The Calamitous Champion in Teyvat

14. Return to the City

"Hello There" -- Characters speaking

'General Kenobi' -- Character thoughts

"You are" 'a bold one' -- Invocations, Thoughts/Conversations in flashbacks

The Negotiator -- Titles

"Ah yes, the Negotiator" -- Xeroc speaking

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Exiting from the Temple of the Lion, two women emerged from the entrance portal, one of them wearing a relaxed expression while the other acted downtrodden, a sulking pout on her face as if her dog had just made off with the last slice of pizza.

"Haah, I told you this before, but the temple was emptied out years ago. You'd have a much better chance at meeting Lord Barbatos, than finding any important relics or antiquities left behind within the temple." The witch in purple sighed, chastising the woman walking beside her.

"But still, I looked everywhere. Everywhere! Yet, I couldn't find a single antique anywhere!" Like a petulant child, she began stomping her feet on the ground, kicking up some dust as she left imprints on the ground. "...Seriously, why couldn't they leave a few behind?"

"Because those relics are tributes to one of the Four Winds, namely Vennessa—the Lionfang Knight. She was the first Grand-Master, and the one who established the Knights of Favonius after spearheading the rebellion that freed Mondstadt from the rule of the old aristocracy," Lisa explained to the sulking woman.

Calamitas nodded heavily, not uttering a word as she let out a small grunt in response. She crinkled her eyebrows, the expression mirroring her annoyance with the past situation, as she'd spent an entire hour scrounging through the temple, yet her search yielded no results.

Before her temper could flare up any further, she shelved the thoughts and her irritation regarding her failure of a search, distracting herself with something else that'd been bothering ever since she exited the temple.

Namely, the fact that she could sense Erden sneaking up from behind her and Lisa, yet she didn't hear any footsteps approaching them. Calamitas looked to her side, noting that the witch in purple did not stop walking, oblivious to the presence of the unexpected, yet welcome figure.

She didn't call him out, nor did she stop and turn around. Curious as to what he was trying to do, she just kept on walking alongside Lisa, her demeaner being quite relaxed, compared to moments prior. Steadily, she felt him approaching, getting closer and closer, until...

"I like ya cut, G."

As soon as she heard those words, she turned around as quickly as she could, but unfortunately for her, Erden was slightly faster.

Pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat.

All of a sudden, she felt his hand land on top of her head as he aggressively began to give her head-pats, while ruffling her hair in a rough manner.

"Argh, do not!" she shrieked, grabbing his hand, prying it off of her head. Lifting her leg, she then brought it down on his left foot as hard as she could. Regrettably, it didn't do anything as he was wearing boots made from a material more durable than the likes of titanium and adamantite.

Pat, pat, pat, pat.

Using his other hand, he started patting her head again, his touch a lot softer this time, at a much slower pace. Even then, she looked quite miffed, yet she didn't tell him to stop as she took her sweet time enjoying the more relaxing head-pats.