Good Hunter.
Mona took off her witch hat.
That was something she only wore when going outside, to maintain the recognizable and mysterious look of a mage, or rather, an astrologer.
With the hat gone, the two long black ribbons tying her twin tails were revealed, her dark hair cascading down in two neat falls.
It was honestly very cute.
Moving efficiently, Mona helped tidy up the table, clearly not doing this for the first time.
Then she headed up to the second floor and sat on a chair, hands folded obediently over her knees, gaze fixed expectantly on the stove.
Her pale green eyes were shining.
"What do you want to eat?"
Jensen's voice came from the kitchen.
"S-salad is fine."
Mona swallowed, her voice a little tight.
The salad from Good Hunter was absolutely not the same as the cheap vegetable salads she usually cobbled together.
It was delicious. Truly delicious.
And if she ate it for dinner, she would not wake up hungry in the middle of the night.
Jensen knew all about her "save money by eating salad" strategy.
He glanced at her figure.
There was no way it had not affected her development.
For Mondstadt's noble ladies and wealthy wives, eating salad was a matter of controlling their diet and chasing fashion. Their salads always included a generous amount of meat.
Mona's salads, on the other hand, were pure vegetables and fruit. No meat, only to save Mora, make things easy to prepare, and fill her stomach as cheaply as possible.
Meat?
What was that.
With this kind of figure, there was no universe in which she should only be barely at second stage development.
"Only salad?" Jensen confirmed.
"Mm. Salad is the best food in the world."
Mona nodded very seriously.
This girl had basically hypnotized herself at the subconscious level.
"The grilled meat you had before?" Jensen asked again.
"..."
Mona swallowed hard.
On some instinctive level, she believed that salad was the best food in the world.
But all the other dishes at Good Hunter were tied for second place in her heart.
Even if in her mind salad was the true necessity, and those dishes were only tools to satisfy cravings.
"Would that not be too wasteful?"
She asked cautiously.
Jensen always made extra things for her to eat.
Every time she came, she felt super embarrassed about it.
"Forget it."
He shook his head.
Mona felt a small pang of disappointment, but mostly she just relaxed in relief.
"I will make you a Skyfeather Mushroom Stew."
Jensen glanced over the available ingredients.
The dish called for three kinds of bird - hawk, duck and goose, all of which he happened to have in stock. Add in matsutake mushrooms and a bit of salt, a splash of dandelion wine, and other seasonings, and simmer it all together.
Great for development.
Mona, of course, had never even heard of it.
In fact, no one in Mondstadt had ever gotten lucky enough to taste it.
But the name "Skyfeather Stew" sounded impressive enough that she immediately felt overwhelmed.
Heart suddenly uneasy, she hurried to refuse. "No need, salad is enough."
Jensen smiled. "If you refuse, you are not getting the salad either."
Guuu...
Her stomach surrendered far sooner than her pride did.
Mona instinctively wrapped her arms around her belly, her face and the tips of her ears turning red all over. "T-then, I will gratefully accept."
"Your stomach is the honest one here."
Jensen first prepared a salad to cushion her hunger.
Satisfying Salad was a common recipe across the nations of Teyvat, made with cabbage, apples, eggs or bird eggs, and potatoes.
The difference in taste came down to the freshness of the ingredients and the proportions of everything.
In Mondstadt, Good Hunter's Satisfying Salad had the best reputation.
"Come take it."
Jensen called.
Mona's understanding was not wrong. Salad really was simple to prepare.
Once he had washed his hands, Jensen started on the second dish, the Skyfeather Stew. He had all the ingredients. The key lay in exactly when each went into the pot, how the fire was controlled, and how he stirred the stew.
Mona sat at the table, eating her salad with a blissful expression.
"This is too extravagant," she muttered under her breath.
...
In front of an inn in Mondstadt.
Lumine and Paimon had just been turned away again.
This was already the last inn they could find.
Everyone seemed to have decided that after a storm like the one that had hit that afternoon, no traveler or merchant would be entering Mondstadt and staying the night.
Every inn had closed early.
No matter how Paimon knocked, nobody answered.
Lumine sat on the long bench outside the inn, propping her chin in one hand, troubled.
Paimon had already digested her dinner and was now floating quietly beside her.
"We are not this unlucky, right? We actually made it inside the city, and we still have to sleep on the street?"
Paimon, for once, thought hard about the situation, then said seriously, "Lumine, maybe we are actually super talented at being travelers!"
"...You need to apologize to every traveler in the world."
Lumine sighed.
Roughing it in the wild was one thing. Everyone had it hard there.
But staying in a city and not booking an inn or hotel, that was just embarrassing.
"Still, Lumine, why did you lie to Jensen just now?" Paimon asked, baffled. "I did not even have time to explain. We obviously did not book any inn."
Even crashing in the main hall of Good Hunter for a night would have been fine.
At least it was warm.
And it smelled like food.
"Jensen brought that girl Mona back. If they end up, you know, being intimate, it would be awkward if we were still there."
Lumine did know a thing or two about such matters.
"I-intimate...?"
Paimon understood the term.
But she did not understand what that had to do with them. She put her hands on her hips, entirely righteous. "That is grown up stuff. What does it have to do with us?"
Lumine thought about it.
And had to admit Paimon kind of had a point.
"But going back now would be really embarrassing."
She lowered her voice. "I already told Jensen we had booked an inn."