After a nice fruit breakfast, we finally began on our journey to find the Archon. Which mostly just meant walking on the dirt paths leading towards the city of Inazuma to reach the main building of the Shogunate.
Alas, that meant both Lumine and I had to curb our usual daredevil tendencies to a minimum for the time being. We had two little charges to take care of, and we decided not to set a bad example for these two. Lumine was especially understanding, having undertaken many 'escort quests' during her many world-hoppings.
Of course, the two children were still no better acquaintances with us. Despite having shared their reason for being here and eating breakfast together, the two were still quite cagey with us. Kojirou was particularly hostile, scowling and growling whenever we came too close—though that was likely more due to his personality than any suspicion.
So, to fill the time, I decided to regale some Liyue myths I'd learnt during my 'travels'. The birth of Morax and Guizhong, their collaboration to create Guili Assembly, the many battles Morax undertook. Then even the moment when Guizhong found Liyue's third 'god', of the battle for Guili Assembly, the construction of Liyue Harbor, and lastly the defeat of Osial.
The children were obviously interested in hearing how the famed city of commerce began, but Lumine listened closely as well. Of course, she was the only one that knew that Lady Venti and Wendy were the same person, and so she occasionally turned away to hide a smirk.
But while I'd given my own story little mind, Lumine did. When she heard that I woke up on a beach with no memories of who I was, a suspicion entered her mind. After all, in her eyes, I was a 'faux god' with powers and abilities that seemed to eclipse the actual gods in this world. Someone directly cursed by Celestia, causing me to lose memories whenever I talked or thought of something taboo.
"Could he be a descender?" She couldn't help but wonder. After all, when he first saved her, she'd felt that immense feeling of closeness with him. As if she and him were cut from the same cloth—a feeling she'd only shared with Aether and her parents.
The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became. His knowledge, his strength, even his constant appreciation and longing for the stars; if Venti was truly a descender, explaining some of his strangeness became much easier.
But she'd save her thoughts for later. There was no need to burden her friend with this. Not yet.
Meanwhile, I continued on my storytelling, entirely unaware of Lumine's thoughts. With the basics of Liyue Harbor's creation told, I then diverged to some of the interesting things I'd seen after I woke up three years prior. Ruins in the Eastern corner of Liyue, an underground chasm now filled with refugees, and so on.
However, as I told my stories, I sensed someone approaching. Or to be more exact, a group of people. And from the way their steps were measured and almost in sync, they were certainly trained in some way.
I glanced at Lumine to see if she'd noticed it, and she returned a nod. "Well, I suppose I shall pause it here." I said to them. The two children stared at me, confused, and I only winked as I brought out a [Windsail Beacon] from my Inventory. Their eyes widened as they saw the staff suddenly appear from thin air.
"Here." I handed the staff over to Hanami. "Hold this tight, young one. This will protect you two while we deal with some unwanted guests."
"Unwanted-" Kojirou began, before his eyes sharpened as he realized what I meant. He quickly came to Hanami's side and held one of her hands, glaring at me. "This stick will protect us, right?"
I smiled wryly. To call the staff a 'stick' was-, well. "It sure will." I then walked up to Lumine and playfully bumped my shoulder to hers. "Well then, shall we greet our audience?"
She nodded silently, letting her sword come to her hand in a flash of yellow light. "Come out." She said, her voice sharp and dangerous.
The moment she said that, a group of heavily armored men stepped out from the woods. They were garbed head-to-toe in heavy ornamental armor, befitting for samurai. Each of them had a sheathed katana strapped to their waists, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.
They spoke little as they approached us, but it wasn't hard to see the greed in their eyes as they stared at us. They saw our foreign outfits and carefree attitude, and they assumed we must be some kind of wealthy noble. In a way, they weren't wrong. And they were far from deterred when Lumine pointed her blade at them.
I couldn't help but frown a little however. These men were still undoubtedly human, but I could feel a trace of something in them. It was similar to the karma that Liyue suffered under when the lands were covered in demons, but not quite. It felt less corruptive and more…evil? I wasn't sure what the correct word was.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be slightly twisting their rationality, so much so that they only got more excited when Lumine openly showed hostility.
"A confrontation is inevitable, it seems." I told her as I took hold of the harp strapped to my belt. "Are you ready?"
She smiled sharply. "Always."
And with a powerful leap, Lumine charged forward. She went right after the neck of the closest bandit, her sword glowing gold as she swung. The bandit held up his sword to deflect, assuming that the girl could never overpower a man like him.
He was wrong. He could only watch as his sword was cut apart like butter. And all he could do was stare as her sword cleaved through his armor, creating a deep wound right across his chest. He screamed in pain as he fell, blood soaking into the grass.
The other bandits became much more vigilant after that. They brought their swords out and encircled Lumine, trying to find some opening they could use.
Unfortunately, they'd forgotten I was there. And so I had little resistance as I strummed the harp, causing a storm of Anemo to form around Lumine and blow outwards, sending the bandits flying back and damaging their armor. When some of the bandits turned to me in shock, I playfully winked back as I created another blast of Anemo with a strum of my harp.
Obviously, I didn't need to play an instrument to create my winds. But I was trying to appear somewhat normal, and I already had a harp as a prop for my disguise. I might as well make others assume that the harp itself was special instead of me being me.
To be fair, the bandits put in all their effort to fight off the two clearly-superhuman combatants they'd found. But they were merely ronins—dishonored samurai who once worked for the shogunate. What could they do against a girl who could slice through their armor like it was air, or a minstrel capable of conjuring winds that rivalled those of the tengu?
It was impossible!
And so it didn't take long before all the bandits were brought down, their equipment in complete tatters and all of them bleeding profusely. Without any help, those men would certainly die in minutes.
"So strong…!" Hanami whispered, clutching the [Windsail Beacon] tight.
Kojirou gulped as he watched the group of samurai get completely decimated. The two weirdos they met by accident were actually this strong? And he'd been acting like this to them this entire time!? He could only watch in stunned silence, and silently hope that those two would forgive his attitude.
Lumine elegantly whipped her sword to flick off the last droplets of blood from her blade before she returned to my side. "Done and dusted." She said, shaking her head at the downed bandits. "Should've realized something was off, dumbass."
I smiled wryly. "We are outliers, so they shouldn't be blamed too much." Lumine rolled her eyes in response, and I sighed. "That aside, what do we do with them?"
She shrugged. "Your choice."
I hummed, before I played a quick melody using my harp. I sent out a weak pulse of [Sunlight Healing] across all the downed bandits. It wasn't enough to heal them completely, but at least they wouldn't be dead in the next few minutes. They'd still need to get up and bandage themselves though—it wasn't as if their wounds were completely gone.
Lumine huffed, before she glared at the downed bandits. "Don't come after us again." She said coldly. "Because if you do," she slammed her foot into the ground. The earth trembled slightly from the force, and the dirt cracked and sunk down.
The downed bandits shivered as they saw the devastation that single stomp caused.
She nodded when she saw their terrified expressions, before she turned back to me. "Alright, let's continue."
I smiled. "Let us." I then turned back to the two children. "Come now. Let us continue on our path to the Shogunate, shall we?"
"Okay!" Hanami cheered, while Kojirou stiffly nodded, his face pale as he saw how much strength lay in Lumine's deceptively thin build. He promised to Lord Orobashi that he wouldn't anger these two ever again.
As we continued walking, Hanami came up to him and handed the [Windsail Beacon] back. I was initially ready to return the staff back into my Inventory, but as I stared at her, I decided not to. "Hold onto it, young one." I said as I pushed the staff back into her hands. "It is better in your hands, so that it may protect you whenever we cannot."
Hanami frowned for a moment, before she nodded. "I'll keep it safe." She promised, eyes determined. How cute.
I smiled as I unconsciously patted her head. I realized what I did far too late, but thankfully Hanami didn't seem to mind. She seemed surprised at first, but she quickly became comfortable.
Kojirou huffed as he saw Hanami preen under my attention, but said nothing else.
With the bandit threat behind us, we continued on our way to the city of Inazuma. I also continued my storytelling, recounting more things I'd seen throughout my journey in Liyue. Lumine also chimed in whenever we got to the adventures we went on together, filling in details I missed.
And through it all, the children listened, now understanding how strong we both were. Hanami was especially attentive, and she held the [Windsail Beacon] close to her chest as she listened to our tales.
Unknown to any of us, the [Windsail Beacon] glowed for a moment as Hanami held it close, before the light faded.