"What are you looking at?"
Rosalyn immediately noticed Lin Mo's gaze.
"Uh..."
"I saw someone posting missing person notices for me," Lin Mo explained simply.
But his eyes remained fixed on Ganyu's retreating figure.
Today, the Emperor had faked his death.
Yet in Ganyu's and Ningguang's eyes, the Emperor had truly fallen.
She must have a mountain of tasks to handle today.
But here he was, full from his meal, while she was still out on the streets pasting up his posters.
Her tireless effort tugged at Lin Mo's heartstrings.
At that moment, Rosalyn glanced at the missing person notices plastered all over the streets, a flicker of confusion in her eyes. "Darling, has something happened? Why is the Ministry of Civil Affairs looking for you?"
Lin Mo thought it over.
If things went as expected, Eula and the others would run into Yanfei, just like with Keqing.
They'd head up to the Jade Chamber and clear up the misunderstanding about the Emperor's "murder."
That meant Ningguang probably wouldn't issue a warrant for his arrest.
Sure enough, Lin Mo glanced at one of the notices—nothing about a manhunt.
Right!
Maybe when they followed Keqing back to the office, they couldn't find me, so they started posting these?
The realization hit him like a bolt.
"It's probably because... I got separated from the Mondstadt Knights of Favonius who came to Liyue for half a day," he said. "So they're looking for me, right?"
"You got separated... just so you could have dinner with that girl from earlier?" Rosalyn's tone turned icy as she pressed again. "So, what's your relationship with her?"
The conversation had circled back to the sore spot that gave Lin Mo a headache.
He knew this storm had to break eventually.
If she couldn't even accept Hu Tao now...
What about Eula?
What about Alice?
What about Keqing?
So, Lin Mo looked at Rosalyn, a gentle light blooming in his eyes.
At the same time, his large hands rose, resting lightly on her slender shoulders, one on each side.
"Darling... you..."
Rosalyn's heart skipped as she saw the sudden depth in his gaze.
"Rosalyn, look me in the eyes."
Lin Mo's stare burned with intensity.
"Mm..."
She nodded softly.
"Do you think I'd love you any less because of another woman?"
Rosalyn shook her head at once. "No."
"Exactly—not only that," Lin Mo said, his gaze unwavering. "I'd double down on treating you well, just to make sure you never feel neglected."
"Rustam..."
Rosalyn's eyes trembled.
After five hundred years, she was hearing his heartfelt confession again.
"No matter what my ties are to others, it doesn't matter."
"What matters is that I love you—and that's everything."
"So... don't let anyone else come between us, alright?"
His tender words left Rosalyn nodding without a second thought, too swept up to overthink.
"I'm sorry..."
"After five hundred years, we've finally found each other again."
"I shouldn't let something so trivial stir up trouble."
"It's... it's okay..."
Just then, Lin Mo's brows twitched faintly. "As long as you understand now... it's not too late..."
"Rustam, are you alright? Are you feeling unwell?" Rosalyn asked, concern flooding her voice.
Anyone could see something was off with his expression—like he was gritting through some hidden pain.
"I'm fine... it's just..."
"Seeing you get it... it stirs something in me... a touch of emotion..."
Lin Mo's words came out halting, incomplete.
Emotion!?
Yae Miko, tucked away in his clothes, couldn't stomach it anymore!
"Such a player, such a player~!"
"Sasabaru, you can't keep being this much of a cad!"
"And this Rosalyn—she's got to be the densest love-struck fool out there!"
"She'd fall for lines like that? Even the pushover heroines in Inazuma's light novels aren't this gullible!!"
The little fox wasn't just raging in vain.
She was gnawing at Lin Mo's chest with all her might.
Well, "all her might" without actually going for blood.
She dosed the bite just right—enough to sting, but not enough to draw notice.
With Rosalyn's jealousy soothed, Lin Mo led her toward the Northland Bank.
He'd come here first to lift the five-century curse that had haunted her.
By remaking her heart with the super heart, he'd grant Rosalyn true immortality.
As for Ganyu...
She could wait a little longer.
A quick procedure—ten minutes, tops.
Then he'd find her, reunite with the others, and ease their worries.
...
Up in a teahouse, listening to the storyteller, Zhongli sat unusually distracted. The performer's vivid tales flowed past him, unheard.
Only now did he realize his thoughts had wandered far astray.
Just then, a figure caught his eye.
"Ganyu..."
Zhongli murmured her name.
There she was, diligently pasting posters—one after another—onto the pillars of the towering buildings.
Over thousands of years, he'd known full well that her devotion to him stemmed from Lin Mo.
Seeing her post Lin Mo's portrait like this stirred something in him; he almost stepped forward to tell her.
Lin Mo is back.
And in that instant—
Zhongli's pupils dilated sharply.
"Old friend..."
At last, he understood why his heart refused to settle.
The next moment, Zhongli produced a gleaming stone lock from who-knows-where.
Any Genshin traveler would recognize it at a glance: the five-star artifact, the Dust-Warden's Seal.
But in its lore, the "Dust-Warden's Seal" wasn't a weapon—it was a token of faith!
A token from a girl to the one she admired!
"This is a token of our pact, and my challenge to you."
"All my wisdom is locked within this stone."
Zhongli recalled their first meeting.
The girl in the wide sleeves, presenting the token with feigned solemnity and barely contained excitement.
"How foolish... There was no true contract, just her tagging along on her own whims..."
Though his words dismissed it, he couldn't help revisiting the memories.
The pristine fields of blooming glaze lilies where they'd first crossed paths.
And at the end, amid the sea of glaze lilies, her words.
"Those little mortals, so tiny and fragile like specks of dust."
"Because they're small, they could perish in disaster at any moment—so they're always afraid."
"Because they're afraid, they strive to grow wiser. I get it."
"So I thought, since my power falls so short of yours, maybe I can bridge the gap with cunning instead."
"With your strength and my mind... this city could be something extraordinary."
Zhongli still remembered her final, wistful smile.
In that smile, the girl faded into the finest grains of dust.
"It seems... I still won't walk this path with you..."
"Then the matter of the lock... let it rest."
"This is a token of our pact, and my challenge to you."
"All my wisdom is locked within this stone."
"If you can unlock it—"
For countless years, Zhongli hadn't cracked the lock, nor learned the rest of that final sentence.
As time wore on, even wild glaze lilies had nearly vanished from the world.
With Lin Mo's return, Zhongli's mind drifted back to that girl who had passed in the glaze lily fields.
Gazing at the lock in his hand, his thoughts returned to the days when Tianheng Pass still stood.
To the three seats before the Cloud Retainer's abode.
This place dwells in clouds.
This place sits in eternal return.
This place borrows the emperor.
"Eternal Return, Lin Mo has come back... but where are you now?"
Zhongli turned away.
The Dust-Warden's Seal.
His gaze seemed to pierce through Liyue's lantern-lit haze, toward the wilds of Guili Plains where they'd first met—the token left by Eternal Return before her end.
But millennia had passed.
Even with his vast wisdom and learning, he couldn't unlock it.
Couldn't access the knowledge hidden inside.
Couldn't hear the words she'd left him at the last.
Next, Zhongli's eyes lifted to the night sky.
There loomed the Jade Chamber.
Its mistress bore an uncanny resemblance to that girl—eight parts alike.
Was it mere longing for an old friend that made him bestow a Vision without cause?
Even so, he couldn't confirm if Tianquan Ningguang was truly the reincarnation of the demon god Eternal Return.
"Lin Mo, half of Eternal Return's knowledge came from you."
"If it's you..."
"You could unravel the secrets of this lock."
"Tell me what's inside. Tell me her final words to me."
"And tell me if that Ningguang is like you—a reborn soul from the ancient days, Eternal Return returned."
For the first time, Zhongli left the teahouse before the storyteller's finale.
The direction he took was straight to the Northland Bank.
He had to see Lin Mo once more.
Before he himself stepped down from the divine throne, he would unearth the secrets long buried in his heart.
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T/N:
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