"By the way, the first time I met Mr. Ye was here."
At the Komore Teahouse, Ayaka brought the group to the restaurant she had reserved and smiled at Ye.
Ye nodded: "I remember too. We had a great conversation back then."
"Mr. Ye was really too much back then. Even though you were the author of those two light novels, you chatted with me so enthusiastically about them. Thinking about it now, it's really embarrassing."
"I'm sorry. I actually wanted to get close to you back then, so I used a little trick. Please forgive me."
"Huh? Really? But I remember I was the one who sat next to you, wasn't I?"
"A clumsy attempt at waiting for the rabbit. But don't worry, I meant no harm. I was just curious about the 'Shirasagi Himegimi'."
Watching the two talk, Paimon whispered to Lumine: "Don't you think their conversation feels a bit weird?"
Lumine nodded: "Something must have happened between them before."
Ayaka, of course, didn't ignore Lumine. In fact, compared to Ye, Lumine was clearly more trustworthy.
"Traveler, Paimon, you can sit down with Ye first. I'll excuse myself for a moment and be right back."
"Huh? What's going on?"
"Do you need help fighting?"
"Oh, no, it's nothing like that." Hearing their words, Ayaka quickly waved her hand. "Just some small matters. I'll be back soon."
With that, she ran off.
Ye had already taken a seat. Lumine and Paimon exchanged a glance before sitting down as well.
"Ye, the atmosphere between you and Ayaka seems a bit off, doesn't it?"
Hearing Paimon's blunt and tactless question, Ye glanced at her and then at Lumine, who was also looking at him, before calmly saying: "Isn't that normal? I'm used to people being wary of me."
"You sound so sad."
"Being misunderstood always makes people sad. I'm no exception. After all, the world's misunderstandings of me are a bit too much."
Ye couldn't help but sigh. He was such a kind and gentle person, so why couldn't the world understand him correctly? Everyone who knew his identity treated him like a thief. Why was that?
Did I do something wrong? Did I make a mistake? If I did, just tell me! I'll fix it!
"I think it's not a misunderstanding. It's just that you yourself make people wary."
See! See!
Ye couldn't help but look at Lumine with a pained expression.
You've only known me for a few days! Where did you get your understanding of my character? Spreading rumors and forming a bad impression of me based on hearsay—don't you think that's too much?!
...Oh right, Lumine experienced the Shanhaijing incident. No wonder.
—But that's also a misunderstanding!!!
"I know you still have misunderstandings about me because of the Shanhaijing incident, just like everyone else. I understand, so I don't blame you."
Lumine blinked, unsure of what to say.
At this moment, Paimon, the "Voice of Reason," finally spoke up, asking Ye curiously: "So, is it really a misunderstanding that you deliberately crashed Sumeru's economy, causing it to collapse, and then exploited Sumeru for over 300 years?"
Ye remained expressionless: "Misunderstanding."
A complete misunderstanding. I didn't deliberately crash Sumeru's economy. It was going to collapse anyway. I just gave it a little push to make sure it couldn't recover.
Paimon's mouth fell open in surprise: "So, the 20-year economic war you had with Zhongli, where you plundered tens of thousands of people from six nations, was also a misunderstanding?"
Ye's face was still blank: "Misunderstanding."
What do you mean by "plundering people"? That was Lady Focalors being kind and letting them come to Fontaine to work off their debts! To pay for Lady Focalors' compassion, I suffered huge losses back then!
Paimon couldn't help but throw up her hands: "So, you having a spy serve as the Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius for decades, making the Knights work for Fontaine for free, was also a misunderstanding?"
Ye remained unperturbed: "Misunderstanding."
Where's the evidence? Where's the evidence? Where's the evidence? Even the Knights of Favonius don't have evidence. You're just believing the Fatui's lies! What do you mean by "spy"? Grand Master Vautrin was just more friendly toward Fontaine! Is that a crime?!
Paimon asked in disbelief: "So, you sending people to Inazuma to organize a rebellion, inciting civil war, and then selling weapons to both sides for profit was also a misunderstanding?"
Ye finally looked at Paimon with righteous indignation and firmly said: "Misunderstanding! A complete misunderstanding! How could I possibly do something like organizing a rebellion in another country, inciting civil war, and causing massive casualties? That was the Fatui!"
This is absolutely a misunderstanding!
Ye was righteous, truly righteous.
Because before he could even think of doing such a thing, Focalors stopped him. So he never did it! This was truly the Fatui framing him! It was the Fatui's doing!
Ye was so angry about being framed by the Fatui that he almost declared war on Snezhnaya. Although he didn't go to war, he did retaliate against Snezhnaya.
As for selling weapons… Well, the war had already started, and it wasn't me who started it. What's wrong with selling some weapons to make a bit of foreign currency?
After all, someone's going to sell weapons, so why not let me make some money?
Besides, I wasn't really selling weapons for profit. I just wanted to test the performance of the weapons in a real war, so I sold some to the rebels. Then the Tenryou Commission wanted some, so I sold some to them. Then the rebels offered more money, and the Tenryou Commission countered… This… This… This was clearly their own problem! What does it have to do with me?
I was just trying to help! But they blamed the entire war on me. How unfair is that?!
And in the end, there wasn't much loss, right? The Raiden Shogun quickly stepped in to stop the war from spreading.
She even destroyed all the weapons I sold.
And then banned weapon sales. How unnecessary.
"In short, this is absolutely a misunderstanding. I won't take the blame for the Fatui's actions."
Seeing Ye's righteous attitude and words, Paimon couldn't help but look at Lumine: "So, it seems the Inazuma incident really was a misunderstanding?"
Lumine nodded and calmly said: "In other words, the other incidents are highly credible."
Ye: "..."
He was truly angered.
I already said it's a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding! It's really a misunderstanding!
Why won't you believe me?!!!!
Am I really that untrustworthy?
...…Whatever. In life, you have to learn to ignore others' judgments.
It doesn't matter if others believe me or not. As long as I believe myself, that's enough.