Guarding the Heart, or a Lightning Flash of Admonition

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The break area in one corner of the Knights of Favonius’ office was wrapped in silence. Faintly, from beyond the window, came the sound of Mondstadt’s windmills turning, but the air inside the room was taut.

Lumine’s hand reached for her pocket without her realizing it. The stress of a journey through countless worlds. Or the loneliness of facing the Abyss. Her body craved the wisp of smoke that would blur all of it away. The moment her fingertips touched the cold box—

“Gh—ah…!”

A sharp snap rang out at her throat, and purple sparks scattered. The current from the custom choker Lisa had “adjusted” bleached Lumine’s thoughts white and drained the strength from her fingers.

With the dry clatter of the box hitting the floor, Lumine dropped to her knees. Her breathing turned ragged, her vision blurred with tears, and then came the clink of armor, drawing closer.

”…Honorary Knight, you mustn’t.”

The voice was gentle as a spring breeze, yet resolute as stone. Noelle. She knelt on the floor, gently pulled Lumine’s trembling body into her arms, and checked the choker at her neck with practiced hands.

“I’m so sorry. Was the output set a little too strong…? But Lisa told me: ‘For a naughty girl, teaching her until her body remembers is the greatest mercy.’”

Noelle’s hands were warm. Palms with the hard calluses of someone who swings a claymore stroked Lumine’s neck, reddened by the current, with tenderness. The very spot that had just been given agony was now being soothed by the gentlest hands in the world. The gap in temperature sent a numbing, sweet illusion through Lumine’s brain.

(Ah… she stopped me again.)

Normally, she could use her Elemental Sight to read the circuit of that current with ease. Using Anemo, destroying this collar would be nothing. But Lumine does not resist. Because she had seen Noelle’s eyes—those olive eyes—glistening, painfully moist.

“If it means your lungs stay clean, I’ll take on the pain along with you. …So please, don’t do anything that hurts yourself.”

Noelle meant every word. Under the name of “it’s for your sake,” her devotion was trying to place even Lumine’s free will under its control. But for Lumine, who was endlessly expected by everyone in the world to be their “savior,” the strength to say “I will manage you and protect you”

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…with such certainty was nothing less than a salvation she could not resist, as a traveler with nowhere to belong.

”…That’s not fair, Noelle.”

With fingers that had no strength in them, Lumine clutched Noelle’s apron tight. Everyone in the world says “help me” to the Honorary Knight. Even the gods push their impossible problems onto her. But this girl alone was different. She alone says, “You don’t have to do anything,” “I will correct your conduct and protect you,” and takes that freedom away.

“It’s not unfair.”

Noelle’s brows sank in distress, yet the strength in her arms did not loosen. Lumine felt her warmth and the coldness of her armor at the same time.

“If it keeps you healthy, Honorary Knight, I’ll be the villain. I’ll be a demon. …Now, take a deep breath. Breathe out all that bad smoke that got into your lungs, every bit of it, onto me.”

As if soothing a child, Noelle gently rubbed Lumine’s back. Every time the aftershock of the shock sent a shiver down her spine, Noelle whispered “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” like a prayer, and yet, with a grip that could crush stone, she mercilessly crushed the pack of cigarettes on the floor.

The crunch echoed like the sound of Lumine’s escape route being sealed.

”…You won’t smoke anymore, will you?”

The question whispered in her ear was a plea, and it was an order.

With a hazy mind, Lumine looked at Noelle’s collar. There, a Vision glowed golden. Immovable rock. A will to protect. This collar was not an instrument of torture that delivered electric shocks. It was a “weight” to tether herself—someone who seemed ready to fly off anywhere, like the wind—to the earth that was Noelle.

Every time the pain ran through her, Lumine was made to realize. That she was no longer free. And that this lack of freedom felt so good it melted the heart that had been stretched so tight.

”…Yeah. I won’t smoke. If you’ll manage me, Noelle.”

When Lumine answered in a hoarse voice, Noelle’s face lit up like a blooming flower. It was a smile more beautiful than any jewel in Mondstadt, and just a little frightening.

“Yes! Leave it to me, Honorary Knight. Your health, your daily life, even what you spend your life on… all of it, Noelle will take perfect care of.”

Noelle lifted Lumine effortlessly and carried her to the sofa. On the table, pancakes already cooled to just the right temperature and tea scented with roses had been laid out.

“First, let’s get some sugar into you. Lisa said that after a shock, sweet things are best.”

As she fussed over Lumine devotedly, the red ribbon at her neck swayed. Watching her back, Lumine traced her fingers along the choker at her own throat. The feel of cold metal. It no longer felt like a foreign object; it had settled in like a part of her body.

(Ah, I see…)

Lumine took a sip of tea and sighed sweetly.

This surely wasn’t just support for cutting down on smoking. This was the “Honorary Knight capture operation,” carried out by a maid of the Knights of Favonius with everything she had.

And Lumine herself had chosen, gladly, to step into that cage. To become the “possession” of a single girl, in Mondstadt, the City of Freedom. That might be the most perverse, and the most peaceful, form of love she found at the end of her journey.

“Is it good, Honorary Knight?”

”…Yeah. It’s the best, Noelle.”

Outside the window, the free wind was blowing. But the time the two of them shared here alone was hard as crystal, and had stopped forever.