Genshin Impact: I, the Winter Prince, reign supreme.

Beneath the tree lies a solitary grave, where the woman he loved most in his youth rests. She was a girl from the same village with whom he had been betrothed since childhood. She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she had red lips and white teeth. Capitano had promised her that when he went out to make his fortune, he would return in glory riding the finest warhorse to marry her.

After Capitano joined the Fools, his fame and status grew, and the enemies he faced became increasingly cunning and dangerous. Soon, misfortune struck: the rebels captured his woman and demanded the release of several prisoners.

If they were ordinary prisoners, they would have been released without a second thought. But those prisoners were high-ranking officers of the rebel army, and they were of extremely high intelligence value. Dozens of their cavalrymen had died in the battle to capture them alive.

Arecino, the "servant" in charge of intelligence, personally escorted several prisoners to him, urging him to take the prisoners back to exchange for others. Capitano, however, said, "My brothers cannot have died in vain, and the Empire must never make a deal with the rebels!"

That day, Capitano led his light cavalry on a long-distance raid to rescue the people. On the way, more than a dozen of their strongest warhorses died from exhaustion. The cavalrymen usually treated their horses like wives, and they had no time to grieve over the death of their horses; they would run back to the village as quickly as possible.

They arrived a few steps too late. When they met again, the simple woman who blushed when touched had already passed away. The villagers said that the rebels killed her when they learned that she had refused to exchange prisoners.

After burying the woman, the enraged Capitano led his cavalry to slaughter the rebel army, and finally brought the rebel general's head back to the village to offer as a sacrifice to the woman's spirit.

"Commander, you're here. It's time for Xiaoqing to eat."

A maid from the Prince's mansion came to report that she almost burst out laughing when she saw the Chief Executive, whose sneeze in the court could make all the officials tremble, looking utterly miserable.

Facing the young maid, Piero, the "clown," showed none of his previous imposing official airs. On the contrary, despite the maid's strong objections, he took the initiative to help her carry the water bucket and said with a smile, "Little Qing was unhappy yesterday, wasn't she? I fed her, and she didn't even look at me. You must find a way to help me today, otherwise, when His Highness comes back and finds Little Qing has lost weight, I won't know how to explain it."

"You're too kind, Commander-in-Chief. I'm just a lowly maid. Please let me know if you need anything." The maid replied politely, but a hint of smugness played on her lips. It turned out that this famous Commander-in-Chief, despite his cold demeanor, was actually a very lovable old man.

The day before His Highness the Prince led his delegation on his visit, Piero made a special trip to see him, offering to share the Prince's burdens and saying he would get angry with His Highness if he wasn't given any tasks. His Highness then entrusted him with the care of Xiaoqing, instructing him to do his best and to hold him accountable if Xiaoqing became thin or unhappy upon their return.

This commander clearly underestimated the job. On his very first day, he accidentally stepped on Xiao Qing's dragon tail. Enraged, Xiao Qing unleashed a burst of intense dragon fire that burned off a large portion of his beard and hair, forcing him to flee from Xiao Qing's cave. Luckily, he was fast; had he been a few steps slower, the commander would have been bald.

For a while afterward, she had no choice but to help Piero feed Xiaoqing. Even so, the Commander was still "bullied" by the vengeful Xiaoqing every day. Either his clothes were burned to the ground by the dragon flame, or his pants were burned with several large holes. Fortunately, she reminded him in time each time, otherwise the Commander would be laughed out of the room if he went out like that.

……

[Doctor] Daughtore left the heavily guarded Winter Palace and returned to his executive residence.

It cannot be compared with the Prince's Mansion, but in terms of scale, it is the largest among the executives. When the Empress gave him this manor, he was so excited that he could not sleep for days and nights.

Expelled from the Sumeru Cult, his research was forced to stop, plunging him into immense suffering. It wasn't until the clown Piero appeared and invited him to the Winter Kingdom to continue his research that he saw hope again, agreed to go to the Winter Kingdom, and joined the Fools.

When he was promoted to executive officer, the queen asked him what his wish was.

He told Her Majesty the Queen that he wanted a spacious estate, preferably equipped with some basic facilities for research.

Three days later, he acquired the manor, formerly the Winter Kingdom Scientific Research Institute, which possessed state-of-the-art equipment and instruments, even superior to the conditions of the Sumeru Church Academy.

He later learned that, in order to provide him with the best conditions, the Queen had sent the entire research institute elsewhere, leaving only the most advanced and comprehensive instruments and equipment for him to use as he pleased.

He understands the world through various forbidden experiments, and he also needs someone in this world to understand his ambition. That person is the Ice Queen, who has since been determined to serve the Winter Kingdom until death.

However, unlike the other executives who hired a large number of servants and maids, he dismissed all the original workers in the huge manor, leaving only a female housekeeper who was over sixty years old.

Actually, she wasn't originally a housekeeper; she was a gardener on the estate, mainly responsible for cultivating flowers and pruning plants, and she worked diligently here her whole life.

Her children died young, and she divorced her husband years ago. Being relocated meant she would be homeless.

Dotole initially chose to keep her only because she unexpectedly mentioned that she could cook.

Hearing footsteps inside, the old butler, still wearing his pajamas, came out of his dormitory and respectfully greeted him, "Doctor," before turning to make him a cup of coffee. "You haven't had dinner yet, have you? The food is getting cold. I'll go to the kitchen to heat it up."

Whether it was from the hot coffee or the old butler's caring words, Doctor Dotore felt a warm glow all over his body. "It's too late, you should go and rest."

"My lord, I am not tired. You are the one who really needs rest; you haven't slept for more than ten days."

Accustomed to the mild and sunny weather of Sumeru, Dotore jokingly thought to himself that he might freeze to death when he first arrived in winter. Fortunately, he had an old housekeeper who would always go into the kitchen and get busy, no matter if it was windy, rainy, snowy, or stormy outside, and no matter if he wanted to eat or not.

This touch of warmth and homeliness made him feel at home.

Dotole can't cook. Sometimes, when he hears the clattering of pots and pans in the kitchen, or the sound of the old butler chopping vegetables, he gets a strange feeling that the kitchen is a more complex and sophisticated place than the laboratory filled with the smell of chemicals.

[Doctor] Doutore later always believed that it was fortunate that the old butler had been allowed to stay.

That day, after completing the injection of the demon god's remnants for His Highness the Prince, he returned home anxiously. The old steward asked him if he was sick, and he looked in the mirror and found that his face was pale and even the hand holding the mirror was trembling slightly.

As Piero said, the remnants of demons are extremely dangerous items. For ordinary people, they are an incurable poison, and for gods, if they come into contact with them, their divine status will be corrupted.

The human experiments he conducted were all conducted with demonic residue diluted tens of thousands of times. The demonic power contained in them was negligible. Even so, a large number of the experimenters would faint within minutes, and he had to rescue them each time to save their lives.

His Highness was the only person he had ever seen who remained vigorous and healthy after being injected with a large dose of demon god remnants. To be honest, he was really worried that the power of the demon god remnants would create an unknown conflict with the curse of heavenly law, causing irreversible damage to His Highness's body. If such a consequence were to occur, Her Majesty the Empress would surely kill him, given her temper.

Under immense mental stress, he returned home and told his old housekeeper about the incident, not to seek advice from the old man, but simply to share it with someone and reduce his anxiety.

He also instructed the old steward that if he died, he should quickly take the money and leave to avoid trouble.

Unexpectedly, the old butler calmly wiped the table and laughed loudly: "[Doctor], I don't understand what demon god remnants are, and I don't understand what you're saying. I only know one thing: you absolutely did not intend to harm His Highness the Prince. The year my children passed away, I was a white-haired man sending off my black-haired son. Looking at my child lying on the sickbed with a terminal illness, my face was just as pale as yours is now."

After hearing this advice, the Doctor remained silent for a long time before finally muttering something only he could hear: "His Highness the Prince is trying to protect me. How could I dare to harm him?"

His Highness suddenly summoned him that day. When he arrived, he noticed that His Highness's expression was not good. Sure enough, His Highness asked him why he was conducting human experiments that violated human ethics.

"Here comes another lecture," he thought to himself. At worst, he would just leave the Winter Kingdom, just like he left Sumeru. He believed that he could find a place to study in the vast continent of Teyvat. So he told the story of the artificial god creation plan.

His Highness asked him why he wanted to create gods, and he replied that there are only seven universally recognized gods. Even if others possess power comparable to the gods, they still cannot obtain godhood. I want to break the order of nature.

The question of why there are only seven deities has puzzled the Sumeru Order Academy for over a thousand years, and the answer has remained elusive for all the great sages of the Academy throughout history.

The great sage of our time, Azhar, had his own insights, telling him that only by acquiring the wisdom of the Great Tree King could he perhaps find the final answer. However, he later discovered that he was nothing more than an outcast of the Sumeru Church, and that those self-proclaimed wise men were actually all arrogant, biased fools.

He only figured out the philosophical answer to this question later: humans live under the order of natural law, and if natural law dictates that there are only seven, then there are only seven. So, all the effort humans put into thinking about and seeking so-called answers and truths is nothing but meaningless fantasy.

He made his idea public, and all the scholars scoffed at it, saying that he was connecting to the Void Terminal too frequently, which caused mental problems, and that another scholar had gone mad.

Alright, since you don't believe me, I'll create a god for you!

He told His Highness about all these experiences that day, and His Highness praised him highly. At the same time, His Highness said something that shocked him: "If Teyvat had more scholars like you who question the nature of the world, then it would be much easier for Her Majesty the Queen and me to rebel against the laws of nature."

Then, His Highness the Prince told him that the god-making project did not require human experimentation, and that the remnants of the demon god could not optimize the human body. Dotorei, your research has gone astray.

To increase his persuasiveness, His Highness said, "I am willing to be your guinea pig to test the effects of the Demon God's remnants. I can tell you in advance that the Demon God's remnants offer no benefit whatsoever, except for harming the human body. When anyone outside, including Her Majesty the Queen, asks you about it, you must answer that I want to use the power of the Demon God's remnants to weaken the curse of Heavenly Law within me, understand?"

He was deeply moved that day.

In order to achieve his goal and verify his flawed ideas, His Highness the Prince was willing to be his guinea pig.

Back home, he nearly had an emotional breakdown.

Fortunately, the old butler's words put his mind at ease.

Ps:

This is a combined chapter from two previous ones, and I'm posting it together.

Chapter 174 People Don't Understand the Winter Solstice

Besides this incident, Doctor Doutore also remembered something else that left a deep impression on him about the old butler.

On that same occasion, he sent more than ten sliced ​​prosthetic bodies, the highest quality replicas among his many clones, to meet His Highness the Prince. It took Her Majesty the Empress some time to distinguish his true form from them, and she praised his slicing technique for getting better and better.

If this technology were not still imperfect and immature, and if only ordinary humans had a tiny chance of successfully replicating it, the Empress would have intended to use his slicing technology to create ten divine clones. "If I had ten lives, would that be enough to defy the laws of nature?" the Empress asked the heavens, then dismissed him and fell into deep thought.

That day he learned that Her Majesty the Ice Queen, like everyone else, occasionally fantasized about her wishes coming true. However, while ordinary people's fantasies were not life-threatening, Her Majesty the Queen's fantasies, or rather, her ambitions, were about overthrowing the supreme and eternally indestructible Heavenly Court.

If before this, he accepted Piero's invitation to join the Kingdom of Winter merely to facilitate his research on blasphemy, now, having touched the soul of the Kingdom of Winter through the Ice Queen, he has truly decided to bind his own fate to it and dedicate himself to the same goal.

Why are there only seven gods on the continent of Teyvat?

He had been racking his brains in the Academy of Religion, but the Kingdom of Winter had already found a solution. He felt as if he had met his soulmate too late. What could be more satisfying than a blasphemous experiment than directly defying the laws of nature!

I used to think that no one in the world understood him, but actually it was he who didn't understand Zhidong, and it was actually the world who didn't understand Zhidong.

After leaving the Winter Palace, he took more than ten pieces of prosthetic body fragments to pay his respects to His Highness the Prince.

His Highness the Prince was meeting with a group of children who had come to visit him from the orphanage.

The children of the "Hotheart House" have the privilege of priority in meeting His Highness the Prince, a well-known fact in the Winter Kingdom. Even if he, the second-in-command, had urgent business, he could only stand quietly in the cold Prince's courtyard with the other officials waiting for an audience, in accordance with the rules.

The officials' hats and expensive mink coats in the queue were covered with a thick layer of snow, making them look like many snowmen.

Among them were several hereditary dukes and earls who were close relatives of the Queen, and several civil and military officials of the first rank. Every one of them was a powerful and influential figure who attracted the attention of thousands when they rode in a carriage outside. But here, they all behaved very humbly. No matter how arrogant and domineering they were in the past, they restrained their habits. No one dared to show any impatience, and no one dared to urge them.

Even he, the executive officer, was no exception. He stood for a full three hours before being granted permission to enter. As soon as he entered, he was shocked by the scene before him. More than a dozen children of all ages, ranging from three or four to ten years old, were playing hide-and-seek, making a mess of His Highness's usually tidy study.

Looking down, I saw a copy of "The Secret Scroll of Winter" at my feet, a work written by a famous writer more than 800 years ago. The writer's personal seal could still be faintly seen on the messy footprints. This was not a handwritten copy that could be found anywhere on the market, but a priceless and unique copy handwritten by the author.

In a nearby corner lay several torn calligraphy pieces, their characters vigorous and flowing, seemingly penetrating the paper. These were genuine works by a calligrapher from over 600 years ago, and had been exhibited in the city's museum earlier this year. High-ranking officials and nobles fought tooth and nail to get a ticket just to see the original.

Several mischievous children gathered around the table, scribbling on an oil painting with paintbrushes. The painting was a landscape painting that took one and a half years to complete by the most famous contemporary painter and was presented as a gift to His Highness the Prince on his second anniversary. At the time, many collectors predicted that after a hundred years, the painting would surely become a masterpiece.

Although he didn't like antiques and calligraphy, he knew their cultural value. Even he thought these kids were completely wasting resources, let alone the civil officials waiting outside. They would probably vomit blood when they came in, and some of them would faint from the shock.

On the prince's shoulders rode a three-year-old boy with a shaved head, who could barely speak clearly. The boy was giggling as the prince amused him, drool dripping from his mouth onto the prince's head and face. The prince racked his brains but couldn't remember whose precious son this was. Then again, even the Empress's own son probably wouldn't dare to act so recklessly.

The children were immediately drawn to him when they saw ten identical people enter. They all gathered around him, curiously examining each prosthetic body.

His Highness the Prince kindly suggested that they find a place to sit, leaving him speechless with surprise.

Because His Highness's gaze remained fixed on him the entire time he was speaking!

Clearly, His Highness recognized the real body at first glance.

He asked the prince about the children's identities, and the prince pointed to the six oldest children and said they were spies who were about to go abroad to carry out intelligence missions.

In Winterland, spies are a special type of spy. Unlike other spies who gather intelligence, spies usually carry out the most dangerous undercover missions. In order to keep their identities secret, they can never return to Winterland. Even if the mission is completed, they must continue to lie low, waiting for a summons from their superiors to activate them again someday.

The most famous spy in the history of the Winter Kingdom, he operated in Liyue for three generations. If he hadn't been exposed by Morax at the last moment, he would have almost won the position of "Tianquan Star", the head of the "Liyue Seven Stars", more than a hundred years ago.

Because they possess a wealth of secrets and intelligence, the exposure of a spy's identity means the end of their life; therefore, every spy is the pride of the Winter Kingdom.

This time, however, the mission of these spies is no longer to monitor the Seven Kingdoms, but to find the spies that Tianli has planted within them. In addition to supporting the Seven Gods as proxies to manage the Seven Kingdoms, Tianli also secretly cultivates spies and informants among the human race to serve him.

This is no secret. The reason Tianli was able to accurately grasp the internal situation of Kanria was precisely because he had developed a large number of spies within Kanria, which helped Tianli eliminate Kanria in a very short time. To sum it up in the words of a later historian, Kanria was infiltrated by Tianli's intelligence agents to the point of being riddled with holes, and the "traitors" accelerated the fall of Kanria.

The six children before us have only one mission for the rest of their lives: to find the "traitors" hidden among humanity and prevent them from passing information to the Heavenly Principles.

Today is their last close face-to-face contact with His Highness the Prince. Once they begin their mission, they will never be able to get close to His Highness again in this lifetime. In the future, no matter where or on what occasion they see His Highness the Prince, they must not show any emotional fluctuations.

In their hearts, the person they admire most is His Highness the Prince, which must be more painful than death for them.

Chapter 175 For Winter's End, For Glory

His Highness then pointed to the two children beside him and said that they were the children of heroes.

Of the seven kingdoms, the Kingdom of Winter had the shortest period of peace and the longest period of war.

Since the fall of the Ice Queen five hundred years ago, the new Ice Queen has undergone a drastic change in temperament. She regards the other six countries as lackeys and accomplices of the Heavenly Principle and has adopted a policy of militarism, constantly squeezing the strategic living space of the other six countries. Over the past five hundred years, countless small-scale wars have broken out between her and the armies of the six countries on land and at sea.

In addition, the long-term infighting among the eleven executives led to the formation of factions among civil and military officials, and the frequent emergence of separatist forces and rebels within the empire's territory.

Furthermore, on the northern border, where it borders the ancient kingdom of Kanria, hundreds of thousands of soldiers are killed or wounded every year in order to defend against the invasion of alchemical monsters and dark creatures.