Diluc x Reader

31

diluc was observing the conversation closely, his arms folded in front of his chest as he eyed you and the unknown male in front of you.

"paimon and i will be attending the rite of descension." aether said from behind you as he walked past you and diluc, knowing it would be better for both.

that way diluc could investigate your identity and aether could try and get close to the lord of geo, much time would be saved that way.

you looked to your side and saw aether waving at you as he entered on the bridge, you waved back and spoke up, "see you later!"

"you made some friends on your travels?" the guard said as he was reffering to the silent antisocial diluc who was standing besides you.

diluc scoffed at the mention and decided to speak up for himself, "im diluc." he said sternly, his arms still folded in front of his chest, "from mondstadt." he added.

he didnt find it necessary to add anything else, he was just here to see if you were actually from liyue, not to make any friends.

"ah. i see." the guard spoke up in an awkward manner. "we welcome you to liyue." he said and gave the red haired male besides you a smile while saluting him.

diluc simply nodded and ended the conversation like that, you started talking to the guard once more just to be safe. "anything interesting happened while i was away?"

"oh! yes!" he said almost immediately, "i heard from ying'er that changshun is doing tax evasion." the guard said to you with widened eyes.

the conversation was completely pointless but it amused you how much he was into it, you played along. "oh god, i hope yanfei doesnt know." you said as you referred to the pink haired girl who was a legal advisor.

you two talked about random gossip about the people in liyue city for around a solid fifteen minutes, it was enjoyable so time flied by easily. diluc was still as composed as the conversation started, showing how serious he was about observing you.

"we should go." diluc said from besides you as he looked past the guard, at liyue city. you looked at him and saw his eyebrows were furrowed, something was bothering him.

you decided to listen to him and quickly ended the conversation with the friendly guard, "ill see you later then." you said with a smile on your face to him.

the guard returned your smile and waved you off, you turned to diluc and spoke up once more as you two started walking towards the bridge leading to liyue city. "is something bothering you?"

diluc let out a deep breath, his eyes still lingered on the same place that he was looking at before. you followed his gaze and saw he was looking at a higher ground from liyue.

if you recall correct, you remember seeing aether walk up to that place along with paimon, meaning that the rite of descension was held there.

as you two walked closer to the place, you saw a big group of people standing there, but also a decent amount of guards.

just like diluc, you started to feel uneasy about the situation as you walked closer to it. something was wrong and you both felt it.

you both started walking on the stone stairs, walking up to where the rite of descension was supposed to be held. neither of you said a word and the tension remained high.

soon you two finally ascended the last stairs and were met with an open place, there were silk flowers surrounding you along with long bamboo trees.

you looked in front of you and saw a higher platform in front of you where the rite of parting was being held, the only thing separating you from joining in was a big liyue styled wall with a circle like opening.

as you walked, you could hear the voices of the crowd being louder and louder, some were crying and others were yelling.

you didnt hesitate to come closer with diluc following you close. you were about to enter the rite of descension untill you were harshly stopped by three guards.

"stay there!" one of the guards sternly said in a loud voice as he held his spear vertically in front of him, in a way of intimidating you two.

another guard besides him spoke up as well, "we cannot let you pass." she said calmly, much in contradiction to the other guard who almost straight up shouted at you.

diluc was quick to analyze the situation, he looked over the guards in front of you and saw a crowd being held hostage by similar guards, they were getting questioned.

scanning their expressions, he saw panic, anger, sadness and confusion on the faces of the crowd. "what is going on?" he said to the guard in front of him, it was supposed to come off as a question but came out like a rather forceful statement.

"we cannot let this news out yet, we need to question everyone and make sure we dont spread false infor-" the first guard said, only to be cut off by the third guard who had been silent.

he sighed, "rex lapis has been assassinated." he explained in an uncomfortably calm voice to both you and diluc.

the information went through your ears and you processed the news immediately, your mouth slightly parted and your eyes widened as you heard that an archon was murdered.

your mind quickly came to a conclusion, first you questioned yourself who even would do something against the archons, and you could easily answer that.

the cryo archon, the leader of the fatui, was on the hunt of the gnosises off all archons. that is why you entered mondstadt in the first place, to steal the gnosis of the anemo archon.

it was still a possibility, but you were certain that the fatui was behind the dead of rex lapis, the geo archon.

you got consumed by your own thoughts, 'was it childe? what if there are more harbingers here?' you started thinking.

the worst was that if there were more harbingers here, they would know you messed up your mission, you absolutely didnt want that since they would only belittle you more.

the fatui was your only form of family and you didnt want them to see you like that. 'did they know i failed my missio-'

before you could even think about the thought of the other harbingers knowing you messed up, something snapped you back to reality.

you felt a warm hand on your shoulder, the motion was gentle and caring. you looked to the side and then saw whose hand it was. your eyes ones again met with red ones that looked at yours in a concerned way.

"are you okay?" diluc asked you, his voice quiet as he brought his face closer to you, hoping you had heard him in the midst of the chaos around you.

you looked into his eyes and nodded at him, your worried expression slightly leaving your features. his hand remained on your shoulder as a way of keeping you close to him, to make sure you two wouldnt get separated in the crowd of people.

you looked around you to see if you could get a closer look at the assassination, maybe it would tell you something. you tilted your gaze to the side and were met with an unexpected sight.

you looked at the lower ground and saw three suspiciously familiar people running away from a big amount of guards.

extending your hand, you tilted it upwards to hold dilucs hand which was still on your shoulder, you grabbed his gloved hand and dragged him along with you to the side of the platform you were standing on.

now having a bigger view, you saw the three quickly running behind a corner. diluc saw the figures as well and spoke exactly what was on your mind, "was that aether with paimon? and some taller guy?" he spoke up, his voice laced with visible confusion.

"i think so, we should follow them." you said almost immediately in a stern voice. it was awfully suspicious that the geo archon was just assassinated and here they were, running away from the incident as if they were the ones that did it.

diluc nodded and you both made your way through the big crowd back to the stone stairs, holding hands to make sure you two didnt lose each other.

his hand was clasped firmly around yours, you could feel the warmth radiating off it as you continued to walk through the mass of people.