Extra#1: An (Not so) Encounter
You think this fic is over? But it's not (yet...) because I've returned for more :3
A bunch of short side stories between each encounter.
First of all, many thanks to BlindRider for helping me edit this chapter (I am very appreciative :D)
#1: Most wanted
After the First Encounter during the Rite of Descension.
Yujing Terrace, the library room.
There was the Yuheng, the Tianquan and the half-qilin secretary looking for any documents and information on the suspect who might be related to incident that occurred during the Rite of Descension.
Amongst all the suspects, one particular individual had really caught the Yuheng's attention. Driving her into a rampant search for information regarding that person. And go into it head on, she had done, eagerly searching through their stockpile of files for almost three hours straight. Not a single thought of a break in sight.
Of course, it wasn't all due to some random hunch. Suffering an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the blonde-haired Traveler, had given her enough reason to try and piece back her injured pride. Ningguang wasn't of any help either, seeing as she tirelessly teased the younger woman about it. Pushing Keqing to declare an oath to pretty much everyone in the office, citing that she will stop at nothing to get this Traveler down on his feet, and everyone, familiar with her work ethics, knows for a fact that she actually won't stop until she makes such objectives a reality.
Suddenly, she slammed the table, "See, I told you! He is a bad guy!" Keqing showed them a section within the newspaper about a stolen Holy Lyre in Mondstadt a few months ago.
But the problem was the fact that those papers didn't really have any pictures of the culprit, the only thing it had was just a slight description of the person that had somewhat matched said blonde Traveler.
"But it turned out to be the Fatui, not him" Ganyu explained, having read the entirety of the article, "And that can't be counted as proof, you know that, Lady Keqing."
"It doesn't clear him out of anything! Who's to say that he wasn't working with the Fatui himself!?" Keqing shouted and slammed the table once more, quickly darting her suspicious eyes towards Ganyu, "Why are you defending him so much...?"
"Wait, what!" Ganyu was surprised about what Keqing had just accused her of, "I'm not defending him…I'm just speaking to the facts."
And they came to an argument about the blonde for a short while. On the other hand, Ningguang had been watching the commotion in silent amusement, all the while enjoying a cup of tea and reading.
"No need to worry about it, Ganyu. Let's see how far our Yuheng can go…" Ningguang chuckled while reading the news about the Dragon incident in Mondstadt, which had just arrived recently… And the savior was no one but the Traveler himself. Of course, Ningguang decided to keep that information to herself. For now, at least. It's always entertaining to watch the Yuheng lose herself over a fickle matter such as this, every now and then.
"This is going to be a long long day" Ganyu let out a pensive sigh and simply thought to herself.
I wonder if there will be a chance to meet him. Maybe I can find out why Lady Keqing's acting this exuberantly.
And Keqing had spent almost for a whole month, burying herself to the nose with books in the library, just to find any bits of information, all while building an appearance of that blonde. Imagining his features as much as she possibly can. It began to cause worry in the people around. Many question whether or not her newfound obsession of the mysterious Traveler is anywhere near healthy, both physically and mentally.
Meanwhile, all the way in Wangshu Inn
Aether and Paimon were just having an innocent discussion on how to enter the city without being noticed. But suddenly, Aether felt something that made his spine shiver to the core.
"Is it just me, or is the weather getting cold all of a sudden?" Aether's face went pale, then came up with a sneeze…
"You are not sick at all." Paimon checked Aether's forehead but there wasn't any sign of abnormality whatsoever, "Maybe someone is secretly threatening you."
"Why is it that every time I get into within the vicinity of a new city, I'll always get such a "warm" welcome, like this one." Aether mumbled… From Mondstadt and now Liyue, their first impression to him was a criminal "I hope the next nation it won't be like this."
"You are one heck of a "smooth criminal", eh Traveler?" Paimon chuckled.
…
Inazuma's Island
There were a number of troops gathering around the square.
The Shogunate's army in Inazuma be like: "Hehe boyz…"
#2: Important meeting
Ever wonder why Ganyu hadn't met Aether during the beginning of the Archon's quest?
Yujing Terrace
After gaining more knowledge about the blonde Traveler and acquiring a picture of him, which she got from Keqing. Ganyu decided to meet the Traveler by herself to find out more about him.
Since this was going to be a personal meeting between her and him, and only him, she didn't want to risk getting in trouble with Keqing who didn't have the same idea as her. Much worse if Ningguang found out, then it basically means that the whole of Yujing Terrace would also know, and she would be teased to death.
Ganyu tried to organize the time so she could meet him, but because there was so much work to do, it had always been difficult to find the correct timeframe.
Just as Ganyu thought that she had managed her work well enough to create an opening in her schedule, there was another problem that had ended up preventing her from doing so.
During afternoons, she has a long-standing habit of taking naps during those times of the day, and she quickly found that she has a shockingly accurate internal clock. When she slept, nothing could wake her, not even a huge explosion could, and she tends to take incredibly long ones.
"I must find him…but…so…sleepy…" Ganyu tried to get herself together, but both of her eyes were verging on the edge collapse, her view slowly blurring into darkness, which was then followed up by the snoring sound that came out from her mouth.
She had fallen asleep on her desk…
By the time Ganyu woke up, it was already late evening.
Three times, five times… and then much more occurrences, all of them bearing the same exact results.
With the number of afternoons she missed, Ganyu hadn't been able to see Aether yet, perhaps…somewhere in the future.
#3: Consequence (5th Encounter aftermath)
Mondstadt, Knight of Favonius HQ, Jean's office
It was a usual morning for Acting Grand Master Jean as she was catching up on the daily reports and news regarding the nations of Teyvat. And amongst all the news, there was one of them that had caught her eye.
And that it was the news about the huge explosion that had occurred in Liyue. A massive event, considering that they hadn't even been able to catch the culprit yet…
Realizing that the only person who might've created that kind of destruction is within their ranks, Jean quickly rushed into Klee's room who just went out of confinement one week ago, around the same time that explosion occurred.
With a single swift kick, Jean blasted the door open. A startled Klee slowly shaking as the blonde woman menacingly walked up to her.
"Dear me, what have you done this time?" Jean asked Klee, newspaper in hand.
"What do you mean, master Jean?" Klee innocently asked, still having no idea that about the terrible thing that was about to strike down upon her…Until Klee looked up and saw…
The gentle and caring Jean was no more, instead a scary, angry one had taken her place, and she was crossing her arm while rolling her eyes over while looking at Klee.
"Are you sure about that?" Jean then gave Klee the newspaper that had covered the explosion at Mount Aocang and had also found a weird object in that area as well. That object was nothing strange, but only if you are Klee, seeing as it shares almost identical properties to the Dodoco toy that Klee usually makes.
"I swear I didn't do anything!" Klee freaked out while begging for mercy from Jean, but it was of no use.
Of course, there was no way that Jean would so easily believe her, seeing that Klee had even gone to Liyue beforehand, just to blow up a certain large creature called the Vishap, before getting caught by Jean.
"So, you have chosen…Death." Jean gave a death glare, all while she slowly approaches the now terrified Klee.
"Wait master Jean… please… I… GYAAAAA…!" A loud shriek came out from Klee's confinement room and made everyone who stood around the vicinity of it visibly startled. The guard who stood by the door wanted to see if anything was wrong, yet he did not want to risk suffering the rage of the Acting Grand Master herself. So, he peeked through the Key hole and saw that Jean was schooling Klee, but somehow, even for a grown-up like him, he was still as equally frightened when presented at the sight of the angry blonde.
The scream then slowly faded and faded till it completely fell into cold silence. Luckily, a moment later, Kaeya and Lisa arrived and managed to drag Jean out of the room.
"Hmph! Another three months of confinement for you then…" Jean shouted, before promptly leaving the room.
Although she had just gotten schooled by Jean, the little pyrotechnic expert didn't let it bug her down too much. With her cheerful attitude, Klee had gone back to normal shortly after the perilous turn of events.
A few days later…
Once again, Jean had been in her office catching up on some more reports. It was then did she received another news about another explosion in Liyue, which had left behind another weird object that had looked an awful lot like Klee's toy again…Without any hesitation, Jean rushed to the confinement room, only to see that Klee was still playing in there… like she normally would if she were to be sent to the confinement room.
"If she's always been in this room, then who did it…?" Jean tried to come up with a hypothesis of her own, but eventually came out short. Mostly due to the fact that as far as her knowledge had convinced her, Klee was the only person who has the ability to create these toys… Little did she know however, that Klee had apparently passed her blueprint to a certain blonde Traveler.
Perhaps no one would able to find out who was actually behind all the bombings… Only a certain flying emergency food that had been following a blonde boy Traveler the whole time, could probably tell…
#4: Rumor (4th Encounter's aftermath)
Yujing Terrance
After returning from Wangshu Inn, Keqing had felt flustered in a way that she had never experienced beforehand.
She was afraid that people might be thinking that she had been slacking off from work, due to the stressful conditions that the recent incident in the ritual had created, and also because of that blonde Traveler who kept evading her scope of research.
Which, in hindsight, was probably the biggest cause of them all.
When she walked back to her office, Keqing was braced herself in preparation for the hail of questions to come out from everyone…
But it didn't happen as Keqing had expected. Instead, she only heard giggling from everyone whom she had passed by. From her secretary and colleague, they all shared a snicker or two every time they saw her. She tried to ask around to find out why, but no one had been willing to provide her with an answer.
Tired of feeling even more like she had just been ridiculed, Keqing decided to meet the captain who had gone with her to fight that blonde Traveler in mount Aocang.
- Training ground-
There was a group of soldiers having a talk during break, a foul mood practically oozing out of the group as a whole.
"What could we have done in that situation…" One of the solider groaned tiredly, "That person isn't even human anymore."
"Not to mention, he also had help from the adeptus as well," another one let out a resigned sigh "Glad Lady Ningguang understood our situation though…"
This group of unfortunate soldiers was the same group that had fought the blonde Traveler in the Ritual square, similarly so in the skirmish at mount Aocang, and the result was quite obvious: Both they and Keqing were defeated in an instant without any trouble. His power had completely overwhelmed them and he didn't even have a Vision.
But the worst part of it, is the fact that they had ran away and left Keqing alone with that blonde boy and of course, even with the situation in hand, they knew very well that it was the wrong course of action to take. Luckily for them, they didn't get fired for it, yet they have had their pay docked for three months as a penalty for leaving such high-level personnel in a battle field without issued commands from said personnel.
"But I still feel bad for doing that…leaving Lady Ke-" That soldier suddenly shivered so badly, and when he turned, he saw that Keqing had ended up right behind them…
"Oh, what do we have here?" Keqing asked the group, they were so scared that no one was able to speak.
"We…we…" The captain then fell to his knee and bowed to Keqing, trying to apologize "We are sorry Lady Keqing! For running away! Please, forgive us for our cowardness!"
"Please stand up." Keqing waved dismissively, "Did you know what had happened while I was away? And the reason as to why no one had been looking for me? I went missing for almost two days!?"
"Uhhh the truth is…" The captain told Keqing his own recollection of what had happened.
After the group returned to Yujing Terrace, they went to see Ningguang and told her about the overwhelmingly one-sided battle between them and the Blonde Traveler. They also told her about their ill-advised decision to leave Keqing behind, but Ningguang herself had said that there was no need to search for her, since she had just received a letter from Ganyu which told her Keqing was alright and is now being taken care of at Wangshu Inn.
"So…Ningguang told everyone to leave me be because she knew that I was still safe…" Keqing asked while clenching her fist…
"Yes…and also, Lady Ningguang said the reason that everyone knows, was that you were taken care of by that person called -" The captain quickly shut his mouth before he could say anything further, because he knew if he blabbed one more word about the name of that blonde Traveler, then it would spell a swift end to his life.
Keqing fell into silence for a while, then looked back at the captain. The aura around her was full of seething, hateful energy. He was even more frightened when he saw that Keqing had started laughing like crazy, her features darkening like it had come from a soulless person.
"You're cheeky, Ningguang…Causing this miserable chain of events, in such a manner…" Keqing spoke those words one by one slowly, eventually bursting out a maniacal laughter, "I have had to deal with that dumb blonde boy, and now I have to deal with you too!?"
"La-Lady…Keqing…" The captain was stuttered "Are…you…o-"
Keqing then turned at him with a cold glare…
"Enjoy another salary cut-off for a few months then…" Keqing said bluntly to that captain then left. They could still hear Keqing that been cursing God knows who while leaving the premise, "Your dumb idiot…I will never forgive you for this…this is all because of you!"
"But Lady Keqing, I…" That poor captain tried to speak to Keqing but it was too late.
Even though technically, he hadn't done anything wrong that had warranted that extra bit of punishment…
I hope everyone enjoys these short side stories in the meantime. I'm still working for the 2nd Act but it will have to take a while and I'm also busy irl as well. Tbh I have already drafted the ending of the whole fic but not the progress yet xD (How silly of me…)
See everyone soon ^^
P/s: Pls also considering visiting BlindRider's works too (Ex: "A Starward Vortex" and more), they are really impressive :3.
