A Fatui Harbinger had asked for him by name, and it was La Signora?
Wu Yi knew a thing or two about La Signora.
She was from Mondstadt, and her real name was Rosalyne-Kruzchka Lohefalter. Born five hundred years ago, she was now the Eighth of the Fatui Harbingers and a diplomatic envoy for Snezhnaya, responsible for collecting the Gnoses.
That also made her the first Harbinger to appear in Genshin Impact. In the game's first chapter, she pulled off the feat of stepping on the Anemo Archon and snatching his Gnosis straight out of him... Although, looking back, Barbatos had thrown the fight so hard that even the Hydro Dragon Sovereign would have been astounded, the scene had certainly left a deep impression on the players at the time.
Then she made a deal with the Geo Archon in Liyue and easily obtained the Geo Gnosis. Riding high on her success, she went on to Inazuma... where the Electro Archon cut her down with a single slash at Tenshukaku. Only before she died did she finally understand just how merciful Barbatos had been to her back then.
Rosalyne was an extraordinarily arrogant person: haughty and full of herself. In the end, that arrogance was also what got her killed... But Rosalyne was no fool. In fact, quite the opposite: she was scheming, calculating, and extremely shrewd...
What did someone like her want, coming all this way just to see him?
Wu Yi thought it over briefly and soon reached a conclusion:
"Looks like the Fatui have planted quite a few spies on Watatsumi Island."
Kokomi, who had come to deliver the message, went through a series of expressions at Wu Yi's words. Clearly, she had thought of a great deal as well.
She immediately bowed to Wu Yi and apologized:
"I'm truly sorry, Dr. Wu. I allowed this information to leak. I've failed to manage things properly..."
"No, it's all right. I wasn't planning on hiding any of it in the first place. It's only the Fatui; they're not worth going out of my way to conceal anything from."
Wu Yi shook his head and smiled.
"Since she's already come to visit, I might as well meet this La Signora."
Not far outside Bourou Village, Wu Yi soon found La Signora by the stone bridge.
He needed no one to point her out. La Signora was highly recognizable: her strange, iron crown-like headdress and the black veil covering her right eye were just as they appeared in her official game art. Besides, the arrogance ingrained in her was something others would have found hard to imitate.
What surprised Wu Yi, however, was that La Signora had brought no attendants at all. She had come alone and was now sitting in utter boredom on an ice chair she had made herself with elemental power, waiting for him.
"Oh, you've finally arrived, Mr. Wu Yi. I've been waiting for you for quite some time."
La Signora quickly stood when she saw Wu Yi.
"Although you probably already know, allow me to introduce myself out of courtesy. I am Snezhnaya's diplomatic envoy to Inazuma, the Eighth of the Fatui Harbingers, La Signora. You may also call me Rosalyne, if you wish."
Her words were actually fairly polite, nothing like the lofty attitude Wu Yi had expected.
"What a surprise. You're nothing like I imagined." Wu Yi rubbed his chin. "I thought you'd be a little more... arrogant."
"Making such casual assumptions about someone you've just met, Dr. Wu? I don't believe that's any way to treat a guest."
La Signora could not help twitching her lips. Though somewhat displeased, she did not lash out. She merely shook her head and said:
"I can more or less guess what impression you have of me... But as I just said, I'm a diplomat. Naturally, my attitude is entirely different depending on whom I'm dealing with."
Then she looked at Wu Yi, and then at Bourou Village in the distance.
"What's this? Aren't you going to invite me in, Mr. Wu Yi? Or do you intend to talk to me right here?"
"Here is fine," Wu Yi said. "I'm afraid Bourou Village probably wouldn't welcome you at the moment."
"Is that so? I don't mind. As it happens, I don't want to waste too much time either. It seems we agree on that."
La Signora nodded lightly. She showed no displeasure and continued:
"Mr. Wu Yi, I've heard about what you did a few days ago. I hear that resistance soldier had no heartbeat and wasn't breathing, yet you forcibly pulled him back from the brink of death. Afterward, you quickly healed every soldier suffering from the aftereffects of Delusions, and even healed all the patients on Watatsumi Island while you were at it. Your medical skills are truly astonishing."
"And I also heard that the moment you got your hands on a Delusion, you unleashed powerful elemental fluctuations comparable to a Harbinger's. You even made a Delusion without side effects afterward. It's hard to imagine that, besides your medical skills, you've achieved such profound mastery in this field as well."
There was a touch of genuine admiration in La Signora's voice.
"You are unquestionably an exceptional talent, as well as a formidable powerhouse. I've always had great respect for talented and powerful people."
"My, you certainly know a lot."
Wu Yi smiled. He had known there would be spies on Watatsumi Island, but he had not expected La Signora to know so much in such detail.
This was more than one or two spies. At this rate, Watatsumi Island had probably been infiltrated as thoroughly as the distillery next door.
"Not at all. As a Fatui Harbinger and a diplomatic envoy of Snezhnaya, I naturally have extensive intelligence channels. If you're willing, before our next meeting, I'll consider bringing along some of your favorite foods as a gift, Mr. Wu Yi." La Signora smiled faintly, her tone mild.
Oh, she's here to make a show of force.
Wu Yi caught the faint threat in La Signora's words:
If she could send people to find out Wu Yi's favorite foods, she could likewise send people to poison his everyday meals.
He did not particularly care, however, and merely said mildly:
"I wouldn't call myself much of a talent. In that respect, the Crimson Witch of Flames from Mondstadt five hundred years ago has much stronger credentials. After all, I hear Rosalyne was a top student in Sumeru back then. From scholar to witch to diplomat-that's quite a leap."
"-"
Rosalyne froze.
Hearing "five hundred years ago" and "Crimson Witch of Flames" again, she could not help feeling a little dazed.
As for her past five hundred years ago, Wu Yi had seen lore researchers on Bilibili bring it up many, many times:
Five hundred years ago, Rosalyne had still been a young woman surrounded by love and romance. At the time, she and the Young Wolf Rustam, the deputy grand master of the Knights of Favonius, were lovers. Later, she traveled to Sumeru to study, and she and Rustam promised to marry when she returned.
Later, during the Khaenri'ah cataclysm, the dragon Durin and great hordes of monsters attacked Mondstadt. Having raised a first-rate death flag by promising to marry, Rustam fell in the disaster while fighting to protect Mondstadt. Upon hearing the news, Rosalyne rushed back to Mondstadt. In despair at the loss of her lover, she used her body to contain liquid fire and became the Crimson Witch of Flames, burning the monsters that had invaded Mondstadt.
As she burned through the monsters, she also came close to burning herself out. It was then that Pierro, the Jester and the first of the Fatui Harbingers, found her. He gave her a Cryo Delusion, temporarily sealing her flames, and invited her to join the Fatui. Later, after joining the Fatui, Rosalyne was drawn to the Tsaritsa's dream in Snezhnaya and decided to follow the Cryo Archon.
And so, she became La Signora, the Eighth of the Fatui Harbingers today.
Now, after a brief daze, La Signora-or rather, Rosalyne-came back to herself. Then, with her past exposed, her voice could not help turning a little colder:
"Oh? I didn't expect you to know so much about my past, Mr. Wu Yi... It seems you're exceptionally well informed too. I wonder where you learned all that?"
Compared with the gift Rosalyne had mentioned for their next meeting, Wu Yi exposing her personal details on the spot had come as a far greater shock.
"As you said, I have extensive intelligence channels too." Wu Yi smiled. "You needn't trouble yourself over it, Miss Rosalyne."
With Wu Yi throwing her own words back at her, Rosalyne could no longer keep up a pleasant expression. Her breathing quickened slightly, and though she soon forced another smile, it was visibly much darker than before.
"I see. I was being presumptuous."
"Speaking of which, did you really come here without a single attendant? Relations between the Fatui and the Watatsumi Island resistance aren't very good these days, are they? Coming to the resistance's headquarters all alone, aren't you afraid they'll keep you here?" Wu Yi asked casually just then.
"Oh, please don't say things I can't understand."
Rosalyne quickly composed herself, drawing out her words slightly as she shook her head.
"We Fatui have always sponsored the resistance from behind the scenes. Over the years, we've sent quite a lot of Mora and supplies to Watatsumi Island. How could our relations with the resistance be bad? If anything, it was the resistance who sent people to destroy one of our factories a few days ago. I was hoping to ask Watatsumi Island's resistance what they intend to do to their dear allies."
"And even if, for argument's sake, the resistance really were ungrateful enough to turn on their sponsors-"
Rosalyne's voice grew colder.
"With their laughable little force, I could deal with every last one of them myself."
"Since you're so well informed, Mr. Wu Yi, you should also know that a large part of the reason we Fatui can act without restraint across the Seven Nations is that every one of our Harbingers possesses power far beyond that of ordinary people, shouldn't you?"
Oh, now we're at the flexing stage.
"That's true. I hear every Fatui Harbinger can draw out the full power of their Delusion, right?"
Wu Yi nodded in agreement.
"I have to say, Fatui Delusion technology really is astonishing. The power it can grant an ordinary person-the idea is quite good."
As he spoke, Wu Yi patted his belt, revealing a long ornament hanging at his side, and smiled.
"I asked Kokomi for a few of the Delusions the Fatui supplied to Watatsumi Island and studied them a little. They're really quite interesting."
Rosalyne followed his gesture. When she saw the ornament at Wu Yi's side, her expression froze.
The ornament had been hidden inside the hem of Wu Yi's clothes, only coming into view when he patted his belt-
It was a string of seven Delusions, each of a different element.
Moreover, each Delusion was glowing faintly, a clear sign that it was brimming with elemental power. Every one of them could probably unleash the maximum power it had been designed to produce at a moment's notice.
Rosalyne could sense that all the power in those Delusions was primed and ready to be used at any time.
She did not know how to express the shock she felt.
Originally, although her spies had told her that Wu Yi could draw out a Delusion's maximum power as soon as he got his hands on one, she, the esteemed La Signora, had not feared him at all.
After all, this batch of Delusions were only prototypes, still quite a long way from the specially made Delusions held by Harbingers like her. Even if Wu Yi could immediately draw out a Delusion's maximum output, Rosalyne estimated that he could only fight someone like Tartaglia, the lowest-ranked of the Fatui. There was still a considerable gap between him and her, the Eighth.
But what did it mean that he could control seven Delusions of different elements at once?
Can he use all of them at full fighting strength? Is that really possible?
Does that mean he can produce every elemental reaction on his own?
Won't his life force be drained dry?
How can a monster like this exist in the world?
Am I supposed to fight this thing?
A little sweat appeared on Rosalyne's palms.
She had to admit, she was indeed a little afraid... but who wouldn't be?
Perhaps she really had been a little too overconfident. If she had known, she would have called Scaramouche to come with her... That way, with the two of them working together, they would at least have had a chance to escape if a fight broke out.
No, now that things had come to this, surely it was best to try to settle things peacefully?
Rosalyne took a deep breath, suppressed the shock in her heart, and spoke again:
"Very good. I'm honored to see that you like our Fatui Delusions so much."
"In that case, I won't beat around the bush any longer. Respected Mr. Wu Yi, let's speak frankly."
"On behalf of the Fatui, I formally invite you to join us."