Venti's funeral

Part 5 - Musical Talent

The next stop on the traveller's journey was to find someone to play music at the funeral. After all, it would be fitting to play music for a bard's send off!

"So, we're trying to find someone to do the music for the funeral, right?" Paimon asked.

"That's right Paimon." The traveller confirmed.

"Right... so why are we in Wolvendom?!" Paimon shouted, clearly confused.

Before the traveller could explain their reasoning, rustling in the bushes cut them off. It was the person they were looking for.

"Hello Razor. I need you to do a favour for me." The traveller smiled. Razor stood waiting for a response, so the traveller continued. "I need you to play some music at a funeral for me. Can you do that?"

"But... I don't know how..." Razor said, lowering his head in shame.

"That's fine! Perfect actually." The traveller replied. "Here, Take this." They hand the feral boy a lyre. "Can you try playing it?"

At the traveller's command, Razor starts "playing" The lyre. Never in her life has Paimon heard something so atrocious. It was so bad that both Paimon and the traveller's ears started bleeding, birds fell from the sky and every hilichurl fled the vicinity. If one sound could bring Diluc's dad back to life, it would be the sound coming from that lyre, which sounded like it was screaming for help. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he stopped.

"Was that... good?" Razor asked.

"HOW CAN YOU THI-" Paimon, who was crying by now, was cut off my the traveller.

"It was amazing Razor! Please, play at the funeral. There will be food for you too!" The traveller cheered.

"Really?" Razor smiled, touched that his music reached the heart of the traveller.

"Yes! Me and Paimon have to get going now, but I'll see you at the funeral!" And with that the traveller and Paimon skipped off to do something else.

"Traveller?" Paimon quietly said.

"Hm?" The traveller hummed in response.

"Do you... hate Venti? Or have something against him? I'm starting to think that you're doing all this on purpose, to sabotage the funeral!" Paimon said in a confrontational tone.

The traveller smirked. "Yes, of course it is on purpose Paimon!" They started laughing while a horrified expression grew on Paimon's face.

"How could you?! Venti was our friend, and now he's dead!" Paimon cried.

"Paimon, you'll understand soon. But I don't want to ruin the surprise since you haven't figured it out yet, so just wait and see." The traveller said ominously.

"Well, you carry on with what you're doing, but I'm leaving! Bye!" Paimon flies away. The traveller knows she will be back soon, so doesn't think much of it.

There's only a few more things left on the to do list, so the traveller gets going. Afterall, the funeral needs to be perfect! Multiple items were purchased, such as candles, cloth for the tables (not fireproof) and shrimp meat. The shrimp meat had nothing to do with the funeral, the traveller just wanted some.

By now, it had been almost a week, and the funeral was the next day. Things were going exactly how the traveller planned.

***

Kaeya was walking through Mondstadt when he saw a little white thing flying in the air.

"Oh? Could that be Paimon?" Kaeya queried.

Paimon flew his direction, clearly distressed. "Kaeya! The traveller has gone insane!" Paimon cried.

"Paimon, tell me what happened." Kaeya sternly said.

Paimon explained the entire funeral planning, up to the horrendous lyre playing Razor performed.

"That indeed is suspicious. Paimon, do you think the traveller murdered Venti?"

In that moment, Paimon's ears were still hurting from Razor's tunes, so she misheard Kaeya's words as "Paimon, do you think the traveller has heard of Venti?" Which makes no sense. However, Paimon is stupid, and doesn't question it, so she replied.

"Of course!"

Kaeya gasped, then calmly replies to Paimon. "We need to find them and arrest them immediately. We'll get them tomorrow, during the funeral, as they'll have nowhere to run."

Kaeya walked off, determined to get justice for Venti's passing.

To be continued...