When Ryou opened his eyes again, the light outside the window had already dimmed. Wind hammered against the panes with a low, steady howl.
He was lying in bed. Most of his clothes were gone, leaving him in nothing but a thin layer of underclothes.
Pressing a hand to his forehead, he sat up and tried to remember what had happened before he passed out.
Everything had happened too fast.
Before he could even react, his mental strength had been drained completely. After that, he vaguely remembered catching a familiar scent in the air.
It had clearly belonged to Signora.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, his heart tightened. Signora was not a good person.
If he had fallen into her hands, how could anything good have come of it?
But... what exactly had she done to him?
The window rattled softly in the wind. Before Ryou could think any further, footsteps approached from outside.
The door creaked open.
"So, you're awake." Signora stepped inside.
"Signora!" Ryou stared at her.
"I haven't done anything to you, so what exactly are you afraid of?" She stopped by the window and turned her face slightly toward him. "Relax. I'm not going to kill you. Keeping you alive is far more useful to me."
She folded her arms and went on calmly, "To be honest, the moment I caught you, I wanted to kill you. As long as you're alive, you're a tremendous threat to the Fatui. But I can't kill you. As long as you remain in my hands, your wife will do as we ask."
Ryou said nothing.
"But you crushed three ancient gods to death." Her gaze sharpened. "Even I can't pretend I could do that. You really are impressive."
She walked over to him in a few quick steps.
"Maybe I should hand you over to the Doctor," she said, looking straight at him. "Have him cut that head of yours open and see what's hidden inside."
Cold sweat broke out across Ryou's back.
It was only because his situation was unusual that he was still alive. Under normal circumstances, Signora might really have killed him on the spot.
And standing this close to her, he could feel an overwhelming pressure.
She had leaned in slightly while staring at him, which only made it worse.
It felt like the first time he had ever seen a globe—shocking, almost impossible to process. He had never imagined the world could be that big, with a northern hemisphere and a southern one.
Signora noticed where his eyes had gone and shot him a glare.
Part of her was faintly pleased. At least the man had taste.
But she also hated that look, because every man who saw her ended up looking at her that way.
Still, Ryou felt different to her.
Before today, she had wanted nothing more than to kill him. But after seeing him slap three ancient gods to death, even from within Liyue Harbor, she had been shaken.
That kind of power was terrifying.
It was also intoxicating.
Her feelings toward him had become... complicated.
This man was strong. Incredibly strong. He had more than enough to back himself up. But his self-control was terrible.
A man like that, no matter how gifted he was, would never go far. His weakness was far too obvious.
She returned to the window and waited for Zhongli to arrive.
Her deal with Zhongli had already been completely ruined. At this point, the only way to get the Gnosis was to use Ryou to force his hand.
She was sure Zhongli would come.
As for Ryou... she couldn't kill him. The only thing left was to hand him back.
Staring out the window with her arms crossed, Signora said, "Ryou, let me give you one warning. Don't even think about leaving. Without anyone here to protect you, even Keqing—"
She stopped.
In that instant, she felt a presence vanish from the room.
Her head snapped around.
The place where Ryou had been sitting was now empty.
He had disappeared without a trace.
Signora's face darkened. Elemental power spread out from her body, sweeping through the room and beyond.
Nothing.
She still couldn't detect the slightest trace of him. It was as though he had vanished from the world itself.
"Ryou!" she hissed through clenched teeth.
...
Ryou had retreated into his pocket world for the moment.
Fortunately, he had prepared for something like this in advance and set one of the return points inside his own home.
That way, if anything went wrong while he was outside, he could return straight back.
After suppressing the ancient gods, he had known almost nothing about what happened next.
He didn't know how events had unfolded afterward. Right now, the most important thing was to find out what had happened after he lost consciousness, and whether those ancient gods had truly been dealt with.
Then another thought hit him, and it made his scalp prickle.
Yanfei and Cloud Retainer would probably come looking for him soon enough.
The moment he thought of that, his head started to ache. He had seen all the records from [Hand] and [Eyes], and while he had been absent, those two had taken shameless advantage of quite a few girls.
Hu Tao, Yanfei, Xiangling, Yun Jin... the list went on.
If everything [Hand] and [Eyes] had done got pinned on him, he was in real trouble.
A moment later, Ryou stepped back out of the pocket world.
The lamps in the house were lit. When the butler saw him, he rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
"Ryou-sama... you're alright?!"
"What would have happened to me?" Ryou asked. "Where's Keqing?"
"Keqing-sama has nearly gone out of her mind. She's at the Ministry of Civil Affairs right now, arranging people to search for you. She came back once to ask whether you'd returned, and then rushed off again."
The butler stepped forward anxiously.
"I could tell she was exhausted. Her eyes were red. Ryou-sama, you should go see her quickly. I'm really worried..."
"I know."
The thought made Ryou's chest tighten.
He knew how deeply she cared for him. He might bully her all the time, but the feelings between them ran deep.
Using [Feet], Ryou rose into the air and flew straight toward Yujing Terrace.
The butler looked up at him, dumbfounded, and rubbed his eyes again.
"I... I must be seeing things. Ryou-sama can fly? H-How is that possible?"
"No, no... today's been too much. I'm just worried sick, that's all. People can't fly... right?"
...
By the time Ryou arrived at Yujing Terrace, he had already pieced together Signora's plan.
She wanted to use him to pressure Zhongli into handing over the Gnosis.
Thinking of that, he walked straight over.
"Zhongli-sensei, where are you heading?"
"R-Ryou?" Zhongli looked genuinely startled when he saw him.
He had received word that Ryou had been captured by Signora, so seeing him here now was enough to surprise even him.
He had already considered the Tabibito a variable. What he had never expected was for Ryou to rise out of nowhere like this.
With a single slap, he had killed three ancient gods on the spot.
That blow had thrown all of Liyue into chaos and left the entire harbor stunned.
Even Zhongli himself had been speechless.
"I was just arranging for people to look for you. You—"
Before he could finish, someone came running from inside.
Keqing rushed out and threw herself straight into Ryou's arms.
"You scared me to death... w-wah..." She clung to him and burst into tears, unable to hold back any longer.
She had truly been terrified.
Ryou wrapped his arms around her and gently patted her back without saying a word, letting her cry as much as she needed.
Then he looked up and saw Ganyu.
She was smiling at him in relief.
Ryou gave her a small nod. He told himself he would comfort her properly later. She looked calm on the surface and hadn't shown much emotion, but he knew she had been worried too.
"Let's talk inside," Ryou said. "Zhongli, come with us."
"Of course," Zhongli replied, following behind.
As they walked, Ryou could feel the eyes of everyone in the Ministry of Civil Affairs fixed on him.
They were burning with admiration.
Everyone here knew he was the one who had saved Liyue Harbor.
He was the one who had slapped the gods to death.
When they finally reached the office, Ryou closed the door behind them.
"Sit down and have some tea. I'll explain everything slowly."
Keqing cried in his arms for a while before gradually calming down.
Even then, she still refused to let go of him.
Too embarrassed to care about embarrassment anymore, she simply stayed nestled against him.
Neither Zhongli nor Ganyu said a word.
They understood perfectly well how worried Keqing had been.
After the battle ended, she had been like a woman possessed. Gone was her usual composure—she had been pounding tables and driving everyone around her into motion.
Only now, after seeing Ryou safe and sound, could she finally breathe again.
He was her anchor.
Her reassurance.
Ryou then explained everything that had happened.
"Signora!"
Keqing clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles nearly turned white, her teeth grinding with anger.
Zhongli, on the other hand, did not look particularly surprised.
He said nothing.
"Enough about me," Ryou said. "How did things go today?"
"I'll report it," Ganyu said.
"The battle is over. All the ancient gods were eliminated."
She paused, and her expression darkened.
"But... the Millelith suffered terribly. After the count was completed, the number of dead came to nearly twenty thousand. Roughly seventy percent were killed by the gods. The other thirty percent died fighting the Fatui."
She gave the full report one point at a time.
Ryou fell silent for a long moment, then drained his tea in one go.
Looking at Ganyu, he said, "Even though we won, this still feels like a defeat."
"We paid too high a price."
"And the Millelith gave everything for Liyue. We can't let them die for nothing. We need to build a place for them—a dedicated memorial, with graves for every one of them."
"We have to make sure everyone remembers them."
"Because they were heroes."
"They gave everything they had for Liyue Harbor."
Ganyu was visibly moved by his words.
She nodded.
"Yes."
"There's also—" Ryou stopped mid-sentence when the door opened.
His father stepped in.
Beside him were Ningguang, Yelan, and... Yanfei.
Especially Yanfei.
The way she was looking at him was very wrong.
She looked furious, embarrassed, and strangely flustered all at once.
And mixed in with all of that...was unmistakable shyness.
[End of chapter]
[200 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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