Teyvat.
There's a legend that circulates across this continent: when someone's wish burns strongly enough, a blue exclamation mark will appear above their head.
That's when a certain blonde girl shows up.
As long as you pay her a price she's satisfied with, she'll solve any problem for you.
Along the way, of course, she'll also take every item she can get her hands on.
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Mondstadt, the City of Freedom.
In the game, Mondstadt is just a tiny map on the screen.
But that's only due to game resource limits—naturally, the real Mondstadt is far larger and far grander.
The bustling city was overflowing with people, as lively as a river that never ceased to flow.
The entire nation was soaked in the festive atmosphere of freedom and joy, an endless wave of harmony and celebration.
"Fuuuh haaaah~!"
The golden-haired girl stretched lazily.
Two long braids swayed down over her fair, rounded shoulders like trickling streams.
Golden strands of hair were adorned with delicate five-petaled blue-and-white flowers, carrying both elegance and freshness—like a breath of spring straight out of a fairytale.
Her fitted white dress, trimmed with golden embroidery, perfectly outlined her slender figure.
Her pale skin glowed with a nearly translucent radiance under the sunlight.
This was none other than Teyvat's number-one part-timer!
An adventurer by trade… and a food delivery courier on the side.
Though at this rate, if adventuring were still her "main job," she might as well be unemployed.
Through the window, Lumine gazed at the streams of people outside, her mind wandering.
Mondstadt's annual Windblume Festival was supposed to be a grand tradition, as important as Liyue's Lantern Rite—a festival of freedom and love.
But strangely enough, not a single commission had come her way during these days of nationwide revelry.
Unlike Liyue, where she'd nearly developed task-induced PTSD from the endless commissions to craft lanterns.
But unlike a certain blonde idiot in the game who would plant her fists on her hips and proudly boast: "I've made more lanterns than you've ever seen!"—Lumine had a better way.
All she had to do was tilt her head, act a little cute, call someone "Onii-chan" in a sugary voice, and voilà—out came jewels and precious metals.
Then she simply exchanged them all for Mora!
Since such "pure material" red packets didn't require much conversion energy, even a single point was enough to fund her lifestyle for a long while.
Ever since that miraculous encounter, Lumine's quality of life had skyrocketed.
No more nights of camping in the wilderness—she'd splurged on small properties in both Mondstadt and Liyue, and was even planning to buy one in Inazuma.
She was, without a doubt, a little rich girl now.
Of course, she hadn't gone for anything too extravagant.
After all, it was just her and Paimon—cozy little places had their own warmth.
As for Nagami being far older than her… was that really a problem?
'Hmph! I'm an eighteen-year-old beauty, thank you very much!'
"Paimon!"
After stretching, Lumine flopped back onto the bed, rolling herself up in the blanket like a cocoon.
She lifted her head like a little worm, staring at the tiny floating creature… more specifically, at Paimon's pale, tender little legs.
Smooth, snow-white, and soft-looking—they practically made her hungry.
"C'mon, just lemme have a little taste!"
"Lumine! How many times do I have to tell you—Paimon is not food!" Paimon puffed her cheeks, put her tiny hands on her hips, and stomped her little feet in the air, glaring furiously. "If you keep this up, I'll really get mad!"
"Okay, okay, just kidding~"
Lumine stuck out her pink tongue to lick her lips, though her "hungry" expression wasn't fooling anyone.
"Well then, Paimon, if I promise not to call you food anymore… will you make breakfast for me?"
She remembered something she once heard in another world, intelligent creatures always like compromise.
For example, if you just say, I don't want to get up, you make breakfast, little Paimon would definitely refuse.
But if you threaten, 'Maybe I'll eat you instead,' suddenly making breakfast doesn't sound so bad.
"Uh… well…"
Paimon's face twisted.
With her tiny arms and legs, how was she supposed to cook anything?
But Lumine wasn't calling her food anymore—if she refused now, would Lumine actually take a bite?
After all… she had tried before!
Watching Paimon hover in midair, frowning in hesitation, Lumine sighed. "Looks like I'll just have to do it myself."
"Eh!? You're actually going to cook!? Oh! It's been forever since Paimon got to eat your food!"
Excited, Paimon zipped right up to Lumine's face, her eyes sparkling.
After all, travelers who cross countless worlds often end up in unfamiliar lands.
In such places, cooking for yourself was a matter of survival—and Lumine's cooking skills had grown quite impressive.
Unfortunately, ever since she'd mysteriously produced expensive jewelry out of nowhere and no longer lacked Mora, Lumine hadn't stepped foot in a kitchen.
Which meant Paimon hadn't had her cooking in ages.
There was one more thing worth mentioning: ever since that strange phenomenon began, Lumine's personality had started shifting in a… weird direction!
No, shift wasn't exactly right—it was more like the sides she'd been hiding all along were finally being exposed.
Or as they'd say in Liyue: her "true form" was showing.
Lumine just raised one slender finger to her lips, smiling mysteriously without a word.
Paimon tilted her head, puzzled, as she watched Lumine crawl out of the blankets with exaggerated effort.
She staggered to the window, flung it open, cupped her hands around her mouth, took a deep breath, and shouted at the top of her lungs:
"NO——ELLE——!!"
Her voice echoed with the wind.
And yet, none of Mondstadt's citizens looked surprised—they reacted like it was just another part of daily life.
A few minutes later, a figure streaked across the sky, gliding down on Mondstadt's signature wind-glider wings like a falling star.
With elegant poise, she landed in the square.
The distinct clink of armored maid attire rang out, silver hair fluttering in the gust of her descent.
This was the girl known as Mondstadt's very own "Disaster-Creation Machine"—Noelle!
A handy trick of life in Mondstadt: whenever you needed help, just yell her name—"Noelle Dusk!"—and the angel disguised as a maid would arrive at your side, ready to solve your problems without asking for payment.
Honestly, far more useful than a certain blonde airhead.
"Does someone need my help? Don't worry, I'll take care of—oh! Traveler?"
Noelle blinked, startled to see Lumine grinning at her with an unusually radiant smile.
Whatever she was remembering, it painted her pale cheeks with a soft blush.
"Noelle, I'm sorry to call you out like this… It's just, we haven't seen each other in a while, and… I kind of missed you."
Lumine's smile softened, her tone warm and tender.
"L-Lumine…" The blunt honesty made Noelle's face flush deeper.
She quickly glanced away. "It looks like… you haven't had breakfast yet. Honestly, you really don't take care of yourself…"
Paimon's jaw dropped.
She just hovered there, wide-eyed, as Noelle gave her a polite little wave before heading straight into the kitchen, expression gentle.
Mechanically, Paimon lifted one tiny hand to wave back.
Then she turned to see Lumine flash her a thumbs-up with the smug grin of a champion.
Paimon's whole body trembled in disbelief.
'The Traveler's shamelessness knows no bounds!'
When two "scoundrels" meet, one inevitably has to toss away their dignity and thicken their skin just to keep up with the other.
A kind of… healthy competition, if you could call it that.
After savoring the hearty breakfast Noelle had lovingly prepared, Lumine happily waved goodbye to the flustered maid, who rushed off to her other duties.
Patting her still-flat belly in satisfaction, Lumine turned her thoughts to her next destination: the cathedral.
She was planning to see Barbara, though the reason… well, let's just say it was to heal her heart.
As for that riddle-spouting mystery man, Dainsleif—the so-called "Seeker of Branches"—Lumine honestly couldn't care less.
"The beginning reversed destruction."
"The future saves the past. The elder and the younger, bound by blood, tear each other apart."
Those cryptic lines hinted at the tangled story behind Teyvat, but Lumine couldn't be bothered to dwell on them.
From the lore Nagami had posted in the chat group, she recalled how he once entered Mondstadt, went straight to the blacksmith, and asked for materials the man had never even heard of.
That alone suggested he might not belong to this timeline at all—that he was just using the questions to figure out when he'd landed.
…Or maybe she was just overthinking it.
Either way, after running through the possibilities, Lumine decided to drop the subject altogether.
Why waste time brooding when she could go hang out with Keqing or Ganyu in Liyue?
Ei was still waiting for her in the Plane of Euthymia too, wasn't she?
Teyvat's problems could wait. Things always worked themselves out in the end.
And if not—well, she could always drag that ridiculously strong Nagami over and make him work like a part-timer.
Problem solved.
It might feel awkward to ask the others for help, but Nagami?
For him, she didn't feel the slightest hesitation.
Strange, wasn't it?
She had crossed countless worlds, met unforgettable friends in many of them.
But never before had she encountered someone whose personality meshed so perfectly with hers.
To be honest, it was the first time.
Perhaps this was what people called fate.
Not that she wasn't creeped out by how in sync they sometimes were.
Their "tacit understanding" felt more like something you'd find between a couple who'd lived together for hundreds of years.
'No way… I don't actually like him, do I?'
Don't be ridiculous! She and Nagami were worlds apart—literally!
Ahem, correction: she was only eighteen this year, thank you very much!
Lost in thought, Lumine soon arrived at the plaza before Mondstadt Cathedral.
A familiar green figure came into view, and her expression instantly collapsed into dead-fish eyes.
She was just about to greet him when, suddenly, something strange surged from deep within her soul—a sensation she'd never felt before.
Her face froze.
Then she whipped around sharply, raising her gaze to the endless blue sky above.
This was…
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