Charlotte made herself comfy, hiding on top of nearby building's roof. She didn't like crowds, so a place like this roof was perfect. Of course, Millelith soldiers were a problem as they could have noticed her anytime, but girl was sure the roof has hidden her pretty well.
She followed the Traveler with the eyes of an eagle, never letting blonde out of her sight. Zanni was happy enough with her mission progress, so she knew she can relax a bit.
Rite soon started. 12th Harbinger couldn't hear what Ningguang was saying, but the speech wasn't too necessary here. Qixing Tianquan used her geo (as Charlotte assumed) vision, making a couple of golden gemstones spin around her. As she turned around, facing the main censer on the event table, rocks started spinning around it, soon enough placing themselves in the small holes. Censer lit up, shooting a golden light tower up in the sky, making the clouds start spinning in circles around it.
Something wasn't right. Clouds started turning darker and darker until they reached the color of black storm clouds you can encounter at sea. The crowd that gathered around to watch the rite were horrified, panicked.
All of the sudden, a black-yellow figure fell from the sky, crashing on the ground with loud thud and raising a huge dust cloud. Charlotte's eyes widened once the dust settled down: on top of the broken event table laid a dragon-like figure, lifeless.
Girl watched how Ningguang came closer to the dragon, inspecting the body. She then stood up, gesturing towards the exit.
"Rex Lapis has been killed! Seal the exits!"
Millelith came running from all possible directions, surrounding the crowd. Charlotte knew she wasn't noticed (yet, at least), so she stayed around a bit longer, scanning through crowd, looking for a blonde outlander. She soon noticed her sneaking out of the exit, skillfully avoiding the millelith.
Not knowing what to do, 12th Harbinger started jumping from one building roof to another, looking for a better place to continue following the Traveler. Lumine sure was a fast one – Charlotte quickly lost track of her.
Before she knew it, a shadow passed by her. She nearly screeched, but calmed down as she saw a familiar grey-ish clothing and orange hair like sunset hair disappearing a few roofs away from her. Surprised, she didn't know what to do anymore. Will Childe help the poor Traveler? Millelith seem to be alerted now... Did they catch her?
Carefully, she jumped down the roof, walking out from between the buildings in the main Liyue street. Girl was dead worried about Lumine, despite knowing that she can't really be friends with Traveler. After all, she'll have to betray her sooner or later... To say the truth about being one of the Twelve.
Sighing, heartbroken, Zanni took a stroll down the street, going to the Northland bank, straight to her office. Sadly, she couldn't reach it as receptionist Ekaterina had some stuff to discuss with her.
Apparently, she'll also be receiving some commissions from Fatui as debt collection and similar business. Charlotte agreed, as this task seemed easier than the grand mission of stealing gnosis from the geo Archon himself.
Girl was about to head back to her office and put down the records of the information she has gathered until she heard a familiar squeaky voice outside the bank. Coming close to the outside door, she leaned to the wall, listening to the conversation outside.
She immediately recognized the voices: Childe, Lumine and Paimon. Sighing in relief, glad that Traveler was safe at least, girl relaxed, feeling way more at ease than she was before.
Due to the noise inside Northland Bank, Zanni couldn't hear their conversation clearly, but she heard enough to understand the current situation. Childe gave Lumine a specific item and told her to head to the Liyue wilderness, looking for the illuminated Adepti – mystical magical creatures who are responsible for looking after Liyue and protecting it. With that item and story of her version of events, Lumine can clear herself from all blame and be safe again.
12th Harbinger got easily distracted from the conversation due to Childe's ability to manipulate. He was speaking in a very persuasive voice, making the brunette on the other side of the wall realize just how much she still has to learn...
The conversation was going to end, so Zanni left the main hall of the bank, heading to her office – the place where she originally wanted to go. Nearly the very moment she sat down on in her chair, she got a knock on her door.
"Come in."
Familiar ginger head peaked inside, happy smile on his face.
"Well, hello there!"
"Hi hi... You seem unusually happy. Care to share the reasons with me?" Charlotte asked with her eyebrow risen.
"No need to play around with me, girlie~! I know you've been listening to mine and Traveler's conversation."
Charlotte blushed in embarrassment.
"Yeah, alright, you caught me."
11th Harbinger smiled with proud smile, crossing his arms on his chest.
"As far as I saw, you two get along well too, right?"
"I guess we do, yeah. Don't go stealing my part of this mission though. I want to take part here as well, so let me be the one who's collecting information about her." Charlotte sighed, taking a piece of paper to write on.
"I'm not doing that, this part is your job. All I did was play nicely around her so she'd begin trusting me. That's how I will get information where exuvia, the corpse off Rex Lapis is held later on. Perfect opportunity to steal gnosis."
Charlotte looked at him impressed to no end with his plan. He truly was amazing in doing his job. It made her even more embarrassed and motivated to learn more and more. She needed to get better. After all, Tsaritsa expects a lot from her in this mission...
"I see..."
"Why so down all of sudden? Did I say something wrong?" Childe got slightly worried, looking at the girl in front of him.
"No, just... You're so good at this... And to think it's my part of the mission... I feel useless now..." girl sighed.
"Hey now." Ginger head came closer, sitting on the corner of her desk. "Don't be like that. You're not useless. Don't forget that you just became one of the Harbingers, it's normal that your missions won't be as difficult for now."
"But... I want to be part of it... Her Majesty expects a lot from me... I don't want to be a disappointment..." she sighed again, this time really sadly.
Childe stayed quiet for a moment.
"Hey... If you want to take part in so badly... I have a task for you."
Zanni's eyes immediately lit up, looking up at her friend.
"Yes? What is it? What do I need to do? When? How?"
"Woah woah, calm down there. So, you heard our conversation, yes? When Traveler comes back, they'll most likely come back and report about their journey to me... This information is okay, but pretty useless in plans of stealing gnosis..."
"You said Rex Lapis' body, exuvia... Huh... If he is dead, Liyue qixing most likely will hide the body or try to organise Rite of Parting instead of funeral... They can't just leave it in the terrace forgotten, but nor they can get rid of it themselves... Which means, wanting to know where the exuvia and gnosis are hidden, we need..."
"Someone from Funeral Parlor." Childe had a playful smile on his lips as he finished her sentence. "And you call yourself useless... Your thinking and strategizing is amazing. Well done!" He ruffled her hair.
"H-Hey, no need to mess it all up for me!" Brunette tried her best to get his hand off of her head and fix her now messy dark brown locks.
"Haha, sorry. Anyway, if you want it so badly, I will leave this part to you. Get some relations in Wangsheng Funeral Parlor for us. You'll help out in our mission a lot this way."
"Okay! Right on it!" Charlotte jumped from her chair ready to run straight to the Parlor Childe was talking about.
"Hey, where are you going? It's no hurry..." Tartaglia's voice was quick to stop her.
"H-Huh... But... But what about... Mission?" Charlotte turned around, looking at him confused.
"Relax. You can do it tomorrow. As for now, let's go grab something for dinner. Traveler will most likely take a while dealing with Adepti. I heard those creatures are prideful, so it must be a real hassle to handle"
"Oh... Alright... Let me grab some money before."
"Nah-ah, my treat."
"As you say, Tartaglia."
Despite her colleague and friend stopping her from doing her job today, Charlotte couldn't wait to visit the funeral parlor he was talking about. She wanted to be a part of mission so badly. Girl wanted to prove that she at least is capable of doing something and is not entirely useless.
On other hand, doing so also meant she'll be taking a part in a crime... So was it really a good thing?
Fatui now started to seem like a good whospreads evil...