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

Lorne: I get it!

Fanes' inner thoughts: You're kidding, I don't even believe this myself! The premise for a strong person to pursue power inward is that they truly have internal power.

-

Over the next few days, Fanes developed "going to bother the Hilichurls every day" into a regular routine.

I slept in until I naturally woke up, ate the brunch Rosalind had prepared, packed a few bouncy bombs I'd taken from the treasure chest in Whispering Wood, and took Yakoda out of town for a spin. We found a small Hilichurl camp, picked an inconspicuous corner to observe for a while, then dropped our bombs at a fixed point, and after that, we called it a day and went back to town for dinner.

Over the course of three consecutive days, the number of Hilichurl outposts in the woods outside the east gate of Mondstadt has visibly decreased by several.

Fanes even started to be picky, not bothering to bomb camps that were too small, and finding camps that were too big too troublesome, he only chose those that were neither too big nor too small, and that would give him a sense of accomplishment when he bombed them.

On the fourth day, as he was crouching behind a grove of trees observing a small Hilichurl outpost ahead, Yakoda suddenly reached out and poked his shoulder: "Boss, look at that person under that tree over there, doesn't he look familiar?"

Fanes squinted in the direction she pointed. Under a crooked tree on the east side of the camp, a thin figure was crouching, its dark blue hair gleaming with a cool hue in the afternoon light, its head bowed as it fumbled for something on the ground.

Fanes remembered that silhouette after seeing it only once. He put down the bouncing bomb he was holding and tilted his head: "Is that Lorne? The one who was locked in the dark room with the Treasure Thieves in Liyue?"

"I think so!"

Yakoda stood up from behind the bushes and brushed the dirt off her knees. "Let's go take a look."

The two abandoned their plan to bomb the Hilichurls and crept around the edge of the camp to the crooked tree. As they got closer, they saw Lorne squatting on the ground, surrounded by several oddly shaped weeds and some unidentified wild fruits. He was looking down and carefully searching for something under a clump of low bushes, his red eyes intently watching every root in the cracks of the soil.

Lorne looked slightly thinner than when they met in Liyue, and the contours of her face were a bit sharper, but the stubborn light in her eyes was even stronger than before.

Fanes stopped two steps away from him and greeted him, "Lorne?"

Lorne abruptly looked up, a flicker of wariness crossing his red eyes. He relaxed slightly only after recognizing Fanes: "It's you... What are you doing here?"

"I'm just staying in Mondstadt for a few days. What about you?"

Fanes walked over and squatted down beside him, looking at the scattered grass and fruit around him. "What are you looking for?"

Lorne hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and rubbed the few dark purple leaves he had just picked with his fingertips. His voice was muffled: "When I was locked in that room, I kept thinking... if I had power, I wouldn't have been tied up by those people."

Lorne looked up at Fanes, his eyes filled with a seriousness beyond his years. "I heard there's a purple fruit in Mondstadt that makes you stronger. So... I came here to see if I could find it."

As he spoke, Lorne pointed to the shadows at the base of the bush, where a round, purple fruit lay. It was a size larger than an ordinary wild fruit, with a deep purple skin and a faint layer of dark mist floating on its surface, like hot coals just pulled from the bottom of a pot, emitting wisps of black smoke.

Just looking at that layer of black mist, Fanes's intuition started to scream.

Whose perfectly normal fruit is emitting black smoke?

Fanes stared at the fruit in silence for a second, then very naturally reached out and picked it up, handing it to Lorne with a serious expression: "Lorne, I have a question for you. Do true powerhouses become stronger by eating things like this?"

Lorne paused for a moment, then asked, "...What do you mean?"

Fanes tossed the smoky purple fruit in his palm. "Look at this thing. It looks pretty intimidating, smoking like that. It makes you think it's powerful. But have you ever thought about this? The strong pursue power because they already have power within them to pursue. Their bodies are full, so they can chase after things. Your body is empty right now, so no matter how hard you chase, you can't catch up. It's not like planting a tree where you can just plant it and it will grow. You have to have a foundation of power yourself first."

When Fanes finished speaking, he himself thought the logic seemed to make some sense—although it was something he made up on the spot to fool Lorne, it actually felt quite coherent as he wrote it. He casually tossed the purple fruit into the grass beside him and patted the dirt off his hands.

"Stop looking for these dubious things. If you really want to get stronger, find a proper place to learn some skills first. The Thousand Rock Army is recruiting in Liyue, and the Knights of Favonius are in Mondstadt. If all else fails, you can join the Fatui when you grow up. Those fruits that make you stronger by eating one are most likely scams."

Lorne stared at Fanes' face for a long while, the stubborn light in his red eyes struggling for a moment, but ultimately seemed to be pressed down a little by something invisible. He lowered his head sullenly, threw the few leaves he was holding back onto the ground, and said in a softer voice than before: "...What you said seems to make sense."

Lorne stood up and patted the dirt off his knees. His dark blue hair was blown by the wind, covering half of his face. The profile of his face still carried that stubbornness that refused to admit defeat, but it was less reckless than before.

Lorne nodded to Fanes and said "Thanks," then turned and walked toward the forest path, his small figure quickly disappearing into the shadows of the trees.

Yakoda stood by and listened to the entire conversation. Only after Lorne had walked away did she approach, her eyes sparkling with a "I think I understand, but I need to confirm" look as she looked up at Fanes: "Boss... why do I feel like you were just fooling him?"

Fanes put his hands in his coat pockets, turned and walked back: "Get rid of the 'feeling'. I was just fooling him."

Yakoda walked a short distance beside him, tilting her head, seemingly savoring what he had just said: "But boss... I thought about it carefully just now, and what you said doesn't seem to make any mistakes. The strong do pursue power because they have power, and those who have nothing inside will never catch up no matter how hard they try. That's quite true."

Fanes paused, turned his head to look at Akoda's sincere, starry eyes, and couldn't help but smile slightly: "Right? I even think what I said makes a lot of sense."

Yakoda nodded seriously, then, as if suddenly remembering something, started counting on her fingers: "That's strange then. If you use a reasonable argument to fool someone, is that still considered fooling them?"

Fanes thought for a moment and gave an extremely precise answer: "Yes. Because I myself don't believe in that stuff. After all, the prerequisite for pursuing power inward is that you really have power within yourself."

Jakoda paused for two seconds, then burst out laughing, squatting down on the roadside grass, slapping her knees and laughing so hard she couldn't straighten up. Fanes stood beside her, waiting for her to finish laughing, before the two continued walking towards Mondstadt.

As dusk settled over the western hillside, it cast two long, thin shadows of two people, one tall and one short, moving back and forth across the grass.

As they approached the city gate, Akoda suddenly stopped and looked intently at Fanes, her starry eyes shining brighter than usual: "Boss, if you can always convince people with this kind of logic, I think the whole of Teyvat won't be able to stop you."

Fanes pushed open the gates of Mondstadt, turned back and smiled at her, his voice carried by the wind to her ears: "Of course. From now on, I'll rely on this mouth to make a living."