Ryou jumped at the sight.
What was going on?
That voice, that hand, that whole scene… why did it look so unsettling?
"R-Ryou-sama, I… I…" The housekeeper could barely speak.
Even under the bright morning sun, he felt a chill sink into his bones.
He had clearly arranged for people to clean this place earlier, so how had something like this suddenly appeared?
Ryou glanced over. The scene was strange, but that hand clearly belonged to a girl.
He walked into the main hall and immediately saw Mona collapsed on the floor. Her face was deathly pale, and even her lips had gone white.
"I… give me some water. I-I can't hold on much longer," Mona said, her voice trembling.
Ryou took out a glass of Blood Mary and fed it to her.
This was no ordinary drink. It had not only been infused with Adeptal energy and Holy Light, but also with a drop of his blood essence.
With its quality boosted by +3, it could restore all injuries and exhaustion.
Ryou had only made ten bottles of it as emergency supplies, and even he had only used two so far.
But Mona's condition looked far too wrong, so he gave her one without hesitation.
After Mona drank it, the change came almost instantly. Her pale face flushed with color in the blink of an eye.
The effect was so fast it was almost hard to process.
Ryou saw Mona recover. She lowered her head, looked at her hands, then touched her face. "I… I'm completely fine."
"This… this is unbelievable. Ryou, what kind of miracle medicine is that?"
"That's a secret." Ryou helped Mona up, then had the servants withdraw first.
"Mona, you should know what happened last night, right?" Ryou asked.
"I… I was sealed at the time, but I could still hear them talking."
"First, I saw Ningguang get taken away by force."
"After that, Tabibito was forced away too."
"Later, Keqing came back, and I only heard her speaking with Shenhe." Mona told Ryou everything she knew.
Ryou felt a headache coming on.
He could roughly guess what had happened now.
Most likely, Keqing had been worried the others would do something to him, so she had ended up fighting all of them.
Ryou knew how much Keqing cared about him. It was not strange that she would do something like that.
If he had not gotten drunk yesterday, he could have avoided so much of this.
But now, Ningguang, Tabibito, and Shenhe were probably all ready to fight Keqing.
What a mess.
Keqing had to be furious right now. She was probably hurt too. He needed to hurry to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
"Mona, I more or less understand what happened. Stay home and rest properly today," Ryou told her.
"Wait." Mona grabbed his arm. "Ryou, I… I want to ask you something."
"What is it?" Ryou asked.
"Zhongli-sensei… who exactly is he? Yesterday, I tried to read his fate, and I was petrified for the whole night."
"Keqing and Shenhe couldn't help me at all. If you hadn't saved me, I might have died," Mona said.
Thinking back to that state made Mona feel as if she had barely escaped death.
The memory alone made her tremble.
She regretted trying to look into Zhongli's fate. But she still could not let it go, so she decided to ask Ryou.
Ryou had a good relationship with Zhongli, and they met often. He had to know something.
"You… tried looking into Zhongli's fate?" Ryou looked at Mona.
As far as he remembered, Mona had once tried looking into Venti's fate too.
And the result had been awful.
"Y-Yes." Mona nodded.
"Then stop doing that. Zhongli isn't someone you should pry into," Ryou said, shaking his head.
It was still early. Under normal circumstances, Keqing should already be at the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
If he hurried over now, he might still make it in time. More importantly, he had several important things to arrange today.
The most important was calming Keqing down. He could not let this misunderstanding get worse.
Explaining things to Keqing would not be easy either. After all, he had disappeared last night.
If Keqing learned that he had slept beside Hu Tao for an entire night, she might actually draw her sword on him.
"Mona, Zhongli's identity is far from ordinary. Don't bring trouble on yourself."
Ryou warned her carefully, then said, "You don't need to go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs today. Stay home and rest."
"Mm… wait," Ryou said.
"What is it?" Mona looked at him.
"Are your readings accurate?" Ryou asked.
Mona patted her chest. "Don't worry. When it comes to astrology, aside from my master, I'm not inferior to anyone in this world."
"That's true." Ryou nodded.
In the actual story, Mona's astrology was extremely impressive. She was especially useful in certain events.
She could even read the identities of people like Venti and Zhongli.
That alone proved how skilled she was.
"Mona, help me read what happened to me last night," Ryou said.
"What happened? You don't know?" Mona asked.
"Would I be asking you if I knew?" Ryou glared at her.
He remembered getting drunk yesterday, then being helped back to his room by the housekeeper.
After that, he had no memory at all.
It made his head ache.
He still had to go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and find Keqing. There was no way he could avoid explaining himself.
Only once Ryou knew the truth could he explain it to Keqing.
Keqing cared deeply about him, and this time he had disappeared for no reason for an entire night.
Forget Keqing. Any woman would overthink that.
And as a man, if he could not even comfort his own woman and stop her from being hurt, then what kind of man was he?
Ryou looked at Mona. "Can you read it?"
"Mm… I can!" Mona said.
Although Mona did not fully understand what Ryou meant, she still took out her astrolabe.
Ryou said nothing and quietly watched.
Mona stared at the astrolabe with complete focus. The Vision on her body began to shine with brilliant light.
The astrolabe seemed to turn into a massive reflection, like the surface of a lake.
The lake was still as a mirror, reflecting a blue sky and boundless sea.
As blue light flowed across it, ripples appeared on the surface.
After a long while, an image emerged.
The scene surprised Ryou. It looked like an adeptal abode, filled with all sorts of strange and rare objects.
There were three figures inside, and Ryou recognized one of them.
It was Shenhe.
Ryou understood a little more now.
So this really did have something to do with Shenhe.
If he guessed right, that place was probably Mt. Aocang, inside Cloud Retainer's abode.
But why had he appeared in Cloud Retainer's abode?
Just as Ryou was trying to make sense of it, the image began to tremble.
The next second, the scene changed.
This new image was very brief. In an instant, every trace on the lake's surface vanished.
Cold sweat broke out across Ryou's back.
Because he had seen Hu Tao hugging him when he opened his eyes.
Crack.
A split appeared across the astrolabe. Then it shattered into pieces.
Mona froze for a moment, then crouched down and picked up the broken pieces.
She looked at Ryou. "This… Ryou, can you repair it?"
"Probably," Ryou said, not entirely sure.
He breathed out a stream of energy, letting it wrap around the astrolabe.
The next second, all the broken pieces began to glow.
Ryou watched as the fragments seemed to come alive, slowly restoring themselves to their original shape.
Mona stared at the sight for a long while. "Wh-What just happened?"
"Didn't I fix it for you?"
"But… tell me, were all those images real?" Ryou asked.
"Of course they were. No wonder Keqing was so angry. You were actually with…"
"Shut up. Don't spread this!" Ryou said, staring at Mona.
"Ahem. Whether this mouth of mine stays sealed depends on your sincerity."
Mona looked at Ryou. "I want to buy a book. You're paying for it."
"A book…"
Ryou looked at Mona for a moment. "Just this once."
"Then thank you, boss." Mona smiled.
Ryou soon hurried off to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Mona watched him rush away and muttered, "From the images, he looked like he was asleep. But why did he appear in two places?"
"First Shenhe, then Hu Tao…"
"Mm! Hu Tao is that small, and he still went for it?"
"Though I was petrified at the time, that doesn't mean I couldn't hear anything."
"I heard Keqing's voice then. She sounded furious. Ryou, good luck."
…
At Wangshu Inn.
"Tabibito, maybe we should rest for a bit? We've been traveling all night," Paimon said, looking at her.
Tabibito viciously bit into a bun. "No. Keqing, that vicious woman!"
"She threw me all the way to the Knights of Favonius in Mondstadt. I'm absolutely not letting her get away with that!"
"When I get back this time, I'm fighting her to the end!"
"T-Tabibito…" Paimon still wanted to persuade her.
Then a noise came from behind them, like someone had fallen to the floor.
Tabibito was drinking porridge and thinking about how to deal with Keqing when she heard someone behind her speak. A woman was calling out anxiously.
"Please wake up! What happened? Can you hear me?"
Paimon flew beside Tabibito and whispered, "Tabibito, their clothes look like they're from Sumeru."
Tabibito glanced at Paimon. "It doesn't matter where they're from. They need help right now. Come on, let's go check."
[End of chapter]
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