Surviving as the Tyrant Elf king?!『Genshin!males x Elf!MR』

XXXVII

Tʜᴇ sᴍᴇʟʟ ᴏғ sᴏᴜʟs

Just as M/n said, Val drops from a portal on the ceiling, startling everyone except for M/n; who pets the nature spirit.
"Val, did you bring the flower?"

"Of course, I also have a message from Ripply.
He said that the affairs dealing with the Fatui has taken a strange route all of a sudden. A child by the name of Scaramouche was sent as an envoy from the Fatui. When he was made aware that you were not in Vestal, he demanded to know where you were. That boy is quite...*sigh* persistent and giving poor Ripply a hard time since Regis does not have the patience and Epel ran off to avoid the boy."
M/n sighs softly, he knew that Regis was rough around the edges and Epel isn't one to deal with the Fatui or certain outsiders.

Aside from that, Val drops the Flower of souls into the king's hand and gives him a gentle nuzzle. Zylith watches the strange spirit and catches a whiff of Cherry blossoms and lavender.
"Sovereign Val, your soul smells nice."

"Thank you little phoenix."

"You know, I just noticed that Zylith comments on the smell of people's souls a lot. Is that a Phoenix thing?"Xiao questions a loud hoping to get an answer from someone in the room. At first, it seemed that no one knew the answer until Val spoke up.
"Indeed, Phoenixes have a keen sense of smell. So keen that they can smell an individual's soul scent. Everyone has a distinct scent which makes it easier for Phoenixes to distinguish friend from foe. It also explains why he picks and chooses who to play nice with."
Val educates while turning to nuzzle the little phoenix. It then clicks for Aether as to why Zylith was calmer around M/n and fussy with others.
"I'm guessing M/n has a very calming smell."

"It's balanced...It smells like all the elements."
Zylith said as he pets the nature spirit on their head. It made sense to the others now but they put it to the side and turn to the female in bed and her soul hovering by. M/n completes the ritual and immediately Mimi sits up.
"Whew! Though I would be a goner for sure!"

"My you're upbeat for someone who was at death's door."

"Haha, that's Mimi for you. Thanks a lot, King M/n and Sovereign Val. I suppose you wish to know how she ended up like this?"M/n of course nods his head since it could give him insight as to what could have happened to Diluc in the past.
"Well Mimi and I were on a mission to gather core lapis, then this strange man I believe to be an Abyss Lector attacked us in the middle of our harvesting core lapis. I guess he must have done something wrong when he attacked Mimi because he fled when he saw her soul the way it was."

"Hmm, this is a theory that I have but it seems that the form of the extracted soul wasn't right. Maybe the soul was supposed to form differently, and not a human-like but that shouldn't stop a soul snatcher. Maybe those who have elemental abilities are tethered to their body and to break that tether, you also have to break the elemental bond."

"Oh, I think I understand, he must want to take the soul and the element but can't seem to get it right; leaving the victim in a specter or ghost-like form."Zhongli adds to M/n's theory. From the information given to them, it made sense which worries them even more if that was the case.
"I feel like we finish one situation and we're immediately thrown into another one."

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The group ended up staying at Wangshu Inn for one more night and as they had dinner it occurred to Zylith that he's never seen Zhongli pay for anything, and now being a child with no filter he didn't hold back his curiosity one bit.
"Does grandpa Zhongli not have any Mora?"

"PFT-"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Even the child knows you don't have Mora!"Aether, Kazuha, and Mimi laugh as M/n and Xiao nearly spit out their drinks from the sudden question about Zhongli's financial state however what caught Zhongli's attention more was how Zylith chose to address him.
"Grandpa?!"

"Well he isn't wrong, you're the oldest person here."

"Hmm but he doesn't call Val that old..."Everyone continues to laugh at the pouty Zhongli. It was a refreshing moment for M/n, it was rare to see Zhongli like this but that made it even better.