Neo somewhat suspected that Venti had deliberately sent him away.
Perhaps he thought Neo would stop La Signora from taking his Gnosis?
Thinking of this, Neo first felt quite wronged.
Although he had now left the Fatui, he had no intention of going against the Fatui, especially when it came to collecting the Gnoses.
He definitely would not interfere.
At most, he would stop the Fatui when they were doing bad things, just like when La Signora was about to kick Venti.
However, after thinking about it carefully, Neo felt relieved.
Because if he had stayed with them the whole time, he would inevitably have stopped Rosalyne from taking the Gnosis if he wanted to block her attack for Venti.
Thinking of this, Neo stopped dwelling on it and followed Lumine and Paimon out of Mondstadt, arriving beneath the large tree at Windrise.
Sure enough, Venti was currently here recovering from his injuries.
Although Neo’s Rejuvenating Monsoon had helped him recover some minor injuries, his weakened state could not be restored in such a short time by that skill.
Otherwise, he would not have slept for five hundred years and still failed to fully recover.
“Traveler, you’re here.”
“The wind among these trees is nice. It has a scent I like…”
Hearing the commotion, Venti finally turned around and greeted them.
Next, Lumine and Paimon asked Venti about some things.
Neo knew what Lumine was asking about, so he did not join in.
Right now, he was more eager to hurry back and buy a Wind Glider.
“Wait a moment, Neo.”
But before Neo could leave, Venti suddenly turned around and called out to him after thinking of something.
“What is it? Is there something else?”
Neo stopped and asked in confusion.
“Of course. Yesterday, Dvalin kept thinking about it and felt that something was wrong, so he asked me to ask you something.”
“Do you really think the evil dragon Durin looks better than Dvalin?”
Venti asked Neo this question.
Yesterday, Neo had successfully attracted Dvalin’s aggro with those words.
Clearly, Dvalin really did care about this matter.
“How could that be? I’ve never even seen the evil dragon Durin. I only said that to draw its aggro.”
“By the way, speaking of this, once I buy a new Kamera, I’ll come find you again. Could you help me take a picture with Dvalin then? I want to send it to my friends.”
Neo spread his hands and spoke honestly.
After saying that, he remembered something else and immediately made a request to Venti.
Although he had left Snezhnaya, he had decided to keep in contact with Columbina, sending her some things from time to time so that they would not become unfamiliar when they met again in the future.
“Of course, no problem.”
And so, Neo temporarily said goodbye to Venti and Lumine, returning to Mondstadt first and rushing to buy a Wind Glider.
The reason it could glide safely was because it had received the blessing of the Anemo Archon.
In other words, one of the steps in producing a Wind Glider was adding the Anemo Archon’s blessing, so the manufacture of Wind Gliders naturally required the assistance of the Church of Favonius.
However, the process of purchasing a Wind Glider was still quite relaxed.
There was no need to have much interaction with the Church of Favonius, and Neo successfully obtained the initial model of the Wind Glider.
As an item that could be folded away for storage, its convenience was unquestionable.
As soon as Neo got it, he eagerly went to test it.
And then…
“The person flying up there! Land immediately! Accept a Knights’ inspection! Please show your flight license!”
Over the next two days, Neo began retaking the flight license exam in Mondstadt.
For Neo, the flight license exam was just like the previous “Guiding Light Mechanism” and “Dvalin Chase.” The difficulty of the game and the difficulty of actually experiencing it were completely different things.
What was more, the flight license exam was not exactly easy even at the beginning of the game…
Thus, after going through an incredible amount of trouble, without even using his Vision, he worried himself to the point that some of his hair turned white again.
He finally passed the exam and obtained his flight license.
The Knights of Favonius provided the guarantee for flight licenses.
As long as it was a place where Wind Gliders could be legally sold, anyone with a flight license issued by the Knights of Favonius could legally fly, although the specific rules still depended on each country’s own laws.
Although generally speaking, other countries would not check flight licenses either.
While he was busy with the exam over these two days, Neo also observed Lumine participating in quite a few events in Mondstadt, such as protecting Mondstadt at night together with a certain Darknight Hero.
Because the enemies were not “main-story characters,” Neo only watched from the side.
After all, these minor monsters could not hurt them anyway.
“It’s about time to return to Liyue. I’ll say goodbye to the Traveler tomorrow…”
At a hotel in Mondstadt, Neo leaned against the windowsill and looked at Lumine and Paimon, who had just returned to the hotel after a busy day.
He muttered quietly.
Just as Neo was planning to return to Liyue tomorrow, far away in the palace of Snezhnaya…
“You want to leave Snezhnaya?”
Inside the palace, the Tsaritsa, seated on the throne, slowly spoke and asked Columbina, who was standing in the hall.
“Mm, I want to go out for a while.”
Columbina nodded lightly in response.
She had come alone to see the Tsaritsa at night, so there were no other Harbingers in the hall, not even the Director.
“Why?”, The Tsaritsa calmly asked.
Columbina had been with the Fatui for so long, yet this was the first time she had taken the initiative to ask to leave.
“I want to… at the very least, go bring him home, even if all I can bring back are his belongings.”
“He once said that what Liyue people care about most is, a fallen leaf returning to its roots.”, Columbina answered honestly.
This was the decision she had come to after thinking about it for the past two days.
It had only been two days, and Rosalyne had yet to send the situation in Mondstadt back to Snezhnaya.
“…You’ve changed a lot.”
“I can let you leave, but don’t forget to come back. Snezhnaya is still your home for now.”
After hearing Columbina’s explanation, the Tsaritsa was silent for a moment before giving a slight nod.
“You’re saying you haven’t paid me back yet, but you’re going to another country now?”
The next morning, when she learned that Neo was leaving Mondstadt, Lumine tilted her head, crossed her arms, and looked at Neo suspiciously.
“Yep.”
Faced with Lumine’s suspicious expression, Neo blinked and nodded.
“?”
“You actually dared to answer that? Have some shame! Don’t think you can borrow money and not pay it back just because you’re a member of the Fatui!”
Seeing that Neo had actually answered her, a question mark appeared above Lumine’s head, while Paimon angrily stomped her feet in midair.
“Ahem. Anyway, you’re going to Liyue afterward too, aren’t you, Traveler? I’ll go there first and wait for you. We can talk about it when you arrive. I’ll definitely pay you back then.”
Neo coughed lightly and explained.
“What if we can’t find you?”
Paimon was not reassured in the slightest.
“How about this? There’s a Northland Bank in Liyue, and it’s a Fatui business. If you can’t find me, just go there to get the money.”
“As they say, the monk can run, but the temple can’t. Even if you can’t find me, you can always find the Northland Bank, right?”
“Hehe, anyway, I’m leaving first. I’ll have to spend the night outdoors if I leave any later.”
After saying this, Neo waved at the two of them and headed outside Mondstadt.
Watching Neo leave, Lumine and Paimon looked at each other and suddenly had the feeling that they had been tricked.
After leaving Mondstadt, Neo did not take the road toward Stone Gate.
Instead, he made his way toward the area around Windrise.
Under the large tree, Venti was playing the lyre, while the giant dragon named Dvalin lay beside him, quietly listening.
It really liked the songs Venti played, which was why it had been summoned by the Skyward Harp before.
“Wow, Dvalin looks like it’s in much better shape. It’s even put on weight!”
As soon as Neo saw Dvalin, his eyes lit up and he moved closer, touching it all over with his hands.
The way he acted was even more excited than if he had seen a girl lying on a bed without her clothes on.
Of course, the “girl” here only referred to a young woman.
“Of course. After recovering, Dvalin’s appetite became very good. Three Sunsettias in one bite.”
Venti also stopped playing at this point and replied with a smile.
Dvalin responded with an unhappy snort.