Spying on the Wind | Venti♡Reader

💫💫𝕋𝕎𝔼ℕ𝕋𝕐-𝕆ℕ𝔼💫💫

Venti's POV:

"Hey, Y/N. Y/N? Hello? Earth to Y/N?" I snapped my fingers in Y/N's face to pull her out of her daze.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was zoning out. Where did the others go?" she asked and rubbed her eyes before her usual cold expression returned.

"The traveler went to finish his last commission with Paimon and Xiao wanted to stalk them. Then Childe decided that he was Zhongli-deprived for long enough and headed for the best funeral parlor in Liyue!" I declared with a bright smile. "Why don't we head out too? Since you haven't visited Mondstadt much, we can explore the wonderful land of Anemo!" I proposed.

She bit her lip and stared at me for a bit before speaking. "I would love to. However, I had a couple of... bad experiences in Mondstadt before." Anxiety clouded her face. She rarely showed emotions, much less negative ones, and I desperately wished to understand what she had been through. In my opinion, Mondstadt was a lot safer than Liyue, with barely any life-threatening monsters in the wilderness. Inazuma was a lot worse, and Y/N mentioned that she went there occasionally, sometimes for business and sometimes in search of fun.

What had happened to her that was so bad that it was worse than her encounters in a nation with static in the air and Electro-infused enemies?

Y/N avoided my searching gaze and began her tale. And that time, I listened carefully...

"Thirteen weeks ago, on an ordinary day with both sun and rain, I undertook a challenging quest in the land of the thousand winds. The terrain had been transformed beyond recognition and was vastly different in comparison to the Mondstadt I had set foot in some millennia ago. The mission's urgency and great importance made pre-exploration nearly impossible. Hence, I enlisted the help of someone who was extremely familiar with the nation's terrain, climate and enemies.

Of course, I would not accept a random villager as a guide. I established an alliance with the Adventurer's Guild and sought the assistance of an elite adventurer that was one of their top recommendations.

He was a slim yet well-built young man whose body was covered in scars, which I thought was were symbols of his experience and bravery. He had pale ash-grey hair, light tan skin, and bright green eyes. The goggles on his head also seemed to imply that he liked to prepare for rainy days. A charming individual he was too, and he introduced himself as Bennett.

Our small "adventure" was supposed to last five days, and I estimated that we would only take two hours to get what I needed from the domain we were heading for. On the first day, he was struck by lightning, which led to a three-hour delay. On the second day, we fought an Eye of the Storm, a couple of Ruin Guards, and came across multiple hilichurl camps. That day, we only travelled two hundred meters in total, whilst we had walked twice the amount despite the slight delay the previous day.

On the third day, we encountered four difficult enemies, but he thought that the reward was worth it, so we slashed at them instead of circling around their dormitory. Five Precious Chests were what they left. To my dismay, all I got from them were three Mora, not three hundred, not three thousand, three; a bit of wheat, not even a vegtable; and last but not least, a cabbage, which was what I considered the best of the "rewards".

I recalled obtaining more from a Common Chest. At the very least, I would receive three artifacts, a few hundred Mora and more often than not, a couple of trash-tier weapons.

The fourth day came around and I was praying to not get bad luck, not even wishing for good luck instead. No such luck. Bennett fell off a cliff and I drowned in a moat because he thought we had enough stamina to swim across it. And the thing is, we should have had enough, under normal circumstances, but the waves and the wind were against us.

Three more days went by and we finally reached the domain, two days over the estimate. After another thrilling battle with an Eye of the Storm, everything went smooth sailing from there until we had to solve a puzzle. Apparently, mechanisms in Mond were extremely difficult to tackle, and I could've sworn nobody would be able to make head or tails of the problem unless they were experts in quantum numbers.

Adventurer Bennett seemed to be an intellectual, and I almost forgave him for the stumbles we had along the way. Within a hundred seconds, the mechanism was activated. Only it closed the door behind us instead of opening the ones ahead and then broke down. Monsters spawned uncontrollably in random locations and we had to entertain them to ensure our survival.

Trapped in that hellhole for a fortnight, we had to deplete my food resources to keep Bennett alive. We finally saw the light of day again when a red-eyed boy with long, spiky grey hair and a dark hooded coat decorated with belts busted us out of there. Though somewhat illiterate, he at least deserves more gratitude than the adventurer.

That experience of being trapped left a scar in my heart and I swore to make it a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The feeling of hopelessness was no longer foreign to me and I swore never to trust adventurers from Mondstadt again."

Resting her chin on her hands, she sighed as the story concluded. It wasn't as serious as I thought it was after all. With a wide grin, I assured her, "Oh, don't hold a grudge against poor Benny. He can't help but get into trouble. If it makes you feel better, we can get a knight as a guide instead of an adventurer!"

"A Knight of Favonius?" she asked, semi-interested in the topic. Reluctance was evident on her face and her voice was laced with skepticism. I giggled a bit and declared, "Yup! The Knights of Favonius are always super efficient!"

"Really? I'm pretty sure I heard a red-haired intellectual say otherwise..."

"Oh! Does he own a winery?"