What Amber brought out was not food, but an empty wooden bowl and an even more awkward expression. He stood before the sofa, his hands twisting uneasily together, his cheeks flushing redder than before.
"Emmm... about that meal..."
He stammered, pointing at the empty bowl, then toward the kitchen, before making a "nothing left" gesture, his face filled with embarrassment.
"It seems I'm... all out of food. I need to go to the market."
Lu Hongze looked at his flustered state, then at the empty bowl, and immediately understood—he had no food stored at home.
Amber had clearly considered this problem as well. He looked at his pale face and still-weak posture, then at the tightly closed door, his brows furrowing slightly. Leave him alone? No, he didn't speak the language; if something happened, he wouldn't even be able to call for help. Take him along? The market was crowded and full of prying eyes, those stares... He bit his lower lip and quickly made a decision. He picked up the empty cup Lu Hongze had just put down, poured some more water for him, then pointed at the sofa, then at himself, and finally toward the door, trying to express himself with slow, clear tones and gestures.
"Wait here. I'll go buy food. I'll be quick."
To make his intent clearer, he even took out an empty vegetable basket from the corner, shook it at him, and mimed "buying" and "returning."
Lu Hongze understood his meaning. Seeing the unquestionable persistence and a hint of worry in his eyes, he knew he had no choice. He nodded gently, showing his understanding and agreement. He even curled his body slightly, clutching the bundle of clothes on his knees, making himself look more submissive and harmless, as if saying, "I'll wait obediently for you to come back."
Seeing him like this, Amber's heart softened completely. After a moment's thought, he walked quickly to the window and pulled the curtains open a bit more, letting the sunlight flood in to make the room brighter and warmer. Then he checked the door lock, confirming it couldn't be easily opened from the outside.
Only then did he feel slightly at ease. He gave Lu Hongze another "don't worry" smile, picked up the basket, and hurried out the door.
"I'll be back before you know it!"
He said one last thing as he closed the door.
The door closed with a soft "click" from the outside.
The room fell into complete silence.
He was the only one left.
Lu Hongze maintained that well-behaved posture, quietly listening to the footsteps outside fade away until they disappeared completely.
The docility and fragility on his face dissipated slowly like a receding tide. He gradually sat up straight and looked around the space that now belonged only to him.
Sunlight filtered through the window lattices, casting bright spots on the wooden floor, while fine dust floated slowly in the beams of light. It was very quiet, so quiet he could hear his own breathing.
This was an opportunity.
An opportunity to explore and gather information alone.
He gently set down the bundle and stood up, his footsteps silent as he began his first cautious inspection of this private space belonging to Amber. His gaze swept over the map on the wall, skipped across the scattered books on the shelf, and landed on any object that might provide even a snippet of information about this world.
Meanwhile, Amber was walking quickly toward the market, calculating what to buy that would be both nutritious and easy to digest, completely unaware that his "startled fawn" was now quietly opening eyes of keen observation within his little house.
Once he confirmed that Amber's footsteps had completely vanished at the end of the street, he slowly stood up from the sofa. The cowardice and submissiveness on his face melted away like ice and snow, replaced by an extreme calm and focus.
He didn't start rummaging around immediately. Instead, he first stood quietly in the center of the living room like a startup scanner, using his gaze to carefully and systematically scrutinize the space.
The living room was simply furnished with clear functions. The corners of the wooden furniture showed slight signs of erosion, but they were wiped clean, reflecting the owner's good living habits. The window had a good orientation, allowing the afternoon sun to shine in fully, and provided a wide field of view to observe part of the street. He noticed a faint, hard-to-detect groove on the inner side of the windowsill, seemingly left by some small object placed there for a long time.
He approached the map of the Mondstadt region. The map was drawn quite exquisitely, with terrain, towns, and roads marked in different colors and symbols. Some places had small, hand-written annotations in a graceful yet powerful script, seemingly patrol notes left by Amber. He moved a chair, stepped up, and reached out, his finger tracing the path from "Starfell Lake" to "Mondstadt City"—the very route along which he had been discovered and brought here.
The hunting bow was hung with care; its body was smooth, its string taut, and it was excellently maintained. In the quiver hanging beside it, the fletching of the arrows was neat. This was not just a decoration, but a weapon ready for use at any time.
There weren't many books on the shelf, mostly practical ones like "Mondstadt Customs and Geography," "Wilderness Survival Guide," and "The Knights' Code Summary." He carefully pulled out a copy of the "Code Summary" and flipped through it quickly. The pages full of unfamiliar script were like a book from heaven, but he captured some recurring, complex character combinations.
He guessed those might be words like "knight," "rule," or "obligation." He forced the forms of these characters into his memory.
He walked into the small kitchen. The stove was clean, and the variety of seasonings was simple. Most of the tableware in the cupboard was plain pottery, with only one or two cups printed with cute rabbit patterns standing out. He opened the food storage cabinet, and as expected, it was empty.
His gaze swept across the woven blanket on the sofa, noticing a corner embroidered with a delicate, Falcon-like pattern in different colored threads—consistent with the emblem on Amber's badge.
A sketchbook lay on the lower shelf of the coffee table. He hesitated for a moment but did not open it. He reminded himself that overstepping his investigation might bring unnecessary risks.
Finally, his gaze returned to the coarse cloth bundle containing clean clothes.
Through this observation, he drew several preliminary conclusions.
1. Amber is self-disciplined, direct, and dislikes complexity.
2. He is loyal to his duties; his identity as a knight is very important to him.
3. His financial situation might not be well-off, or at least, he is quite frugal in his personal life.
4. In this home, he hadn't yet found any obvious documents or items directly related to what he knew as possible "War Bonds" or "Tithes."
He walked back to the sofa and sat down again, placing the bundle back on his knees and resuming his previous posture of quiet waiting, as if he had never left his seat.
However, deep within his downcast eyes, he had already categorized and stored all the information he had just gathered—the outlines of the map, the shapes of the characters, and the details of the objects. These fragments might, at some point in the future, piece together the truth about this world, or at least, more facets of Amber, allowing him to better... survive.