Investigation

Sai was getting hungry since it was lunchtime, but he had no choice but to wait.

Jean was going through her collection of journals, separating everything that was related to recent news on Mondstadt and Liyue. She was still gathering by the time Lisa was back.

The witch entered empty-handed, while the old man from the library followed behind her with his hands literally full, carrying a bunch of maps.

"Just put it in the ground." Sai reasoned.

The moment the old man noticed Sai, he started breathing heavily and shouted:

"You! Punk! I still owe you that beating from yesterday—"

'He ignored Jean? The balls… I must teach him a lesson.'

"Leave." Lisa simply said.

The old man shivered and immediately calmed down. He quickly bowed down and left the room. Sai found really weird how the man obeyed without questioning, and so did Jean, who was frowning deeply.

"I'm never happy with how you treat him."

"I know." She turned to Sai. "Finish this quickly, I don't want to miss my afternoon tea." Her afternoon tea had actually been forbidden for a week by Jean, but he didn't need to know that.

Lisa clearly wasn't in a good mood.

"Alright, let me see…"

Shocking! Staggering! That was what Sai felt when he looked at the maps. 'What… is this?' Sheer size. Despite not having a scale, he could understand how ridiculously big the real world was just from the points of reference on the maps. It was several times larger than the game's, and that's just for two nations!

'Damn! Although I expected this, it's still too shocking! How far must Liyue be from here? Five hundred kilometres?' He truly wanted to know.

"How far is Liyue Harbor from here?" He asked while still looking at the map.

"It's a two-day trip without teleporting." Someone answered.

One thing he noticed was that these maps were much harder to understand compared to the game's so he had to spend more time analysing them. Besides, he didn't understand what was written, he had to go with the images. When he was satisfied, he asked Lisa to show him where Qingyun Peak was located.

Sai realized something.

"Lisa, you said that Kaeya, Amber and Noelle woke up in Dragonspine yesterday, right?"

"In Dragonspine's Statue of The Seven, yes."

"Hmmm…" Sai fell into thought.

'Why did they awake at Dragonspine and not in Starfell with the two of us? This is the key to understanding what happened today.'

"Does Kaeya or Amber remember anything?"

"They only recall that they were with the Traveler." Jean was getting anxious.

Sai finally looked up at her.

"Have you gathered everything, Miss Jean?"

'Why does he change how he addresses me every time?' Jean felt weird.

"Yes, this pile right here is for Mondstadt and this other one is for Liyue. This is all I've gathered in the last couple of weeks, I hope it helps." She presented hopefully.

"Alright, I'll look through it right now. Just let me collect these maps."

"Xia Hu!" Lisa called.

The old man entered once again. He looked around and quickly went to help with gathering the maps. Despite something urging him to leave the old man all the work, Sai chose to help instead.

"Old man, it's not healthy for someone as old as you to bend down like that. You should really change your habits." Sai showed him the most honest smile he could.

"YOU!!" The old man was fuming.

"Take this maps back to my desk. You are dismissed." Lisa intervened.

Both men quickly finished picking the stuff up. Sai directly put his pile over the old man's, and then gave him a few strong pats in the back to wish good luck.

"Kukuku… I love teasing that old man…Ahem." Sai recomposed himself.

He approached Jean's desk and opened some space for him to sit. When he was about to do it, he saw Jean's frowning expression and changed his mind.

"Just kidding." He simply stood straight and started reading through the first documents.

This kind of work would be like taking candy out of a baby's hands for someone who had gone through high school, but when he looked at the characters, he facepalmed.

"I can't read!"

"You can't read?" Lisa and Jean eyed each other.

Sai reluctantly decided to lie.

"I was taught how to speak, but not how to read and write. So, Jean, please help me by reading these articles." His eyes shone as he looked at Jean with anticipation.

"I'm sorry, Sai, but I have much to do and not enough time to narrate it to you. Perhaps Lisa can—"

"I'm busy." She plainly refused.

"…"

"W–well… I will bring someone to help you, don't worry. Lisa, you can go now. Just call a someone for me—"

"Wait, Jean. Can Kaeya do this? I think it would help if we were to discuss things together."

"Kaeya? I think he's already back. Alright. Lisa, would you please call Kaeya over here?"

'Jean, why do you listen to that boy?'

"Sigh… Sure, dear."

And with that, she left.

Sai silently sat down and resumed to ponder over what the issue could be.

Jean sighed in relief that he wasn't pestering her, though a part of her kind of wished for a distraction.

'Ugh, no. I need to work harder, for Mondstadt! And for Noelle!'

Meanwhile, Sai was afflicted by a thought: 'Is it possible to change the future of the game?'