"mistress" • diluc

xx

• third person •

"Hello, my dear husband," Aila sneered.

Ignace flailed in attempt to release himself from the ropes that tied him against the wall. A blue glisten zapped through the air, a blade of water forming a dagger in Aila's hands.

Ignace backed away, his pupils shaking, Aila approaching him quicker and quicker.

Without warning, Aila pinned him against the floor, the blade against his Adam's apple.

"Tell me everything you know, or I'll slit your throat."

A slight smile rose upon Ignace's lips. "I'm not sure what you're talking about, Miss Aila."

Aila leant in, her eyes wide. Ignace winced. Blood trickled down his neck. "Would you like me to remind you?"

Ignace stayed silent. His ego was too large for his own good.

Aila chuckled manically. She lifted her leg, and then, suddenly, Ignace groaned. She kneed him in the groin.

"Your silence pleads guilty," she said with a grin. "You have ten seconds, or else... hehehe..." She shuffled off him, taking the blade towards his crotch. "Say goodbye~!"

Aila's eyes closed in a sweet smile. Ignace stared at her as if his voice box had been ripped out.

"Ten..."

"Nine..."

"Did she already do it?"

Aila removed the blade. Her eyes sharpened.

"So you do know something," she muttered.

Then her head raised, only to reveal the darkest stare Ignace had ever seen. It was pitch black, her eyes empty of any colour, reflecting only a bloody red. He examined the rest of her, which was automatically the answer to his question.

A soft sigh escaped her lips. "I feel foolish to have fallen for it all for so long. Unfortunately, I am always one step ahead." Ignace couldn't even react when she began to drag the blade gently down his thigh, tearing through his trousers. "You all must have thought how well all of the jigsaw puzzles were fitting."

"How upsetting that I hid the last one long ago."

"How convenient was it? How convenient was it that I was the one investigating Daiyu? You must have all been jumping for joy!"

"Are you all this crazy in Mondstadt?" Ignace whispered. "Is this room... full of dead p–"

Ignace flinched when Aila lifted the dagger of water. A satisfied smile rose upon her lips, before she lowered it again.

"I don't know why it didn't come to me sooner. Everyone recognised her except my sister and I. Because everyone's seen my butler with me, but she also looked so drastically different to disguise herself."

"Back when I first met her in Liyue when I was little, my sister and I had a fight." Aila remained stone-faced as she spoke, her voice monotone. Ignace didn't dare move a muscle. "Hitting and scratching and all. Daiyu gave us a strange potion to heal the scratches we had inflicted upon each other, which sparked my interest in alchemy. I remember clearly asking her what was in the potion when mine and my sister's scratches almost instantly disappeared."

"Violetgrass," Aila muttered. "Do you know what violetgrass does?"

Ignace stared, trying to hold back the tremor of his body.

"It makes you forget." Aila giggled. "She made us both completely forget about her existence as Daiyu, and started her 'new' life with us back in Mondstadt, as 'Bai'."