"It's amazing to see Poisson has recovered so much from what happened!" Nilou commented in a bubbly tone, as she sees refinements made by both the Fatui and Keqing's infrastructures has made the peaceful life in Poisson return once again.

"You don't really have to say that out loud, though..." Furina pouted as she still felt the guilt from what happened.

"Hey, Aether! Paimon! And Miss Nilou as well as Lady Furina!"

"Oh, good afternoon, Lyney!"

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Aether greeted back.

Lyney then commented on how him meeting Aether and the group out of the blue being a "Fated Reunion", before Paimon asked what he is doing in Poisson. As it turns out, The Knave arranged a majority of the House of The Hearth's children to stay in Poisson as there has been a bit of a trouble on the home front.

Nilou gave a hearty chuckle as she knows for a fact that Lyney is hiding something, but before she is about to speak, Paimon asked her concerns about the "Bit of trouble" part.

"So, Lyney, what is really the problem?" Furina asked.

"Since all of you are curious, perhaps I can fill in the gaps." A sharp, feminine tone said behind Furina, causing her to jump in surprise.

She and Paimon shakily turned around to see The Knave was the one who just said those words.

"T-The Knave!"

"You scared Paimon half to death!"

Nilou bursted out into laughter at their reactions, before Lyney and Noelle greeted The Knave formally.

"Good afternoon, Lady Knave."

"Same goes to you, Maid-Knight. To answer your concerns, this problem hardly relates to any ulterior motives the Shirasagi Himegimi might have been suspecting me of plotting here."

Ayaka glared at The Knave, as she coldly gave a scoff at her intuition. As it turns out, this problem relates to a rumor surrounding the House of the Hearth, where there is a phantom child hiding away within their ranks.

"We're getting a chilling ghost story for once, readers." Nilou whispered, and winked to an unknown entity.

"Who are you talking to, Dancer?" Furina raised a brow.

"Nobody in particular~"

"A ghost in the House of The Hearth... Could it be that this orphanage has a really bleak past that we shouldn't be knowing about, Lady Knave?" Noelle asked.

"Like I said, Maid-Knight. It is but a rumor. This phantom child might as well be human. Lyney, I'll leave you to entertain our guests. I have some matters to attend to... And Maid-Knight, please get along with the other children."

"I'll try my best, Lady Knave."

"I still don't know how you managed to speak to her without any sense of fear, Maid." Furina commented.

"As long as people can be conversed with peacefully, there is little need to be feared of, Lady Furina."

"Even someone like a Fatui Harbinger? You sure are naive, airheaded maid."

"The only exception so far being Signora. Even I am annoyed at seeing her again!" Nilou grumbled.

"Wait, The Fair Lady? Will you enlighten me on that again, Miss Nilou?" Lyney raised a brow, as he didn't know that Signora kept on coming back to life.

"Even if we tell you, you won't believe it, Mister Lyney." Noelle replied.

"What? Come on, tell me what happened with you and the Fair Lady!"

As they explored Poisson to find the other children of the House of The Hearth, Lyney still didn't get an explanation from Noelle and the others about Signora being alive, before he pointed to a metal bungalow where the children used it as a temporary base. Keqing comes out of the bungalow, greeted the group, and Afterwards they went to meet three of the children, a young boy named Foltz, a young girl named Heloir, and a teenage boy named Chapleau.

"It's Aether and Paimon!" Chapleau called out.

"Not just them, it's their whole party! The Liyue Qixing, the Shirasagi Himegimi of Inazuma, the Sumerian Dancer, Lady Furina herself... And..." Foltz froze upon seeing who is standing at the back, and lowered his pointing finger down.

"Ahh... Ahhh!" Chapleau whimpered, as he then hyperventilates.

"What is wrong?" Noelle asked.

"She's... The Maid-Knight of Destruction! The one who defeated multiple harbingers with little effort, and wiped out an entire Eremite Clan in a matter of minutes!" Heloir shakily said, pointing at Noelle, as she took a peek on her handbook's page.

"Is she here to annihilate us too!?" Chapleau asked.

"Or is she trying to subjugate us!?" Foltz continued.

"Oh, Archons... This is going to be a headache, calming all of them down." Lyney said, facepalming.

"...What did they teach these kids at the orphanage?" Keqing asked.

"You're asking ME? Ask the dancer instead, she's the one who gathers most of the intel." Ayaka replied.

Lyney then, as simply as he can, explained to the children that Noelle is not a threat, as long as nobody harms either her, Aether, and the group.

"I-is that so!? So, the handbook is just exaggerating... Ahem! When guests visit, you're supposed to give them gifts and stuff, right?" Foltz asked.

"If that is so, then it is a sweet offer, Little Foltz." Noelle said, eyes closed.

"That's not a bad idea... Umm... I know you usually prefer to fight head-on, but it never hurts to expand your bag of tricks, right? When it comes to eliminating your enemies, staying quiet can go a long way. Trust me - I would know."

"No need for that. Nilou deals with the quiet stuff most of the time." Aether replied.

"Tee-hee!" Nilou chuckled.

"Really? But not by poison?"

"What kind of orphanage gives poison or combat techniques as gifts? What has your father taught you, anyways?" Keqing asked.

"It's kind of complicated... Really, Lady Yuheng..." Chapleau scratches the back of his head.

"This... Family of yours resembles much more of a training regiment. I am afraid I must go visit Lady Knave again to converse more about the topic."

"You want to speak with Father, Maid-Knight!?" Heloir asked, her eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"I have conversed with her peacefully a couple of times already. I think she will listen to this conversation that I will be having in a bit."

----

"Hmm? What brings you to talk to me again, Maid-Knight?"

"We need to talk... About the House of The Hearth."

"You have met the children, I presume? I think that your view of them may differ from your vision of what an orphanage life would look like."

"That is exactly what I am going to talk to you about, Lady Knave. I am an orphan myself, and even though I trained myself as a child in combat, I never got to learn how to do such things as brewing poisons and learning stealth maneuvers."

"...Do you wish to learn both of those?"

"I refuse. That is not what I am trying to talk about... None of the other orphans back in Mondstadt had to learn such things, and all becoming future soldiers after they grow up. Every each of them has a dream of their own, a free future."

"And what do you think will happen, if I blindly decide to let those children decide their future? They will be a risk for the Fatui as an organization. You know how children can say freely, yet out of line, which will lead to destabilization."

"So, a family created with the pure purpose to be the source of manpower for a military organization... It looks like you, and your family are both delusions as well."

The Knave clicked her tongue at Noelle's sentence, inviting a raised brow from the latter.

"You jest well, Maid-Knight. To think that I have never met someone as humorous and naive as you are."

"!?" Noelle grunted.

"Why don't you head on back to your family down there? I think the rest of my children wants to see the Maid-Knight by their own eyes."

"..." Noelle stayed silent.

A moment later, Noelle came back to Poisson, and noticed the group gathering behind a secluded bungalow.

"I have returned, Aether, everyone."

"Welcome back, Noelle... Umm... We kinda found the phantom child."

"You found who?" Noelle raised a brow.

Noelle's expression then changed from curiosity to that of bewilderment as she sees the phantom child by herself. A crimson haired little girl wearing a white dress, staring at a plate of Fontainian cooking.

"Ah, I'm full! Thank you for bringing me this food, you guys... Wow, is that another new friend?" The girl said as she looked at Noelle.

"Clervie, this is Noelle, my first lover." Aether said, introducing Noelle to the little girl, now known as Clervie.

"First... Lover? But why does she don the outfit of a servant? Not just that, it is a mixture of what I read about the revered Knights of Favonius from Mondstadt, and that of a servant. And that cape over her left shoulder is just so cool to look at, if I ignore the servant parts of her outfit."

"She is, who the House now recognized, as the Maid-Knight of Destruction." Lynette said suddenly behind Noelle.

"Miss Lynette, it appears you have known about this Clervie as well?"

"Be surprised for once, darn it!" Paimon shouted.

"The maid sure is an odd one..." Furina sighed.

"So, Miss Clervie, is it? Can you tell us how you entered the House of The Hearth?"

"Since you are an outsider, miss Noelle... You may not know, but... It is the same as everyone else in the House. The Knave brought us in, and we can never leave."

Noelle shook.

"Is there something the matter?" Clervie tilted her head in curiosity.

"Miss Noelle here is also an orphan, Clervie. However, she was not brought in by the Knave. She is an orphan who grew up in Mondstadt, hence her surprise." Lyney explained.

Clervie then continued her explanation as to how the House of The Hearth works and why the orphans brought in can never leave. Some of the people in the roster of the house are quote on quote, "Family" while the others are just "Test subjects". Those test subjects are the kind of people that will never get a place on the roster, aside from one that is listed for execution.

This of course, shook Noelle again as she heard it all slip.

"Is there anyone that can vouch for you?" Lyney asked.

"Perrie. She's my best friend. She's the only one I trust in this place."

"Have either of you heard of that name before?"

"No." Lynette, Keqing and Ayaka said in unison, before the three of them stared at each other in bewilderment at such timing.

"Me neither..." Freminet continued.

"None of the memories of those other children knew of this Perrie person. Who is it?" Nilou puts a finger on her chin as she ponders.

Lyney then asked Clervie what her wish is, and her answer is to be out in the sun. A simple sounding wish, but there is a risk that The Knave will spot her.

"Noelle, Paimon, you're with me, we're going to try to stall The Knave until Lyney deals with her wish." Aether ordered.

"Understood."

"What about the rest of us?" Nilou asked.

"Find any clues on the roster of the people who are executed, and past rosters during the time of the previous generation. Make sure nobody else from the orphanage saw you."

"Got it. Lady Keqing, let's give them a little tour of the new infrastructure." Nilou asked.

"That's enough time to stall them. Let's go."

---

"It's The Knave, and Childe! Hey, aren't you supposed to be in Snezhnaya recuperating? What are you still doing in Fontaine?"

Childe explained that he is trying to find Skirk, after the fiasco where he is unconscious, then played around with like a football by both her and Noelle a while ago.

"The worst of it is over, though. It's all thanks to that one kid from the House of the Hearth... Heloir I think her name was. She gave me a bunch of random potions to drink. They didn't go down easy, let me tell you - pain and chills all over. But, they really did help speed up my recovery."

"That's... good to know." Aether replied.

Childe then told Aether that he is going back as "The old man" is putting a pressure over him, and sent someone to tell him that he is needed for a "Project Stuzha".

"Hey, can you think of a way for me to stay in Fontaine for a bit longer--"

"Greetings, Mister Childe." Noelle greeted, as she walks out of an adeptus portal.

"It's... It's her... My heart... Ughhh!"

A moment later, Childe's body went limp, and falls flat down into the water behind him, the current causing him to float across the lake.

"It seems that he hasn't fully recovered yet."

Both Aether and The Knave looked at Noelle, both internally facepalming at her obliviousness.

"Anyways, I have to leave Fontaine shortly as well. Since for the moment, Childe is out for the count to spend some time... Why don't we spend some time talking about the Maid-Knight's past as an orphan?"

Noelle shook, and raised a brow.

"Pardon me, Lady Knave. But I think I did tell you that I trained myself in order to become a knight ever since I was little."

"Oh? And is there any particularly interesting event during that time of training?"

"Eh? Well, it is..."

A sudden sting hits Noelle internally in the head, and she grabbed her head in agony as she screamed.

"W-what's wrong!? N-Noelle!?"

"What's with her?" The Knave whispered to Paimon.

"Paimon doesn't know either! This... This is the first time Paimon saw Noelle like this..."

Noelle continued to scream in agony, as Aether wrapped his arms around her body in a hug, and attempted to pat her head, but Noelle violently pushed him away, as she then rolled on the ground in pain, still clutching her head with her two hands.

Then, all of a sudden, the pain stopped, and Noelle stood up, her bangs hiding her eyes. The Knave stood on guard, as she wrapped her fingers on her right hand slightly, preparing to summon her weapon.

"...What... What just happened?" Noelle asked.

"Noelle... You... You suddenly had a rather painful headache, and you pushed Aether away!"

"I... I did what? A...Aether?"

Noelle tried to approach Aether, and casts her right arm forward, only to recoil as she saw crimson blood staining her right hand. Reflexively, she pulled back her arm and gasped in shock.

"Well? I think there is room for explanation. What happened during your training sessions as a child that pains you so?"

"It... I don't remember.... What I did remember is that at one time a group of bandits caught me... And... Everything went dark. When I came to, I was already back in Mondstadt, bedridden."

The Knave widened her eyes, as if she has heard of the event before.

"What's wrong?" Aether asked.

"It is nothing. It just reminded me of a failed attempt to recruit an orphan into the house many years ago. I was still not holding the position of The Knave at that time, so the details are not entirely explained."

"Why? What happened?"

"Because the records that depict the failed attempt were burned shortly after I became The Knave, without my knowing."

"And did you ever find out who ordered the burning of said record?" Paimon asked.

"It was Rosalyne. You may know her as The Fair Lady, La Signora."

Everyone else widened their eyes in surprise.

"I once asked her about it, but she seems to have erased her memories of that failed attempt out of humiliation."

"Erased her memories?" Noelle raised a brow.

"It is just speculation, but she always refused to answer anything related to that failed attempt."

After a few hours of more storytelling that excluded Noelle's bandit encounter, the day becomes dusk, and Aether sighed internally as enough time has been stalled.

"It is getting late. I think you should go to rest." The Knave said, as she folded her arms.

"Do you want to come with us as well back to Poisson?"

"Oh? You want me to leave so soon, Maid-Knight?"

"If you want to stay and enjoy the evening breeze, I can understand that. I myself often enjoyed it after finishing my training sessions back then."

"..." The Knave remained silent, before she then opened up to speak.

"Maybe you are right. A little evening breeze can be relaxing. If you don't mind, I think I'll stick around for a bit. I have some things to think about. Apologies for not attending to you like a proper host. Please, forgive the slight. I do hope you'll have a pleasant stay."

"Thank you, Lady Knave..." With that, Aether, Noelle and Paimon then headed on back to Poisson.

"Noelle. You need to take a rest, alright? Me and the rest will discuss more about the execution roster."

"Is there something the matter, Aether? It isn't usual for you to be excluding me from investigating together."

"It's just that, I think you are still feeling the effects from that headache. I don't think it will be nice if you are too focused on inspecting the rosters, in your condition."

Silence filled the air, before Noelle gave Aether a small smile, and closed eyes.

"Understood, Aether. I will take a rest, then."

"We'll be seeing you in the morning, alright?"

The rest of the day is spent with the group discussing what they can learn from the roster of executed children. Clervie's name is not on the list, as well as Perrie's. However, what they didn't notice is that the door to the temporary base bungalow is opened slightly, hence the voices of everything that is discussed outside seeped inside.

"Unbelievable... Unforgivable."

The next day, right before dawn the group is invited by The Knave to an arena like structure which is abandoned by the lakeside. It is revealed that there was once a duel that took place where Clervie died.

"I still can't believe she is one step ahead of us..." Nilou gulped.

"We have no other choice. We either hear her out, or attack her right now." Ayaka whispered.

"And lose to her head-on?" Keqing asked Ayaka sternly.

"Father is still undefeatable till this day. If we go head on, we'll be courting death." Lynette explained.

The group enters the arena, as The Knave began to tell the tale of the House of The Hearth prior to her becoming the current Knave. As it turns out, the previous Knave is much more twisted in how she managed the house, either sending the children directly to the front lines or to be experimented by Dottore. One day, in the duel between Perrie, who turns out to be The Knave herself, ended with her killing Clervie, before she went on to fight the previous Knave. After prevailing, and a time of solitude, the Tsaritsa gave her the title of the current Knave.

She also shows no mercy in her words regarding Clervie's spirit, and will still perform the punishment for breaking the rules. And not just Clervie, but a couple from the current roster has broken the rules for talking behind the family's back. And much to their shock, it was Chapleau that found out all about it, and now he is reporting them to The Knave for punishment. Wasting no time, The Knave walked towards the two rule breakers, but not until a shout is heard.

"Lady Knave!"

"Hmm?"

Everyone looked towards a ruined wall, to see Noelle standing on top of it, an enraged look on her face.

"I am disappointed in you, Lady Knave!"

Noelle leapt off from the wall, and plunged down with The Unforged in hand, to which The Knave easily dodged. A small crater is created on the impact of her plunge attack.

"And what do you think you are doing, Maid-Knight?"

"It is not too late, please halt the execution now!"

"I refuse."

"Is that so... Then prepare yourself!"

Shouted Noelle, as she charged towards The Knave.