Chapter 150: Furina: What the hell!

"Partners, you say?"

Focalors looked at the Primogems in her palm, feeling as though a certain nerve had suddenly been struck. She let out a helpless sigh and said, "Very well, what is it you wish to know?"

"I wish to uncover the evidence of the Doctor's crimes."

A peculiar glint shone in the Traveler's eyes. Although she had just lost one hundred and sixty Primogems, as long as she could complete the commission swiftly, she would receive sixteen hundred Primogems in return. Overall, it was still quite a lucrative deal.

Moreover, the sooner the Doctor faced judgment, the better. She had no desire to drag things out; should any unexpected mishaps occur, she would never forgive herself.

"I haven't the faintest idea."

Focalors said with a smile.

"Huh?"

The smile vanished from the Traveler's face instantly. She stared at Focalors in silence, as if to say: *I just forked over a whopping three hundred and twenty Primogems, and your entire answer is 'I don't know'?*

*You—you—you are simply the Tsarevich of Fontaine!*

"But I do know how to find the evidence against him, and with far greater efficiency than you wandering from one abandoned testing site to another. After all, even if you managed to stumble upon the old facilities the Doctor used, you wouldn't find any direct proof. You'd only get a vague sense of his atrocities, isn't that right?" Focalors tilted her head slightly and smiled.

"Mm..."

The Traveler fell silent. From the ruins of those testing sites, it wasn't hard to deduce that this individual named the Doctor had subjected certain people to utterly maddening experiments. Yet those old ruins lacked direct evidence—not nearly enough to formally convict him.

Crossing her arms, she continued to ask, "Then what is your method?"

"Go to the Palais Mermonia and seek out Neuvillette. Look up the trial records from the second day of June, three years ago. There is a suspended missing persons case listed there. At the scene of the crime, you might just find some unexpected harvest," Focalors replied with a smile.

"!!"

The Traveler was instantly startled. For Focalors to pinpoint the exact date of a case related to the Doctor—and even be certain that the crime scene held an unexpected harvest—

*Then why on earth didn't you just tell me where it is directly!*

*Did you really have to make me run an extra leg of the journey?*

"Don't look at me like that. It's been so long, I've simply forgotten the exact location," Focalors waved her hands helplessly and sighed.

"You'd better hope you really have forgotten."

The Traveler said, half-convinced and half-suspicious.

"Why would I lie to you? There's nothing to be gained from it," Focalors chuckled vaguely.

In truth, she knew precisely where the place was. However, the current Doctor was not yet weak enough for the Traveler to defeat. Therefore, at this stage, the Traveler could not be allowed to find the evidence and immediately put the Doctor on trial.

"Oh..."

The Traveler acknowledged the response, then narrowed her eyes with renewed suspicion. "And what if this information is false? What if you're deliberately scamming me out of my Primogems?"

"Well, then you can chalk it up to experience and grow a little wiser."

Focalors said with a smile.

The Traveler's expression steadily darkened. Beside her, Paimon—who had been deep in thought the entire time—suddenly wore an expression of sudden realization. She shouted aloud, "This way of speaking... I know who you are! You're Focalors! That's right, it's Focalors! The way you hugged me in my dream last night is exacty the same as just now! I recognize you!"

"Focalors?"

The Traveler was completely dumbfounded as well. She looked at Focalors, who clearly possessed the appearance of a young male youth, and said in utter disbelief, "Wait... Focalors is a guy? I thought the Hydro Archon was supposed to be female?"

"It's fake, it's all fake! She's definitely disguised as Focalors! This is certainly not her real appearance!" Paimon declared with absolute certainty.

*She actually recognized me?*

Focalors felt a brief flicker of astonishment. It seemed Paimon was somewhat sharper than she had imagined. But what of it? After all, Paimon's dream was an experience of her own, one the Traveler knew nothing about. As long as she played her part convincingly, the Traveler surely wouldn't—

"Ah, right, no wonder I felt her previous movements were somewhat feminine. If she was originally female to begin with, making those gestures isn't hard to understand at all," the Traveler muttered to herself, lowering her head in deep thought.

Focalors: *Oh no!*

Lu Mingze: *Heh, barely stepped out the door and put on my skin suit for less than an hour before someone saw right through the flaws. You really are a certified genius, hahahaha!*

"If I am Focalors, then who on earth is the Hydro Archon inside the Palais Mermonia? You surely don't mean to suggest there are two Hydro Archons, do you? How could such a thing possibly be!" Focalors quickly defended herself.

"Oh, so there are two Hydro Archons. If that's the case, then everything suddenly makes sense," the Traveler reasoned along with her prompt, feeling that every single detail had become even more logical.

Focalors was instantly taken aback, thinking to herself: *Wait a minute, my brother in arms, how can you follow my negative argument and keep going down that track? That defies all common sense!*

Lu Mingze (suppressing a laugh, *barely keeping it together.JPG*).

"So that's how it was! No wonder there were two people in my dream... But I still feel like that other person wasn't the Hydro Archon Furina; she didn't feel right to me," Paimon muttered, following her own train of thought.

Paimon's supporting blow made Focalors feel even more anxious. Her heart raced, yet she forced herself to maintain a calm composure. Looking earnestly at the Traveler, she said, "I am not Focalors. Twin deities are an extremely rare phenomenon. There is only one of the Seven; it's impossible for both of the twin deities to be the Hydro Archon."

"Ah, I understand now. You mean that you and Furina form a two-in-one Hydro Archon, and only when the two of you are combined do you make a complete Hydro Archon. Since the authority of the Hydro Archon rests with you, Furina doesn't possess true power," the Traveler nodded slightly, feeling that she was inching closer to the truth.

"In that case, the other extremely formidable-looking person definitely wasn't Furina, but rather a friend of yours—and a friend in the form of a spiritual entity. It has to be," little Paimon reasoned as well, feeling that she too was getting closer to the truth.

Focalors: 💧(Д`)

*You guys... why are you all like this?! Clearly, I was arguing against it, but why are you getting closer to the truth instead, hey?! That makes no sense, no sense at all!*

"Ehe?"

Focalors's face suddenly smiled uncontrollably, and the smile carried a profound, meaningful depth. It looked deeply amused, seemingly completely different from her demeanor just moments before. This sudden smile actually seemed to fit this borrowed body much better.

This abrupt expression instantly startled Paimon and the Traveler, who had been deep in analysis. By their expectations, Focalors shouldn't have worn a smile like that.

*Could it be that we miscalculated?*

If this fellow wasn't Focalors, and simply enjoyed using such misleading attitudes to mess with their minds, he would likely give them a new direction for their commission.

In that case—

"You are Nidhogg! Aren't you!"

The Traveler stared intently at Focalors and demanded.

"That's right, absolutely! That smile—I remember it all now! You aren't Focalors, you're Nidhogg! You're a friend of Focalors!" little Paimon chimed in loudly.

Focalors: ???

In truth, she had no idea why her face had suddenly smiled uncontrollably just then. However, that didn't seem to matter; what mattered was that she had somehow inadvertently cleared herself of the suspicion of being Focalors. For her, that was all for the good.

The clever Focalors grasped the situation instantly. Following the sensation of that smile just now, her expression gradually deepened with a knowing look as she said, "Hmm~ Who knows? Perhaps I really am the Focalors you speak of~"

"That foolish-yet-wise look—you're pretending to be Focalors again. You're such a good actor, we almost got tricked by you."

The Traveler gazed at Focalors with burning eyes. She could sense that the fellow's smile from a moment ago had been genuine—a smile that came from the true self. But now, though she wore a similarly meaningful smile, it carried an unmistakably feminine air that clashed with the masculine exterior of the body. Therefore, she concluded that this smile was entirely feigned.

"You're Nidhogg! We've seen you before, you are definitely not Focalors!" Paimon added.

*Who on earth is Nidhogg anyway?!*

Focalors was aware that the Traveler and her companion had gone out to search for clues regarding the Doctor. However, she had no idea that Lu Mingze had disguised himself as Nidhogg, nor did she know that Lu Mingze had been gallivanting around in front of the Doctor and the Knave using her appearance—after all, Lu Mingze certainly wouldn't bother mentioning such details to her.

Then, amidst a head full of question marks, Focalors decided to play along with the misunderstanding and replied, "Perhaps I really am Nidhogg, who knows? Though I feel I might not be, seeing as I don't know who Nidhogg is either. It's all terribly mysterious."

The Traveler and Paimon stared at her unblinkingly, their gazes far from friendly, as if silently saying: *Get out of Teyvat, you riddle-monger!*

"Ehe?"

Focalors flashed a harmless, innocent smile.

"Sigh, Paimon, let's go. We don't have time to bicker with him right now; dealing with the Doctor's affair is what matters most," the Traveler said with a helpless sigh.

"Right, let's go! We're ignoring him!"

Paimon fluttered away in a huff.

Left in place, Focalors watched the departing backs of the Traveler and Paimon, gradually wearing an expression of profound relief. Through her practical experiment, she had discovered that taking three hundred and twenty Primogems from the Traveler was equivalent to recharging the latter's intellect by at least thirty-two thousand Primogems.

Loss is far heavier a burden than gain!

Give the Traveler enough Primogems, and she would tackle commissions with the manic energy of a chicken injected with adrenaline. Take her Primogems away, and she would examine her targets with a microscope, confronting commissions with the most meticulous powers of observation and judgment.

She must never casually take her Primogems again; being stared at by her like that was simply too terrifying.

However—

*Why did I suddenly smile like that just now? And why did that smile feel so terribly familiar? It's a familiarity I can't quite put my finger on. I don't recall ever smiling that way myself, yet I instinctively felt that kind of smile was familiar. How strange.*

Carrying a complex mix of emotions, Focalors strolled slowly over to the side of a small stream. Recalling the sensation from moments before, she smiled at the water's surface once more.

The smiling face of the youth reflected in the water was the very smile she had seen countless times in her dreams—the smile of Lu Mingze!

"So that's how it is!"

Focalors suddenly awoke to the realization.

No wonder it felt so familiar. As it turned out, this was Lu Mingze's smile! Even though she had never smiled that way in reality, she had already witnessed it countless times.

"Why would I wear a smile like that? Why would his thoughts be born within me? Could it be... could it possibly be..." Focalors gazed into the water, staring at Lu Mingze's reflection, as a daring hypothesis gradually took shape in her mind.

Hidden in the shadows, Lu Mingze—residing within Focalors's body—watched her with his heart in his throat, not daring to speak or move a muscle, terrified of truly being discovered by this fellow. He had already made up her mind: even if she guessed the truth, Lu Mingze would absolutely refuse to show his face, ensuring the hypothesis could never be verified.

*Still, I'm feeling rather panicked, you know!*

Time ticked by second by second. Focalors, staring intently at the water's surface, let out a deep sigh and muttered to herself, "I understand now. I understand everything. Lu Mingze... I have seen right through the ultimate truth."

Lu Mingze: *Oh no, something's genuinely wrong! Should I consider poking my head out?*

Immediately following that, Focalors continued, "It's because I'm too much of a glutton. I've eaten too many of his snacks, which is why my thoughts and actions have been influenced by him. I'll instinctively produce his thoughts, and instinctively wear his smile. If I keep going down this path... am I really still myself?"

Lu Mingze froze. For a moment, he genuinely had no idea what to say. Focalors's foolishness was so crystalline—so pure that it somehow seemed to carry a bizarre color of special wisdom. If wisdom had a color, it certainly would be blue!

*Well, fine. At least this way, when you have your dreams at night, you'll ask me for fewer snacks. Making all those things takes a massive toll on me, and if I have to run a dual-core operation as well, the difficulty will only ramp up further.*

"No wait, why should I even worry?"

Lu Mingze: ?

"The person who loves to eat is me; Lu Mingze isn't someone with an innate obsession for food. If I still enjoy eating his food, it proves that I am still myself! My willpower hasn't wavered. As long as my willpower remains unshaken, I can just keep asking him for food!"

"Therefore... my original intention hasn't changed! There's no harm in eating a little more from now on!"

Lu Mingze: ???

"I am someone who dares to challenge herself. To further understand and get to know myself, and to see my own limits, I should follow along with Lu Mingze and eat even more things to test just how far my willpower and original intent can hold out. That is the true spirit and backbone befitting a Hydro Archon."

Lu Mingze: Σ(д|||)

For a fleeting moment, he actually wondered if Focalors was just pretending to be foolish. He refused to believe it; how could the grand Hydro Archon Focalors possibly be stupid to this degree?

*Aren't you just greedy and unwilling to quit?*

*Did you really have to come up with such a lofty, high-sounding excuse?*

"Hehehehe~"

Having figured everything out, Focalors smiled and returned to the city of Fontaine to continue her stroll, her mood exceptionally pleasant. As she gazed at every picturesque corner of Fontaine and the various shops along the way, she mentally estimated the flavor of every single kind of cake, her thoughts drifting far and wide.

Suddenly, her gaze locked with a young woman inside a cake shop. The girl had pale blue hair adorned with a stubborn cowlick, and she wore an ornate blue dress, carrying herself like an elegant actress.

Her name was... Furina.

Furina's eyes met Focalors's. What Focalors saw was Furina eating cake, while what Furina saw was Lu Mingyi's younger brother, Lu Mingze.

*Good grief, it's Lu Mingze! Ahhhh!*

*Why on earth would he show up in a place like this!!*

∑(дlll)