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“Another day, another tower of hilichurls taken down! We’ve done this so many times, we can do it with our eyes closed!”
“If by ‘we’ you mean I was the one destroying the towers, then yes, ‘we’ did it”
“Hey! Paimon distracted the Hilichurls so they couldn’t get you alright!”
Lumine chuckled as she noted down the destroyed hilichurl camp. They were near the ruins at the foot of Wuwang hill. After Lantern Rite ended, commissions flowed in as people were getting back to their daily routine. Lumine looked at her Adventurer’s handbook and sighed, it gets quite boring after the festivities end, especially when you’re in a region you’ve explored to the fullest.
Clang
Lumine closed her handbook and saw the small metal object which fell to the ground…
…it was the handguard of her sword.
Paimon looked over to see Lumine crouching on the ground. “Gahh Paimon’s always told you to replace that Dull Blade of yours! You have so many stronger weapons lying in your teapot why don’t you use them?!”
“I already told you, weapons don’t work like that. Using the shiniest sword doesn’t make you stronger! I have practice with the weight and balance of this sword, I’d have to change my fighting technique if I were to switch weapons. Besides, I have like, seven more dull blades lying around in my teapot. If emergency arises, I’ll just use those”
"...those are broken too, Lumine"
Yikes, she really needed Handguards.
Lots of them.
There's only one place where she could get those. Besides, after many days of boring easy fights against hilichurls and treasure hoarders, Lumine was itching for a good duel. What better time and place to go to Nation of Eternity!
“Let’s go to Inazuma, Paimon! I need new Handguards and I bet you want some Tricolor Dango after a long day of commissions?”
“Dango? Ehehe now that you mention it, Paimon’s pretty tired after all that flying around. It’s like you can read Paimon’s mind!”
"More like 'I can read your stomach', but it's the same thing, considering your appetite is what drives you."
Lumine opened her map and rushed to the nearest Teleport Waypoint. In order to teleport to another place, she needs to be in physical contact with an existing waypoint. She can’t just teleport out of thin air like Xiao.
When Lumine nears the teleport waypoint present near the ruins, she sees a familiar figure walking dejectedly down the mountain road.
Guess going to Inazuma will have to wait. Lumine turns and runs over to greet the person.
“Hey Chongyun! What are you doing out her?”
“Huh? Oh hello Lumine, I was just…” sigh “looking for spirits to exorcise, you know. I got a lead but turns out it was just a…”
Lumine folds her arms and quirks an eyebrow up. “False Alarm?”
“Yeah”
“Well, you need better sources”
Paimon whispers in Lumine’s ear, “Poor Chongyun, he doesn’t know that every single ‘lead’ that Guhua Geek gives him is a prank.”
“I know”
“Ahhh!” Paimon is startled and turns to Chongyun, “How can you hear Paimon?”
He simply spreads his hands and says it like it was obvious “Your whispering is like a normal person quietly talking”
Lumine chimes in, “Heh, and her normal talking is practically shouting”
“Oh cut it out you two, Paimon doesn’t talk that loud”
Lumine and Chongyun share a silent gesture of disagreement.
“Anyways, Paimon is surprised you know that your leads are fake Chongyun. Paimon didn’t realise you’d figure that out”
“I admit I may be a little dense at times, but come on Paimon; even a fool would recognise he’s being tricked after the trickster plays the same old move on him again and again.”
“Oh so it’s like they say, ‘Fool me once shame on you…’ And uhhh, Paimon forgot how that goes”
Lumine completes the second part of the phrase for Paimon, “…Fool me twice, shame on me.”
“Ohh yeah, Paimon gets it! But then Chongyun, why do you still accept fake leads from that insufferable bookworm? Doesn’t it get embarrassing?”
Chongyun’s reply is blunt and precise, “To get a chance at seeing a ghost. All the exorcist missions I get are solved simply by sitting at the haunted place. So I expand my search so self-appointed missions, and accept any and every ‘lead’ I can get, even if it’s from …unreliable sources”
Lumine quickly understands, “I see, so even if you know the leads are fake, they atleast give you a place to start looking”
“That’s right. If you’ve noticed, Xingqiu always tends to set the prank around the supernatural and elemental beings to make it believable, like anything happening on Wuwang Hill, Guoba, rumors and legends, and stuff like that. He puts so much effort into making the lie believable that he ends up handpicking the most suspicious places for me so I don’t need to scan the entirety of Liyue …that would take forever!”
"Which means you basically reverse-engineered the prank to fit your purpose? That’s actually quite clever. And no offense but… I didn’t expect that from you haha”
Chongyun folds his hands and proudly says “Hmph, I’ve grown a lot since the last time you met me”. Lumine does not fail to pick up the tinge of disappointment in his voice, and understands the implications: he missed her. She mentally curses herself for not spending more time with her close friend.
He shakes his head and cheers up, “I’ll never give up hope, one day I’ll find a spirit that doesn’t get affected by my Yang energy, and fight it for real!”
She was glad he hadn’t lost hope yet. It’s what made him, well, him! He reminded Lumine of another good friend of her, a certain adventurer born with bad luck, but perseveres through it all with a brave heart and a smile on his face. Except that Bennett didn’t have to deal with pranksters who made fun of something he was literally born with and made life so much harder for him…
So what if they just recently had dinner together at Xinyue Kiosk? Lumine decided she was going to spend the rest of the day hanging out with him, just the two of them. There are some things simply more important that Inazuman Duels.
She put a hand on his shoulder and spoke with utmost sincerity, “Seeing you never lose hope inspires me to never lose hope as well!” If he can fight against something he was born with, then so can she find out the ‘Truth’ of Tevyat and find out why Aether joined the Abyss order. She pulls him closer and hugs him. “Hey, it’s been a while since we last talked …so, want to spend the rest of the day hanging out?”
He returned the embrace with a smile, “Sure, I just need to finish my comm-”
“Nope, you’re stuck with me now, we’re finishing them together”