The Knights of Favonius.
Jean returned to her office and finished processing all the paperwork she had left earlier.
Then she rose from her seat and stepped into another locked room nearby.
This was Mondstadt's general archives, where all intelligence gathered by the Knights of Favonius over the past twenty years was stored.
Besides this ordinary archive, Jean had once heard from [Grand Master] Varka that there was said to be a top-secret archive as well.
That vault supposedly contained all information the Knights of Favonius had collected since their founding, and only a handful of people in all of Mondstadt were even allowed to set foot inside.
Even as Acting Grand Master, Jean still did not know if that top-secret archive truly existed, let alone where it might be hidden.
Maybe it was somewhere within the Church of Favonius, or deep inside the library…
Jean stood before the door of the general archives, took out a key, opened the heavy lock, and pushed the door open.
There was no musty, damp odor inside. Jean could even feel a faint breeze brushing across her face.
Clearly, the ventilation system had been designed quite well and was still working after all these years.
She reached out and lit the lamp in the room. This was a special lamp made using ancient alchemy. Its light wasn't as bright as a torch, but it had no open flame, making it perfect for preventing fire in a place like this.
The glow of the lamp illuminated the entire archives.
There were eight large bookshelves in the room.
The biggest one was labeled [Mondstadt], and the remaining seven, slightly smaller shelves were labeled [Liyue], [Inazuma], [Sumeru], [Fontaine], [Natlan], [Snezhnaya], and [Others].
Jean had been here more than once before.
She went straight to the [Liyue] shelf and began searching, soon finding the files she was after.
"Ganyu, General Secretary of the Liyue Qixing, half-Adeptus, possesses Qilin bloodline, disciple of Cloud Retainer, took part in the Archon War, wields a Cryo Vision, has held this post since Liyue's founding for thousands of years, lives in her home on Yujing Terrace, handles administrative duties at Yuehai Pavilion until midnight every day, diligent and conscientious…"
"Xia Zhi, junior adventurer, does not possess a Vision, blind, family background unknown, first appeared in Liyue last August, purchased a suspicious shop next to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, launched a specialty drink called Rainbow Juice which became popular, later recruited staff from all over Teyvat…"
"Xia Ci, family background unknown, cousin of Xia Zhi, possesses a Dendro Vision, seems to have a good relationship with Tianquan Ningguang, after the school was founded, became one of its vice principals…"
Jean stood quietly before the bookshelf, lowering her eyes to calmly finish reading these three files.
She closed her eyes in thought for a moment, then took down the files of other people mentioned in those reports, such as [Cloud Retainer], [Shenhe], [Yaoyao], [Ying'er], [Qiqi], [Chi Yu], [Diona], [Charlotte], [Mona], [Xia Zhen], and so on, and carefully read through them one by one.
"How strange… a person without a Vision — no, not just an ordinary person, but a blind person — someone you could call disabled… yet he's managed to gather so many Vision holders around him… it's practically…"
Jean murmured to herself as she stared at the reports in her hands.
"This Mr. Xia is practically… like the protagonist of one of those romance novels I read…"
Yes — aside from her sister Barbara, Jean actually had another secret.
Despite being well-versed in history, and trusted as Acting Grand Master…
Jean still absolutely adored romance novels.
It wasn't because she had wasted her girlhood on endless training and duties, nor because of the cracks in her parents' marriage.
She simply longed for the mutual affection described in those stories, for those fragile, gossamer threads of feeling.
As a knight, she had to prioritize Mondstadt and the Knights of Favonius in everything.
But… once she had a moment of free time, her favorite way to unwind was to grab a romance novel from the library and curl up in a corner to read it quietly from start to finish.
After she'd finished, Jean put the intelligence reports carefully back in their places, turned off the phosphor lamp, stepped out of the room, locked it again, and headed back toward her office.
Almost at the door, she saw Kaeya leaning alone against the hallway wall, arms crossed, the uncovered eye closed as if he were resting.
Maybe he'd heard her footsteps, because he opened that eye, looked at her, and with his usual teasing tone, asked with a smile, "Acting Grand Master, you had someone summon me so urgently — is there something important you need to assign me?"
Jean nodded. "Yes, there is. Come inside."
Seeing the serious look on her face, Kaeya dropped the jokes, uncrossed his arms, and followed Jean into the office.
Jean sat down behind her desk, while Kaeya stood in front of it, waiting.
She motioned for him to sit too.
Kaeya raised an eyebrow. Normally, Jean would just hand him a mission directly, but today she wanted him to sit down and listen carefully? That couldn't be simple.
Once Kaeya was seated, Jean folded her hands, took a breath, then began.
"It's like this — today Amber brought some guests back."
"Amber?"
Hearing the name, Kaeya's expression turned thoughtful.
"I heard from the gate guards earlier that Amber seemed to come back riding a Liyue Adepti vehicle. Are you telling me this has something to do with Liyue's Adepti?"
"You're as sharp as ever."
Jean gave a serious nod.
"Ganyu, the General Secretary of the Liyue Qixing, has left Liyue for the first time in thousands of years — she's come to Mondstadt."
Kaeya's expression turned grave. "And her reason?"
"She says it's just for a vacation, to relax during the Windblume Festival."
"Do you actually believe that?"
"I'm not entirely convinced. After all, she participated in the Archon War, and has served as General Secretary for thousands of years. Her strength and political cunning far exceed mine, so I didn't try to probe too deeply… but I did check her file. She carries the blood of the Qilin, a creature of auspiciousness, so she's likely not ill-intentioned…"
Kaeya paused, then said, "She may be Liyue's auspicious sign, but that doesn't make her Mondstadt's."
Jean sighed. "I know. But Ganyu isn't even the biggest complication."
"Oh?"
"Ganyu has a junior disciple — Shenhe — she came along as well."
"Shenhe… that name sounds familiar…"
"That's right. During the demon god incident in Liyue last year, Shenhe wielded a spear and single-handedly drove back Osial's wife, Beisht."
"…"
Kaeya fell silent again.
Someone who could go head-to-head with a god's kin was clearly no ordinary person.
"And there was another elderly woman, called Madame Ping… but when I looked through her file, I found that like Ganyu, she has lived in Liyue for thousands of years."
"So you mean…"
"That elder is most likely an Adeptus too."
"…"
Kaeya felt the pressure mounting.
Jean continued, "Then there's…"
Kaeya coughed. "Acting Grand Master, maybe you should just say everything at once?"
Jean considered it. "Fine. There's also a zombie girl named Qiqi. As for the rest, they should just be ordinary Vision holders."
"Should?"
"I couldn't find detailed records for everyone in the archives, so that's the best I can guess."
"…So you called me here because?"
"I hope you can keep an eye on them discreetly throughout the Windblume Festival…"
"I'm out!"
"Wait!"
Kaeya gave a wry smile. "Come on, Acting Grand Master, I'm not capable of stopping people like them."
"I don't want you to stop them — just make sure no one else provokes them. As for them, I doubt they'd go looking for trouble on their own…"
"And how can you be sure of that? Because of Ganyu's Qilin bloodline?"
"No — because of Xiangling. You remember her, right?"
Kaeya nodded. "Xiangling? Of course I remember her! That girl came from Liyue last year to train her cooking skills, and even treated us to dinner a few times. She's a good kid."
Jean said, "She's part of that group."
"Hmm?"
"And Madame Ping is her master."
"…Acting Grand Master, you could have led with that!"
Kaeya blinked, finally relaxing a bit.
"Someone who can teach a student like her probably isn't all that bad… all right, I understand. I'll make sure they have a pleasant stay during the festival…"
"Oh, and one more thing."
"…"
"There's a journalist among them named Charlotte, she's the Chief Editor of the Liyue Newspaper Agency. She's collecting tourism materials for a special Windblume Festival report. Try to get in touch with her, and do your best to present Mondstadt's best side."
"…Fine, fine."
Kaeya pressed a hand to his forehead, looking thoroughly resigned as he pushed open the door to leave.
Jean watched his retreating back and let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness the Knights still have someone like Kaeya… if only Senior Diluc were still here… I might actually have more time to read my romance novels…"
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