Chapter 740 - 652

Chapter 740: Chapter 652

Ganyu.

Wasn’t that the name Cloud Retainer mentioned? She has horns on her head, so that means she isn’t human. But, uh... Cranes don’t have horns? Well, I don’t want to assume; maybe some do around here?

What would a crane with horns even look like? The thought became kind of weird to me, like it was just so out of place and didn’t feel right.

What about a demonic crane?

Is that a thing? Demonic Crane with demon horns...

Now I was picturing an evil Cloud Retainer Demon spouting the same words as before but just...evil.

One has come to devour thy soul! Caw!

I don’t think I could take an Evil Cloud Retainer seriously at all.

I was definitely getting mentally side-tracked.

Regardless, adoptive daughter was, of course, the most logical explanation. Definitely didn’t feel like a Crane, but I was making assumptions. While Cranes—especially a variety like Cloud Retainer, who have become immortal—are sort of pure creatures.

Not to be mistaken with holy, but rather they represented pureness in its most simple form, making them auspicious in Eastern beliefs.

Yet, Ganyu felt more sacred, if that made sense. Not that she radiated some kind of holiness, but just a feeling I got from her.

I also noted a vision at her side, blue.

Cryo?

Oddly, it wasn’t some frigid, deathly cold feeling like the stripper. Rather, it was more like the thorns of a rose. Below the blooming beautiful flower, there were sharp thorns to protect it, but if you didn’t provoke it or try to cut it from its step, you wouldn’t be harmed by the thorns.

"I don’t mean to pry, but are you the daughter that Cloud Retainer spoke of?" I decided to ask as she was leading us through the city.

That made her pause in her steps. "Cloud Retainer...?" She seemed surprised that I brought that up.

"She mentioned a daughter that, when she was younger, was so large that she choked a monster that was trying to eat her." I recounted the story.

"C-cloud Retainer! Why would you tell people that story?" She looked like she was about to cry. "T-that is an exaggeration! I wasn’t that large! I was just...I was plump as a child!" She quickly tried to defend herself.

"She mentioned something about rolling down a mountain—"

"Gah!" She waved her hands around in panic. "No, no, no! That didn’t happen!"

It’s kind of funny; she had this reserved, ethereal, and demure-like air around her before, but that came all crumbling down.

Reminds me too much of Jeanne.

...desire to bully rising.

"Your mother spoke warmly about you quite a bit." Artoria chimed in, perhaps taking pity on her and letting the topic shift slightly. "Quite a bit."

Ganyu’s shoulders slumped, as if resigning herself. "...she doesn’t talk to strangers much. I was not aware you were acquainted with her."

"We meet in passing on the way here. I ran into a different Adepti before, and then Cloud Retainer came over. We shared stories about our children and exchanged knowledge." And I gave her a big gun, but I didn’t add that bit.

I mean, here, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

I’m sure Cloud Retainer could shear off the top of a mountain with her control over wind. A powerful cannon wasn’t going to mean anything to someone like that. A passing curiosity at most, if that.

"I like your horns; they’re very pretty. When she mentioned a daughter, I had assumed another Crane. I don’t know if it’s impolite here to ask; if it is, I apologize, and you can just ignore me. But what exactly are you, if you don’t mind me asking?" I was curious and trying to be polite about it.

It would be rude to walk up to someone and be like, ’Hey, you’re not fully human. What are you?’ ’, so I was trying to be...gentle. I wouldn’t push if it was something she didn’t want to talk about. If someone asked me the question, I don’t think I would overly mind if it was just purely inquisitive.

She seemed to subconsciously reach up and touch her own horns. "Um..." She bit her lip. "N-not many people know that I’m not fully human. Everyone thinks it’s just a hair ornament I wear..."

I blinked. "...people think your horns are just a hair ornament?"

She nodded, smiling gently. "Yes. I’ve told everyone that, and they all believed me. I prefer it because they treat me like everyone else."

...right.

I have the sneaking suspicion that everyone just plays along and very much knows that her horns aren’t fake.

But...I wouldn’t say anything. I think most people would understand that she’s trying to fit in and didn’t want to make it awkward or uncomfortable for her.

Honestly, it was kind of cute.

"I’m only half human." I said very bluntly. "Artoria here is, well..."

"I am a dragon." Artoria said very plainly. "There were circumstances with my birth. You can consider me a dragon in the form of a human."

Ganyu blinked incredulously this time. "A...Dragon? Oh my, I didn’t...well, the only Dragon I’ve met was Lord Rex Lapis and Azhdaha before he..." She trailed off. "Oh, I met Dvalin in Mondstadt a long time ago as well." She looked nostalgic.

However, she also seemed to ease a little, looking less flustered and uncomfortable.

I squeezed Artoria’s hand. She was always good with these sorts of things; even when her ’emotional experience’ was lacking before, she knew what to say to ease people’s hearts.

"Would you like to see my horns?" I asked.

"H-Horns?"

I don’t usually do this, but, weirdly, I felt sort of like a parent at the moment. Maybe I couldn’t help but view Ganyu sort of like Kunou? I don’t know, but my parental instincts were coming out despite the fact that this girl was most certainly way older than I was.

Oh well, I and Cloud Retainer were practically friends at this point, right? I may as well take care of her daughter properly even if the age gap is off.

I let my Devil Nature take over with the help of the Hogyoku.

My horns protruded from my forehead, along with my other devilish traits, as I kept my tail behind me and my wings withdrawn.

"See? I have horns too." I smiled.

She looked at them in very clear surprise.

"My birth father was a type of demonic being; I inherited this stuff from him." I explained. "It took me awhile to get comfortable with it. I still don’t like showing it off all that much, only when necessary.

Artoria reached over and was rubbing one of my horns.

"As you can see, for some reason, this happens when they come out too," I deadpanned.

Ganyu put a hand up to her mouth, giggling. The air around her eased considerably, and she no longer looked embarrassed or uncomfortable about it. "I’m...a Qilin." She said softly.

"A Qilin? No wonder your horns are so beautiful. A Qilin is no less than a dragon or a phoenix." Now, isn’t that a surprise? In terms of auspicious beasts in legends, they are right up there along with dragons and phoenixes, if even more rare than those two.

It would explain that sort of sacred feeling about her. Dragons in Eastern myths rule over the seas. Phoenix’s rule over the skies and Qilin’s rule over the earth. For a country looked after by a God of Earth, it’s rather fitting.

"B-beautiful?" She whispered, and her face went a little red.

Hmm, she didn’t even make a comment about me saying that I’m basically half-demon. Half-Devil technically, but I was intentionally vague about it. Maybe it’s not a big deal around these parts, who knows.

Regardless, she seemed a lot more, I don’t know, open? Nothing really about her changed; she wasn’t suddenly experiencing some kind of profound enlightenment at a mere compliment, but she very clearly was in a happy mood, and it sort of lightened up the surroundings around her.

She really was a lot like Jeanne. When Jeanne is happy, it brightens up the world around her just by association.

"If you want to hide them, it’s not very hard. I can draw up a talisman that you can keep on you that will put an illusion over them." I offered as my own horns receded.

Artoria looked sad at that.

I don’t know why the girls liked playing with my horns. But then again, I can’t say I don’t do the same thing to them all the time either. When am I not putting a hand on their butts? Turnabout is fair play after all.

Ganyu snapped back to her senses as I said that. "Hide them?" She rubbed her own horns again, looking very contemplative before smiling rather warmly. "Thank you for the offer, but I will decline. I know it may seem silly that I go through the trouble of saying they’re just hair ornaments while also not wanting to keep them hidden. But.... They’re also a part of me. I like to fit in around everywhere here, but I’m also not ashamed of who I am."

She isn’t someone having some crisis of identity. People are just naturally contradictory; I don’t want to hide them, but also, I don’t want them to be seen.

Weirdly, I had a feeling she would reject me.

But sometimes, an offer of kindness from a stranger is worth more than gold.

Oh well, I only offered because she’s Cloud Retainer’s daughter. A daughter of a friend deserves such a thing from me at a minimum.

Ganyu led us back up to the terrace. Guards were placed around, but no one seemed to stop her, so very clearly she was someone of importance and authority that they recognized on sight. Being the aid of the de facto leader of the city would probably do that.

The corpse was gone too.

If the situation wasn’t as...awkward as it was before, I may have had the time to examine it more closely. It’s not every day that a dragon corpse quite literally falls out of the sky like that. I am a little curious about the differences between dragons here and home as well.

We walked towards the large building that Ningguang came out of before, a palace? I don’t know what it was exactly, but up the stars, and close to the entrance, there was this construct that I could tell was distorting space around it.

Or in a simpler term, it was a spatial node.

That is, it connected with another location and acted as a teleportation point.

Like how the Devils use their teleportation circles.

How neat; it’s not using traditional magical energy to power it. Elemental power? No, not just that, it has the touch of Adepti power—immortal power behind it too. Which is technically just another form of magical energy, not dissimilar to demonic energy.

But it has its own characteristics. The reason my own Mountain Sealing Incantation was learnable by me is that it’s close enough that it can be substituted. Not quite Divine Power in the scope of ’higher powers,’ but Immortal Power would probably be a half-step above regular Magical Energy if it were to be ranked.

Ganyu led us onto the platform as we silently ascended upwards. My Magic Resistance didn’t prevent it because the effect of teleportation itself wasn’t magical. The process itself utilized several different mystical energies, but it more so connected to points and then collapsed them to act as a very basic form of teleportation.

It wasn’t some type of magical energy whisking us away; rather, it opened two points, then the one around us was slammed shut, so rules of the world forcibly pulled us to the other side to fill the vacuum.

A quick and dirty method of teleportation, but not the worst I’ve ever experienced.

We stepped back onto the Jade Chamber.

"This way, please," Ganyu said politely.

We could have managed since it wasn’t our first time, but manners and all that. There were more people here this time, people walking around, plenty of them working, some just carrying around stuff from one point to another.

She brought us downstairs, and Ningguang’s office doors were wide open, and she had a guest sitting opposite of her. But even still, she seemed to smile slightly as we approached.

"Thank you for bringing them, Ganyu." She called out to us as we entered the office. "Can you please close the door behind you?"

"Yes, Lady Ningguang." Ganyu backed out, shutting the doors behind her, and despite them being paper thin, I had the sneaking suspicion that the inside of this room wasn’t going to carry any noise outside.

I turned to look at the man, and he turned to look at me too.

Blue hair, a mask covering his face, and he was dressed in a white coat with some interesting accessories attached to it. Some of which were most certainly not mundane in origin.

I don’t know why, but he gave me a weird feeling. Not like Zhongli, but more like, I didn’t like him for reasons yet unclear.

However, my instincts weren’t usually wrong.

"Wilhelm. And Artoria." Ningguang greeted us.

"Ningguang, it’s good to see you again." I smiled happily. "You look stressed."

She let out a small snort. "It has been a trying day."

"Hello Miss Ningguang." Artoria said politely as well.

The man sat silently, still evaluating us.

"Who’s your friend?" I looked at him again.

The man answered instead. "I am the doctor, second of the Fatui Harbingers." He introduced himself with a slight monotone to his voice, almost like he was bored. "Tianquan, if you want to make a personal call, do so in your own time. I am here on business and taking time out of my schedule to meet with you. According to your traditions in Liyue, this could be construed as rude, don’t you think?"

"Oh wow, how impressive. My second time meeting a Fatui Harbinger. But all I have to go on is that stripper from before. And you say you’re in the same profession as her?" I asked.

I could see it, ever so slightly; his posture stiffened. Just the teeniest bit of anger at my not-so-subtle jab.

Hmm.

However, I was paying attention to Ningguang’s expression too, and by the way she reacted, I think I was doing exactly what she wanted me to do. Albeit, probably not in the way she expected me.

If she called me, then she needed help with something. She was entertaining another of these Fatui Harbingers, then it must be something political, and my presence would help.

"What was her name again, Artoria?"

"La Signora," Artoria answered cleanly.

"That’s right. She seems to like stepping on people." I nodded.

The fact that Ningguang invited me here when a Fatui person was acting as an ambassador from their country must mean that Cloud Retainer told her some things. So her desires for me being here are rather obvious, I think.

"You seem to misunderstand some things." He didn’t reveal his inner emotions easily. "One does not take pleasure when stepping on insects." He returned.

Hoh.

"Everyone has their own preferences; no need to be ashamed about them," I hummed. "Your name is The Doctor? Doctor Who? What are you a Doctor of?"

"Many things." He said pointedly. "To list them all would be irrelevant, as you would no doubt not understand anything I say."

"Maybe I never finished my schooling." I admitted without hesitation, and I think that caught him off guard at how nonchalant I just insulted myself. "Though I’ve picked a few things up over the years."

I could practically feel him roll his eyes even if it was hidden behind his mask. "Is there a reason you invited this person here, Tianquan?"

Before she could answer, I spoke up again.

"As an example, like, I can see how your causality is so horrifically twisted."

The doctor then stilled, his folded arms tensed as his head snapped over to me. "What did you say?"

I sat down in an empty chair. "Ningguang. How have you been holding up?" I ignored him.

The way she still smiles with her eyes is the same. "Oh, you know. Having to deal with some unruly sorts, then managing to finally get a breath. Then an ambassador from Snezhnaya arrives."

Artoria sat at my side.

She was quiet, not really openly participating, but that would be a mistake to believe she was not likewise involved. Simply, if she didn’t have something to add or say, or if her input wasn’t needed, she would quietly sit there.

The doctor was now glaring behind his mask. I couldn’t see it, but I think I was right about it in this case. He wanted to ask me, but at the same time, he was holding himself back. Was it pride or annoyance that was stopping him?

Some weirdo comes in, acts like a fool, then points out something most people can’t notice; he must be confused.

Being able to perceive someone’s causality, not all gods can even do it. I can do it because of my connection to the Kaleidoscope; I can perceive things ’outside’ the world’s normal flow in some ways.

"Is he here about Mondstadt?" I asked.

Ningguang had her pipe in hand as she casually spun it between her fingers. "Precisely. The Snezhnaya Ambassador here is requesting that we not support Mondstadt for a period while they carry out their own negotiations with the City of Freedom. They’re worried that we will meddle."

Ah.

Basically ’Stay out of it’ because they don’t want to deal with Liyue backing Mondstadt as Mondstadt demands answers.

If it’s just Mondstadt, they can turn their noses up at the pressure. If Liyue joins in, that’s not a simple 1+1 equals 2 here. The two of them can pressure Snezhnaya much more than just one of them can.

And, perhaps, Liyue also holds more power or authority here. Liyue is a nation of traders and merchants that can probably hit Snezhnaya harder than Mondstadt can if it comes to it, economically.

"As I mentioned before..." The doctor relaxed slightly. "There is no reason for Liyue to get involved. It is much more profitable for Liyue to handle their own affairs at this time. Especially with such rumors as the fall of the Geo Archon."

Ah, a subtle threat.

’We know your God is gone; stick in your lane.’

Not surprising that he knows; the rumors are flying around the city right now.

"Yes, such a coincidence, isn’t it?" Ningguang leaned back in her chair. "I heard rumors that the Anemo Archon was attacked by one of your very own. And now, supposedly Rex Lapis himself is dead, by your words."

"The former is a contrived story, and the latter is unsubstantiated and baseless." The doctor replied thoroughly.

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow.

"How strange. I do not recall being without my right mind when I witnessed one of your members assaulting the Anemo Archon." Artoria chimed in.

Ningguang clearly knew at this point, so what point was there in hiding it?

The doctor looked at her, but his expression was unparsable. "Slander," he said simply.

"I have two people saying the opposite. However, one of them had no reason to lie, no benefit or gain to do so. Mr. Ambassador, if you were in my position, what would you believe?" Ningguang asked him rhetorically. "Oh, should I mention that I know about the other of your Fatui Harbinger that’s hiding in the city? That La Signora, they mentioned, entered without so much as announcing her presence a mere few days before the Rite of Descension ceremony."

"Do all travelers require their presence to be announced? What La Signora does in her free time is of no concern to us." The doctor denied any accusations.

The funny thing is, he isn’t trying to be convincing.

He’s just going ’no’ to all her questions.

"Perhaps I should cease operations with the Snezhnaya for the moment as we evaluate current partnerships." Ningguang casually displayed the nuclear option.

"You’re free to do so as Tianquan. However, please remember that we are also the only ones selling the solution to the problem on your borders as of now."

"Yes, those Sigils of Permission your people have been able to reproduce." She hummed, taking something out of her desk drawer. "It’s interesting, because according to the legends, it’s an item bestowed by an Adepti, yet here you are, selling them, when there shouldn’t be but a handful still in existence. How convenient that you’re doing so just as we started to notice certain problems on the outskirts of our borders."

"You can think what you want." He replied.

The attitude of someone who believes they sit in the absolutely superior position when it comes to negotiations.

"Can I see that?" I pointed at the ’sigil’ she was talking about.

She offered it without a word, and I gave it a look over.

Oh, it’s just a talisman.

No, it’s a very nice talisman; I can see its mechanisms very clearly. There are some Adepti pieces inside it, but there are also some others? It’s like someone reverse engineered a proper one that could be made by human hands.

"Do you need more of these? I can make you a bunch," I offered casually.

The doctor turned at me again. "...empty boasts."

The one in my hands was ’empty’ in that it was lacking power. Well, that was easy enough to fix. In front of them, it suddenly began to glow, igniting with a certain ethereal light.

As far as talismans go, they’re actually very good. It has a specific use; it’s supposed to ward off evil or suppress it within range.

In fact, my own talismans that do similar are a step below it in that aspect. I’m going to copy this and utilize it for now on.

"Sorry, you were saying?" I looked back at him.

[Line Break]

A/N

I was surprised to learn that the Doctor is canonically a diplomat at previous points. He specifically had acted as a Diplomat to Mondstadt in the past. Just if anyone is questioning why he’s here.

If you want to read 10 Chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

I also have a boosty if you can’t use the above under the same name