"You're saying that you've wandered the world for hundreds of years but lost your past memories?"
Kiyono stacked the dry firewood he had gathered and cupped a bundle of grass scraps in both hands. He lightly blew, scattering embers that caught fire in the wind.
He placed that handful of fire into the woodpile. With a "pop", the flames leapt up.
"That's right."
The girl who called herself Lumine squatted by the fire. She stretched out her fair hands to warm them. The firelight flickered in her beautiful eyes, her delicate cheeks slightly flushed in the glow.
"What a coincidence." Kiyono found it quite curious. "I don't have many memories either. Maybe I met you hundreds of years ago."
Maybe, maybe not.
He was a person with no past and no discernible future.
Someone once wished that every life might have enough clouds to make a beautiful sunset. But Kiyono's clouds had scattered, and his sunset had passed. When the mist lifted, it was morning again—a new day, a new life. All he could do was keep walking and gather new clouds.
"Drowned Corpse lost his memory too?"
Paimon swung her little feet, showing a look of realization, interjecting, "Hehe, Paimon knows, Paimon knows! Corpses that play dead don't know their past life memories!"
"I'm not a Drowned Corpse," Kiyono said. "The fish is ready."
The fish he spoke of was the bass they had just caught from the sea.
Lumine's fishing skills were really awful. She kept fishing up all sorts of strange things, like emergency food and drowned corpses, completely losing face for anglers... Kiyono couldn't bear to watch, so he took matters into his own hands.
Two bass, descaled and gutted. His cooking skills were mostly forgotten, with only two inexplicable dishes remaining: "Kitsune Udon" and "Dango Milk". So he kept the preparation simple. After gutting, he put them straight on the fire to grill. This shouldn't go too wrong.
The finest ingredients only need the simplest cooking methods. Amidst the crackling of the firewood, golden grease dripped down the surface of the bass, the crispy skin revealing tender white flesh. It was ready to eat.
Lumine ate fish like a little cat. Her slender fingers pinched both sides of the bass. She carefully opened her mouth, revealing her canines, first biting off the golden skin of the fish. Tearing it off, her golden eyes curved slightly, showing a delighted expression. Her moist tongue tip licked away the grease at the corner of her mouth before taking a bite.
The firelight shone on her cheeks.
"So what do you plan to do?"
"Find my brother." Lumine held the bass in both hands, making muffled sounds as she chewed. "I'm going to find my brother. What about you, Kiyono?"
"Me?" Kiyono Fugin took down the other grilled fish.
But the greedy Paimon, seeing no portion for herself, instantly burst into tears. So he sighed helplessly and let the little creature have the grilled fish.
He really didn't know what he was going to do.
With each reincarnation, each place he went, Kiyono's purpose was to modify some anomalous factor that would annihilate human civilization. Just like in his previous life as Kiyono Raimei, it was to repair the anomaly of Inazuma being completely destroyed by the Abyss corruption due to the Electro Archon's departure.
And so the cycle repeated.
Kiyono had no complaints about such a life. To have lived as a mortal until now, he must fulfill his duties. And he enjoyed it too.
This time, the system sent him to Mondstadt. Mondstadt must be facing some issue too.
In his past life, he was also in Mondstadt. He died very young, likely abruptly on the battlefield. At that time, Kiyono Raimei's body hadn't even fully matured.
Could it be that this time, he was going to resolve some hidden danger left from the previous time?
[Mission: Please become a knight of the Knights of Favonius]
[Reward: Memory Fragment Playback (No Side Effects)]
The system also sent Kiyono the mission.
Memory fragment playback with no side effects should be quite useful. No need to worry about losing himself, it could rapidly increase his swordsmanship level.
"I'm going to Mondstadt City now," Kiyono said. "The first small goal is to become a knight of the Knights of Favonius."
"A knight of the Knights of Favonius?" Paimon had already finished her grilled fish. Hearing Kiyono's words, she exclaimed, "Paimon knows! The Knights of Favonius are the best of the best!"
Then she looked Kiyono up and down suspiciously. "Drowned Corpse, can you really do it?"
"I could have."
Kiyono had pretty much gotten used to this nickname. This flying little creature was actually quite interesting.
"But my dinner was eaten by a certain Emergency Food. I'm so hungry, I have no energy."
"Wow, you can't blame me!" Paimon grumbled.
Kiyono was indeed very hungry. He had been drifting at sea for a long time and was still suffering from the injuries La Signora had inflicted. Now even talking felt like having ice shards in his throat. He searched his pockets and took out two cookies frozen rock-solid—these were left by that sailor for him.
Frozen as hard as baguettes.
Even Kamigiri felt less hard.
"Do you want to eat...?"
At this moment, Lumine beside him suddenly spoke.
She held up the bass in her hand. Half of the fatty, fresh bass had been neatly bitten off by her, but the flesh on the other half was still untouched. Seeing Kiyono's surprised gaze, the girl quickly explained,
"...I rinsed my mouth, it's very clean!"
"And I didn't bite the other meat!"
Indeed, indeed she hadn't bitten it. This fish was gnawed with one half being spiky fish bones and the other half being pristine, plump fish meat. If others saw it, they might think it was some performance art.
Lumine was used to hard times. This fish was caught by Kiyono, but Kiyono hadn't gotten to eat any of it. Even for a girl with the most basic moral bottom line, she felt ashamed.
Another reason was that if Kiyono really starved to death, who would catch fish next?
And seeing him soaking wet, gnawing on hard cookies, Lumine inexplicably felt uneasy.
She swallowed hard, trying not to think about the fragrant bass. Closing her eyes, this little girl passed it to Kiyono's face.
"I'm suddenly pondering..." Kiyono showed a contemplative look.
"What are you thinking about?" Lumine asked.
"If I eat nothing but frozen cookies, giving all the good stuff to you two, and finally starve to death on a miserable rainy night, tremblingly saying something like 'Lumine, Paimon, you must live on' with my dying breath, would you be ashamed for life?"
"..."
"We would happily strip your corpse," Paimon said.
"That's why, Lumine."
Kiyono Raimei put the frozen cookies into the fire. The flames baked them soft. He rubbed his hands.
"The fish is yours. Take it and eat. No need for any inexplicable feelings of guilt. None of us are saints. And I won't starve. I'm giving you the fish simply because I want to."
"Why do you want to give it to me?" Lumine asked.
"I don't know. Then why did you eat half and want to give it back to me?" Kiyono nibbled on a cookie.