Outside the Orphanage.
Furina watched the children at play.
Her attitude toward the game "The Hydro Archon Battles the Sea Beast" had undergone three different changes.
At first, she had been worried.
She worried that playing such a childish game with the children would affect the public's opinion of the Hydro Archon and invite suspicion.
Then came a sense of inadequacy.
I'm not the real Hydro Archon. In the end, I don't have what it takes to bear their gazes.
Finally, she had been left with profound doubt.
Has anything I've done over these five hundred years truly meant anything?
Can this perseverance, with no answers and no hope in sight... really protect everyone in Fontaine?
That letter had touched the deepest fear in her heart.
What ordinary people saw as nothing more than a childish game was, to her, a trial akin to "heart-questioning."
She felt panicked. She could offer no answer, so she could only flee.
Usually, she deliberately avoided this place, but today, relaxed in Ellin's company, she had found herself here before she knew it.
Now, seeing the children playing through the gate, she still felt panicked.
She stood frozen outside, neither moving forward nor retreating, utterly at a loss.
Just then, however, she felt someone pat her shoulder.
She turned to see Ellin smiling gently at her.
That smile held warmth and encouragement, and those beautiful blue eyes seemed to see straight through the turmoil and fear in her heart.
"You..."
She was just about to say something when the encouragement in Ellin's eyes grew stronger, and Ellin said:
"Go on."
"But I..." She lowered her head, unsure how to put it into words.
Ellin still wore that encouraging smile. "I know."
"But right now, you aren't the Hydro Archon people see you as."
"Perhaps