After saying goodbye to Thoma, Lumine and Paimon felt as if they had forgotten something.
"Come to think of it, Thoma is really the kind of person you both like and dislike," Paimon said.
Paimon always judged people based on her personal feelings. She mainly felt that she had been deceived, which made her quite unhappy.
On the other hand, Lumine, the one directly involved, was very calm. Not only was she not angry, but she could also understand the situation.
There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world. If you want to gain something, you must pay a price.
Luo Li had already told her this before.
Especially when the goal is very difficult, the price you must pay increases even more.
"Let's not talk about that. We already completed the task he asked for. This is just a normal exchange," Lumine said.
"Alright then, what should we do now?"
After finishing the task, Paimon suddenly felt a little lost.
"We should go back and find Mr. Luo Li."
"Won't we disturb the two of them?"
After spending some time with them, Paimon always felt that there was a somewhat intimate and ambiguous atmosphere between Luo Li and that student, similar to how things used to feel with Sister Makoto.
"Probably… not?" Lumine replied.
Lumine was no longer surprised by Luo Li's popularity with women. Even Sister Makoto, who should have been the one most upset, did not seem to mind. So what right did she have to complain?
After making up their minds, the two of them searched for a while before finally finding Luo Li, who was sitting at a small food stall with Mitsuyo. The two had been shopping and were now resting while enjoying some snacks.
"Oh, you two finished your task?" Luo Li asked in surprise when he saw how relaxed they looked.
While the two "tool companions" had been running around these past days, Luo Li had been spending time getting closer to his cold and beautiful disciple, who had devoted herself entirely to him. At the same time, he had been discovering new ways to deepen their relationship.
As for whether a relationship between master and disciple would burden him psychologically, Luo Li felt there was absolutely no problem.
During the hundreds of years after he first arrived on the continent of Teyvat, he had already satisfied most of his worldly desires.
Food and romance were part of human nature. He had experienced them all, even many absurd situations and relationships.
Because of this, he had learned to control his desires very easily afterward, living almost like a saint.
Until arriving in Inazuma, he had practically had only one partner—Guizhong.
"Yes, I…"
Before Lumine could answer, Paimon immediately started complaining.
"You have no idea—we were tricked by Thoma!"
After thanking Miss Ryōko, the stall owner, for kindly offering several small dishes, Luo Li slowly said, "Tell me what happened."
So Paimon explained everything on Lumine's behalf—the truth about Thoma's identity and the task he had asked them to complete.
Nearly fifteen minutes later, she finished explaining the entire story in detail.
Unexpectedly, Luo Li showed no surprise at all.
"Wait… don't tell me you already knew his identity?" Paimon asked.
"Of course."
"I knew it! So we were the only ones kept in the dark!" Paimon stomped her feet angrily.
"You've known him for a while now," Lumine said calmly as she took a seat after Luo Li invited her.
After running around all day, she hadn't eaten anything yet. Luckily, food was already on the table.
She had never tried Inazuma's specialty dishes before, so this was the perfect opportunity.
Picking up a grilled fish and smelling its tempting aroma, she took a small bite.
Her eyes immediately lit up.
Although it was just a street stall, the flavor was surprisingly good—almost as good as the grilled fish restaurant at Chihu Rock in Liyue Harbor.
"Hey, wait! I want some too!" Paimon rushed over to grab food as well.
After they finished eating an entire fish, Luo Li poured himself a cup of the long-missed Sakura Wine. As the familiar taste spread across his tongue, he finally spoke again.
"By the way… aren't you forgetting something?"
Paimon, chewing fish, asked vaguely, "What?"
"If you want to go to the Komore Teahouse to meet him, how exactly do you plan to leave Ritou and go to Narukami Island?"
Lumine: "…"
Paimon: "…"
The two looked at each other in silence.
Right—how had they forgotten that?
Without a travel permit, outsiders were not allowed to leave Ritou, let alone go to Narukami Island.
"So that guy left us another test!" Paimon complained angrily about Thoma again.
Lumine, however, felt it made sense. Since meeting the Raiden Shogun was so difficult, such obstacles were expected.
After thinking for a moment, she cautiously asked, "Mr. Luo Li… could you introduce us to the Raiden Shogun?"
Since dealing with Thoma's side was troublesome, perhaps Luo Li could help instead.
"No. I suggest you follow Thoma's plan," Luo Li said without hesitation.
For now, he wanted to observe Ei's actions from the shadows. If he appeared now, Lumine's trials would be completely disrupted.
He had always been curious about how far this traveler from another world could go.
Unless necessary, he did not want to interfere too much with her destined path.
"As long as the result is the same, the process doesn't matter much," he thought.
"So it's not that you can't—it's that you won't," Lumine said thoughtfully.
Then she asked another question.
"Can you at least help us leave Ritou?"
"Of course. Mitsuyo can help you," Luo Li replied.
Mitsuyo had been listening quietly to the conversation with great interest. She had not interrupted until now.
As Lumine and Paimon looked at her nervously, the cold and elegant Tengu nodded.
"Leaving Ritou is not a problem at all. You can rest assured."
Although she had not appeared among Inazuma's high officials for a long time, the reputation of the Great Tengu was still well known across these islands once dominated by yokai.
Seeing their tense expressions, Mitsuyo laughed.
"You don't have to look at me like that. I don't need you to do anything in return."
Wait… no task?
Lumine and Paimon widened their eyes.
Was this Tengu big sister… an angel?!
It was hard to believe that something could actually be free.
Although he knew there wouldn't be a problem, Luo Li still reminded her.
"The Kanjou Commission will try to stop them from leaving."
"Why?" Paimon asked.
"Because they are secretly colluding with the Fatui."
"So that's it! No wonder that old man looked at us strangely!" Paimon fumed again.
Lumine was also surprised. Thankfully, her intuition had been right earlier when she entrusted the matter of Keijirou to Hiiragi Chisato.