Chapter Text
It was a sunny day on Kipumäki-Cliff, when Lumine and Paimon entered the Favonius keep. As the traveller passed Laurent, she uttered a friendly greeting. The knight guarding the entrance did seem more cheerful compared to other days and Lumine figured he was probably looking forward to returning home soon, now, that the abyssal danger in Nod Krai had been eliminated. The camp was bustling with energy, knights were running around, training, completing errands, and the first group seemed to be already packing their things to leave for Mondstadt. Knowing that Albedo and Durin would be among them, Lumine and Paimon wanted to tell their dear friends goodbye, since it was always uncertain when their paths would entwine once more.
Before Lumine could take a proper look around though, Anselm already came marching toward her and Paimon, a distraught look on his face.
“Honorary knight! Thank Barbatos you’re here!”, he sighed, furrowing his brows.
“Anselm! Let Paimon guess, has Varka gone missing again?”, Paimon shouted out, before Lumine could even say a thing.
“Unfortunately, yes. He is nowhere to be found ever since Nannina brought up the unfinished expedition log…”
Anselm sighed again, placing his palm on his face.
“Could you go and search for the Grandmaster in my stead? He’s probably somewhere nearby. I have some logistics matters to attend to…”
“Leave it to us!”, Lumine said, nodding her head in determination. Playing hide and seek with her brother when they were little had made her a master of not just finding lost items, but also people.
Anselm let out a brief thanks and then returned to the strategies tent to discuss some matters with Nannina, while Lumine and Paimon started searching the area. They investigated all the bushes in the area and the ruins around the camp. It seemed as though Grandmaster Varka had vanished from the face of the earth. Maybe he had gone drinking with Flins or had started some other kind of mission he hadn’t told anyone about?
Suddenly, behind a worn-down palisade, Lumine saw something – a person! Charging towards the ruin, she realised it was not the Grandmaster.
“Nicole! Good afternoon!”, she greeted the witch in a cheerful tone and smiled. Paimon seemed excited as well.
“What are you doing here?”, the little flying fairy asked.
When Nicole turned toward the traveller and her companion, the look in her eyes was serious.
“I am going to assassinate the Grandmaster!”, the angel exclaimed, raising her chin with her hands pushed into her sides.
Lumine came to a halt in front of her, slightly taken aback, then letting out a confused chuckle.
“Okay, sure, but why would you want to do that?”
Nicoles face hadn’t changed a bit.
“Isn’t it obvious? I need inspiration for my latest novel: ‘Assassinating the Grandmaster’.”
Lumine went quiet. She heard Paimon inhaling sharply next to her.
“You really want to kill Varka!?”, Paimon yelled, her tiny hands clutched close to her face.
“Be quiet”, Nicole shushed, eyeing the knights’ camp behind her, “it will be pretty difficult to complete the task if everyone knows about it!”
“But- you can’t do that! I’m not letting you hurt him!”
Lumine crossed her arms, giving her witch friend a stern look. The people of Mondstadt needed their Grandmaster, and besides, the traveller was not going to stand by and watch one of her friends be assassinated by another, especially over something as trivial as some creative inspiration. There were a thousand different ways to get ideas for a story, why was Nicole so dead set on going through with a crime like that?
The angelic witch, however, didn’t seem to be listening. The traveller watched her face light up enthusiastically.
“Alice suggested throwing the entire cart of his latest order of dandelion wine down a cliff in front of his very eyes! I find this to be an ingenious idea. Perhaps the monumental, overwhelming grief will make him collapse – or go drown himself in whatever other wine he can find!”
“That doesn’t even sound like it’ll work… Wait- so Alice knows about it, too?”, Paimon yelled, “And she didn’t try to stop you?”
“Alice is very much on board with the idea. I like to discuss my writing projects with her and Barbie- oh, they are both looking forward to reading this one!”
“Are you working on any other stories at the moment?”, Lumine asked, hoping to distract Nicole from her insidious plan.
“Oh, don’t you ask about that!”, Nicole sighed, “Assassinating the Grandmaster will be my last attempt at writing detective novels- or crime novels, as they are called in Inazuma. Either way, when writing a novel, naturally, the author seeks to be as extravagant as possible, especially in the opening scenes. Otherwise, how are they supposed to hook the reader?”
The witch then went on a rant about her previous attempts at writing in the mystery genre, and it quickly became clear to Lumine why Nicole had such trouble finishing these stories. The traveller and Paimon kept asking her questions, until the angel suddenly decided:
“Perhaps you’re right, and I should get back to writing ‘The Selie Detective’. Now that I think about it, the story seems much more promising than ‘Assassinating the Grandmaster’.”
“See! Paimon told you so!”, the little fairy squeaked, with a relieved grin on her face. Lumine nodded in agreement.
“I’ll be the first one to read it!”
Nicole smiled.
“I should get to work then-“
“Hey! What’s all the ruckus about?”, Lumine heard a familiar voice behind her. She turned around, and Paimon beside her immediately shouted a greeting.
“Varka!”, the little one exclaimed in a squeaky voice, barely hiding her concern.
“Honorary knight, Paimon, and oh- Miss Nicole!”, the Grandmaster greeted the three of them. “If I had expected such important guests today, I would have ordered a bunch of special drinks from the Flagship, hahaha! Now, to what do the knights owe the pleasure?”
“Uh-“, Lumine said, nervously scratching the back of her head. Paimon looked down at her own feet.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that, I was just about to take my leave now”, Nicole said, eyeing the Grandmaster suspiciously.
“Oh, what a shame. I guess a witch has a lot to take care of, though”, he said, seemingly moving on quickly. “What about you, honorary knight? Care to stay for the bonfire and some drinks?”
“Sure.” Lumine gave him a shy smile. It would be the perfect opportunity to spend some more time with her friends before saying goodbye.
“Great! Unfortunately, I’m on watch duty for tonight, but you can have my share of the wine if you want!”, Varka offered, letting out a long, breathy laugh.
“You’re only saying that because you know Lumine can’t drink as much as you would!”, Paimon shouted, stomping her feet in the air.
“HAH! Nothing gets past you, Paimon, caught me red-handed”, he laughed. “But in all seriousness, the troup setting out to return to Mondstadt tomorrow will be honoured to spend their last evening here with you. I’ll go share the great news with the others.”
With that, Grandmaster Varka was gone. Lumine looked around – it seemed like Nicole had already vanished as well, without a single word.
“Great, he turned himself in! We didn’t even have to convince the slacker to get back to work!”, Paimon said.
“Paimon, I don’t think you need to be so harsh on him. Being the Grandmaster is not an easy task, and I’m sure he’s doing his best.”
“Yeah no”, Paimon said, shaking her head in disagreement. “Still a slacker. Paimon gets it now! No wonder a certain sly cavalry captain back in Mondstadt has the work ethic he has, with a role model like that!”
“Not even Grandmaster Varka can top Kaeya in this regard”, Lumine laughed, now turning toward the Favonius keep to head back.
“Come on Paimon, let’s check in with Master Anselm.”