Chapter 16

I stalked over to the group of Treasure Hoarders and out of the corner of my eyes I saw something being thrown at me so with a flourish I slashed the object being thrown at me with my saber, and the room froze as the air seemingly solidified when I drew heavily on my Anemo vison.

"You fucking threw a glass bottle filled with water at me... Was that supposed to be a Hydro attack?" I asked quietly as I turned away from the leader of the Treasure Hoarders and turned towards the scrawny one wearing a blue set of clothes and the typical hat covering their head and bandanna covering the bottom half of their face.

Not only did the tool get a bunch of water on my nice white clothes, but I could also tell from the smell that it was likely ocean water and the fact that he likely literally just filled up this bottle before they came in here... Well, at least it wasn't filled with urine. Otherwise, I might legitimately throw this guy off the edge of this domain's structures and into the abyss.

"Let me show you a real elemental attack not throwing a fucking bottle filled with water," I growled and out of the corner of my eye I saw the big guy who was leading the group and was wielding a large shovel subtly drop the large pile of mud that was in his shovel onto the ground as he roared and ran towards me as I closed in on the nervous Treasure Hoarder I singled out.

With a roll of my eyes, I threw out my hand and a powerful gust of green-tinged wind rushed out slamming into the man rushing towards me and instead of having the winds simply smash into the person I took a note out of Venti's style and had my winds form a large orb in the air and began through the poor Treasure Hoarder around in the air like the world's most violent clothes dryer.

"Haha! Well now Jake, I didn't believe that I would see such an interesting side to you." Kaeya drawled as he walked in the domain leading a dozen Knights of Favonius behind himself.

"These idiots are a disgrace to bandits... I mean really calling a glass bottle filled with water a Hydro attack?" I said dryly as I dropped the leader of the Treasure Hoarders on the ground.

As Lumine walked over to me and Kaeya, that Treasure Hoarder I batted around in my wind ball was vomiting on the ground as the other knights began rounding up the now very compliant other Treasure Hoarders as they certainly didn't want the same treatment I gave their leader.

"Paimon would have thought you would have gone after the guy who got you wet Jake," Paimon said in a smug manner as she folded her arms over her chest.

I rolled my eyes speaking to Paimon as Kaeya personally began tying up the leader of the Treasure Hoarders arms. "I may be a bit petty at times but bullying a guy who is already reduced to throwing water at people as an attack is too far... It would be like me baking a whole multicourse meal and then having you go deliver a letter so me and Lumine could eat it all."

"Actually, I do recall Jean saying she had a couple of easier chores around Mondstadt delivering a couple of notices and orders to the guards at different points of the city." Lumine mused as she looked at me with a brief smile before she clapped her hands and looked to her floating partner. "Oh yeah, Paimon how about you take care of one of those while me and Jake split up to do the rest and then we can meet at the Inn," Lumine said grinning as Paimon uneasily nodded before she realized what her plan was.

"No, you both can't leave Paimon alone! Actually, neither of you two are allowed to leave Paimon's sight henceforth, in case you decide to sneak away and leave Paimon behind." Paimon said solemnly and I blinked in surprise as Paimon seemingly included me in their group.

I looked to Lumine and even she seemed surprised for a moment, she then met my eyes and smiled nodding in assent to Paimon's words and all of a sudden, I truly felt welcome by them. I was no longer a literal third wheel to their group and I felt some a sort of unnoticed tension leave me, making me grin at finding my place in this world.

I no longer needed to think about just joining the Knights of Favonius in order to make a living and have a place to ground myself. I was going to be a super hobo like Lumine and save the world! If the world actually needs saving at all really.

"Oh Paimon, I may have picked up something on the way out of Mondstadt when we were going through the town square, and we split up a bit this morning. Here I bought some smoked cheese and sausage we can all snack on while Kaeya finishes up." I said handing out some nice soft white bread along with the after-mentioned smoked cheese and sausage.

"Yay! Paimon knew you were a good guy, Jake!" Paimon cried out as she gave me a brief hug against my shoulder before throwing the food atop the pieces of bread, I gave her and began taking large bites out of it, resulting in her humming in contentment at the taste.

"You have fed the Paimon of your own volition... You are now stuck with her." Lumine said dryly before giggling as I chuckled as she referred to Paimon as some kind of stray cat that after feeding would stay around your house.

"Eh it's not so bad." I said shrugging and I couldn't help but overhear Lumine mumbling about my wallet will pay for those words later, but the majority of my attention was directed towards Kaeya who was walking over to us with two ever so lightly glowing artifacts in each hand.

"Well thank you two for acting as the bait and here is the promised reward. A couple of feathers from the Adventurers artifact set." He said passing the two blue feathers to us and as I held it, I could feel my body feeling seemingly bolstered slightly just holding onto it.

"By the way how are artifacts even made?" I asked curiously.

Kaeya shrugged as he hummed in thought and then spoke. "It's fairly complicated so you should ask Lisa for a better explanation but from what I understand some Domains are overflowing with so much excess energy that they will enchant certain objects that are left within with certain properties."

Kaeya snapped his finger as he seemingly came to an epiphany on how to explain it "Like for example to the south of Mondstadt being along one of the windiest areas in the region there is a domain that is constantly being overran by monsters who desire to reside in the energy rich area, and we the Knights of Favonius commonly clear out the area and place down stuff that the domain will mutate into Artifacts. Though supposedly Snezhnaya has the creation of Artifacts down to such a precise science they can make whatever Artifacts they want with whatever boosts they want which is in part the reason their military is so strong."

Considering they can literally make countless Delusions, artificial Visons, I wouldn't be surprised at there Artifact creation abilities.

"Alright lets going back to Mondstadt with these guys so we can relax as its likely Jean and the others will want to make some plans to deal with Stormterror." I said as Kaeya led the other Knights to bring away their prisoners.

"Yeah, let's have them clear the path so we don't have to worry about any Hilichurls." Paimon said eager at the thought of having an easy way back to Mondstadt.

"Alright, I could use some time to relax as well." Lumine said smiling and then she patted my shoulder as she took the lead in following the Knights of Favonius.

-

We decided once again to share the same room in an Inn as we both already had a decent understanding for one another. Well in any case Lumine knew I wasn't going to pounce on her as we shared a bed and if anything, it was me who should have been worried about my so-called purity as she was the one who rolled over the pillow barrier, we made last time seeking my warmth to snuggle up with me.