“Coo coo coo…”

Collei woke up to the sound of a bird’s call. It was a sound that was common to most people, but to her, it felt like a rare luxury.

Animals usually had sharp instincts and rarely came close to her because of the influence of the archon residue trapped within her. But today, an animal dared to come close.

“That’s right… the sealing!”

Collei sat up and immediately checked her body. 

She felt light—lighter than she had ever felt before, as though a huge stone had been lifted from her shoulders. 

It was almost as if she could soar on Mondstadt’s winds, flying like a bird in the sky.

She even felt the strange urge to jump off the edge of Starsnatch Cliff.

What surprised her the most, however, was the condition of her illness.

The bandages that had once wrapped around her were gone, revealing not the horrid, nightmare-inducing rotting flesh she had become accustomed to, but smooth, healthy skin. 

Although this new skin was pale and delicate, leaving behind a contrast like sunburn marks, it was still far better than the bloodied wounds from before.

If she could stand freely in the sun like this, who would ever want to be a monster?

“Right—Bai Luo!”

Overjoyed, Collei immediately thought of Bai Luo. 

This feeling of wanting to share happiness with someone—it had been so long since she had felt it that it almost seemed foreign to her.

Startling the birds, she looked around and spotted him at the very top of Starsnatch Cliff. He was seated at the edge, his usual mask that hung around his waist now resting beside him on the grass.

As the wind blew, the mask swayed lightly, making his silhouette appear even lonelier and more distant. It gave him the aura of someone who didn’t quite belong to this world.

“You’re awake?”

Bai Luo picked up the mask and placed it over his face. 

For the first time while they were alone, he wore the mask, seemingly unwilling to let Collei see his expression.

Collei didn’t respond but instead grabbed Bai Luo’s hand. 

She held it tightly—so tightly that even Bai Luo felt uncomfortable.

She just wanted to convey one message to him: I’m still here.

“Let’s go. We’re going home.”

“Mm.”

Bai Luo gently ruffled Collei’s slightly messy hair and said nothing more. Together, the two walked through the unsettling winds of Starsnatch Cliff, heading home.

<+>

At the Goth Grand Hotel…

Luke had gradually gotten used to his job as the doorman. In fact, he had come to love this unique position. Every time out-of-town tourists tried to check into the hotel, he proudly declared the same thing:

“This place has been reserved by the Fatui!”

As expected, those tourists always looked at him with admiration. 

He relished in that gaze. In hindsight, being demoted to this job didn’t seem all that bad. He even wondered if there was a way to stay here permanently as the doorman.

Tap tap tap…

“Hmm?”

Luke was lost in his thoughts when a pebble flew from the nearby bushes, landing at his feet.

“Which brat is messing around? Get lost!”

Luke didn’t take it seriously. After all, since becoming the doorman, things like this had happened plenty of times before.

Tap!

“…”

Another stone flew out, this time landing squarely on his chest.

“I’m warning you! If I catch you, it won’t just be a spanking. I’ll report you to the Knights of Favonius!”

Luke patted the spot where the stone hit and yelled out sternly. Thankfully, the Fatui uniforms were thick enough that such small stones were of no consequence…

Duang!

A much larger stone struck him right on the forehead.

While most Fatui were equipped with helmets, Luke, as a mere doorman, obviously wasn’t. The hard rock hit his forehead at point-blank range, immediately raising a visible lump.

“Alright! It’s war now!”

Drawing his sword with a sharp sound, Luke stormed angrily into the bushes. He didn’t realize that a small figure had slipped into the hotel unnoticed while he was distracted, leaving behind a cat-shaped sticker on the hem of his coat.

<+>

At the front desk, Ulyana instinctively looked up toward the entrance. She had heard the door open, but no one seemed to have come inside.

“Luke? Is that you?”

She put the documents she had been handling into the desk drawer and locked it, then cautiously picked up the dagger nearby as she walked toward the door.

In the Fatui, everyone was a soldier—no exceptions. 

Sometimes a seemingly harmless merchant could transform into a Pyro Agent with a mask.

Although Ulyana appeared delicate, she was perfectly capable of single-handedly taking down a Hilichurl Berserker. 

She didn’t notice, however, that a small white hand had already slipped into her blind spot, snatching her key and leaving behind a cat-shaped sticker on her hip.

By the time Ulyana realized something was wrong, the intruder was already gone. She never found the trespasser. 

She merely assumed she had accidentally left the key at the counter, since the documents inside the drawer hadn’t been touched.

<+>

Upstairs on the second floor, Anastasia checked her pocket watch as she hurried down the corridor. 

She had an appointment with the Knights of Favonius to discuss the case of the slain diplomat. 

It seemed the knights had already found traces of the suspect, but lacked the manpower within Mondstadt to deal with them, so they were requesting help from the Fatui.

Anastasia relished these moments of negotiation. But she hadn’t gone far when she began to slow down, her senses sharp.

Someone was following her.

The person was highly skilled, matching her steps perfectly so their footfalls coincided with hers. 

However, they had overlooked one detail: she was wearing high heels, which made a distinct, crisp sound compared to the lighter steps of her follower. The slight discrepancy caught her attention.

Yet when she tried to locate her pursuer, there was no trace of anyone.

Even when she pretended to stop and bait the stalker into making a mistake, the faint footstep sounds vanished completely.

“Strange… was it just my imagination?”

Anastasia looked behind her, puzzled. 

The long corridor offered no hiding places, so there was no way the person could have concealed themselves. Perhaps it had been a mere illusion.

Shaking her head lightly, she continued on her way, clutching her documents.

She didn’t realize that on her firm, well-shaped rear was now a small cat sticker.

In fact, every Fatui member within the Goth Grand Hotel now bore a similar cat-shaped sticker without realizing it.

Unbeknownst to the Fatui, their de facto embassy—the Goth Grand Hotel—had been quietly infiltrated.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep