Lumine cooks very well, and Stelle knew this. The hot dishes they had eaten before were made by Lumine herself.
However, this was her first time tasting a dish made with elemental power.
Of course, she didn't taste any elemental flavor. It felt no different from what Lumine usually cooked herself.
After tasting it, Albedo also nodded with great satisfaction. Although Lumine didn't multiply the pan-fried fish with butter during the process, Albedo still seemed to have gotten a satisfactory answer.
Next, Albedo had Lumine try to find some lost items.
He also asked a lot of strange questions and conducted various experiments.
The few of them spent an entire morning on this, finally stopping before a ruin.
According to Albedo, this was the last experiment.
Decryption.
"It's still like the physical test earlier, without limiting the method. Everything you do is what I want to observe," Albedo said to Lumine.
At the same time, he subtly glanced at Stelle.
Stelle had followed along with all the physical tests done earlier, and so had he, but he had taken some shortcuts with alchemy. Stelle, however, didn't have such means, yet she was able to follow along the entire time without changing her expression, not even breathing heavily.
"Decryption, huh..." Lumine observed the ruin for a bit, then nodded.
She had encountered many similar things on her journey.
This puzzle seemed simple on the surface: just find the Seelie and return it to its place, and the mechanism would unlock.
The only difficulty was how to guide the Seelie to the correct position.
Since it was Lumine's intelligence test, Stelle and Paimon couldn't help; it was all up to Lumine herself.
Fortunately, Lumine was extremely familiar with these things, and the decryption speed was faster than Albedo had imagined.
It didn't take long to return the Seelie to its place and for the water level to drop, revealing the runes on the wall.
"This is... such a strange pattern." Stelle curiously leaned closer to the newly revealed wall, looking up at the symbols carved on it.
"As far as I know, this is also a form of writing, spread across Teyvat, but full of mysteries." Albedo walked up, observed it for a moment, then explained.
"It's also strange why this thing appears here. Anyway, I'll copy it down first. After my research on you is complete, I'll find time to look at it." Albedo took out his notebook.
"Ugh, it's more incomprehensible stuff. I have no idea what results these strange questions and experiments will yield," Paimon said, hands behind her back, somewhat exasperated.
"It seems that to get a Reward, you have to pay the corresponding price."
"This time, I actually gained a lot. Relatively speaking, providing a trivial Reward is truly insignificant," Albedo said.
"I'll head back first. If you're interested in this place, you can take another look. I should be able to let you witness a wonderful moment in a bit."
Albedo nodded to the few of them, then left ahead of them.
Watching him walk away, Paimon turned back to Stelle and Lumine:
"Actually, I'm quite looking forward to what kind of results we'll get after all this."
"Hmm, it should be quite difficult, right?" Stelle also spread her hands. It wasn't that she didn't trust Albedo, but Lumine's uniqueness probably wasn't something someone from this world could easily comprehend.
"Should we go back too?" Lumine asked Stelle.
"Hmm, go ba... Hmm?" Stelle suddenly saw a very familiar figure behind Lumine, and couldn't even finish her sentence.
"Ro, Rosaria..."
Stelle didn't know why, but she even felt a little guilty.
"It's you?" Lumine raised an eyebrow, turned to look at Rosaria, and her eyes didn't seem to hold as much hostility as before.
"I came to check on your situation, to make sure you haven't been turned into a monster by Albedo." Rosaria crossed her arms, glanced at Lumine, but then her gaze returned to Stelle.
"You, you were following us!?" Paimon, who wasn't quite aware of the situation, asked Rosaria with a surprised expression.
"Of course, everything you and Albedo did, I saw it all." Rosaria sneered, "Should I say you're not vigilant enough, or too naive and fooled by Albedo's friendly attitude?"
"Following a stranger's instructions, drinking potions of unknown origin, participating in numerous experiments with unclear outcomes."
Rosaria spoke while slowly walking towards them.
Although she was speaking to Lumine, her gaze remained fixed on Stelle.
"I'm very willing to believe you were deceived, or rather, that you had already conspired with Albedo?"
"As expected, a very cautious nun…" Paimon couldn't help but interject.
"Rosaria, don't be like that…" Stelle knew Rosaria was probably just speaking casually. Since he had been following them the whole way, he should have known that Stelle and Albedo hadn't conspired.
"Did you forget what happened last night? How can you be so sure she didn't intentionally drink that potion?" Rosaria asked Stelle expressionlessly.
"Uh… because, what happened last night was mostly my fault," Stelle said to Rosaria with a troubled expression.
He seemed to have not yet explained his succubus physique to Rosaria.
"I never thought of using despicable means to treat Stelle; that was just an accident… As for Albedo, I don't think he's a bad person," Lumine said, frowning slightly and sounding displeased.
He knew what Rosaria had done to Stelle last night, which was why he emphasized the words 'despicable means'.
"I believe my understanding of him should be much greater than that of outsiders like you." Rosaria snorted lightly, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes as he looked at Lumine.
He looked at Stelle again, and Stelle could only give an awkward smile.
"I didn't expect you to be so blunt… Forget it, judging by your appearance, you should be fine." Rosaria looked at the wall behind them again.
"He seemed very interested in this rune just now."
"Yes, he said he would study it if he had time." Stelle nodded.
"Then it seems I'll have to transcribe it, and then patrol regularly." Rosaria suddenly felt a headache; that Albedo always made him work a lot of overtime for no reason.
"Rosaria, why are you so wary of Albedo?" Stelle asked, somewhat unable to understand.
Albedo was, after all, the Chief Alchemist of the Knights of Favonius, meaning he was an official.
Rosaria, also an official, should logically be able to trust Albedo.
"You don't need to know that, just remember… and you too, remember not to get too close to him." Rosaria glanced at Lumine again.
"At least don't be like this time, doing so many thoughtless things. I don't care what happens to you, but I don't want him to worry about you."
"I wouldn't!" Lumine immediately retorted.
"That's for the best. At least we are now… people from the same house, after all."
Rosaria didn't expect anything else; he just felt that everyone should at least consider the owner of this house.
The two previously blocked chapters have been re-approved. Those who want to read them but don't want to join the group can refresh the chapters.
Only some things that don't affect the overall situation have been deleted.
I hope the review will be lenient with me in the future…
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