Xia Zhi arrived at the intersection not far from the Knights of Favonius.
This was the place where he and Noelle had set their appointment yesterday morning.
Noelle was already there, waiting quietly.
Seeing Xia Zhi arrive as promised, joy flashed in Noelle's eyes.
"Mr. Xia!"
"Have you been waiting long?"
"No, not at all! I just finished my Knights duties!"
"Were you always busy until this late before?"
"Mhm. Wash dishes for the restaurant, then wipe down the tables, and after that sweep and mop the corridors. That's about it."
"You work pretty hard."
"This is nothing compared to everyone in the Knights."
Noelle shook her head, looking at Xia Zhi with hopeful eyes.
"Mr. Xia, um…"
"Don't worry, I've got everything ready. But there are too many people here. Let's find a quiet place first."
"We can go to the open ground behind the Knights' headquarters. It's quiet there, no one around. I used to go there alone to practice swordsmanship at night."
"Let's go there, then."
"Okay—Mr. Xia, this way!"
Noelle led Xia Zhi toward the Knights of Favonius.
Not far away, Rosaria frowned but chose to follow.
The open ground Noelle mentioned was large, with quite a few wooden dummies set up. The dummies were scarred with sword cuts.
Xia Zhi looked up. Through the lenses of his glasses, he could see the window of Jean's office.
The light was still on.
Which meant Jean was still working overtime in her office.
Out in the night, a little glowing point shone on a leaf outside that office window—that was the firefly he'd released earlier.
Noelle whispered, "Mr. Xia, is this spot okay?"
Xia Zhi nodded. "It'll do."
He gave a small wave of his hand.
Noelle felt the wind in the air fall silent in an instant.
No—more than just the wind.
She looked around.
Even the sounds from the distant streets had vanished.
The whole world seemed to enter perfect stillness, with only her own breathing and heartbeat as clear as day.
"Mr. Xia, this is…?"
"I've temporarily stopped time in this area."
"Time stop?!"
"Mhm. Because there's a little cat tailing us. If she saw what we're about to do, it'd be hard to explain."
"Little cat…"
Noelle looked back. She didn't see any cat.
She only saw the trees like statues, every branch and leaf perfectly motionless.
Time stop.
This… this kind of power… even Lord Barbatos, the Anemo Archon, couldn't do that, could he?
A small metal rod appeared in Xia Zhi's hand.
Noelle couldn't help looking at it.
"This," Xia Zhi said, "is the transformation item I made for you."
He handed the rod to Noelle.
Noelle carefully took it, feeling the cool, hard metallic texture, a little at a loss. "Mr. Xia, what do I do?"
"It's actually a sword hilt. Hold it with both hands like you would a greatsword."
"I'm holding it."
"Do you feel it?"
"Huh?"
"No sensation?"
"It's like… nothing…"
"Then your level of faith probably isn't enough."
"Faith?"
"I made this item. You need a certain amount of faith in me, its creator, to activate it."
"…"
"You can try praying to me the way you pray to Barbatos."
"I…"
"I'm not asking you to betray your faith in the Anemo Archon—just to be like a general believer and have faith in more than one object. I also mentioned yesterday that a transformation item needs to be charged, and that charge comes from this faith."
Xia Zhi's voice was gentle.
"Of course, if you're unwilling, we can forget the whole thing."
Noelle hesitated, then closed her eyes, held the hilt to her chest, and began to pray softly.
Xia Zhi's figure gradually rose up in her heart.
At the same time, motes of Faith Power shimmered into being around her.
They were thin and faint.
After all, Noelle wasn't like Fischl.
Fischl was a chuunibyou girl—her self-absorbed, stubborn nature made it easy to deepen faith. On top of that, he'd saved Fischl in a moment of crisis—a direct display of a miracle that made it even easier to shift a faith that hadn't been particularly firm.
But as long as she had faith in him, it was enough for a single transformation.
He'd already fully charged the hilt.
"Let's sign the Contract, Noelle. This is my true name."
He softly spoke his name in the language of his original world.
"Xia Zhi."
When Noelle heard those two syllables, her heart and mind gave a sudden tremor.
She instinctively repeated them, and the image of Xia Zhi in her heart became sharply clear.
At the same moment, the metal hilt in her hands glowed faintly, as if linking straight to her soul. A strange and wondrous feeling rose in her chest.
"Now—do you feel it?"
"I think… I do…"
"Then try transforming."
Transform.
The instant the thought formed in Noelle's mind—
A pure, powerful wind field surged out of the metal hilt.
That power wrapped her entire body, turning into a great teal wind-sphere.
The power of Anemo.
Which Xia Zhi had learned from Venti.
And the moment the wind field enveloped Noelle, a familiar sense of closeness rose in Xia Zhi's heart.
The system's voice sounded within him.
"Detected a plea from an ordinary believer."
"Respond?"
Ordinary believer… a bit lacking.
But turning an ordinary believer into a devout one—or even a fanatic—would be interesting.
Besides, he'd only signed a no-faith-poaching Contract with Morax, not with Barbatos.
"Yes."
Xia Zhi chose to respond.
A system panel unfolded before him.
A character-sheet-like interface appeared.
He was already familiar with this.
It had been the same when Qiqi and Fischl transformed.
He looked at the interface. The silhouette was clearly Noelle's—very distinct.
But she wasn't wearing any clothes yet, and he needed to handle the glamor.
In the upper-left corner of the panel, a number still displayed:
Xia Zhi recalled the image of the Artoria Pendragon, and began applying the glamor to Noelle.
First, underwear.
Then a knight's suit of armor.
Then the matching accessories.
A wind-teal necklace.
A wind-teal hair ribbon.
A wind-teal leg ring.
Lastly, the weapon.
Since Noelle's transformation item was the hilt, he only needed to glamor the blade.
Done.
Xia Zhi closed the panel.
The teal wind-sphere around Noelle dissipated in an instant, revealing the armored knightly maiden within.
For Noelle, only an instant had passed.
She had barely formed the plea to transform, and when she opened her eyes the next moment, she found her appearance changed, a strange and powerful force surging through her.
"Mr. Xia."
"Congratulations—you're now a Magical Girl."
"So this is… a Magical Girl's power?"
Noelle flexed her hands around the greatsword.
Even though what she held still looked like a small metal rod, in her perception a broad, razor-sharp invisible blade extended from the hilt.
It wasn't physical.
It was an Anemo edge formed entirely from a powerful force.
"The power of wind…"
Noelle murmured.
Xia Zhi nodded. "Yesterday you said you weren't fond of your Geo Vision—you wanted an Anemo Vision. So I thought it over and decided to give you an Anemo-type transformation item."
Noelle fell silent for a moment, then asked that question again.
"Mr. Xia, what exactly are you?"
"Me? I'm Barbatos's dearest friend."