An Encounter #7
Ayo, it's been a while, hasn't it? These last few days of the years were so busy to me so I had to pause for a while…but I'm back for even more cringe chapter :D (It is though…)
I want to play a game~
…
It was quite a quiet and peaceful morning at Wangshu Inn
Aether and Paimon decided to have some oversleep since they were too tired about what happened recently.
But seem like the gods didn't want them to rest.
There were a few knockings at their door.
"What's with the lousy noise outside?" Aether grunted and went to check.
When he looked through the peephole at the door, he saw a certain purple hair girl was staring directly at him, made him freaked out.
"OPEN THE DAMM DOOR!" Keqing shouted while knocking the door violently "HERE'S KEQING~"
"*GASP* it's her!" Aether jumped back off the door after he saw Keqing
"Should we let her in?" Paimon asked him
"Are you crazy! She's going to "eat" us alive"
While Aether and Paimon were still arguing in the room and Keqing was still banging on that poor door. Outside in the hallway, there was a guy with black hair with a tattoo on his arm was approaching Keqing.
"Keep the noise down lady, you are disturbing the other around" He told her. Although it was just his normal voice but his tone was sounded like a threatening.
Aether then didn't hear anymore loud knocks from Keqing but instead a weak and slow knock. He peaked looks through the door again and saw Keqing's paled face and called him weakly…
"Uhhh can…can…you…open…the door…please~" Keqing begged him…
"What's with that change of attitude?" Paimon asked him
"Maybe because of that guy" Aether looked at the person behind her, he seems to be not in a good mood
Aether had no choice but to quickly open the door and pulled Keqing inside…
"Sorry for our friend attitude…" Paimon tried to apology to him "She's a bit hot-tempered…"
"Watch your "friend" next time" That man said then disappeared.
Aether's room was now only filled with awkward silent while giving out a cold stare at each other, waiting for someone to speak first
A few minutes later
"That was closed…Why are you keep bringing me trouble, cat-girl?" He sighed
"You are the one who did this to us first though, Hmph!" Keqing replied while crossing her arms and faced the other way for a few second then glared back at him "And again my name is Keqing, not cat-girl…Aether"
"Oh, so finally you're known my name…after facing so many times" Aether said ironically
"You didn't tell me" Keqing said
"And you didn't ask for it…" Aether left out a long sigh then continuing "Quite surprise you still able to fingering it out anyways"
"It wasn't too difficult because I saw your name on the list in the reception room last time (1) … and some other inquiries" Keqing said confidently.
"Are you spying on me?" His eyes raised, looking at her.
"EHHH!" Keqing shot up, looking away from him again, her cheek went red again "That…That's part of my job ok…to investigate criminal like you!"
"Whatever, I don't think everyone here see me like that…"
"Just…not yet" Keqing smirked "I will reveal your scheme soon…"
"She's so scary…like she's going to turn the whole world upside down if she didn't satisfy with the answer" Paimon whispered to Aether…
"But for now, I will let thing slide off" Keqing said "As part of our contact I will aid your quest"
"Thank you very much I guess…" Aether replied
Aether then told Keqing about the current situation as well as information about the next mission: Meeting the Conqueror of Demons, a Guardian Yaksha was living in this Inn but the problem was: They didn't know who actually he was among these people in here since they hadn't seen him before nor the adeptus told them…
"You two are so hopeless sometime…" Keqing facepalmed
"You have any idea then, princess?" Aether said
"You could just have asked the receptionist you know? They probably have seen him several time since he lives here, right?"
Aether and Paimon were sitting dumb for a while, they should have thought that way right from the beginning.
'Let's go" Aether said while pretending not to hear that…
Reception's room.
"Hey Verr Goldet, do you have time for us?" Paimon greeted her
"Oh, Paimon and Aether" Verr Goldet greeted back and looked at Keqing, giggling "And Lady Keqing, is an honor to see you…I see that you have a boyfriend now, isn't it?"
They didn't know that they were very close and not even having any hostile attitude to each other. They only stayed away when Verr Goldet told them while turning their face away.
"Uhhhh that's not what we're here for…" Paimon tried to hide the laugh inside her
Aether told Verr Goldet about the Yaksha, and Keqing's expectation was right she did know about him and his name was Xiao too. Their progress should had gone very well if there hadn't had one "small" problem: When Verr Goldet told them about who Xiao was, they were surprised that he was...
Was the guy behind Keqing earlier and thanks for her action at that moment, he now seems to be very hard to approach.
"Ah crap…" Aether's jaw dropped, fearing they might not be able to see him anytime. He then looked at Keqing who was trying avoid the gaze from him.
"Uhhh…" Keqing tried make an excuse but she only blurted some odds world "Eh he…?"
"EHE TTE NANDA YO!" Both Aether and Paimon shouted at Keqing
Aether sighed and asked Verr Goldet about was there a way to meet him properly.
"You were still lucky enough to be alive at that moment" Verr Goldet chuckled "How 'bout this — you go see the chef for a bowl of Almond Tofu, and a plate of whatever it is you are best at making. Almond Tofu is one of the few human foods Xiao likes. The other dish is up to you."
"Tofu…" Someone mumbled…
"So, what should we make then" Paimon asked
"How about Golden Shrimp Balls, they taste very good though" Keqing suggested…
"Uhhh…I don't think that's a good idea" Paimon replied
"But it's taste very good" Keqing urged like she really want to make these.
"Isn't that your favorite food or something?" Aether asked, curious.
"Wait, what do you think I like that huh!" Keqing shook her head, trying to deny but her face somehow told different.
"I don't think he will like such a complex food like that, let's just go with the Satisfying Salad" Paimon said.
Wangshu Inn, Kitchen room
When Aether, Paimon and Keqing reached the kitchen room, they saw Smiley Yanxiao was outside. He seems to be frightened of something.
"Excuse me, we'd like an Almond To—" Just about Paimon said a few words, she got interrupted.
"Can't you see I'm on a break kid? Scram" He angrier replied back made the group startled
"Uh…It's for your boss" Aether said
Smiley Yanxiao left out a sigh then continued "But my heart's not really in it right now, not enough to make a dessert as painstaking as Almond Tofu…"
"Why?"
Smiley Yanxiao then explained the situation to Aether
"So, there's a ghost in here…" Paimon surprised as Aether and Keqing too, they had never seen such thing like that before.
"Let's go inside" Keqing said
Inside Kitchen room
The group went at every corner of the room to see if there was any ghost but they hadn't spotted anything yet. After looking for a while, he decided to pull out a small device
"What's that thing?" Keqing asked while looking at the odds device from him
"It's a detector, it will play a music (*insert Liyue battle theme music here*) when something anomaly nearby" Aether explained.
"It's Ghost's busted time!" Paimon said in excitement.
"There's something here" Aether pointed the detector to the stove after it emitted a music-like tones.
Just about when everyone went close to it…they saw an image of a girl was running right before their eye.
…
…
…
"There it is, let's g-" When Aether was about to catch up with the ghost, something unexpected happened.
Paimon suddenly jumped and hugging Aether's leg while Keqing embraced toward in front of him…
"# &%*! Gh…Gh…GHOST...!" Both of them screamed…
"Hey you two are getting in my way, I can't see anything" Aether tried to pull them off but they were sticking at him like being glued at.
After he managed to get them off, he didn't see the ghost girl anymore
"She disappeared again…Thanks a lot you two…" Aether sighed
"…Sorry"
"Wait…Why am I hugging him!? Did my body act on itself…" Keqing thought was being overwhelmed by her own action that she didn't even understand why she did that.
The group went back outside and told Smiley Yanxiao and he was so scared that he couldn't even act nor say anything.
Feeling hopeless, they went to the reception's room to ask Verr Goldet the solution. She told the group to find the sigil in this room and another one right outside the Inn so they could see the ghost again.
"Wait You don't seem that afraid of ghosts and the adeptus also, how?" Paimon asked
"I've seen enough about them…but let's keep it a secret, ok?" Verr Goldet said
"Unlike someone here" Aether said, chuckled
"I just surprised by it, that's little ghost can't scare me" Keqing tried to make an excuse but only made Aether and Paimon chuckling
"Yeah right…cat-girl, let's go" Aether said grinning
"Stop calling me that!"
After they did like Verr Glodet told them, they had found the little ghost outside the Inn and it was heading to the south.
"It's heading this way" Aether said as the group followed the ghost.
They reached to the empty field nearby and saw the ghost was sitting there and staring at them
"She won't disappear like last time! Let's go talk to her-" Aether said as he attempts to move up but
The ghost was suddenly gone out of their sight but detector was still giving the alarm
"She isn't supposed to disappear right?" Aether asked and looking around yet the music from the detector kept playing "She's still there but don't see anything" (*)
"Me either" Keqing said "Can you turn off the alarm…it's so annoying"
"I can't…we need to find the ghost"
They spotted the inactive Ruin guard nearby was slowly rising up and looked at them.
"This old, decrepit Ruin Guard... Surely, it's not... possessed!?" Paimon gasped then flew behind the rock nearby to hide.
"Let's take it down first" Aether took out his Dull blade and charged at the robot.
With the support from Keqing, Aether managed to beat that Ruin Guard without any trouble…after defeating it, the little ghost appeared again.
"I'm Dusky Ming and…" The ghost said. Although the ghost was trying to be friendly but the cold voice made it felt so scary…"I want to play a game~"
Meanwhile Aether wasn't sacred at the ghost at all instead Keqing's action scared him even more.
Aether felt something so soft was pressing on his back, and it was Keqing who was hugging him tightly by instinct while snuggling her face at him with her eyes closed, shivering. No matter how he called her but seem like she didn't listen to him.
"uwwuuuuu…" Keqing moaned in scaring
Aether then had to continue talking to the ghost while carrying Keqing on his back…
"Ummm so what kind of game" Aether asked the ghost
After talking with the ghost for a while, he agreed with the game Dusky Ming requested. He went back to Paimon who was still hiding behind a rock after that fight.
"Are you sure about that?" Paimon said, worrying "She's going to kill you"
"Do we have a choice here" Aether sighed, so many troubles he had to go through already.
"But first let's wake her up" Paimon pointed to Keqing who was still clinging on Aether's back
"I can't " He tried to get her off his back by all means but failed and it was only made her hugged him even more tight.
"I can't either…" Paimon used her tiny hand to help him but no use "Seem like we should just leave it like this and wait until she wakes up by herself now"
"Wow you are such a useful fairy there" He said sarcastically.
"Huh…Do you have any idea then?" Paimon said while smiling smugly "You seem to be like it though…"
Although he feels so irrating when Keqing was around him sometimes but he couldn't deny the fact then every time when she stays so close to him like this…it was a completely a different experience. Outside she was a cold, stubborn and a hot head but inside she just acting like a normal girl after all. And another thing is…
Her whole soft body kept pressing against his back, it felt like a pillow and somehow it felt so comfortable. Not to mention it was a beautiful and cute girl too.
"WHY YOU EMEGERNCY…" Aether said angrily with his face was flushing deeply but he couldn't say any further because what Paimon said was true…he had to swallow the rest his words.
And Paimon was just floating in front and laughing at him so hard.
15 minutes later ~
"Ughhhh…what happened… Did I pass out again? " Keqing slowly opened his eyes and saw someone's back "Am I hugging someone?"
While she was still dozing off about what was going on. A voice from the person she was still embracing called her, made her snapped out.
"You've woken yet…?" Aether called her. He had been carrying her for over 30 minutes and he was really tired now.
Realizing the voice of the person she was hugging, Keqing quickly let go and distancing herself from him.
"DID YOU DO SOMETHING BAD TO ME AGAIN!?" Keqing shouted… This was the 3rd time he carried her and she was faint every time (2)
"What!? You just jumped and then hugged on my back from the beginning…" Aether tried to explain "I even tried to pull you off but then you even hugged me tighter"
"Hugging him and tighter!?...What am I doing !?" Her thought went wild and her face was red like a tomato "Why am I acting like that arghhhhh!"
"Have you two done talking yet?" Paimon said, feeling a bit irritated when she saw they were arguing like an old couple.
Aether then told her about what had just happened earlier, Keqing now understood the current situation…
"So, she just wants us to play a game with her then" Keqing said, confusing.
"Uhh but there's a problem" Paimon said then whispered to Keqing…
"WHAT!?" Keqing got shocked by what the fairy said to her, she just stood there like being petrified, unable to think any further and she thought she was going to pass out again. "And I have to play that game WITH HIM !?"
Aether after heard that line from Keqing, his face was paled and sweating so much but he had no other choice but to play it with her.
"It's just an act…" Aether begged her, this is the first time he felt so desperate "for our sake please…and perhaps for Liyue…"
"It's just an act right, nothing wrong with it…" Keqing thought over and over again to see was there any "evil" intention from that blonde traveler and she also realize her cheek was getting hotter too
After fighting with her own thought, Keqing agreed with him and play that game…
"Alright I will help you…but" Keqing shot a warning glare at him "If you do anything bad to me…I will end your life here"
"Whatever…cat-girl" Aether nodded in agreement.
"Hey!"
The three then went back to Dusky Ming and agreed with the game which that little ghost had told them.
"Yay, I know you will accept it" Dusky Ming said "But first…" she pointed at Aether and Keqing "You need to hold each other hand"
"Uhhh…" Aether and Keqing staring at each other for a while then slowly reach each other hand
"I can do this…I can do this…it's just holding hand right…" her inner thought was conflicting again…the same thing went to Aether too
Took them a while to gain enough confident so they could hold each other hand…while looking away.
"Hey don't look away like that…let's go and play…mom and dad" Dusky Ming waved and both of them went out for some game like…
Just some normal Liyue's traditional game then having some picnic near the Inn…
At first, because Aether didn't know much about the tradition's game in here so he did some silly action but Ming didn't bother about it yet she was having so much fun with these two. With the help from Keqing, he had managed to catch up after that.
Unlike these last encounters, they had to go through a lot of hard fight, troubles…but this time they only needed to play with that little ghost girl a normal people. But they realized the way they were doing right now was far from acting because:
They were playing really nature and smoothly without any mistake. Especially Aether and Keqing were actually having fun with the each other like there was nothing happened between them before.
"Why it's felt so real…Are we just acting right?" Both of them thought and even asking themselves that.
Was this even an "act" anymore…
2 hours later.
"Thanks for playing with me" Dusky Ming said, still very exciting. "Next time come and play with me. I promise not to tease the travelers at the Inn anymore"
Aether and Keqing nodded in agreement "Sure we will come here next time"
"If you don't come and play, Dusky Ming will come find you~" Dusky Ming then disappeared leaving Aether and Keqing alone while staring at each other.
"Let's not talk about it" Keqing said, still confusing about what just happened "At least for now…"
"Yeah" He nodded
"Well, it's done now" Paimon popped out of nowhere and regroup with them and grinned…"And I took all of the screenshot about you two earlier…you both looks like an actual couple"
"WE ARE NOT COUPLE!" Aether and Keqing shouted in unison made Paimon laughed even harder.
Then another unexpecting event happened…The alarm from the detector had come out again
"What is it this time" Aether groaned and checking around but didn't see anything nearby.
"What a headache" Paimon covered their ear while Keqing also covered her cat-ear hair too "Let's get out of here"
Just about when the group left the area, some Denro smiles emerged from the ground and looking at them from a far.(*)
Wangshu's Inn
Seeing the group returned, Smiley Yanxiao felt so relives and quickly asked "Have you solved the problem yet, traveler?
(Aether recounted what happened to the ghost after that…)
Yanxiao gave out a long sigh: "Wh-What... You really got the ghost to promise to stop haunting the inn?"
"Yeah "thanks" for these two people who've "helped" me "a lot"" Aether said while chuckling made Keqing and Paimon felt annoyed…
"What do you mean by that?" Keqing and Paimon both questioned and made a glare at him
"Hmm…nothing" He looked away, tried not to laugh out loud…
Yanxiao thanked them and went back to the to make the food they had requested before.
Within 30 minutes, the food was ready.
"This dish was pure perfection so no worry" Yanxiao gave them the food and it looked very delicious.
Except one person…
The group went up to the balcony to find Xiao again and saw him was leaning on the rail
"Oh…it's you…do you need something from me…" Xiao said with his usual monotone
"Wait! Don't go disappearing again" Paimon begged him while Aether gave Xiao the Almond Tofu and Satisfying Salad…"It's your favorite, Almond Tofu! As well as this distant traveler's best dish — a Satisfying Salad"
"Can we at least talk for a while" Aether also gave out the sigil of permission.
"Let's go down to the kitchen so we can have some together while talking then" Xiao suggested
They agreed and went down to the Kitchen to eat. Aether told Xiao about what happened at the Rite of Descending and had then some discussion about it while enjoying the delicious Almond Tofu and Satisfying Salad.
But there was one person in the group who was only staring at the foods and didn't want to touch them even an inch…and it was Keqing…
"This is such a waste of food! Why Almond Tofu…I don't like eating these things" Keqing tried to keep these complaining inside her…if she spilled out these words, she would be doomed.
"Oh…you are the girl I saw earlier" Xiao glared at Keqing, making her face paled "Is there something wrong? I'm not bother about what happened earlier so you don't have to worry about"
"I…Uhhhh…"Being noticed, Keqing had no choice but to eat these Almond Tofu in tear.
"GLOUP…" A loud swallowing noise can be heard…but luckily, they didn't pay attention to that.
Forcing to eat these least favorite foods are complete nightmare for everyone… (3)
30 minutes later…
After they had done with the meal, the Yaksha agreed with the Traveler to help
"The ruling Qixing... Just what role have they played in this?" Xiao doubted and seem to be really concerning about it.
But he didn't know that there as a Qixing right next to him and these sentences really made Keqing felt uncomfortable as they were doing so hard to protect Liyue too but in the end, they still weren't trusted by the Adeptus…Keqing really want to argue with him but she knew it would only make it worse so she decided to stay silent for now.
After Xiao left, Aether waved Paimon "Well seem like it's all good now, time to take a rest"
When he was about to leave but he saw Keqing was still standing there, spacing out and looked a bit tired. She was thinking over and over again about what the adeptus had said to her all of the time. Their skeptic was the same as her…while she thought human can now live on without the Archon nor the Adeptus but they didn't believe about human capability either…
And the only key to solve all of this endless cycle was this whole adventure. But for some reason, Keqing was forced to go with that unknown blonde traveler and a small unidentified flying creature called as an "Emergency food". Although her journey with them seemed to be going very "well" but there was something that made her still hadn't satisfied yet.
"Maybe I went too harsh to her…" He thought to himself
"Wait here" Aether called Keqing to wait as she was confusing but she still did like what he said
"Here you go" He gave her a dish of newly cooked golden shrimp ball
Surprised by his action, Keqing asked him "Are you birding me or what?"
"Why do I even need to do that…just a token of appreciation" Aether said "You've helped me for quite a time now so I think I should give you something…"
Seeing the delicious golden shrimp ball was right in front of her, she couldn't resist it but she still thinking about what was his intention about giving her a dish like this.
"He just wants to thanks me right…there's no way he could bride me with that…but it's looks so good…what a waste if I throw it away…what should I do…" Keqing's mind was about to explode again.
"Are you ok? Keqing, you're looking like you're about to get sick" Aether asked her…
"NOOO I'M FINEEEE!" Keqing shouted then quickly covered her mouth, trying to calm down "I will take the dish…But this doesn't mean I will forgive you…" She mumbled while looking away.
"Yeah, whatever…" Aether said while looking at her happily chewing the shrimp ball one by one.
"Sooo good…" Keqing exclaimed "Thank you…Aether"
"Glad you like it" Aether chuckled
"So, what's your next move?" Keqing asked after finishing her meal
"Let's just call it a day today, I'm going to take a break for a while…it's been a long troublesome journey…"
Keqing then made a glare at him. He could feel the intimating aura around her.
"No…I mean we've gone through a lot of battle so we should rest for our next quest…" Aether tried to explain while sweating, he didn't want to get chased all over the place again like the first time by that hot head girl.
"Hmph! I will keep my eyes on you, better careful" Keqing said "I'm going home now"
Aether went close to her and used his teleport ability "Allow me to escort you this time"
Before Keqing could realize, she had returned to her house within a flash, when she looked back, he was gone without a trace…again.
"Always in such a hurry" She sighed
After taking a shower, she went off to her bed and kept mumbling alone in her room
"So many things happened to me recently…" Keqing thought as she started to remember all of the incident happened since that Traveler appeared in Liyue… "Is this a sign of change? And that idiot keeps causing me trouble"
"He's Aether then…" Keqing mumbled…"That's…a nice name" then she realized his name had something to do with her name too as her face flushed…
"It's just a coincidence…hmph!" She shook her head furiously "He is just a troublemaker to me…"
"But…That wasn't a bad game today" That was her final thought before she drifted in a peaceful sleep with a slight smile could be seen on her face…"Maybe he isn't so bad after all…" she mumbled while still sleeping.
Meanwhile at Northland's bank, secret room.
"So how was the Traveler meeting with the adeptus" The man with the Hydro vision asked one of the Fatui minion.
"It went very well master Childe" The Fatui minion said "The adeptus has no doubt about it"
"Then our plan can begin" Childe ordered everyone as the menacing laugh from him echoed the whole room…
A hidden evil plan has begun to emerge. How would the Traveler handle this?
Let's find out in the next Act
7th Encounter End.
Later...
"GOD DAMM IT HOW CAN I USE THIS THING!?" - A certain Harbinger was struggling to use the chopstick after his laughing...
(*) Dat moment when the battle music plays then you see the ruin guard start to stand up and screw you over or the Denro smile without carrying any pyro unit xD
(1) 4th Encounter
(2) 4th and 6th Encounter
(3) Tofu is one of her Least favorite foods, you can check in her voice-line
Oh, and this fic has been over half a year, right? I never thought it would turn out so well
I want to thank you all for supporting me from the beginning and I'm looking forward to see more in the future
And finally, Happy holiday and Happy New year all. May luck and happiness will always be with you, your friend and your family everyone
Cheer!