CHAPTER I, ACT II, PART IV
You have decided that making Mora is even more tiring than earning them. For five minutes, you managed to make a thousand which is a lot but it took so much of your energy. You have been going for an hour and now you are dead on the floor.
Qiqi didn't know what she was supposed to do so she just summoned her Herald of Frost, hoping that it regained your energy. Which it did and you were thankful for by the way.
"You okay...?" You just nodded as you heard bunch of footsteps headed towards you guys.
You looked at the direction to see Zhongli, Aether and Paimon looking quite disappointed before they took notice of you lying down on the ground.
"Oh god- What the heck. Y/N, why are you down there?" Aether asked as you just sighed as an answer.
"Forgive us, we were unable to fulfill our end of the contract. We found no trace of the Cocogoat adeptibeast of which you speak." Zhongli stated as Qiqi felt a little disappointed.
"Ah... What a disappointment. Don't worry about it, at least he gave me the thing I need the most." Qiqi said as she continued using her Herald of Frost on to you.
"What do you need this Cocogoat for?" Aether asked as you sat up and looked at them.
"She wanted Coconut milk." This of course brought so much surprise and pain to them.
"I... owe you both an apology. I hastily agreed to what appeared to be an equitable agreement with this zombie child, when perhaps I should have undertaken further due diligence." Zhongli apologized as Paimon shook her head.
"Never mind Zhongli, you didn't know. As the Liyue proverb goes, "All things are random, and... so how are you supposed to predict anything?" Literally no-one could have seen this coming..." Paimon stated as she turned to you. "But how did you know she wanted coconut milk?" She asked.
".... I mishear Cocogoat as coconut." You lied as Qiqi was quite clueless why did the aura turned into some sort of frustration.
"Excuse me, everyone. Did Qiqi say a bad thing?" Paimon turned to Aether as she patted his shoulder.
"Oh... Sorry, Aether, but Paimon's gonna leave the job of shattering this poor kiddo's world to you..." Aether looked at Paimon in confusion by why it had to be him to tell Qiqi the truth and yet he ended up doing it anyway.
"No... Im-Impossible..." She seems to be rather upset that was the truth though you remember being in denial when you find out that unicorn doesn't exist when you were 8.
Paimon looked at Qiqi in guilt and said, "Seems Qiqi took this pretty hard." You just took out another coconut milk for her to drink which she accepted it and still in deep thought.
"She just needs time to work through it." Aether said before you noticed Dr. Baizhu entered the room on you could smell an overwhelming Mist flower on him.
He chuckled as he went towards you guys. "Someone learnt a valuable life lesson today, then? Thank you all for looking after my little Qiqi."
Everyone were quite surprised by his appearance except for you. You already know his identity pretty well. "Mighg I ask, who..." Zhongli voice trailed off as Baizhu turned to him with a smile.
"Ah, how rude of me. I'm Baizhu, boss of the Bubu Pharmacy." Baizhu introduced himself.
"Paimon thought Qiqi was the boss... turns out it's some wacko who wears medicinal ingredients around his neck!" Paimon stated as the snake looked at her in offense.
"What a sorry state of affairs... This little mascot is even more of a simpleton than Qiqi..." The snake said which scared the hell out of her.
"Ah! The medicine— the snake is. s-speaking!" She said in surprised as Aether doesn't look surprised at all.
"I didn't even know snake is a medicine ingredient." You were even more surprised than Paimon.
"Nothing in Liyue surprises me anymore." He commented as the snake huffed.
"I prefer to stay silent. But faced with strangers, I must speak, lest you mistake me for an escapee from the medicine cabinet, for I am a living, breathing serpent!" It said in anger as Baizhu giggled.
"Don't mind Changsheng, she's a good girl, really. As for you three... Communal chaos-causing with Qiqi aside, what business brings you here?" He asked as Zhongli turned to him.
"Do you sell Everlasting Incense in this fine establishment?" Zhongli asked as Baizhu nodded. You just took back all the Mora that you created since Childe gonna pay for it.
"Everlasting Incense? Why, of course we do!" He said as Paimon sighed in relief and began to express her relief before Baizhu cut her off by saying, "Three million Mora, top quality, guaranteed."
"Three million?!" Aether shrieked in shock as Paimon looked at him in disbelief.
"You might as well just rob the Golden House! Oh, but the Qixing have taken it over for now... Security will be tighter than usual." Paimon stated as Zhongli thought for awhile.
"Three million... An innocuous number in and of itself, though practically speaking, it could be a hard sum to come by." He said as you continued making some Mora while they get Childe.
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Twenty minutes later, you could hear Childe was dying in laughter while Aether looked embarrassed as Childe wiped his tears.
"Oh my goodness, I cannot BELIEVE you fell for that!" He said as he tried to calm himself from laughing again.
"Hey! Less laughter, more sympathy!" Paimon shouted at him while she looked quite angry.
I don't really expect sympathy from him... You thought as Childe took out the bag of Mora from his pocket. "I'm almost in tears over here... Ah, thank you, that was the best laugh I've had in a long time. In return, I'm more than happy to sort out this mess you've managed to get yourselves into..." He seems to be able to calm himself from all that laughing.
He turned to Dr. Baizhu as he gave a friendly smile. "Excuse me, sir... Dr. Baizhu, isn't it? Truly honored. I'm Childe, one of the Fatui harbingers. Forgive my audacity, but I see a great many opportunities for us to collaborate in the future. If Bubu Pharmacy needed a stable supply of, say, coconut milk, the Fatui could help by setting up a robust and speedy distribution network." He offered as Changsheng looked at him in confusion.
"Strange... I knew the Fatui infiltrated businesses with seductive deals, but... So much fuss over coconut milk?" She asked as Qiqi tugged Baizhu's pants requesting for coconut milk.
"I just gave you two though..." You said as Qiqi turned to you which full of happiness even though she showed no expression but you could see in her eyes.
"Ah... Yes, of course, Qiqi, anything you want... Th-Thank you, Childe. I look forward to a successful collaboration in the future. I can give you a discount on that Everlasting Incense too, let's say... 2,990,000 Mora." Dr. Baizhu said as Paimon looked at him in disbelief.
"That's like, zero difference from three million!" She stated as you agreed to her statement. After leaving Childe to pay all those stuff, you guys headed back to Yujing Terrace.
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"Well, as it stands, we've hired helpers, and we've acquired the Everlasting Incense. The completion of our preparations is not far off." He said as Paimon and Aether sighed in relief.
"Well, Travelers. Have you gained anything from our adventure so far?" He asked as you nodded.
I gained the knowledge on how to make Mora that's the most part. You thought as Aether just seems puzzled.
"It's been... odd." Aether answered him ad Zhongli looked at him in confused. "I'm not sure if we've been living the high life or experiencing the struggles of the poor?" Zhongli chuckled at his statement.
"Which is it, I wonder? The questions that such travels raise are ever so complicated. Well, I'll leave you to ruminate over it yourself. As to remuneration for your help, I've decided to treat you to a meal." This is such a shocking statement coming from Zhongli.
"Wow. Amazing." Aether clapped yet wore a doubtful look on his face.
"Oh? Ah, yes, don't worry. I will remember to bring the Mora this time. Tonight, I shall take you both to an old hole-in-the-wall, praised throughout Liyue." Zhongli said but your only concern is about when will you be able to take a rest.
"Hole-in-the-wall? As in... a cool restaurant?" Paimon asked excitedly as she seems to be quite excited about this which he nodded.
"Indeed. let us meet near the harbor at 'Third-Round Knockout.' I still have some thing to do here." Zhongli said as you guys nodded.
"I want to take a nap... I'm too tired." You said as Aether looked at you in worry. You could barely kept your eyes opened.
"Alright, let's take a nap at the outskirt of Liyue under a tree. I'll take you there so just rest." His voice soften as he carried you in a piggyback ride.
You were too tired to protest and just softly hummed in response as you could feel yourself slowly fallen asleep at his back.
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"Y/N! There you are!" You heard a voice called out your name as you turned around. You saw a boy with a shoulder length blue hair with silver eyes approached to a boy who looked quite similar to you when you were a child.
What's this...? You thought as the boy looked quite excited. "Zuhra! You're back!" The boy that shared the same name as you went hugging the blue haired boy.
"Quite excited to see me, huh." Zuhra chuckled as he patted the Y/N's head while he looked at Zuhra with a smile. This is quite weird for you to watch and you don't know why.
This Zuhra boy seems to be quite smaller than the other Y/N but it seems to be that Zuhra was older than Y/N. "You've gone for a month! Of course I would miss you." You were quite weirded out to hear Y/N speak because it was the same voice as you are but a little higher pitch.
"Well I'm here now! Did you master your power yet?" The child nodded as his hair and his eyes started to change purplish pink and glowed brightly.
He created some sort of orbs that contains stars inside which impressed Zuhra yet he wore a worrying look on his face. ".... Y/N, where did you learn this kind of magic?" He asked which the kid pointed at your direction.
"That guy taught me..." You were confused before the image of the two boys withered away. Suddenly the surrounding turned into snowy place with dead bodies with blood everywhere.
You saw another you minus your glasses but looked quite older than you, standing right in front of you with his hand covered in blood with bunch of vortex behind his back. You watched him cried at the sight of a blue haired's body.
"Zuhra... I'm sorry... I shouldn't use this magic." He turned around to see a women with tanned skin with black haired looked at you with sympathy. "Please... Just kill me already. A murderer like me shouldn't stay alive."
"Y/N, my dearest brother, you know us beings we lived forever and eternally. Even if I killed you, you still be reincarnated or revived. You need to learn how to control your demons instead of killing yourself again and again..." She paused as the guy fell into silence while looking at the bodies in guilt.
"How about this, you'll get to start your life anew but you won't remember anything at all and given you have zero control over your demon, I'll put some restriction on the your demon and. powers. In this way, you'll learn how to control them." He thought for awhile but the image of it withered away as well.
You were quite confused the things that you are witnessing right now but there's no denying that this is about you. Though now, your surrounding is pitch black... What should you be doing now...?
You saw a light starting to shine brightly as it heading towards you. "Oh please... not again." Your eyes squinted as you patiently waited for something to happen before you felt something in your hand.
You opened your eyes and see the rainbow hourglass that you took during your time with Lumine. You looked at it in confusion before it shattered and appeared the same woman that you just saw awhile ago.
"Hello, brother. It seems that you have returned to your true hometown. You might be confused for a moment but if you saw this probably you passed out from excessive usage of magic. And that is not good." She said which you really are too confused about this.
"Who-"
"You probably asked me or about to ask me who am I? I let you know that I am an automated message not some sort of spirit being that always be here to help you. Maybe when I'm stronger probably that might be happening." She said as you took noted of it.
"Anyways, I'm your sister, Adira Villarreal. I wish I could see you how are you right now but we will be reunited again. Somewhere on Teyvat." She sighed as she looked quite sad.
"I could only tell you a little bit about your origin given that the future might alter our story. We, Villarreal family are not a God or an Archon. We just found our way to ascend ourselves from being human to I don't know what are we classified as... immortals? Anyways, I trust that you know what the future of Teyvat right?" You nodded but you know that it's not like she could see anyway.
"The story you saw in whatever world you ended up reincarnating might not be accurate given that you probably came into the world at certain time of it. And you were blessed with abilities and powers surpassed the mortals and equals to the God. I asked you this much. Please reunited our family. Find me, find your brother, find our parents and find your old friend, Zuhra. They are around the region of Teyvat. I'll probably be on Khaenri'ah but that's not certain. This is your mission and I entrusted you onto it." She said and disappeared.
The hourglass that was on your hands started to fade away as you watched the rainbow dust flew away and turned into a butterfly. The next thing you heard was, "Wake up!"
TO BE CONTINUED