"We'll chat later. Let's deal with Dvalin for now..."
"Huh!? Paimon wants to know! Who or what was that!"
"Paimon.. Please not now.."
Paimon wanted to ask but the stern look from Traveler shut her up.
The rest of the walk back to Mondsdat was silent and awkward. I excused myself to change my clothes covered with blood.
.
I went back to the tavern and gave Charles a break from work. I was cleaning some glasses until the group came in. I jumped and slid through the counter, I stood next to Jean.
"Welcome back Traveller~! Would you like to join me?"
The traveler just looked at him and gave him a shrug. He was holding the lyre.
"Ah, this is the Holy Lyre! You managed to retrieve it!" He put his hands on the lyre, stroking it like a fragile pet. "The pattern of flowing wind carved on the rosewood... and the strings still feel cool to the touch too. Oh, the memories..."
Jean disturbed the reunion with a question.
"What do you think, Venti? Can you summon Dvalin?"
Venti sighed and shook his head.
"Although this lyre is the real thing, I doubt that it's going to work. As you can see, the lyre has been through a thousand years of history. Its power has run dry. In this condition, you couldn't play music fit for even Kaeya's tavern with it..."
I couldn't help but chuckle at Venti's remark. Bards fought to get a chance to play at the tavern due to its large audience and its reputation.
Paimon was annoyed, "Did you just borrow the Holy Lyre to play music for drunkards to hear?"
Venti just let out a small "Ehe~"
"Ehe? What do you mean Ehe?"
Venti turned to the Traveler with a smile.
"Anyway, we won't be able to call Dvalin with it. The lyre itself is fine, but the strings... You're up, Traveler!"
The Traveler was confused and asked,
"I don't know how to fix instruments."
Venti chuckled with a smile on his face.
"Relax! It's not broken."
"It's just that the intensity of its Anemo power has greatly diminished. Traveler, you still have Dvalin's teardrop with you right?"
The Traveler nodded and summoned the teardrop from his storage. It was floating in his hand.
Venti nodded still smiling.
"Great! Try to use it on the Holy Lyre."
The Traveler looked skeptical but nodded back to Venti. He combined the teardrop with the lyre, using a bit of anemo. There was a bright glow which was cyan and quite pleasing to the eyes.
Venti smiled with pride.
"It worked, as expected."
Jean was perplexed, she could only utter out a few words in surprise.
"This youthful glow..."
Paimon looked at Jean with a disapproving stare.
"Praising yourself? Really?"
Jean shook her head and said,
"I was talking about the Holy Lyre..."
Venti interrupted the conversation between Jean and Paimon by saying,
"Thanks to the Traveler having purified the crystal, the Holy Lyre won't continue to lose power." He stopped for a few seconds and took a deep breath like he was getting slightly relieved
"That said, its power is far from replenished. It'd be great if we could get more tears."
Traveler agreed to help while Paimon asked,
"But, how will we get the tears? Do we have to make him cry? By hitting him?"
I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"H- hitting him? Oh, dear Barbatos. That's as crazy as Venti paying his tab in the tavern."
Venti snapped his head towards me and said in a playful tone.
"Hey~! That's not crazy at all! I do pay... With my performances of course!"
My laughter slowly died down into small snickers.
"Alright. Alright. We'll see about that."
Venti just sighed playfully and then said,
"I can surmise that Dvalin will already be crying... Suffering alone in some deserted place..."
Paimon was surprised and sad.
"Aww... Poor baby."
From what it looks like, Jean made her mind about something.
"This is not something that an Honorary Knight can accomplish alone. I will mobilize the rest of the knights to assist. When you get the Teardrop Crystal, please let Traveler perform the purification process."
The Traveler nodded and said,
"Leave to me."
Venti happily smiled and said,
"Heroes supporting each other and setting out on a journey together... How exciting! Lemme come up with a song for you..."
Paimon looked at him with a disapproving stare,
"Is that all you're going to do? Just sing?"
Venti looked at her with a cheeky grin saying,
"Wouldn't be much of a bard if I didn't now, would I?"
Paimon scoffed and said,
"Hmph. You're so cheeky... You deserve an ugly nickname." There was a moment of silence as Paimon thought of an ugly nickname.
"Oh, Paimon knows! From now on, you'll be known as 'Tone-Deaf Bard'!"
Venti was flabbergasted, he let out a playful gasp.
"Tome-Deaf Bard!? Mind you, I've won the title of 'Most Popular Bard of Mondstadt' three times."
A loud and happy laughter interrupted their conversation. It was me, laughing at their nickname. This confused them, what was so funny about it?
"Paimon's confused. What's so funny about this Kaeya? Is it the nickname?"
I was wheezing while gasping for air, I tried to calm myself down.
"Sorry about that- It just reminded me of something nostalgic"
"Paimon's still confused! What's so nostalgic about this?"
I couldn't help but smile while I was filled with nostalgia.
"It just reminds me.. Of my brother and me bickering in this very tavern while our father watched us with a tired sigh..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This chapter is done! Its technically a filler lol
Author out
Note- I decided to make the reveal later not now.
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Swear That You Will Never Leave Me
FanfictionKaeya was 17 when Diluc and Father died. He was too late. He was 17 when he turned his only brother into a monster. "You guys.... Swore. You swore that you would never leave me!" Kaeya shouted in a tone of anger and sadness. "Diluc, please don't l...
