The Withering (Wriothesley - Genshin Impact Fanfiction)

Prologue

The sound of metal door sliding and opening deafened her ears, followed with a sound of heavy metalic boots approaching.

The Duke of Fortress of Meropide stood before the redheaded woman whose arms were bound in straitjacket, ankles shackled together. She was the talk of Fontaine, quickly making herself a headline on the front page of Steambird. It had been decades since Fontaine saw such a cold blood murder case. Wriothesley was both surprised that the said mad murderer didn't look like a typical criminal. She seemed sane, in fact. Compared to his tall and muscular figure, she was much smaller, and within those chains, she looked even smaller. Fragile even. He internally applauded her for scaring even the guards of the prison.

The woman sent a glance at the warden of the prison, a half crazy look in her eyes. The corner of Wriothesley's lip upturned slightly. He guessed it was true that the prettiest ones often times were the most rotten of them all. She might not look like it, but the fact that Iudex Neuvillette put an emphasis on her being received and put into a max containment in his fortress was a sure giveaway that this woman, though not look like it, was a sort of criminal that needed much of his supervision.

"Hm. Freya, isn't it?"

The woman looked at anything but him and proceeded to ignore whatever he said. Her head tilted to one side, as if appraising her new home with her green eyes. The Duke opened his right palm.

"Your Grace," a guard put a file in his open hand with a slight bow of his head, and the Duke took it without tearing his cold silver eyes away from her form, then looked away just to casually read the file. "Let's see... Refusing arrest, destroying a couple dozen gardemeks," he hummed and rubbed his chin, "...after killing a distinguished philanthropist in cold blood with fifty six stabs on face and body. Why?" he asked with mild curiosity.

Having no response from her, except for the empty yet rather challenging gaze she gave him, the Duke chuckled and casually closed the file in his hand. Without looking, he gave the file back to his guard. "Well, in any case, welcome to the Fortress of Meropide. I am Duke Wriothesley, your administrative warden and the very person who runs this place. Consider yourself special, since it is rare that I myself gave you the proper welcome at the behest of Iudex Neuvillette. You may consider this an honor, truly. I'd love to give you a tour, but seems that you're not in the mood and I don't want to waste my precious time. Soon you'll learn that everything and everyone in this place is under my watch and must submit to the rules lest they must answer to me. Perhaps then, you might find this a good place as any to find redemption and start fresh. A second chance, if you will. You'll find me being kinder than anyone up there at the overworld," The Duke recounted unenthusiastically as if he was forced to teach a boring history lesson.

Another silence.

"Hm. Good chat. A month in solitary confinement ought to cool you off," he said with a cold smile and waved two fingers to his guards who dragged her away.

***

"I had the time to reflect on what I did and what you said, Your Grace. I have accepted my sentence," the red head with a pair of half lidded green eyes said with an incredibly soft, almost meek voice despite the underlying message behind her words. That she regretted nothing.

Wriothesley looked down at the woman who was still shackled to the floor, his expression gave away nothing, his shoulders relaxed as they always do. He snickered, his eyes were icy cool. "Very well. Then let me do the honor of finally giving you a proper tour, as promised."

The Duke glanced at his Head Nurse, and the sweet melusine nodded. "Release her," commanded the Duke, the order were directed at the guards, who unlike the usual, took their sweet time following their Duke's instruction. Something about the woman scared the guards. Wriothesley need only moved his eyeballs to the wary guards.