Cold Steel - Inazuma Gaiden

Zero: Amber Eyes, Childhood's End

Try as he might, it seemed as though attaining the dream was impossible after all. Perhaps it was indeed all too idealistic and childish of him to have such convictions - noble or not. At least it was finally quiet, no more singing, no more chanting, no more screaming, no more whispers. No more pain, no more fears, no more tears. Not that he really ever had the chance to experience such things before thanks to the cursed powers that used to run inside his veins.

In the end, he was just a mere mortal, and just like any other mortal - he too, has to expire at some point. It's just a bit ironic that he had to leave the world behind, by the hands of his own companion - no less, when he felt like they were close to finding some answers in regards to their future. But then again, it was probably all too gullible of him to believe all that strange talk about being able to end Inazuma's cycle of hatred.

He was just one man, a mere commoner who had nothing to his name. He started from nothing, he lived as nothing, and he had no qualms ending his life by returning to nothing. There was simply no way that one man had the power to end... years, decades, perhaps even centuries or maybe millenniums of nothing but fighting. Violence and war was rooted, ingrained to the very structure of the Inazuman society itself.

The fact that they refer to their Archon as the Raiden Shogun, part Lightning God and part Warlord should already be plenty telling of their culture and history. Then there's the stratification and segregation between nobles and commoners. Lords and vassals. Samurai and servant. Those who served their nation during turbulent times, those who were willing to spill blood of their own brethren in the name of or against the Narukami Ogosho - would ironically be rewarded and looked upon favorably by rest of society, while those who wanted nothing but a simple life were regarded as nothing more but mere commoners.

Essentially waging wars and inciting violence was practically encouraged, else one could only hope to even work as a vassal of a lord. Even something as simple as owning a farmland and being able to provide for one's self was a challenge for those who are placed at the bottom of the food chain, leaving many to be eventually exploited by the nation. The sick, the poor, the young all make for good manpower to produce more of the nation's war machines.

Trying to break that cycle would mean completely changing the Inazuman society as they know it, right to the very core. And that was something that even many can't do, let alone one unimportant vagrant who was spared from the protection of the Shogun. He was just that, one human that frankly, overstayed his fleeting welcome in Teyvat.

His only regret was... who was he kidding, he had many regrets.

Being freed from the clutches of the Serpent God meant that his memories could finally start reconnecting various events that led to this predicament. He couldn't even imagine how a certain hot-headed, yet religious youngling would react that he not only failed to save his family, but also when he learned that the other children would be the cause of Inazuma's doom. He couldn't even imagine how the lady in white would live with the fact that she was the one who ended him, if she can even come back to her senses, that is.

He could not imagine how Inazuma's would fare at their failure to stop their invaders. Should the vengeful and unstable powers of the Great Serpent be unleashed on any populated areas, the amount of casualties would be... catastrophic, and that was putting it lightly. It would be a bloodbath of epic proportions, one that he wasn't certain that even the Shogun's arcane might, or the Traveler's intervention would be effective to combat the spread of said influence of her former adversary. Add to the fact that said individuals are currently absent from their respective posts, then he couldn't bring himself to be optimistic about the outcome.

If he still had his own was a sense of palpable irony about him feeling especially attached to the land that he'd wanted to leave behind so very readily just fourteen days ago. To think that fourteen days could trigger such a gradual yet drastic change in his worldview. He became... sentimental, at times emotional even. All thanks to the efforts of a certain lady - that ironically became his own undoing.