The Celtic and Zoroastrian pantheons were already part of the Fontaine Divine Collective. It wasn't that Furina treated them differently.
Rather, among the middle and upper ranks of these two pantheons, they truly weren't outstanding compared to gods of equal standing—in fact, in terms of temperament, they were even inferior to some younger Vision gods of original Teyvat.
Even so, as a High God, she could only do her best to treat everyone equally.
Yes, she was originally the God of Justice—not the God of Fairness. The God of Fairness was Neuvillette.
Balancing the factions within the Divine Collective was too much trouble. Better to leave it all to Neuvillette—he was already handling such matters anyway.
As a High God, she would simply supervise. Yes, just supervise.
Sigh~
Holding a Divine Assembly was such a hassle. No doubt Focalors also thought so, which is why she pushed it onto Furina.
Since they were one and the same person, if she felt this way, Focalors surely felt the same.
The sooner the assembly was wrapped up, the sooner she could visit Wanmin Restaurant's pastry shop to try Xiangling's newly invented Starlight Immortal Tea-flavored tiramisu.
She also had two jin of immortal tea gifted by Zhongli—perhaps it could be made into milk tea.
Thinking of this, a gentle smile appeared on Furina's face.
The leaders of the two scheming pantheons immediately straightened their backs, looking confident. They took Furina's smile as approval of their resolve.
As members of the Divine Collective, gaining the recognition of its ruler was naturally a good thing.
After all, being a god wasn't about fighting and killing, but about navigating relationships.
Seeing Furina's smile, Neuvillette couldn't help but think:
"As expected of the highest god in my Fontaine Divine Collective—always so confident, impossible for any god to read her mind. In this, she may even rival the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata of Sumeru."
Furina had no idea what others thought of her. She just wanted the assembly to end quickly, and now sat there, elegantly but bored out of her mind.
Even if she wanted to leave, she had to maintain the appearance of being serious.
From here on, Neuvillette handled everything: reorganizing the three pantheons, addressing internal community issues, promoting interaction between them, and allocating Divine Collective resources…
Furina started nodding off.
Now I understand why Focalors didn't want to do this…
So sleepy~ And she couldn't let her subordinates see her impatience.
Just as she was thinking of how to slip away early, Neuvillette's voice came to her ears.
"Lady Furina, all the matters you instructed have been addressed. Please proceed with any further adjustments you wish to make~."
He spoke steadily, like an old butler.
Furina snapped to attention: "Ah? Oh! Cough cough cough."
Under the focused gazes of the gods—
"In summary, those are the matters for now. As for minor issues, I trust you can all handle them without my elaboration."
"Thus, the first assembly of the Fontaine Divine Collective is now concluded."
She stood gracefully from the divine throne and walked out of the temple, disappearing from sight in an instant.
Neuvillette, holding his staff with both hands, tapped it lightly against the floor.
Thud!
"Lady Furina has declared the meeting over. Everyone, you may disperse."
With that, Neuvillette's figure dissolved into mist.
With the highest leaders gone, the other gods also began leaving the temple.
Outside the Palais Mermonia, reporters from the Steambird Community and other news communities had the place surrounded.
It was like a nation's highest council meeting had just ended—every news community wanted the first-hand scoop.
And since this was the first-ever Fontaine Divine Collective Assembly, every decision made was headline news.
"Hey, hey! Hello, Lord God! I'm Nao Tomori, a gold-ranked reporter from the Steambird Community and an Upper God. May I conduct a professional interview with you?"
Many familiar faces could be seen here—they were all ascended gods from the lower realms governed by Fontaine.
Nao Tomori, who had not yet become a god back in her own world of Charlotte, had now risen from a rookie reporter to a gold-ranked reporter.
In the Steambird Community, becoming a gold-ranked reporter required at least the rank of Upper God.
As for True Gods, they were already leaders of some medium-sized communities. Only in a super-large community like the Steambird could an Upper God be "just" a reporter.
After all, the leader of the Steambird Community was already a Primary God—an indisputable great deity in the entire cosmos.
Don't think that True Gods or Primary Gods in Teyvat are now commonplace.
Even within a galaxy, there might not be more than a handful of True Gods.
In the Endless Planes, a single plane often held at least ten billion people, while large planes had intelligent populations in the trillions.
Yet among one hundred thousand such planes, not even one True God might emerge.
Thus, even a single pantheon oversaw hundreds of millions of such planes, along with hundreds or thousands of small universes.
"Uuu~ Back to work again, meow~ What's the point of a job without pay, meow~"
Azril, the eldest of the Flügel, walked out of the Palais Mermonia, clutching her head and kneeling on the ground in a dramatic wail, clearly unwilling.
"Stop being stubborn, Azril. You keep playing cards even though you're terrible at it, and you've already borrowed thirty thousand years of salary in advance. If you skip work, you might get reassigned to watch over civilization development in a primitive-era plane."
"Ah! (My money!) Nooo, meow! I don't want to guard primitive humans in some primitive plane! There are no entertainment spots there at all—just the thought of no card games or good food is driving me crazy, meow!"
Once outside the Palais Mermonia, the gods' expressions became far more animated.
From the topmost floor of the Palais Mermonia, Furina watched with a smile through the crystal glass walls, holding a fork as she gazed out at the bustling Court of Fontaine while savoring a dessert she had ordered long in advance from Wanmin Restaurant's pastry shop.
"Now is the time for this goddess to enjoy fine food alone."
"At this moment, no one should dare disturb me—not even the other me."
Muttering to herself, she brought the forkful of dessert to her mouth, her face instantly glowing with the joy of its flavor.
But before she could finish her muttering, a familiar, teasing voice came to her ears.
"Oh~ No one should disturb you, not even the Heavenly Principle~"
Hearing the familiar voice, Furina reacted like a startled kitten—her whole body trembled, the fork in her hand clattering onto the plate as she spun around in shock.
"Ahhh!"
She instinctively raised her hands to her chest, just like an ordinary human girl startled by a friend's prank.
Before her eyes sat a flawless-looking man, casually resting on her bed.
"L-Lord Heavenly Principle!" Furina patted her chest, regaining her senses. "Goodness! The sudden voice in my room nearly scared me to death!" Realizing her manners, she quickly straightened up and spoke respectfully.
"Oh! N-no! I just… didn't expect it to be you, Lord Heavenly Principle!"
Furina's heart was in chaos—after all, when your ultimate superior suddenly appears in your room, there's no way to stay calm.
She knew Lord Heavenly Principle quite well, having met many times, but a one-on-one like this seemed to be the first.
"Didn't expect me? What's so surprising? I am everywhere."
Noah smiled and sat down opposite her small table, picking up her untouched milk tea and taking a light sip.
Furina and Focalors were different—Furina was pure human nature. No matter how powerful she became, she had no divine nature at all; Focalors was the opposite.
Of course, that didn't mean Focalors lacked humanity—after all, they were one and the same being.
Furina's humanity was shared with Focalors, but Focalors' divinity never flowed to Furina.
Thus, even now, though her true form's strength had reached the cosmic-structure level, her reactions were still just like an ordinary person's.
"Uh… well, since you're God, you're naturally everywhere. I… I was just startled. Please don't take offense, Lord Heavenly Principle…" Furina placed her hands on her knees like a student being scolded by a teacher—very well-behaved.
In truth, knowing the Heavenly Principle's personality and code, she didn't actually fear him—she was just tense because he was her ultimate superior.
"Ah! So… I wonder, this time, what matter does Lord Heavenly Principle wish to instruct me on? I'll see it done one hundred percent." Furina quickly changed the subject, patting her chest with a confident look.
"Oh~ Must I always have an assignment for you whenever I appear? I'm not some task-issuing machine." Amused by her expression, Noah lifted a hand, and under her gaze, flicked his finger toward her forehead.
Furina hunched her shoulders and squeezed her eyes shut as if afraid of the pain.
It didn't hurt—her head merely tilted back slightly from the flick, and she quickly covered her forehead with both hands.
"You've done quite well as Fontaine's ruler—the entire Divine Collective is in good order."
Noah reached out to pat her head with a smile, her smooth blue-and-white hair sliding beneath his palm in a way that felt pleasantly soothing.
"Yes, while much of Fontaine's order is thanks to Neuvillette's efforts, your own contributions shouldn't be overlooked."
Furina lowered her head shyly under the head pat. "To be praised by you is an honor… I haven't done much—it's all thanks to Neuvillette."
When it came to managing the Divine Collective's order, she had indeed left it all to Neuvillette. Though she had strong administrative skills, compared to him, she was far inferior.
Under those circumstances, if she took charge herself, she might only cause trouble—so she simply left it all to him.
"Now that Teyvat is steadily improving, it's all thanks to your efforts. I happen to have some free time, so I thought I'd drop by and chat with you."
Noah withdrew his hand.
Furina tapped her chest lightly. "Chatting… Well, I'm not very good at conversation, but I definitely won't disappoint you."
"As the ruler of Fontaine, I'm also a singing and dancing superstar well-versed in opera, you know."
In truth, Noah had been thinking about seeing Furina dance.
Although Furina would sometimes dance a few steps under public attention, and even play leading roles in prestigious opera houses, she had never performed a full dance under such focused eyes.
"Dance, hmm? Among the original Archons, aside from Malikata, you're the best at it."
Furina removed her hat and gave a graceful bow. "Then, please enjoy my dance, Lord Heavenly Principle. I hope it pleases you."
She appeared calm, but her heart was already pounding wildly—she was terribly nervous.
Dancing for Lord Heavenly Principle… this was the first time.
Lord Heavenly Principle acted on his own whims—no one could guess what he was thinking. Since he wanted to watch her dance, she would give it her utmost effort.
In her heart, there was also a faint, unusual thought.
By now, it seemed that among the original Seven, Raiden Makoto, Raiden Ei, the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, Nahida, and the Tsaritsa were all close to Lord Heavenly Principle—even able to freely enter Eden.
That meant…
She had once worried whether Lord Heavenly Principle felt the same toward her.
Now it was clear—the answer was yes.
And since it was yes, of course she was willing.
After all, this was the supreme Lord Heavenly Principle who had created the Teyvat Universe.
The whole universe belonged to him—and as the holder of a Cosmology, she naturally belonged as well.
Barefoot on the warm carpet, Furina moved with elegant grace, like a fairy butterfly in mid-dance.
Azure light particles appeared in the air with her steps—dreamlike, entrancing, refined…
As the final movement ended, she bowed lightly to him.
Her heterochromatic eyes looked at him expectantly, seeking praise.
"A very beautiful dance—the best in the entire universe," Noah said without hesitation.
Furina came to his side, breathing out in relief, her heart soaring with joy. "Thank you for your praise, I…"
Before she could finish, her hand was taken in his. To her shock, she was pulled into the warm embrace of Lord Heavenly Principle.
She sat there stiffly as his voice came to her ear—teasing, but filled more with affection.
"My praise doesn't end with words, Furina. Mm… 'Fufu' sounds even nicer."
Furina's cheeks instantly flushed red, her whole body going rigid, not daring to move.
"L-Lord Heavenly Principle?"
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