"We didn't say anything at all, did we?"
Ye Xuan sneered. "You didn't say anything? I heard you loud and clear just now. You were having a fine time hurling insults at my little maid."
"She's mine. No one but me gets to bully her."
"I trust you're prepared for what's coming."
The unruly citizens of Mondstadt had just seen one of their own thrown so far he vanished from sight. Seeing that Ye Xuan didn't look as though he was joking, they finally grew afraid.
"My lord, please spare us. We'll do anything."
"Yes, we'll do anything."
The man who had hurled the second-worst insults trembled at the lips. His knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground.
Ye Xuan said, "Anything? Then I'll tell you a secret. I swear in the name of the Anemo Archon Barbatos that this secret is true. You must spread it throughout Mondstadt today."
The man hurriedly said, "My lord, what secret? I have plenty of servants. I guarantee everyone in Mondstadt will know within an hour."
"Very good. Do you know the name of the founder of the Knights of Favonius' cavalry captain?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Amber leaned close to Eula's ear and asked, "Why did he suddenly bring that up? Is there something special about Kaeya's full name?"
Eula said, "I don't know either."
Ye Xuan said, "Kaeya's full name is Kaeya Alberich, and the founder of the Abyss Order was named Chlothar Alberich."
What! So Kaeya was actually a descendant of the Abyss Order's founder.
Ye Xuan's voice continued, "His father left him in Mondstadt when he was a child, burdened with a secret mission: to serve Khaenri'ah's interests in Mondstadt as its 'spy.' Now you know who was responsible for what happened last night, don't you?"
In Mondstadt, the Anemo Archon's name carried more weight than any seal.
A man from Liyue dared to swear by Barbatos-either he was mad, or he was telling the truth.
No one thought he was mad.
Ye Xuan bent down and leaned close to the nearest Mondstadt citizen. There was a smile on his face, but none in his eyes.
"Didn't you just say, 'She must have stolen the Knights of Favonius' defense plans'?"
He tipped his chin toward Eula.
"She's a Lawrence. You think her bloodline is filthy and can't stand the sight of her. You wish she would vanish from Mondstadt. Could the sins of the Lawrence family be worse than the Alberichs'?"
"Then guess who found the bodies of the nine knights?"
"And who wrote 'Lawrence's fate unknown' in the report?"
"A man named Alberich personally slapped the label of 'traitor' on his colleague."
Ye Xuan straightened and looked around.
"Beautiful, isn't it? Khaenri'ah's spy turned Mondstadt's anger against one of its own. Killing two birds with one stone."
Kaeya was crouched amid the ruins of the entrance hall.
Wood splinters, broken stones, and the person embedded in the wall.
Wearing gloves, he examined the dead man's stiff neck, then pried open an eyelid for a look.
"Broken neck, all ribs intact, internal organs..." He pulled off his gloves. "No need to look."
The two knights behind him were still retching.
"Captain, th-this man-"
"Dead as can be." Kaeya stood and brushed the dust from his knees. "Find out who he is, where he lives, and whether he has any family."
"Yes, sir."
"And-" Kaeya looked up at the empty doorframe. The doors were gone; only two broken planks hung swinging from their hinges. Wind swept through the hall, stirring the hair at his temples.
"Find some boards and seal it up for now. We can't let people see this place."
He had barely finished speaking when-
The outside erupted.
Hundreds, thousands of voices roared at once, their beastlike cries filling the entire Knights of Favonius headquarters.
"Kaeya Alberich!"
"Get out here!"
"You lackey of the Abyss Order-"
Kaeya's single eye narrowed.
He walked to the doorframe and looked out.
The square was a dense, dark mass of people.
Torches stretched in an unbroken sea, bathing the entire street in red light.
The crowd surged forward like a tide, knocking down the barricades in its path and overturning a fruit cart. Apples rolled across the ground and were trampled to pulp.
And at the very front of the crowd, the obstacle from before was gone.
The "human missile" Ye Xuan had sent earlier had blasted the Knights of Favonius' last barrier to pieces.
Now the building gaped open like a mouth with its teeth pulled out.
"Stop them-"
Before Kaeya could finish, the first wave had already rushed into the entrance hall.
Someone slipped on the rubble and fell, and the people behind him trampled straight over him.
Someone was carrying a torch, and its flame licked a dangling broken plank. Fire sprang up at once.
They stopped three paces away from him.
Because he was standing beside the corpse.
"Alberich-you killed him, betrayed Mondstadt, and framed your colleague! Everyone, let's kill him and avenge the dead!"
Kaeya glanced down at the corpse by his feet, then raised his head again.
He spoke. "Everyone. Calm down. This man came flying over from the square. It wasn't me-"
"Bullshit!"
"The Lawrence family said you're Khaenri'ah's spy!"
"That's right! They swore it in the Anemo Archon's name!"
Kaeya's smile froze.
"...In the Anemo Archon's name?"
"Barbatos!" someone roared. "They dared to swear by the Anemo Archon. Do you?! Do you dare swear to Lord Barbatos that you're not a lackey of the Abyss Order?!"
Kaeya fell silent for half a second.
That half second was enough.
The crowd surged forward.
The side door.
Lisa held up her skirt with one hand and held Klee's hand with the other. Albedo walked last, carrying the case of painting supplies, his face expressionless.
"Big Brother Albedo, it's so noisy outside," Klee said quietly. "Did Big Brother Kaeya do something wrong again?"
"Yes," Albedo said. "He did something very wrong."
"Then where are we going?"
"Somewhere quiet." Lisa looked back, her smile warm and gentle, though her feet never stopped. "The confinement room is closed, and Dragonspine is too cold. Shall we stay at Dawn Winery for a few days?"
"Okay! Klee wants to visit the weird red-haired grown-up-"
"Shh." Lisa pressed a finger to her lips. "Quietly, be good."
The three went out through the side door.
The door closed behind them, shutting the shouting, the torchlight, and Kaeya's voice inside.
In the entrance hall, someone seized Kaeya by the shoulders.
He didn't resist, not because he couldn't.
He could have knocked three of them down with one hand. His Vision hung at his waist, ready to unleash icicles at any moment. He could have cleared the building in a minute.
But he didn't.
He merely raised his head, looking past the angry faces at the Knights of Favonius' emblem on the wall.
Then he gave a very soft laugh.
Khaenri'ah's spy.
Alberich.
He had hidden those words for more than a decade.
Hidden them so deep that even he had almost forgotten what they looked like.
Now someone had dug them up and laid them out before everyone in Mondstadt.
"...What a gift."