The trip was smooth sailing, all things considered. Following the roads meant that the most trouble Aether faced were small groups of Treasure Hoarders. Easy enough for people with elemental powers to deal with… the few people that did have them.

While an easy chore for him, it was a valuable and necessary act. He saw ridding the roads of their filth as a service to the people who couldn't defend themselves as easily.

The road, paved with dirt, curved upward as it reached its last end, giving way to a stone brick bridge running across clear blue Cider Lake.

The low rumble of the small horse-drawn cart on the bridge created a rhythm with the gentle streaming sound of flowing water below as little birds walking about the bridge chirped about, harmonizing a light and happy melody.

It was a good choice he thought, to travel by carriage. There was the cost of Mora, yes, but to adventurers like him there would never be a shortage. There was always a way to get more, whether it meant poking about ruins or working with the Adventurers' Guild. Traveling at a constant, easy pace without toiling on foot gave him and Paimon ample time and energy to take in nature: its many pleasures found in ambient sounds, in the mystery of passing ruins. It was nice just to behold for once. To wonder at the mystery found in this world, and, for a change, not being under pressure to unfold it.

This world was so beautiful. He could have explored it with Lumine, every wonder-filled nook and cranny, but that god robbed them... She'd robbed him.

No... it wasn't time for those thoughts.

The cart came to a sudden stop as the driver pulled at his brown horse's harness, causing it to neigh. Aether jolted forward, startled by the sudden coil and sound. He looked up ahead at the sound of footsteps approaching, to be greeted by the sight of a tall Knight in uniform.

The tall young man looked into the cart, eying in from end to end, blue eyes searching focused and alert.

When his seeming searching was done he made a satisfied nod and gave the driver a hard pat on the back as he turned to leave, the driver letting out a little whimper.

The driver looked over his shoulder back at Aether, rubbing at his back and giving him a crooked smile. He grinned back at him. It looked like he was still reeling. Poor guy.

Aether looked down at Paimon, chest rising and falling as she lay on his lap.

Lazy little thing. How didn't that stop wake you up?

He gently stroked at Paimon's white hair. Rich and thick, it had ethereal smoothness to it, almost otherworldly, as he ran his hand through it. He ran his hand over his own hair. Rough and grassy, even without comparing to Paimon's. Did mysterious floating babies have some kind of strange hair conditioning ritual? It'd be news to him.

He let out a soft chuckle. He'd have to ask when he could.

For the moment though, he was due to get-the-hell-off, and she was in the way. She'd have to forgive him for manhandling.

He gripped at her sides to hold her up, but her eyes shot wide open, and he flinched when her little body shot up to float into the air.

"Hey! Who told you you could just touch Paimon like that?!"

"You've got all the qualities of a stuffed toy. Small, light, and soft."

"Paimon is not a stuffed toy!"

She crossed her arms with a scowl.

"Oh, that's a shame. I should get a Paimon stuffed toy sewn, it would never complain.

"She'd be all show and no substance then! Say goodbye to your ever-reliable travel guide forever!"

Aether chuckled. "Let's get going."

"Hmph! I'm holding that against you!"

He jumped off the cart and waved goodbye to the driver. He really appreciated the man's work. It was a long way here and it'd be a long way back. The Liyuean clasped his hands and gave a crinkle-eyed smile and nod.

Aether made for the gate, the two guards—one of them he recognized as the one who stopped the cart just a little ago—greeting him with the Knights' salute. He returned a simple nod and awkward grin. He wasn't sure whether or not, as an Honorary Knight, he could greet people like that. It would be nice to, but he didn't want to risk breaking any ancient protocol and making a faux pas if he wasn't supposed to.

He stopped to stretch his arms thoroughly. While he wasn't one to complain at the opportunity to put his muscles to work, another benefit of traveling by cart was that he didn't feel exhausted out of his mind. He had endurance but of course it could drag even when all it took was just to walk to the nearest Waypoint, especially if it was a long ways away.

As he passed through the gate, the gentle ambience of nature faded into the background, giving way to the sounds of the city. Far away chatter hummed, hammer clashed familiarly with anvil, and the shouts of a new cycle of peddlers gone out to sell their wares rang out.

Quieter than it would be later in the day though—the sun had only risen a short while back. It couldn't have been much close to mid-day right now, and the slightly muted atmosphere here in the gateside district proved as much.

That said, it was nice to be back.

Now what to do? He could check with the Knights at the Headquarters—some issue or another may have cropped up that he could help with. He could sign with the Adventurers' Guild again, but the whole reason he'd gone to Liyue was to put himself to work doing commissions there. He'd done maybe a dozen or so, anything to clear his mind of that whole affair with Lumine and the Abyss. It didn't help much, but the Liyuean food did, sort of. Either way, he was tired of commissions for the moment.

Maybe he could talk to Amber about all this. It'd been a while, and she was always the personable one of the Favonius lot—not to say that the others were unfriendly, of course not. He'd just have to wait a bit, she was probably out on Outrider business at the moment.

"You've been doing nothing but looking left, right, up and down for a minute now!" whined Paimon, interrupting his reverie. "Please don't tell Paimon you booked us a long, boring cart ride all the way from Liyue just to do nothing here!"

"Shhh, that's why I'm trying to think!"

Paimon's eyes widened as she tugged on Aether's shirt. "So you came here with no purpose in mind?!"

"They do say it's the journey that matters, not the destination..."

"And the journey was extremely boring! You could have used a waypoint, you know!"

He grinned, his attempt at pseudo-philosophy foiled by Paimon's sheer practicality.

Childish practicality, but practicality nonetheless.

"You only say that because you slept the whole way."

"Ugh.." Paimon put her palm on her head. "If you can't think of anything, just buy Paimon something from Good Hunter please..."

"Will do."

He said as much, but he wasn't going to concede to Paimon's wager that he'd wind up not doing anything here. Not just yet. Thrill-seeking wasn't the reason he'd come back anyway.

Nevertheless, maybe he'd come up with an idea after passing by Good Hunter.

He headed up the stone stairs leading to the elevated fountain square, paved with stone. The broad area was sparsely crowded, but as expected for the hour. A mustached man—a drunkard no doubt—sat (slept?) catatonically against the fountain stone where a bottle of some alcoholic beverage or another was laid. A little boy and girl whispered as they looked with wide-eyed wonder at the peculiar sight.

All the while, the pleasant and cool wind briefly intensified into a slight breeze, whipping Aether's hair and causing a small leaf to land on his boot.

Moments like this proved that Mondstadt was worthy of the many names people had given it.

The City of Freedom, where children can frolic freely without fear...

The City of Wind where the breeze is cool...

And of course, the City of Wine where the wine was good... and drunkards plentiful.

He turned toward Good Hunter, at Sara, who smiled and waved as soon as he did. He smiled back. Seemed she'd noticed him from afar. A girl in a strange mix of maidly frills and heavy plate armor stood opposite her, and Sara seemed to have been talking to her immediately prior. What kind of household duties would worry a maid enough that she'd go to work in plated armor? Must have been a troubled household.

From Dawn Winery maybe? It was quite the trek from there to Mondstadt proper. One might call this maid's approach dedicated though, if nothing else. Plated armor welded into her dress, and finely crafted too! Diluc was a kind master it seemed.

But he was getting besides the matter at hand. Paimon's scowl, which she made a matter of displaying by floating maybe barely an inch away from his face, said as much.

Right, well, maybe a few Chicken-Mushroom Skewers - three, two? Hopefully not five- would do to appease Paimon… he was liking the sound of some Mondstadt sausages with eggs himself.

He headed to, pushing Paimon aside, the call of morning hunger irresistible.

"Yes, thank you. Oh, wait! Could I get some, um..." The young woman tapped her finger on her chin. "...oh dear, I've forgotten."

The girl looked down at the list she held in her hand, written on a piece of paper. She removed her thumb from the paper, revealing a rather... long paper. It rolled onto the floor, her shopping list apparently long enough to accomplish such a feat.

She ran through the list with furrowed brows, steadily lifting and folding the paper again, like a Fontainish printing press working in reverse.

"A-ha! That's what I was looking for! Uhh..."

She folded her sprawling paper completely now, into the neat compact form it was in previously, quick enough so as to appear a simple afterthought. Aether had to stop and raise his brows. What was there to say... she was quite the thorough maid.

"Umm... well, I'd just like some lettuce and tomatoes. For, umm... salad."

"Of course, of course Noelle! Don't worry about it!" said Sara. "Let me just fetch them for you."

She looked into the baskets containing her stock and fished into them.

"Hey, Sara."

"Traveler! So nice to have you back!" Sara said as she placed a handful each of lettuce and tomatoes in Noelle's bag.

"Some breakfast please, if it isn't any trouble. Two chicken skewers..."

"Three..!" sharply whispered the little gremlin.

"...Three... chicken skewers. And a plate of eggs and your finest sausages."

"Certainly!" Sara smiled. "It won't take long, please take a seat if you like."

He gave her a pleasant smile as she turned to get to work with cheerful spring in step.

Before he could move to get a seat though, he noticed off the corner off his eye the curious stare the girl, whose name was Noelle apparently, was giving him.

He turned to her with a smile, her green eyes widened in seeming surprise at his attention before she looked away, down at her bags.

Bags was right. She was carrying maybe three of them, he only now noticed.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked. She seemed nervous, somehow.

She pursed her lips, before breaking into a grin as she began to brush at her short light gray locks.

"Oh, it's just this really isn't how I thought we'd meet… I'd thought…"

Her soft tone, barely more than a whisper, implied she was talking more to herself than to him at this point, before she cleared her throat. "Well, ahem!"

She straightened herself and gently laid down her bags onto the ground, before curtsying with a flourish.

"I'm Noelle, a maid for the Knights of Favonius. It's a privilege to finally be able to meet you, Honorary Knight." She gave a radiant smile as she clasped her hands together.

"It's nice to meet you too," he smiled, slightly taken aback by being shown such courtesy. "It's just… I didn't know the Knights had maids."

"Oh, I'd passed you by once in a while, and heard the occasional story or two, but I've always been too busy to actually introduce myself… I really am glad you're here."

Her hands clasped a bit tighter as she looked off to the side. "But yes, I am…a maid for the Knights. Not actually, um, an actual Knight yet. I've been working hard, but I still haven't been able to pass the selection trials…"

That explained the armor. It wasn't exactly everyday you saw a maid decked out in full plate, that was for sure.

"It must be hard juggling your work as a maid with training to be a Knight."

"Oh, it is, certainly. I'm always busy with one thing or another, it seems! But please don't worry, I do enjoy my work, and the harder I train, the closer I am to being a Knight!"

She picked up her bags again. "I wish I could stay and talk with you longer, Honorary Knight, but I'm afraid you caught me in the middle of work for the morning! Maids need ingredients to cook with, after all!" She gave a nervous chuckle.

He waved his hand. "It's no problem. Give me a shout if you ever need any advice, Noelle. I'd love to help, I'll be in town for this next coming week or so."

"R-really? I was actually looking to ask you for help training… I just hope it isn't any trouble to you."

Her bright green eyes lit up hopefully, betraying her modesty.

"It's a date, no trouble at all! Whenever you want to."

A little smile made its way onto her lips before she gave a quick curtsy and turned away, a little skip in her step now.

Aether mostly came back to Mondstadt to rest and recuperate from his exhausting schedule in Liyue, but it wouldn't be any trouble to him to take this eager young maid under his wing. It'd be fun.

Oh, but that reminded him of the topic of lodgings. He'd have to think about it, he thought, pulling a chair over to sit on. There were one or two inns around, but one smelled dreadful even from the outside and the other might as well have tried to charge him his arm and a herd of cattle for a room.

The Knights' headquarters was cheaper, but he'd always felt like a hanger-on just accepting the bed they had for him there—the last time he'd been in Mondstadt he'd just opted to camp outside of the city to spare himself the embarrassment. Oh, and the mattresses? It was like sleeping on a rock. He almost felt glad for Noelle now, at least so far she'd been spared from sleeping on the horrible bedding the Knights somehow tolerated, bard bless them—

"Oh! Oh! Sir? Sir! Are you alright?"

He shot up from his seat as a cry rang out in the circle followed by hurried footsteps.

Looking over his shoulder, he found Noelle by the fountain, sitting on one knee as she poked and prodded at the poor drunk, her bags set aside haphazardly on the fountain stone.

He made a brief glance at Sara, and, finding she was still hard at work (and that he wouldn't have to leave his breakfast cold), made a beeline for the fountain.

He knelt down beside Noelle, and she made a brief glance in acknowledgment before returning her attention to the drunk man.

"Is he alright?" asked Aether.

Noelle's brows furrowed as she pressed two fingers against his arm, checking near the wrist for a pulse. "I'm not sure, he's not conscious… And I've been trying to wake him up but he hasn't been…"

Her eyes turned wide.

She clutched at the skin of the man's fingertips, hands shaking. When Aether turned to see what had her so rattled, he held in a gasp. They had turned blue.

The square was silent, or did it only seem that way as his heart went pounding? The howl of the wind was ghastly as it only served to punctuate the deadening silence.

Where had the children gone? Had they tried to rouse him too, and ran away scared when he'd said nothing?

And what had he done? Hadn't he seen the man before and noticed he was probably drunk from the wine bottle? A chill ran down his spine. He'd seen the man only minutes ago, and didn't even consider the fact that something might have been seriously wrong. He would slap his palm on his face but that'd be entirely inappropriate at a moment like this.

She turned to him, expression blank. "I don't think he's breathing."

Aether gaped.

"What do we do?"

She didn't ask that. He did.

He anticipated that Noelle, aspiring knight that she was, would turn to him for answers. But he had no idea, he had no idea—and a man could be dying here, yet he had no idea.

His heart raced as this girl looked into his eyes for guidance and this drunk man lay there dying for all he knew, and he, the idiot everyone relied on to solve their problems for some reason, had no idea what to do.

Damn it all, damn it—

All of a sudden she was upright, carrying the man on her back, green gaze steeled and jaw clenched.

Oh, she wasn't looking for guidance… just for approval. So he just looked like a gaping idiot then.

With determined speed she laid the man down onto the pavement before sitting down on her knees, and without delay she pulled his chin down so his mouth was open. Within a second she was upon him, covering his open mouth with her own.

She blew hard for one whole second, causing the man's chest to push outward, but nothing else. A second time, and still nothing.

Aether clasped his hands together hopefully. Gesture like a prayer—was Venti watching? Would he do something to help his people who no doubt, in moments like this, pinned all their hopes and fears on him? How did the whole Archon business work anyway?

He shook his head. Getting theoretical was no help.

But his hands kept clasped besides, as though hoping. That either hard breaths were enough to save a life, or that a tone-deaf bard with unknown abilities had a heart. Or both.

…

It must have been the sixth try from Noelle. The man shot up, breathing rapid, raspy breaths. Bloodshot eyes were wide and frantic.

Noelle was out of breath, too, but relief was clear in tearful eyes and in breaths deep and labored that steadily slowed, with gratitude. What once was dying, by some feat, clung to life.

There was no shortage of relief on Aether's end either, but he felt badly he didn't act sooner. Lesson learned, do check if someone passed out on the street is in serious crap. If you got beat up, at least you tried.

He put his hand on the man's shoulder.

"Excuse me sir, are you alri—"

The man bent over before going on to empty the contents of his stomach onto the stone pavement.

"I—" Aether began to quip.

"Honorary Knight, please, he needs a moment."

…Yeah, that made sense. Okay, he'd just keep quiet then.

The man breathed heavily still, no doubt trying to collect himself from both being brought back from the grave and puking like hell. He had a bit of weight and age on him, with wrinkles on his forehead and near his eyes, and a receding hairline of dirty blond. Poor old sot.

"You… you saved my life!" he said, looking at neither Noelle or Aether in particular before searching between the two of them.

Aether grinned as he pointed a finger at Noelle. It definitely wasn't him who saved a life today.

"Oh, thank you thank you thank you! You don't know how grateful I am, really I—what can I do to thank you?"

"You don't have to do anything! But please don't drink so much again."

"Yes, of course… I was… I was real stupid, wasn't I? Won't happen again."

"That's all I need. Now please drink some water."

"Of course, of course. Err…"

He looked over his shoulder, in the direction of Good Hunter.

"Umm, Sara dear?!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Is there anything you need?!"

"A glass of water, please! N-no, a whole jug!"

"A jug of rubber?!"

"No, a jug of—oh, I'll go there myself—"

Noelle came in front of him to stop him as he lifted himself up from the stone floor.

"No, please, allow me sir. You should sit here and rest first, your body's been through a lot."

"I…"

He sighed. "Of course. I shouldn't argue with the one who saved my life."

"Oh no, it's not that! But please, it's for your own good." She smiled before heading off to Sara.

Aether, not wanting to be noticed, stepped back. It would be awkward to talk with the man, what was he going to say? "Oh, I'm the one who stood by and did nothing"? Come on.

Noelle's bags were still safe and sound by the fountain—he squinted, juuust to be sure there wasn't anything unsavory on it by now… thankfully, there wasn't.

She came back soon enough, large wooden jug of water in hand alongside a plainly cut glass. She poured into the glass until it was almost full then offered it to the man.

"Now, after you're hydrated, I hope you remember the dangers of drinking too much."

The man stared sadly at his reflection in the glass, and let out a sigh.

"It's been hard… but I'll try."

She gave him a pat on the back. "I know you can do it."

Tears welled up in his eyes and his shoulders began to shiver.

With a slight smile, Noelle turned to Aether. "I think we should let him alone now."

Aether smiled back. "Right."

She picked up the bags that she'd left by the fountain, and, with one last wave to the man, turned to leave.

Without thinking about it, Aether found his feet moving to follow. When she turned to face him, he stopped, realizing what he was doing.

"Oh, I… I meant to go back to Good Hunter. I've got an order pending, as you, ah, probably know." He grinned awkwardly.

"Oh, no, please don't worry, Honorary Knight. It's hard not to get spaced out after a situation as nerve-wracking as that. I'm not even completely sure what I was going to do after this anymore—"

Her eyes widened. "Oh wait! I was going to cook breakfast for the Knights at the Headquarters! Oh dear, I hope I can do it in time! Thank you for the time, Honorary Knight!"

She ran off in a hurry, bags rustling.

Great, so he got to be the clumsy one and she got to showcase her apparently amazing memory. Great… oh, what was that smell?

Pleasant, savory… the unmistakable scent of meat grilling. It wasn't a second before the sting of embarrassment was cast to the wayside.

Off back to Good Hunter he went, at a leisurely pace… until he caught sight of that unsavory green pile on the ground, at which he started running.

No, no, no. He was not going to look at it. He was not going to think about it. He was not going to think about it. Get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head I want to enjoy my breakfast, no….