Genshin Impact, I, a mere mortal, cannot accompany you to the very end.

Ying bent down, took off her wooden clogs, and stepped onto the tatami mats in the corridor with her white socks. The Zhuguo Mansion was a very old mansion, and most of it had been renovated. It was originally built with a mahogany foundation, but the wood rotted halfway, so it was rebuilt again, and the walls were renovated with stone bricks.

A hundred years passed in this way. The ivy on the wall died and grew back, and the withered remains covered the wall surface, layer upon layer, making it impossible to clean.

This building is as old as its owner, and it too has come to an end.

The Pillar of State's residence was at the end of the torii gate. This area had been sealed off, and no one was allowed to enter. Shadow gently pushed open the door.

The room was large, but there were very few things in it.

A bed, a plain screen, a kotatsu, a stack of cupboards, and a few tea sets—this old man's remaining life seemed quite simple.

The stove looked very old, with blackened edges from smoke, and unburnt wood piled up in the ashes. This was probably the wood he burned the last time he was at home, before he left.

He used to dislike having fires, and Ying still remembered that.

The arrogant young man once confidently declared that "kotatsu is something only the weak need," yet he was also warming himself by a kotatsu before he died.

He must be very cold.

Ying had never experienced this feeling called 'cold' in her life.

But she could picture it: snowing heavily outside the window, the old man wrapped in thick winter clothes, the stove still unable to brighten his complexion, coughing again and again, and the wind howling outside the door.

He must have lived like this for the past hundred years. Every winter was torture for him. The old man would huddle by the kotatsu, with no one to keep him company. Almost all his old friends had died. He could only cough and persevere, enduring one hundred winters after another with each cough.

He lived like this for a hundred years, until he died.

Let's bury the kotatsu as well.

Ying picked up the tea sets; they were dusty, indicating they hadn't been used in a long time. Ying remembered what the boy named Qingye Fengyin had said.

"In the morning, we practiced kendo or went hunting in the mountains behind the Pillar State's residence. Lunch was very light, just tofu, peanuts, and a simple side dish, but it had to be accompanied by wine..."

He liked to drink, but his servants certainly wouldn't allow him to drink too much, so he mixed the wine into the teapot.

Kiyono sipped his wine while eating the grilled fish on the stove.

He was drinking alone.

Despite never having seen it before, Ying came to this conclusion.

He really loves to drink.

Ying pushed open the shop window. There weren't many items in the window: a well-worn bow, a few sets of everyday kimonos, and a small drawer inside with a special lock.

It's called a lock, but it's more like a barrier or a kind of enchantment; it automatically destroys itself once opened.

Ying opened the lock without difficulty; the lock seemed to have no defenses against her.

Inside were documents and letters, mostly official business, numbering a couple hundred. Even in retirement, the old man was still concerned about Inazuma's affairs. Ying opened and read them one by one.

Qingye's handwriting is very neat and clean, showing great care.

He handled a wide variety of matters, from the conflict between the magistrate of the society and the magistrate of the district to the need for mediation; to the food shortage for the soldiers in Inazuma, he personally funded the solution... from national policies to the care of the widows of martyrs.

He truly loves this country.

For the past hundred years, Zhuguo has never written a letter to Ying, but all the things he wanted to say were written in these official documents.

One of the letters' signatures caught Ying's attention.

【National collapse】

The shadow reads this unfamiliar name.

This didn't seem to be Inatsume; she had never heard of him before.

The contents of the letter were nothing special, just some trivial matters.

Ying put the letter down, and buried these things as well.

She leaned against the window. The winter sun was short, and dusk was beginning to fall. The silhouette of the cypress tree swayed and scattered. The servants of the Pillar State Palace had already dug the grave and were just waiting for the shadow to emerge for burial.

Next to the Pillar of State's residence was a side room. The side room was not sealed off, and the servants could come and go as they pleased. So almost all the items inside had been moved out. The afterglow of the setting sun covered the tatami mats, and the winter sun slowly sank down through the center of the window frame. Looking out through that window, one could see the castle tower at the end of the long staircase.

After dinner, he would go to a side room and sit quietly by the window for half an hour.

'He is missing you, Lord Narukami.'

The white socks made a dull sound as they stepped on the tatami.

Ying opened the window, and the winter sun shone warmly on her kimono.

She knelt on the ground, resting her chin on her hand, gazing at the pavilion.

The sun slowly sank behind the shadow. As time passed, the shadows of the pine and cypress trees climbed along the ancient wall. After an unknown amount of time, when the sunlight faded and the shadows of the trees fell on the shadow's cheek, it was completely dark.

“Shadow, you’ve completely messed up. I will take your place and carry out your original will,” the general said.

"Hmm," Ying said softly.

Shadow's body is indeed having problems, or rather, she is experiencing confusion for the first time about the eternal path she is pursuing, and the Thunder General is a constraint she has imposed on herself.

silence.

The moon slowly sank westward, and the courtyard was quiet except for the occasional bark of a dog from the end of a deep alley, which quickly faded into the silence of the night. The shadow of the castle tower was also about to fall into the darkness, its silhouette kneeling before the window.

"What are you doing?"

"I miss him," Ying said.

—"I am missing Kiyono Raimei."

The shadow lingers in the desolate wilderness, where thunder roars.

Just as Kiyono has done for the past hundred years, at the end of dusk, in the afternoon, and in the evening before nightfall, one can come to this secluded cabin, sit by the window, and quietly gaze at the pavilion on the mountain peak.

Until the afterglow completely dissipated and the sunlight faded.

"so what?"

"I want to continue missing him."

"You don't need to miss the lightning that lasted for 0.3 seconds; eternity cannot hold onto a fleeting moment of life."

"so."

Shadow slowly stood up, a naginata hanging from her deep purple sleeves. She turned her head, gazing at her reflection in the glass, at her own face:

"I'm going to kill you," she said to herself. "Kill Eternity."

"But you can't kill me."

"Then let us fight forever."

"why?"

"This is the fleeting lightning... the lesson my life taught me: what I should promise my people is not an eternal paradise, but the dream of every fleeting moment. I don't want to disappoint him."

When will this end?

“Until Ray comes back.”

-

Warm sunlight streamed through the azure curtains, and a gentle breeze blew through the fluffy dandelions. The clusters of flowers floated in the air with the light before finally settling gently on the floor.

Kiyono slowly opened his eyes.

He was seriously injured and had just fallen into a deep sleep again.

"Whoa, you old zombie, have you risen from the dead?"

The one who said this was the blonde girl by the bed.

Her fair left leg was draped over her right, pressing down on her fitted white dress, the hem of which was translucent and shimmered with warm sunlight. The girl rested her chin on one hand.

Perhaps she was sleepy, she yawned lazily, like a golden retriever stretching out in the warm winter sun.

"That's so rude."

Kiyono said, "I call this getting up...you've been guarding here the whole time?"

"You were asleep when I came looking for you, so I waited." Ying stretched her arms and gave a big yawn. "Who knew someone was such a lazybones, sleeping for so long."

What do you want with me?

"Look, I caught so many fish." She held a skewer of grilled fish to Qingye Fengyin's face, but then sighed, "But it's cold now."

"Fishing? You bought this, didn't you?"

"...I bought it and hung it on my fishing hook, so that counts as catching it by fishing." Ying said with her hands on her hips, in a proud tone.

"That's just sophistry... Why did you buy fish for me to eat?"

　"I'm afraid you'll starve to death."

"I remember you don't have much money."

"I can earn money if I don't have any! I earned money and bought so much fish, I ate until I was stuffed."

She was as fierce as a hedgehog, but as she said this, her stomach growled at an inopportune moment.

"...You resisted eating a single bite?"

“Ah…” Ying scratched her head, realizing she’d been exposed.

"why?"

“You’re so nagging,” Ying said, mimicking Qingye’s tone and mannerisms.

“‘Nobody’s any good, and I won’t starve. I’m only giving you fish because I want to.’ I’m giving you a taste of your own medicine. If I starve to death today, you’ll feel guilty for the rest of your life.”

As the girl spoke these words with radiant pride, the sunlight cast shadows everywhere, and the ivy grew wildly on the courtyard wall.

She stood with her hands on her hips, as proud as a victorious little hen.

Kiyono was always at a loss about this, and gave a wry smile:

"Go outside and heat up the fish so we can all eat together. I don't want to feel guilty for the rest of my life."