Genshin Impact | "The Eagle Solstice" | Alhaitham x Lumine

Cerberus, Part 2

Part 2

Lumine stepped out of the office, feeling bewildered. She had made sure not to respond to Wriothesley's summons hoping he would eventually forget her existence. But she didn't expect him to send someone all the way to escort her. It made her think the matter was urgent, but turned out it wasn't.

The man simply wanted to have tea, discuss how she was doing and if anyone was bothering her. She could've been sassy, saying, "you, you're the only person bothering me," but she kept her mouth shut, because unlike her companion who had no filter, she knew better than to confront the figure who could easily make her life hell at the Fortress.

After everything that happened as of late – the way he handled the House of the Hearth, the prophecy almost coming true, and whatnot – she realized Wriothesley was not the person she wanted to be friends with. The man was brutal. One would argue he was simply doing his job, but from her perspective, the whole affair could've been handled with grace, without anyone coming to harm.

With her lukewarm response to his friendly demeanor, she had expected him to get offended. She was being rude the whole encounter, yet he continued to offer kindness, going so far as to suggest that she should take advantage of their new-found "friendship". It made her suspicious. She had received kindness from many people in the past, only to be betrayed later. It happened again and again, it made her wonder how much of Paimon's naivete was rubbing on to her. This encounter with the Duke of the Fortress could be one of those. So she chose not to let her guard down. Just go along with whatever the king wanted, pretend to be nice, flatter him if she had to, but as soon as she was out of the Fortess or at the very first sign of double-crossing, she would cut him like a loose thread, never to appear in his life ever again.

"Traveler, is everything alright?" Paimon asked as they headed to the cafeteria.

"What do you mean? Everything's fine and dandy," she lied.

"Paimon didn't know you had beef with the Duke. Paimon was so nervous you were going to start fighting in his tiny office! What did he do to upset you? Paimon wants to know." Lumine's flying companion pried as they approached Bran.

The Traveler dug her pockets for coupons only to remember they had no use for them. Wriothesley had specified they may access the cafeteria for free. They were simply staying at the Fortress to serve their full prison term, but they were allowed to return to the surface whenever they wanted to.

Wolsey, the prison chef, greeted them amiably when the two moved on to him.

"Paimon would like to have Barbeque ribs!" Paimon said.

"I want to try Haggis."

Wolsey handed them the meals and they settled at the closest table. People started gathering to take their meals, producing coupons from their own hard day's work. It made her a bit anxious, because unlike these people who needed to do manual labor to get to get their own fill, she got hers for free. But then again, it wasn't like she committed a grave crime to even be sent to prison.

"It's not like he wronged me in any way," Lumine began while picking at the food. "It's just that I already felt bad about how I treated the House of the Hearth and now they were treated even worse down here. Just look at what happened to Freminette. Lyney had to relive his trauma, and His Grace definitely wasn't at fault, but I'm sure there were better ways to handle what happened." The meat on her fork plopped on the plate. The bland taste of the food made her realize she had no appetite after all.

"Aw. Paimon understands. Maybe if you try to talk things out with the Duke you can understand him better?"

She laid down her fork while Paimon sucked at the last bits of the Spare Ribs. "I don't know about that. He doesn't like 'explaining himself', remember? It will only lead to an argument and we're so close to leaving this place. I don't want another reason to stay longer." And that was the end of the discussion. Lumine wanted to get the man out of her head and she was glad Paimon didn't probe her further.