A change of scene

"Ha, there's no need to be so polite." Sandrone gently set down her spoon, some of the languor leaving her expression and giving way to genuine feeling. "I don't admire Crucabena's obsessive, brutal methods. She held power over the House of the Hearth, yet all she thought about was forging unfeeling weapons for Snezhnaya, completely disregarding those children's growth. In my view, when you put an end to her, it hardly counted as overstepping."

"Crucabena's methods always disgusted me." La Signora picked up the thread, her tone flat as she spoke her mind plainly. "The way she treated those helpless orphans in the House of the Hearth was far too cruel. She weeded out the weak through fights to the death and bound people's hearts with fear, forcibly turning what should have been a refuge for wanderers into a cold-blooded proving ground. I could never approve of such practices."

"Hmm?" Columbina seemed to notice that something was slightly off about the atmosphere. She stopped hunching over the table and stuffing herself to look curiously at the others seated there.

Then she went back to stuffing herself...

In a moment when no one was watching, Columbina silently leaned forward. Her slender, pale fingers stealthily picked up the coffee cup Sandrone had left at the side of the table, and she quickly lowered her head to take a little sip.

"Co! Lum! Bi! Na! What are you doing?! Don't you have your own cup?!"

Seeing Columbina sneak off with her cup and take a sip, the rag doll... no, the Marionette went straight into Spinosaurus mode.

"Sorry, Sandrone. I was just curious what your drink tasted like." A faint trace of uncertainty rose in Columbina's hazy, indifferent eyes, and her fair cheeks carried a touch of shyness she was unaware of.

This girl... there really was no dealing with her.

"Ha, I heard Arlecchino came to Snezhnaya from Fontaine. This is coffee I specially blended."

"It doesn't taste good. It's so bitter." Columbina held the coffee cup, her eyes hazy and her face full of earnest, straightforward bewilderment as she voiced her honest opinion without any reservations.

"..."

The tearoom fell silent for a moment.

The smile froze on Sandrone's face, her delicate brows and eyes twitching slightly.

She stared at Columbina, who looked bewildered and innocent, as though she had done nothing wrong. After a long silence, she finally failed to hold back her helplessness and frustration, each syllable laden with resentment. "Co! Lum! Bi! Na! You're so annoying!!!"

"Oh, Sandrone." As though she had failed to see the resentment written all over Sandrone's face, Columbina looked ethereal and composed. Her voice was airy, as though she had merely happened to remember something trivial, and she slowly posed a question.

Sandrone took a deep breath and suppressed her pent-up irritation, asking through gritted teeth, one word at a time, "What. Is. It?"

Columbina blinked her hazy eyes and asked in utter confusion, perfectly serious, "So you really don't drink machine oil?"

"..."

"Columbina!!!"

Watching Alhaitham and Kaveh bicker in front of him, Xingsu helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead.

That afternoon at Puspa Café, the Sumeru F4-Xingsu, Tighnari, Alhaitham, and Kaveh-had gathered together.

Hmm? You were asking where Cyno had gone?

Wasn't it perfectly normal for the F4 to have five members?

"By the way, Xingsu, just how did you manage to learn so much? I read your report, and there was at least half of it that I couldn't understand." Having finished bickering with Alhaitham, Kaveh posed his question. This was his first time meeting someone who could integrate so much knowledge from all the different schools so thoroughly.

"There really isn't any shortcut." Xingsu took a sip of coffee, his voice calm and unhurried. "I essentially started learning everything about Teyvat from scratch, without any ingrained prejudices or a single school's theories restricting my thinking. Amurta's research on epidemics, Amurta's Ley Line principles, Kshahrewar's knowledge of mechanical circuitry-I approached and studied them all on equal terms. As for why I learned so quickly... just consider it a blessing from the God of Wisdom."

"Hey, hey, hey, that explanation is practically cheating!"

Alhaitham quietly interjected from beside him. "Rather than his talent, what's most remarkable about him is that he doesn't rely on tools and abandon independent thought. The vast majority of Sumeru's scholars can't manage that."

"Still, Xingsu has been thrust into the eye of the storm lately," Tighnari said worriedly from the side. "The construction of the Wisdom Network affects a lot of people's interests, and this paper has caused enormous academic controversy. For the moment, it's attracting a great deal of attention, with opinions flying everywhere."

"Opinions flying everywhere? I can say with certainty that eighty percent of the people gathering to discuss this paper are idiots who haven't even opened the original."

He lightly tapped a finger against the thick treatise on modifying the Akasha Terminal on the table, his expression completely unruffled.

"Of the remaining people who have actually read and studied it, most still can't understand the designs within. In the entire vast, bloated Akademiya, there are no more than ten people capable of understanding this paper in full."

"You certainly don't mince words... but you do have a point." For once, Kaveh agreed with Alhaitham.

Tighnari sighed helplessly at that, rubbing between his brows with his fingertips. "And precisely because the barrier to entry is so high, they can't refute it on academic grounds, so all they can do is brand it heretical. What's more, attacks like this actually count as normal academic discussion. Even our Great General Mahamatra friend has no authority to intervene."

"Heh. Sumeru's academic atmosphere remains as consistent as ever." Alhaitham scoffed, his words steeped in undisguised mockery. "No one investigates genuinely obscure, rigorous theories in depth. Everyone is content with the existing knowledge in the Akasha Terminal, too lazy to settle down and study or scrutinize anything. The moment someone steps outside the established framework and breaks through the research boundaries set by those in power, all they do is band together to accuse them of heresy and overstepping, relying on strength in numbers to reject everything. Rather than pursuing truth, preserving their own positions and established dogma is most people's first priority."

"Discipline that even the Great General Mahamatra can't enforce?" Xingsu sighed helplessly. "How are we supposed to do proper academic work with vermin like these?!"

"Unfortunately, Cyno has been away surveying the desert these past few days, so he couldn't come to our gathering. Otherwise, I could introduce you to our, uh... witty and humorous (?) Great General Mahamatra," Tighnari said.

Alhaitham raised his eyes at that, a playful curve tugging at his lips as he mercilessly undermined him.

"There's really no need to dress up his fondness for telling bad jokes."

Tighnari gave a wry smile and waved a hand.

"Putting that aside, he's fair-minded and perceptive, and he can't stand the Akademiya's hidebound methods of suppressing people. If he were here, at least he wouldn't let those scholars slander Xingsu's research out of thin air."