Acting Grand Master Jean and Diluc didn't quite understand the strange pose struck by Chen Luo and the Herrscher of Sentience, but it looked rather... romantic.
That is, if you disregarded the Herrscher of Sentience's excessively hearty laughter.
Chen Luo, withdrawing his hands from the Herrscher of Sentience's waist, felt a scorching gaze on him. Turning around, he saw Eula looking their way.
"Eula, do you want to try too?" Even against the roaring wind, Chen Luo's voice clearly reached Eula's ears.
"N-no, I'll pass!" Feeling the various looks from everyone around upon hearing Chen Luo's offer, Eula quickly shook her head.
This kind of thing was still a bit too thrilling for Eula, especially with so many acquaintances nearby.
Seeing Eula wasn't interested, Chen Luo and the Herrscher of Sentience took two steps back and sat down on Stormterror's shoulder.
Chen Luo had originally intended to return to where the others were gathered, but the Herrscher of Sentience held him back.
"Hey, A'Luo, what... what are your plans for the future?" The Herrscher of Sentience, facing the gale, showed no sign of discomfort at all.
"Plans?" Chen Luo was momentarily stunned.
"What plans?"
"I mean, you work so hard earning Primogems. After you've earned enough to be invincible, what will you do? Keep running the bar? Keep adventuring endlessly through countless worlds? Or what?" The smile remained on the Herrscher of Sentience's face, but it seemed to have lost its original carefree quality.
In the Herrscher of Sentience's view, this kind of life was indeed fun, meeting people from different worlds, traveling to different worlds.
But every journey has a moment when it reaches its end, doesn't it?
"Hmm, get into a good university," Chen Luo said after a moment of contemplation.
"Hmm... huh? What did you say?"
"I said get into a good university. Senti, don't tell me you forgot, I'm a student about to face my final year of high school. Naturally, my studies come first," Chen Luo said helplessly.
"Ha, now that you mention it, I almost really did forget." The Herrscher of Sentience rubbed her temples.
"But that's not what I meant. I meant after the journey ends, what will you do?"
"The journey's end... Senti, you don't really think a journey has an end, do you?" Chen Luo said, exasperated.
"I-It doesn't?"
"If I had to say, the journey's end is home. Just like my parents, no matter how long they travel or do archaeology outside, they always come home after a certain period."
"Of course, before going home, I still need to figure out getting you an identity."
"Identity?" The Herrscher of Sentience tilted her head.
"Yeah. My parents will eventually come home, either during or after the summer vacation. Naturally, we need to arrange an identity for you at home. Otherwise, how can you live normally at home? We can't have you hiding all the time, right?" Chen Luo said.
"I can live in your sea of consciousness. That's not a big problem, is it?" The Herrscher of Sentience found it a bit strange.
Was this even an issue?
"It's a huge problem, okay? Since I promised to give you a home, naturally we should interact as family. How can family members never see each other?"
"Family..." The Herrscher of Sentience chewed on this word in her heart.
In the past, this word felt so distant to the Herrscher of Sentience.
In the previous Honkai world, vast as it was, there truly was no place for the Herrscher of Sentience to call home.
Walking the earth as a mere consciousness, she ultimately could never have a real home.
If we're just talking about family, the Herrscher of Sentience and Fu Hua had a relatively close but peculiarly awkward relationship.
Like a single, beautiful feather, striking yet fundamentally out of place with the whole world.
Until that day, a young man reached out his hand to her.
"Hey, A'Luo, tomorrow while the old timer is in class during the day, let's go steal all the clothes, shoes, and stuff from her dorm? Let her taste what it's like to lose everything."
[Ding! You have a new commission!]
"Ah??? W-well, I suppose we could, but isn't your train of thought a bit too jumpy? And the 'everything' in your 'lose everything' seems a bit too cheap, doesn't it?"
It was rare to receive a commission from the Herrscher of Sentience, but it turned out to be this kind of embarrassing task, which made Chen Luo feel somewhat conflicted.
Wasn't this just like a pervert sneaking into a girls' dorm to steal their clothes?
"Oh, right, what's my identity at home?" After successfully derailing Chen Luo's thoughts in an instant, the Herrscher of Sentience launched a surprise attack with her question.
"Daugh... Oof!" Before Chen Luo could finish his subconscious reply, a heavy hammer blow landed on his stomach.
"Ouch! That hurts!" Chen Luo bent over, clutching his stomach.
What's the big deal? It's just a daughter, just an identity, why are you so particular about it?
If you don't want to, just say so. Why hit someone?
But sensing the Herrscher of Sentience's attitude, Chen Luo became even more afraid to mention the relationship displayed on his talent panel.
"Hmph! I want to be the older sister!" The Herrscher of Sentience snorted coldly.
"Dream on. Younger sister at most," Chen Luo flatly denied.
"Ah? I'm over 50,000 years old, and you want me to be the younger sister?" The Herrscher of Sentience said discontentedly.
"Laughable. That's Fu Hua who's 50,000 years old. What does that have to do with you, the Herrscher of Sentience? You're barely one year old, okay? You're not even a full month old yet."
"W-who says I'm not a full month old?"
"Oh, so you're one year old then," Chen Luo said deadpan.
"...Ahhh, I don't care! I want to be the older sister! If you don't agree, I'll jump off right now!" The Herrscher of Sentience pointed downwards and declared.
"Oh, go ahead. Remember to fill in the crater after you make it, and try not to hit anyone," Chen Luo reminded her thoughtfully.
"...Do you believe I'll throw you off right now?" After holding it in for a long moment, the Herrscher of Sentience threatened fiercely.
"You know what, I really don't believe you. And it's not like I can't fly anyway." Faced with the Herrscher of Sentience's threat, Chen Luo simply slacked off.
"Then do you believe I'll throw Venti off?"
"Now that I believe. But why throw Venti?"
"Well, I just feel like he's the one you're most familiar with, and also the one I'm most familiar with. The key point is, he's eavesdropping." The Herrscher of Sentience thought for a moment and said.
"!!!" Venti, who had "accidentally" overheard the sounds carried by the wind, was horrified.
How could he have been discovered?
Wait, he wasn't eavesdropping! The wind just happened to tell him these things, that's all.
Can something told by the wind really be called eavesdropping?
But feeling the murderous glare directed his way from Stormterror's shoulder, Venti chose another method to save himself.
"Jean, does that Holy Lyre in your hand need repairing?" Venti directly shuffled his position over, sitting next to Jean, then pointed at the Holy Lyre in her hand and said.
As long as he was near these potential customers, Chen Luo should stop the Herrscher of Sentience, right?
Venti understood Chen Luo quite well. In Chen Luo's eyes, few things were more important than commissions; if anything was, it would only be those particularly important friends.
He probably counted as one, but if he caused trouble, that would be asking for death.
And now, by being with Chen Luo's customers, Venti was essentially holding control over Chen Luo's client flow. Chen Luo would at least stop the Herrscher of Sentience a bit, right?
"Ah, Lord Barbatos, can you repair the Holy Lyre?" Seeing Venti approach, Jean felt a little nervous.
Jean was quite devout, perhaps related to her family, or perhaps related to her father.
There was a joke in the taverns in earlier days: The firstborn sons and daughters of the Gunnhildr clan could recite "For Mondstadt, as always" before they could even say "Mama."
Jean was no exception.
"Just kidding, who do you think I am? Repairing the Holy Lyre..."
"That's great, then we won't have to trouble Chen Luo." Jean breathed a sigh of relief.
"..." Venti's confident smile froze on his face.
"Ah, might as well throw him off the dragon after all. This guy not only eavesdrops but also steals my commissions." Chen Luo and the Herrscher of Sentience both turned their heads simultaneously, looking at Venti with gazes fit for a dead man.
As mentioned before, very few things were more important than commissions in Chen Luo's eyes.
"Repairing the Holy Lyre... of course, I can't. I could use an illusion to make it look like a normal Holy Lyre, but that wouldn't be repairing it. If A'Luo can repair it, then you'd better go to him." Feeling the pair of god-slaying stares, Venti instantly backed down.
Anyway, even if he tried, repairing the Holy Lyre would be a troublesome matter. Since that was the case, better let Chen Luo handle it. This guy wanted the commission, and he wouldn't have to lift a finger then. What a great deal!
"I see. Alright then." Jean nodded.
"Oh, right, one more thing. No need to call me Barbatos from now on, just call me Venti," Venti said to everyone.
"Tone-Deaf Bard, I'm curious about something. Aren't gods usually very strong? Why do you always seem especially, especially, especially..."
Paimon really wanted to say he was lame, but everyone around was from Mondstadt, and Lumine wasn't nearby. What if she got beaten up?
"You want to ask why I'm so weak, right? Just say it directly. Actually, the power of The Seven comes more from the divine power generated after performing their divine duties. I've always adhered to a policy of freedom; matters of Mondstadt should be managed by the people of Mondstadt themselves. So, I have very little divine power, and thus appear relatively weak," Venti explained.
This was the answer Paimon wanted to know, but as for how accurate this information really was, no one could judge.
At any rate, Chen Luo, who was listening happily up front, didn't believe it.
And before Chen Luo could refute, the dragon cutting through the wind gradually slowed down, because they had already reached Windrise.
Stormterror's speed was no joke. Moreover, just earlier, Venti had re-bestowed the power of the Anemo Archon's familiar upon Dvalin, making him fly even faster.
So, before long, Chen Luo and the others got "off the ride" near Windrise.
They couldn't go any further. Flying further forward risked being spotted by the citizens of Mondstadt City. Dvalin's current identity wasn't really suitable for being observed by others.
"Here, take this back." After seeing Venti bid farewell to Stormterror once more, and Stormterror swiftly soaring up into the sky and disappearing from view, Chen Luo threw an item to Venti.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't be so rough!"
Seeing Chen Luo treat his important item so roughly, Venti hurriedly caught it in his palm, then shot Chen Luo a look.
"What was that? Something tasty?" When Paimon saw Chen Luo and Venti "exchanging meaningful glances," her first thought was this.
"It's just an ordinary Gnosis, not an important thing, and not edible either. Eat, eat, eat, is that all you think about?" After putting the Gnosis away in his clothes, Venti shot Paimon a look.
"Gnosis? What's that?"
"Alright, alright, no more questions. Let's hurry back to Mondstadt City." Venti wasn't very keen on discussing this topic.
It wasn't that Venti didn't trust Paimon or the others; mainly, he felt that with Paimon's little brain, if he told her these complicated things, she'd forget them in three seconds.
Paimon only remembers things related to delicious food.
Oh, and Lumine.
The promise Chen Luo had discussed with Venti earlier was to let Chen Luo take a look at Venti's Gnosis and play with it for a while.
Venti found this request rather strange, but out of trust for Chen Luo and his own general lack of importance placed on the Gnosis itself, he ultimately lent it to Chen Luo to play with for a bit.
But what's so fun about this thing?
And after hearing it wasn't edible, Paimon didn't show much interest in the so-called Gnosis or similar things. Of course, a bigger reason might be that Lumine wasn't by Paimon's side, so Paimon really couldn't muster much enthusiasm for other things.
The scenario of heroes being praised and welcomed by cheering crowds in the city after slaying the dragon—such a thing was impossible for Chen Luo and the others.
In fact, because Chen Luo single-handedly bulldozed through the entire plotline, the Knights of Favonius weren't needed to search for Dvalin's tear crystals. Therefore, before the matter with Dvalin was resolved, very few people actually knew about it.
So when Chen Luo and the others returned to Mondstadt City, everything was just as it had been. The only difference was that the somewhat darkened, storm-wrapped sky over Mondstadt had cleared, revealing the bright sun.
And this signified that the storm disaster in Mondstadt had ended.
Seeing this indeed allowed Jean to relax. Although they had already defeated Stormterror and restored its sanity earlier, only now, seeing the storm disaster completely over and the citizens gradually emerging from their homes, did Jean truly feel the reality of the event's conclusion.
"Mondstadt's storm disaster has finally ended. Jean, your paperwork should lessen considerably. Master Diluc's tavern business should also return to normal. It really is a happy ending for all," Lisa said lazily.
Lisa felt her presence was completely unnecessary this time. She had finally been persuaded by her friend to get moving, only to watch from the sidelines, seeing nothing of consequence the whole time.
Oh, wait, that's not right. She did gain something. When getting off the dragon earlier, she spotted a scale stuck in a crevice between other scales, one that was in a shed state.
It seemed like a situation where a newly grown scale was pushing out an older, half-shed scale.
And Lisa happily pocketed that scale for herself.
I really worked hard... I should go back and continue slacking off... I mean, working.
Or perhaps, using the honor of being a "Hero of Mondstadt," apply for some paid leave?