"Ha..."
Victor Wang surveyed the area where he'd battled Isshin, but all traces had been washed away by the rain, leaving only insects chirping in mating calls from every direction.
An ordinary night, as if that memory of confrontation had never truly existed.
"The Chief Instructor's body is gone... Is he still being controlled by Isshin? And how long has it been since I died…?"
The pocket watch had been restored along with his resurrection. The time it displayed was close to when he was killed, leading Victor Wang to suspect that the interval between deaths and rebirths was a multiple of 24 hours.
"Chief Instructor, I will avenge us both..."
He stepped through the moonlight, heading back toward Mondstadt. But he hadn't gone far before hearing movement ahead. Instantly, he concealed himself behind a large tree.
The rustling of pant legs brushing against grass stems grew louder. The figure quickly approached. Victor Wang focused his gaze—it was Sidney.
After closely checking that Sidney wasn't carrying any strange weapons, Victor Wang called out to him.
"Victor?"
Nearly a month had passed, and Sidney's face had grown more resolute. His expression now restrained, devoid of his usual feigned cheerfulness. A stark contrast to the fake smiles he used to wear.
Only that Vision still stood out, hanging prominently from his neck.
"What are you doing here? Is your field training over?"
Sidney gave a cold snort from his nose. "Field training… field training? Yeah, ended early."
Sensing Sidney's bad attitude, Victor Wang hesitated before asking, "Was it that day with the downpour?"
"That day? Wasn't that just yesterday?"
Yesterday... looks like I resurrected exactly 24 hours after death.
Sidney was already growing impatient. "Aren't you an Honorary Knight of the Knights of Favonius? Why are you so clueless? Or do you just not care what happens to us nobodies?"
Victor Wang felt a twinge in his heart. "I haven't made it back to Mondstadt since the rain started yesterday. Can you tell me what happened… does it have something to do with the Chief Instructor?"
Sidney let out a long sigh. "Of course it does. Everyone in the Knights is looking for him. I'm looking for him too… that deserter!"
"Deserter?! Why would you call him that?"
"If you want to know, follow me. I don't have time to stand around and chat." Sidney shot Victor Wang a distracted glance, unfazed by his tone, and turned toward Dadaupa Gorge.
"Tell me the story," Victor Wang naturally followed him.
"Hmph! Yesterday marked day 25 of our field training. A full month of combat—facing Treasure Hoarders, Fatui, but mostly Hilichurls.
"As per the Chief Instructor's plan, the final ten days were to be spent entirely in Dadaupa Gorge.
"That place has a ton of Hilichurls, and a wide variety at that. But if the baiting went as planned and we lured the correct number, they were manageable. And the hands-on experience was better than anywhere else.
"But yesterday afternoon… the tribe we'd been baiting suddenly rioted. The Hilichurls lined up in a long formation and stormed us all at once.
"Following the instructor's commands and taking advantage of the terrain, we managed to hold them off—even facing an entire tribe."
"As night fell, two Hilichurl Rogues suddenly appeared. They were smart! Not quite human intelligence, but their combat skills were sharp—and they could use elemental power."
Sidney swallowed hard, unconsciously rubbing his right elbow as he continued:
"Alongside them came eight Mitachurls—five with shields—and a mess of Samachurls… That's when the Chief Instructor finally stepped in. He took on the two Hilichurl Rogues, and we five Vision holders took on the Mitachurls.
"It went smoothly at first. The Chief Instructor killed one of the Rogues. Hah—with his skill, if he hadn't been holding back to pressure us, he could've taken both out in a few moves.
"We took down the wooden-shield Mitachurls. You know none of us use claymores, so the three with geo shields had to be dealt with using Elsa's elemental skills before her power ran dry. We managed to take out two of them."
Elsa was the only Geo Vision user among the current batch of recruits—a white-haired girl.
"But then… the Chief Instructor, mid-fight with the sword-wielding Hilichurl Rogue, suddenly freaked out and ran. Left us recruits—and the two assistant instructors without Visions—behind!"
"With no one to handle that Hydro-wielding Rogue, it grabbed its scythe and charged us. Then more Mitachurls showed up… We did hold them off in the end, but the cost was devastating."
"Two dead. Five severely wounded. Seventeen with minor injuries." Sidney exhaled those numbers softly, trying to gauge Victor Wang's reaction. But he only saw the little Dodoco on Victor Wang's cloak.
He let out a bitter chuckle. "We were like stray dogs in the storm… tails tucked between our legs, fleeing back to Mondstadt in the dead of night. You still think the Chief Instructor's not a deserter?"
Hearing all this, Victor Wang felt his heart grow heavy. He never imagined casualties had occurred among the recruits. Though they'd only trained together for half a month, aside from characters he knew from the game, these recruits were the closest thing to bonds he had in this world.
The Chief Instructor had only trained him for two weeks, but he'd woken him up—meant something special.
"I didn't expect that. But… I did see the Chief Instructor last night."
Sidney halted mid-run, and Victor Wang stopped too.
"Where did you see him? What time? The Knights have been searching all day—if I find him, I swear I'll beat the hell out of him!"
"You might not get the chance," Victor Wang said, expression complicated.
"What do you mean?"
"First, let me say this: the Chief Instructor is not a deserter. And please, just hear me out."
Victor Wang began slowly, "Around 7PM yesterday, I was training with my sword alone east of Springvale. It started raining hard, so I turned to head back. That's when I saw him—not far from where we just met. He had a Black Sword, a tattered cloak, and a hollow gaze."
Sidney's eyes widened slightly. "That checks out. That sword—at first, the Hydro-wielding Rogue had it. The instructor took it from him. That cloak—he tore it off the Anemo-wielding Rogue he killed. I remember clearly… Go on."
"I approached and greeted him. But he just stood there, dumbfounded, then suddenly shouted: 'RUN!' I was startled and backed away fast.
"But he chased me. He was faster than me and cut off my escape. Then he attacked—I didn't understand why, only fended him off as best I could. But he got more aggressive by the second. I kept calling him 'Chief Instructor'—that's when he froze."
"I realized something was wrong… like he was being controlled. Don't you think so?"
Sidney shook his head this time. "His behavior was strange. But when he fled… I tried to chase him. His expression was frantic—not hollow. He shouted at me to move aside. I didn't… He cut off my right arm."
Recalling the painful memory, Sidney closed his eyes and sighed deeply, his left hand gripping his right elbow.
"…Could it be that he feared losing control and killing all of you? Maybe he told you to move because he didn't want to hurt you… and when you didn't, he lost control anyway."
"Until I confront him directly, I'm withholding judgment."
"Then let me keep going. After that brief hesitation, he attacked with even greater ferocity. At death's door, I used everything I had to fight back… That Black Sword spoke. It said I was 'troublesome'."
"Then, after I was struck again, my consciousness slipped into an illusion. Time passed way slower there—one second felt like a whole day. I could only watch what was happening outside."
"Just as he was about to kill me, the Chief Instructor suddenly regained control. He stabbed the sword toward his own heart. The blade jumped from his hand—but he used a Wind Roar Fist to strike his own chest… crushed his insides. There was no saving him."
"I was badly hurt, my elemental energy drained. Once I escaped that illusion, I passed out immediately. When I woke up, all traces were washed away by the rain. The Chief Instructor and the Black Sword—gone."
"Luckily, I had healing potions on me. Stopped the bleeding, patched myself up. Took me half a day to recover… then I ran into you."
After hearing Sidney's story, Victor Wang was certain—the Chief Instructor had been coming directly for him under some form of control. But none of that, nor Victor Wang's resurrection, appeared in the altered version of events.
"The Chief Instructor chose death over harming me. I believe he was being controlled."
Sidney placed a hand to his forehead, filled with pain. "I hope so too. He was our idol… But two comrades are dead, others maimed. Duke had his stomach slashed open by that Rogue's scythe… he's still in recovery…"
"…"
That greedy, selfish, two-faced Sidney… had tears in his eyes.
"Alive or dead, we have to find him. Even for his innocence, we must. But you—head back to Mondstadt. Report everything to the Knights."
Victor Wang silently nodded and walked in the opposite direction of Sidney.