Chapter 25

As we were all leaving the city, I asked Jean which target we were hitting first. "We are hitting the Fatui encampment for a number of reasons but the most pressing is that it would be best if we could... Swiftly deal with the possible threat that Signora is, as well as assure they don't move the Tear they had collected to another location." Jean explained and I understood what she meant as the group we had assembled, to say nothing of having an Archon with us in Venti, was already very strong with Eula, Jean, and Diluc as a sort of heavy front line.

Me and Lumine were well suited for more medium and close range while Noelle could protect us with her Geo vision, giving us all shields as well as acting as the final damn near impregnable line of defense for Venti and Amber to be shooting elementally enhanced arrows at our foes from a relative distance.

Basically, a strong team for a long grueling fight against a categorically stronger foe. Seems Venti and the others took my warnings seriously about how dangerous Signora was.

"Hey Jean, where is Klee by the way?" I asked wondering where the cute little terrorist ran off to.

Jean froze and our whole procession stopped awkwardly with Amber almost tripping over a branch though thankfully Eula saved her from the embarrassment.

"Amber... you were the last one who was watching Klee, where is she now," Jean said almost robotically as she turned to Mondstadt's Outrider.

"Hehe uhm, she said she was going mining or something for electro crystals for whatever reason, and with a large patch of them being found not too far from Mondstadt I thought it would be fine. Plus, she is with Fischl anyway." Amber said before she seemingly paled as she mentioned Fischl's name.

"Let me guess... That Fischl lady would instigate or encourage Klee to blow something up, right?" I asked dryly.

Surprisingly it was Kaeya who answered as Jean quietly began scolding Amber. "Yeah, well you know how Electro violently reacts with Pyro energy? Well, for whatever reason Klee and Fischl got the wonderful idea to bore holes into a cave to plant Electro crystals that went under one of the massive stone hills that surround Mondstadt and there was such an overabundance of Electro energy that there was not only Electro slimes constantly being spawned but even a damned Electro Hypostasis was formed along with what appeared to be Electro Regisvine's taking root..." He said tiredly with a sort of dead fish look in his single eye that showed how stressful such a time was.

"Let me guess... Klee then blew it all up, right?" Basically, all the adults flinched at my bland words and even Paimon and Lumine burst into giggles as I began chuckling.

"It's not funny! The Earthquake it caused literally created a massive chasm that opened up a new path to Liyue and then the freaking Adepti of all things from Liyue rushed over here as they thought we were literally being attacked by the Geo Archon Morax and the earthquake was his literally godforsaken punishment!" Amber cried out stomping on the ground.

I looked over to Venti and he nervously chuckled. "Yeah... It's true and I was in Inazuma at the time sooo I didn't even know about that until I arrived back in Liyue and heard from the Merchants in the taverns about there being a new, albeit small path into Mondstadt."

I heartily laughed at the thought of the flummoxed Anemo Archon finding out someone else had blown up one of his mountains and it somehow ended up being constructive.

As the group continued on, I leaned down to Venti and asked if they knew his status as their god and he shrugged. "Diluc and Jean do, but the rest don't and I would prefer for it to stay that way." He said obviously wanting to keep his privacy.

I nodded and then told Lumine and Paimon that the majority of the group didn't know his status well as him wanting to keep it quiet, that way Paimon wouldn't slip up and blab.

After another hour's trek with me staying with Lumine and Paimon with Amber occasionally slipping away from Eula for a brief discussion, we reached a rather nondescript cave.

Jean stood in front of the cave's entrance and spoke solemnly seemingly to Amber and Noelle "Alright Knights of Favonius and trusted allies, our goal is to clear out the illegal military occupation of Fatui agents here on Mondstadt land. We will not be taking prisoners as they will not be acknowledged by Snezhnaya diplomats... Do not show mercy as the agents with Delusion certainly won't."

" Ugh... Amber just think of it as a Hilichurl extermination." Eula consoled the clearly nervous Amber and I realized it was likely this could very well be the first time Amber had to kill humans as the Knights typically arrested Treasure Hoarders with how Mondstadt wasn't more than a day's journey if they took rivers or the roads that cut through the windy countryside.

I looked over to Noelle to see how she was taking it and although she looked a bit pale at the thought she firmly nodded. "As a proud maid of the Knights of Favonius, I will do my duty in protecting Mondstadt." She said as she noticed that I was looking at her and clearly wanted to see her reaction to know if she was possibly going to be a liability.

"Noelle, I will take that as a person that Jean trusted on this mission, I will trust Jean's opinion that you will do well," I said patting the silver-haired maid on the shoulder and she positively beamed as I was a person who was all but a member of the Knights of Favonius and believed in her.

Noelle was a total sweetheart but her insane superhuman strength got in the way of her trials in becoming a Knight of Favonius, she has literally failed the tests to become a knight more than eight times at this point, and she was so downtrodden on her like sixth failure that when Jean unexpectable burst through one of the doors leading outside where her test was taking place and Noelle reflexively saluted Jean and Jean actually saluted back before continuing to run off where she was needed, Noelle was then given her Geo vision at that moment as she realized her life's ambition was to basically become a knight of Favonius.

"Alright let's head in," Diluc said as he took out his large ornate great sword and if I could recall correctly it was called the Wolf's Gravestone and likewise everyone else took out their weapons and I had to hold in a giggle as I saw Noelle was armed with the only nonstandard weapon in the game other than that one weird massive sword fish you could have great sword wielders from using.

She was wielding a large Kanabo and even Lumine and Paimon gawked at the petite and short Maid wielding a solid hundred-pound studded club.

And get this the massive club was called the Debate Club... I guess because whoever was wielding it would win all debates as no one wanted to risk being clubbed over the head with it.