"It's so satisfying to act cool!"
Yu Jin remained in a pensive state, but his thoughts had drifted to some unknown corner.
"What do you mean by that?!" Lisa could no longer maintain her composure. She stood up from her chair, her vibrant eyes now filled with shock.
The fear of knowledge was deeply ingrained in Lisa's heart. Many people found it perplexing, but Lisa knew that their depth of knowledge was not even a fraction of hers, so naturally, they wouldn't understand what she feared.
Just as she had said herself, the price of pursuing knowledge was often unimaginable. The Scarlet King was an example, and so was Khaenri'ah five hundred years ago.
"Abyss… Sky… Beneath the Abyss is the Sky? What do you mean? Tell me!"
Lisa reached out and placed her hands on Yu Jin's shoulders, looking at him with an expression of desperate longing.
Yu Jin was startled by Lisa's sudden movement. He had just been spouting nonsense, not expecting to actually hit the mark.
Yu Jin thought for a moment and decided he could only try to muddle through for now.
He looked at Lisa and said, "Don't you fear knowledge? Why are you suddenly curious now?"
Lisa's expression stiffened at his words. She vigilantly glanced at a small door far off in the library, then carefully inspected her own thoughts.
"Phew!" Lisa exhaled, patting her chest. The exploration of the world's origins always attracted forbidden existences.
But thankfully, their discussion earlier was just a brief foray; everything was still normal.
Then she saw Yu Jin's face almost pressed against hers.
"So big!" Yu Jin exclaimed in surprise. It was his first time realizing something could jiggle.
"Oh? Does Mr. Yu Jin have such hobbies?" Lisa couldn't help but smile, seeing Yu Jin staring intently at her.
"No, it's just my first time seeing this thing jiggle; I was just curious," Yu Jin said, neither humble nor arrogant, without a hint of embarrassment.
"Then does it look clearer this way?" Lisa actually pulled Yu Jin into her embrace!
"Wow! You… you, you, you…" Now it was Yu Jin's turn to jump.
"Wooden, Ranni, Lianlian, your King has been defiled!" Yu Jin repeatedly wiped his helmet with his hand, as if there was something dirty on it.
"?" Lisa looked at Yu Jin's flustered appearance and found it quite amusing. Someone as powerful and learned as Yu Jin was actually so… well, so pure.
"It seems I've found a weakness of Mr. Yu Jin," Lisa thought with a hint of mischievous delight, then covered her mouth and chuckled, "I'm merely paying Mr. Yu Jin the Reward for enlightening me. As a librarian, I have no money or power, so this is all I can do."
With that, Lisa shrugged innocently.
"Ah? Really?" Yu Jin innocently believed her.
Then he said earnestly, "Lisa, it's not that I'm saying anything, but those who demand this kind of Reward are probably not good people. If you have any questions in the future, you can come to me. I don't need anything."
"Hahaha!" Lisa burst out laughing upon seeing Yu Jin's rambling.
"What are you laughing at? I'm serious," Yu Jin said, his face stern, though it couldn't be seen through the helmet.
"Alright, I'll come to you if I have any questions in the future," Lisa continued to hold her stomach and laugh heartily.
After a long while, under Yu Jin's gaze, Lisa stopped laughing. She tidied her messy hair and softly said to Yu Jin, "Thank you!"
"Thank you for what?"
"I said you're an idiot!"
"???"
"It's decided, from now on I'll call you 'Little Dummy'! Little Dummy~"
Yu Jin looked at Lisa with a face full of black lines, feeling he couldn't keep up with her line of thought.
How was he dumb? His intelligence was top-notch in The Lands Between, and even in this world, he felt he was among the very best.
However, he didn't mind. Yu Jin could tell that Lisa didn't genuinely think he was an idiot.
Let her call him whatever she wanted; it wouldn't hurt him, and he saw that Lisa seemed quite happy calling him that.
"Alright, it's getting late. I should head back, otherwise the two little ones at home will start making a fuss again," Yu Jin looked at the pitch-black Sky outside the window and decided it was time to leave.
"Then, see you tomorrow, Little Dummy~" Lisa sat back down in her chair and waved at Yu Jin.
"Mm," Yu Jin nodded, stood up, and walked towards the door.
"By the way, from now on, you can be bolder. I see further than you, and I understand more deeply than you."
"Knowledge does not invite taboos; on the contrary, the darkness of human nature is the greatest taboo."
"You must remember, if your body transforms into something inhuman, I can still pull you back, but if your soul also becomes inhuman, then I can only say I'm sorry."
Yu Jin thought for a moment, finding no flaws in his words, then continued, "That's all. It's just like that."
"Bye-bye now~"
Lisa remained silent for a long time after hearing Yu Jin's words. After a while, her relieved whisper echoed in the library:
"Heh heh, innocent and profound, wise man and fool, which one is the real you?"
"Also, what you said, I learned on my first day of school, you dummy~"
…Mondstadt, nearing midnight, was somewhat quiet. Only the sound of Yu Jin's armor clanking echoed through the streets.
"Hup! Ha!" A Damselette's shout suddenly reached his ears. Yu Jin looked towards the sound and found a panting Damselette standing in an open space below him.
In front of her, several scarred wooden stakes were piled up. Judging by the marks, they had taken quite a beating.
The Damselette rested for a while, then continued to hack at the wooden stakes. It seemed that due to a lack of inheritance, the Damselette was simply hacking away, without any other movements.
Yu Jin watched for a while and found that she really was just hacking. Aside from providing some physical exercise, its other effects were negligible.
Checking the time and seeing the Damselette's sweat-drenched forehead, Yu Jin felt he should help her.
But he would watch a bit longer. The bestowal of power must be done with extreme caution. He needed to confirm whether the Damselette was just acting on a whim or not.
Thinking this, Yu Jin's extended head retracted. He would come back to check tomorrow morning.
Yu Jin silently left. Ellin, breathing heavily, felt something. She looked up, wondering if someone had just been there.
Shaking off irrelevant thoughts, Ellin rubbed her aching arms. Today's goal hadn't been completed; she couldn't slack off!
"Thwack!" "Hup!" "Clang!" After a brief silence, the sound of the Damselette's struggle once again filled the small clearing.
"Phew! Finally almost there." Yu Jin saw a light on in a house not far away, and his steps quickened a bit.
"Click!" Yu Jin pushed the door open and saw Garura and Collei playing around.
"Looks like you're full of energy, huh? Tell me, what did you gain today?" Yu Jin asked, looking at the girls in their pajamas.
"Nothing at all. The story was great, but I don't know anything!" Garura replied first.
"Walk around more, do things similar to what's in the Miracles, and try to grasp the emotions within them," Yu Jin replied nonchalantly.
He wasn't troubled by Garura's lack of progress at all, because he already knew the outcome.
Even the simplest of Miracles couldn't be mastered in a day by someone with no foundation.
"It's so hard. The book has many counter-intuitive conclusions. I've only just finished a quarter of the book in one day, and many parts I just skimmed through."
Collei wasn't as carefree as Garura. She found the book Yu Jin gave her difficult to read and feared she wouldn't learn it.
"That's normal, don't worry. As long as there's no intellectual impairment, learning it is only a matter of time. And your speed is very fast; you have Talents."
Yu Jin was slightly surprised by Collei's words. He hadn't expected Collei to actually have a Talent for learning Prayer.
Amidst his surprise, he thought of something else and said, "Tomorrow, we'll go out and deal with the remnants of the gods inside you two. It's a hidden danger after all, and it's not good to keep it."
"And Collei's illness also needs to be treated."
Collei and Garura's bodies stiffened at Yu Jin's words. Such a long period of normal life had almost made them forget those dark days.
But soon, smiles returned to their faces, because they trusted Yu Jin. With him, there was no trouble that couldn't be solved.