After landing, Mualani took Kachina to Hotel Debord to reserve seats, while Rios went to buy a copy of the Steambird.
Just skimming the headline gave him a shock.
[Shocking! The Author of Super Detective King is Actually Natlan's Pyro Archon!]
Editor: Charlotte.
Rios skimmed through it roughly; the reporting style wasn't exactly the same as the UC shock department from before his traversal, but it was close enough.
When he'd heard Charlotte's voice-overs before, she'd said she could handle multiple different reporting styles—now it seemed she really could.
Good thing the Abyss hadn't mimicked Charlotte; if she'd written a few reflective pieces like "Is This Country a Mess?", plenty of Natlan's warriors might have wavered.
"Oh wow, someone really continued my novel and even published it?"
"And it's heading toward a love triangle."
Although players would have three different endings during the continuation event, Rios's world obviously only had one ending.
The Super Detective King published in Fontaine, to boost buzz, had ultimately taken the direction of a tangled love polygon.
Even as the original author, Rios didn't know what happened next.
"Oh no, now I'll have to pay for my own novels in the future."
Rios took the newspaper and entered Hotel Debord, soon finding Mualani and Kachina sitting primly at the dining table.
"What's with you two?" Seeing the girls' uneasy looks, Rios asked with some amusement.
"I just feel like Fontaine people are so polite when they eat..." Mualani's hands fidgeted restlessly, afraid she'd act improperly and embarrass the people of Natlan.
"I didn't know you had such a ladylike side." Rios teased, then tried to use elemental power to obscure the gazes turned their way.
And at that moment, exclamations rose from the grand hotel.
"Lady Furina is here!"
Following the voices, they saw a young girl with white hair, wearing a deep blue dress, a hat of the same color on her head, and a white ahoge.
Behind her trailed three seafood-like creatures, but in light blue.
"Lady Furina, could I get an autograph?"
"Please, a photo together!"
Seeing Furina approach, the people in Hotel Debord grew excited one after another.
She was Fontaine's big star—normally, aside from the opera house, it was hard to see her anywhere else.
"Who's that girl?" Mualani blinked. "She seems really famous."
A passing Fontaine resident overheard and said, "You out-of-town tourists not knowing Lady Furina is normal."
"Put it this way: Lady Furina is Fontaine's former Hydro Archon."
"Surprised? Unexpected?"
The Fontaine resident looked over expectantly, hoping to see shock on these out-of-towners' faces.
After all, seeing gods in other nations was extremely difficult.
Mondstadt's Anemo Archon was missing, Liyue's Geo Archon had passed away, and while Inazuma and Sumeru's Archons would occasionally walk among mortals, their frequency was nowhere near Furina's.
If people from other nations knew Fontaine folk could see their god so easily, they'd probably be green with envy.
"Oh... so that's Fontaine's god." Mualani slightly parted her lips, but didn't seem very surprised.
The Fontaine resident furrowed his brows. "Aren't you excited? In your nation, it should be hard to see a god, right?"
"It's not that hard for us Natlan people to see the Pyro Archon." Mualani narrowed her eyes in a smile and turned to her childhood friend. "Right, Rios?"
"Yeah... I see him every day in the mirror." Rios said with a smile.
"What? Hiss, what do you mean?"
Hearing what Rios said, the Fontaine resident suddenly felt his head itch intensely.
His brain raced, sorting through the logic before finally arriving at the answer, then exclaiming in shock: "You mean—you're the Pyro Archon?!"
The Fontaine resident's voice was particularly loud, momentarily even drowning out the voices of Furina's fans.
"The Pyro Archon?"
Furina lightly twitched her ears, her delicate brows furrowing slightly.
She looked toward the source of the voice and spotted the youth sitting at the nearby table.
Red hair, golden eyes, and young...
When the Traveler had come to Fontaine earlier, she'd described the Pyro Archon's appearance to Furina.
Now, looking at him—everything matched!
Furina immediately strode over on her short legs, placed both hands on the table, and looked at the youth with her heterochromatic eyes, incredulously saying: "You're Natlan's Pyro Archon, Rios?"
"To be precise, the former Pyro Archon." Rios's tone was calm. "I abdicated not long ago."
"Then you're the author of Super Detective King?"
"I can be."
"Th-then, how will you prove it?" Furina was a bit worried; the other might be an imposter, not the author of the book she liked.
"I have a photo with the Traveler." Rios pulled out a picture. "If you don't trust me, you should trust the Traveler, right?"
The photo showed the post-banquet selfie of Rios and the Traveler.
That was something Rios had requested himself, thinking that with a photo of the Traveler on him, traveling to other nations later would save a lot of hassle.
"It's really the Traveler." Furina's emotions surged. "So that means you really are the author of Super Detective King?"
"I'm your fan!"
After dealing with the surrounding Fontaine folk, Furina led Rios and the others to a private room in the hotel.
"Teacher Rios—is it okay to call you that?"
"Or should I call you Mr. Rios?"
Furina's tone was a bit nervous, just like Mualani's earlier.
"Is the book written by Your Excellency, the Pyro Archon, that good? Even Fontaine's Hydro Archon changed completely after seeing him."
Kachina leaned close to Mualani's ear and whispered.
"I'm not sure."
Mualani shook her head.
She knew Rios often wrote books and sent them abroad, but with so many, she hadn't read them all.
This so-called Super Detective King, with its overly abstract title, was something Mualani had never even glanced at.
Who would've thought it was such a hit in Fontaine that even the Hydro Archon became a fan.
"Lady Furina, just call me Rios."
If she kept calling him Mr. Rios every time, he'd be suspected of padding word count.
"Th-then... Rios, can I ask you about the novel's story?" Chatting with a god from another nation like a serious one, Furina felt a bit stiff.
"Sure." Rios smiled relaxedly. "What do you want to ask?"
"I want to ask about the latest installment of Super Detective King—the protagonist's romance suddenly turned into a tangled love polygon. Although it was continued by someone else, some say it was your idea."
"Is that true?"
Furina was deeply concerned about this topic.
As a pure love and CP shipper, seeing her shipped pair turn into a love polygon would make her mentality explode, okay?
"Oh... that."
Rios unhesitatingly sold out the one who'd provided the suggestion: "That seems to be the opinion of a lady named Charlotte from your Fontaine."
"It has nothing to do with me."