"Reel it in a bit, all of you."
"Don't scare the poor girl~"
Looking at Mona's pitiful little expression, Taro gave a small shake of his head and signaled the other two to pull back that faint, stabbing killing intent.
"I didn't do anything~"
Yingda shook his head innocently.
"Sir, you know me. I don't play little tricks just to scare people."
"This girl here, an astrologer… I've heard of that profession. It's similar to a fortune-teller."
"They're usually just very sensitive. She probably noticed it on her own."
"…"
Fanan nodded lightly, looking at Mona with a half-smile.
"Miss, it's better to put away those… special methods of yours for now."
"In Liyue, it's very easy to end up scaring yourself."
On this land of Liyue, unusual people were everywhere.
Even before the time of the Archon War, there had already been humans who bowed their heads to the adepti and became their disciples, learning all kinds of mystical immortal arts.
There were also adepti who, in the course of wandering the mortal world, occasionally discovered promising seedlings—sometimes taking them in as disciples, sometimes granting them arts, sometimes even teaching them in their dreams.
People with that kind of fate weren't many.
But they existed.
Once the precedent was set, generation after generation of inheritances followed.
Families of exorcists and "fangshi" who had passed down their arts for thousands of years without interruption were not rare at all in Liyue.
In Liyue's history, there was no shortage of great reputations and legends created by these extraordinary people.
Many of those stories had become exaggerated as they were sung and retold.
But still, there's no smoke without fire.
If you swagger openly through the mortal world of Liyue, using techniques to read people and divine the stars…
So sooner or later, you'll end up peeking at someone you should never look at, or seeing through an adept you were never meant to identify.
Scaring yourself would be the least of your worries.
More often, it would invite real trouble.
After all, some of these extraordinary figures cared a great deal about their face.
What everyone silently agreed upon became an unwritten rule.
And here you were, brazenly using your powers to probe into other people's secrets the moment you met them.
How was that acceptable?
What was that supposed to be?
A deliberate provocation?
In that case, they'd naturally feel compelled to sit down and "have a talk" with you.
If you ran into someone kind, with little killing intent, you might just get a beating and be done with it.
But if you happened to cross someone in a foul mood, or with a heavy taste for killing…
Then it would simply be your own bad luck.
"I… I didn't know…"
"When I came here, my dea— cough, my master never told me that."
Mona hurriedly reined in her power, scratching her head with a deeply embarrassed face.
She'd been raised by that dead old hag since she was little, and had always been learning astrology from her.
What she knew were all the rules among astrologers.
As for anything else, she hadn't been taught much.
"Your master sent you here?"
"'Astromancer Barbeloth Trismegistus'?"
Taro raised his brows, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.
Mona, of course, he knew.
Her master was one of the members of the Hexenzirkel, codename B, commonly called Barbeloth.
According to the original course of events, Mona at this time ought to have sought out the Traveler, completed a little "face-saving project," then gone to Mondstadt to carry out her master's commission.
The commission was to retrieve a certain "treasured item" that the old hag had left with her friend and rival, Alice—while also having a little spar with that rival's heir.
Then, through a series of coincidences, she would end up staying in Mondstadt.
Now, however, Mona had come straight to him.
If Barbeloth had nothing to do with that, Taro would never believe it.
"You know my dea— cough, my master?"
"That's great~"
Mona's eyes lit up, and the massive pressure in her heart immediately dissipated by more than half.
Since he was her master's friend, she didn't need to be quite so terrified.
In her master's social circle, pretty much everyone was some kind of existence that transcended common sense—a "monster," basically.
Each one more outrageous than the last.
Not a single person in this house was normal either.
Two were mysterious and unfathomable, and the other two were radiating murderous intent.
At first, Mona had honestly thought she'd accidentally barged into some kind of secret gathering.
"I wouldn't go so far as to call us friends."
Taro shook his head slightly.
"I've just heard of your master's name."
"She probably doesn't know me, and I certainly don't know her."
"…"
Mona's expression froze.
The heart she'd just relaxed tightened right back up.
He'd only heard the name?
She was doomed.
If that rotten old hag didn't even have a real connection with them, then why had she sent Mona here?
What was all that about her astrology making huge strides, and even surpassing that rotten old hag?
They didn't know each other, had no relationship, and she'd rushed over so fast she hadn't even brought a gift. She was broke enough to be rattling, couldn't even afford a meal.
Why on earth would they teach her anything?
It couldn't really be that she was so overwhelmingly talented that they'd be willing to teach her at first sight, right?
She didn't put much stock in that kind of pie-falling-from-the-sky good fortune.
"Click—"
Just from Mona's expression, it wasn't hard to guess.
This kid had probably been kept in the dark by her master as well.
Taro rubbed his chin and spoke softly.
"I more or less get it now. In that case, Mona…"
"Tell me. Why exactly did your master send you all the way out here?"
"Uh…"
Mona sighed.
"Alright, here's how it is."
"Master originally told me to go to Mondstadt and retrieve a 'treasure' from one of her friends."
"I was almost there when I got another letter. It said…"
"It said that if I came to Liyue now, my astrology would make great strides, and I might even surpass my master."
"At first, I didn't believe it and planned to divine about it—but as soon as I started water-scrying, the plate exploded."
"So… I came."
"I followed the guidance of the stars and wandered in a huge circle all around Liyue before finally ending up here."
To avoid causing any misunderstandings, Mona explained the entire chain of events in one breath, from cause to process.
She was only one step away from mentioning how she'd gone hungry for three days and couldn't afford a single meal.
"So, in other words…"
"The 'target'… is me?"
Listening to Mona's account, Taro more or less pieced together the whole story.
That Barbeloth had probably seen some particular future in the stars.
So she had changed her move and placed a new bet.
Was she planning to put the stake on Mona?
Probably not completely. More likely, it was a kind of probe.
"Should be~"
"I'll try again."
Mona reflexively raised her hand, forming a new water-scrying plate.
Then, right in front of everyone, she demonstrated for them—summoning it and having it explode the moment it appeared.
Expressionless, she wiped her face clean.
"Excellent."
"Now I'm absolutely certain this is the place."
"…"
Watching this scene, Taro couldn't help but shake his head.
This kid was definitely a little hard-headed.
His cognitive interference and anti-detection defenses were running twenty-four seven.
If someone used any kind of detection-type technique to pierce those two layers…
What they'd be facing next would be things like: distorted will, curses of madness, the Song of Death, and so on.
You want to use a detection-type art to dig up information about him?
Wasn't that just asking for trouble?
Fortunately, Mona's water-scrying was still relatively weak—the plate exploded right at the start and never broke through his cognitive interference or anti-detection.
Otherwise, if she had actually triggered the two-layer counterattack, this girl would probably have dropped dead on the spot.
As for her master…
Well, she had probably already learned that lesson firsthand.
(End of Chapter)
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