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

"I want her to continue on her journey without any worries."

Kiyono Kazein said seriously, “In the years to come, when she recalls this event, she will only remember it as a frozen memory, perhaps as killing an ordinary Mondstadt knight, an insignificant person, so that she will not be sad or regretful.”

“I don’t want Rustan’s lingering spirit to haunt her—I want her to be able to continue on the path she has chosen in peace.”

Do you think the path she chose is the right one?

"No, I don't think so. I don't think she's on the right path."

Kiyono Kaze shook his head. He gazed at the thin moonlight and whispered a low song that echoed through the forest. At the edge of the jungle lay Kiyono's destination.

A still mind is a clear and empty space.

I could feel the presence of that sailor, McCa; he was still alive, the flame of life flickering in the darkness.

“But I respect her choice. She was a willful and arrogant girl, but she was opinionated and persisted in her path for five hundred years.”

"I have no right to deny her persistence, nor do I have the right to deny the significance of her over the past five hundred years."

Humans are really strange.

He paused, then said, "Like... uh, like Inazuma's Thunder General, right? She insisted on that so-called Eternal Path. I don't believe I thought it was right back then. It's a load of rubbish, but so what?"

“Kiyono Raimei will respect her path, even if he doesn’t agree with it.”

respect.

You should be considered enemies now.

"Yes."

Kiyono Kazein gently grasped Kamikiri, which trembled slightly. "I will struggle with all my might. It's fine if she kills me, it's fine if I kill her, it's all about respect. An enemy is an enemy."

What you need to know

Now is not the time for you to die. Your body is not yet mature, and your mission in this life is not yet complete.

Don't make the same mistake as last time.

You shouldn't go to save that sailor now; he's just an ordinary person, while you have something more important to do.

Qingye smiled and shook his head. "What's the point? What's so special about me? We're all just ordinary people! We're all just common folk. What the hell do I mean by being special?"

He took out the wine he was carrying and took a sip. The warm wine soothed his stomach, and the aroma of malt rose up his esophagus—that's it, Qingye Fengyin has fallen in love with drinking for the rest of his life.

Don't die now.

"That's why I said it!" Kiyono Fuue took another big gulp of wine, exhaled a hot breath, and said cheerfully, "I will struggle as hard as I can!"

-

They've given up trying.

McCa coughed.

He raised his head with some difficulty, and the thin moonlight shone through the sparse branches, draping him over him. The sky was dusty, as if covered with a thick cloth.

His boat was not far away.

This sailor had been at sea for thirty years, and the marks of the ocean seemed to be etched into his very bones.

The Kingdom of Winter is a very cruel country.

The punishment of traitors has long been written into the law.

Tonight, he will be executed.

He didn't really regret it and calmly accepted his solution.

These past few days, McCa has been constantly thinking about the past, about the days when he sailed on the sea, the salty sea breeze blowing on his face, roughly rubbing against his skin. He also thinks about his children, which he hasn't seen for a year.

How are they doing?

McCa thought about his own grave. He didn't need a grave. If he could be buried directly in the sea, that would be perfect. He would go to see his children with the waves.

"Hey, sailor."

The executioner of the Fools, wearing a dark demon mask and carrying a long cleaver, the gleam of the blade reflecting off McCain's face, grabbed the sailor's long, sea-blue hair, exposing his neck, and placed the cleaver against the latter's throat.

"Are you ready?" he said, his gaze dismissive. "Is there anything else you want to say? What is your final wish?"

The executioner hated this man, or rather, he hated all mortals—weak and powerless, yet constantly clamoring to protect this and that, only to be unable to even save their own lives. It was truly laughable.

He loved to sever their necks and listen to their desperate cries as blood gushed from their worm-like necks—it was a beautiful sight indeed.

But now, the executioner doesn't mind giving the man a little more time; he'd love to hear him beg for mercy.

"You haven't killed me yet. It's been two days."

"This is not the efficiency of the Fools, my lord."

The executioner was stunned.

But to everyone's surprise, McCain didn't cry out. He didn't even change his expression; he just smiled silently.

"You want to keep me here to lure that boy out of Mondstadt, don't you? That boy is a Knight of Favonius; he might come to rescue me. That's definitely what you're planning."

“When he comes to rescue me, you can threaten him with my life to make him hesitate or even surrender.”

He had followed the adults of the Fools his entire life, so he was naturally very familiar with their methods.

If the boy really came for him, neither of them would survive.

No one can defeat the lady in the attic.

...This commoner is actually quite clever.

But they were ordinary people, mortals without the eyes of God or the eyes of evil, no different from livestock.

The executioner scoffed, raising his eyes to look at the man with disdain. "So what? A lowly commoner?"

"You guessed right, that little beast is coming soon, and we'll kill him. What can you do about it?"

"My lord. My lord. I am a lowly commoner."

McCa looked up; the sailor's deep brown eyes reflected the shimmering seawater.

“I’ve spent my whole life bowing my head to make a living, but I don’t want to die in such a humble way. Death is the shape of a life, and I can’t bear that. I can’t bear to helplessly wait for someone to save me. That’s like being a child. I’d rather die as a burden.”

"What do you want to say?" The executioner chuckled mockingly. "And what can you possibly do?"

...

What can he do?

He was just a sailor, a sailor who had been sailing for thirty years. He had no divine eye, he had no evil eye, and he was powerless.

"I'm going to die anyway, so it's better for one to die than two."

"What?" the executioner asked.

Mike thought of that boy again. If he could see his son, his son would probably be about the same age as that boy.

They drank a toast when they left; a toast is enough to make them friends, right?

“My heart belongs to that pure sea. I will not defile it, sir.”

McCain said fiercely, his eyes wide open, his back teeth clenched, his eyes as red as blood. He gritted his teeth as if he wanted to crush those things, to crush those words, and it was a voice that truly came from the depths of his throat.

"What I am about to show you is the heart of a mortal, the heart of a sailor."

"The shape of my death will be this sea!"

The machete was placed right in front of McCa's neck; it was originally just something the executioner used to scare him.

But McCain charged forward with lightning speed, catching the executioner off guard.

His pupils contracted, as if he realized something, but it was too late to stop it.

That bastard is actually going to his death!

The sharp blade cleanly sliced ​​open the sailor's neck, blood gushing out, blooming in clusters of crimson. Moonlight shimmered in the blood, and Uncle McCain collapsed helplessly to the ground, the light in his eyes quickly fading.

"Are you... are you kidding me!"

The executioner couldn't understand it, and neither could he!

He had never seen such a mortal.

Why would someone go to such lengths for a complete stranger?

The plan, the whole plan is in chaos. He gritted his teeth, this was the first time in all his years of executions that he had shown such a loss of composure.

Although those eyes had clearly dimmed, the executioner felt they were still alive, radiating a terrifying light.

The pale, cool moonlight enveloped the sailor's body. Waves gently lapped against the beach with the tide. McCa fell onto the sand, right where he was closest to the ocean. He slowly closed his eyes, and in the silence, he heard the sound of the sea.

The sailor, who had been adrift for thirty years, has finally returned home today.

Every sailor has a pure and pristine sea in his heart. After sailing for thirty years, Maca finally reached that peaceful and tranquil ocean, where there would never be any storms again.

The sailor's death takes the shape of the sea.

-

Qingye Fengyin paused for a moment.

He stopped.

【What's wrong?】

Human principles and the Way.

"The fire has gone out," Kiyono said softly.

[Impossible. The Fools wouldn't have killed off their chips before using him to threaten you; that doesn't make sense.]

"He committed suicide."

Qingye Fengyin said that he had come to this conclusion without any basis. He raised his eyes, and his purple eyes reflected the dim night sky.

After a long while, he lowered his head.

He took out a roll of cigarettes, wrapped the tobacco in it, lit it with a match, and smoked one.

When the smoke cleared, Kiyono extinguished the cigarette and poured the beer onto the soil.