It was evening.
Huoliya had already dragged Yingda and the newly arrived Mona off with her, a hint of mischief in her eyes, heading together to the market to buy ingredients.
Mona's expression was a little strange.
In her opinion, since there wouldn't be a single dish served tonight, that meant this whole trip was destined to be a waste of time for the three of them.
Still… thinking of how this older sister had just treated her to pastries—
If it turned out to be a wasted trip, then so be it.
"Sir, this Mona… can we trust her?"
Seeing the three of them leave, Fanan's gaze flickered slightly as he asked, thoughtful.
"She herself, yes."
Taro pulled a book out of his personal storage space and idly flipped it open.
"Mona is a good kid. As for what her teacher is after…"
"If it's not a last-will kind of arrangement, then it's a move on the board."
Taro wasn't sure yet whether Mona's master was a long-lived being or just a mortal.
In the Witches' Assembly, there were currently only two people clearly confirmed to be ordinary mortals. Barbeloth wasn't counted among them for the moment.
And yet Barbeloth was one of the Assembly's elders.
What did the word "elder" mean?
Someone who had been there since the early days of an organization's founding.
When was the Witches' Assembly founded?
That was still unclear, but it was definitely more than three to five hundred years ago.
After the Khaenri'ah cataclysm, Venti had truly fallen into a deep sleep.
The Witches' Assembly had once tried to challenge Venti, and he had easily neutralized them. That incident most likely happened before the Khaenri'ah disaster.
So… as an elder, was Barbeloth already present back then?
How many centuries can an ordinary, non–long-lived mortal live?
Or, during the period he was supposed to be asleep, had Venti actually woken up once?
That possibility did exist—and was actually quite reasonable.
Looking at it from the other side, though, the chance that Barbeloth was just a mortal seemed even higher.
After all, Mona herself had said with her own mouth that "the old hag is already old."
In the original storyline, the reason Mona went to Mondstadt was to retrieve Alice's blackmail material on Barbeloth from fifty years ago—embarrassing records from the elder's maiden days.
Fifty years ago she had still been in her "young girl" phase, yet now she was a tottering old granny.
That really sounded like a mortal's life.
After mulling it over for a while, Taro decisively gave up on thinking about it.
What was the point of overthinking? Once he met Venti again some day, he could just ask directly.
No need to waste his brain cells on it.
Besides…
In Barbeloth sending Mona here, was there some kind of scheme tucked inside?
Same as always:
In the face of absolute strength, any conspiracy or trick was nothing but a paper tiger.
As his strength continued to grow, no plots or schemes were going to work on him anyway.
"Right…"
Brushing aside the excess thoughts, Taro turned around and glanced back at those three utterly ordinary dining tables.
"Fanan, do you think Mona's divination will come true?"
Fate was a profoundly weird thing.
People always said life was unpredictable…
Well, fate was just as fickle, wasn't it?
That kind of topic was dangerous to chew on. Once you really started thinking about it, you either ended up stuck in a dead end or nesting one 'what if' inside another forever.
You never got a real answer.
"Probably~"
Facing her own teacher's question, Fanan let out a quiet laugh.
"The kid said it with such confidence. I'd say there's something to it."
"As for why it'll happen, well, there's only about three-quarters of an hour left anyway."
"The answer will show itself soon enough."
Bringing about the result Mona had divined was actually pretty difficult.
After all, they didn't go out very often.
And the time they did go out had already been set.
So what could possibly make them all rush out together and skip dinner entirely?
The heavens descending?
An Abyssal eruption?
A Descender invasion?
How could anything like that—
Bang!
Just as Fanan's thoughts were running wild, Taro suddenly snapped his book shut.
A blond boy with a braid, bearing more than a passing resemblance to Lumine, appeared in the doorway.
He had a huge pair of panda eyes and was glaring at Taro in fury.
The golden sword in his hand was wrapped in violet light, the aura of the Abyss completely unmasked.
He was clearly angry to a serious degree.
"Who?!"
Snapping back to himself, Fanan stepped forward, placing himself in front of Taro. His soft palm had already turned into razor-sharp claws.
A terrifying baleful aura began to seep out across his skin.
A ritual mask flickered faintly over his face, now there, now gone.
In the span of a single instant—
Two more figures burst from the windows upstairs, each taking up a corner.
Ganyu drew her longbow, an arrow of gathered Cryo forming in an instant.
Shenhe gripped her spear, Divine Maiden's Deliverance already circulating, her spirit-summoning incantation building power.
Almost at the same time, several figures streaked through the sky toward them.
The adepti based at Yuehai Pavilion arrived one after another, their overwhelming presence instantly filling the air.
At the top of Liyue's power pyramid, aside from the Dust King, the Geo Archon, and Azhdaha, almost all the pressure now rested on these adepti.
"Impudent fiend!"
"Thief—how dare you run wild in Liyue!"
"The power of the Abyss? Hmph, what a fine little Abyssal lackey."
"Fellow adepti, form the array with me and suppress this criminal!"
"Five-Directions Sealing Formation—rise!"
"Everyone, hold on a moment."
Just as the adepti were about to activate their formation, Taro spoke up at the right time.
"Just lock me and him inside."
The adepti exchanged glances; their thoughts were as one.
"Understood."
"Fellow adepti, raise the array!"
Immortal power spread out, visible to the naked eye.
In an instant, a sealing formation took shape.
In the blink of an eye, it altered the space around them, locking onto Taro and Aether and isolating them from all the mortals nearby.
"…"
Watching this scene, Aether's brows furrowed.
Not at the array. Not at the adepti.
But at the man who hadn't moved or reacted in any obvious way from beginning to end.
"At last, we meet, Your Highness."
Taro stepped forward, looked at Aether, and smiled.
"From the looks of it, you got punched by Lumine a few times?"
"Cut the nonsense!"
Aether glared coldly at Taro.
"What did you do to Lumine?"
"What did I do?"
Taro rubbed his chin.
"Obviously, only good things."
"And it was Lumine's own choice. I asked her more than once, you know."
"There was none of that forcing or threatening you're imagining."
"Between me and her… we had a very pleasant conversation, actually."
A very pleasant conversation?
As if I'd believe that!
You clearly sweet-talked her and led her astray!
"Bastard!"
Aether clenched his fist viciously.
"What exactly did you do to Lumine?!"
His once-gentle, once-adorable little sister—this time, the moment they met, before they'd even exchanged a few lines, she'd gone straight in and given him three solid beatings.
Normally speaking, his sister shouldn't have been able to beat him.
Her power hadn't fully recovered yet, and she lacked experience and accumulation.
And yet…
It had just been a plain wooden stick.
A little wooden stick Lumine had snapped in half with ease.
But it had pinned him in place for a full ten seconds.
Then that once-beloved little sister had stepped in and, with two quick punches, turned his face into a pair of panda eyes.
And that still wasn't the main point.
What mattered most was that there was now a strange power flowing inside Lumine that Aether had never seen before.
It wasn't Lumine's own power.
It wasn't Teyvat's power, either.
Had this guy completely brainwashed his sister?
He'd guessed the real culprit in the first instant.
So, acting far from rational, he'd stormed in through the door with his panda eyes.
And then he'd been caught like a turtle in an urn…
So this guy's target had been him from the very beginning?
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter]
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