Lost Planet

-The beginning-

The streets were empty as his boots clicked against the ground, his amber eyes fixed on the woman in the distance. It was strange to see her asking for his presence, was it an emergency? He pressed his lips into a thin line and squinted his eyes a bit, sure he had no resentful feelings towards the acting grandmaster, but it still did not feel good to be asked to meet up in the middle of the night, not when he had better things to do than to help the knights do their jobs.

"Hello master Diluc, I am glad you could come."

Her voice was soft, you could even say it was ushered a little, as if she was scared someone would hear their conversation.

"Of course, although may I know the reason why you called me here at this time? It is highly unusual to be called in the first place, but at midnight? It makes me wonder if anything happened."

He was not dumb, oh no quite the opposite. He knew exactly what was going to follow, a pitiful excuse, a question.... and a favor. When he watched the woman look to the sides of the empty streets nervously, he raised an eyebrow. What was so important, so urgent that no one could hear?

"Jean, what is the issue?"

Diluc's tone was sharp, sharper than he intended, and she flinched. Her hands fumbled around with the hilt of her sword as she avoided his flaming gaze.

"I am sure you have heard about the incident last week."

Diluc frowned a bit, of course he knew, who did not know? A body full of black slime, a stab wound through the chest.

"So I've heard, what does it have to do with me?"

Jean finally looked up and stared at him, now a certain determination in her eyes. Her whole demeanor changed, as if her nervousness melted away into a puddle, making way for the brave and strong knight the people of Mondstadt knew.

"The killer has yet to be found."

Diluc's eyes widened, so the knights lied? They lied to whole of Mond that the killer was in their hands?

"What? I am sure Lisa and Kaeya announced that the killer has been taken care of."

His brows furrowed and Jean sighed deeply, her eyes now twinkling with a certain tiredness.

"Master Diluc, we cannot risk the people panicking when such an unusual murder occured. We as the knights of favonius have to make sure the city stays safe and-"

"And lie over such an important topic? Jean, what are you thinking?!"

Diluc's harsh glare was enough to make the acting grandmaster step back a bit, she was not scared of Diluc, she was scared that she had failed someone, or even worse, that she failed the knights with her direct orders.

"Master Diluc, may I remind you as long as we have the knights, the city will be safe. We are trying our best and the samples Albedo took are being researched by him, we have everything under control. We just wanted to ask you if you perhaps could help keep rumors down a bit. Since the tavern seems to be a popular place for smalltalk."

Diluc felt something bubbling up within him, it was not sadness, nor was it annoyance, it was rage. He was supposed to lie to each person daring to talk about the 'black death' as they called it, he was supposed to keep it under wraps that the knights were inefficient and let the killer slip through their fingers?

"Jean-"

"Please master Diluc, trust us, trust me."

And the moment he looked into her eyes, he saw that she was as scared as the people around them in the daytime, he saw all of the doubt and uncertainty from her, Diluc saw Jean, and not the acting grandmaster.

"Fine. Make sure to capture the person soon, I am nothing but a simple bartender, people won't believe my words that long."

With that, he turned around and left, frowning and clenching his fists. He was pulled into the knights business again, and he did not like it one bit.

As soon as the sun greeted the horizon, people were walking and flooding the streets, and it was as if the black death was forgotten, as if nothing ever happened in the first place.

Ignorance, that was one way Diluc would describe the people of Mondstadt. Or was the word blinded better? They were so blinded by the knight's words they ignored the monsters creeping in the shadows, lurking and watching with hungry eyes.

The promises spilling from the mouths of the knights were enough to make them seem to forget they were living targets waiting to be shot, waiting to be eaten by the monster.

Diluc watched the smiling faces, they all seemed so forced, so fake, as if they were scared to show any hints of weaknesses, of vulnerability.

"Pathetic."

Those words slipped past the slightly parted bartender's lips as he passed a knight reassuring a woman nothing was wrong, that they were all safe.

When Diluc opened the creaking door to the angel's share and turned on the lights, he felt like something was staring at him, prying its eyes into his back. Spinning around he was met with emptiness, nothing but air where he felt the stare.

He was not dreaming was he? Or was he slowly sinking and slipping into madness, the madness the city has yet to discover.

The madness the people liked to call insecurity.