Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

Fanes: Family, am I going to die?

-

Fanes was awakened by a loud knocking on the door.

The sound was urgent and loud, banging against the door of his room, making the water glass on his bedside table shake slightly.

He peeked out from under the covers, his hair a mess like a bird's nest that had been ripped apart by a tornado, his eyes narrowed to slits, his whole being in a state of confusion, wondering "Who am I? Where am I? Why is it dawn?"

"Sir! The Joker Commander requests your immediate presence in the meeting hall! There is a meeting of all executives this morning!" The messenger's voice, full of vigor, pierced through the door.

Fanes lay on the bed in silence for five seconds.

Second day on the job. Morning. All executives meeting.

Fanes' mind raced through his past life's workplace experiences—when any company holds an all-hands meeting on the second day of a new employee's employment, there's usually only one possibility: either it's a departmental team-building activity or it's to assign tasks. And within the Fools' Clan, the latter possibility was practically 100%.

Struggling to get out of bed, he put on the pink vest—Rosalind had sent over several new outfits after he returned last night, so he no longer had to run around Winterfell in his spare overcoat.

After washing up, changing clothes, and roughly tidying his hair, Fanes pushed open the door in his little leather boots. The messenger was gone; he had probably gone to the next room to knock.

The corridor was quiet, with morning light streaming in through the high windows, casting pale golden patches on the stone slabs. Fanes rubbed his eyes and headed towards the conference hall, following the route he remembered.

He encountered several low-ranking Fool soldiers on the way. They bowed slightly when they saw him, and he nodded in response as a reflex, still wondering whether the title of "Twelfth Seat" would actually give him a raise.

The moment he pushed open the conference room door, Fanes felt a dozen pairs of eyes fall on him.

The long table was large, its dark wood surface polished to a shine, reflecting the light from the crystal chandelier overhead.

Several people were already seated on both sides of the table, and Fanes recognized most of them at a glance—Rosalind leaned back in her chair and winked at him, the skirmisher rested his chin on his hand with no expression, Sandone sat on Pronia's arm and seemed to be dozing off, and the girl lay on the table as if she could fall asleep at any moment. There was also a tall man wearing a bird-beak mask sitting in the middle of the long table; Fanes guessed that was the Doctor, and he deliberately avoided looking in that direction.

At the very top of the long table stood the clown. He was still wearing that elaborate black suit, his face half-covered by a mask, holding a stack of documents in his hands, his expression unreadable.

Fañes looked down at the seats on both sides of the long table—arranged from the head to the last, each chair clearly indicating its location.

The twelfth seat was at the very end, almost at the very tip of the long table, right next to the door. He silently walked to the chair and sat down. The moment his bottom touched the seat, he felt like he was back in his previous life, sitting in the back row at the company's annual meeting, just watching the show.

The clown cleared his throat, and the meeting officially began.

"Today's agenda has three items. First, to introduce our two new colleagues."

The clown's gaze swept over Arecino and Fanes. "Fourth seat, 'Servant' Arecino. Twelfth seat, 'Young Master' Fanes. You will be working together from now on, so please get to know each other."

There was little reaction on either side of the long table. The skirmisher continued to prop his chin up, while Rosalind gave Fanes a gentle smile. The girl, still slumped over the table, seemed oblivious to what was happening. Sandone's eyelids opened a crack and then closed again. Fanes noticed that the Doctor's bird-beak mask had shifted slightly, as if "looking" in his direction. He immediately averted his gaze and stared at the table in front of him.

"The second item is task allocation."

The clown opened the file in his hand, his voice as calm as if he were reading a weather forecast, "Your assigned areas and mission directions are as follows."

"Madam, Mondl," the clown announced the first name. Rosalind sat up straight and nodded.

"Doctor, Sumeru." The doctor did not respond, but the posture beneath the mask seemed to indicate that he already knew.

"Sanbing, Inazuma." Sanbing grunted and waved the hand that was supporting his chin, as if to say, "I know, I know."

"Servant, Fontaine." Arecino nodded slightly.

"Captain, Nata," the burly man standing in the corner replied in a deep voice.

The clown turned to the last page of the document, his gaze falling on Fanes.

"The twelfth seat, Liyue."

Fanes, who had been pondering trivial questions like "How far is Fontaine from Winter Solstice?", sat bolt upright upon hearing the name "Liyue." His eyes widened as he stared at the clown, his voice rising at least three octaves: "What? I'm going to fight the strongest Morax?"

The air on both sides of the long table fell silent for a moment. Rosalind's lips twitched slightly, the soldier raised an eyebrow, and even the girl lying on the table looked up and tilted her head in his direction.

"Really? I'm going to get killed!"

Fanes jumped up from the chair, his short legs almost stepping on his own clothes when he landed. "You can't treat me like royalty just because my name is Fanes! If I went to Liyue Harbor with this small body, one rock spear from Morax would turn me into a piece of paper! No, not even a piece of paper, just dust! I may like anime, but I don't want to be turned into an anime character."

The clown's expression remained unchanged, and his tone remained calm: "Your mission is merely to establish a base. The seizure of the Heart of God and subsequent operations will proceed later. For now, you only need to maintain a presence in the area and establish contact points."

Fanes opened his mouth, then closed it again. Looking at the clown's expressionless face, he felt that there were three hundred unspoken subtexts hidden behind those words.

What does "just stay there" mean? The executors of the Fools going to a god's territory to "stay there" is as absurd as putting a mouse next to a cat's nest and saying, "You just stay here and don't move."

But Fanes didn't continue to argue. He noticed that the other executives on both sides of the long table all looked normal, and it seemed that no one thought sending a six-year-old child to Liyue was outrageous.

Fanes sat back down in his chair, shifting his position slightly, and muttered under his breath, "I have my doubts."

The clown ignored him and continued arranging other matters. Fanes listened somewhat absentmindedly to the rest of the conversation; his mind was already preoccupied with whether he could stay in Fontainebleau for a couple of days before heading to Liyue.

After all, he was just a six-year-old kid traveling alone to Liyue, unfamiliar with the place and the people, and didn't even know the way. Moreover, he had heard that there were immortals, the Thousand Rock Army, and a Geo Archon who had lived for over six thousand years in Liyue. What if he went there with the name "Fanes" and was arrested and studied as some kind of reincarnation of the God of Heaven?

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became. Fanes raised his hand to interrupt the clown's speech: "Um... could I go to Fontaine with the servant first? It's more convenient to go from Fontaine to Liyue via Jade Valley."

The clown glanced at him, seemingly assessing the reasonableness of the request, and finally nodded: "Alright."

"I'll join you too."

Rosalind stood up from her chair, the hem of her red dress swaying gently with her movement. "I'm also going to Mondstadt, passing through Fontaine. Let's go together."

Before Fanes could even express his gratitude, the figure who had been mostly silent in the corner spoke up.

"And me." The captain stood up, his figure as tall as a mountain, the oppressive aura emanating from him even across half the table. His voice was deep and resonant, carrying a strangely reassuring sense of integrity.

Fanes looked up at the burly captain, a strange thought suddenly popping into his head. He tilted his head and blurted out, "Why does the captain's voice have a...sound of light?"

A moment of silence fell over both sides of the long table. Rosalind covered her mouth and chuckled, while the skirmisher let out a barely audible groan. The girl, leaning on the table, trembled slightly on her shoulders.

The captain himself didn't react much; his expression under the mask was unclear, but he seemed to tilt his head slightly, as if processing the comment.

Rosalyn laughed and replied, "Perhaps it's because the captain's evil deeds are righteous."

Before Fanes could even ponder the meaning of "evil can be good," a voice rang out from the middle of the long table.

"Dear colleagues..."

The doctor spoke. The man wearing the bird-beak mask leaned forward slightly, his voice behind the mask carrying a gentle curiosity, as if he were about to deliver a long speech.

But the doctor didn't even have time to finish speaking.

Rosalind had already turned and walked towards the door, her steps crisp and decisive. Arecino stood up and followed behind her. The skirmisher sprang from his chair with the speed of a gust of wind, the purple ribbon under his hat swirling in an arc through the air.

As if a switch had been flipped, Sandonne grabbed her blueprint book and stormed off. The girl vanished from her seat at an almost imperceptible speed, her pale afterimage lingering in the air for a moment.

The captain strode towards the door without looking back. Fanes paused for a moment, then reacted, sliding off the chair on all fours and running after the rest of the group with his short legs.

-

The protagonist lost some memories when he traveled through time, so he forgot the contract between Morax and the Ice Queen. When he regains his complete self in the future, he can finally get a power-up.