Ahahaha, Fontaine, here I come

The Hotel Bouffes d'ete in Vasari Passage was a beautiful building, with spotless walls and gleaming doors and windows.

Not long ago, the house had quietly welcomed its new owner without anyone knowing. Since then, clean, well-mannered children had bustled about the place every day.

And when night fell and the doors were shut tight, they would all speak of one title:

"Father."

"There's news from Sumeru."

Dressed in simply tailored dark casual clothes, Arlecchino methodically sorted the intelligence dossiers submitted from various regions with her slender fingers.

Lynette knocked softly on the wooden door, then bowed as she handed a wax-sealed envelope to "Father."

"Thank you for your efforts, Lynette. You had to make a special trip back to Snezhnaya."

"It was no trouble, 'Father.' But Miss Sandrone may have her hands full for a while."

Arlecchino's hands paused at that. She smiled helplessly, as though she could already picture Sandrone bristling with anger.

Shaking her head, Arlecchino opened the sealed letter.

As her eyes passed over the first line, her fingertips abruptly tightened around the paper, unconsciously crumpling its edges.

Xingsu, former librarian of the House of Daena, was officially wanted by the Akademiya for offenses including privately developing a communications device and illegally purchasing restricted experimental materials. He was currently on the run, his whereabouts unknown.

"If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave, 'Father.'" Seemingly sensing that something was off with "Father," Lynette tactfully bowed and backed toward the door.

"Wait, Lynette. Tell Lyney that while the two of you are handing out magic pockets over the next while, keep an eye out for anyone with star-shaped eyes."

"Understood, 'Father.'" Lynette closed the door behind her, her expression unreadable.

Where would he go?

Liyue? She ruled that route out first. The entire Chasm had just been sealed off. If a patrol questioned him and discovered that he was wanted by the Akademiya, he would be forcibly deported to Sumeru at once.

Fontaine? Fontaine's official entry checkpoints were just as troublesome. Though Fleuve Cendre was home to many desperate refugees, making it easy to conceal his identity, crossing the entire desert from Sumeru's interior was too dangerous. He would have a hard time making the whole journey alone.

Stow away through a port? The Doctor had recently arrived in Sumeru, and the ports were under heavy guard during this period. But if he really could stow away through a port, there were far more places he could go.

After some thought, Arlecchino felt there was a high probability that Xingsu had fled to Fontaine.

That raised another question.

How should I face him?

Even now, Arlecchino did not know why Xingsu had come back from the dead and appeared in Sumeru, nor did she know what he thought-whether he would still be willing to return to this former purgatory.

At least let me see him once...

"At least let me take a look at the work!" Faced with Xingsu's desperate pleas, the man before him rejected him without hesitation.

"Shoo, shoo! Will you pay if you break something? Can you even afford it?"

"You're good with your hands and handsome, too, so why do you like purple and yellow so much? How is your taste in clothes this bad?"

"All right, young man. Look at that delicate skin of yours. You can't handle the work here."

That was right. The first problem our great scholar Xingsu encountered after arriving in Fontaine was-

He couldn't find a job!

It wasn't really Xingsu's fault. He had no diploma, nor anything to prove his identity as a scholar. On top of that, public order in Fontaine had been a mess lately, making it hard for any shopkeeper to trust an outsider who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

At least the places above had been willing to talk to him. At many others, he couldn't even get past the first hurdle.

"What do you mean, applicants must be under twenty-five with over thirty years of work experience?!"

He had finally found a clothing shop owner willing to hire him as an assistant and model, only for the owner to ask him a few questions about clothing, then chase him out as though he had become a different person.

"...And is purple and yellow really that ugly? Seriously."

As for becoming an adventurer?

Forget it. The Adventurers' Guild had been established by Snezhnaya, and he didn't want anything to do with the Fatui right now.

Night fell.

After nightfall, Fontaine was thick with moisture. A thin mist drifted over the canals, and vintage streetlamps cast hazy pools of warm yellow light onto Xingsu's worried face.

Xingsu leaned back alone on a stone bench and let out a long breath.

Beside him lay a simple canvas bag, still stuffed with the rations Dehya had pressed on him along the way, along with the unassembled parts of the standalone communicator he had only barely managed to save.

"Heh, at least Fontaine has no shortage of drinking water." Fresh out of the desert, Xingsu gave a self-deprecating smile.

Looking out over the vast expanse of Fontaine, there was not a single place where he could truly settle down in peace.

"I'll head farther into the city. Maybe I can find somewhere to sleep."

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Xingsu! It's only been a few days, and you're already this pathetic?" Lin's gloating voice suddenly rang out in Xingsu's head.

"..."

"Aren't you a great scholar from the Akademiya? How come you can't even find a job now? Heehee~"

"This isn't funny."

"All right, here's some good news. The necklace is somewhere in Fontaine."

"And where exactly?"

"Linlin doesn't know~"

"...Ugh. Why are you acting young, you old thing?"

"You wish you prosperity-ugh, forget it. I'm feeling magnanimous today, so I won't argue with you. Anyway, the closer you get to the necklace, the more strongly I can sense it. Once you're close enough, you'll be able to feel it yourself."

"Fine, but right now I need to find a..."

"Ah!"

A young woman's scream suddenly rang out nearby.

"Huh? What's going on?!" Xingsu immediately hurried toward the sound.

"Heh, your big sister won't interrupt you rescuing a damsel in distress. See you next time!"

In an open space, a woman dressed entirely in black, an eye mask covering most of her face, suddenly darted forward like a phantom. Wreathed in cold killing intent, she bore straight down on the unsuspecting Furina.

Furina sat collapsed on the icy ground, her ornate blue-and-white gown spread around her. Most of her usually flamboyant expression had vanished, leaving only startled panic as she looked up in terror at the black-clad figure who had suddenly appeared.

"Who are you? Wh-what are you going to do... Don't kill me, please..."

As the Hydro Archon, she has no Gnosis within her, and the terror in her eyes is certainly genuine. A god too weak to truss a chicken...

Hmm?

A burst of footsteps suddenly came from behind her.

My objective is achieved. Time to go.

"Stop!"

That voice?

Arlecchino abruptly halted just as she was about to leave, her body turning back for a glance before she could stop herself.

...It's him.

Behind the eye mask she wore as a disguise, her pupils abruptly contracted. She instinctively clenched the hand hanging at her side, her knuckles turning white.

He arrived in Fontaine sooner than expected.

No. Now isn't the time to see him.

She forcibly suppressed the thoughts that had just surged through her heart.

With that thought, she did not spare another glance. Using the deep shadows cast by the buildings, she vanished completely into the darkness in just a few breaths, leaving not a trace.