Beelzebul's Madness

At the end of the day, Mondstadt was about to go make a living under a big shot.

What if the big shot took one look and thought, Well, damn!

This place is full of drunks and freedom—that is, laziness. What would the big shot think?

After all, the big shot had gone to great lengths to haul Teyvat ashore, not so they could sit around freeloading!

Hearing this, everyone exchanged glances.

Then Diluc took a deep breath and furiously snapped, "What other reaction could there be?"

"Mondstadt as it is now is hopeless!"

"I proposed reforming the Knights of Favonius long ago, but all you did was make excuses and stall. Now look at us! Once we reach the New World, where will Mondstadt even have a place?"

Faced with Diluc's fury, everyone was left somewhat speechless.

After all, they were about to get a new Boss, and this new Boss would not let them slack off all day as before...

Lisa, the Rose Witch, on the other hand, felt a deep yearning upon hearing about the Genius Club.

Once hailed as a genius seen only once in two hundred years, it was a pity that her Constellation was the Hourglass Constellation...

The more one pursued knowledge, the heavier the price one had to bear behind that knowledge.

If this curse of knowledge could be resolved...

The Rose Witch's lips curled slightly.

How could someone cursed by knowledge possibly restrain their thirst for more of it?

Where there was a Crouching Dragon, there was bound to be a Phoenix Chick.

While Mondstadt was holding its tense meeting, Raiden Ei had returned to Inazuma and was preparing to summon the upper ranks for a meeting. At that moment, she stood high above Inazuma, looking down and observing its current state.

With that one look—

All of Inazuma seemed to explode!

Boundless thunderclouds churned violently, and a Thunder Dragon streaked across the sky, revealing the Thunder God's endless fury.

"Shogun! Is this the peaceful and prosperous Inazuma you governed for five hundred years?!!"

Raiden Ei's hand gripping Dream of One Mind was trembling.

The resentment blanketing all of Inazuma was so thick it was suffocating. As her gaze reflected the land below, the sparse population of Inazuma made even Raiden Ei shudder!

As someone capable of gathering and utilizing the power of Wishes, Raiden Ei did not need to investigate bit by bit to collect information.

She only needed to cast a single glance over Inazuma from the sky to see many things.

Not to mention that she had not emerged for centuries.

Comparing present-day Inazuma directly with the Inazuma of five hundred years ago...

Raiden Ei's heart went cold!

"Inner Self, this was the strategy of governance you set for me. It perfectly aligned with the Path of Eternity. What is wrong with it?"

The Raiden Shogun replied coldly, "I merely followed the Way of Eternity you left behind, allowing Inazuma to walk a path unchanged for all ages."

Closing the nation, cutting off physical contact with the outside world, forcibly freezing social development, and achieving static eternity—this was the Way of Eternity she had concluded from the principles Inner Self had left behind!

Listening to the Raiden Shogun explain her policies bit by bit—

If she had not personally seen Inazuma's current state, Raiden Ei might not have realized the problem.

But the issue now was that if this continued, the odds of Inazuma being destroyed were far greater than the odds of preserving eternity!

Far, far greater!

Thinking of this, the enraged Raiden Ei suppressed the will trying to continue upholding the [Way of Eternity].

Then she tightened her grip on her sword and, with a cold expression, began reviewing the information recorded in the Ley Lines.

As an Archon, she still had that level of authority.

Very quickly.

Inazuma's development over the five hundred years she had spent in seclusion flashed rapidly before her eyes.

During the first hundred years, though all of Inazuma had suffered heavy losses, at least the survivors had diligently worked to rebuild their homeland. There was little to criticize in that; they had perfectly fulfilled the duties she had entrusted to them.

But after a hundred years, the conduct of the Tri-Commission and the nobles began to change subtly.

They began cautiously manipulating prices to reap enormous profits. At the time, their actions were not yet excessive. Although the people's burdens had grown heavier, they could still get by.

Yet it seemed that freely wielding power had made them increasingly bold, and their hands stretched ever farther...

Things began spiraling completely out of control!

After two hundred years, their audacity finally surged to its peak.

By then, they had accomplished nothing of substance. Exploiting the people and sending troops to suppress them, however, they had done plenty of!

From this period onward, Inazuma's population began to experience negative growth...

However, thanks to the Shrine System under Yae Miko's control, the suppression of Ley Lines across the land was at least properly maintained, and the Demon God's lingering resentment remained securely sealed away.

But over the past century or two, these people had actually extended their reach into the supply of materials needed to maintain the seals in various regions.

This left the Mikos dispatched by the shrine to construct and maintain the seals struggling to keep up, causing the seals to fail repeatedly and evil spirits to rise everywhere.

And then...

It came to the most recent few decades.

Raiden Ei looked at the commission recorded within the Ley Lines—[Rescue Hizumi Village]—and at the Shogunate's ensuing series of actions.

First came the reply:

[Residents of Yashiori Island, please do not panic. The Kujou Tenryou Commission...]

In the end, Raiden Ei's eyes reddened, nearly bleeding as she stared fixedly at the final record of the matter:

[...Should any refugees or sick people be found on the island, show them no mercy. Gather them at the ferry crossing at once, sink their ships midway, and if questioned, claim it was the work of the rebels...]

Watching the final memories within the Ley Lines, watching her subjects' boats be destroyed by Shogunate soldiers, watching them sink into the water amid miserable wails and die...

Raiden Ei could not continue watching.

Thunderclouds over all of Inazuma erupted into turmoil, lightning churning within them. Nearly consumed by rage, Raiden Ei raised her blade toward the heavens...

A slash that displayed Mugetsu cleaved apart sky and earth, revealing the near-mad fury of the Demon God Beelzebul!

The Demon Gods of Teyvat were, by nature, all lovers of humanity. There was no question of that.

Perhaps Raiden Ei had sunk into grief over the deaths of her sister Makoto, her friend Kitsune Saiguu, and the others, shutting herself away...

But.

Raiden Ei was, in the end, Inazuma's ruler. In her heart, she still loved this nation of Inazuma!

She regarded Inazuma's people as her own treasures.

Even when she had been heartbroken beyond endurance five hundred years ago, she had still poured her efforts into creating the Raiden Shogun to protect her people in her stead...

But now, within the Ley Lines, countless subjects had died in pain and helplessness throughout Inazuma's centuries of history!

One, a hundred... even millions upon millions of subjects had died helplessly before her very eyes!

Perhaps mortals could not see how many innocent people had perished over the years.

But rulers were different. So long as they wished it, centuries or even millennia of history were as clear as yesterday!

Across the land of Inazuma, the corpses of the starved lay everywhere, bodies piled high, Demon God resentment and evil spirits ran rampant, and the resentment of her subjects was so dense it had nearly become tangible!