The back courtyard was empty. Not a soul in sight, let alone Klee and Tartaglia. The Fatui guide who had led them there stood there gaping.
"This... Lord Childe was in the back courtyard just a moment ago!" He spun around to the men behind him. "Did any of you see Lord Childe?"
These were the servants posted at the gate, on call for Tartaglia's orders at any hour.
They looked just as bewildered. "Lord Childe never left the courtyard. He never came out!"
"You're certain?"
"My Lord, if Lord Childe wanted to leave, he'd hardly need to sneak past a few servants like us, would he?"
In the space of a breath, every Fatui in the Northland Bank was left staring blankly, the men at the door most of all.
Under the distinctly unfriendly gazes of Ningguang and Keqing, the officials in charge broke out in a cold sweat.
If they'd managed to anger the Liyue Qixing, wouldn't every last one of them be hauled away in chains? That was unthinkable.
"Someone, anyone! Go find Lord Childe, now!"
The bank erupted into frantic motion. People searched high and low, all but turning the place upside down, and still there was no sign of Klee or Tartaglia.
By then, Ye Xi and Keqing had already found something in the back courtyard.
"This is Klee's little backpack!" Keqing had a sharp eye. She lifted the bag and brushed the dirt off it.
There were still plenty of Jumpy Dumpties inside, clinking softly against one another.
Ye Xi, meanwhile, had noticed the dead fish floating on the surface of the water.
"So they really were bomb fishing. But something happened here, something that made them both vanish."
Keqing and Ningguang were no fools; they had reached the same conclusion.
The problem was that nobody had the faintest idea what that something had been.
"Until we've gotten to the bottom of this, seal the Northland Bank!"
Ningguang certainly wasn't about to let the Fatui here off the hook. She gave a single word to the Millelith captain accompanying her, and the Millelith outside came pouring in at once.
"This is a misunderstanding, Lady Tianquan! Our Lord Childe really was right here!"
The Fatui cried their innocence, but Ningguang paid them no mind.
Out on the street, passersby saw the enormous commotion at the Northland Bank and fell to talking among themselves.
"What's going on? The Northland Bank's been sealed?"
"What a show of force! Lady Ningguang is leading it herself?"
"Just what did they do? I've still got Mora deposited in the Northland Bank!"
"Are they putting up seals?"
Sure enough, several Millelith were already pasting official seals across the lattice windows of the Northland Bank.
A good number of Fatui were marched down the stairs under Millelith escort.
As it happened, Zhongli had just come strolling up from the floor below.
Seeing the sweeping display of force, he frowned slightly.
He walked into the main hall of the Northland Bank and found Ningguang and Keqing standing beside Ye Xi, discussing something.
"Everyone. What has happened here?"
[Author's Note: ...Requesting flowers...]
The moment Ye Xi saw that it was Zhongli, his eyes lit up. "Lord Rock King, you've come at exactly the right time."
Ningguang hurriedly dismissed the guards around them, worried that Zhongli's identity might be exposed.
The Millelith were obedient enough; Ningguang told them to leave, so they left. With Ye Xi here, no danger would come to Ningguang or Keqing.
Once the guards had withdrawn, Ye Xi laid out everything that had happened.
"Oh? Let me take a look."
Zhongli was a God, after all. He stepped into the back courtyard, swept his gaze across it once, and had his answer. "There are residual traces of spatial teleportation."
"Teleportation?" Ye Xi blinked. He could use portals skillfully enough himself, yet this sort of power was something he simply couldn't sense. "Then where did they go?"
"By common reasoning," Zhongli said, "it should be Snezhnaya."
"Snezhnaya?"
The others were all taken aback.
Ye Xi wasn't especially surprised, only puzzled. What was Tartaglia doing dragging Klee off to Snezhnaya?
Could it really be a kidnapping?
If so, the Tsaritsa of Snezhnaya would be dragged into it.
In that case, he'd need to keep this Morax standing in front of him firmly on his side. Gods were reasonable enough to talk to.
So he asked, "By the way, what brings you here?"
Zhongli cleared his throat. "I came to the Northland Bank to file my expenses. Therefore, the Northland Bank cannot be sealed."
Ye Xi: "..."
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