from another world [ Xiao x Lumine ]

Chapter 7 - Familiar

a/n: IM FINALLY DONE WITH MY EXAMS WOHOO (I'm sorry for my 4 months absence;;;)

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"I see. Thank you for taking your time with delivering the message to the adepti." Lumine, who currently sat at the dining table, faced the man with an eye smile after he had regarded his thanks to her. "There was no concern needed to begin with, but I feel honored to help.", she replied, then went back to cutting the few apples she found in the kitchen earlier.

The traveler offered the slices to the two next to her and brought up their main topic again as soon as she finished. She started with the question: "May I ask you something?"

The man hummed as a response, waiting for Lumine to continue. "You mentioned before how Liyue will have to face a certain problem, but what is the problematic thing you speak of?"

When she mentioned that, Zhongli's face started to widen in surprise, realizing that he forgot to explain such an important part.

"Ah... seems like I have forgotten to fill you in with the details.. I apologize." He chuckled a bit at Lumine's sudden gesture, which had shown him that she didn't mind, then resumed, "You see, many gods have fallen by my hands in the Archon war and because they were immortal, even burying their remains never fully diminished their consciousness. The grudge and hatred they left made a huge impact on the living beings that were nearby around the time. Many victims fell prey to their hatred and became evil - Miasmas, Demons and Mutations was what they turned into. After many years of exterminating them, they have been suppressed further into their remains, where they belonged. However, even I never knew when they would appear again to lay waste to Liyue. That is until I retired as a citizen.."

Zhongli paused for a moment, when seeing an uncomfortable memory he sought to forget.

Lumine had suggested to drop the matter, once she noticed the gloomy expression on him, but he insisted and told her that he was fine. The traveler did not believe him, but respected his requests and nodded for him to continue. Zhongli briefly smiled at her understanding and cleared his throat to resume the story.

"After I retired for a few weeks, they made an appearance again. But the number of victims they have overtaken has been especially increasing lately.."

He was deep in his thoughts, trying to think of a reason that made the hatred of his foes to act this way.

However, Paimon had already been a step ahead of him, while the Archon tried to express his thoughts. "Maybe it is because you're gone. They must feel confident, now that they have no one to suppress them back into their graves!", she assumed.

Lumine facepalmed at her simple explanation, which yet admittedly sounded logical to her.

Zhongli acted a bit surprised, but nodded to her assumption with acknowledgement. "Little one, you are smarter than you look like.", he said, almost coming off as sarcastic. The floating child grinned brightly at his compliment and positioned herself in a proud stance.

Lumine cleared her throat, interrupting the two as she took grasp of Paimon's earlier assumption with a following question: "If that really is the case, then how are we going to stop those numbers from growing?"

"It is not I that has taken them down single handedly, but the adepti, which fought by my side at that time. Although, I am well aware that it is my burden alone to take.. seeing how the Archon War backfired so much on Liyue...."

His gaze lowered to his hands, clenching them into fists until the sound of stretches of his gloves could be heard.

Once done observing him, the girl felt no longer obliged to continue this topic. The information she got had been enough to satisfy her curiosity - and besides, Zhongli didn't seem very pleased when talking about the Archon War. "Come on Paimon, let's go buy some groceries." She glanced at her partner, which was the sign for them to leave.