Chapter 11: Sealed Door

Just wanted to clarify that the current timeline is a year before Genshin's main canon. Some events I wrote are from webtoon or completely AU.

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A pair of adventurers, who belonged to an adventurer party, approached Katheryne.

"Katheryne, Katheryne," yelled the blonde man with a sheathed sword hanging from his waist. "Give us our daily commissions!"

"I don't want to be chased by whopperflowers again…" grumbled the black-haired female adventurer with a bow in her hand. "I almost got eaten yesterday."

Katheryne smiled politely. "Adventurers, you couldn't have come at a better time. I have an extremely urgent commission for you."

The blonde adventurer, Law, clapped his hands. "Urgent commission means more rewards!"

"And more risk," his companion retorted. "I'm not going."

"Hear me out, first," Katheryne interjected. "There was a meteor shower last night, covering the entire countryside of Liyue and Mondstadt. The meteorites harbored a strange mystic ability. It sends any who touch them into a deep sleep…"

"That looks dangerous, Katheryne," the black-haired adventurer said. "Can I have my usual gathering tasks?"

"Very well." Katheryne brought up a book listed with several tasks. "Please choose the tasks you fancy."

"Thanks!"

Orion listened to their entire conversation. A doubt arose in his mind. A meteor shower happened the night he arrived in Teyvat.

'Coincidence?'

Mona turned to Orion, her hand on her chin. "The meteors from beyond the starry skies carrying a strange power... intriguing. Orion, I'm also registering as an adventurer for this commission."

She couldn't let go of this opportunity to learn more about the sky and the stars. Well, the mention of more rewards had also caught her fancy. She could earn some Mora while helping out Mondstadt. It was a win-win situation for her.

As the adventurers walked away with their commissions, Orion approached the professional receptionist.

"Ad Astra Abyssosque! What can I do for you, Travelers?"

Orion couldn't find anything non-human about Katheryne. She seemed like a normal human capable of speech and understanding. "We're here to register as adventurers."

"I had my eyes on you two for a while," Katheryne revealed with a professional smile on her refined face. "Looking out for great adventurers is a part of my job."

Mona thumped her puffed-up chest with pride. "This great astrologist will become a great adventurer; that's a given, after all."

Some people were easy to please like a child; Mona was the best example.

Katheryne asked for their names and finished the registration process while also explaining the purpose of the Adventurers' Guild. It was pretty much like the adventurer guilds in isekai novels: the Guild existed in all seven nations as a platform for both adventurers and people of every status. The Guild received commissions of various types and assigned them to the adventurers in the form of quests and adventures. For every adventure and commission, adventurers receive Adventure EXP, allowing them to reach a higher Adventure Rank or AR as players from his previous world called it.

Higher-ranked adventurers could take on quests of high difficulty for better rewards.

Mona and Orion both received an Adventurer Book as the joining gift. The thin handbook had a list of commissions, common monsters found in the wild, and efficient ways to deal with it. Lastly, it was also a proof of their Adventure Rank and their membership within the Guild.

"That's everything! Ad astra abyssosque, Adventurers! With effort, you shall reach the stars and conquer the abyss!"

"Abyss…?" Orion had a flashback of the 'beast' he sensed in the underground.

'Does that creature live in the abyss?'

A series of pitter-patter stopped him from thinking any further.

"Jajan! Klee's on another adventure!"

While Mona was busy in the Adventurer Book, Orion threw a glance in the direction of the bubbly voice. A small girl with pale skin and light red eyes was sprinting through the stairs, her pale blonde twintails and the leather bag on her back bouncing with her cheery gait. On her head, she had a big red cap with a pin featuring a clover insignia and two white feathers. The little girl in red had small elf-like ears, setting her apart from the rest of the crowd.

"Tatata."

Orion watched in amazement as the little girl with a Pyro Vision pinned to her bag bolted out of the city door. No knight tried to stop her from venturing into the dangerous land outside the city.

'Who am I to worry about her?'

He shrugged it off as well. Maybe she would win the monsters over with her cute appearance.

"Katheryne, do you know anything about a sealed room in Mondstadt? Diluc said we could rent it for cheap."

"Yes, I do. It's a magic laboratory that has been sealed by some unknown person. Although we have a few specialists who could break that seal, they all have their own labs, and aren't that interested in the matter. I can contact the owner if you think you're able to break the seal."

"Mona, are you confident?"

Mona still gave no response, lost in the blocks of text inside the Adventurer Handbook. The page she was on had a list of various fruits and mushrooms found in the wild.

'Adventurers could use the knowledge to survive, I suppose. Mona seems like the type to go on days of binge reading without feeling hungry.'

Orion also went through a period when he simply wasted his life in the calming atmosphere of games. An embarrassing but important aspect of his past.

Orion patted Mona's shoulder to get her attention. "Hello, Teyvat to Mona?"

Finally, Mona lowered the book. "Never have I found such detailed notes on the monsters and the prices—ahem… and the basic commodities everyone needs."

Katheryne let out a small chuckle at Mona's peculiar interests.

"You don't plan to eat those?"

Mona coughed again. "A modest lifestyle helps one cultivate a relationship with nature."

Her excuses were so easy to read. Orion chuckled in amusement. "Katheryne, can you repeat everything for Mona?"

"Oh my, aren't you one demanding Adventurer?" Katheryne teased before she explained the situation word for word with her usual professional smile.

Mona readily agreed to break the seal if it meant affordable room for her. Katheryne told them the address of the sealed room on the basis that the seal would take at least minutes to be cracked.

"Let's secure your house first. We'll take the commission after."

Mona nodded at Orion's suggestion. "Roof is more important than… Mora."

"Then stop glancing at the Mora bags in Katheryne's hands."

Katheryne, as though knowing Mona's greed, was juggling a bag of Mora to tease her some more.

"Ahem, we should make haste."

Mona turned around, not before throwing a glare towards Katheryne, and led the way, her hips swaying in a hypnotizing rhythm.

'I might forget my real purpose around her, in this city.'

He took a deep breath, getting a dose of enchanting scent from the fresh flowers around him. The city was far too bright to harbor his goal of destroying the divines.

'A rotten apple among a barrel of fresh apples.'

He smiled at his analogy and waved his hand at the receptionist. "Bye, Katheryne."

"Bye, Traveler! Don't forget the commissions."

"I won't."

How could he forget the tasks that will earn him today's bread?

After crossing a few streets filled with various shops, the pair arrived at the mentioned sealed room. The seal in question was a blue-colored pentacle with a Hydro symbol in its center. The sealed door belonged to a two storey-house. Like the rest of Mondstadt, the house had a distinct gothic style.

'Pretty nutty for one person. Talk about overkill.'

"Can I have a room there?" he asked politely. "I'll pay the rent you need, of course."

Mona looked up with a frown. "Sharing the rent will save me some Mora… you can stay."

Orion was a bit stumped by her easy agreement. She never stopped to consider if he was some bad guy who'd do bad things to her. She might be an astrologist capable of reading people with a glance, but she was unable to discern anything about Orion whatsoever.

'She knows shit about me. Argh, whatever.'

He wasn't here to teach Mona about human greed and whatnot. She was a capable magician with a Vision. She could take care of herself just fine.

Mona was unaware of the monologue happening in Orion's head. She had spent much of her time learning the art of astrology from her master. That left her with a skewed perception of people, leaving her to rely on her astrology to discern 'good' and 'bad.'

She bent down and examined the seal. "The person who placed this seal... is by no means simple. Breaking this seal by force is nigh on impossible."

"Just say it if you don't understand it."

Orion was confident of destroying the seal with a touch and a small bit of spiritual energy. His spiritual energy was back to full during the ride.

"With the power of astrology, a seal such as this is but a child's play."

And, Mona took the challenge personally. It took her but one moment to fracture the seal and free the door of its previous constraints.

'Man, I also want a Vision.'

When Orion was lamenting the lack of another convenient tool, a cart passed by behind him, carrying barrels of wine. He peeked to his side and spotted a familiar red-haired gentleman talking to a kid outside a nearby building. A glass of red wine was painted on the wall with 'Angel's Share' written underneath the glass.

'His family business.'

Orion waved his hand. "Yo, Diluc."

The usually grumpy man tore his eyes away from his employee. "It's you. You found the room, I see."

"Yup. So you own this place?"

Diluc still wasn't used to people talking so casually to him. Not after the hell he went through the last three years. It was like he was interacting with the brother he 'lost' on his eighteenth birthday, or a less playful version of him.

"Angel's Share has always belonged to the Ragnvindr family." Diluc turned to the man driving the cart. "Be careful this time."

The driver rubbed the back of his head. "Ahaha, Master Diluc. Last time was a mistake."

"Mistakes are easily repeated if we don't have someone to guide us," Diluc said with a contemplative look on his face, perhaps recalling a distant memory, or a mistake that changed everything he used to believe and represent.