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

Fanes' last conscious thought before falling asleep was, "Today was really tiring."

Little Black curled up beside his pillow, its fine black scales shimmering softly in the moonlight. Its whole body was shrunk into a fluffy ball, and its even snoring echoed gently in the quiet room.

Fanes rolled over, wrapped in the blanket, and felt as if all his bones had been removed from his body as he sank into the mattress.

On the verge of losing consciousness, he seemed to hear some noise, but he was too sleepy to even open his eyelids. He turned over and sank completely into a dream.

Unbeknownst to Fanes, about half an hour after he fell asleep, the window of his room was silently pushed open from the outside.

Two figures nimbly vaulted over the windowsill and landed on the room's floor, making almost no sound when they touched the ground. The tall, brown-haired woman walked in front, her hat pulled low, her eyes scanning the room's layout in the shadows before settling on the baby dragon sleeping on its back at the foot of the bed.

Nicole, who was following behind, stood quietly by the window, her expression as indifferent as if she were watching a performance she had already anticipated.

Alice knelt down by the bed and gently poked the little black dog's exposed belly.

The young dragon kicked its leg groggily, opened its eyes, and saw an unfamiliar face in front of it, instinctively shrinking back. Then its gaze passed over Alice's shoulder and landed on Nico, who was standing by the windowsill, and its amber round eyes suddenly lit up.

It climbed up from the foot of the bed, shook its scales, and scurried over to Nicole's feet on its four short legs. It tilted its head back and nuzzled against her skirt, making soft whimpering sounds, as if it were begging for a pat.

Nico looked down at the baby dragon rubbing against her feet, paused for a moment, then bent down and gently rubbed the little black dragon's head twice.

Little Black was practically melting. He rolled over and lay on his back at her feet, revealing his round belly. He looked incredibly satisfied.

Alice walked over and glanced at the scene, a slight smile playing on her lips. "Isn't this the same Usa from before? It's turned into this now. It would be perfect to take it back to Klee as a playmate; she'd definitely love it."

Alice reached out her hand, intending to take Little Black away.

Nico gently touched her hand, his voice as soft as a feather falling on velvet: "Keep your voice down, don't wake him."

In his dream, Fanes felt a faint chill seeping in from an unknown place, as if something was slowly drawing away the warmth from the blankets.

He could faintly hear the buzzing of mosquitoes near his ear, low in frequency but continuous, circling around his ear, sometimes near, sometimes far. He groggily reached out and waved his hand but missed, the sound still lingering in his ear.

He changed his position and wrapped the blanket tighter, but the chill still seeped in through the corners of the blanket, like an invisible little snake crawling along his back.

The mosquito's buzzing came again. This time it was closer, almost drilling into his ear.

Fanes frowned, his consciousness growing increasingly shaky from the incessant buzzing. He raised his hand and slapped hard at the source of the sound.

Snapped.

The crisp sound was particularly loud in the empty night. Fanes' own palms burned, and the spot on his face where he had slapped himself felt hot, but the first thing that came to his mind wasn't pain, but rather—something was wrong. The wind was too loud, the air smelled too cold, and the mattress felt too hard.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

Above us was a night sky studded with stars, and a round, large moon hung in the sky, illuminating the surrounding area in a silvery white.

The wind blew from afar, carrying the scent of trees and earth. The withered grass rustled beneath him, and the back of his head, through a thin coat, rested painfully on the cold, hard ground.

Fanes sat up abruptly and found himself lying on a grassy field in the middle of nowhere. He was wearing a thin coat over his pajamas, and his soft slippers from the bed were nowhere to be found. His feet shivered as they stepped on the cold mud.

He paused for three seconds, then Fanes pinched his thigh.

"Fuck the hell!"

With a loud howl in the deserted wilderness, Fanes' voice carried far by the empty night wind, "Who dumped me here! It must be that Alice! She must have kidnapped Little Black and then casually threw me out here—"

He stood up, spun around, and looked around. Under the moonlight, all he could see were rolling hills and shadowy trees; he couldn't tell where he was at all. "...What the hell is this place?!"

The next morning, Yu Renzhong was the first to discover that Fanes was missing.

When Shui Pang took breakfast to knock on his room door, no one answered after knocking for a long time. When he opened the door, he only saw a messy bed and a half-open window. The baby dragon that was supposed to be sleeping with him on the bed was nowhere to be seen.

The news spread at an astonishing speed after it reached Winter, and the entire Fools' intelligence network in Mondstadt was mobilized to conduct a thorough search for the whereabouts of the Twelfth Seat.

Simon was organizing his sermon behind the pulpit at the West Wind Church when he received the message; the messenger practically burst through the door.

After hearing just one sentence, Simon's speech slipped from his hand and fell to the ground. He stood there silently for about five seconds, with only one thought echoing in his mind: Who was the bastard who did this? He subconsciously thought of the blonde woman who had calmly left the Knights' Hall yesterday evening, and his brow twitched violently.

"It couldn't be that Alice, could it...?"

Simon muttered to himself, rubbing his temples, "Damn it, I'll definitely put her in solitary confinement someday."

A subtle tension hung over Mondstadt from morning till afternoon. The Knights of Favonius dispatched patrols, and spies from the Fatui roamed the city and its outskirts. Even Sarah at the Deer Hunter's Restaurant glanced at the soldiers hurrying by on the street between customers taking their orders.

The information converged in the northwest of Mondstadt in the afternoon—someone had spotted a child in pajamas near Wolfrun, accompanied by a giant wolf.

Fanes himself did not expect things to develop this way.

At the time, I was sitting sideways on the back of a large, grayish-white wolf, my two short legs dangling and swaying on either side of its body. One hand was gripping the wolf's bushy mane behind its neck for balance, while the other hand gestured forward, saying, "Left! Left! There's a really big mushroom over there—stop, stop, stop, I see it!"

The giant wolf was two or three meters long, with a shoulder height that reached just above an adult's chest. Its silver-gray fur gleamed with a metallic sheen in the afternoon sun. Its amber vertical pupils were calm and steady, and its gait was as leisurely as if it were taking a stroll in its own backyard.

It carried Fanes at a moderate pace through the forest, and after rounding the tree roots covered with large mushrooms, it continued towards the open space ahead, its tail swaying slowly behind it.

When the Fools' vanguard and the Knights of Favonius appeared at the edge of Wolfrun Territory, this was the scene they witnessed: Faunes, the twelfth seat of the Fools, six and a half years old, wearing a rumpled nightgown and a pair of old boots that he had somehow acquired, sat on the back of the Wolf King of Wolfrun Territory, enthusiastically directing it to chase a hare to the east.

Water Fatty was the first to react, putting down the heavy water cannon he was carrying, his round face displaying a complex expression of "should I be surprised or laugh?"

The squad leader of the Knights of Favonius beside him opened his mouth, then closed it again, turning to his colleague: "...Isn't that the child we said was missing yesterday?"

Hearing the commotion, Fanes turned around, paused for a moment upon seeing the group in the distance, then waved to them: "Hey! You've come at the right time! Could you please pass on a message to Sister Rosalind, telling her I might be back late for dinner tonight? The Wolf King said he's taking me to see a really beautiful waterfall!"

The wolf king snorted beneath him, and without stopping, carried the little boy in his pajamas deeper into the forest.

Wolf King: Don't ask me why I'm a dog, it's just for the plot! Also, I can tell the difference between eating chicken and burgers one meal a day and eating nails directly, which has a higher survival rate.