Genshin Impact: I'm The Envoy of Snezhnaya
Chapter 341: The Clash of Ice and Fire
Ever since severing ties with her family, Eula had been living alone.
Though few were willing to rent their homes to a descendant of sinners, the Knights of Favonius had assigned her a dormitory, solving that problem for her.
After disposing of the "stolen goods" she had intercepted from the mysterious man in black, Eula no longer had the mood to pursue the Darknight Hero.
With lingering thoughts on her mind, she returned home.
Taking out her key, she intended to unlock the door.
But when she noticed that it wasn't locked, she seemed to realize something.
"Tch… treating me like a child again? Old grudges and new—one day, I'll settle them all with you!"
She pushed the door open. It swung inward easily.
The dishes she hadn't had time to clean before rushing out for night patrol were gone.
The house bore obvious signs of being tidied.
In truth, Eula wasn't a messy girl.
While cleaning and cooking might not seem like tasks befitting nobility, the Lawrence family never neglected such matters.
Even though their era had long since ended, they still clung to fantasies of reclaiming their former glory.
To prepare for that imagined day, they educated their children with near-pathological strictness.
Not only posture, etiquette, and scholarship, but culinary skills and housework were expected to be flawless.
For instance, salt measured grain by grain, heat controlled to the exact second—just short of demanding that their dishes glow with brilliance.
But after leaving the Lawrence family, Eula relaxed her standards considerably.
Something like leaving dishes unwashed while heading out for work would have been absolutely unacceptable in the Lawrence household.
Moving quietly toward the living room, she saw a fiery-red figure curled up on the sofa.
Amber, the Outrider, was Eula's closest friend in all of Mondstadt—aside from her fellow knights.
The only one.
How should one put it…
Their bond had been forged long ago.
For example, when Amber's grandfather was still with the Knights, he had personally guided Eula's training.
Perhaps that was one reason Amber had been able to melt the ice around her heart.
Amber often came to Eula's home like this, sometimes to help with chores, sometimes to take care of her when she drank too much.
In short… though Eula appeared more mature, she was often the one being looked after.
Eula had told Amber before that if she wasn't home, Amber could simply sleep on her bed.
Yet every time, Amber chose the narrow sofa instead.
Eula returned to her room, took a blanket from her bed, and gently draped it over Amber.
Only in moments like this, with no one else around, would Eula shed the "resentment" she wore as armor, and reveal her true gentleness.
"Good night, Amber."
…
Elsewhere, another pairing of ice and fire was far less harmonious.
Sleep paralysis, sometimes called being "pressed by a ghost."
In such a state, the mind is awake. One can hear sounds and perceive fragments of the surroundings, yet the body cannot move, nor can a single sound be made.
Sometimes, hallucinations or auditory distortions occur.
Kaeya was currently experiencing exactly that.
Setting aside the fact that he couldn't move at all, the more pressing issue was this:
He seemed to be hallucinating.
Yes, hallucinating.
He could faintly see Diluc lying on top of him.
And his own arms were wrapped around Diluc.
Such a harmonious scene would have been impossible even back when their relationship had been decent.
So it must be a hallucination—
"Mm?"
But as sensation gradually returned to his body, something felt… off.
If this was a hallucination, wasn't it a bit too realistic?
Come to think of it… what happened last night?
His head hurt terribly…
Kaeya released his grip and rubbed his temples.
The movement woke the person who had only just turned back from a cat into a human—Diluc.
One of the best things about Bai Luo's "Bai-style Physical Deep Hypnosis Technique" was this: it knocked people out fast—and woke them up right on time.
As long as he controlled his strength well, their waking time was accurate down to the second.
And so…
Diluc: "..."
Kaeya: "..."
Boom—!
Crash—!
Ice and fire erupted in an instant, sweeping across the entire bedroom.
"Hey, hey, hey! At this level of flame, are you trying to kill me?!"
Seeing the faint outline of a firebird flickering around Diluc, Kaeya pushed himself to the limit.
He knew exactly what that firebird-shaped flame meant.
If it weren't for the fact that they were once brothers, that firebird wouldn't have been released into the air, it would have been swung down with a greatsword.
"Why are you in my room?"
As mentioned before, Bai Luo's hypnosis technique came with short-term memory loss as a side effect. Combined with the fact that this was the first time he had used a club to knock someone out, the side effects were even stronger than expected.
Diluc had completely forgotten about tailing the Ausbilder and getting knocked out. He thought he had simply gone to sleep at home.
Which meant—
Kaeya must have sneaked in.
"What do you mean your room? Take a good look around before you start talking!"
Though hungover and fuzzy about last night, Kaeya was far more clear-headed than Diluc.
He remembered inviting the Ausbilder to Lisa's house for a welcome gathering. He had planned to get him drunk on strong liquor to extract information.
And then…
What happened after that?
"Hmm?"
With Kaeya's reminder, Diluc finally noticed something was wrong.
Though Cryo and Pyro had filled the room, the original layout was still discernible.
This guestroom clearly looked nothing like his own home.
The firebird gradually faded. Without the two of them sustaining their elemental energy, ice and fire reacted, melting into one another and turning the entire room into something close to a sauna.
"What happened?"
Only when Lisa finally appeared at the doorway did the tension between them settle.
"That's what I should be asking you. What exactly happened last night?"
Steam from the flames evaporated the dampness clinging to Diluc's clothes.
He rubbed the spot where Bai Luo had struck him the previous night and looked at the other two in confusion.
"Mm… You remember we held a welcome party for the Ausbilder yesterday, right?" Kaeya asked, wringing out his soaked ponytail and squeezing out a large amount of water.
"Vaguely."
The memory wiped by Bai Luo didn't include the earlier part at the Knights' headquarters, so when Kaeya mentioned it, Diluc did recall some fragments.
"After that, you said you were going to Angel's Share to arrange some work matters. Then you disappeared. When you showed up again… you were being carried by the Ausbilder."
"..."
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