"So this is Mora. It's pretty nice-looking."
Stelle admired the Mora they had just exchanged. It gleamed with a golden luster, and mysterious patterns were engraved across its surface.
"There's a special kind of power in it," Dan Heng said as he examined the coin. "It's faint, but definitely unusual. This currency feels like more than just a medium for trade. It seems like it has other uses too."
Even the Xianzhou's own currency was perfectly ordinary by comparison.
"As for that, Mora was created by Morax, the God of Precious Gold. According to legend, it was minted from a portion of the God of Gold's own flesh and blood," Koji explained.
"A god's flesh and blood?"
Dan Heng nodded thoughtfully. That would explain it. If it really came from the remains of a god, then there was nothing strange about it.
"Do all seven nations of Teyvat use this currency?" Welt asked.
"Yes. Mora is the mainstream currency across Teyvat right now. Only a few small places might still use money of their own," Koji replied with a nod.
"That Geo Archon is truly extraordinary. If that's the case, then Liyue was practically guaranteed to become wealthy."
Since the source of Mora was in Liyue, for Liyue to fail to prosper would take sheer self-sabotage.
Anyone with half a brain would have seized that opportunity.
"Besides titles like Geo Archon, God of Precious Gold, or Rex Lapis, Morax's most unforgettable title during the Archon War was…" Koji smiled. "The God of War."
Back then, Liyue probably had more gods in its region than anywhere else, yet all of them had been crushed by him. He swept away all opposition and brought Liyue into an age of peace and calm.
Why did the other nations also use Mora as currency? One reason was that the God of War's record was simply too glorious. Everyone had to show Morax some respect.
The Astral Express crew could only stare.
So that was how it worked.
When your fists were hard enough, people would watch your expression and listen when you talked about reason.
They seriously suspected that when Mora was established as currency, the gods of several nations might have thrown hands first.
"Food, food. Koji, do you have any restaurant recommendations?" Stelle asked, clutching her stomach. "Wild food just doesn't hit the spot."
"Good Hunter. That place has a great reputation, and the food is excellent too," Koji said.
With that, Koji led the way to Good Hunter. It still wasn't mealtime, so there weren't many people around.
"Visitors from out of town, huh? What would you like to eat? All the ingredients are fresh today," Sara said warmly.
Looking through the menu, everyone ordered different dishes so they could sample the local specialties.
"Do you have coffee?" Himeko asked.
She was curious what coffee in Teyvat tasted like. If it was good, she could buy some to take back.
Welt and the others stiffened.
Himeko still loved coffee as much as ever, but the coffee she brewed really wasn't something anyone could call delicious.
Sunday's mouth twitched as he recalled what he had experienced shortly after boarding the train.
Back then, he hadn't known about Himeko's coffee, so he had taken a sip without thinking.
The result had been unforgettable for the rest of his life.
That coffee didn't just strike the body.
It struck the soul.
It was hard to imagine how someone as devoted to coffee as Himeko could brew something that terrifying.
"My apologies, ma'am, but this is a restaurant," Sara said awkwardly.
This lady's voice really did sound a lot like Jean's, but still... who asked for coffee while ordering a meal? The pairing made no sense at all.
Himeko nodded. She was not too disappointed. She could always look elsewhere later.
After the meal, the Astral Express crew were all quite satisfied. The food had been genuinely good, and there were no strange dishes mixed in.
"It's been a long time since Trailblazing felt this leisurely and peaceful," March 7th said with a sigh.
Thinking back on their previous journeys, every time they arrived somewhere new, they got dragged into trouble. She was starting to wonder if they were just bad-luck magnets.
Now that things were actually this calm, she felt a little unaccustomed to it.
"We were definitely being played by Elio," Stelle said seriously.
The route the Astral Express had taken all this time had basically been following the Stellaron Hunters' script.
"Given that he seems connected to Finality, Elio has probably seen the future," Welt said. He had his own understanding of that enigmatic man.
"By the way, do you think Finality could actually be Trailblaze?" Koji asked.
The moment he said that, Himeko and the others fell silent.
"That can't be possible, right?" March 7th forced out a laugh.
Trailblaze and Finality should be two completely different Paths. How could they possibly be related?
Koji only smiled faintly. "Paths are mysterious things. Who can really claim to understand them completely? Finality might just be Trailblaze walking backward from the end of all things."
"The endpoint of Trailblaze is Finality, and the starting point of Finality is Trailblaze..."
"What if Akivili trailblazed all the way to the end of the universe, and after self-annihilation, Finality was born there?"
Himeko and the others frowned deeply as they listened. It sounded absurd, but the more they thought about it, the more it seemed possible.
As for Pom-Pom, it felt like they either did not know, or they knew but could not say.
"That's way too scary. This is the first time I've ever heard something like that," March 7th said, clutching her chest.
There was no proof, but it was the kind of idea that became more terrifying the more you thought about it.
"What's there to be afraid of?" Stelle said in a very serious tone. "As long as we keep Trailblazing, we're bound to run into the truth of the universe eventually."
Even if they really did have to face Finality someday, every footprint left behind by Trailblazing would still be proof that they had existed.
"Stelle, when you're being serious, you really do make people feel safe," March 7th said with a smile.
The problem was that serious mode showed up too rarely. Most of the time, Stelle was just being absurd, so her serious side felt like a limited-time rerun.
"What's that supposed to mean? I'm serious all the time, okay?" Stelle instantly bristled.
She had always been serious.
Himeko and the others fell silent.
No, she really was not. Absurdity was her default setting.
"Koji gege, I missed you so much~"
Klee came running over and threw herself straight into Koji's arms.
For a child, playing together was enough to make someone a friend. Koji had taken her out to blow up big fish, so Koji was her friend.
"I missed you too, Klee." Looking at Klee, bright as a little sun, Koji felt like his heart was melting.
Alice's daughter was just too adorable.
"She isn't human, is she?" Himeko said with a slight smile.
She liked cute little things like this too. Whose precious daughter was this? She was absolutely adorable.
Her hand twitched a little. She wanted to pat Klee on the head, but since they were not familiar yet, doing that would have been rude.
"That's right. She's an elf, one of the long-lived races," Koji said with a nod, gently rubbing Klee's little head.
That lifespan gap really was a knife to the heart. By the time Klee grew up, Jean and the others would either be old and frail, or already gone.
In Teyvat, the blade called lifespan angst was brutally sharp.
(End of Chapter)
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