Ace Pilot and Cavalry Captain

A girl with long brown hair and a conspicuous red bunny-ear headband poked her head in.

After a brief exchange of glances, the girl strode straight inside.

"Huh? You're awake!"

"Uh, Amber?"

Amber stopped in her tracks and blinked, studying Wei Zhenzu in surprise. "Huh? You know me?"

Wei Zhenzu's heart skipped a beat. Oh, no.

His mind raced, and he forced a somewhat awkward but polite smile.

"Ah, sort of. I heard merchants talking about the famous Outrider of the City of Mondstadt on the road before. I guessed it was you from your outfit."

Amber didn't suspect a thing. Instead, she scratched her head, embarrassed by the compliment, the red headband on top of her head bobbing with the motion.

"Hehe, am I really that famous outside the city too? It's not that big a deal."

Wei Zhenzu breathed a sigh of relief and quickly changed the subject.

"By the way, where am I?"

"I was scouting near the Whispering Woods when I found you unconscious in the grass, so I brought you here right away."

Amber pulled up a wooden chair and sat down beside the bed, resting her hands on her knees as she explained earnestly,

"This is a recovery ward inside the Knights of Favonius headquarters. You know the Knights of Favonius, right? We protect the City of Mondstadt."

Wei Zhenzu nodded repeatedly on the surface, but inwardly he was ranting. Of course I know! Not only do I know, I've even got the Knights of Favonius' Clear Wind Glider in my bag. I've been running errands and doing odd jobs everywhere with your Mondstadt Honorary Knight title too!

(Mules and horses at home, you can all take a break~, the Traveler's here~.)

"Ah, I know. Thank you, Amber. If it weren't for you, I might have ended up as Slime food out in the wild."

Wei Zhenzu thanked her sincerely. Then he suddenly remembered a crucial question and asked cautiously,

"In that case... um, when you rescued me, did you see a... emm, flying lavender melon next to me, or anywhere nearby?"

"A flying... lavender melon? Is that some new kind of plant? Or some kind of flying monster?"

Wei Zhenzu held out both hands, tracing an outline in the air about two or three apples across, and tried his best to describe her.

"She's... about this big, white, always floating in midair, and looks like talking emergency food... oh, no, more like a little guide or something."

Amber shook her head with complete certainty.

"Nope. When I found you, you were all alone. And your outfit is really strange. I've never seen a red coat like that in Mondstadt."

"You're not from Mondstadt, are you?"

Hearing that Paimon wasn't there, Wei Zhenzu's thoughts immediately started racing.

What's going on? Paimon isn't with me, so who am I?

Could it be that the blondie hasn't fished up the emergency food yet? Or has the Traveler already gone to another nation, and this is a gap in the story?

"Oh, right. Hello, my name's Wei Zhenzu. My friends call me Liangzi," Wei Zhenzu introduced himself without thinking. "I'm..."

He suddenly stopped before he could finish.

In a world full of gods and hidden undercurrents, if he recklessly called himself the "Traveler" and happened to run into the real, fated Traveler, or attracted the attention of some intelligence boss, he'd be in serious trouble.

He was just a New Oriental chef who'd been sent here by a speeding truck. He only wanted to find some Wi-Fi and do his dailies, not go to the Abyss or Celestia for further studies.

"I traveled here," Wei Zhenzu said, cleverly changing "Traveler" from a proper name into an ordinary verb.

"Oh, I see! You're a guest from far away!"

"Are you feeling unwell anywhere? Do you need me to ask Barbara to come take a look?"

Just then, a rhythmic knock sounded from outside the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Amber, your time off will have to end for now. Some strange creatures have suddenly appeared in the wild. Everyone's having a bit of trouble with them, so let's hurry and help."

Amber immediately stood at attention, her relaxed expression turning serious in an instant. "Okay, I'll head out right away."

The door opened, and a man with slightly dark skin, a pirate-like eyepatch, a dark, close-fitting outfit and a fur-collared cape leaned against the doorframe.

Kaeya, cavalry captain of the Knights of Favonius.

Kaeya first glanced at Amber, then let his gaze drift to Wei Zhenzu with complete ease.

Though the look seemed casual, Wei Zhenzu felt as if he'd been scanned from head to toe.

"Oh? Looks like our sleeping beauty has woken up." The corner of Kaeya's mouth curved upward as he stepped forward.

"Nice to meet you, guest from afar. I'm Kaeya, cavalry captain of the Knights of Favonius. I hope Mondstadt's bed wasn't too hard for you."

"Wei Zhenzu. Just call me Liangzi. The bed was quite soft. Thank you to the knights for looking after me." Wei Zhenzu stood up and greeted Kaeya politely.

The moment Wei Zhenzu stood, he suddenly felt a jolt deep in his mind.

His intuition told him that the "strange creatures" Kaeya had mentioned definitely weren't ordinary hilichurls or Slimes from Teyvat.

"The monsters that appeared in the wild... are they difficult to deal with?"

Kaeya narrowed his eyes slightly, apparently somewhat surprised by Wei Zhenzu's reaction, but he maintained his unruffled smile.

"Who knows? At the very least, they don't quite match the targets our knights train to handle. For safety's sake, Mr. Liangzi, you'd be better off staying here and resting."

"I'm going too," Wei Zhenzu blurted out. Although there were no weapons inside it, he could feel the faint outline of the bus in his mind urging him on.

Amber hurried over, waving her hands to dissuade him. "No, no! You've only just woken up, and it's too dangerous outside. Just stay in the city and rest."

Wei Zhenzu took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders and wrists.

Despite having been in a car accident, he found that his body was in surprisingly good shape, even stronger than when he'd been working the wok before transmigrating.

"I'm fine, Amber. I might not look it, but I'm actually... very capable of protecting myself." Unable to find a suitable excuse, Wei Zhenzu simply pressed on.

"And I've seen lots of strange creatures in my homeland. Maybe I can help identify those things' weaknesses."

"Since you're so confident, Mr. Liangzi, the Knights of Favonius have no right to restrict a guest's freedom of movement. However, please be sure to stay close to us and don't leave our sight."

"Kaeya, how can you take a civilian somewhere dangerous?" Amber was getting anxious.

"It's all right, Amber. An extra pair of well-informed eyes might not be a bad thing." Kaeya turned around, his cape sweeping an arc through the air. "Let's go. Time waits for no one."

The three left the Knights of Favonius headquarters together.

The streets of the City of Mondstadt were as peaceful as ever. Windmills turned slowly in the breeze, Flora was arranging her flower stall, and the aroma of roasting meat drifted from the Good Hunter restaurant.

The tranquility stood in stark contrast to the three companions' somewhat hurried steps.

After leaving the City of Mondstadt through its gates, they set foot on the familiar stone bridge, where Timmie stood at the near end feeding the pigeons.

They hurried along the main road and, after about a dozen minutes, reached a clearing at the edge of the Whispering Woods.

The atmosphere there was tense to the extreme.

Seven or eight Knights of Favonius, armed with standard-issue longswords and spears and carrying shields, had formed a tight circle around something.

Their foreheads were covered in sweat, and the arms holding their weapons were even trembling slightly.

"Hold the formation. Don't approach it recklessly!" a squad leader commanded. "Elemental Power can't produce a normal reaction. It has no element applied to it."

Wei Zhenzu followed Kaeya and Amber into the outer edge of the encirclement and looked in the direction the knights' spears were pointing, toward its very center.

That was no creature that belonged in Teyvat.

"What's that? A first-tier Peccatulum?"