The Power of Revelation: The Truth Shall Set You Free

Chapter 6: Hear the inferno's call

Dinner was a relatively cheery affair, even though they were going through the events of their days, trying to figure out what had caused them to be teleported into this strange realm in the first place.

Their group had several very good cooks, and with the large variety of ingredients in Aether's teapot, they were able to cover a wide range of cuisines from Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma and even Snezhnaya.

Except for the fact they were missing one person.

"Where's Childe? Doesn't he want to eat too? " Gorou asked, flicking his ears as he avoided an attempt by Yae to pat his head as she reached over his shoulder for more sushi.

"Please leave my General alone, Lady Yae." Kokomi huffed, "But where is Childe? We do know he was fighting an Abyss Lector... but other than that..."

"He's uh... "not hungry"." Aether replied, lifting his hands in air quotes, "Which is Childe-speech for "I am kind of upset and I want to be alone". He kind of locked himself in his room, and knowing what we just saw, I'm not surprised that he's upset."

"He has his own room in your teapot?" Xiao asked, more curious rather than hostile.

"Yeah. Since he's technically still a diplomat for Liyue but he has to conduct investigations in Inazuma, it allows him to access the Waypoints easily. Plus, he gets injured all the time, so he pops in from time to time to patch himself up, or some emergency wound dressing before seeing a proper doctor." Aether sighed, "At this point, his room's pretty much where we stock all the medical supplies. I worry about him sometimes. He's going to give me a heart attack one day."

Sara frowned, "Wasn't there a different Fatui diplomat in Inazuma? Some lady in white?"

"Ah... her..." Ei munched on her dango, eliciting some snickering from Yae, "There is no need to worry about her."

"I see..." Zhongli murmured, placing his chopsticks down, unable to eat his Jade Parcel, and opting for a Chicken-Mushroom Skewer instead. He was proud of Liyue's gastronomy, and any other day he would eagerly be trying out the dumpling (he heard Thoma mention that he had tried cooking this batch) and giving his comments on the Liyuen dish.

Usually, when he and Tartaglia would meet up, they would order an assortment of dishes, ranging from Black-Back Perch Stew to Crystal Shrimps and everything in between. And in between bites, Zhongli would start talking about each dish, and how the Li and the Yue styles of each of them differed, while Tartaglia listened attentively.

Ever since Tartaglia had found out his true identity, they had stopped meeting up for meals. Zhongli would still go to Wanmin restaurant for meals, but more often than not, he was unable to bring himself to eat anything, and would leave his Lotus Flower Crisps or whatever he had ordered to Hutao or the Ferrylady, or even dropping it off for Tartaglia if he suddenly lost his appetite on his way back to the parlor.

Zhongli even brought his own Mora with him to pay for his meals, hoping that he might just happen to run into Tartaglia, and could finally invite him for a meal that the Harbinger didn't have to foot the bill for.

He was lucky he didn't need to eat to survive, or he would have starved to death long ago. Everything just reminded him of all the good times he had with Tartaglia, and how his heart ached in the Harbinger's absence, even though he knew that it was his fault for hiding the truth.

Heck, the first time Tartaglia found out that Zhongli was joining them on their Spiral Abyss run, the man had been so upset he shoved the former Archon onto Xiao's team, vehemently refusing to even catch a glimpse of the Jade Shield, using the excuse that "a fight is more exciting without a shield".