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I woke up with a yawn, after which I got dressed, collected my things and headed outside. It was still very early, so the streets were mostly empty and I was very glad for it. I could focus more on speed rather than caution, thanks to which I was able to reach Wanmin Restaurant in under 15 minutes.
Well, barely reach. To do so, I had to go into the open, which currently was hard to do because there were a few people near me. I clicked my tounge in irritation and took a deep breath, before activating my Vision.
If someone noticed, all they saw was a bunch of icy particles passing by. To say a Vision was useful, would be an undestatement. It was a lifesaver for someone like me. With its help, I crossed the street and jumped straight into the restaurant. I hid behind a stove where I took a few breaths, after which I took out my hook. A bunch of good spins was enough for it to reach the top of the stone furnish. When I was sure that it got stuck, I gave myself a boost with my Vision and began climbing.
When I reached the top, I quickly collected my rope and tied it around my waist, after which I looked around. Much to my surprise, Xiangling was nowhere in sight. Only her father was present, so I called out
"Chief Mao!". He turned his head towards me, before replying
"Miss Lapis? I'm glad to see you again," he said, to which I replied
"Same for me, Chef. But, where is your daughter?"
"I sent her to get more fish, so she should be back in a few minutes propably," he replied and walked over to me. As he lighed up the stove, he asked "What are you getting for her this time?"
"Xiangling haven't specified yet," I explained, to which he nodded. However, he stayed silent, his focus on the dish he was preparing, so I added "No matter what she requires, I will be fine. There's a chance that Traveler will join me."
"Traveler? So she and Paimon are back from Fontaine?", Chief inquired, making me tilt my head with confusion.
"They were in the nation of hydro?", I asked. The man glanced at me and with his hands still on a pan, he said
"They were basicaly everywhere. It's hard to predict where their travels would take them."
"I heard that their travels took them far, but I never expected that they ventured this far," I admitted, just as someone entered. I turned to share a glance with Xiangling, who I greeted with "Good morning, Xiangling."
"Lapis! Good to see you!", the girl in question exclaimed, causing me to flinch.
"Not so loud! What if someone hears you?", I hissed in her direction, before putting a hand over my mouth. "Sorry, force of habit."
"Don't be. I'll mind my tone," the girl replied with a smile.
"Alright then. What do you require?" I inquired, to which she replied
"I would like you to collect some Violetgrass."
"Seems easy enough. What's the catch?", I asked, knowing well that she could just buy those flower in Liyue Harbor.
"Well, you saw through me," she admitted, after which she corrected herself "I would like you to collect Violetgrass from the area where recently Whooperflowers were spotted."
"Whooper...?!", I exclaimed before pausing and taking a deep breath. "Alright. I promised, so I will fetch you those flowers," I said causing her to happily jump. I shared a glance with Chief Mao, whose eyes were looking like he was apologizing, but I simply brushed it off. His daughter was just like that, an enjoyer of strange ingriedients. And to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if she were to poison herself one day from those.
What Chief Mao was preparing was breakfast which I gladly ate. After that, I waited a while longer for the Traveler and Paimon. When Xiangling learned that they were supposed to come, she became quite happy. Fortunatelly for her, they arrived a few minutes after I told her about them.
"Good morning, sleepy heads! You surely took your time," I greeted them, while taking a sip of tea from a spoon with a broken handle. A bit too big, but it served its purpose.
"Took your time?! Do you realize how early it is? It's too early for Paimon!", I heard in reply, making me chuckle.
"What do you mean ‘it’s too early’? I always rise with the sun!", I told her, after which I glanced at the Traveler. Like her companion, her eyes seemed not really open, so I joked "Great adventurers beaten by early hours?"
"You have surprisingly high amount of sass in such small body," Paimon stated and I nearly spilled my tea from laughing.
"She's actually rarely like this. The sass has to build up and things end up like this," Xiangling explained, while pointing at me.
"Alright, enough of that," I said, with a bit of chuckle still heard in my voice. Then, I turned towards the adventuring pair and I asked "Do you mind helping out with something?"
"What is it?", the blonde asked.
"The connoisseur of strange ingredients requires more," I explained while pointing at Xiangling. She seemed surprised by the nickname, but made no comment.
"Does this mean there will be food?", Paimon asked, her eyes nearly sparkling. Instead of answering directly, I glanced at the young chief, who eagerly nodded. "Then Paimon thinks that we could help out!", she exclaimed and her companion nodded in confirmation.
"Great! I can tell the details on the way," I said and set down the broken spoon. I was prepared to jump off the stove, until Traveler asked
"Do you need help?"
"Hm? Ah, don't worry about me. I'm pretty capable," I replied with a bit of pride behind my words.
"I meant with travel," she added, making me pause. I haven't really thought about it, but if Traveler and Paimon were to join me, I wasn't sure if I could keep up on foot. So even though I wasn't so eager, I said
"I guess that it would be faster for me to be with you. But do you have a place where you could hide me?"
"Hide you?", Paimon repeated, but before I could answer, she added "You do have a point. There are a few people out there that could definitely spot you."
"Why don't you three just meet outside of Liyue Harbor? When Lapis travels on her own, she's like a shadow," Xiangling proposed. The last sentence made me sheepishly smile, while Paimon said
"Sounds good! What about you, Traveler?". The blonde nodded with a smile, after which the two of them glanced at me. I took a deep breath and said
"Alright. Meet me near the statues west of Liyue Harbor."
"Sorry for the wait!", I apologized, when I finally reached the statues.
"Don't worry, Lapis. We just got here," Paimon replied with a smile, which suddenly changed into confusion. "Is that a kitchen knife you carry?", she asked and after I glanced at it, I replied
"Yes. It serves me as a claymore." The white haired woman kept her expression, while the Traveler glanced at me a bit impressed, so I asked "Surprised that someone like me uses a claymore?"
"Well, it seems a bit... unusual," the blonde replied, while Paimon added
"Paimon agrees. To be honest Paimon would guess that you would use something smaller." I snorted upon hearing this, after which I replied
"No wonder. Xiangling, on the other hand, thinks it's natural for me. So much that she gives me her old knives whenever my weapon gets destroyed."
"That's very nice of her," Paimon stated, to which I simply shrugged my shoulders.
"Maybe she is. But, in return for those knives, I have to bring strange ingredients to her. Which leads us here," I explained. The two of them shared a glance, before Traveler said
"Then it's better for us to get going."
"Alright then," I said and once again looked around, to be sure that only the three of us were here. "Could you give me a hand?", I asked and when she silently did that, I walked onto her open palm. Another thing that shouldn't come as natural as it did for me. "Now lift me to your shoulder, please," I requested, which she also did.
"It seems that you're quite used to being carried," Paimon suggested as I sat on Traveler's shoulder.
"Despite what I said about keeping my kind hidden, I keep contact with a few giants. Some of them I visit regularly, some of them once in a while, but, my point stands," I explained and glanced around one last time, before asking "Can we go?"
"Point us the way then," the blonde said. After giving her brief instructions, we set off.
"...So let Paimon get this straight." she said and glanced at me. We've been walking for some time now, so it was rather obvious that someone would try to strike a convesation. And because of that, we ended up talking about myself. Not that I minded. "Except Xiangling and Chief Mao, the ones with whom you keep in touch are: everyone at Bubu Pharmacy, Ningguang, Ganyu, Keqing, Yao yao, Gaming, Chongyun, Shenhe and mister Zhongli?"
"That's right," I confirmed, to which Paimon shouted
"That's more than 'a few'!"
"Well, I'm not sure myself how things ended up this way. The only people I willingly revealed myself to were Doctor Baizhu, Qiqi and Chongyun."
"Willingly? So the rest were forced?", the white haired woman asked. A grimace appeared on my face upon hearing the word 'forced', but I couldn't deny that it was the truth.
"You could say that. But I'm not gonna dwell on that. What happened has happened and yet I'm still in one piece. It means something, don't you think?"
"You were lucky to meet them. They're kind people," Traveler stated, causing me to sadly smile.
"That luck only works partially," I admitted, to which the blonde stopped walking to glance at me. I returned the glance with a sigh, before explaining "There also some people that thought of me as an animal, or those that tried to hurt me. Once, someone actually did."
"Oh no! Paimon is very sorry for bringing up this topic," Paimon apologized, making me smile.
"Don't be. You couldn't possibly know," I replied, just as a finger suddenly ruffled my hair.
"Is that not okay?", Traveler asked, seeing my bewildered expression.
"No, no. It simply took me by surprise," I explained, making her smile at me. I felt blush apear on my cheeks, so I decided to redirect the focus from myself. "It seems that we reached the place," I pointed out, since I recognized the area.
"So we just have to collect some Violetgrass?", Paimon asked and when I nodded, she added "Seems easy enough."
"Just watch out for Whooperflowers. A lot of them appeared nearby recently," I warned her, causing her to whip her head in my direction and ask
"If so, why are we collecting flowers from here!?"
"They're precisesly the reason why we're here, Paimon. Xiangling wanted some elementally infused ingriedients," I explained, making the Traveler snort.
"Her ingriedients seem weirder every time we visit," she admitted, making me smile. I could very well say the same.
Another few minutes we spent climbing, during which I surprised both Traveler and Paimon with my agility. It was easy for me to catch even the slighest dents in the stone, or tinest peebles that I could grab. It wasn't long before we had a bunch of Violetgrass collected.
"Alright. We can head back," I announced and after the two of them nodded, we began climbing down (Well, Paimon flew). But, when it seemed that all was well, I suddenly spotted something flying towards us. Traveler also did, because they they jumped away. I couldn't follow their example, since I was too small to move away, so I gripped the handle of my claymore and twisted it, to use as a shield. I worked, but at the same time, I let go of the stone wall.
My breath stopped for second, before I forced my brain to work again. I infused my claymore with elemental energy and with a few spins, I landed on the Whooperflower that shot at us, killing it in the proces.
"Lapis!", Traveler shouted after me, just before landing next to me. It seemed that she jumped after me. Her companion followed after her, while shouting
"We're so sorry! Are you alright?"
"Could've been better, but overall I'm fine" I replied while stretching. The plunge attack absorbed my speed, but my arms still felt sore.
"That's good to hear. Paimon wouldn't forgive herself if something serious were to happen to you," she said, making me smile.
"I told you that I'm pretty capable," I replied while glancing at the remains of the Whooperflower.
"That's certainly impresive," Traveler stated, while visibly anxious Paimon proposed
"How about returning to Liyue Harbor? Paimon's not sure if she wants to see more 'impresive' stunts."
"Fine by me," I replied and the blonde nodded, so the three of us headed back.
After telling her what happened, Xiangling spent a few minutes apologizing to me. But when I assured her several times that I was fine, she finaly let go of the topic and went straight to cooking using the flowers we gathered. When she finished her signature stew, she gave it to me, Traveler and Paimon to try. The dish was obviously very good, but the taste seemed richer than unusual. When I pointed it out, Xiangling exclaimed with a wide grin
"That must be the Violetgrass!". I couldn't help but smile myself upon hearing that.
"Looks like fighting a Whooperflower was worth it," I jokingly said and much to my annoyance, as well as Traveler and Paimon's amusement, the apologizing started again.