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

Everyone knows that among the eleven executives of the Fools, only this lady has not taken on any students for three consecutive years. Joining her ranks means enjoying abundant resources, something that other executives who have taken on hundreds or thousands of students cannot match.

[Girl] Columbia paused, sighed softly, and walked forward without looking back.

The partner on duty with the "veteran trainee" glared angrily at his companion, "You've gone too far! Why did you bring up Lady [Girl's] sad story? You know that three years ago, after her only subordinate, Xue'er, died, she announced that she would no longer recruit anyone."

The "veteran student" said with deep regret, "Alas, Senior Sister Xue'er was a very good person, and a rare genius. Even after her death, many people still remember her. Tell me, why did the [young lady] kill her back then?"

"For the 'young lady' who can't bear to watch a chef kill a chicken to be so ruthless as to clean house, Xue'er must have done something terribly wrong."

……

The House of Hearths is not just a small welfare home as outsiders might imagine. In fact, it occupies half of East City, making it a behemoth in the largest city of the Winter Kingdom, which has a population of over 100 million.

Among the various rumors circulating outside, the most widely accepted explanation is that the Fireplace House's courtyard housed buildings in different styles, simulating the capitals of the other six countries. It also housed the remnants of those six countries, allowing them to live according to their respective customs. This was done to train the Fireplace House's children sent to gather intelligence, helping them adapt to foreign living environments from a young age and reducing the risk of exposure during undercover missions.

The vast majority of children sent abroad as undercover agents will integrate into local society as homeless children and will often face questioning or spy screening.

The other party usually asks questions such as "How many rooms and living rooms is a standard building in our country?", "What was your family's favorite dish?", "Do you know where a certain store is?". These are common sense questions for locals, but for foreign spies, without prior targeted training, it is extremely easy to be exposed by these kinds of questions. These are lessons learned at the cost of blood.

The second theory is that the House of Hearths is named "Hearthfire" because it contains a special device from the ruins of Canria that collects and stores geothermal heat from the volcano to supply the entire city. The most direct evidence for this theory is that the average temperature inside Winterhold is much higher than outside, with peak temperatures differing by several degrees.

Another novel and rather horrifying theory suggests that the House of Hearths imprisoned dark creatures from the abyss, which the Fools used to train the children's combat skills. In the past two years, the orphanage's published causes of death for many children have included severe bite wounds, an unnatural death that strongly supports this theory.

People both respect and are curious about the House of Hearths, but its creator, the servant Arecino, never intended to satisfy their desire for exploration. She enjoyed the various speculations about the orphanage.

Among the many speculations, she particularly liked the third, slightly dark theory: that the House of Hearth imprisoned abyssal creatures for training. But unfortunately, no matter how much she liked it, even she didn't know the secret behind the House of Hearth.

Because, a few years before she began planning the construction of the Hearth House, the entire area had already been planned and built by Her Majesty the Queen. She was merely ordered to adopt and train orphans from the seven kingdoms in this area.

At the top of a bell tower adorned with a cross sculpture, the servant Arecino, seeing the two enter from afar, immediately leaped down with the agility of a bird, eliciting cheers from the students on the ground.

As the headmistress of the Hearth House, her daily work consisted mostly of trying to invite other executives with mentor titles to give lectures. However, she later discovered that the easiest person to invite was actually His Highness the Prince. Therefore, she was particularly warm towards the young Columbia, even stopping her training session to come over and say:

"Oh, what a rare guest. Don't tell me it's because I carried you into the city last night and gave you your medicine. I'm just here to thank you by teaching the children today."

[Girl] Columbia took off the cotton hood attached to her trench coat, her elegant six-winged hair ornament fluttering in the wind and snow. She replied slyly, "The other guys have all sorts of reasons for not coming to class, but I only have one. Don't keep bothering me with the secrets of the Hearth House. His Majesty didn't tell you because the time wasn't right yet."

[Servant] Arecino pricked up her ears, the blood-red cross mark in her eyes emitting a faint elemental glow, and a fanaticism surged on her face. "Since you're not here to give a lecture, then you've come to spar with me? Well then, come on. Promise me that if you lose, you'll tell me the secret."

Columbia shook her head, her expression grave. "Not today. I brought a little fellow with me. From now on, he will bring a string of candied hawthorns every day. If one day he suddenly stops coming, remember to inform Her Majesty the Queen immediately, even if she is in seclusion."

The surrounding wind and snow suddenly intensified. The little boy clung tightly to the straw frame stuck in the snow to keep his footing, unable to hear the cryptic conversation between the two important figures beside him.

[Servant] Arecino looked the unremarkable little boy up and down and asked, "Why him?"

This question is easy to answer. "Your Highness likes candied hawthorns," said Columbia with a smile.

[Servant] Arecino put her hands on her hips and said fiercely, "I don't care what you want to do, but this little boy is so weak that I can't imagine what he can do to help you. Do I have to send people to protect him every day?"

[The young woman] Columbia hinted, "Today, everyone in town saw me bring her into the Hearth House, and that in itself is his value. If it were someone else, the enemy would probably find it hard to take the bait. He is the most suitable candidate."

[Servant] Arecino's trench coat fluttered in the wind as she gritted her teeth and said, "I knew there was a huge secret here. His Majesty had me choose this location for the orphanage just to cover it up!"

"please."

She lowered her head and walked silently toward the dilapidated church.

Finally, the servant Arecino asked anxiously, "What about His Highness? Should we inform him?"

However, she seemed to deliberately avoid the question, instead quickening her pace. A gust of wind and snow swept by, and suddenly everything in front of her was covered in white snow, as if the church was shrouded in mist.

The view cleared again, but the girl, Columbia, was nowhere to be seen. Only the ethereal and melancholic melody faintly echoed in her ears.

Hearing the little boy beside her exclaim, "The pretty lady is gone!", [Servant] Arecino was still deep in thought when a disciplinary patrol of older students happened to pass by. Thinking the little boy had been caught sneaking in by the headmaster, they immediately went to snatch his candied hawthorns and throw him outside, only to hear the headmaster's furious shout:

"Get the hell out of here!"

The children who came to the House of Hearths were well aware of the fiery temper of the headmistress, Arecino. If one night in the dormitory of the House of Hearths did not hear her loudly scolding those naughty children, none of the children in the dormitory could sleep, fearing that they would be next. So, everyone wisely slipped away.

The little boy selling candied hawthorns shrank his neck further into his collar.

Still seething with anger, the servant Arecino's gaze fell on the candied hawthorns. She picked a skewer, put it in her mouth, and chewed it slowly—a snack even His Highness the Prince enjoyed. She hummed in agreement, blinked her brow, and then commented, "It tastes good, sweet and sour, appetizing and refreshing." Her gloomy mood seemed to have been cured, but her eyes sharpened as she said:

"My colleague prepaid for a year's worth of food and has to come deliver candied hawthorns every day on time, or else he'll lock you up!"

The little boy nodded repeatedly, left behind the candied hawthorn, and fled in a panic.

……

The young girl, Columbia, reappears in a world filled with wind, snow, and frost.

A layer of frost quickly formed on his body, which even divine power could not melt. The temperature here was even colder than the coldest weather in the Winter Kingdom.

She stood alone on the edge of a bottomless cliff.

In the distance, a snow tornado pierced the sky, seemingly stirring up the clouds above. Amidst the flashes of lightning and thunder, a pair of cold eyes could be vaguely seen looking down upon all living beings, only to be shattered by the soaring snow tornado. This cycle repeated endlessly, eerily strange.

[The young girl] Columbia gazed at the bottomless pool beneath her feet, her expression solemn and dignified.

This is the top secret of the Winter Kingdom. At the bottom of the deep pool lies a silent ice elemental dragon king from the ancient times!

In the early days of the universe, the First Throne, along with his four shadows—the Sands of Time, the Goblet of Emptiness, the Flower of Life, and the Feather of Death—engaged in a great war against the seven elemental dragon kings for control of the world of Teyvat.

The outcome of that great battle was undoubtedly a victory for the First Throne; otherwise, there would be no humans on the continent of Teyvat today, but rather a large number of elemental spirits or elemental creatures like the Dragon King Rodra.

The First King ascended to the pinnacle of the world, but instead of exterminating the seven elemental dragon kings, he allowed them to depart on their own. One of the seven elemental dragon kings, the Ice Dragon King, fell from the heavens to the Winter Kingdom, falling into a long slumber. Under the influence of the ice elemental power it released, the Winter Kingdom, which originally had four distinct seasons, gradually transformed into a perpetually frigid snow kingdom.

Once the Primordial Elemental Dragon King is fully awakened, Sky Island will lock onto its location and unleash a devastating attack with the Frost Nails. To this end, the young girl Columbia, in cooperation with the Ice Queen, comes here every year to reinforce the seal on the Ice Dragon King. In order to confuse the public, the Queen ordered the construction of the Winter Kingdom's orphanage, Hearth House, on this alternate dimension constructed by the divine power emanating from the Elemental Dragon King himself.

However, three years ago, the maintainers of justice came to the Winter Kingdom to hunt down the prince. At such close range, they detected the aura of the Dragon King. As a result, Sky Island activated a spy hidden in the Hearth House named Xue'er.

At that time, the Heavenly Curse within His Highness the Prince was spreading rapidly. Her Majesty the Empress judged that only the Dragon Soul of the Primordial Ice Elemental Dragon King could counteract the outbreak of the curse, and at the same time, she quickly raised His Highness the Prince's realm to protect himself.

Driven by a desire to save lives, the young girl Columbia, accompanied by the prince whom the empress called "the Descendant," and her subordinate Xue'er, who had just graduated from the House of Hearths, arrived in this snow-covered world to begin extracting the dragon soul of the Ice Elemental Dragon King. However, Xue'er suddenly launched a sneak attack to assassinate the prince, but Columbia killed him on the spot.

Xue'er's sneak attack unexpectedly caused a faint trace of the Ice Elemental Dragon King's consciousness to awaken.

At that moment, the Primordial Ice Elemental Dragon King asked, "Where is my friend, the Fire Dragon God, a descendant of the Immortal Spirit Clan?"

Columbia answered truthfully: "Her dragon tendons were taken by the gods of Sky Isles and used to make a divine lyre, which is played during every grand ceremonial music ceremony. Her skin was taken by the maintainers of the laws of nature and used to make a carpet, which is trampled on by the gods every day."

The Primordial Ice Elemental Dragon King roared, "Damn it! They all deserve to die!"

Columbia continued, "Fortunately, she left behind a dragon egg, which I brought to the Winter Kingdom. Just a few days ago, this descendant came to the Winter Kingdom, and the little life inside the dragon egg took the initiative to recognize her as its master. The descendant gave her a name: Xiao Qing."

The Primordial Ice Elemental Dragon King spoke in a sorrowful yet gentle voice, "What a foolish name."

……

The memories are still vivid.

This time, the faint divine consciousness of the Primordial Ice Dragon King did not appear.

Standing on the edge of the cliff, the young girl Columbia took the initiative to explain, "Old Dragon King, I deliberately left a little boy behind to test Arecino..."

"Fortunately, the results are in... If Arecino is a spy, she will definitely question the child carefully about whether I left him anything... No one can be trusted except His Majesty and the Prince."

Chapter 179 Lifesaver

On the day that the Prince was to extract the dragon soul of the Primordial Ice Element Dragon King, the young girl Columbia brought her most trusted student, Xue'er, into this alternate dimension. At the most critical moment, Xue'er suddenly launched a sneak attack, her sharp sword piercing the Prince's heart just past the hair near her ear. Known as a genius student of the Hearth House, her assassination swordsmanship was already consummate.

The fatal sword strike should have succeeded, but Xue'er underestimated her swordsmanship teacher. Columbia's mental power suddenly erupted, causing the sword strike to be forcibly misaligned. Xue'er's body lost momentum and rushed towards the bottomless abyss.

This place is the domain of the Dragon King, where all elemental combat techniques are greatly weakened. Xue'er, who can fly and walk on walls outside, is no different from an ordinary person. If she falls, no one can save her.

[The young girl] Columbia watched helplessly as her beloved disciple fell into the abyss, utterly disappointed and extremely angry, yet also deeply saddened. Having spent several years with Cheryl, even considering grooming her to be an executive officer, she had just clashed with the Queen before this trip, who planned to send Cheryl to Fontaine on an extremely dangerous mission. Ultimately, Her Majesty relented.

Once, while practicing a profound spiritual elemental combat technique, she suffered a mental injury and fell into a coma. When she awoke and opened her eyes, the first person she saw was Xue'er, who had been watching over her bedside for ten consecutive days with red, tear-filled eyes. Nominally, Xue'er was her subordinate, but in reality, their relationship was more that of master and disciple.

[Servant] Arecino excitedly told her that she had found a genius student for her, who was excellent in all aspects, especially in the spiritual field, where he had a spiritual sea that was twice as strong as others.

The first time, she refused without hesitation. The last time she took on a disciple was more than two hundred years ago. That disciple was also exceptionally talented, but unfortunately, he died during a training exercise, which saddened her greatly, so she simply stopped taking on disciples.

The second time, the Fireplace House delivered Xue'er's report cards for all her subjects. Her skills in assassination, combat, undercover work, and so on were almost all perfect, and her talent assessments were all excellent, yet she still refused. Over the years, her state of mind had become much more peaceful, but she had grown accustomed to being alone and didn't like having anyone by her side.

It wasn't until the third time, when Arecino personally brought people to meet her, that she finally agreed. Cher's clear, pure eyes seemed untouched by worldly corruption, filled with innocence, hope, beautiful dreams for the future, a pursuit of justice, and contempt for evil—a girl with a temperament very similar to hers.

However, what ultimately moved her was what Xue'er said when she visited her:

"[Young lady] My lady, from now on, please allow Xue'er to be your eyes and the sharpest sword in your hand."

The girl who had won her heart and whom she had nurtured with such care and effort betrayed her trust at the last moment.

When Xue'er fell into the abyss, her eyes showed both fear and helplessness, as well as relief and acceptance.

With her exceptional mental perception, she sensed a final thought from her disciple before his death: "If I had to strike with that sword, I would point it at someone else or myself, never at my teacher's back... Everything is fake, only my teacher is real."

After leaving that day, in order to deter other psychic spies who might be hiding in the House of Hearth or Winterhold, [Girl] Columbia announced that she had killed Cheryl, the genius student of the House of Hearth.

This explanation is better than "attacked assassination, accidental fall into the abyss"—it sounds more respectable. At least in everyone's mind, Xue'er remains a genius student.

This is her way of showing respect for the teacher-student relationship.

Since no specific reason was mentioned, rumors swirled. However, regardless of the discussions, one thing was undeniable: when news of Sheryl's death spread, the usually protective headmistress [servant], Arecino, unusually remained silent. Just days before Sheryl's death, she had single-handedly demolished the roof of a shady shop that cheated children out of their pocket money. Furthermore, Her Majesty the Queen had not pursued the matter. Many people thus guessed that the blame lay with Sheryl…

Stepping into this space again, the young girl Columbia couldn't help but think of Xue'er. It wasn't that she was so deeply attached to that master-disciple relationship; after all, she had lived for so long that she had seen all the joys and sorrows of life, and even the saddest things would fade with time. Rather, it was Xue'er's assassination attempt that made her the prince's "savior" for the second time.

As for the first time...

I still remember the first day when His Highness was hunted down by the Keepers of Heaven's Law and the Queen rescued him and brought him to the Kingdom of Winter. All eleven Fatui Executors were curious about the identity of the "Descendant". Even though the Celestials came from the throne high in the heavens, they couldn't help but want to know about the outside world, because the First Throne's original being, Phanes, was the first "Descendant" in Teyvat's history.

Upon their first meeting, Her Majesty the Queen was tending to the Prince's wounds.

The other ten executives each had their own thoughts, but were somewhat disappointed. Let alone a historically rare "Descendant," the mere fact that he was being hunted by the Heavenly Principles was enough to raise their expectations extremely high. However, after careful confirmation multiple times, they found him to be just an ordinary, weak human. His mental strength and elemental fluctuations were not significantly different from those of the people of Teyvat.

The "Descendant" was critically injured and needed to rest. Her Majesty the Queen saved his life and ordered the palace physicians to continue his treatment. The other executives were bored and left one after another, but she noticed something unusual and decided to stay and continue to observe.

After the doctors finished the surgery and stitched up the wound, she, who had been waiting for a long time, quietly asked, "Is the injury serious?"

The old doctor, deeply moved, seemed to have much to say, but when asked by the executive officer, he answered succinctly, "It's very serious. [Young lady], in my entire medical career, I have never seen anyone with such tenacious vitality. It's a miracle that he has lasted this long. If it were me, I would probably have committed suicide."

She nodded, agreeing with the doctor's opinion, and then asked, "How long will it take for him to wake up?"

The old doctor turned his head and looked at the patient again incredulously. "He wasn't unconscious at all!"

She clicked her tongue in amazement.

Even though Her Majesty the Queen did not explicitly state that the “Descendant” was afflicted by the curse of Heavenly Law, the astute executors had long since sensed the destructive aura of Heavenly Law that was enough to kill any life. Yet this person, with a mortal body, endured the pain brought by the curse. Could this be what makes the “Descendant” special?

The surgery wasn't easy, the old doctor said, wiping away sweat.

"[Young lady] My lady, could you please look after the patient for a while? I need to go to the cold storage to get a few bags of blood plasma. He has a very rare blood type, which is extremely rare and hard to find. The last person with this blood type has passed away. Fortunately, a few bags of sample blood plasma were stored in the cold storage for scientific research at the time, and only I know where they are."

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. She decided to help the "Descendants," so she stretched out her delicate arm, rolled up her sleeve, and said, "My identity needs to be kept secret. You don't know that I happen to have this blood type as well. Take mine."

The hesitant old doctor said, "Sir, this is not appropriate... the required dosage is very large," but she shut him down with "Stop talking nonsense."