𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖 || 𝙫𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨!𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣 𝙭 𝙛!𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

[𝟏𝟗]. let go

". . . Venti," You clarified.

"Oh! Yeah, he's still at Tea Master Liu's," Aether shrugged, picking up some remains of an abyss mage as you tagged along for his daily commissions, replacing Bennett who was out and about back at Liyue Harbor.

"Still? What's he doing? Having an apple party?"

"Well... he said something about boats during the Lantern Rite," The Traveler pressed an index finger to his chin, closing his eyes in deep thought as you flinched.

"Him? Mora? Boat? Please, hilarious!"

You turned around.

Don't tell me Venti is about to rent a Lantern Rite boat for 20,000 mora? What the heck!

☆

"Hm~!" Venti hummed gleefully, spinning his feathered (fake) vision around his index finger like a pencil.

Ignoring a certain consultant's piercing gaze, the bard proceeded to count out his funds.

1,900 mora.

He didn't even want to do the math for how much more he needed.

"This is truly a travesty! Liyue folks don't know good poetry when they see it," He grumbled under his breath, muttering a string of curses towards Rex Lapis as the ex-archon began to choke on his tea.

☆

[IN THE MIDDLE OF LITERALLY NOWHERE]

"Is that it?" [Y/N] called, wiping her chin with the back of her arm.

"No! One more wave!" Aether called, sword still drawn as he sent a burst of rocks towards approaching hilichurls. Turning around, the adeptus began to set the entire plain aflame.

'I'm getting an odd sense of deja vu from when we first met...' Aether sweatdropped, surrounding himself with a pyro shield as he watched the girl wreck havoc onto the poor abyss mages.

☆

[LIYUE HARBOR]

"Eh? You don't want any more apples?" A man asked, holding out the crimson fruit as Venti hesitantly shook his head.

"Sorry! Only mora, please!"

The man clicked his tongue, throwing the apple off the side of the harbor as it plopped into the water, treating it like a ball while the bard was a dog.

"Are all Mondstadt citizens as greedy as you?"

Venti continued to smile.

"Don't like? Don't listen!"

Watching the man begrudgingly walk away, Venti visibly slumped, hands hovering above the strings of his trusty lyre as he eyed the coin pouch beside him.

8,600 bits of mora. The sun was at its highest point, giving the bard some time to rest before he'd begin to perform again.

☆

[MT. TIANHENG]

We should've brought someone with a hydro vision. You thought with a grimace, watching Aether slash at a pyro abyss mage's shield.

As if on cue, a sudden voice yelling 'Let me weave you a verse!' came plummeting in, slashing at the shield with a burst of water as the abyss mage flopped to the floor like a fish.

"Eh?" You blinked, squinting to see a male with blue hair and orange eyes smacking the shit out of the mage alongside Aether who merely acted as if this were a common occurrence.