After the body was brought back, the Knights of Favonius dealt with it accordingly.
Even Ronava, inexperienced as she was, could tell that the knights' faces were utterly grim. The dragon calamity had left them exhausted in body and mind.
"Excuse me," a wary-looking Knight of Favonius said, appearing before them after they had finished dealing with the matter. "You're members of the Adventurers' Guild, aren't you?"
"We have a shipment of supplies that needs to be brought here from Dawn Winery."
"Lately, Abyss monsters have been running rampant all over Mondstadt, so please help escort it!"
"No problem." Tang Wang nodded. "Is there a time limit?"
"Preferably..." The knight glanced up at the sky. "Before sunset. Would that be possible?"
"Wait a moment, I need to ask my companions." He turned to the other two. "Lili, Ronava, what do you think?"
"I'm fine with it." Linaya still looked a little sorrowful, but her mood had returned much closer to normal.
"As your travel companion, I'd be following you anyway," Ronava replied at once.
"All right, then let's set out."
After leaving Mondstadt City, Tang Wang noticed something wildly different from the original work:
As he remembered it, Mondstadt's dragon calamity had caused considerable trouble, but it had never ravaged the entire nation. Mondstadt City should have been the main area affected.
But now, seeing Abyss monsters running rampant outside the city, he couldn't tell for a moment whether this was Mondstadt or Natlan.
"How strange. Is the Abyss really this powerful?" Tang Wang instinctively felt that the root of the problem wasn't Dvalin, but that the power of the Abyss in the Teyvat he was now in was far stronger than in the original work.
"Forget it. There's no point thinking about this now... Let's head to Dawn Winery first." After leaving Mondstadt City, he activated Shrinking the Ground to an Inch again.
"By the way, Lili, there's something I'd like your help with." Tang Wang finally had the chance to tell her about the commission he had posted.
"You might not believe this, but I actually have another incredibly powerful ability. The thing is, I lost it for some reason..."
He then repeated what Zhongli had told him.
"Mm, I understand." Linaya didn't even think to question or doubt what he said. "Once we get back to Nod-Krai, I'll ask around at the Secret Archive for you-"
Before she could finish, her body suddenly went rigid. Under the effects of Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, the distance between them abruptly widened to around a hundred meters.
"Lili, what's wrong?" Tang Wang hurriedly turned back, only for Ronava, who was still walking forward, to pull another hundred meters or so ahead of him.
"Tang Wang, you should... know what this is, right?" She took out her Favonius Warbow. "It's a standard-issue weapon of the Knights. By all rights, I shouldn't have it."
"Right. If I remember correctly, weren't you using a slingshot before?" Though he already had some idea, he followed her lead.
"...Recently, to deal with the dragon calamity, a large number of weapons have appeared in Mondstadt City with the tacit approval of Mondstadt's authorities." Her tone grew utterly serious.
"But many of those weapons should never have appeared in Mondstadt in the first place. So, Tang Wang, if we can find out who's been selling them, maybe we can-"
"Right, I was thinking the same thing." Tang Wang smiled and nodded. "And on my way here, I already encountered one node in that network."
He told her what he had seen when he first arrived in Mondstadt, and about the caravan that had been attacked by monsters.
"I see. You really are observant." At last, the familiar smile returned to Linaya's face.
"Human!" Just then, Ronava finally came running over, out of breath. "You, you..."
When she reached Tang Wang, she stopped to catch her breath. As he looked on in confusion, tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
"Is she really that important to you?" The feelings she had been bottling up for so long finally burst forth.
The reason she felt this breakdown coming on was that, ever since Tang Wang had met Linaya, she had felt like an outsider caught between them.
"I'm sorry!" To her surprise, before she could vent any further, Tang Wang immediately apologized in the most sincere tone.
"Even though I'm your travel companion, I completely ignored your feelings... I guess I must be the worst travel companion there is, huh?"
Ronava, who had never been treated this way before, was momentarily stunned.
"You... you don't have to go that far, do you?" Tears still clung to her cheeks, but her expression had softened, and most of her anger had faded.
"That's right, he was being far too inconsiderate!" Then, completely to Ronava's surprise, Linaya chimed in as well.
She stepped forward, took out her handkerchief, and wiped the tears from the corners of Ronava's eyes. The gesture seemed rather intimate, and Ronava instinctively took two steps back.
"Ronava, I owe you an apology too," Linaya said, looking somewhat serious. "As a consultant for the Adventurers' Guild, I never should have ignored a companion's feelings while adventuring."
After the two legendary adventurers had spent some time comforting her, Ronava's expression softened considerably. Seeing the change, Tang Wang was secretly chuckling a little.
Though this Ruler of Death had lived a long time and put in a great deal of hard work, her lack of experience interacting with others as an ordinary person made her behavior now seem very much like a child's.
"So," Tang Wang said, taking the chance to change the subject when her emotions had more or less settled, "everyone, we still have a commission to finish."
He glanced up at the sky.
"If we don't hurry, our lavishly equipped team might fail the commission. Wouldn't that make us a bit of a laughingstock at the local Adventurers' Guild in Mondstadt?"
"Mm." Ronava nodded. "Right, we still have supplies to transport."
Only after that moment did she finally feel like she was a member of the team too.
"Let's get moving again, toward Dawn Winery!" Linaya took out a map she had drawn herself. After checking their direction, they resumed their journey to Dawn Winery.
This little interruption along the way happened to give them a chance to meet a special individual sooner than they otherwise would have-
"Damn it," Danika cursed, swinging the greatsword in her hands as she struggled against a Hydro Abyss Herald. "What exactly are you trying to do?"
"The Abyss granted me new life." After knocking Danika flying with a swing of his blade, the Hydro Abyss Herald immediately unleashed several blades of water. "The raging tide is here!"
"Bang!" The sharp blades of water severed the trees around her and slammed into Dawn Winery's walls.
Seeing this, Danika's expression grew utterly grave. She wanted to use the power of the Star's Wedge, but unfortunately, there was no Cryo in the area, and she couldn't trigger Lunar Superconduct.
Where the hell did that guy Kaeya go? Are the Knights of Favonius all just good for nothing?
As Danika complained inwardly, an arrow imbued with Geo energy struck the attacking Abyss Herald.