Chapter 44: Baelzebub

After all, Mondstadt is going to have to go beg for scraps under some big shot’s command.

Don’t wait until the big shot takes one look and goes, “Holy hell!”

Look at this place—full of drunkards and freedom (laxity). What will the big shot think?

After all, the big shot went to great lengths to pull Teyvat ashore—not so they could sit around eating without working!

Hearing this, everyone exchanged uneasy glances.

Then, Diluc took a deep breath and roared in fury: “What else could the reaction be?”

“Mondstadt right now? Mud that won’t stick to a wall!”

“I’ve long proposed reforming the Knights of Favonius, but Itachi all kept stalling and dodging—now look! When we reach the new world, where will Mondstadt even have a place to stand?”

Faced with Diluc’s rage, everyone was left speechless.

After all, their leader was about to change—and the new leader wouldn’t be like the old one, content to loaf around all day…

Yet Lisa, the Rose Witch, upon hearing of the Genius Club’s situation, felt a deep yearning.

Once hailed as a once-in-two-centuries genius, it was tragic that her Celestial Seat was the Hourglass…

The more one chases knowledge, the heavier the cost one must bear.

If only this curse of knowledge could be solved…

The Rose Witch’s lips curled slightly.

How could one suppress the hunger for knowledge when one is cursed by it?

…

Wherever there is a sleeping dragon, a phoenix chick is sure to appear.

While Mondstadt was in tense session, Raiden Shogun, having returned to Inazuma and preparing to summon her high council, stood above Inazuma, surveying its current state.

One look.

Inazuma instantly erupted!

Vast, boundless thunderclouds surged violently; thunder dragons pierced the sky, revealing the Shogun’s endless fury.

“General! Is this the Inazuma Itachi’ve ruled for five hundred years—peaceful and prosperous?!!”

Raiden Shogun’s grip on Yashiro’s Dream One trembled.

The resentment of Inazuma was so thick it choked the air; her eyes reflected the land, and the population of its people was so sparse it shocked her to the core!

As one who could collect and harness wish-energy, Raiden Shogun didn’t need to painstakingly gather intelligence.

A single glance from above Inazuma was enough to reveal far more than she wished to see.

Especially since she had been sealed away for centuries.

Simply comparing present-day Inazuma with the Inazuma of five hundred years ago…

Her heart turned half-cold.

“Internally, this is the governance strategy Itachi set for me—perfectly aligned with the Path of Eternity. What’s wrong with it?”

Raiden Shogun replied coldly: “I merely followed the Path of Eternity Itachi left me, ensuring Inazuma walks an unchanging road for ten thousand generations.”

Isolationism, severing all physical contact with the outside world, forcibly freezing societal development to achieve static eternity—that was the Path of Eternity she had distilled from Ina’s legacy!

Listening as Raiden Shogun methodically explained her governance strategy…

Had she not seen Inazuma’s current state with her own eyes, she might never have recognized the problem.

But now, the problem was this: if things continued, Inazuma’s chance of collapse was far greater than its chance of preserving eternity!

And by a monstrous margin!

Thinking of this, the enraged Raiden Shogun crushed the will to preserve the [Path of Eternity].

Then, tightening her grip on her blade, she coldly began sifting through the information recorded in the ley lines.

As a terrestrial administrator, she had this much authority.

Quickly,

the past five hundred years of Inazuma’s development flashed before her eyes.

In the first hundred years, though Inazuma had been devastated, those who survived worked diligently to rebuild their homes—nothing could be faulted here; they had perfectly fulfilled the duties she entrusted to them.

But after a hundred years, the conduct of the Three Ministries and the nobility began to subtly shift.

They began tentatively manipulating prices to reap exorbitant profits—though their actions were still restrained, the people’s burdens grew heavier, yet life remained bearable.

But this unchecked exercise of power only emboldened them; their hands grew longer and longer…

And things spiraled completely out of control!

By the two-hundred-year mark, their audacity reached its peak.

At this point, they had done nothing of substance—yet oppressing the people and deploying troops to suppress them? They did none of it sparingly.

From this period onward, Inazuma’s population began to decline…

Fortunately, under Yaoyao’s control, the shrine system still maintained the suppression of ley lines, and the resentments of the ancient gods remained firmly contained.

But in the past one or two centuries, these very people had begun meddling with the materials used to sustain the seals.

This left the shrine’s miko, sent to build and maintain the seals, overburdened and unable to cope, causing frequent seal failures and rampant malevolent spirits across the land.

Then,

came the recent decades.

Raiden Shogun stared at the record in the ley lines: the [Rescue of Himegami Village] request, followed by the Shogunate’s subsequent actions.

First came the reply:

【Do not panic, residents of Hachinoshima… the Kujou Heavenly Domain Office…】

…

Finally, Raiden Shogun’s eyes turned red, nearly dripping blood, as she fixed her gaze on the final entry:

【…any refugees or sick fleeing the island shall not be spared; gather them swiftly at the docks, sink their vessels mid-journey, and if questioned, claim they were attacked by rebels…】

Watching the final memory in the ley lines—the people’s boats destroyed by Shogunate soldiers, sinking into the sea as they screamed in agony and died…

Raiden Shogun could not bear to look further.

The thunderclouds above Inazuma churned violently; lightning writhed within them. Nearly out of control, Raiden Shogun raised her blade to the heavens and slashed…

The slash, embodying the Unthinkable Art, cleaved sky and earth, mirroring the near-mad fury of the god Baelzebub!

The gods of Teyvat, fundamentally, are all lovers of humanity—this is undeniable.

Perhaps Raiden Shogun’s seclusion stemmed from her grief over the deaths of her sister Raiden Makoto and her friend Kujou Saki…

But.

Raiden Shogun was still the ruler of Inazuma—her heart still loved this nation!

She regarded her people as her treasures.

Even after her heart shattered five hundred years ago, she still poured her soul into crafting the Raiden Shogun to protect her people in her stead…

But now, in the ley lines, over centuries of Inazuma’s history, countless people died in agony and helplessness!

One, a hundred… even millions upon millions of her people, perished helplessly before her eyes!

Perhaps mortals could not see how many innocent souls had perished in past ages.

But administrators were different—so long as they chose to, the past hundreds or thousands of years felt as vivid as yesterday!

Looking across Inazuma’s land, everywhere were starving corpses piled high, ancient godly resentments and malevolent spirits rampant, the people’s resentment thick as solid matter.