Returning to the story, there is still one final segment left.
At the Grand Narukami Shrine, Paimon curiously asked the Traveler what they had said to the Electro Archon in the Plane of Euthymia, and how the Vision Hunt Decree had truly been abolished.
At that time, only the Traveler had entered the Plane of Euthymia, without Paimon.
Because the Plane of Euthymia, as Ei's "pocket dimension," has access permissions—only those who receive an invitation can visit it, and Paimon clearly had not received an invitation.
Lumine replied, "As long as everyone offers up a single wish, the Plane of Euthymia will become a beautiful space."
Pocket dimension, full of stars, purple hair—one aloof, the other cheerful—and in the end, the two reconcile. It sounds like the title of an anime.
At the end of the story, Lumine found Yae Miko, and after some conversation, the topic turned to the "Gnosis."
[Paimon: "At least this time, they didn't succeed in taking away the 'Gnosis'!"]
[Yae Miko: "Wait, did you just mention the 'Gnosis'?"]
Seeing this dialogue, the readers had a bad premonition. Could it be... that the Electro Archon's Gnosis had also been taken away?
That's right, it was exactly that "could it be." Yae Miko had long since given the Gnosis to Scaramouche in exchange for the Traveler.
For Yae Miko to fight Scaramouche wouldn't have been an easy task either. Compared to fighting desperately, using the "not very useful" Gnosis as an exchange was clearly the more cost-effective option.
However, Scaramouche was probably so overjoyed after obtaining the Gnosis that he set off directly for Sumeru, leaving Signora behind—even skipping Signora's "funeral."
The readers were also quite helpless toward this fox. Although she had given away the Gnosis, in terms of the outcome, it really was the best possible ending. Everything was within Yae Miko's plan.
But this way, the Fatui now had four Gnoses. Could it really be that they would succeed in collecting all the Archons' Gnoses?
The readers thought: Fortunately, in reality, these events should all have been changed, and none of the Gnoses were lost.
Little did they know that while changes had indeed been made, the only thing changed was the method of handing them over—the Gnoses were still handed over.
Returning to the story, as a token of gratitude, Yae Miko decided to answer the Traveler's questions.
For example, why there were two Shoguns: who was the previous Shogun, and what exactly was the situation with the previous Shogun and the current two Shoguns?
Yae Miko explained each one to the Traveler in detail.
It wasn't just the Traveler; at this moment, the readers reading the book were also carefully taking it all in.
Yae Miko first spoke about the current "puppet" Shogun.
["The technology behind the 'puppet' Shogun originates from certain knowledge that has long since been lost in the present day. Perhaps only she, as a god, could know its origins..."]
Only then did the readers realize that the Electro Archon was also a "tech otaku," capable of creating such a highly intelligent, high-combat-power "puppet." She was truly a genius.
And from Yae Miko's revelation, they learned a piece of information for the first time: Scaramouche was also a "puppet" made by the Electro Archon!
Scaramouche was a prototype created to test the feasibility of the technology—a genuine "Prototype Electro Archon."
However, because he was merely a prototype, Ei had no intention of using Scaramouche. Initially, she wanted to destroy him, but later changed her mind and sealed him away instead.
The current Scaramouche was in a state after someone had undone his seal, and his power was even stronger than it had been before the seal.
"What a waste." Dottore wore a smile on his face.
To think that such a fine tool as Scaramouche would be destroyed without even being used—gods truly were wasteful.
In Inazuma, Scaramouche frowned and gritted his teeth. According to the original plan, I was to be directly discarded? But in the end, that idea was abandoned, and only my power was sealed?
Why abandon that idea!
In a fit of rage, Scaramouche threw a punch at the wall. The wall cracked inch by inch, ultimately shattering into a large hole.
As someone with self-destructive tendencies, he truly wished that the Electro Archon had destroyed him from the beginning. That way, he wouldn't have encountered the series of events that followed.
The fact that saving Inazuma went unrecognized was one thing, but the "family" that had accepted him disappearing one after another was something he could not accept.
In the end, all that remained in his heart was anger toward Ei.
This was also because he hadn't realized that he had been deceived by the Doctor. Otherwise, he wouldn't be troubling the Five Fatui Harbingers, but the Fatui as a whole.
Scaramouche's anger toward Ei wasn't because she wanted to destroy or abandon him, but because he was furious at why she had created him in the first place.
The only drive keeping him alive at present was revenge. But if he truly succeeded in his revenge, what awaited him in the end would only be self-destruction.
Because after succeeding in his revenge and losing that drive, he would also lose the will to keep living.
For the Doctor, this was a good thing. After all, the data collection was complete, so it didn't matter if the tool died.
"Why didn't you destroy me!" Scaramouche muttered to himself.
If he could go back to the past, he would definitely destroy himself—that would be the best outcome.
What he didn't know was that his future self did indeed return to the past and deleted himself. But unexpectedly, the deletion wasn't thorough enough: he didn't disappear, and the things he had done didn't disappear either.
To delete things as cleanly as the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata did wasn't something just anyone could achieve.
However, the other readers were more curious about another matter than Scaramouche: why was this conversation taking place with Yae Miko?
Clearly, in the extra dialogues at the end of each nation's story so far, it had been the gods themselves who spoke.
In Mondstadt, it was Venti; in Liyue, it was Zhongli. How had it become Yae Miko in Inazuma?
Perhaps the Electro Archon position should really be handed over to Yae Miko for a couple of days? Being an external brain really wasn't easy.
In the story, the Traveler then asked the second question: Who was the previous Electro Archon?
This question actually caught Yae Miko off guard, because the matter of the Electro Archon's succession—even within Inazuma—was known to very few people.
In the recollections within the Plane of Euthymia earlier, Ei hadn't mentioned anything about a previous Electro Archon, only referring to "her."
[Paimon first answered Yae Miko's confusion: "Morax once mentioned it—the Electro Archon Baal has already passed away..."]
Only then did the readers suddenly realize: So the Liyue Archon had told the Traveler about it. But why wasn't that segment written?
Of course Lucian wouldn't write it. If he did, there would be no sense of mystery left, and how could he surprise the readers during the reveal?
Speaking of which, at this very moment, Zhongli was drinking Lucian's tea together with Venti.
Although Venti claimed it was "stolen" from Lucian, in truth, he had already received Lucian's approval back in Fontaine.
At that time, he had told Lucian that he was going to his house to drink with Zhongli—both "Fossil" and "Deep Sea Serenitea." To be honest, it wasn't a small blow to Venti.
But Venti had a good mindset; he just wanted to find his old friend Zhongli for a couple of drinks.
Lucian had no objections and even said he would give them all the wine and tea that he himself didn't like to drink. Later, he could say they had "stolen" it, and get Northland Bank to reimburse him.
===✧✦✧===
Character Voice · Lucian: About Northland Bank
"Good! What a great place! They want to win me over, and when I'm idle, I can scam... cough, I mean, take some money to use."