In the inner ring of Mondstadt City, a grand mansion used for storing a large number of ledgers and contracts appeared particularly silent and imposing at night.
However, this silence was soon broken.
Several dark figures scaled the high walls like phantoms, infiltrating the mansion's interior.
Their movements were swift and orderly. They moved quickly through the building, keeping their voices low as they urged the remaining scribes and servants to leave at once.
"Go quickly! Leave this place! The farther the better!"
Although the startled people didn't understand what was happening, the sight of the faintly gleaming blades in the hands of the men in black and their unquestionable tone sent them fleeing outwards in a panic.
The men in black soon cleared the building of all personnel, both inside and out, ensuring that the operation to follow would not harm any innocents.
Once they confirmed it was safe, several men in black in charge of demolition quickly unshouldered their heavy packs, taking out explosives wrapped in oil paper with their fuses exposed.
They precisely installed the explosives at the base of several key load-bearing pillars and at weak points in the foundation.
With their task complete, most of the men in black retreated as swiftly as a receding tide, distancing themselves from the mansion.
Only two remained: Lumiere, and his companion, Orion.
Lumiere's gaze swept across the empty corridor, confirming no one else was present.
He walked over to a candlestick on the wall and took down a half-burned candle, its orange-yellow flame flickering in the slight breeze.
He knelt and brought the dancing flame close to a thick fuse.
"Hiss—"
The fuse ignited, and sparks raced along the cord, spreading into the building's interior.
Lumiere and Orion turned simultaneously, sprinting outside at top speed.
They burst through the main doors, leaped down the steps, and dove into a pre-scouted drainage ditch nearby.
"BOOM—!!!!"
An earth-shattering explosion suddenly erupted!
The ground trembled violently. The grand stone building was utterly destroyed, its walls cracking and its dome collapsing.
A mixture of massive stones and wooden beams, along with countless flying ledgers and contract papers, rained down as the mansion came crashing down!
Thick smoke and dust shot into the sky, instantly blanketing a large area.
Before the sound of the explosion had even fully faded, a heart-pounding sense of pressure descended from the sky!
"Whoosh—BOOM—!"
A massive tornado formed of raging gales materialized out of thin air above the ruins and swiftly pressed down!
The furious roar of the wind drowned out all other sounds, a shriek like countless blades madly slicing through the air.
The escaping gales lashed against the surrounding rubble, scraping across the exposed skin of Lumiere and Orion hiding in the ditch, bringing waves of stinging pain like being scraped by a blade.
Orion looked up at the tornado blanketing the ruins. Far from fear, his eyes flashed with an almost fanatical excitement. He shouted to Lumiere: "It worked! Lumiere, go now! The King has noticed!"
The tornado was immense, covering almost the entire area of the ruins and slowly expanding.
As soon as Lumiere poked his head out of the ditch, he found his escape route blocked by the raging gales. A powerful suction began to pull at his body, and he was about to be swept in!
Just then, a small, gray figure shot out from the shadows to the side like a bolt of lightning!
The gray figure seized Lumiere's arm, the powerful force nearly making him stumble.
"Coppelia?!" Lumiere recognized his rescuer, his tone filled with astonishment.
Coppelia's gaze swept over to Orion, who was still on the other side of the ditch, but he seemed to have no intention of leaving.
She was about to rush over, but Lumiere gripped her arm tightly and shook his head with a resolute look, signaling her to leave Orion and get away quickly.
Coppelia understood his intent instantly. Without further hesitation, she took a deep breath, and the power of her mechanical body erupted. She wrapped one arm around Lumiere's waist, pushed off forcefully with her feet, and dashed toward a relatively weaker point at the tornado's edge, attempting to break through with sheer speed and brute force.
However, they had underestimated the might of the Solitary King's tornado.
The moment they neared the wall of wind, the seemingly chaotic and violent airflow appeared to gain consciousness, instantly contracting and accelerating its rotation!
The powerful rotational force not only blocked their path but also generated a tremendous centripetal pull, forcibly slowing Coppelia down and dragging their bodies toward the tornado's center!
She couldn't hold back anymore!
Coppelia's eyes sharpened. She hadn't wanted to use elemental energy to avoid revealing herself, but this was now a matter of life and death.
With a low cry, she held Lumiere tighter and pushed off the ground with her legs, managing to jump several meters into the air while carrying Lumiere, who was a head taller than her!
While airborne, she pushed her free left hand forward, gathering cyan Anemo elemental energy.
Rather than confronting the tornado head-on, she skillfully manipulated the airflow around her, using the tornado's own immense propulsive force to "throw" herself out along a tangent to the wall of wind!
"BOOM!!"
As if sensing this faint resistance, the tornado let out a deeper roar. The wind's force abruptly intensified several times over, its area of effect rapidly expanding, sweeping even more distant rubble and tiles into the sky!
Coppelia felt an immense pressure, almost enough to crush her and Lumiere completely.
"Ugh!" She gritted her teeth, and the green light in her eyes instantly turned red.
She drained all available energy from her body, converting it all into pure Anemo elemental energy, forming a powerful jet of air behind her!
Following an arc, Coppelia and Lumiere were flung out in a dangerous centrifugal motion, barely escaping the tornado's range of influence by a hair's breadth!
Coppelia struggled to adjust her posture in mid-air, her sharp eyes scanning the ground below. Spotting a crater, she steered their fall toward it!
"Thud!" The two of them slammed into the bottom of the crater, kicking up a cloud of dust.
The moment she landed, Coppelia immediately dispersed all fluctuations of Anemo elemental energy around her and curled up at the bottom of the pit.
Overhead, the terrifying tornado, having seemingly lost its clear target, continued to circle and expand in place, howling past the top of the crater, whipping up a storm of dust and paper scraps that made it impossible to open one's eyes.
After a good while, the tornado finally began to slowly shrink.
...
On the other side of the ruins, Orion watched the small, gray figure successfully escape the danger with Lumiere and disappear into the darkness downwind. A look of relief finally appeared on his tense face, and he let out a soft sigh.
By now, the tornado's range had shrunk, finally stabilizing in an area with a radius of about ten meters centered on Orion.
The wind was still strong but no longer expanding outward. The thick dust from the explosion had long been blown away, revealing the wreckage below. Only a few sheets of paper covered in writing still spun helplessly in the wind.
"Thump, thump, thump..."
The sound of dense, heavy footsteps approached.
A squad of fully armed knights responsible for patrolling the inner ring arrived on the scene. They quickly dispersed, forming a semicircle around the area, their spears and blades aimed at Orion in the center of the storm, but no one dared to advance recklessly.
More knights began to search the surrounding area, checking every possible hiding spot, and some even started picking up the fallen documents, trying to find clues.
Their movements were efficient and well-trained, yet tinged with a hint of tension.
Several Knight Captains' gazes swept over the ruins of the completely destroyed noble mansion, the muscles in their faces twitching slightly, their eyes a mixture of shock and a trace of worry.
They knew the resistance existed and had dealt with their previous "minor skirmishes."
But to cause an explosion of this scale, directly destroying the lifeline of a powerful noble, was an intensity far beyond any previous incident!
Every knight knew that when the gales arrived on the scene before the knights did, it meant the nature of the matter had completely changed, that it had attracted the "attention" of the one at the top of the tower.
Moreover, the tornado's abnormal expansion and searching behavior just now also indicated that the King was looking for something...
Soon, the sound of even more orderly and menacing footsteps approached from a distance.
The surrounding knights parted to form a path, their expressions becoming more respectful, even fearful.
A man with short gray hair, dressed in a simple white robe and holding a longsword with an ancient design, was seen walking briskly toward them.
Following him was a squad of more elite soldiers. These were the attendants and personal guards directly under the Solitary King of the High Tower.
The King's personal guard had arrived, which meant that the Solitary King would personally interrogate this audacious attacker!
The white-robed attendant stopped at a respectful distance from the tornado. His indifferent gaze swept over Orion at the center of the storm, then his lips moved, chanting an incantation.
Following his chant, the tornado trapping Orion rapidly slowed its rotation, its force weakening until it finally dissipated into a few wisps of air, disappearing completely and leaving only devastation behind.
Two personal guards immediately stepped forward, roughly twisting Orion's arms behind his back and taking him into custody. He stood his ground and did not resist.
The white-robed attendant turned around expressionlessly. The personal guard, with Orion in tow, quickly left the scene under the silent watch of the knights, heading toward the High Tower.
...
In a remote corner of the inner ring, far from the High Tower.
Columbina remained quietly hidden in the shadows.
She had nearly been detected by Decarabian earlier and didn't dare use her power to get close to the tower again, so she hadn't accompanied Coppelia.
Soon, Coppelia arrived with a still-shaken Lumiere to meet her.
"We meet again," Coppelia said, letting go of Lumiere, a subtle weariness in her voice. She then asked, "Why didn't you let me save him just now?"
Lumiere slid down to sit against the cold stone wall, catching his breath before answering:
"His name is Orion. This was his own choice... He wanted to use this operation to meet the King directly, to question him with his own mouth, to see with his own eyes... what His attitude truly is toward the people living within these storm walls."
Coppelia recalled the earth-shattering explosion and the terrifying tornado that followed.
"Your previous attempts... none of them caught His attention?"
"We tried many things." Lumiere's voice was weary, tinged with suppressed anger. "At first, we wanted to resort to force, partly to express our anger to the King, and partly to hopefully compel the nobles to reform their harsh policies."
"We started with small-scale attacks, destroying the nobles' granaries, cutting off their supplies. The King didn't react, and the nobles... they just reinforced their guards."
"Later, we attacked the mansions of officials, destroyed their transport vehicles, and wrote warnings on the walls. The King remained silent."
"And the nobles..." Lumiere sneered. "They made countless empty promises but never took any concrete action. They spread vicious rumors, slandering our actions as a mere power grab to divide our supporters. Or, they'd throw a few irrelevant, already powerless nobles into jail and declare the problem solved... until the next conflict erupted."
Coppelia caught the key point: "So, until today, until this explosion... the Solitary King has only now truly 'noticed' you for the first time?"
"Yes." Lumiere looked up toward the High Tower, his expression complex. "Orion will confirm the King's true attitude for us. The swords in our hands, the strength of all our people... where they should be pointed, perhaps tonight we'll have our answer."
The three fell silent. After a short rest, Lumiere, using his familiarity with the terrain, led Coppelia and Columbina to stealthily follow the guard escorting Orion, once again approaching the suffocating High Tower.
They saw the white-robed attendant walk up to an inconspicuous archway at the tower's base and move his lips silently once more.
A moment later, a raging, cyan wall of wind behind the archway parted like a curtain, revealing a wide stone bridge leading into the tower.
The guard escorted Orion across the stone bridge, their figures disappearing into the shadows within the tower.
Then, the cyan curtain of wind closed again, sealing the entrance completely, as if nothing had happened.
Columbina asked softly, her voice laced with concern, "Will he... be in danger?"
Coppelia also looked at Lumiere. "Causing such a huge commotion, what if the Solitary King just convicts and sentences him on the spot?"
Lumiere shook his head, his tone certain yet tinged with bitterness. "As far as we know, the King only punishes offenders with imprisonment or exile. There has never been a precedent for execution."
At least, there would be no immediate danger to his life. He left this last part unsaid.
And so, Lumiere, Coppelia, and Columbina settled down to wait in a hidden corner, far from the archway but still able to see any activity.
Their gazes were locked on the archway that separated the inside from the out, waiting in oppressive silence and the eternal howl of the distant wind for the news Orion would bring back.
...
Escorted by two expressionless personal guards, Orion stepped onto a circular stone platform at the base of the High Tower.
As soon as he was steady, the platform shuddered slightly and was then lifted by a powerful gale, beginning a stable and rapid ascent.
He closed his eyes, feeling the howling gale, imbued with immense divine power, rush past him.
The wind pressure made it somewhat difficult to breathe, and his skin stung, but instead of fear, it ignited a tragic sort of courage within his heart.
He was about to face the supreme ruler of this land, to speak for the countless silent ones.
___
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