"There's gossip~"
Seeing the look on Lumine's face,
Huoliya and Yingda's eyes lit up at the exact same time.
One of them took out a plate of fruit,
the other dragged over a stool.
They pulled Lumine into a seat and laid the fruit out in front of her,
then leaned against the side quietly, waiting for their master's next words.
Up to now, their master had never really gone into detail about this girl.
All they knew was that she was a Descender who had crossed the sea of stars,
and that she had an older brother connected to the Abyss.
At last, they were finally going to hear a proper explanation.
What a pity that Fanan wasn't here.
She was going to miss out on this gossip live and in person.
Still, it was fine. Once Fanan came back, they could always retell it to her.
"…"
Looking at the plate of neatly prepared fruit in front of her,
Lumine didn't know whether she should eat or not.
The two at her side were clearly in full "sit back, snack, and watch the drama" mode.
Seeing that, she had a feeling that whatever she was about to hear next… probably wouldn't be great.
An ominous premonition quietly rose in Lumine's heart.
"Hehe, you two are really thoughtful~"
"Lumine, here, have some fruit."
Paimon, completely oblivious to the change in mood,
scooped up two pieces of fruit on her own initiative.
She handed one to Lumine,
and had already taken a bite out of the other herself.
Crunch—
"Mmm~ so sweet…"
Seeing Paimon's satisfied face,
Lumine sighed inwardly and resigned herself to it, taking the fruit and biting into it rather viciously.
She had to admit, though: the fruit really was sweet, without being cloying.
Too bad this was not the time to be enjoying it.
"Let me ask you something."
Taro propped himself up a little, looking at Lumine with mild curiosity.
"I heard that you and your brother came to Teyvat because you answered Khaenri'ah's summons, right?"
"Is that true?"
"Eh?"
Lumine froze, fruit between her teeth, staring blankly at Taro.
She and her brother… had come to Teyvat in response to Khaenri'ah's call?
That… did sound kind of familiar?
Wait.
The fruit in her hand slowly slipped from her fingers.
Lumine's expression gradually went slack.
No.
Something was wrong here.
She and her brother hadn't come because they responded—
Had they? Or hadn't they?
It was like two completely different answers were colliding in her mind.
A strange feeling coiled, cold and thin, at the bottom of her heart.
Since when had her memories started getting blurry?
"I… feel like I have two answers."
Lumine clutched her head, her face turning rather ugly.
"Then it looks like your own words can't be trusted either."
Seeing her current state, Taro shook his head slightly.
"Your memories have definitely been tampered with by someone."
"And not with some ordinary, run-of-the-mill method."
"It should be… overlay—an incomplete assimilation overlay."
There were many techniques that could manipulate memories.
Among tiered spells alone, there were several that could pull it off.
In games, their function was usually to inflict a confusion debuff.
But in reality, Taro had tried them; that stuff really could alter memories to a certain extent.
If someone's soul wasn't strong enough, they'd get caught up in it easily.
Lumine's case was fairly complicated.
Her memories hadn't been twisted,
and nothing had been erased.
So why were there two answers?
Which one was real, and which one false?
The answer was simple.
Both answers were real.
Those two completely different scenarios were all things Lumine had personally experienced.
It was just that one had taken place in the Teyvat of the current timeline,
and the other had occurred in a Teyvat belonging to an already-collapsed timeline.
Ishtaroth… she had definitely taken part.
Or rather, all Four Rulers had taken part.
"You know what happened to me?"
Lumine rapped her knuckles against her forehead and stared at Taro, her expression heavy.
"It was that god who claims to be the Sustainer of Heavenly Principles, right?"
"Yeah. But she's not the only one~"
Taro nodded calmly.
"They probably wanted to pick one of you siblings and recreate a being whose status matched that of the Original."
"Obviously, things didn't work out with your brother's side."
"Which is why you woke up."
Not just me…
My brother too?
Hearing this, Lumine's brows knit together tightly.
So that white-haired god had intercepted the two of them back then because of this?
Her fists clenched. They clenched hard.
But the next moment, Lumine deflated again.
What good were hard fists?
Back when she and her brother were at full strength,
they still couldn't last five moves against that being—
they'd been one-sidedly crushed.
Now, having lost their original power, there was even less to talk about.
"Don't think too much."
Taro spoke again.
"None of this is guaranteed, you know."
"I'm just speculating. I have no idea how accurate it is."
Teyvat was full of pits and traps.
He wasn't some prophet.
Everything he'd said was just his own opinion.
Whether he was right or not… even he wasn't very sure.
At best, maybe a thirty percent chance?
"Huh?"
"Just speculation?"
Lumine, who had been sunk in dejection, suddenly snapped her head up.
…Asking for flowers…
She had the vague urge to grind her teeth.
Seriously…
Was he messing with her?
If it wasn't guaranteed, why say it in the first place?
"This is completely normal."
Taro shrugged lightly.
"If you manage to remember your experiences out in the sea of stars, maybe I'll be a bit more confident."
"If you can't remember, then there's nothing I can do."
He'd already used identification spells on Lumine.
This girl didn't have any negative debuffs on her,
nor any strange abnormal status conditions.
In other words, she was perfectly normal.
And that was exactly the biggest problem.
Her situation was not normal.
But she herself was very normal.
Normal = abnormal.
That was why Taro had said the method used on her was anything but ordinary.
All of it had been done with positive means.
No memory was rewritten, no seals were imposed, no cognitive fog was added.
Lumine's essence hadn't merely been preserved—
it had even been optimized.
No one could find anything out of place.
Yet anyone with a bit of power could tell that something about her was off.
And still, there was nothing actually "wrong"…
How was that not a high-level technique?
If [Twenty] hadn't been so critical—so precious that Taro was reluctant to use it—
he really would have liked to put the Eternal Serpent Ring to work,
just to see this kind of handiwork with his own eyes.
The Heavenly Order had undoubtedly spent a fortune of effort on both Aether and Lumine.
"Memories from beyond the sea of stars…"
Lumine let out a small, self-mocking laugh and slowly shook her head.
"Looks like my problems really are serious."
"Thank you for telling me."
She had originally come to ask about her brother's whereabouts.
Instead, she'd dug up a whole pile of issues with herself.
Lumine was feeling more than a little strained.
Who would be happy about being a chess piece, shuffled around on someone else's board?
Unfortunately, even if she wasn't happy, there was nothing she could do.
Forget flipping the board—
she didn't even have the right to sit at the table and play.
"Forget it. Let's drop my situation for now."
Taking a deep breath, Lumine slowly lifted her head.
"Tell me about Aether instead."
"I know there's a big chance it'll be something I don't want to hear."
"But now that things have come this far, I'd rather listen to it anyway."
"At least I can be mentally prepared."
"So I won't be completely lost if we suddenly run into each other, not knowing anything at all."
As for deeper questions, she didn't want to think about them yet.
They were all problems she currently had no way to solve—
what good would knowing do?
For the time being… she could only take things one step at a time.
(End of Chapter)
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