"Are you sure you want to choose puppet bodies?"
Koji gave Macani and the others two choices.
One was resurrection through regaining physical bodies. The other was resurrection by having their souls dwell within puppets. Although both would allow them to walk the world again, puppet bodies would not have sensations like touch or taste.
"Yes. As long as we can return to the world, puppets are fine," Alonie said, shaking her head.
Koji nodded. He was only giving them the choice.
After they confirmed their decision, everyone left that space. This place was not suitable for chatting anyway. It was far too scorching, and the physical discomfort was considerable.
After returning to Natlan, Bennett immediately followed his parents and the others to retrace the path they had walked back then.
"Lord Koji, Lord Traveler, this is a letter Father asked me to give you."
A masked Fatui member came looking for them. From that way of addressing them, Koji and Lumine immediately knew that this person belonged to the House of the Hearth. Ordinary Fatui would never address Arlecchino, The Knave, in that way.
Although Arlecchino was one of the Fatui Harbingers, compared to those Fatui, the children she had raised herself were undoubtedly more worthy of her trust.
"We're killing Dottore. Coming?"
With just those few words, Arlecchino's meaning was already very clear.
She was preparing to make a move against the Second Fatui Harbinger.
"Is Arlecchino in Snezhnaya right now, or somewhere else?" Koji asked.
Dottore?
They were not familiar.
He was a cold-blooded person, while Arlecchino was their friend. They absolutely had to back her up here.
Back in Sumeru, they had already killed one of Dottore's segments, so they were destined to be enemies. Taking action now was only natural.
"Father is currently in Nod-Krai," the Fatui soldier said.
"Got it. We'll go find Arlecchino. You can head back and take care of your own work first."
The Fatui soldier nodded and headed toward the Fatui station in Natlan.
"Lumine, looks like one of the Fatui Harbingers is going to die this time," Koji said with a smile.
"If he dies, he dies. Dottore is a really awful guy. Collei was hurt by him before," Lumine said without much concern.
There were many bad people in the world, but people who conducted human experiments, especially those who forced innocent people into human experiments, were undoubtedly among the worst kind. People like that were rotten to the core.
"Oh? What are you going to do? Take me with you," Venti said with a smile.
He was idle anyway. If there was some excitement to watch, he was more than happy to join in.
"We're stepping on a bug. You want to watch that too, Venti?" Koji asked.
"Mm-hmm. I'm very bored."
Through teleportation, the group arrived in Nod-Krai.
Arlecchino had already prepared pastries and tea, as if she had known in advance that Koji and the others would come at this exact moment.
"It has been a long time. You arrived just in time," Arlecchino said with a faint smile.
"We've been doing pretty well. Running around everywhere. It's basically like a leisure vacation," Koji said with a nod.
"In a sense, this is a Fatui matter. Does Your Excellency the Anemo Archon not find it rather inappropriate to come here?" Arlecchino looked at Venti and shook her head.
Was this Anemo Archon really that idle?
He had actually followed them all the way here. It was truly incomprehensible.
However, with an Anemo Archon overseeing the situation, they would have much more room to maneuver.
"How could it be? You all discuss your own business. I'm just here to watch the fun," Venti said as he ate pastries and drank tea.
"It would be even better if there were wine."
He did not particularly like tea. Compared to tea, he preferred alcohol. He had not really tried Nod-Krai's local drinks yet.
"Drunkard, if you want alcohol, go back to Mondstadt. There's enough wine there for you to drink." Rosalyne hugged the heavy slime in her arms and spoke with disgust.
Although she already knew what had happened back then, she still did not get along with Barbatos, the Anemo Archon.
Venti did not mind Rosalyne's tone either. His temper was very good. As long as something did not go too far, he would laugh it off.
"Three Harbingers. You really are good sisters," Koji said with a smile as he looked at The Knave, The Marionette, and La Signora.
Aside from when they gathered in Snezhnaya, the Harbingers basically would not meet one another in other nations.
"The reason Dottore came to Nod-Krai is most likely Columbina. The few of us have a decent relationship with Columbina, so naturally we came over to take a look," Sandrone said.
"As for me, I mostly want to completely kill Dottore. With all of you added in, that will be enough." Arlecchino did not hide her killing intent toward Dottore at all.
That man Dottore had cooperated with the previous Knave. Who knew how many children from the House of the Hearth had become Dottore's experimental subjects?
After Arlecchino became The Knave, she refused to cooperate with Dottore. Since Dottore had stretched his claws into her territory, she would simply chop them off.
"Dottore, huh? A disgusting person. It would be better if he died," Rosalyne said indifferently.
Venti was surprised.
Every single one of them wanted Dottore dead. Their hostility was quite heavy. He really was unpopular.
"Barbatos, don't you know what Dottore did when he went to Mondstadt back then? As Mondstadt's Anemo Archon, do you not want to kill that man too?" Rosalyne asked.
Venti knew what Rosalyne was referring to.
Back then, Dottore had gone into Mondstadt's territory to conduct experiments. At the time, Venti had still been asleep, so he had not acted.
By the time he walked the world again, Dottore had already returned to Snezhnaya. The Tsaritsa would never have allowed him to kill Dottore in Snezhnaya, and Dottore had become smarter afterward, never appearing in Mondstadt again.
So he had never had much of a chance to act.
This time, if they could get rid of a scourge, that was not impossible either.
"Mm. Dottore really does deserve to die. Count me in," Venti said with a nod.
Many Mondstadters had been harmed by Dottore back then. Among them were Diluc's family members, as well as those who had been deceived into going along with him. Dottore should repay that debt too.
"That's more like it," Rosalyne snorted softly.
"But don't tell your Tsaritsa about this. I don't want that block of ice coming to trouble me and disturbing my daily slacking-off life," Venti reminded them.
The Second Harbinger was no minor figure. He was someone with status roughly comparable to Jean's.
If this rose to the level of a diplomatic incident, Jean would definitely find it troublesome later.
"After Dottore is killed, none of us will say anything. That means it will remain confidential," Arlecchino said.
"By the way, your Knights are here too. Should we call them over?"
She was referring to the Knights' elites and Grand Master Varka.
Although they should already have enough people, calling them over to join the excitement would not hurt.
"Varka, huh? I'll ask him later," Venti said, slightly startled.
He had not seen Varka in some time.
This old friend of his, honestly. He went out on an expedition and did not even know to return to Mondstadt to look at the mountains.
(End of Chapter)
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