Over two hours had passed since the official end of the Knights of Favonius' workday, yet the lights in the Grand Master's office remained brightly lit.
Jean was working overtime.
From a young age, she'd been taught that as long as it was for the Knights, for Mondstadt, no amount of hardship was too much. So even though overtime was exhausting, she didn't mind. In fact, she was even considering whether there might be a potion that could let her skip sleep entirely.
But today, she was truly exhausted—mentally exhausted. A feeling she hadn't experienced since the dragon disaster two months ago.
Unusually, she wasn't the only one burning the midnight oil. Lisa, who never worked overtime, and Kaeya, who was supposed to attend a banquet at Dawn Winery on behalf of the Knights, were both present as well.
It all started with the return of the recruits this morning at 7AM, when they should have still been on field training.
Those young soldiers had endured a brutal, soul-draining battle. Despite their battered bodies and fallen comrades, they pushed themselves to their limits, traveling ten hours through a relentless downpour to return from Dadaupa Gorge to Mondstadt overnight.
And they brought terrible news.
Deaths during recruit training weren't unheard of, but they were exceedingly rare—and always due to extraordinary circumstances.
There hadn't been an incident like this in over a decade… and this time, the reason was supposedly that the Chief Instructor ran away?
While the injured were rushed to the Church's hospital for treatment, those still able to speak relayed the same claim.
Jean had been out on her routine morning jog with Amber and was the first to encounter the returning recruits. She heard their story firsthand, saw the tragedy with her own eyes, and personally used her Dandelion Field to tend to their wounds.
But some injuries, even she couldn't heal.
Two recruits were dead.
Four others without Visions were critically injured and unconscious, their lives hanging on the thread of field potions they'd brought.
Among the five with Visions, one had lost an arm. Another was comatose with visible abdominal bandaging.
The rest bore varying degrees of injury. Though their external wounds were treated, their bodies and spirits were deeply exhausted. Even the two assistant instructors leading them wore expressions of sorrow mixed with lingering confusion.
They all said the same thing: that the Chief Instructor had abandoned them and fled.
The Chief Instructor had trained recruits on the field for eight years. He'd taken up that position the same year Diluc became Cavalry Captain. He had trained not just these recruits—but Jean and Kaeya as well. Though they had little contact since leaving the training field, how could anyone believe this?
"Wilbur…" Jean subconsciously uttered the Chief Instructor's name.
That morning, she'd called an emergency meeting of all squad captains still in the city. Special communication was sent to guerrilla teams operating outside the walls.
The wounded were given the best care. The dead… their families would have to be compensated. Every idle Vision-holder in the Knights—over a dozen in total—was dispatched to search for Wilbur. Even those without Visions were grouped into search teams.
A bounty was also issued via the Adventurers' Guild. Any information about Wilbur Cobb that could be brought back would be rewarded, depending on its importance.
Mondstadt was large, but finding him was only a matter of time. Yet if Wilbur truly wanted to disappear, with his speed, he would already be far out of reach.
What in the world happened?
Jean wanted answers. Kaeya wanted answers.
"He would never do something like this."
That's what Kaeya said. That's what everyone who had ever served as an instructor at the training field said. Everyone who knew Wilbur said the same thing.
Jean shook her head painfully. She didn't want to believe it either, but people had died. Could an entire group of recruits really be conspiring to slander Wilbur?
"This is the current reality. Hopefully, we can find Wilbur soon."
Kaeya and his cavalry had also gone out that day. They'd searched all day and come back with nothing.
Even the Adventurers' Guild, famed for their reach, hadn't turned up any trace of Wilbur.
It was as if he'd vanished into thin air.
Victor Wang first learned the Chief Instructor's full name from the Guild's bounty board.
He quickened his pace. As an Honorary Knight, he didn't need an appointment to enter the Knights' headquarters. He guessed Jean was still working and knocked on the door. It was Kaeya who opened it.
The atmosphere inside the office was heavy.
"I have information about the Chief Instructor."
Victor Wang got straight to the point. Under the gaze of the three inside, he repeated what he had told Sidney.
"The Chief Instructor was absolutely being controlled by that sword!"
He'd experienced it himself—no one could be more certain.
"Lisa?" Jean called softly.
"It's possible his mind was being controlled. In past records, even the Fatui Harbingers had individuals capable of such things. But a sword… I'll need to do some research."
Victor Wang's heart tightened. He'd nearly read through all the books in Mondstadt Library. Though he'd memorized most just by glancing over them, not all had truly sunk in—but he was sure none of them mentioned a sword like that.
"You don't believe me?"
Lisa wordlessly patted Victor Wang on the shoulder and left the Grand Master's office.
Kaeya leaned against the wall, silently flipping a Mora.
Jean lowered her hands to her forehead in deep thought before finally saying, "We believe you, but everything needs evidence. Even with your testimony, the Knights can only categorize this as a pending case. People died—families are waiting for closure.
"If we can find Wilbur, or the sword… or at least a reliable record of it, then we can clear his name. Since so many saw its appearance, all we need is documentation to match."
"…"
"You're still recovering from your wounds. Go home and rest for now. The Knights will handle this."
Disappointed, Victor Wang left the Knights' headquarters and made his way to the Church hospital to check on the severely injured. All but Duke had regained consciousness.
One nun tending to Duke recounted the state he was in when brought in. His abdomen had nearly been sliced open horizontally. When they removed the tightly bound bandages, they could see his internal organs still writhing, intestines forced back inside.
"Don't worry too much. His constitution is strong. For him to survive such trauma and make it back to Mondstadt—he's already out of danger. He's just not awake yet."
Despite describing the severity of Duke's wounds, the nun reversed course and tried to comfort him.
Damn it!
Victor Wang clenched his jaw tight enough to shatter his molars. Duke and the others hadn't been directly harmed by Isshin—they were casualties of the fallout. But Isshin did come because of him.
The causal chain was: himself → Isshin, Chief Instructor → Duke, recruits.
Who was trying to kill him—dragging all these people down with him?
Or was the true target the Chief Instructor, with him as collateral?
That sword did say it liked the Chief Instructor's body. It clearly couldn't move on its own and needed a host. Taking the Instructor's body and killing Victor Wang were its two clear goals.
But Victor Wang had only been in Teyvat for less than three months—what enemies could he have?
Sidney?
As if. If Sidney had that kind of power, would he still be begging for forgiveness? Would he need to steal a four-star weapon? Would he fake it all that convincingly?
Unless he was a follower of the Eremites or Arlecchino's path.
Motive alone wouldn't lead to answers. He had to work backward—who even knew his location that day…?
Hiss…
Victor Wang scratched his head in frustration. On the day of the storm, the only ones who saw him were the Hilichurls and the recruits at Dadaupa Gorge. But that was around noon. After that, he spent three more hours on the road, and over an hour training east of Springvale. The time gap was just too wide.
Still, the mastermind behind the Black Sword had to be from Mondstadt.
The recruits had been on the move, but stayed in Dadaupa Gorge for five days—a place even locals rarely visited, much less outsiders. The likelihood of an insider increased—maybe even a spy among the recruits.
If the mastermind knew Victor Wang had a habit of training in the wild, and assumed he wouldn't return to the city right away, the timing of the ambush made sense.
The next morning, Victor Wang tried to recall the names of the recruits he'd seen from the air that day. He compiled a list and quietly handed it to Kaeya, asking him to investigate.
Even though Venti said the one who killed him had already left Mondstadt, Victor Wang still joined the ongoing search for the Chief Instructor, just in case.
By nightfall, after two full days of effort from the entire Knights of Favonius, there was still no trace of Wilbur or the Black Sword.
"If not for the 'Great Fire of Fall Equinox'... perhaps…" Lisa murmured.
Mondstadt had once been the city with the largest collection of books in the northern continent. Now, its library was only one-sixth of its former glory, thanks to that disaster.
Even counting her own collection—rivaling banned tomes in rarity—she couldn't find any record of a sword that could control minds.
Kaeya's investigation into the recruits yielded nothing suspicious.
The case had hit a dead end.
The Knights officially ended the search, classifying Wilbur Copper's disappearance as a "pending case." Per Victor Wang's report, the Black Sword was documented in the archives. Responsibility was split: half on Wilbur Cobb, half on the Black Sword.
Only the bounty on the Adventurers' Guild's board remained—likely to hang there for a long time.
The only good news: Duke had regained consciousness.
Aside from Sidney and Victor Wang, the other Vision-bearing recruits came to visit as well. Regardless of gender, they all seemed far more hardened than before.
"I believe in the Chief Instructor," Duke said weakly, after hearing what had been said about him.
"Well, he's gone now. We may never see him again," Sharon replied coldly.
According to Sidney, Duke had taken that scythe blow to protect Sharon. But she showed none of the typical signs of "maiden rescued by hero"—only a conflicted look in her eyes.
Probably someone she never cared much for. Now that he'd saved her, things were just… awkward.
Having been away too long, Victor Wang couldn't fully reintegrate. He quietly left the hospital room.
On the third day, with six days until Lumine's departure to Liyue and eight days until his own, Victor Wang prepared to return to his regular training schedule.
But while passing by the Adventurers' Guild that morning, a voice called from behind:
"Hey kid, I've got some info you might be interested in—want to hear it?"
Victor Wang spun around. There stood a scruffy man with a claymore on his back, smiling slyly at him.