What is your wish?

The Icemelt Festival revelry had ended.

After finishing her speech, Crucabena had headed to the Court of Fontaine without imposing a curfew on the children.

Still caught up in the afterglow of that rare celebration, the children were too excited to sleep.

With the attic window open and the evening breeze blowing in, Xingsu rested one hand beneath his head and held the glass jar full of stars in the other, turning it this way and that. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it.

He could already picture the serious-looking Pepe gracefully practicing swordsmanship on the training grounds by day, then diligently folding stars for him at night throughout the past week.

Ah~ It really feels so wonderful to have someone care about me.

"Do you really like it that much?" Peruere climbed up the ladder and couldn't help asking when she saw how much Xingsu treasured it.

"Xingsu! I knew you'd be here. Pepe and I came to find you!" Clervie climbed up right behind her, bringing tea leaves, little cakes, macarons, and other refreshments, along with Xingsu's favorite drink, Fonta.

"Mmm-your baking is as good as ever, Clervie. That smells amazing!" Catching the scent of freshly baked sweets, Xingsu immediately sat up. "I'm not going to hold back."

With that, he took the Fonta Clervie handed him and gulped down a mouthful, then grabbed a macaron and started eating.

"Buuurp~~~ Ah, this is the life. I can die without regrets now~" The gas coming back up from the Fonta made Xingsu let out a thoroughly undignified burp. "I really don't know what's so good about that turkey. Dry and tough to chew. It doesn't even come close to your cooking, Clervie."

"Enough with the flattery." Pepe lifted her teacup, took a sip, and shot Xingsu a look. "But that turkey really was awful. Though I still prefer tasting ingredients' natural flavors, the texture of that turkey made it rather hard to swallow."

"Ugh, seriously. They couldn't even spare any sugar for the little cakes there. They didn't taste good at all." Clervie grabbed a piece of cake and stuffed it into her mouth too. "Omph, mmm~~~ That's the stuff~"

The three children held their tea party while complaining about tonight's banquet and the bizarre people at it.

"Did you know? After washing his face for ages, Scott realized the ink wouldn't come off at all. Then he scrubbed at it with soap. The soapy water faded the ink a little, so he scrubbed even harder, but all he did was spread the ink evenly over his face. Now his whole face looks black. You have no idea how funny it was. Scott must have been so angry his face went black, hahahaha!" Xingsu had followed that bit of entertainment all the way to the end, and now he could finally share it.

"Have you considered the possibility that Scott's face was black because it had been painted black?" Peruere said with a perfectly straight face.

"Hahahaha, Pepe, that dead-serious explanation makes it even harder to keep it together, hahahaha!" Clervie couldn't stop laughing. Clutching her stomach, she lay on the floor and laughed until she had no strength left.

Peruere took another sip of tea. Watching Xingsu tell jokes and Clervie lying on the floor laughing with her arms around her stomach, the upward curve of her lips showed that she was actually very happy too.

"I think, in the future, Scott should, stand onstage, at the Fontaine Grand Theater, and tell everyone, all those embarrassing things, that happened to him. That way, he'd definitely, become, Fontaine's, most famous comedian." Clervie lay on the floor, speaking between gasps for breath.

"Yeah, if someday..." Xingsu suddenly seemed to realize something and stopped short.

"..."

"..."

Someday? As though they had picked out a keyword, the atmosphere suddenly grew delicate.

The children here seemed to have been cursed by fate long ago.

The future? Under Crucabena,

They would either become king

Or become nourishment for the king

"Oh, come on, let's leave the future for the future. Here, I'll show you a dragon sucking up water!" Xingsu picked up the only remaining bottle of Fonta, swirled it to give the liquid a turbo boost, and poured it into his mouth.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough-cough!" Unfortunately, his performance failed, and he choked badly on the drink.

Seeing that his attempt to change the subject hadn't worked, Xingsu was at something of a loss too.

"Tell me, what are your wishes?" Clervie suddenly asked. "Since we're already talking about the future, there must be things you want to do someday! Besides, today's the Icemelt Festival. They say that if children make wishes today, magical little fairies will come and grant them."

Clervie smiled at them both. "Neither of you wants to say? Then I'll go first. My wish is to rent a little shop in the Court of Fontaine and make bread, desserts, and little cakes to sell every day. Every so often, I could give the extras to homeless children too. And if you came to visit my shop, we could have tea and refreshments, just like-just like this."

As she spoke, tears suddenly welled up at the corners of Clervie's eyes. She hurriedly turned her head away and wiped them off. "All right, your turn. No cheating. You both have to tell me your wishes!"

"My wish? Honestly, I don't really have any grand ambitions. I just want to eat my fill and sleep every day, then wake up and eat. Hmm... And then I'd visit all the different nations. Sumeru, Liyue, Mondstadt, Inazuma. I'd meet the people and see what happens there, experience their different cultures, and make some new friends. Finally, I'd come back here, to Clervie's little shop, and have tea parties with you, sharing what I saw and the funny things that happened on my travels through those nations. When I get old and tired one day and can't walk anymore, I'll build a little house on the outskirts of the Court of Fontaine, clear a patch of farmland, and plant some flowers and greenery. Maybe travelers and adventurers will pass by. I can brew them a cup of tea and tell them some old, worn-out stories. Then they'll keep going and explore this world, while I stay here with those stories. Hmm... Is that a little too ordinary?"

After talking for so long, Xingsu wanted something to wet his throat, only to discover that he had wasted the last bottle of Fonta during his dragon-sucking-up-water performance. He had no choice but to pour himself a cup of tea and drink it.

It was a little bitter, the sort of flavor Peruere would like.

"That's a wonderful wish! It sounds like you'll become an outstanding adventurer!" Clervie said with a smile. "What about you, Pepe? What's your wish?"

My wish?

Peruere thought back to when Mother had first brought her to the House of the Hearth.

She had been withdrawn and had strange eyes. Few children had been willing to approach her. Then Clervie had barged into her world like a bandit, eating with her, playing with her, and making her happy.

And there was Xingsu. He seemed curious about everything. He didn't mind her eyes; in fact, he was very interested in them. He didn't mind her little hobby of keeping spiders, and even caught little insects himself to feed them. Nor did he mind her initially icy attitude toward him.

They really are two wonderful people...

"Pepe? Pepe?"

If this goes on and we really have to turn our blades on each other...

"What are you thinking about, Pepe?"

"I want to kill Crucabena."