The moment Shogun Almighty graced the Yae Publishing House with her presence, she instantly drew every eye in the room. In a single breath, the once-bustling Yae Publishing House fell utterly silent.
And so the words exchanged between Paimon and the Traveler were heard, crystal clear, by everyone present.
The clerk of the Yae Publishing House froze for a moment, then hurried over to greet them. When she heard that Ei wished to buy Fang Qiu's new book, the clerk immediately fetched three copies of The Forest of Fireflies' Light.
Though the clerk insisted on refusing payment, Lumine paid for all three books regardless.
"Let's go read for a while at that teahouse over there."
Paimon pointed toward the teahouse across from the Yae Publishing House as she spoke.
"Weren't you hungry?"
Ei asked.
"Yoimiya said that teahouse sells sweets and Dango Milk, so we can fill our bellies a bit first," Paimon said.
"Very well."
Ei nodded.
Having received Ei's approval, the three of them made their way toward the teahouse.
No sooner had the three of them left than the crowd before the Yae Publishing House erupted.
"My eyes aren't deceiving me, are they? Shogun Almighty actually came all the way to the Yae Publishing House just to buy that Old Thief Fang Qiu's book! And she even went to a teahouse to read it!"
"A while back there were rumors that Shogun Almighty was terribly fond of Fang Qiu's books. I thought it was just a rumor the Yae Publishing House spread to boost sales—who would have guessed it was actually true! That Old Thief Fang Qiu's book actually earned Shogun Almighty's approval."
"Heavens above... I'm going to buy ten copies of The Forest of Fireflies' Light!"
"I'll buy twenty!"
"I'll buy thirty!"
The crowd of novel enthusiasts lined up before the Yae Publishing House grew giddy with excitement.
But the group who had just emerged from the teahouse wore dark, sour expressions.
"Come to think of it, did you all hear what the Traveler and her companion just said? The Forest of Fireflies' Light was written because that fellow Thoma wrote a letter asking Old Thief Fang Qiu to write it!"
"Confound him! Next time he comes to buy groceries from me, I'm definitely going to charge him extra!"
The crowd ground their teeth in resentment.
Meanwhile, the three of them made their way to the teahouse, and the moment they stepped through the door they too drew the attention of everyone present.
"Madam proprietress, we'd like to order."
After following the teahouse's mistress to the most refined private room, Paimon beckoned and spoke.
The teahouse mistress had no time to fuss over the fact that, being unmarried, she ought to be called "proprietor" rather than "madam proprietress."
"Shogun Almighty, what would you like to order?" the teahouse mistress asked respectfully.
"Just bring some tea and refreshments, whatever you please," Ei said.
"Since Ei doesn't know what to eat, then leave the ordering to me." Paimon smiled and said, "These past few days, I've sampled all the delicacies Inazuma has to offer."
"That works just as well."
Ei nodded.
"Dango Milk, Tricolor Dango, Sakura Mochi..."
And so Paimon briskly placed the order.
Ei, meanwhile, turned her gaze toward the copy of The Forest of Fireflies' Light resting on the table, a flicker of curiosity passing through her eyes.
She remembered Thoma well, of course.
It was precisely when his Vision was being confiscated that the Traveler, to save Thoma, had broken into the Plane of Euthymia.
And this copy of The Forest of Fireflies' Light before her was the very book Fang Qiu had written because of Thoma's letter. She was somewhat curious about its contents.
Beside her, when Lumine saw Ei open The Forest of Fireflies' Light, she too opened the book in her hands.
She was curious as well about what a book written because of Thoma's letter would contain.
And so she opened the cover along with the others.
The story began on a height of summer.
At that very moment, Thoma sat beside Taroumaru, gazing at the copy of The Forest of Fireflies' Light in his hands, sunk in deep contemplation.
Was this... really a ghost novel?
True, it did contain depictions of monsters—such as the monster in the forest that threatened Hotaru Takegawa never to touch Gin, or else it would devour her.
But there was no eerie, unsettling feeling to it at all.
Though it wasn't the ghost novel he had imagined, The Forest of Fireflies' Light was without question a rare gem of a book—the prose flowed smoothly, the emotions natural and delicate.
In this book, he saw a world utterly different from the monsters of Inazuma's legends.
"As expected of Miss Fang Qiu—even a novel about monsters, she can write with such tenderness."
Thoma murmured to himself as he continued reading carefully. "It seems next time I write to her, I'll have to be clearer with Miss Fang Qiu and ask her to write the scary kind."
Time drifted slowly onward.
The sky gradually darkened, starless and moonless.
The air was cold and clear.
Outside Inazuma City, a misty haze had already begun to gather.
Within the city, the lamplight blazed bright.
Inside the Komore Teahouse.
The orange-red glow of the lamps blended with the soft tatami mats to weave an atmosphere of gentle, tranquil calm.
Under Fang Qiu's extraordinarily vivid prose, the scene of Hotaru Takegawa clutching Gin's clothes and weeping uncontrollably seemed to play out right before his eyes.
Gazing at the words—so tender, yet brimming with sorrow—Thoma felt an unusual heaviness press upon his heart.
The helplessness of a bond that could never be forged was simply too sorrowful to bear.
Just as he was immersed in that melancholy, Kamisato Ayato and Kamisato Ayaka walked over.
"Master, milady." Thoma hastily rose to his feet.
"Thoma, have you finished the book?" Kamisato Ayato asked.
"There's just a little left," Thoma said.
"Is that so? Then you must have reached the part where Gin dies," Kamisato Ayato said, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Uh... yes, I've reached it."
For some reason, being watched by the master made his scalp prickle and a chill run down his spine.
"It's a fine novel indeed, though it doesn't quite seem to be a ghost novel, and the ending is awfully sad."
The corners of Kamisato Ayato's mouth curled up slightly. "By the way, Thoma, let's have hotpot tonight. I hear you and Ayaka played some new hotpot game with the Traveler? It's rare for us to have free time—why don't the three of us play it tonight as well?"
"Huh?"
Thoma was stunned.
The last time he had played the hotpot game with milady and the Traveler, nearly all the bizarre ingredients had ended up eaten by him—salt-cured mackerel, undercooked violet gourd, blanched dango, and something that froze his tongue the moment it went down.
By the time he'd finished those, he was already seeing his life flash before his eyes.
They'd played several more times afterward, and every single time he was the unluckiest of all.
Much as he wanted to refuse...
Kamisato Ayato's tone left no room for refusal.
Helpless, he could only agree.
"Then it's settled. Let's each head out and prepare the ingredients separately," Kamisato Ayato said.
Leaving the shop in Taroumaru's care, they each set out, and Thoma made his way toward the market.
He intended to prepare some more normal ingredients.
Only, along the way, Thoma was utterly puzzled.
Just like after his chat with Yoimiya that afternoon, all along the road he felt nothing but sharp, piercing stares.
As though he had committed some unspeakable evil.
In particular, when he went to the market to buy groceries, the vendors charged him more than double the usual price.
Once he'd bought his groceries—
Just as he was wracking his brain in bewilderment, retracing his steps to recall whether he'd done anything wrong, he suddenly noticed three people approaching from the other side of the street.
But the lights were too dim and the distance too great; he couldn't quite make them out.
Still, he paid them little mind, continuing instead to ponder why so many people had been glaring at him so viciously.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the street—
The Traveler, Paimon, and Ei walked beneath the dim yellow streetlamps.
"Boohoo, Gin reminds Paimon of Hanachirusato. The proof she left behind in this world was just like Gin's—only a single mask remained... so sad... Paimon needs to eat lots and lots of yummy things to make up for it."
Paimon wept bitterly as she spoke.
Hanachirusato...
Hearing that name, Ei felt a heaviness settle over her heart, and her violet eyes dimmed along with it.
She thought of Kitsune Saiguu.
As the years flowed by, she had become just like the untouched Gin in The Forest of Fireflies' Light—losing Makoto, losing Kitsune Saiguu, losing so many friends.
As if the bonds between her and them could never truly be forged, when the ages shifted, all that remained was endless solitude.
And it was precisely because of this that she had sought after an eternity that would never change.
And now, though she had resolved to move forward, these memories, once stirred, still left her sorrowful beyond measure.
Just as she recalled the days when they had sat together beneath the cherry blossoms, admiring the sakura while Kitsune Saiguu recounted the amusing affairs of the mortal world, Paimon's voice rang out.
"Look, it's Thoma."
Hearing Paimon's voice, both Ei and Lumine turned their gazes over. At the other end of the street, a young man was walking toward them.
And at that moment, beneath the dim yellow streetlamp, Thoma too made out the two people walking in front.
It was the Traveler and Paimon.
Only—he couldn't tell whether it was his imagination.
The way the Traveler and Paimon looked at him was sharp too, just like all those other people.
The air felt somewhat heavy.
Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask what on earth he had done, he made out the face of the person following behind the Traveler and Paimon.
It was the Raiden Shogun!
Thoma's pupils contracted abruptly, his body jolting to a halt, and the words about to spill from his lips were swallowed back down in an instant.
"Shogun Almighty."
After a moment's daze, Thoma spoke respectfully.
Though his Vision had nearly been confiscated by the Raiden Shogun, as a retainer of the Yashiro Commission, he could not let his courtesy toward the Shogun fall short in the slightest.
"It's you."
Gazing at the young man frozen before her, Ei narrowed her eyes and spoke.
Her tone carried a trace of hostility.
Her gaze, even more so, was sharp as a needle's point.
Beneath that overwhelming pressure, cold sweat all but instantly crawled across Thoma's back.
He even felt that in the next instant, the Raiden Shogun would draw her blade and cut him down.
Thankfully, that thunderous, crushing pressure lasted only a moment before receding like the ebbing tide.
The Raiden Shogun harbored not the slightest intent to kill him, as if that chill from just moments ago had never existed at all.
"Alright, let's get going quickly, Paimon's starving."
Paimon said.
Ei calmly withdrew her gaze.
Having heard no shortage of rumors along the way, and adding in what the Traveler and Paimon had said, it was basically certain that the heart-wrenching plot of The Forest of Fireflies' Light had all been commissioned by Thoma—originally, Fang Qiu had intended to write a perfect ending.
Of course, she could hardly bear a grudge against Thoma over so trivial a matter.
After exchanging a few words, the three of them departed down the road.
Watching the three figures recede, Thoma grew even more bewildered.
What on earth was going on?
Why did even Shogun Almighty look at him with such eyes?
What exactly had he done wrong?
Carrying this bewilderment with him, he made his way back to the Komore Teahouse.
Kamisato Ayaka and Kamisato Ayato were already waiting for him.
On the table before them, the hotpot was already bubbling away.
The moment he sat down with his groceries, Kamisato Ayato said with a smile, "Thoma, we heard something quite interesting just now when we went out."
"What was it?"
Thoma raised his teacup and took a sip.
"I heard passersby saying that the gut-wrenching plots in Fang Qiu's books were all commissioned by you."
Hearing this from Kamisato Ayato, Thoma spat out his mouthful of tea on the spot.
Fortunately, he turned his head while spitting it out—otherwise, spraying a mouthful of tea all over his own master would have been terribly awkward.
Only after Kamisato Ayato relayed the rumor he had heard did Thoma finally understand why so many people along the way had been looking at him with such sharp eyes.
No wonder he'd been charged double the price just for buying groceries.
It turned out it was all because of those words he'd said to Naganohara Yoimiya while buying books that afternoon, which had caused those people to misunderstand...
Even just now, the Traveler and the Raiden Shogun had each been holding a copy of The Forest of Fireflies' Light...
That was close.
Thankfully, although the Raiden Shogun had once done some rather unwise things, at least she was not a muddleheaded tyrant.
Had this been Old Mondstadt—
Those old aristocrats, unable to find Fang Qiu, would surely have vented their fury on him.
He might very well have been beheaded for all to see on the spot.
This really couldn't be blamed on him.
How was he supposed to know that the ghost novel Fang Qiu wrote would turn out to be such a sorrowful tale of a monster and a human whose bond could never be forged!
Had he known it would end like this, they could have beaten him to death and he still wouldn't have brought it up with Naganohara Yoimiya in front of everyone.
What a headache.
Just as he was pondering whether he ought to avoid going out for a while, Kamisato Ayato smiled faintly and said, "Alright, let's begin the hotpot game."
As he spoke, Kamisato Ayaka dropped in a raw violet gourd.
Even more outrageous than the half-cooked violet gourd he'd put in before.
Kamisato Ayato, meanwhile, added a stick of Tricolor Dango.
Looking at the way the Kamisato siblings were eyeing him, Thoma couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Even at home, he wasn't necessarily safe...
And so, after one fierce round, Thoma ate up every last one of the bizarre ingredients.
He slumped against the wall, face blank, eyes going black, his mind filled with nothing but the bizarre novels he'd read recently.
Kamisato Ayaka and Kamisato Ayato, by contrast, ate relatively ordinary things, and nothing happened to them after they finished.
And at this moment—
Lumine, Paimon, and Ei had also finished eating and were strolling along the streets.
"Thank you so much for being willing to keep me company," Ei said. "I've seen a great many things I could never see from atop Tenshukaku."
"No need to thank us, no need at all. If you want to eat something yummy again next time, you can call on us," Paimon said.
"And if you'd like to learn more about the people's lives, you can call on us too," Lumine said.
"Mm."
Ei nodded.
Just then, they heard a clamor of noise.
"This great one isn't crying, how could this great one possibly cry?! I'm the boss of the Arataki Gang! The strongest man in Inazuma! Shinobu, don't go spouting nonsense!"
"That voice... even though we can't see where the person is, one listen to that voice and you know exactly who it is," Paimon said, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes, wearing the expression of a master strategist securing victory from a thousand miles away.
"Indeed," Lumine nodded as well.
"Who is it?" Ei asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Arataki Itto, the boss of the Arataki Gang," Paimon said.
"Who? I've never heard of him," Ei said.
It took Paimon a great deal of effort before she finally managed to explain the Arataki Gang to Ei.
"So you're saying the Arataki Gang is an organization made up of a bunch of idle good-for-nothings?" Ei asked.
"Uh, no, that's not it, um... well, it does kind of seem about the same, but that's not it," Paimon said, scratching her head.
"Everyone has their own aspirations, and all the more so when they're your friends—I naturally won't interfere. It's getting late, so I'll head back to Tenshukaku first," Ei said.
"Then, see you next time," Paimon said, waving her hand.
____
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