Chapter 17: The Waters of Fontaine

[Vacher/Marcel 3rd person POV]

Vasher was pacing around in one of the many hidden offices he had around Fontaine. In the past month many unexpected troubles had occured, first it was the sudden raid bade by an unknown being who would appear, defeat the gangs stationed at a few of his Sinthe dealer's hideouts and loot them. They either had an organization behind them or were extremely intelligent and quick as they were able to track down multiple sites and raid them in succession. After the third night of raids Vacher had decided to pull back and reassess the way his Sinthe was distributed. Somehow information was being leaked, and that was a danger, not knowing which sites were compromised meant his Marcel identity could potentially be exposed. And he could not afford to lose the connections it offered this late in the game.

However, the unknown vigilante still managed to hunt down the stragglers who weren't able to liquidize their assets quick enough. Not only did he lose a source of revenue, he also had to start finding new places to stash his current stock of Sinthe as his current stores were already full. It was fortunate that he had excess as he now could only had one secure location to concoct the drug after having his men empty and destroy the rest of the locations.

He reflected how unfortunate it was to lose a specific room in an apartment that he had been renting to himself under another alias. Luckily he was not there when it was raided by what the underworld has come to call the Moonlit Phantom as they reportedly only came out at night and was so quick that they could leave after images and move faster than the few Anemo vision wielders he had hired. At this point Vasher was wondering if it was possible one of his men had killed an Inazuman or Liyuean and cause their organization to be cursed by a vengeful spirit?

Shaking his head he went to a chair and sat down. He looked over the journal he had been writing in and pondered the new tenants who had taken residence in the room his alias had been using. Luckily they hadn't discovered the hidden compartments or room, but he had to doublecheck that his crew had properly cleared the remaining supplies from the lower work area. The young lady was an adventurer from a small town near where his beloved had grown up. Similar to her, the young lady had set off to grow stronger and earn a living traveling the treacherous wilds of Teyvat. He really wanted to use her as his next test subject, he felt that the parallels between them could offer more to his research. As of late he had only been kidnapping young ladies off of the street but most of them were either the daughters of small merchants, lesser nobles, or tourists visiting the big city hailing from one of the remote villages in Fontaine. None of them seemed to have the same spark, drive, or strength that Vigneire had.

Vasher stayed up late formulating, scraping, and redrawing plans, he was too far in and could see a potential breakthrough in the future to give up now.

[Time skip: 2 weeks, Carman 3rd person POV]

Business was booming, after a few customers had visited the shop and either bought a spinner for their child or for them to use in their spare time at work, word quickly spread about the mesmerizing handheld gyroscopes. Working hard during the day to promote and sell the products in the workshop followed by evening discussions with Ryuzu, who was apparently equiped with programing on how to provide therapy, Carman completely forgot about the quest notification he had received upon selling his second or third spinner. Now having time on the weekend, Carman made sure he was alone in his room before opening his system.

[Quest: Project Toymaker Part 1 (Complete)

Description: you are now an employee of Leschots's Clockwork Workshop, your employer, Livre wishes to bring smiles to children's faces through clockwork engineering. Create a product for him to stock in his store and get more than one person to purchase it.

Rewards: 50k Mora, 300 System Points, 1 E rank Blueprint.]

[Quest is completed, generate rewards?]

[Yes/No]

Selecting yes, Carman watched in baited breath as the system generated the random blueprint.

[host has received: 50k Mora, 300 System Points, [generating E rank blueprint....]

[Host has received E rank Blueprint: Ring of the Einherjar (3* Artifact), see description in [Item Storage] for details.]

"Einherjar? Where have I heard that word..." Pondered Carman as he opened up his storage.

[Item: Ring of the Einherjar Creation Manual

Type: Blueprint

Rank: E

Description: a small booklet with instructions on the creation process of a beginner 3* artifact called "Ring of the Einherjar" which offers minor boosts in it's wearer's physical strength, dexterity, or constitution. One may have more than one ring equiped but no more than five will be in effect at any given time. Which rings are in effect is in the order they are equipped with the first ring equiped taking priority.

Einherjar were warriors who died honorably in combat and were blessed by Odin of the Norse Pantheon to live and battle for eternity in the halls of Valhalla, ever sharpening their skills in preparation for the end of days when Ragnarok was to take place. As a 3* artifact, the rings this blueprint details only imparts a sliver of their power and blessings. Ingredients listed in the blueprint have been adjusted to fit the materials available in Teyvat.

Requiremets: [Skill: Alchemy Lv.4]

]

"Ahhh. That's where its from, weren't those guys in the Norse God of war game? Man its getting harder to remember stuff from back then.. should I write down some of that stuff too? " Pondered Carman as he looked into his inventory at the small journal he had used to write down what he could remember of the story of Genshin Impact, there was another that held personal memories of his previous life, names and stories of his previous family, his friends. A sad and nostalgic expression made itself onto Carman's face as he pulled out the latter journal and started to read it.

As he read the stories he was saddened by how he had started to forget the stories he had written down. He wondered how long it has been back on earth since he had passed away, how his former family was doing. He was sure they would want him to be happy here in his new life, but he kept finding himself reminiscing about the past.

Reaching the end of the book he read a small note he had left for himself. Reading it he chuckled and shook his head.

Hey future me, or whoever is capable of reading this.

If your not Carman, formerly Leo, bugger off.

If you are me in the future I hope that we are doing well, I just finished writing what I could remember of our past life. To be honest, I wish that I had more paper as this one book wasn't nearly enough to encompass all of our memories and experience. Knowing us you just found this note after being lost in nostalgia. Just keep this in mind, it's fine to seek comfort in what is familiar, but don't dwell in it, you know the others would never want us to waste away getting lost in the past. They would want us to embrace our new life in the fullest, ever since we were a kid we dreamed of doing magic, casting fireballs and such promise me that you won't shut yourself away from the world. It's beautiful and familiar, sure it's a bit different compared to the Teyvat we played in but its still the same world.thats a lot better than just being dumped into a random fantasy world where we don't have the first clue of the mechanics behind. Let's grab the future by the horns and live this life to the fullest!

Yes I know that's a bit hypocritical of me to say, but I'm hoping by the time I become you I'll have worked on myself enough to turn this notion into reality.

Sincerely,

Past Carman

Folding the paper and placing it back into the book, Carman put the journal back into his inventory, getting a change of clothes he had purchased recently, he went to the bathroom of the apartment to take a quick shower.

Maybe I had a point. They would want me to seize the opportunity I've been handed and live this new life. As he got into the water Carman subconsciously turned on his elemental sense, he had learned recently how to overlap this sense with his hearing. He was surprised when he started to hear the background music from the game, however there were many songs that he had never heard before, such as in Livre's workshop. Having never been in the building it made sense that he wouldn't have heard the song, the workshop's song sounded like a symphony of mechanical parts harmonizing and resonateing with one another to make a tune that sped up when the occupants were busy at work and slowed down and softened as they rested.

The song in his apartment had changed over time, when he first discovered the ability, the song of the apartment was slightly sinister, with the areas around the hidden compartments and passages getting more and more erie. Now it was a calming melody of pianos and violins. As he was showering he heard as the melody changed from a nostalgic and sad tone to one that expressed feelings of hope. Something about it resonated with him as he stepped into the water, they hydro energy all around him caused something in his chest and mind it vibrate as if one was using two tuning forks close to one another.

Curious, Carman focused on the sensation, his elemental senses never causing him to feel something like this before. He reached out to the music, and he felt the feeling of resonance get stronger his chest and mind thrumming like the strings of a harp, an instrument that was once playing a solo tune finally finding a place with the rest of the orchestra.

Carman didn't know how long he was in the shower, he didn't even notice as the once warm water started to cool. He could only hear and perceive the music the apartment and water were emanating. He didn't even notice when Ryuzu pulled him out of the water.

The reason why Ryuzu did this was because she noticed Carman was in the shower when she returned from her patrol around town and completing a few commissions she had received from the adventurer's guild. At first she wasnt worried as she knew that Carman enjoyed taking showers to relax, and having a.. partner, who prioritized hygiene was something she had no complaints about, but after hearing the water run for an hour Ryuzu got worried and went in to check in on Carman, worried that he may have slipped and needed help.

When she forcibly opened the door after not hearing a response from Carman she was shocked to see him surrounded in a bubble of water, his eyes unfocused and faintly glowing with a deep blue color he seemed to be uneffected by the water around him as he seemed to be breathing normally. She tried shouting his name but to no response. As a final ditch effort, she shoved her hands into the chaotically swirling sphere of water and grabbed Carman by the waist and pulled him out. Even as she tried to pull him away from the water his eyes remained unfocused and unresponsive as she warped a towel around him, she quickly had to move as the orb of water started to move slowly towards Carman like ferrofluid towards a magnet.

In his mind, Carman found himself on a wooden boat sitting in calm waters, a gentile melody playing around him. However as he tried to pinpoint where the melody was coming from he started to hear other songs that were being drowned out. These other songs conveyed a range of different emotions and experiences from simple joy and the taste of sweet candy, to sadness and seeing a grave, to tearfull happiness from the joyous ending of an Opera, the songs and emotions started to overwhelm Carman, the many songs overlapimg with one another to create a large wave of water that swept ovet him and his boat, completely submerging him in a deluge of the human experience.

-to be continued