruere’s black clothes and face.
"Peru... ere?"
"Big Brother... why did you disappear without saying anything?"
I could not speak. Peruere had suddenly appeared and slit the Anemo Fatui’s throat. It was an unbelievable sight. She was still so young, yet she possessed that kind of strength...
"Are there more enemies? Fatui don’t travel alone."
"...Follow me."
I showed Peruere the corpse of the Pyro Fatui sprawled on the ground with a hole in his head.
"Just as expected of you, Big Brother. You defeated the enemy."
"No, putting that aside, how did you kill that huge guy earlier?"
"I think strength came out because I thought I had to protect you. If I’m with you, Big Brother, I think I can become even stronger."
"I don’t think that’s how it works..."
I looked at Peruere’s blood-soaked hand. The black curse seemed more extensive than before.
"Peruere? Your hidden power is extremely strong. But this power may consume you. So unless it’s an emergency, don’t use it."
"Big Brother, if this isn’t an emergency, what is...? Adults don’t chase children for no reason."
"Even so, I want you to live longer. Someday, the curse might consume you—"
"How much do you know, Big Brother?"
"What?"
"You seem to know what my curse is. You know my birthday, you knew a friend like Cravie would come here, and you train me too. You’re like someone sent from the future to protect me."
"Peruere..."
"When I came here, I lived with no purpose at all. But then you came, Big Brother. I became friends with Cravie, and played with Citra, and more and more things appeared that I wanted to protect... It’s all thanks to you. Because you’re here... I’m happy. That’s why I want to protect them... I want to protect this happy life..."
Was it only my imagination that black aura seemed to be flowing from Peruere’s body?
"When I killed those Fatui just now, I realized why you hate Mother."
Huh? I hated that bitch because she was human trash. Sure, she had kicked and hit me, but those were just subcategories of being human trash, weren’t they?
"It’s because you saw a future that would destroy my happy life, right? It’s that bitch’s scheme to kill you and make me lonely again, isn’t it?"
Peruere had finally started calling Crucabena a bitch. Our little sister had grown well. But she had the wrong idea.
"Big Brother, when we grow up, let’s kill that bitch and live happily together. The four of us can live well wherever we go."
Our Peruere was beginning to go off-script from what I had expected. This was not the scenario I had planned.
"Um... Peruere? Let’s at least wash our hands first. And clean off the bloodstains."
"Okay, Big Brother. I’m Big Brother’s good little sister, and I listen well."
"There aren’t any devices or anything around here, right?"
"No. There’s no magic placed here either, so that bitch won’t find out. Let’s go, Big Brother."
"Ugh... how am I supposed to get rid of this blood smell...?"
Two hours later, underground.
"Hmm? So two of them were killed here? There must have been a considerable difference in build, yet it was clean work."
Crucabena descended into the arena’s underground level, where the signal from her subordinates had last been detected. There, she found two corpses, one with a punctured throat and the other with its throat slit open.
"Children? Clean these two up for me. I have something to take care of."
"Yes, understood!"
Crucabena assumed Avrora had dealt with both of them. Peruere? The girl was powerful too, but Crucabena had never seen her true form, so she did not consider her a possibility.
"As expected, he is a child suited for the throne of a king. Now that his ability has been proven, I should continue honing him."
Crucabena was determined to work Avrora to the bone somehow.
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