If it were the real Katheryne, she would be very dedicated to her work—she wouldn't create commissions out of thin air if there were no clients.
So there was only one possibility: this was Lucian in disguise!
No, this must be the Lesser Lord Kusanali!
Everyone still remembers that earlier, the Lesser Lord Kusanali had possessed Katheryne before. This time, it must be her again.
The Traveler in the story also realized this. Seeing that she had been found out, Nahida stopped pretending.
[Nahida: "Hehe, you've already figured it out? I was hoping you would actually accept the commission. Such a great opportunity to 'observe humans'…"]
Now, this girl is Katheryne.
It really is the Lesser Lord Kusanali! The readers immediately declared: We never said any of those earlier words!
The one who said those things was the me from just now—what does that have to do with the current me?
The person who came up with these commissions is simply a genius! These are kinds of fun that ordinary people couldn't even imagine!
So the Dendro God likes watching this kind of thing—then what more is there to say? We'll go handle it right away!
The Fatui are doomed. There might not even be enough Fatui members at Ormos Port to go around for all these followers of the Dendro God.
Nahida had guessed from the very beginning that this was herself, and the reason was the very first scene Lucian gave.
In that scene, a silly bird appeared, standing motionless on a streetlamp. When the Traveler approached, it flapped its wings and flew away.
If Nahida's guess was correct, that silly bird at the very beginning was actually her. Only after seeing the Traveler did she possess Katheryne's body.
The reason the silly bird flew away without being startled was because the possession had been released.
But now that they thought about it, calling the bird that was actually Nahida a "silly bird" seemed a bit rude. In comparison, calling Paimon that felt much more polite.
[Paimon asked with concern: "So, have you rested well already, Nahida?"]
Previously, because Nahida had to protect everyone in the dream and then forcibly pull Dunyarzad's consciousness back from outside the dream, she had already been utterly exhausted.
After the second act of the story ended, Nahida fell into a long slumber. The Traveler had come looking for commissions out of boredom while waiting for Nahida to wake up—unexpectedly, Nahida woke up just in time.
[Nahida replied: "Mm, ever since we parted last time, I've been sleeping the whole time. And I had a very, very long dream."]
["It was also a dream about the Flower God's Birthday Festival, but this time it was a beautiful dream."]
Nahida's dream, the Flower God's Birthday Festival, a beautiful dream? This matter is also recorded in "Happy Birthday."
If we hadn't read "Happy Birthday," we might have believed her!
The keywords Nahida mentioned together immediately gave the readers a bad feeling. Could this dream be…?
[Nahida continued: "In the dream, I sat in the center of a flower bed, and everyone in Sumeru City held hands, circling around me… circling and circling, everyone looking so happy."]
["I also rode on a huge floral float. The Knight of Flowers, Faris, lifted me very, very high, and I kept scattering Jaataka sweets to the children…"]
What! Being lifted high!? I'll be that Knight of Flowers no matter what!
No—wait, this is bad! It really is "Happy Birthday"!
The readers had already seen this dream long ago. It raised everyone's blood pressure through the roof—it absolutely couldn't be called a beautiful dream.
However, in the dream loop of "Happy Birthday," the very first dream was indeed a beautiful one. At this point, Nahida had only mentioned the first dream and hadn't spoken about the ones that came after.
Nahida didn't mention the nightmares that followed because she was afraid it would make the Traveler sad and affect their mood, so she only shared the beautiful part with the Traveler.
Both the Traveler and Paimon are very empathetic people. Lumine has encountered many things during her travels, but her sensitivity allows her to empathize every single time.
Fortunately, little sister Lumine is a very strong person—she gets moved every time but is always able to calm her emotions again.
So even though Nahida didn't mention the nightmares that came later, Lumine still automatically connected it to what had actually happened in reality—something completely opposite to the beautiful dream Nahida described—and quietly felt sorrow on her own.
One can only say that little sister Lumine has become a mature Traveler; she's already learned how to hurt herself with her own thoughts.
[Nahida sounded a little surprised: "Eh? I was clearly telling you about a very happy dream, so why do you all have that kind of expression? Could it be… this is what's called 'pity'?"]
Her words instead made the readers feel even more uncomfortable. Anyone who knew Nahida's experiences would feel heartbroken for her, yet this was the first time Nahida had ever seen an expression of "pity."
That wasn't strange. Nahida had always been imprisoned, so she didn't meet many people to begin with. On top of that, the people from the Akademiya believed that since she was a god, the standards for her should be different from others.
Do gods need human pity? Probably not, right?
To the Grand Sage of the Akademiya, it was simply: To a god, what does five hundred years even count for?
It's just imprisonment. As for things like "survival needs," "social needs," or "emotional needs"—even though none of them were met, so what?
Those are things humans need. Gods probably don't need them, right?
In fact, before the prophecy book was published, many ordinary people had similar thoughts.
Gods are always "high above," and time seems to hold no meaning for them. They neither worry about survival nor feel sadness, as if they possess something humans can only dream of.
Gods do not cry.
This was something most people firmly believed, because the gods they saw always appeared strong and resolute.
That's also why Furina didn't dare admit to crying in front of her people—gods must maintain their divinity and should not display human emotions.
But after reading the prophecy book, everyone discovered that this wasn't the case. Gods also have emotions, and gods can cry too—Raiden Ei was practically turning into a little crybaby.
The more they read the prophecy book, the more people felt that gods weren't so different from humans.
Everyone has emotional attachments and reasons that can make them sad.
So now, everyone wanted even more to become the Knight of Flowers and lift Nahida high into the air.
This kind of understanding came about because the prophecy book had "closed" the distance between humans and gods—gods were no longer so "distant."
Fortunately, the Traveler is rather special. Even without the prophecy book, she never felt that she was far from the gods, nor did she feel far from humans—she could empathize with both sides.
Lumine herself isn't an ordinary person. Whether toward humans or gods, in the Traveler's eyes, everyone is treated equally. That's why the Traveler could "pity" Nahida's experiences.
Regardless of whether Nahida is a god or a human, those five hundred years represent the entirety of her life so far.
Spending one's entire life in imprisonment, enduring unkind gazes—this is indeed worthy of pity.
However, pity is pity; the Traveler still didn't want to show it, because most people actually don't want to be pitied by others.
Paimon also realized this and very cleverly changed the subject to Dunyarzad.
===✧✦✧===
Character Voice Lines · Nahida: About "Pity"
"So that's what it means. So that was the emotion Lucian felt back then."