At the same time that the dragon disaster in Mondstadt was successfully resolved, in Snezhnaya.
At the residence of the Fatui Harbinger: Columbina.
A few days after Neo left, the Treasure Hoarder weasel named Snowy finally remembered the letter Neo had asked it to deliver, so it brought the letter to Columbina’s residence.
“I’ll send you some Liyue specialties to try after I return to Liyue. Please take good care of yourself, Lady Columbina…”
After Columbina returned, she noticed the letter on the table, so she opened it and read it.
“Liyue is his home, then my home is…”
After reading the letter, she murmured to herself in some confusion.
After Neo left, she felt that Snezhnaya had been so quiet these days.
Sandrone was busy with research every day and would not even go on dates, saying that she was going to build Neo IV.
She only had time to pay attention to Columbina during tea parties.
Rosalyne had also gone out on a mission…
Just as she was feeling lost, there was suddenly a knocking sound from the window of the room she was in.
Columbina raised her head and looked outside the window, only to find that it was Snowy.
“You’re back. Are you hungry?”
Columbina got up, walked over, opened the window, and asked Snowy, who was standing on the windowsill.
However, Snowy shook its head and chattered while waving its little limbs around as if trying to say something.
“You mean… someone specifically ordered that I’m not allowed to know about this information?”
Columbina could communicate with small animals and quickly understood what Snowy meant, but she was somewhat puzzled as to why such an order would exist.
Snowy nodded, then continued saying something.
“Experiment… maritime disaster… the ship sank…”
“Why can’t I know about this?”
Columbina was somewhat confused.
Snowy did not understand many human words, so what it said was also broken and disjointed.
She could only try to string the individual words together to understand them.
Snowy also did not really understand Columbina’s confusion.
“The ship sank… maritime disaster…”
“Maritime disaster…?”
The puzzled Columbina suddenly thought of something and turned to look at the letter on the table.
“Neo? It can’t be… I need to ask someone.”
“Hmm… Arlecchino should know.”
Thinking of this, Columbina immediately left to look for another Harbinger named Arlecchino.
She and Columbina were fairly familiar with each other, so she naturally did not refuse such a small request from a colleague.
With the House of the Hearth’s intelligence-gathering abilities, so-called information that could not be allowed to reach someone was basically meaningless.
“I’m sorry, Columbina. As you feared, the ship that met with the accident was indeed the merchant ship you mentioned.”
Before long, the exact information was placed in front of Columbina.
Looking at the ship in the photograph, which was exactly the same as the merchant ship Neo had boarded that day, Columbina spaced out slightly, and a feeling of sadness surfaced from the depths of her heart.
“Neo… met with an accident…”
Neo had no idea that news of his death was already circulating in Snezhnaya.
He was in Mondstadt, wanting to experience something he had long wanted to try, a Wind Glider.
Although he could use Cryo elemental power to condense a temporary glider, it was too cumbersome and nowhere near as convenient as a Wind Glider.
Besides, Wind Gliders were not very expensive in Mondstadt.
However, even though they were not expensive, Neo still could not afford one because he did not have a single Mora, so he had no choice but to borrow money from Lumine.
“?”
“You’re actually asking me to lend you money? Then let me ask you, why did you suddenly move your shield away when we faced Dvalin last time? Also, are you called Neo or Bron?” This chapter was copied from novelping dot com without permission.
After eating the big meal yesterday and parting ways, Lumine had never had a chance to ask Neo about this.
Now that she finally had the opportunity, she immediately questioned him.
She had originally thought that Neo’s thick ice shield would make them very safe, but in the end, they were both directly blown away by a wind projectile.
Although Neo had served as a buffer in front of her, Neo crashing into her still left her hurting for quite a while.
“Of course my name is Neo. Bron is just a nickname, and what happened before was an accident…”
Neo answered firmly, but by the end, he somewhat guiltily looked away.
He had originally wanted to find a chance to test “Kaliya-style Counter,” but he had forgotten that “Survival Laws of the Snow Realm” would reduce his attack range, causing him to swing the shield from the wrong distance.
“No money unless you do my daily commissions for me. Then I can consider lending you some.”
Seeing Neo’s guilty expression, Lumine crossed her arms and stated this condition.
Today she had to help the Knights of Favonius deal with the aftermath and did not have much time to complete the Adventurers’ Guild’s daily commissions.
And Neo had arrived at just the right time.
She had already witnessed Neo’s strength when they fought Dvalin earlier, so a small daily commission definitely would not be difficult for him.
“Alright, then I’ll be back soon.”
Although Neo knew he had to go see Jean today, if it was only the Adventurers’ Guild’s daily commission, it was still very easy for him.
After all, if even he could not complete it easily, ordinary adventurers probably would not be able to complete it at all.
“Mm, this is the remaining commission. You have to make sure you complete it. Lying about completing a commission will lower your Adventurer Rank.”
Lumine nodded, took out today’s commission information, and handed it to Neo.
All three of today’s commissions were small tasks inside the city to help deal with problems left over after the disaster.
She had not had time to complete this one remaining task outside the city.
Neo glanced at the information and found that the commission location was not very far away, in the direction from Windrise toward Starsnatch Cliff.
After confirming the location, Neo immediately said goodbye to Lumine and hurried over there.
The commission was called “Pudgy, Dangerous,” and he only needed to destroy the hilichuins’ watchtowers.
After that, the hilichurls would flee on their own, so there was no need to defeat the monsters.
Ordinary adventurers, if acting alone, usually would not charge into so many hilichurls.
Instead, they would take out the mysterious explosives they had bought in the city and blow up the watchtower with a bang.
But Neo did not need to go through so much trouble.
After arriving at the mission location, he simply raised his hand and flicked it.
“Weaklings, disperse!”
Smack!
Smack!
The hilichurls that rushed out were directly pushed away, crashing into and knocking down the two hilichurl watchtowers.
After destroying the watchtowers and completing the commission, Neo turned around and left without the slightest hesitation.
By the time the dizzy hilichurls came to their senses, he had already disappeared.
But after returning to the city, Neo wanted to report back to Lumine, only to discover that he could not find her.
After asking some passersby, he learned that Lumine seemed to have gone to the cathedral.
“No way… I was only gone for this short while. Could the Traveler have done this on purpose?”
Neo was speechless inside and hurried toward Mondstadt’s cathedral.
By the time Neo reached the entrance of the cathedral, Paimon had already been frozen into an ice block and fallen to the ground.
Lumine had also been captured by two Agents, while Venti was lying on the ground.
Standing before Lumine and Venti was an arrogant, full-figured platinum-haired woman.
She wore a black crown-shaped mask and a dark-red dress, with a white catalyst quietly floating beside her.
This person was none other than the eighth of the Fatui Harbingers, [La Signora], Rosalyne-Kruzchka Lohefalter, whose real name was Rosalyne-Kruzchka Lohefalter.
And in her hand, she was holding an exquisite chess piece.
“This is the Gnosis?” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“Hmph, it’s nowhere near as gorgeous as the chess set I have collected.”
Seeing this scene, Neo knew that he seemed to have arrived a little too late.
“That’s probably because your taste… really sucks, right?”
Venti, whose Gnosis had been taken away, covered his chest with one hand while using the other to support himself against the ground as he struggled to get up.
Hearing his taunt, Rosalyne walked forward with a cold expression and raised her leg, about to kick him away.
“Weaklings, disperse!”
Without any ability similar to teleportation, Neo could only hurriedly raise his hand when he saw this and throw out the dark shockwave, hitting Rosalyne at the maximum distance to interrupt her.
“Hmm?”
Sensing something coming at her, Rosalyne hurriedly raised both hands to block in front of herself.
However, the black shockwave knocked her entire body backward.
She landed several meters away but was otherwise unharmed.
At this time, Neo had already raised an ice shield and stood in front of Venti and Lumine.
“Who are you!”
Rosalyne, having been ambushed, shouted coldly.
The two Electro Cicin Mages who had originally been following behind her immediately released their Electro Cicins and prepared to attack.
“…Why are you in Mondstadt?”
“And you actually dared to attack me?”
But very soon, Rosalyne recognized Neo.
Although his outfit was different, there was only one soldier under Columbina, so she still had some impression of him.
What she could not understand was why Neo was here.
She had never seen Columbina assigned a mission.
And he had actually ambushed her?
“I’m sorry, Lady Rosalyne, but I’m no longer a member of the Fatui.”
Although he had already left the Fatui, Neo still habitually used the title he had originally used.
Rosalyne and Columbina were fairly familiar with each other, and Neo had also seen her quite a few times.
“Heh… so you defected? Forget it. The Gnosis is already in hand. I’ll settle accounts with you next time.”
“Clean this up. Don’t leave any traces.”
Rosalyne was quite irritated about being ambushed by Neo, but it was not appropriate to stay any longer.
She could only put away the Gnosis and give her subordinates an order.
After glaring at Neo, she turned and left.
Smack!
The Agent restraining Lumine followed the order and immediately raised his hand, knocking Lumine unconscious with a chop.
He then concealed his figure and followed Rosalyne.
“Hey, hey, that’s going too far. You knocked her unconscious right in front of me. Are you asking to get beaten?”
Neo had been focusing his attention on Venti and Rosalyne and had not noticed what was happening on the other side.
After hearing the sound, he angrily pointed at the several Agents who had concealed themselves.
“Sorry, Lieutenant Bron. This is Lady’s order…”
An apologetic voice came from the air, and the several Agents gradually moved farther away.
“No… who the hell is Bron?”
“So the Traveler deliberately sent me away? I was only gone for less than ten minutes in total!”
Neo was depressed, but Lumine had already fainted, so he had no choice but to lower the ice shield and raise both hands, gripping the staff that appeared out of thin air.
“Rejuvenating Monsoon!”
The next moment, a warm monsoon swept out, healing the injuries of Paimon, who had been frozen into an ice block, Lumine, who had been knocked unconscious, and Venti, whose Gnosis had been taken away.
As the only skill he currently had that could restore his teammates’ HP, Neo felt that it was particularly useful.