At this moment, the others also stepped out of the hovercar.
From a vantage point, Xia Zhi quietly watched Amber and Klee.
Amber had chestnut-colored long hair tied with a bright red bunny-ear ribbon.
Her outfit was mainly red, accented with white and brown, and a pair of goggles hung at her collar. On her belt were two pouches, with a Pyro Vision on the left pouch and a long red feather. She wore red thigh-high stockings and white boots, looking energetic and capable.
Klee had a red beret with a brim, decorated with a feather and clover pattern, gloves on her hands, a cute dress with puffy sleeves and bows, and poofy lantern-style shorts.
On her back was a leather backpack inlaid with a Pyro Vision, with a cute plush toy hanging off the side. Altogether she looked innocent and adorable.
Of course, for Xia Zhi, what really mattered were the progress bars above their heads: one silver-tier, one gold-tier.
Progress: [0%].
Amber looked at the group and spotted a familiar face among them.
"Is that… Diona?!"
Diona waved happily. "Hi Amber, hi Klee, long time no see!"
Klee's eyes sparkled. "Wow! Diona! You got so tall!"
Diona beamed. "Yup! And I'm still growing!"
Xia Ci walked over with a pleasant smile. "Looks like you two ran into old friends. Nice to meet you both—I'm Xia Ci, just a traveling adventurer."
Amber straightened up slightly and introduced herself. "Hello, I'm Amber, a Outrider of the Knights of Favonius."
Klee piped up brightly, "Hi! I'm Klee, the Spark Knight of the Knights of Favonius!"
"—You're the one! The heir of the great knowledge!"
Mona's voice suddenly cut in from behind Xia Ci.
Klee looked up at this big sister who had suddenly approached, confused. "Heir…?"
Mona nodded seriously. "Yes! I am the astrologer who sees through the secrets of the stars! Surely you sensed my arrival long ago."
Klee tilted her head, puzzled. "Stars? Are there fish in the stars too?"
Mona scoffed softly. "Fish…? Don't play dumb. Are you scared of my challenge?"
Klee protested, "You're the one who's weird! Klee doesn't get what you're talking about at all!"
Charlotte jumped in from the side. "I have a feeling you two aren't even on the same page. If you keep talking like this, it'll never end. Mona, why don't you start from the beginning?"
Mona paused, then asked, "My astrology can't be wrong… but just in case, your mother's name is Alice, right?"
Klee's eyes lit up. "Yep! Oh! So you're Mama's friend, big sister? But Mama went really far away and isn't home now…"
Mona nodded. "I know that—my astrology told me. But before she left, didn't she pass all her mystical knowledge on to you?"
Klee looked totally blank. "Mystical… knowledge? Mama only taught Klee how to make Jumpy Dumpties."
Diona watched them, amazed. "So Klee's mom is your teacher's friend and rival?"
Mona spoke with a bit of awe, "Yes, the old lady—cough, I mean, my master—was brilliant at astrology, but she only knew astrology. Alice was different. She was a true genius across countless mysterious fields…"
At that, Mona couldn't help glancing at Xia Zhi in the back.
Even though he couldn't see, Mr. Xia knew cooking, medicine, massage, sculpture, alchemy, economics, astrology, spear techniques, opera, music, even adeptal mechanics—he was a genius across all fields.
Faced with such monstrous talent, even though Mona had immense respect for Alice's skills, there was a very strange feeling in her heart.
She suspected Mr. Xia might be even more incredible than that legendary witch Alice.
Xia Ci looked at Klee and said, "Klee is so little—even if she did hear all those profound things, she probably couldn't understand them."
Mona studied Klee's eyes, which were as clear and untainted as summer skies.
Kind of like Xia Lin's eyes.
Mona could only admit, "Yeah, looks like she only inherited the bloodline, not the knowledge yet… I miscalculated. There's no way to challenge her."
Amber frowned slightly. "Challenge?"
Mona laughed. "Relax, I meant a contest of knowledge, not a battle."
Amber sighed with relief. "Oh, okay then."
Mona turned back to Klee, trying again. "Klee, before your mom left, did she ever tell you about a fifty-year promise and a box?"
Klee's eyes widened. "Oh, oh, Klee knows that one! So big sister is here for that box? Let me see, hang on!"
She swung her backpack off, opened it up, and started rummaging through it seriously.
"Not this one, not that one… no, no…"
A mountain of random stuff began piling up on the ground next to her, way more than should have fit in the backpack.
Obviously, it was a space-enhanced item.
Then Klee suddenly looked up. "Ah! Klee remembers! I hid it together with my new treasure at Windrise!"
Mona was stunned. "Windrise?"
"Yep!"
Klee nodded, glancing at the setting sun with a conflicted look on her face.
"But that's really far away, and it's about to get dark… I don't think we can get it today…"
Mona waved her hand. "It's fine. I'm not in that much of a rush. Leave it there for now, and we'll go get it together another time."
"Okay!"
Klee started shoving all the random junk back into her bag.
Mona felt a bit guilty watching.
After all, it was because of her questions that Klee had made such a mess. She couldn't just stand there while Klee cleaned up alone, so she knelt down and helped pick things up too.
Meanwhile, Amber was following Xiangling's lead, meeting everyone.
Since the Liyue Adepti usually didn't like exposing their true identities, Cloud Retainer chose to go along with Madame Ping's example and introduced herself with the alias Xianyun.
As an ordinary person, Amber had no way to recognize either adepti or gods, but she was a bit curious about Charlotte being a reporter.
When it came to introducing Ganyu, Xiangling said cheerfully, "This is Miss Ganyu, the secretary of the Liyue Qixing."
Oh, the secretary of the Qixing, huh? Wait… what?!
Amber froze for a moment before finally reacting.
This girl, with animal-like features on her head just like Diona, was actually a big shot on par with the acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius?!
Amber immediately straightened up, her tone a bit more formal. "Secretary Ganyu, is there an important reason you came to Mondstadt all of a sudden?"
Ganyu gave her a gentle smile. "No particular reason. I'm just traveling, trying to relax a bit."
"That's all?"
"That's all."
Hearing that, Amber couldn't really press any further, so she nodded, making a note to tell Acting Grand Master Jean about this when they got back to Mondstadt, so she could properly receive such a visiting dignitary.
Still, she couldn't help noticing a faint coconut milk scent on Secretary Ganyu, and it smelled really nice…
Some merchants had mentioned a new kind of perfume making waves among the upper class in Liyue recently, but it was only circulated among the elites. Since Ganyu was definitely in that circle, she wondered if that was what Ganyu was using…
On the other side, Mona was picking things up while curiously inspecting them.
They were mostly ordinary little toys kids liked, but there were also loose bits of gunpowder, pebbles, and fuses…
Remembering what Amber said about fish blasting and what Klee said about making Jumpy Dumpties, Mona suddenly understood where the "Spark Knight" title came from.
She glanced at Klee, who was trying to scoop up a big armful of things to shove back into the bag, but there was so much stuff, and her hands were too small, so a few items slipped out and fell to the ground.
One of them was a notebook.
It fell open as it hit the ground, lying right at Mona's feet.
Could this be the mysterious knowledge Alice left behind?
Mona tilted her head, curiosity piqued, and snuck a glance at the page.
The first line read: "On the such-and-such day of such-and-such month…"
Huh? It was just a diary?
Mona instantly felt let down and turned her attention back to tidying up.
Two seconds later, she froze.
The date on that diary… looked like it was from fifty years ago?
At that time, Klee definitely hadn't even been born, so was this Alice's own diary?
A witch's diary… actually that was no less tempting than mystical knowledge!
Mona bent down again and covertly skimmed more lines.
Wow, the witch's daily life was pretty boring… nowhere near as interesting as mine living with Mr. Xia…
"Sis, are you looking at that book?"
Mona looked up and saw Klee had already stuffed everything back into her backpack, leaving only this diary.
"Oh, no, it just fell open on its own, so I took a quick look. Is this your mom's diary?"
"Nope!"
Klee shook her head.
"That was in the box you wanted! Klee took it out to use the box for something else!"
"Huh?"
"Because Klee wanted to put her treasures in that box, so I took this book out for now. If you want the box, then we'll have to go dig it up where I buried it… Big sister, what's wrong? Your face looks really pale, are you sick?"
Mona stood there frozen, the words of her old teacher echoing in her mind from when she left the mountain:
[I made a promise with a friend fifty years ago, asking her to keep a box for me. Now the time is up, so go and retrieve it.]
So this book—this diary—was the old lady's…
It was her black history from fifty years ago!
Oh no! No wonder she'd warned her so sternly that if anyone read it, she'd tear them limb from limb…
Mona paused, then bent down, picked up the diary, and forced a wobbly smile at Klee.
"Don't worry, I'm… fine."
At this point, there was no way out!
Given the old lady's astrological skills, she'd definitely know whether Mona had peeked at her diary or not.
There was absolutely no way to lie about it.
Which meant there was only one path left.
Mona's gaze grew resolute.
She'd originally planned to finish the Windblume Festival and then head home to deliver the box.
Now?
Well, it wasn't so much that she was desperate to follow Mr. Xia to Inazuma for the Summer Festival, but… the old lady's threats were way too scary, so she really had no choice but to lie low for a while!
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