Jiang Bai couldn't guess their true intentions, but that only made him more wary of this organization.
Whatever the Abyss Order's ultimate goal, you couldn't afford to take them lightly.
Just think—if these Abyss Mages could control hilichurls, and there were enough of them, a monster siege could happen in the blink of an eye.
No wonder Mondstadt had such high walls. They must have gone through this kind of thing more than once.
Compared to that, under the protection of the Adepti, Liyue seemed almost unbelievably peaceful.
"No one really knows what these monsters are after," Kaeya stepped up, answering Jiang Bai's question, "but there's no doubt the Abyss Order had a hand in Stormterror's attack on Mondstadt."
The Knights had never relaxed their vigilance against the Abyss Order.
"In any case, you should head back and report to Jean. I need to interrogate this Abyss Mage, see if I can get any information out of him."
"Wait, you can actually understand what the Abyss Mage says?" Jiang Bai suddenly realized a problem.
He'd never understood a word those Abyss Mages muttered. Their strange language was every bit as baffling as hilichurl speak.
Kaeya shot him a look.
"Don't tell me you didn't know Abyss Mages can speak human languages?"
"Liyue's too peaceful, and I only do funeral work. I'd never get a chance to run into these things—how would I know?" Jiang Bai put his hands on his hips, looking perfectly justified.
Whenever he ran into an Abyss Mage, it was a straight-up fight—either he killed it or got hit himself. There was never any 'conversation' option.
Wait, if Abyss Mages can speak human language and understand hilichurl, maybe I could grab one and bring it to a hilichurl camp in the snowy mountains as a translator… would I finally understand hilichurlian?
But on second thought, that probably wouldn't work.
Abyss Mages could control hilichurls. If he brought one into the camp, it'd be like leading a wolf into a sheepfold.
Instead of translating, he might just end up with all the hilichurls under Abyss Mage control. Not worth the risk.
And who knew if the Abyss Mages had some way of contacting each other? If they didn't know about that camp before, and he led one there, suddenly they'd all know—what a disaster that'd be.
"If you want to be good at this job, you should read more books." Diluc crossed his arms and offered some advice.
This ferryman still had a long way to go if he wanted to meet Diluc's standards.
"There's a pretty good collection in Dawn Winery's library. Drop by sometime if you want."
An invitation to Mondstadt's richest man's private library? No way Jiang Bai was turning that down.
He nodded, then asked, "But for this kind of stuff—things that regular people would never run into, but are still kind of common sense—are there any books that actually record it? I've read plenty in Wangsheng's library, but never seen this sort of thing written down."
"If you have a Vision, you're not an ordinary person anymore." Diluc corrected him calmly.
"There's a journal I wrote myself at my place. It's got a lot of this sort of knowledge—might be useful to you."
Diluc had high hopes for Jiang Bai—or, more accurately, for the Jiang Bai of the future.
To be able to track down Cartis's remains in the vast snowy mountains, and blow up the huge Skyfrost Nail together with Albedo… that kind of ability and decisiveness was exceptional.
After all that, he'd perfectly fulfilled Cartis's last wish, returned his belongings, and published the story buried in the mountain as a book—truly diligent and responsible.
Ever since then, Diluc had done his homework on Jiang Bai and Wangsheng Parlor.
Wangsheng was a gold-standard name in Liyue, with a spotless reputation.
As for Jiang Bai, the Parlor's only ferryman, his background was both strange and fascinating.
Jiang Bai's awakening in a coffin hadn't been covered up. Anyone with the resources could find out—including his memory loss.
In Diluc's eyes, that wasn't a bad thing.
His real identity might be a mystery, but with his memories lost, his newly awakened life was like a blank slate—a fresh start with a clean record.
Someone with a Vision, capable and responsible, who also had to travel everywhere for work…
He fit the needs of an intelligence network perfectly.
Still, as much as Diluc was tempted to invite him, he wanted to see what kind of person Jiang Bai really was, and whether he was worth trusting.
That explained his unusually friendly attitude.
Jiang Bai had noticed Diluc was friendlier than expected, but he didn't mind. Whatever the reason, it could only help to have Mondstadt's richest man on his side.
"Then I'll gladly accept your invitation."
Speaking of books, something Jiang Bai had long forgotten suddenly resurfaced.
"Do you know anyone who's studied the hilichurl language? Or any books about it?"
"Why ask all of a sudden?" Kaeya looked over.
"I just think hilichurlian sounds interesting. But I can't understand a word. I'd like to study it if I can."
He'd meant to start on this project after leaving Dragonspine, but had completely forgotten until now.
"There is a scholar in Mondstadt who researches hilichurlian. When this is all over, I'll introduce you," Kaeya promised. Then, he scooped up Klee and placed her in Jiang Bai's arms.
"For now, take Klee and go. We've got work to do."
"Got it." With Klee in his arms, Jiang Bai glanced back, puzzled.
There's something weird about Kaeya and Diluc's relationship.
Diluc isn't even part of the Knights, but Kaeya plans to interrogate the Abyss Mage with him. If this was Knights-only business, why wouldn't Diluc be excluded too?
Once they were out of the temple, Jiang Bai put Klee down.
"Klee, what do you think is going on between Kaeya and Diluc?"
Klee shook her head.
"Klee doesn't know!"
...
On the road back to Mondstadt, Jiang Bai ran into Amber and Aether, who had also finished with their node.
Paimon spotted him, floating in the air, arms crossed and grumbling,
"It's that weirdo who gives out fliers to everyone."
"Weirdo? I have a name, you know." Jiang Bai reached up and knocked her little crown askew, earning a crisp metallic clink.
Sounded just like metal.
Paimon hurried to straighten her crooked crown, huffing, "You are a weirdo!"
"I think the floating unidentified creature is more of a weirdo than me!" Jiang Bai knocked her crown sideways again.
"I am NOT an unidentified creature!" Paimon fumed, stomping the air and too annoyed to even fix her crown.
"You're the worst! I'm mad now! I'm going to come up with an awful nickname for you!"
---
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