Thanks to the other version of herself coming to the rescue, Lumine's pure, cute image remained intact in Barbara's mind.
With Nagami standing beside Lumine, Barbara ultimately didn't give her the flowers.
She made an excuse about urgent matters at the church and hurried away.
Lumine stared after Barbara as she left, eyes flicking to the bouquet clenched in the girl's hand.
She frowned faintly.
"Good thing it wasn't the Cecilia flower that signals special feelings." She cast a sidelong glance at the white flower Nagami had pinned to her hair, crossed her arms and shook her head.
"Still—giving me flowers on Windblume Festival is flirting dangerously close to the warning line. Maybe… tone it down next time."
"Am I really that shameless?" Nagami asked, watching Lumine's ever-goofy, adorable face.
He poked her soft cheek—and, of course, earned another big, exasperated eye-roll.
Ever since Lumine arrived in Teyvat she'd met a bunch of girls in Mondstadt and Liyue, but she'd never intentionally made any of them sad—how could anyone call her shameless?
This was just wholesome girl-bonding, not anything to read into!
"Fine. I'll choose to believe 'me' on this one."
She'd agreed earlier with Paimon to meet at the plaza in front of the church, and it was about time to head there—the longest Lumine had been apart from her external mouthpiece so far.
Lumine took Nagami's hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
She tugged him toward the plaza.
She knew exactly what Nagami felt: the sensation of a girl taking his hand first.
But it was weird—when Keqing, Ganyu, or Barbara had taken her hand, the feeling had been totally different.
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[Of course it's different. You can now feel my sensations exactly.]
[A guy being grabbed by a beautiful girl is not the same as a girl being grabbed by a beautiful girl—unless you're actually into girls.]
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Reading Nagami's inner thought, Lumine nodded thoughtfully and started to squeeze his fingers experimentally.
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[By the way, didn't you say in the group you'd located Aether? Where is he now? Hurry up and stir something up!]
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Nagami gently batted away the probing little hand.
The odd counterpart sensation had already been experienced once on the Doctor, and ever since having two bodies he'd been getting used to the layered feeling of male and female touch—so he wasn't particularly curious this time.
The news that another beautiful counterpart existed made Lumine look interested.
She'd apparently ended up in the same world as Kaishil? Worth a visit when she had time.
She still had some group-chat points saved up—unlike Reimu, who burned through hers every few days.
The gacha's low-tier pulls often yielded cute little items that were amusing or could be converted to cash.
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[Based on the Genshin info you uploaded, I've already contacted Ganyu. If any treasure-hunter missions pop up, alert me. If I'm not in Liyue, send a letter to my Mondstadt residence.]
[Don't worry—I'm even more eager than you are for 'big sister' to show up!]
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Lumine planted her hands on her hips, chin up, the look of someone who'd been prepared all along.
Expectation glittered in her amber eyes.
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[What a good little sister you are!]
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Putting Lumine together with Aether had been the right call—if that adorable little kid turned out to be as scheming as Lumine, there'd be no point left in the world.
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[Heh heh—of course!]
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As if he hadn't read Nagami's self-deprecating thoughts at all, Lumine puffed out her chest proudly.
As an immortal, the bond between her and Aether was already deep.
How to explain it?
When there were no enemies and the outside world was safe, they both had zero restraint about messing with one another—so long as nobody died, it was fair game.
Romantic light-novel scenarios where a sweet little sister cuddles and coos at her doting brother? That only existed in dreams.
Not that such tenderness didn't exist at all—during the first few hundred years of their travels, that kind of warm, affectionate routine had actually happened.
But once the mindset slowly shifted into "immortal species" mode, that hopeful, lovey-dovey vibe belonged to fiction.
Of course, when real threats appear the siblings would show each other what ruthless meant.
Right now things were calm and Aether was safe—so Lumine decided to focus on causing trouble.
If anything went wrong, there was always Nagami to clean up the mess.
To be honest, once she'd had Nagami help tidy up her problems for free, she'd felt a twinge of guilt deep down.
Now? She felt absolutely zero hesitation about bossing him around—after all, she was, in a sense, bossing herself.
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[By the way, Aether can also be counted as one of your brothers!]
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Before either of them noticed, their hands had shifted—fingers laced together tightly, swinging back and forth in sync.
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[Uh, fine, if you say so. But honestly, I'd rather have a sister than a brother.]
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The whole way there, since their topic of conversation was full of secrets, Nagami and Lumine spoke entirely through their telepathic link.
To passing strangers, however, the sight of a boy and girl silently holding hands, walking in perfect harmony, looked exactly like that of a couple deeply in love.
Step by step, they climbed the green-carpeted stone staircase. At the very top, Nagami stopped, tilting his head slightly upward.
The wide plaza before the cathedral stretched out, dominated by the grand statue of Barbatos, the Anemo Archon.
It was even larger than in the game.
Beside the statue, a crowd had gathered, and with the sharp sight of a Herrscher, Nagami instantly picked out the figure at the center.
A boy in baroque-style clothing, short black hair with green-tipped braids hanging at his temples, draped in a green cape.
His delicate features and long legs wrapped in white stockings gave him the perfect look of someone who could pass off beautifully in women's clothing.
The moment Nagami saw Venti, his first instinct was to activate his Alpha Stigma Eyes and take a closer look—just how much "water" had Venti dumped in to make La Signora's fight feel so ridiculously easy?
But then he remembered his powers were already occupied with a full-scale analysis.
He shook his head and let the idea go.
Lumine, still holding his hand, led Nagami through the crowd until they stood before Venti.
Since her external speech organ was still on its way back, she had no choice but to greet him herself.
"Venti, what are you doing here? Why is there such a big crowd gathered?"
"Hello, Traveler. How rare! It's unusual to see you without little Paimon—eh?" Venti waved cheerfully, but halfway through his sentence, his eyes drifted down to their joined hands.
His gaze then flicked up to the Cecilia flower still pinned in Lumine's hair, and his smile twisted into something just a bit more suggestive.
"Could this be… someone special? A traveler from afar finding her fated love in Mondstadt during the Windblume Festival—that would make quite the romantic ballad, don't you think?"
"It's not like that!"
Flustered, Lumine immediately yanked her hand free from Nagami's and shook her head furiously.
She quickly gave Venti the same excuse she'd used earlier with Barbara.
It wasn't embarrassment—far from it.
With the kind of bond she shared with Nagami, even closer contact wouldn't matter; after all, he was essentially another "her."
But if they kept holding hands in public, anyone who saw them would almost certainly assume they were lovers.
"Brother?" Venti's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at Nagami, curiosity sparking.
Nagami simply gave him a gentle smile and a small nod.
Since there were too many ears around, Lumine didn't bother explaining in detail—just something vague about being forced to change appearances.
Venti, however, wasn't so easily convinced.
He was no innocent little girl like Barbara.
Even if he'd spent centuries sleeping to stave off the erosion of time, his actual age was far from young.
Besides, a bard's eye for gossip was sharper than anyone's.
The bond between the Traveler and this boy was definitely not simple.
"Well then," Venti said with a playful grin, "congratulations on reuniting with your brother—especially during the Windblume Festival! What a joyful occasion. You'd better enjoy the celebrations to the fullest!"