"Wah—help!"
Farmas heard the miserable screams behind him—clearly his fellow slimes getting roasted by Diluc's phoenix.
He dashed out of the city gate but still glanced back. The blazing phoenix filled his vision, followed by the red-haired Master Diluc himself. The moment their eyes met—those bright crimson pupils—Farmas felt a chill run straight through his gelatinous core.
"Waaah, that glare is too sharp!"
He bounced faster. He could see Diluc right behind the phoenix, charging toward him as he fled past the gate.
"Hmph. A leftover fish that slipped the net?"
Diluc snorted coldly.
Feeling the heat closing in from behind, Farmas felt the prickling pain of imminent death. At last he reached the lakeside by the side gate.
"Th-this is water… I can't go in there!"
He turned around—Diluc's phoenix was already right on top of him.
"Gotta gamble."
Gritting his metaphorical teeth, Farmas compressed his soft body as tightly as possible, then leapt upward with all his might—straight onto the phoenix's head.
"Immune immune immune…"
Diluc arrived a second later, staring in disbelief at the Pyro Slime now being carried across Cider Lake by his own phoenix. The slime's mouth was even muttering something bizarre.
"Have slimes gotten smarter? It's actually using elemental immunity to run?"
He stood at the shore watching the slime being pushed farther and farther away. After a moment of self-doubt, he shook his head.
"…Probably just a coincidence."
The Knights of Favonius logistics supervisor, Miss Hertha, arrived panting heavily. After catching her breath for several seconds, she bowed and said, "Thank you for helping, Master Diluc."
"To think the Knights of Favonius can't even handle a few slimes."
Diluc sheathed his greatsword with a cold snort and walked toward the Angel's Share tavern.
On the other side…
"Whew… that was too close."
In the thick trees of Whispering Woods, Farmas casually spat a flame at a pigeon and swallowed the meat it dropped.
Riding the phoenix, he had soared straight across Cider Lake deep into Whispering Woods, nearly reaching Starfell Lake.
"Such powerful Pyro energy… if I could just recover the divine power sealed in my Visions, I wouldn't have to keep hiding like this."
Farmas hopped around Starfell Lake catching fish. After drinking over a dozen bottles of Flaming Essential Oil, he had doubled in size—now nearly half as tall as a Statue of The Seven.
"If only I could find someone to take me into Mondstadt…"
After finishing several fish, he tilted his round body in thought.
"Maybe I could compress myself smaller, sneak in with a supply cart…"
"But once I'm inside, how would I find Barbatos? I still need a legal identity…"
Nestled beside a Flaming Flower, he basked in the familiar comforting heat and relaxed, eyelids drooping.
Until—
He heard a sharp cry from a human girl, followed by the dying wails of slimes.
"Damn, I fell asleep?! Stay alert!"
Farmas's sluggish brain rebooted instantly. Following the sounds, he turned his gaze toward the shore of Starfell Lake—
And saw a slender white figure.
A girl.
She wore a white backless dress, with short golden hair and two scarf-like ribbons fluttering behind her. Light and swift as the wind, she darted among the slimes, her long boots stepping with elegant agility as she skillfully struck with her rapier, knocking aside any slime that leapt toward her.
"Take this!" she shouted, thrusting her delicate palm forward. Her sword pierced a slime's soft body, sending several of them flying meters away.
"Sheesh… brutal much?"
Farmas's round eyes widened. The slimes hit by her strike rolled across the ground and vanished—reduced to mere drops.
"There are so many slimes here…"
The girl sheathed her sword, which vanished behind her, and carefully began collecting the dropped materials.
"Are slimes really born just to be exterminated?"
Farmas watched the fallen slimes with sympathy. He felt an urge to shout: Are monsters not people too?!
"Lumine! Why are you running so fast? I can barely keep up!"
Another soft, sweet voice floated over.
A small, adorable girl drifted into view, floating as if by magic.
She wore pale pink-and-cream clothing—something like lantern pants, though not quite. Strange symbols adorned her chest. A dark-blue ribbon fluttered behind her as her long lashes blinked over golden eyes, lively and cute.
"I want to reach Mondstadt quickly. I heard many people there worship the wind… maybe the wind will bring news of my brother."
The girl in the white dress—Lumine, the Traveler.
And the floating little girl was unmistakably—Paimon.
"But you can't rush everything."
Paimon puffed up her cheeks indignantly, her voice young and sweet.
"I'll be more careful next time."
Lumine lowered her head like a child being scolded.
Farmas snapped back to attention. He was a slime right now. Deceiving the locals would be tough—but deceiving this newly-arrived foreign Traveler? Easy.
He quietly shuffled closer, preparing to speak.
"Lumine, there's another slime over there."
Paimon's starry eyes flicked toward him. Spotting the deep-red slime at the lakeside, she shouted at once.
Lumine looked up. Seeing a slime creeping toward them, she summoned her rapier again.
"Wait, wait! We can talk! TALK!"
The shout made Farmas's whole slime body tremble. He could overpower Lumine with his current size and strength, but fighting wasn't his goal.
"Huh? You can talk?"
Her sword halted just a few centimeters from his body. Farmas, who had been readying a fireball, hurriedly swallowed it back down.
"Of course. We can communicate."
Farmas let out a long sigh of relief.