Cravie gained confidence and joined the training that Peruere and I did together. Unlike me, who had a Vision, and Peruere, the real Father, her combat ability was noticeably different from ours.
In a bad way, of course.
Peruere puffed out her cheeks and complained that it felt as though her private time with me had been taken away. But Cravie needed to survive Crucabena’s tests too, did she not? When I ordered her to join us if she did not want her friend to meet an early death, she finally understood what I meant and went along with it.
And so, as we improved our skills together—though it was practically the same as playing—time passed. Halfway through, Citra threw a fit about why I was excluding only her, so she joined in too, making four of us. But what did it matter? We were comrades who all wanted to survive and grow into adults together. Time flew by.
Three years later.
I turned twelve. My birthday? I did not want to tell anyone, so I said it was January 1st. As a result, my birthday parties were often swept up in the year-end and New Year atmosphere. Today was one of those days.
Our usual group of four gathered in the room on December 31st. As we welcomed the new year, we stuck candles into a cake, I lit them, the others sang a birthday song, and then I blew out the candles. It had become an ordinary part of our lives by now.
"Happy twelfth birthday, Brother."
"But why have you barely grown? Aren’t you about the same height as me now?"
"Girls grow first, Citra. Boys grow later."
"Hmph. Don’t worry. I’ll grow so much that I’ll catch up to your height!"
"Yes, yes, I understand. Cravie, have some cake too. It just came out of the oven, so it’s nice and warm."
"Okay. Thank you, Avrora."
The four of us stuffed cake into our mouths and chewed like hamsters. Once I had finished eating, I looked at the constitutional law and civil law books on the shelf, wondering which one I should read today. Crucabena had said she would make me study when I turned twelve, so she would soon grind me down with academics. I ought to at least get some advance studying done first.
"Why do you read those thick books, Brother? All we have to do is fight."
"Because Crucabena gave me an order. She told me to take the bar exam."
"The bar exam? It sounds difficult just from the name..."
That was right. It was fucking difficult. Even in my old world, the bar exam was considered the final boss of all exams, and Fontaine was the nation of law. True to a country that lived and died by the law, it had countless bizarre statutes. What did that mean? They could all appear on the exam. Yanfei had not said that even though she knew all of Liyue’s laws, Fontaine’s laws were so complicated that even she would struggle with them for no reason.
"But Avrora, you keep calling Mother by her real name. Is there some reason for that?"
Ah, I did not want to tell Citra. If it was her, she would obviously run straight to Crucabena and tattle.
"Um... well..."
How was I supposed to answer? If I said I did not regard that bitch as a person, she would start cursing me out immediately.
"Brother is someone who will become king, unlike us. That’s why he calls Mother that. Before a king, everyone is equal..."
Peruere came to my defense. Though I was not sure whether that really counted as a defense...
"Hmm... is that so? Anyway, we’ve finished the cake, so let’s brush our teeth and sleep! I’m running there first!"
With that, Citra snatched up her toothbrush and cup and dashed toward the bathroom like an arrow. This life was exhausting too...
A few months ago, Crucabena caught the four of us spending time together. She said that, as our mother, she was so pleased to see that we had been close since childhood and had now progressed to training together. Then she shoved all of us into a room meant for four. That was how the dorm life of me, Peruere, Cravie, and Citra began.
Still, it was not as bad as I had expected. Since I needed to study, I was given a personal desk, and the other children were given desks as well for fairness’ sake. Cravie decorated hers with lilies of the valley she had picked nearby in a vase, while Citra kept several tangerine hairpins in her drawer. Peruere was the unusual one—she had nothing but a first-aid kit and a sword. It seemed she had brought the first-aid kit for children injured during training and for Cravie, whom Crucabena abused. And my desk was...
"Brother, couldn’t you kill someone with those books? They look really thick..."
It was packed with all kinds of books.
"Maybe you could... though I don’t know if anyone has ever been punished for doing that."
Honestly, I wanted to try it. Since I had a Vision, lifting a law book was no trouble. I had this dream of shouting, "Impudent heretic!" and smashing someone’s skull in with one.
"Still, you’ll pass easily, Brother. You know everything."
"Please stop saying things like that..."
Peruere fanatically believed that I knew everything. That belief had not changed since she first met me as a child. But exams were another matter entirely.
There were many ways studying could become monotonous, and one of them was wondering whether what I was studying would actually appear on the test. If I studied like mad only for the exam questions to come from some bizarre corner, all that studying would be wasted. It was also why people came out of exams with that hollow post-exam emptiness. But if you studied every possible topic, it would take far too long. And it was not as though you could remember all of it either. That was why people said exams came down to luck.
Back in university, when I studied with a friend and a junior, I once said that only this material could possibly appear on the exam—and then it showed up exactly as I said. The way those two looked at me changed after that. Unless you could actually see the likely questions coming, though, any ordinary person would sigh while looking through a thick law book. Especially when it was a bar exam that could turn your life around.
The bar exam in Fontaine boasted a history of several centuries. It had four stages: the first was multiple choice, the second written-response, the third essay-based, and the fourth was an interview with Neuvillette. People failed in droves even at the first stage. The fact that anyone could take the exam could be considered an advantage, but it also meant producing a great many long-term examinees. Crucabena was telling me to take an exam like that. Anyone would have no choice but to call her insane.
But right now, I was receiving laser-focused tutoring from Focalors. Tutoring from the God of Law? It was the kind of tutoring you could not get even if you paid a fortune. Still...
"Isn’t the amount of material fucking ridiculous, Focalors?"
"This country has existed for five hundred years. Isn’t it only natural that an enormous amount of case law has accumulated?"
I was studying even in my dreams. I had thought I would only need to study the parts Focalors marked in my books, but she said I needed to attend her lectures too, or something. She must have been unbelievably bored.
"Why is legal history even a subject? Do I have to study this too?"
"Shouldn’t you at least know why laws were changed? Quit complaining and study."
Focalors nagged me just as much as Crucabena did. Studying when I was awake, studying when I was asleep—someone save me...
"Still, since today is your birthday, I’ll give you the day off as a special favor."
"I offer my gratitude for the god’s mercy..."
"But Avrora, there’s something I’m curious about."
"Question time? What do you want to ask?"
"What happens to me in your future?"
Focalors’s future... She performed the Dance of the Sinners before Neuvillette, a blade fell from the heavens and killed her, and the Hydro Throne was destroyed...
"You could say it turned out just as you wished."
"That feels unpleasant. Why do you know my plan when I never told you? You’re not really a spy of the Heavenly Principles sent down from the heavens, are you?"
"If I were, I would have let Furina die. Your goal is suicide too, isn’t it? It depends on who the target is, but I think we’re the same in wanting to screw someone over with our own deaths."
"Which is why we’re working together, isn’t it, comrade?"
"It feels strange calling you comrade. Just call me a friend."
"Wow. You’ve got some nerve, wanting to be friends with Focalors, the God of Hydro."
Why did she feel like such a useless god? Was it because we both had Hydro elements?
"Anyway, putting that aside—Avrora, if you intend to kill yourself, when are you thinking of doing it?"
"I haven’t really thought about it. But why ask?"
"Why? Because you’re too precious to die. My intuition tells me so. You need to keep living."
Too precious to die... How many people lived in order to die in the first place? But I was an alien existence in this world, an existence that ought to disappear. And yet she wanted to keep something like me alive. I supposed that after being entangled with me for three years, she had grown attached.
"I have no choice but to die. How are you going to stop that?"
"Hm? I never said I would stop you. I’ll simply revive you."
Revive me? Was that even possible?
"How would you revive me? Wouldn’t all my memories disappear?"
"No. Your memories will remain completely intact. But the conditions for your death are rather strict."
"Conditions? Aren’t you being a little too demanding?"
"Do you think saving a person is easy? First, you have to die near me. That way, before your water spirit leaves this world, I can seize it with my power."
"By near you, do you mean I should die at the Opera Epiclese, where the Oratrice Mecanique d’Analyse Cardinale is?"
"Correct! The Fountain of Lucine is within the acceptable range, but anything farther away will be difficult. Second, if you want to come back looking the same, your body must remain intact. If you melt away or burn to ashes, it will become difficult for me to recreate your image, and you’ll be revived with a different appearance from your current one."
A different appearance? I did not mind. In fact, that was preferable. If I were revived with the same appearance, there was a greater chance the House of the Hearth would find me. I would rather avoid that.
"Is that all?"
"You only need to worry about those two things. It looks like there’s something else you want to ask?"
"I can’t leave the House of the Hearth. But you’re telling me to go all the way to the Opera Epiclese to die. Doesn’t that make no sense?"
Focalors approached me with a sly expression.
"That’s why I’m making you study, isn’t it? Who is in charge of the fourth-stage interview?"
"Neuvillette."
"That’s right. And where do you think the interviews are held?"
"Obviously somewhere like a private one-on-one room?"
At that, Focalors flicked my forehead. It did not hurt because this was a dream, but I still felt the impact.
"Listen, anyone who makes it to the fourth stage can practically be considered a final pass, so they gather everyone together first for a lecture from Neuvillette. That’s why they rent out the entire Opera Epiclese for the day. After the lecture, they call the candidates into empty rooms in the opera house for interviews. So surely you can roughly figure out when you need to die?"
"Make it to the fourth stage, then die right there?"
"That would be the answer. Though since you mentioned water from the Primordial Sea before, I doubt the second condition I mentioned will be met. So I’ll need to keep a very close eye on you, won’t I? I’m the one who’ll be making your body. Well, don’t worry. Even if you can’t die there, I have a second plan."
Focalors making my body herself... I could not even imagine what kind of bizarre tastes she might work into it. Please, just do not make me look too strange.
"So I now have a duty to get you through to the fourth stage. You’re quick on the uptake, so you know what you need to do from now on, right?"
"Don’t tell me..."
She was not about to say what I thought she was, was she? Please, anything but that...
"Study right now. You can rest today because it’s your birthday, but starting tomorrow, I’ll cram it into your head until you wake up."
Oh, please spare me, Lord Focalors...
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