Rosalyne's slap hit Dottore so hard that even he seemed stunned.
Rosalyne. Slapping him.
The Second of the Fatui Harbingers.
When had he ever suffered such humiliation?
But the crowd of girls watching the projection burst into uncontrollable laughter.
They clearly saw the fury on Rosalyne's face—teeth clenched, eyes burning—when she swung that slap.
Obviously, in her eyes, Dottore was the reason Su Xuan had "complained" about her in his diary.
And since she couldn't yell at Su Xuan… all that anger had to land somewhere.
Mondstadt.
The crisp slap echoed through the light-screen, and Jean Gunnhildr felt an odd wave of satisfaction bloom in her chest.
Jean had always disliked the Fatui.
But among the Harbingers, the one she despised most wasn't even Rosalyne, who once tried to weaponize Dvalin.
If asked who she hated the most, Dottore ranked first without competition.
Jean could never forget how he stole away a group of Mondstadt's children for his experiments.
"…That slap was… incredibly satisfying," Jean murmured.
"A pity I wasn't the one to deliver it."
Yet she couldn't fully describe her mixed feelings.
Rosalyne—who once used Dvalin to pressure Mondstadt—had just done something that genuinely eased Jean's heart.
All of this, ultimately, was thanks to Su Xuan.
"Scaramouche's fate is already sealed… now it's Dottore's turn," she whispered, eagerly awaiting the next diary entry.
What end awaited that monster?
[Speaking of Dottore—]
[He and the Thunder Cannon(Scaramouche) are a perfect pair.]
[The Thunder Cannon was born a puppet yet desired a human heart.]
[Dottore was born human yet insisted humans were merely complex machines—take them apart, modify them, and the 'machine' improves.]
[Both of them are missing something fundamental in their humanity.]
[Actually, Dottore might not have had any humanity to begin with.]
[As a scholar from Sumeru, he pursued knowledge with a fixation on human modification.]
[And for results, he would do anything.]
[He was incredibly confident in his abilities—]
[Confident enough to think that with enough resources and time, he could even manufacture a 'god.']
Nahida: "…"
[His whole life revolved around searching for experimental material.]
[To gather enough test subjects, he needed a steady supply of people.]
[Once, to acquire a batch of subjects, he disguised himself as a preacher and returned to his hometown in Sumeru…]
[He claimed he could cure a disease called Mawarin—so parents sent their sick children to him.]
[What did he do next?]
[He injected those children with the remnants of a dead god to observe the results.]
When parents realized something was wrong and went to demand their children back—
[He killed them. All of them.]
The girls watching the projection were horrified.
They had already seen the tragedy at Tatarasuna, where remnants of a god twisted human bodies and minds.
To inject that into children…
There was simply no humanity in that.
[Mawarin is a condition found only in Sumeru.]
[Newborns develop black, scale-like patches—not contagious, but fatal as the corruption slowly eats away at the body.]
[The true cause is that Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was eroded by the Abyss, corrupting the Irminsul.]
[And the area affected was… Sumeru.]
[Infants are far more vulnerable to the Abyss than adults, so the probability of developing Mawarin is higher.]
[There is no cure. Only willpower and resistance can delay the inevitable.]
[The only true solution is to cleanse the Abyss from Rukkhadevata and the Irminsul.]
[So at that time, Dottore—disguised as someone who could 'cure' Mawarin—was a literal beacon of hope to desperate parents.]
[And yet, almost none of the children sent to him survived.]
The girls watching clenched their fists.
No wonder Su Xuan said Dottore had no humanity.
He offered hope only to use the children for horrific experiments—and killed parents who tried to save them.
Even a brief description of his past was enough to make them grind their teeth.
Collei trembled with fury.
She was one of the few who survived those experiments—and barely.
If Amber hadn't taken her in, Collei couldn't imagine where she'd be now.
Probably dead on the roadside… or worse, consumed from within by god-remnants.
[Of course, if you confront Dottore about his inhumanity, he'll proudly claim—]
[Without his experiments, the children would've died even sooner.]
[That he provided valuable data.]
[Honestly? He's shameless.]
[I know one Mawarin patient who lived to adulthood—Dina Zero.]
[Older than Amber or Collei.]
[And she only survived because Nahida encouraged her every night, giving her hope and strength.]
[So in terms of extending life and giving children a chance—]
[Nahida did far more than Dottore ever could.]
Sumeru — Sanctuary of Surasthana.
Nahida blinked in surprise.
"He… he said I did better than Dottore."
"Does that mean I'm not as useless as people say?"
That small line in Su Xuan's diary meant everything to her.
At the very least, it meant he saw her as more reliable than the previous ruling deity.
"If he has a good impression of me… then when he comes to Sumeru, he won't avoid me or think I'm incompetent…"
She clasped her hands, quietly thrilled.
[As for the truth behind the Tatarasuna disaster—]
[It all started because Dottore wanted the Thunder Cannon's body.]
All the girls: "???"
[Ahem. I mean he wanted to study the puppet-making techniques used to create her.]
[To obtain her as a test subject, he disguised himself as a mechanic and introduced 'new technology' to the forge workers.]
[He said it would refine Crystal Marrow faster—but instead it amplified the god-remnant corruption.]
[The resulting filth spread through Tatarasuna, and workers began falling ill.]
[When the Thunder Cannon left to request aid from the Shogunate—]
[Dottore killed every forge worker.]
[Later, when he ran out of test subjects—]
[He planted a device capable of provoking Stormterror Ursa on Crepus's carriage.]
[When Diluc and his father returned to Dawn Winery, the device activated, attracting Ursa.]
[Crepus used his Delusion to protect Diluc and died.]
[Dottore then appeared dramatically, killed Ursa, and made Mondstadt owe him a massive favor.]
[He demanded recruits—experimental material—from Mondstadt.]
And those people… never returned.
Jean's eyes widened in shock.
[The reason they never returned is simple—]
[The experiments failed. They all died. Children included.]
[Three years later, he returned to Mondstadt again to demand more subjects.]
[Shamelessly claiming it was for "the protection of the continent."]
[Thankfully, the Darknight Hero killed his subordinate.]
[Dottore wasn't angry—because he realized Diluc could use a Delusion with no side effects.]
[He wanted to make Diluc his next test subject.]
[So he withdrew all earlier demands.]
[Unfortunately for him, Diluc rejected him outright.]
[In short: this man has spent his entire life doing nothing but human experimentation.]
[If he isn't experimenting, he's out hunting for new subjects.]
[He has never done a single thing that resembles human decency.]
[I didn't expect him to appear here in his original body…]
[But since destiny brought him to me—]
[I'll send this body on its way first.]
[As for his clones scattered across Teyvat…]
[Once my psychic sense covers the whole continent, I'll erase them all.]
"Dottore deserves death!"
Collei leaped to her feet before Su Xuan even acted.
If Su Xuan said he'd kill someone, that person would die.
Old Delusion Factory Ruins.
Rosalyne staggered backward in fear after finishing the diary.
Dottore frowned. "Rosalyne, what is—"
He never finished.
A force twisted violently through his body—
And before Rosalyne's horrified eyes, Dottore's entire form compressed into a sphere small enough to fit in Su Xuan's palm.
A moment later—
Boom.
The sphere burst into nothing.
Not a trace remained.
[As for last words—]
[There's no need.]
[I'm not interested.]
[...]
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