"Oh?" Hearing La Signora's offer, Wu Yi betrayed no emotion. He merely nodded slightly. "Go on."
Rosalyne nodded and continued:
"I believe both your medical skills and your remarkable modifications to the Delusion prove that you are precisely the kind of talent we Fatui need most right now."
"Heh." Wu Yi smiled and remarked mildly, "So you only came to recruit me? To be honest, given the way the Fatui operate, I thought you were planning to take this technology from me by force-or perhaps drag me back to Snezhnaya against my will."
At his words, a wry smile crept onto Rosalyne's lips.
That had indeed been her original plan. But after confirming that Wu Yi was far stronger than she was, that option had naturally vanished. She did not even dare admit it had ever existed.
"Whatever gave you that idea? I think you may have some misunderstandings about the Fatui, Mr. Wu Yi."
When Rosalyne spoke again, she was talking a little faster:
"I came solely to recruit you. Even if I failed, I hoped we might part on good terms. Otherwise, why would I have come alone, without bringing any armed forces?"
"Her Majesty the Tsaritsa grants the Fatui Harbingers considerable autonomy, so the way Fatui troops operate often depends on the character of their superior. If that is your impression of us, Mr. Wu Yi, most of the Fatui you have encountered probably belonged to Scaramouche's or The Doctor's forces."
Without hesitation, Rosalyne shifted the blame onto Scaramouche and The Doctor, quickly distancing herself from them:
"Those two have very poor reputations even among the Harbingers. I have never cared for their methods myself."
"Of course, my own methods can hardly be called gentle, but compared to those two, I pale in comparison. I hope you won't confuse me with them, Mr. Wu Yi."
"Oh, so that's how it is. Then I was wrong to blame you."
Wu Yi nodded. He did not believe a word Rosalyne had just said, but he had no intention of falling out with her either. He simply continued:
"Though that sounds reasonable enough... everything you just said was a reason the Fatui need me, wasn't it? Why don't you tell me why I should join the Fatui?"
Rosalyne breathed a small sigh of relief, but she did not dare relax. Her mind continued racing.
Why should Wu Yi join the Fatui? To be honest, she had not given the question much thought.
As she had originally seen it, Snezhnaya was currently the most powerful nation in Teyvat. If it wanted to recruit someone, there should be no obstacles, so long as the person was not the sort of fool who could not bear to leave their homeland.
Even if Wu Yi failed to appreciate the offer and refused, she could naturally force him with military might... The one thing she had not anticipated was that he would be far stronger than her.
At this point, if she still tried to use force, he might well pound her into a hand-beaten beef ball.
So how was she to persuade him to join Snezhnaya?
"Let me make one thing clear first," Wu Yi spoke up again. "I'm not interested in money or power. If you're planning to use those to persuade me, I think you might as well head home right now."
...That's troublesome.
The thought came unbidden to Rosalyne.
This man seemed to be the sort who regarded fame, status, and wealth as dust and smoke... If so, she could only approach him through something that interested him.
As for what might interest him... According to the intelligence she had gathered, ever since he appeared, he seemed to have made only two requests of others.
The first was to ask the shrine maidens of Watatsumi Island for Delusions after treating people whose vitality had been damaged by them. The second was that he hoped to treat all the wounded; he had even gone out of his way to visit the Shogunate Army's camp and treat its soldiers. It made him sound like nothing more than a boring do-gooder who cared about others.
But after their brief conversation, Rosalyne had already convinced herself that Wu Yi was certainly no innocent. At the very least, she did not believe he was.
Because if he were, he would never have spoken with her for this long. A do-gooder like that, especially one who had heard of the Fatui's methods, would have rejected their offer the moment he heard it.
A shrewd schemer like him naturally had his reasons for everything he did.
"I hear you are extremely dedicated to healing the sick and wounded. Not only do you refuse all payment, you even seek people out to treat them, and have shown no intention of stopping even after the Shogunate Army repaid your kindness with hostility... Before coming here, I couldn't help wondering why you are so devoted to healing others."
Rosalyne spoke suddenly.
She had never hesitated to judge others from the worst possible angle. Even when guessing at Wu Yi's motives, she was accustomed to assuming the most self-serving ones.
And Wu Yi had shown his disdain for fame, power, and profit... But how could a strong person who had come this far have no consuming pursuit?
So she guessed... Wu Yi's obsession was power.
"Interesting." Wu Yi neither confirmed nor denied it. He merely said calmly, "Go on."
"If you were drawing vitality from the wounded as you healed them... that wouldn't seem to be the case. After all, when it comes to treating those whose vitality has been depleted by using Delusions, in my humble opinion, the only way to heal them should be to infuse them with vitality."
Rosalyne placed one hand beneath the elbow of the other and thought carefully.
"Though I truly cannot fathom the principles behind it, I would venture to guess that the source of your power has something to do with your practice of medicine."
"So I think that wherever there are wounded or sick people, you are willing to go."
"Am I right?"
"An interesting guess-" Wu Yi smiled and said only, "I can't say you're right, but I can't say you're wrong either."
Though not entirely correct, Rosalyne's guess was closer to the truth than Kokomi's.
Wu Yi did indeed go wherever there were sick or wounded people.
But as for his power... heh, that was merely the power of the Path of Abundance. The extent of his power came entirely from his understanding of Abundance and how he followed the Path.
One could say that this power did come from practicing medicine, but he did not need to keep treating people to maintain it, nor would it grow because he did.
It was simply that restoring diseased bodies to health, returning ailing lives to their former state, and allowing all life to carry on was itself so captivating that it fascinated him, and he sincerely believed it to be the greatest truth in the world.
That was why he had traveled ever farther along the path of Abundance.
His teacher was like that, as was his senior fellow disciple, and so was he.
He was simply fascinated by, and devoted to, healing itself.
Because this was the road they had once walked together.
Even though one of them had long since become a wanderer of unknown whereabouts, another was sealed in a dark prison with their fate unknown, and he himself had once taken a wrong turn and nearly been unable to come back.
But no matter what, the time they had once spent walking this road together still shone brightly in the depths of his memory.