TN: And we're back! sorry for the week long hiatus, it was not intentional since I had to get my right leg in a cast after tripping 3 floors down a stairwell (like an idiot ://) and be unable to use my PC setup upstairs BUT I should be OK now.
Anyways, Thanks for Arcanic Madness, WeissAkumu and WolfWTF for becoming as Supporters!
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They walked the entire way in silence, soon arriving at the shoreline on the northeastern side of the Court of Fontaine.
The scenery here was beautiful—the seawater was crystal clear, and when the breeze swept across the surface, it stirred up ripples upon ripples.
Freminet came to a stop, turned to look at Shao Yun, and began seriously introducing the techniques of diving to him.
"Before officially diving, you must remember to do sufficient warm-up exercises first. That way, you can properly loosen up all your joints and muscles, and avoid unexpected situations like cramps underwater."
As he spoke, Freminet began demonstrating the movements himself.
He first rotated his neck a few times, then stretched out his arms, twisted his waist, and finally made sure to work his knees and ankles as well.
…
Just as Shao Yun was closely following Freminet and performing the warm-up exercises with some semblance of form—
Lumine, like a ghost, silently appeared at some point not far behind Shao Yun.
She quietly watched Shao Yun's slightly clumsy yet extremely earnest calisthenics, and an indescribable sense of awkwardness slowly surfaced on her face.
Then, planting her hands on her hips, she spoke in a mildly reproachful tone, "So this is where you are... doing gymnastics? Shao Yun, I'm really finding it harder and harder to figure you out. What exactly are you trying to pull here?"
Startled by the sudden voice, Shao Yun hurriedly stopped his warm-up and spun around in surprise, his face full of shock.
"Whoa! Lumine, Paimon, and... Clorinde?"
Shao Yun stared in disbelief at Clorinde standing behind Lumine. Why had she shown up again?
Clorinde, on the other hand, appeared exceptionally calm. With a blank expression, she lightly raised her hand toward Shao Yun and offered a polite greeting.
"Hello."
Shao Yun steadied himself a little, then shifted his gaze back to Lumine and asked in confusion, "Lumine, Paimon, why are you looking for me?"
Faced with Shao Yun's question, Lumine glared at him with obvious displeasure and replied sarcastically, "Hmph! You've really got the nerve to ask. You'd worry if Paimon and I didn't go home late at night, right? Well then, by the same logic, of course we'd worry about you too."
After all, because Yanfei had taken the hit for them, Lumine and Paimon hadn't felt much of a sense of danger.
She'd already felt yesterday that Shao Yun might have been overreacting, but since it was ultimately for her sake, she convinced herself of that and didn't stop him.
Still, after lying on the same bed as Shao Yun for so long, the empty space beside her last night felt unfamiliar, and she couldn't get used to sleeping that way.
So, she brought Paimon along to look for Shao Yun.
Shao Yun spoke with a slightly awkward expression, "Didn't I already explain yesterday? I needed to disappear for a day or two... so don't worry, okay?"
Lumine crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Shao Yun unhappily, her expression seeming to say that even if he had mentioned it before, how could she truly put her mind at ease?
Under Lumine's faintly resentful gaze, Shao Yun felt at a loss and could only nod helplessly.
Then he turned his attention to Clorinde standing behind Lumine and asked in confusion, "I can understand why Lumine and Paimon came to find me, but why are you here too, Clorinde?"
A hint of difficulty appeared on Clorinde's face. After hesitating for a moment, she slowly explained, "Well... that's a long story."
"Yanfei, as a legal consultant from Liyue Harbor, was attacked in Fontaine. Lady Furina and Lord Neuvillette both take this matter very seriously."
After hearing Clorinde's explanation, Shao Yun quickly grasped the key point and summed it up succinctly.
"So, they're worried this incident might trigger a diplomatic dispute between the two nations, right?"
Clorinde nodded quickly. "That's correct."
Shao Yun continued, "To be honest, I didn't expect that someone like you—a Duelist—would get involved in investigating a case like this."
Clorinde explained, "I'm investigating this matter at Lord Neuvillette's personal request."
"If Liyue raises questions or demands accountability over this, Fontaine at the very least needs to present a sincere and reasonable attitude in response."
As she finished speaking, she shifted her gaze to Lumine standing before her and began recounting how the two of them had met.
"As for why Miss Lumine and I appeared together, it was simply because we happened to run into each other..."
A question surfaced in Shao Yun's mind, and he asked, "But if you've come out to investigate, then what about Lady Furina's situation..."
Aren't you her bodyguard? If you're here investigating, what happens to your guard duties?
Hearing this, Clorinde gently shook her head and replied, "There's no need to worry about Lady Furina's safety. Because the opera house requires repairs, she'll be staying in a top-floor suite of the Palais Mermonia for the next few days."
She paused briefly, then continued, "Forcing one's way through the layers of guards at the Palais Mermonia to reach where Lady Furina is staying is practically impossible."
"With the Melusines, the security force, and Lord Neuvillette present, there won't be any problems."
After hearing this, Shao Yun nodded thoughtfully, subconsciously reaching up to stroke his chin while murmuring softly, "Oh, so that's how it is."
Then, as if recalling something important, he asked again, "But that aside, where did you all find me?"
Lumine glanced toward the city of the Court of Fontaine and replied, "Simple—by asking Katheryne."
Shao Yun asked in disbelief, "What? Katheryne told you? How did she know where I was!"
Lumine calmly recounted the sequence of events.
"Katheryne happened to see you heading toward the Fontaine Security Force headquarters, so Paimon and I followed that lead and went there too. Unexpectedly, at the headquarters, I ran into Clorinde and a girl named Chevreuse."
"I learned some information about you from Chevreuse and guessed that you might show up in this area. With a try-it-and-see mindset, Clorinde and I came over together to test our luck."
As soon as she finished speaking, Clorinde quickly added, "I just thought that since you came here, you must have had your reasons, so I followed along."
"After all, you captured the Mondstadt Treasure Hoarder leader, 'Raptor.' If you did that, you definitely had a reason."
After listening to both of them, Shao Yun couldn't help but shake his head with a wry smile and muttered to himself, "Sigh... who would've thought Katheryne is practically turning into an all-knowing know-it-all these days..."
Just as everyone was chatting away, the previously relaxed Lumine suddenly frowned, sensing that there seemed to be someone behind Shao Yun.
"Hm? Who's that hiding behind you...?" she said as she continued to move closer.
Leaning in to take a look, she realized it was Freminet, hiding behind Shao Yun.
Lumine's expression instantly turned cold.
"Oh, so it's... Freminet..."
Seeing that he was completely exposed, an irrepressible awkwardness immediately spread across Freminet's face.
He slowly and somewhat stiffly stepped out from behind Shao Yun.
With his head lowered, as if he wanted to bury himself in the ground, Freminet greeted them, "H-Hello, Lumine and Paimon. Didn't expect we'd run into each other again so soon."
Lumine looked at Freminet with a complicated expression.
Toward the Fatui as an organization, she truly couldn't muster even the slightest bit of goodwill, and that inevitably affected how she treated Freminet as well.
So, in response to Freminet's greeting, she remained silent and did not answer.
After a moment passed, Lumine finally moved her lips slightly and muttered in an almost inaudible voice, "Mm... I want to leave Fontaine and go to Natlan."
Standing nearby, Shao Yun spread his hands helplessly and shrugged, replying, "That'll have to wait until we hang yesterday's mastermind from a streetlamp."
After saying that, Shao Yun paused briefly, glanced at Freminet, and then suggested, "I don't think Freminet has a third diving suit, so you should wait for us on the shore."
Hearing this, Lumine instinctively glanced at the diving suit placed on the ground, then looked at Freminet, her expression growing even more awkward.
Having finally found Shao Yun, she didn't want to just stand around doing nothing.
After hesitating for a bit, she clenched her teeth, lifted her head to look at Shao Yun, and said, "Actually, Paimon and I both know how to dive—and we don't need diving suits..."
At that moment, Clorinde chose to follow along as well. She couldn't exactly just stand on the shore spacing out by herself.
"I can use elemental power to dive for short periods. I can go down with you too..."
Hearing that out of the five of them, only he couldn't dive, Shao Yun said helplessly, "So when you add it all up, I'm the only landlubber here."
…
Soon enough, Shao Yun changed into the diving suit, which looked exceptionally bulky.
With his tall frame paired with the thick, heavy diving suit, the sight left Paimon staring wide-eyed in disbelief.
She watched Shao Yun looking like some kind of mechanical monstrosity for quite a while before snapping back to her senses, then leaned close to Lumine's ear and lowered her voice to mutter.
"Lumine, I always feel like once Shao Yun puts on that diving suit, he looks exactly like one of those terrifying killing contraptions described in Fontaine's horror novels!"
After hearing Paimon's words, Lumine also leaned in close to Paimon's ear, though her expression looked somewhat strange.
"Actually, even without that diving suit, just based on the impression and aura he usually gives off, he's probably not that far off from one of those so-called killing machines anyway."
…
Wearing the heavy diving suit, Shao Yun struggled as he entered the water.
In stark contrast, Lumine, Paimon, Clorinde, and Freminet—those four—were like agile fish, leaping straight into the water.
Amazingly, when the four of them entered the water, not a single splash was stirred, as though they had merged seamlessly with it.
Stepping into Fontaine's underwater world, Shao Yun was deeply captivated by the dreamlike scene before him.
Schools of Fontaine fish in all shapes and sizes swam leisurely through the waters, and there were also large numbers of armored crabs walking along the seafloor.
And of course, there were the blubberbeasts Shao Yun had been longing to see—though the ones in the sea felt far less friendly than the ones basking in the sun on land...
"Wow, so this is Fontaine's underwater world? The water quality is way better than I imagined!"
Hearing Shao Yun's amazement, Lumine urged him impatiently, "Don't just stand there gawking. What exactly are you trying to do? We don't have that much time to waste here."
Shao Yun joked, "If I said I just came to play with the Melusines, would you believe me?"
Naturally, Lumine knew he was joking and replied irritably, "Cut it out. If you wanted to play with the Melusines, you should've gone to Melusine Village. Why would you come all the way here?"
Faced with Lumine's question, Shao Yun inside the diving suit dropped his joking expression and gave an answer that was half true and half false.
"I'm looking for the culprit who harmed you last night. I found some clues—it seems to be related to something called 'Sinthe.'"
"So, I used a few methods to track down leads related to the Sinthe Factory, to see if I could try my luck down here."
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