Divinity in mortal | Childe x Zhongli

Impoundment at Yungsheng Teahouse

The Teahouse owner laughed. "Excellent! Even if we can't keep up with the business we'll go far with this."

The girl accompanying him, didn't look so pleased. "But, sir, what do we do about.... the debt?" she asked with immense concern.

"Oh, yeah, I came for it," Childe interjected. They both turned immediately toward the voice. The light was not sufficient for the whole room, so as Tartaglia had supposed, they were hidden.

"Who's there?" the owner shouted.

"Quick, guards! Protect the master!" cried the startled girl.

"No matter how much you owe, you can' t run away from your debt," added Childe in a threatening tone. "Isn't that the law of the God of Contracts in Liyue?"

The owner rushed over to turn on the second light of the instance, illuminating the wall opposite the entrance. They could both make out Tartaglia, the 11th Harbinger. Contrary to the residents, he looked absolutely relaxed.

"The Fatui! You can't just break into our residence like that," the owner shouted. Noises began to be heard down the stairs. Suddenly the door slammed open and the two armed guards appeared in front of Tartaglia, protecting both sides of the master. "Guards! Show him how we treat unwanted guests in the Yanshang Teahouse!"

Childe laughed loudly. "You are no match for me." He rose from his chair and summoned his hydro blades. The guards froze in place, as did Javert, who still hadn't moved a hair. "Anyway, it never hurts to get a little exercise," he added as he positioned himself to launch an attack.

The only move the guards managed to make was to take cover with the bat. In the blink of an eye, Childe had destroyed them with his blades. The severed wood could be heard resounding on the wooden planks of the floor as it fell. As soon as they could react, Childe was already onto the owner, pinning him from behind. It hadn't taken long. A battle too easy for Tartaglia, he wouldn't have enjoyed it even when he was a novice. He had carefully placed a hydro blade on the owner's neck in a threatening manner. The guards were busy raising their arms in surrender. And the girl screamed from the wall of the room, it was not his intention to create trauma for her but Childe enjoyed dealing with matters in a direct manner.

"Apart from the debt, I've come for something else," Tartaglia said close to the owner's ear. The man couldn't see him so he didn't know what expression the Harbinger had. Feeling the Harbinger's voice so close made him shudder to the point that he wasn't sure if he was being held by his legs or Tartaglia's arms. "I need the Sigil of Permission," he clarified menacingly.

"Guards!" the owner shouted. The guards looked frightened and didn't lift a finger after the order.

"Oh, ho-ho," laughed Childe. "You're going to have to raise the debt to hire better guards."

The owner began to breathe even faster. Tartaglia pressed the hydro sword a little harder against the man's neck and could see a drop of blood fall. "Tell me, where do you have the Sigil of Permission?"

"Sir, give it to him," commanded the girl on the verge of tears. She was leaning against the wall, a little bent over as if trying to hide or hold herself.

The owner hesitated slightly and summoned the Sigil of Permission in his hand. The golden glow blinded Tartaglia a little until his eyes became accustomed to the new illumination again. He didn't think it was fake, its glow was so powerful that it seemed hard to imitate. He loosened his grip on the owner a little so that he could take it in his other hand.

"Gooood, I didn't want to kill you," said Tartaglia hesitantly. He noticed that the owner struggled a little and could hear the girl sighing. He reached out the arm with which he was not pinning the owner to take the seal. Before taking it he asked, "Where did you get it?".

The owner replied in a weak voice, "It was a trade."

"Who exchanged it to you?"

"Please take it!" cried the girl whimpering.

"I can't say!" the owner replied angrily.

"Why not?" insisted Tartaglia. "I need to know. I may need a few more..."

"I made a confidentiality agreement," the owner explained, again in a soft voice, almost in a whisper.

"Oh, oh," Tartaglia exclaimed. He looked surprised but was also angry, whoever had made the exchange had seen it coming. "I'm sorry about this, but the Sigil will not erase the debt. This is not a trade," Javert would follow procedure and after exposing his debt, maybe the Seven Stars of Liyue would put him in jail. The owner struggled with Tartaglia, trying to escape but his arm would give no truce. Suddenly he fell to the ground and when he turned around he saw the Harbinger with the Sigil in his hand, smiling.

Tartaglia looked at the owner for a moment, he had the collar of his dress stained with blood. In struggling he had scraped himself more with Childe's hydro sword, so he had to let him go all at once. He didn't want to kill him today though he could talk to Zhongli to cover his death as a natural cause or from a fall merely.

"I never imagined that an ordinary person would have a Sigil of Permission in their hands. It's been ages since anyone last saw one..." said Javert.

"Your job is to collect debts, but why didn't you inspect the treasures you could collect?" asked Tartaglia curiously.

"I'm sorry, it was an omission on my part."

"Enough. Let's go," Tartaglia ordered. Motioning Javert toward the door.

"Yes, sir."

This time, they both walked out the door of the building. Heading back to The Northland Bank, Javert to continue with his duties and Childe to investigate the Sigil.

It was assumed that with the sigil he could safely enter the Adepti's residence, even so, he did not think it would be so easy to find Rex Lapis and the Adepti would have their eyes on him for being a Fatui. At that instant, an idea occurred to him: he could coax the traveler to go, what could happen to him? He was safe, he was a being of light, the very savior of Mondstadt who was coming to save Liyue as well. The perfect ally. He would have to broaden the horizons of the investigation to track the traveler's movements before he got ahead of him.

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Authors' notes:

This chapter is short because I'm on vacation and I don't have my computer but I promise to make up for it in the next ones! If you are on vacation, I hope you rest and enjoy a lot and for those of you who are not, good luck with your work/studies.

Thank you very much for reading the fanfic!!! Have a nice summer period you all!

Also, happy birthday to Childe!! There are only a few hours left for his birthday. Are you ready for the official artwork? Aaaaaaaah!! I am also looking forward to seeing the fanarts for his birthday, specially the Tartali/Chili ones!!

As reminder, you can find me here:

AO3 @ zesanako

Twitter @ nekonekonak