Chapter Text
The Prinzessin der Verurteilung is known by everyone in Mondstand to be quite particular. She goes around all high and mighty with her faithful companion, Oz. The bird would fly right beside her, listening and translating for everyone what the Prinzessin said. It was clear that everyone preferred to talk to her Electro bird than the girl. Her dress was overtly stylish and barely suitable for an adventure, Kathryne had told her that multiple times, but each time the Prinzessin would lift her hand up to her forehead, striking a fierce pose as she laughed and announced her reasonings.
"Fear no more, Kathryne. For I, Prinzenssin der Verurteilung, needs to keep the noble life of her family known! Walking on this land, I shall bless thy-" Kathryne was about to listen to one of her long monologues again when, 'Thank the Archons' as she would say, the bad luck of Bennett actually helped someone for once.
As the excited Bennett ran towards Kathryne, he accidentally tripped and banged his face straight to the back of Fischl. They both collapsed onto each other, Oz shrieking in worry over the two young adults, as they laid on the ground. Bennett was on top of her and he quickly pushed himself away from her, a trail of blood coming out from his nose after that hard hit. Her head felt like it was spinning so much, she might've even hallucinate that she would go back to her home kingdom. The two groaned in pain as Kathryne leaned over the counter, worried look on her face. Fischl snapped back her head to the white haired boy, her eyes glaring at him. She quickly got on her feet as Bennett wiped off the blood leaking out of his right nostril, his glove having a new trail of blood.
This white haired boy! Who does he think he is for daring to crash into me and not apologize to his Prinzessin?!
The Prinzessin wiped off the dust on her gown that she handmade herself. She placed her hands on her hips, her shoulders pointed up to show authority as she stared down the green eyed boy. She wanted to snap at him, but that won't be very Prinzessin of her, would it.
"You ill-fated boy! How dare you!" She shouted and Kathryne was quite surprised by her ways.
"She meant-!... Well, exactly that." Oz cawed with a twinge of surprise.
"..." Bennett didn't know what to say. He rubbed his cut cheek since he was nervous.
Fischl quickly understood why everyone around her was suddenly quiet, it was only the four of them since the Prinzessin would only adventure when the moonlight bathe Teyvat. She quickly cleared her throat and she felt her cheeks grew red from the embarrassment that rushed around in her body. Her palms were sweaty and the corner of her lips twitched. No matter how hard she wished to just turn around and ignore what just happened, to grab a mission and get her pay, she grabbed the band-aid in her pouch and handed it to him, her chin up high and looking away.
"I-I see that one of my retinues got into the dangerous path in their adventure. Thou are blessed, for I, Prinzessin der Verurteilung, Sovereign of Immernachtreich, will gift thee one of the most precious item for thy mortal body." Fischl announced and Bennett accepted the band-aid with a wide warm smile.
"What she meant was, "Please accept the band-aid."" Oz translated and she crossed her arms.
No, she didn't mean that. She meant what she said. Her words are meant to charm people, to tell her dramatic story. Yet, no matter how she talked, no matter how she acted, Oz would always be preferred. Everyone gets confused from her, to the point that no one would want to talk to her to not lose their head!
"Oh I know." Bennett said to Oz with a bright smile even during this cold night. "Thank you, Fischl." He then turned to her, looking straight to her only visible eye, a genuine smile on his face.
Stunned. He knows? No, i-it was just pure luck! Pure luck? That doesn't exist for Bennett... Clues! Context clues, of course! An investigator for the Adventure Guilds understand context clues the best than anyone. But that's not the problem, the problem was that this boy thanked her instead of Oz! She wasn't prepared for that and it showed by how she took a hesitant step back. What was she doing, hesitating? No no no! Fischl wouldn't allow that.
"That's mein Fraulein for thee, my humble ill-fated adventurer!" She corrected Bennett and he got up on his feet, using the band-aid that she so gracefully gave him.
"How many names do you have, mein Fraulein?" He asked and giggled a bit, clearly only teasing her a bit. "I've heard people call you Prinzessin, Fischl and now mein Fraulein."
"Who thou think thee are, to make bold to interrogate thy Prinzessin?" She raised her voice and placed her hands on her hips, keeping a strong stance. "Fischl... That title... Thou may only utilize it only when thou show thy value. Not one mortal in thy kingdom where thou reside have the permission to."
"What mein Fraulein meant was that you can only call her 'Fischl' when you've proven yourself to her." Oz explained to Bennett and he nodded.
"Prove? Well, how can I?" Bennett walked closer to her, his eyes shining in excitement.
Fischl dramatically took out her hand to Kathryne, waiting for her to hand her a mission. Oz had to explain what she wanted as she refused to say out loud and Kathryne handed with care the paper. She snatched the paper away from her and raised it up high, like a trophy. All this to 'prove' to Bennett that she indeed was a Prinzessin from another realm. Everything she did seemed to catch his attention. She cleared her throat, ready for another monologue to Bennett, probably to annoy him enough to shoo him away, to not let him call her Fischl since it was too personal. She had to keep her identity hidden, but if this boy already know it, who to say that he didn't go around and telling everyone about her name. He knew too much about the Prinzessin, but she loved the attention.
She looked at the paper, glancing at the bold letters to say the title of the mission. Her eye widened in slight shock and excitement. A PLAY?! She lowered the paper down and eagerly read the paper for her first. Oz flew beside her to read as well and Bennett was patiently waiting to learn about what he had to do to prove himself. Kathryne seemed pleased that Fischl looked happy with her mission. Fischl turned to Bennett, shoving the paper to his chest. The paper crumbled a little bit under the pressure of passion that she was giving off.
"This. Thou are obliged to labor beside me on this art. If thou shall refuse this artform, this artwork from my own Kingdom, Immernachtreich, then thou shall perish from my mind!" Fischl announced with great confidence. Her chin up high, her back straight and her chest puffed out.
She gave a high pitch laugh to herself, posing with her hand hovering over her lips as she grinned. Bennett read the paper with curiosity, wishing to keep up with her world in her head. It was hard to tell if Bennett truly believed her world or if he was just playing along because he himself was desperate of some kind of friendship, even if it was one-sided. Currently, he was keeping up rather well. Fischl pulled out her personal feathered pen that she always had and Kathryne took out a purple ink bottle for her. Bennett walked up and stood beside her in front of the desk, placing the crimpled paper on the wooden table. He grabbed a pen from the small box full of them.
"So, you both wish to take this commission?" Kathryne questioned and both of them nodded. "Wonderful. What would your team name be?" Fischl opened her mouth to answer but Bennett cut her off to ask her a question.
"Can I name the team?" His eyes were too bright, everything about him was too bright for her to refuse.
"... Very well. Don't consider inventing a dreadful title, thou are blessed by possessing myself with thee."
Bennett didn't even hesitate to nod at her words. He wrote in a quick yet proper handwriting, however it was nothing compared to Fischl's calligraphy writing. Fischl leaned slightly over his shoulder, her arms crossed tight in front of her chest. Benny's adventure team... There was a ring to it, that was a positive. She looked up to Kathryne, a warmer smile formed on her lips. It wasn't a surprise, Bennett had made it known how much he wanted to form a team, it did happened at some point, but the boy was so unlucky that he still messed that up. Yet he wouldn't let that stop him, hey! at least now he had a princess from another world in his team! How many teams has that?!
"By the way, Kathryne, I don't really understand why the Acting Grand Master couldn't find one of the knights to prepare the annual play... Isn't it better that way?" Bennett asked and gave back the pen to the lady when he was done.
"That was what she originally wanted to do. However, the Calvary Captain suggested the people at the Adventurer's Guild tell a story. He was sure one of our adventurers would have many stories." She explained to the young boy with a gentle smile.
Fischl posed, her hand over her heart and a smug face on. Clearly, the Captain thought of her! Prinzessin der Verurteilung was a princess from another Kingdom. She had thousands among thousands of stories she could talk about. This commission would be the easiest one for her strong mind!
"Oh, you mean like the Traveler?" Bennett stated with admiration. The sudden ego boost that Fischl seemingly had, had evaporated into thin air. "Hey, mein Fraulein, maybe we can find the Traveler to ask her about her new stories! I heard she's at Liyue now, she shouldn't be far!" Bennett turned to the Prinzessin.
"Preposterous!" Fischl shrieked and placed her hands on her hips and took a step closer to him. "The Sovereign of Immernachtreich is positioned right in front of thy Augen! I shall bestow upon this city named Mondstadt one of my history... The Traveler is not needed, we shall not whisper her title."
Silence fell. Fischl was dead on with playing one of her made-up history. This was the time to show what she was capable of, how her mind was weird, just much more advance than everyone else! They shouldn't be jealous, especially when she was giving entertainment. Bennett, wanting to still win the prize of being able to call her 'Fischl', agreed almost instantly. It did crossed his mind to let Fischl tell her story, but he just thought it would be rude of him.
~
With that, they thanked Kathryne for the commission and took their leave. Since the library was closed by how late it was, they decided to walk around Mondstadt to find some inspiration. There was barely any light source, their Visions would do. Bennett lit up his sword and used it as light, they walked side by side. As Fischl looked around, almost everything was giving her inspiration on what to have a play about, she smelled something. Something burning. Fischl snapped her head around to the smell. She was expecting the grass to be burning, not Bennett's hair. A loud sharp inhale was made by her. Bennett turned to look at her, not understanding what was happening. Oz had his wings flapping over the fire, trying to die it down. Fischl could only raise her index finger towards the fire on his head. That broke her character.
"Bennett! There's fire on your head!" Fischl called out and jumped towards him without thinking.
He widened his eyes when he finally smelt the smoke and felt the heat on his head. They tried to die down the fire by patting it out but both of them were hesitant to touch it. Suddenly, a gush of wind came from behind and blew his hair around a bit more than needed. It messed up even more his already messy hair. At least the fire was dead. Bennett ran his fingers through his hair to try and brush it out evenly. They looked back over their shoulder to see what caused the wind. A soft melody played, the strings getting plucked could be barely heard. His soft eyes stared at them, a smile on his face and his white suit quite wrinkled from all the gliding. He gently placed a hand over the strings of the lyre, making the music stop. The wind blew through his braided hair, creating a dramatic effect.
"You need to be more careful, my child. Passing away because of your own Vision would be a weird tale to tell, don't you agree? Haha." The bard called out in front of them, a wide smile on his face. As if he was allergic to walking, he glided towards the two young adults.
"Seeing adventurers running around at night is quite special already... But two young children? It's quite scary, won't you admit?" The lyrist questioned and he grinned. "Walking under the moonlight... Ah, young love, how I envy it."
Fischl and Bennett were both stunned to say anything. They stood quite close to each other as they were surprised by someone new. They somewhat knew who this man was, he could be spotted drunk in the tavern. The parties would be much more fun that way. The only way that the both of them could remember this bard was because Paimon would talk badly about his horrible timing a lot. She would usually called him...
"Thy name is..." Fischl started before both of them announced at the same time. "Tone-Deaf Bard!" They looked over to each other and Bennett started to snicker. She was more surprised that they had more common stuff than she thought.
"Wha-!" The man took a step back from them, he was taken off guard. "Ah man, I feel like Paimon is back again..." He sighed and the two children giggled between them. "I have a name, you know. Call me Venti, the Singer of Skyward Sonnets."
Venti flew up into the air and glided himself towards the big statue of the Anemo Archon at Windrise. The two young adults felt the need to follow him. Venti sat down at the bottom of the statue, a calm smile on his face. He mindlessly strung the lyre. The wind blew them all and it was a calm moment.
"The winds told me that you both are assigned to make a play, in 4 months, correct?" The bard questioned them with a smile and the both of them looked over to each other.
"How do you know that? We're sure that we were alone when we were with Kathryne..." Bennett questioned him and took a seat down on the soft grass.
Fischl didn't want to stay, she wanted to grab some flowers to prepare the stage that she already had in her head. But Bennett seemed intrigued by the popular bard and so she was forced to sit down next to him. They looked like small children about to listen to a long story from their parents. As they sat underneath the big tree, the wind got colder.
"Do you both already know what story to play?" Venti questioned both of them while he strummed a short tune gently.
"Mhm! The Kingdom of Mondstadt is blessed with having the Prinzessin der Verurteilung traveling in this world. I shall grant my history!" Fischl showed off and placed her hand over her heart, feeling proud of her choices. She had a smug look on her face. Bennett turned to the bard and nodded along.
"Oh, you want to talk about your history... huh." Venti said and thought about it. Fischl took it as an insult but kept it together, not wanting to explode like she did already twice! "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" Bennett quizzed and leaned his head to the right as he was confused. "I think that it would be nice to talk about another city from out of this world!"
"I agree, it would be wonderful to do so!" Venti said and leaned some more on the statue. "But don't forget what the play is about. It's the annual play to celebrate Mondstadt's freedom. It's about Lord Barbatos... The people would find it offensive to talk about something else but the Lord during the special day where we celebrate him."
Fischl calmed down when Venti explained it. Bennett listened as well and scratched his chin. For the first time in a while, she felt bad about her story in her head going too far. She looked down to the grass and picked out the grass. Bennett gave out a heavy sigh and he fell back on the ground and he looked up to the sky.
"Sorry, mein Fraulein. I really wished that I could hear about the history of your Kingdom." Bennett looked over to Fischl and saw how disappointed she looked like.
"You can always play your story, but just don't do it at that specific day!" Venti added and got up from the ground. "Welp, hopefully you two would find a nice story about the Lord at the Library! I need a drink. May the wind guide you."
And with that, he took off in the wind. The gust of wind made the both of them close their eyes. The torn grass that Fischl was pulling out flew around and covered her dress. When they opened their eyes, they were the only two underneath the big tree in Windrise. There were some crystal flies flying around them. Fischl swept off the grass and Bennett helped her by picking out the grass that was in her hair. They got up when they both agreed that sitting around was useless. They went back to Mondstadt to go back home, sleep off the sadness to be in form for the next day at the library.