“Hehe, we really have you to thank for saving us this time. Otherwise, we would have suffered.”
Venti sat on the ground, covering his chest as he looked at Neo, who was holding up his staff, and chuckled.
Hearing Venti’s words, Neo finally lowered his hand.
The Rejuvenating Monsoon stopped as well, and the staff in his hand disappeared.
“It’s nothing. If I had arrived a little earlier, you wouldn’t have been hit.”, Neo shook his head regretfully.
What he actually meant was that if he had arrived a little earlier, he could have blocked Rosalyne’s attack for Venti.
Although that kick was not very powerful, both Rosalyne and Venti were important characters in the main storyline, so the reward he could extract from them should not be bad.
Neo had arrived late just now, and he had no way to teleport in front of Venti, so he could only interrupt Rosalyne with Weaklings, Disperse.
“Haha, there was nothing we could do about that. I didn’t expect us to suddenly be ambushed…”
Venti scratched his head and chuckled, then turned to look to the side.
“Compared to that, it looks like you’re in trouble~”
As he spoke, the smile on Venti’s face became somewhat strange, almost like… a fox?
Neo followed Venti’s gaze in confusion and found that Jean and Barbara had already rushed out of the cathedral because of the commotion outside.
But more importantly, the girl with twin tails named Barbara was clasping her hands together, looking at Neo with an excited and devout expression.
‘What a warm wind.
It’s just like everything is about to revive in the snow and ice.
Even Big Sis’s power doesn’t feel like this.
To be able to create such a wind, could he be Lord Barbatos…?’
Thinking this, Barbara excitedly stepped forward.
“May I ask, are you Lord Barbatos?”
Barbara, wearing a white priestess dress, clasped her hands in front of her chest and slightly raised her head, her gray-blue eyes looking at Neo expectantly.
Hearing Barbara’s words, Jean, who was behind her, instinctively raised her hand as if she wanted to say something.
“No, this is Barbatos.”
Neo immediately understood what Venti meant, but without hesitation, he raised his hand and pointed at Venti, revealing his identity.
“Eh…”
Hearing Neo’s words, Barbara turned around and looked at Venti, who had just gotten up from the ground.
“That’s right. Actually, I am the Anemo Archon Barbatos himself.”
Venti was not flustered at all.
Instead, he put on a serious expression and spoke with a straight face.
“This bard, I’m very sorry, but pretending to be a god in front of church personnel is very disrespectful. Please don’t do that.”, Barbara politely reminded Venti. This story is hosted at novelping dot com.
“Ahem, Barbara, as a Deaconess, I think you should pay attention to the injured first.”
After hearing Venti and Barbara’s conversation, Jean, who was behind Barbara, could not take it anymore.
She coughed lightly and pointed toward Lumine and Paimon.
“Ah…”
“Lord Barbatos above, I have neglected my duty. I’ll take the injured into the cathedral right away.”
Only then did Barbara let out a cry of surprise.
With Jean’s help, she brought Lumine and Paimon back into the cathedral.
Neo was also able to breathe a sigh of relief.
He did not want to be mistaken for the Anemo Archon.
“Hehe, let’s go, Lord Anemo Archon Barbatos. Want to go have a drink together?”
Because of the Rejuvenating Monsoon Neo had cast, there was no need to worry about Lumine and Paimon’s condition at all.
So Venti came over, nudged Neo’s arm with his elbow, and made the suggestion.
“But I don’t have any Mora. I even spent last night lying on a tavern table.”
“And I still have to wait for the Traveler to wake up. I also want to ask her whether she deliberately sent me away.”
Faced with Venti’s suggestion, Neo spread his hands.
Right now, he was just waiting for Lumine to lend him money to buy a Wind Glider.
“Eh? What a shame… I thought I’d have someone treat me again…”
“Ow… I think my wound is hurting a little again. I need to find somewhere to treat it. When the Traveler wakes up, I’ll leave it to you to tell her that I’m waiting for them at the usual place~”
Neo’s answer made Venti somewhat disappointed.
After giving up on the idea of going drinking, he immediately raised his hand and covered the place where his heart had been taken out earlier, putting on a frowning expression as he reminded Neo.
Seeing Venti run away immediately after saying that, Neo was somewhat speechless, but he still turned around and entered the cathedral.
Neo did not intend to stay in Mondstadt for long.
Once he bought the Wind Glider and practiced with it for a while, he would return to Liyue.
Besides participating in the main storyline, he had another matter to deal with after returning to Liyue, which was why he had originally chosen Liyue as his destination.
After entering the cathedral, since Lumine and Paimon had not yet woken up, Jean could only ask Neo about what had just happened.
Neo did not hide anything and explained how the Fatui Harbinger: La Signora had attacked them and taken the Gnosis.
After learning about this, Jean left the injured in Barbara’s care and returned to the Knights of Favonius headquarters to deal with the matter herself.
As a Deaconess of the Church of Favonius, Barbara was very attentive in caring for the injured.
And Jean had apparently explained something to her earlier, so she no longer mistook Neo for Barbatos.
Under her care, Paimon and Lumine woke up one after another.
“Mm… by the way, where’s Venti? Is he alright?”
After waking up, Paimon looked around and, upon finding no sign of Venti, could not help asking Neo.
“He said he’s waiting for you at the usual place. Since you’re fine, let’s go over there.”
Neo explained, then the three of them said goodbye to Barbara and left the cathedral.
During this time, Neo also explained what had happened earlier to Lumine and Paimon.
Paimon especially had been frozen into an ice block from the beginning, so she had no idea what happened afterward.
“So, Neo, you know that woman who attacked us earlier?”
Lumine had only fainted when Rosalyne was leaving, so she knew the situation at the time very well and could not help asking Neo.
“Yeah. She’s the eighth of the Fatui Harbingers, code-named [La Signora]. When I was still with the Fatui, she was on the same level as my superior.”
Neo briefly explained Rosalyne’s identity to Lumine and Paimon.
As for the fact that he had once been a member of the Fatui, after seeing Rosalyne, there was no way to hide it anymore, so he might as well confess.
“Eh? Y-you were also a member of the Fatui?”
Paimon was indeed startled.
She quickly hid behind Lumine, grabbed her hair, and pulled it over her face.
“Yeah. You’re scared now, huh? Traveler, I already completed your daily commission for you. If you don’t lend me money, I’ll kidnap Paimon and sell her to a restaurant.”
Seeing Paimon’s frightened appearance, Neo deliberately said this to scare her, folding his arms across his chest.
“Whoa, you… why would you sell me to a restaurant?”
Paimon was startled and buried her head in Lumine’s hair, wrapping both arms around Lumine’s neck and not daring to show her head, but she still could not help asking.
“Hehe, because you look like the emergency food the Traveler keeps as a pet.”
Neo deliberately gave a mischievous grin as he said this.
“Alright, stop scaring her. It’s only money for the Wind Glider. I’ve saved up some Mora these past few days, so it should be enough.”
Lumine naturally had no intention of breaking her promise.
She took out a money pouch and, under Paimon’s somewhat pained gaze as she poked her head out, handed it to Neo.
“Thanks, boss~”
“Come to think of it, Traveler, when you asked me to do your daily commission earlier, you didn’t deliberately send me away, did you? I was only gone for a little while, and when I came back, you had already been ambushed by Lady Rosalyne.”
Neo immediately took the money pouch with both hands and put it away, then asked the question he had wanted to ask ever since.
The timing was way too perfect.
“How could that be? Who would deliberately make trouble for themselves? It was all because of the tone-deaf bard. He was already urging us to go see Jean before you found us, which left us with no time to do the daily commissions.”
“So when you came to borrow money, the Traveler simply gave you the remaining daily commission to do.”
Paimon stood to the side with her arms crossed and spoke unhappily.
Hearing Paimon’s explanation, Neo was slightly stunned, and a possibility occurred to him.