After we four left the Liuli Pavilion, Zhongli, Aether and Paimon talked about something related to the Adepti in Liyue and so on but I was busy again, thinking about what on earth was needed to celebrate a funeral for a god.
I mean, you couldn't just lay a few flowers on the ground and pray for him to rest in peace. Especially when there is no one who you could actually pray to...
With my hand on my chin, I thought about anything special for the funeral but came to nothing. I couldn't really imagine what would be needed to make it "different" from all the other ones, so I turned to Zhongli who had finished his speech towards Aether by now.
"Mr. Zhongli, may I ask what we need to prepare?"
I asked the male who was standing in front of me before he seemed to thought of something to himself for a little while.
"The first step in our preparations shall be to obtain some Noctilucous Jade"
He responded to my question, one arm behind his back as the other one rested on his chin.
"Oh ok, this doesn't really seemed to be a difficult task...",
I said, looking at Aether and Paimon before I continued my sentence
"Maybe we can split up the work. Paimon, Aether, you two can go and get the Jade, meanwhile me and Mr. Zhongli are going to do the next task"
I said, pointing at the traveler and his companion.
At first I thought that we could just spit up in three groups so that everyone would collect the needed stuff alone, with the exception of Paimon who would go with Aether. It would surely go faster this way but I remember that even when I wandered around Liyue quite a few times now, I still wasn't really used to it so I doubted that I could go on my own and get all things that are needed... surely I would end up at the other end of the harbor, so I decided to just go with Zhongli.
And on top of this, I could finally let my guard down, even if it's just the tiniest bit. It was really nice to travel with Aether and Paimon but the fact that I had to always watch my actions and words so I wouldn't just blurt out something about the Fatui and so on, could be really hard for times.
Zhongli nodded at my words, thinking that it may really spare some time I guess.
Aether hesitated for a moment but agreed nevertheless.
It was then up to the traveler and Paimon to get the Jade and they quickly made there way to a shop that would sell those. They also got the task to go to a female named Madame ping to get the so called "Cleansing Bell", meanwhile Zhongli and I were heading towards the flower shop to get some silk flowers for some kind of perfume and also some kites after that.
As the two of us were walking down the streets of the harbor, I could feel something... different about Zhongli. It's just that every person in every city is kinda the same. They all spread the same energy, what's normal for any human, but there's some other kind of "energy" that emerged from this man.
It kinda felt like Venti but at the same time totally different and I couldn't tell where it came from or what it was.
But I decided to pay no mind to it since it could be that I just imagined things.
"( L/N ), right?"
The male suddenly spoke up from the silence that lingered between us as we were walking.
"Yes but you can call me ( Y/N ). I'm more used to it"
I said, flashing a smile towards the man besides me as he also slightly smiled at my response before speaking up again.
"Ok then, ( Y/N ), can I ask you a question?"
He asked to wich I just nodded.
"I heard that you are from Snezhnaya, right? Do you perhaps have any connections to the Fatui?"
He asked as I was surprised about the sudden question about the Fatui and my connections to them.
But seemed like I took a little bit too long to answer as Zhongli just slightly chuckled.
"Don't worry, I'm not telling anyone anything about you're identity",
He said, to wich I just sighed
"Sandrone, was it?"
He continued.
It this, my throat tightened the slightest bit.
"Sandrone" was the Alias that the Tsaritsa herself gave me. It's like "childe" for Tartaglia, "Balladeer"
fir Scaramouche and "the fair lady" for signora.
But Childe was the only one who was really called by his alias from us four, for whatever reason. I didn't heard that Alias of mine in what felt like ages and I didn't knew how someone like Zhongli suddenly knew of it.
"Who are you... Zhongli?"
I asked myself as I looked at the male, still in disbelief.
I didn't liked the name that the Tsaritsa gave me. Not at all.
I never did but I also never complained about it... I guess the name wasn't that wrong after all.
"The puppet"
Was the meaning behind it.
I knew why, I knew I was doing everything the Tsaritsa told me to do but still, I don't wanted to accept that I was like her puppet so I avoided this name the most of the time, not wanting to be reminded of its meaning.
But I couldn't care less about the meaning of the name for now. I had too many questions floating all around my head.
I wanted to ask Zhongli all of them, why did he knew about that name? Who told him that I was a Harbinger? And so on and on...
But all the unanswered questions faded to dust as we finally reached our destination, the flower shop.
I decided to just ask him later if I had the chance to and just focus on our task right now.
"Hello hello"
The man in front of all the different flowers of the shop greeted us with a wide smile, clapping his hands together as we greeted him back.
And at the moment the man laid an eye on my figure, I knew that something is off with him...
He cleared his throat and looked at zhongli again, opening his mouth to speak
"What do you two came for, hm~ ?"
Zhongli then began with some long speech about three different kinds of silk flowers and it felt like a million years till he finished his explanation. But even through, it was kinda fascinating that he knew so much about three simple flowers.
"Ah, a the man know what he is talking about, I see I see~ "
The man in front of us said, kinda surprised himself about Zhongli's knowledge but still wearing his odd smile.
"Well, I'm afraid to say that those flowers are really, and I mean really expensive"
He said, crossing his arms.
"So it's about money?"
I asked myself, just thinking that this man is going to let us pay the triple if the originally price of the flowers until he suddenly came a step closer
"But~ we could make a deal. This beautiful lady might just stay a little longer~ "
He said, as he put his hand on my shoulder
"It would be—"
The male immediately stopped in his movements and words as I could see Zhongli gripping on his arm, wich hand was still laying in my shoulder.
"You should not lay hand on a woman that is not you're wife, sir"
He said as you could clearly hear the change in tone.
He sounded so serious as he held his voice low to not drag attention of other people, who might be near the shop, towards us as his grip on the other males arm got seemingly tighter.
I could hear the male hissing in pain as his grip on my shoulder loosened.
I glanced at the arm of the shop owner and...
Was it broken?
No, never...
I was stunned at the strength of Zhongli's grip that he already loosened again and now took his hand back to himself.
"We can pay for them, the costs does not matter but do not lay a single finger on (y— any citizen ever again"
He warned the man with a stern and serious look that I didn't knew this mad could even made.
But wasn't he about to say something else as "any citizen"?
Will I ever understand this man?
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A/N
Heyho UwU
So first of all, the name "Sandrone" is actually an Alias from one of the Fatui harbinger and yea, it actually also means puppet. But there aren't any other informations about this Harbinger out yet, not even the gender or the rank so it could basically be that this harbinger will be released in Genshin sooner or later, I don't know. But just that you aren't confused about it or whatever I'm case that they actually do.
Yeahh, and we got some Zhongli content here as well how you see (о'∀'о) he is such a fine man
But anyways, I hope y'all had / have a good day and see you hopefully soon 🤍
~ Author-Chan