The City of Freedom, Mondstadt

Sai decided to not ask Lisa any more questions, which actually surprised her. She was actually ready to answer him, but Sai thought he only had three chances like the other times and resolved to not shame himself trying.

Not that he wouldn't try to talk to her later. She was an important source of information which he wouldn't let go.

In reality, Sai hadn't gone too deep into her lore, so he didn't know much about her story. Among those in Mondstadt, he probably knew Jean the best. That didn't mean he didn't value Lisa, on the contrary. He knew she was both intelligent and powerful, so having her as an ally would definitely do him good.

Ally against what, you ask? Of course the answer is the player. Assuming 'Fatty' would summon him again sooner or later, Sai had to become strong enough to survive those life and death battles.

Who knows if the new update made you lose your characters once they all died in the field? And even if not, who could say the resurrection would work on him? Thus, he couldn't afford to die.

Though, he was aware that he was not a common character, given that he wasn't part of the actual four-people team.

And so they walked. The distance between them nor shrinking, or increasing. Eventually, they left the canopy of trees.

Once his eyes got used to the setting sunlight, he saw a huge shadow on the horizon.

"Dragonspine? My god…"

"Is this your first time seeing it, Sai?"

For the first time, Lisa called him by his name. And it sent shivers down his spine.

"Indeed…" He had slowly gotten used to her rhythm.

Lisa just kept walking. Sai slowly caught up, still impressed by the sheer magnitude of the mountain.

'It's at least twice the size of the one in the game! And it's also so far away…'

They walked for another ten minutes before seeing a larger road with a crossing.

'One leads to Dawn Winery, the one in the right leads to Mondstadt… so where does the one to the left lead to? I don't remember…'

Besides the mountain and the crossing, Sai managed to see Mondstadt in the distance. The lake was also several times larger than in the game. He could see the bridge with some proper detail now.

As they passed through the crossing, they came across a merchant caravan, slowly making its way to the city.

As the pair overtook them, the middle-aged man in the coach's seat greeted them:

"Hey there, lovely couple! If you need any sorts of gifts you can come to my shop in the outer city plaza! I'm bringing all sorts of high-quality goods from Liyue, such as flowers, necklaces, clothes, silks… Be sure to stop by!"

The man seemed approachable enough, but Lisa just ignored him and kept walking. Sai, as a modern world man, couldn't just do that:

"Erm… thanks, mister. I will try to go see your shop later." He said as he waved his hand, not slowing his pace either.

"Hehe, I'll be waiting!" The merchant shouted.

At first, Sai hadn't noticed, but there seemed to be two guards of sorts laying down in the back of the carriage. They wore armour and swords. They did not seem to have noticed the pair that bypassed them.

Seeing Lisa ignoring the merchant made Sai finally understand that the game version was a fancy version of the real life one. In reality, she was a proud witch who wouldn't lower herself to speak to lowly merchants.

If Sai had learned more about Lisa, he would have known that she was just too lazy to entertain the merchant, who was already used to being treated as such. That didn't make her less prideful, though.

…

Not long after, the unpaved road gave way to a neat stone one, with streetlights along the way. It was almost dark by now, so they were already on.

Mondstadt was growing bigger and bigger in Sai's sight, and he realized it was also much bigger than the one in the game. The bridge that once took a single minute to cross, now took five.

The city walls appeared to be the same size, around 15 meters by Sai's estimate. The difference was that there were two levels of them. The second layer lay much deeper into the city, around where the former Archon Statue stood. That one was a bit taller, 20 to 25 meters tall.

Only now was Sai able to understand what the merchant meant by 'outer city plaza'. The real Mondstadt was divided into outer and inner districts.

He thought it made sense, the outer district was residential and some common businesses. The aristocrats lived in the inner, together with the church and the government buildings like the headquarters of the knights. They were like two different worlds.

Sai could also infer that you needed permission to get into the inner district.

As Lisa approached the gates, two knights stopped her.

"Stop! Who are you? State your business." Their tone was polite.

"I'm Lisa, and this boy here is with me."

"Oh! Ms. Lisa, it's you! Pardon me for not recognising you. Please, don't mind me and enter." The guard had a bright smile and his eyes shone even in the dark.

As he passed through the gates, Sai caught a glimpse of the frown in the guard's eyes as he looked at him. A bit worse and he imagined the guard would spit on him. It was the famous "glaring daggers".

Sai shrugged and followed Lisa.

The first thing he saw after entering was the plaza. Maybe because it was getting late, it was mostly void of people. Some business were still ongoing, specially restaurants and bars, which filled the surroundings of the plaza, but except for that, not much could be seen.

He also noticed how most advertisements mentioned the famous Dandelion Wine, Fisherman's Toast and Sticky Honey Roast. 'Honey Roast? I remember Amber mentioning it once…'

"Is the city always so dead during the night?" Sai asked Lisa, as they weaved through the Main Street.

"No. We lost a lot of visitors since Stormterror's attack."

"What happened to Stormterror after that?"

"It was dealt with. By the Traveler."

"Oh…" Sai pretended to be shocked, though he wasn't sure if she bought it.

Eventually, they passed by a familiar place.

"The Adventurer's Guild…" It looked exactly like in the game.