Jiang Yan wasn't worried about Mona leaking the information.
Aside from him, she practically had no friends.
As for the Knights of Favonius—she had nothing to do with them at all.
They were only useful when it came to passing off troublesome responsibilities.
The three of them finished eating together.
Lumine had originally planned to wash the dishes herself, but Mona quietly took them over.
Jiang Yan didn't seem surprised. "Once you're done washing up, pack the rest and take it home with you."
"Oh."
Mona answered obediently.
Lumine was about to insist.
For a traveler, doing things with one's own hands was an important virtue.
Luxury and complacency had no place on a journey.
If she could wash the dishes herself, there was no reason to trouble others.
But in the next instant, she watched as a veil of Hydro elemental energy swept over the dishes, cleaning them spotless in one go.
Lumine froze.
"Why compete with a Hydro Vision holder over something like this?"
Jiang Yan said lightly.
"…Alright."
Lumine could only accept it.
Jiang Yan folded his arms and watched Mona packing the food, then continued,
"For the next month, come by every night after seven. I'll have Sara prepare this soup for you to take home."
"Ah—Jiang Yan, that's not necessary, right?!"
Mona looked extremely uneasy.
"This is a course of treatment," he said, leaving no room for argument.
"Eh? D-Does that mean I'm sick?"
Mona was instantly alarmed.
Lumine, thinking it over, added,
"Is this… the legendary dietary therapy?"
"Something like that."
Jiang Yan nodded. He planned to see if it actually worked after a month.
As for the Mora spent—he'd treat it as experimental cost.
"It's not some terminal illness, right?!"
Mona flashed forward in a burst of watery afterimages, grabbing his hand in panic.
"Not that serious."
Jiang Yan gave her a reassuring look.
"But if you don't do as I say, then you really might be beyond saving."
Even Lumine looked more developed than her.
Absolutely disgraceful.
With a figure that good, ending up like this was simply unforgivable.
"…I understand."
"I—I'll listen to you."
Mona left with a heart full of unease.
"She's not staying the night?" Lumine asked curiously.
"She has her own place. Why would she stay?"
Jiang Yan looked at her oddly.
Lumine lowered her head slightly, her cheeks warming as she realized she'd misunderstood earlier.
They weren't that kind of relationship after all.
"Rinse your mouth and go to bed," Jiang Yan said.
"Travelers don't have a habit of sleeping in."
Lumine shook her head, insisting she'd never slept late.
After a moment's thought, she said,
"Jiang Yan, there's something I want to show you."
"Oh?"
He raised an eyebrow with interest.
From Paimon's storage space, Lumine took out a crimson crystal.
The moment it appeared, a sinister aura spread through the attic.
"This thing…"
Jiang Yan snapped his fingers, using Anemo to shut the windows.
Better to avoid attracting any unseen eyes lurking in the dark.
"You seem to know something about it?" Lumine asked nervously.
"Paimon and I found it outside the city today. Stormterror was there—and a green figure too."
"I thought it might be useful to you."
Originally, she'd planned to show it to the Knights of Favonius.
But after learning that Jiang Yan wasn't completely aligned with them, she decided to bring it to him alone.
"This is one of Dvalin's tears. The reason it looks like this is because it's saturated with a powerful curse,"
Jiang Yan explained.
"Dvalin?"
Lumine had heard that name before—hadn't the voice of the Anemo Archon used it as well?
Jiang Yan suddenly asked,
"Do you remember the Four Winds of Mondstadt?"
"North Wind Wolf, West Wind Eagle, South Wind Lion, East Wind Dragon," she replied.
"Correct.
The North Wind Wolf refers to the Grand Master.
The West Wind Eagle represents the Knights of Favonius.
The South Wind Lion refers to the Dandelion Knight—this generation's Jean.
And the East Wind Dragon is an ancient wind dragon that has endured to this day."
"…Stormterror?!"
Lumine instantly tensed.
"That's why we only needed to clear three of the Four Winds temples," Jiang Yan said.
"Dvalin can only draw power from the other three. The fourth one is his own."
"But if he's one of Mondstadt's Four Winds," Lumine asked in confusion,
"why would he attack Mondstadt?"
"This is the reason."
Jiang Yan pointed at the crimson crystal floating between them.
"Waste products often reflect what's wrong inside a body. If even a single tear is overflowing with this much cursed energy, imagine what's going on inside him."
Lumine felt a bit discouraged.
"So aside from knowing that, there's nothing else we can really do… right?"
Jiang Yan smiled faintly.
"There is something."
He reached out and placed his hand on the crystal.
[System Notification]:
Cursed energy detected within the crystal. Purify?
Yes.
A clear light flashed across Jiang Yan's palm.
The sinister red glow was rapidly suppressed, fading away completely.
The large crimson crystal shrank, transforming into a fist-sized, translucent gem.
"This kind of crystal is rich in Anemo elemental energy. Even a single drop would be enough to overload a Vision,"
Jiang Yan said.
"It's a resource we'll definitely need sooner or later."
"Jiang Yan… did you purify it?"
Lumine stared in shock.
"Actually, you could do it too," he replied.
"This kind of curse has no effect on travelers from another world."
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