[ A howling gale blows past the mouth of the cave, and Aether ought to be sufficiently insulated, but he still shivers a little when a small draft creeps in from a loose point around his neck. It makes him bury himself more aggressively beneath Wriothesley's arm like he's an affronted rodent, loath to extract itself from some particularly nice little nook in the ground.

The Duke kind-of-sort-of calls him cute, or at least innocent-looking, and Aether can't help but snort disdainfully at the idea. His youthful face has certainly come in handy a few times in the past, but it's still a bit amusing that anyone would look at him and find him... pure. ]

Let's see. [ He makes a show of counting off on his fingers. ] I stole something from the cathedral in Mondstadt... was suspected of killing Rex Lapis in Liyue, but that really wasn't me... I was a fugitive in Inazuma and wound up joining the revolution against the Raiden Shogun... Oh, I fought a lot of duels to the death in Inazuma too, but that's normal there.

[ ...but it becomes kind of weird when you learn that he wiped out a whole school of swordsmanship... ]

I think there were at least eight. [ A brief pause. ] No, nine — there was another man, he wasn't in his right mind... He'd been ritualistically sacrificing every member of his village. But sometimes I think he wouldn't have done it if the remains of a dead god in the area hadn't driven him insane. It was awful...