"Huh?"
"Oh, it's you, Kaeya?"
When Amber brought little Annie, who seemed a bit impatient, along with Lumine, who was frowning slightly as if deep in thought, and the silly, sweet Paimon, who wore an excited grin, to the gate of the Knights of Favonius headquarters, they first ran into a one-eyed man wearing an eyepatch and standing guard by the entrance.
Naturally, Amber stepped forward first and greeted him.
"But why are you standing guard at the gate?"
"Right!"
"The Acting Grand Master is already inside, isn't she?"
Thinking that he'd been sent by the Acting Grand Master to wait for them there, she asked with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity.
"Of course!"
"And Lisa's there, too."
As the eyepatched man shrugged, he immediately looked past Amber at Lumine and Annie, his gaze hesitant and grave.
Annie drew at least ninety percent of his attention. He merely glanced at Lumine with some puzzlement, while Paimon—the mascot and emergency food—didn't get so much as a proper look from him the entire time.
"I have to say..."
"Amber, you really are something. Where did you find these guests with the power to defeat a dragon?"
"Or should I say..."
"A new storm?"
After making that remark, the man Amber had called Kaeya let his gaze settle on Annie.
After all, nearly everyone in Mondstadt had just seen what happened. As the Stormterror rampaged, only she and the unfamiliar woman had risen into the sky to face the dragon.
And Kaeya had seen the unassuming little girl Annie at work. She was a Pyro mage, and in the end she'd actually defeated Stormterror all by herself. Her strength had made him feel uneasy and suspicious.
After all, someone powerful enough to take on a dragon alone had arrived in Mondstadt at