[Genshin Impact] A world where only travelers are alone

Ventara had a dream. In the dream, she returned to her grandmother's lap and was listening to the old woman telling fairy tales about animals and magic.

She likes these things.

It’s just that the grandmother is old and likes to reminisce about the past. She often changes the topic to her mother after just a few words. While touching Wentala’s head lovingly, she says that her mother also liked this back then.

Mom... the mom who will always live only in my grandmother's mouth...

Ventara didn't like this mother.

To her, never having visited her parents was just a not-so-wonderful fairy tale, but every time she said this, her grandmother would scold her harshly, telling her that her mother kept her here because she was good.

Little Ventara couldn't understand the connection between the two things, but it is human instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. In order to avoid being scolded, she didn't mention the matter again.

Over time, she completely treated her grandmother's chatter as white noise in the background, and she quietly played with the black and white puppy that wagged its tail at her feet.

The puppy barked at her twice and licked her face happily with its tongue.

……

The hot and wet feeling on her cheeks made Ventara hug the head in front of her subconsciously. She opened her eyes dazedly and called the puppy's name: "Xiuta..."

Then someone stopped moving.

Leosli stopped trying to give her a good morning kiss, his eyes narrowed with a dangerous aura: "Wentala, who is Xiuta?"

Of course, a person who was already asleep couldn't reply, so Leosli poked the girl's slightly fleshy cheeks again and again, trying to wake her up.

Ventara slapped his hand away impatiently, adding fuel to the fire: "Xiuta, you are not a good boy at all...you are a bad dog..."

Leosley was very unhappy.

You are calling me a "good dog" here, but you are secretly raising a "bad dog" outside?
He was unable to control the strength of his movements for a moment, and Ventara hissed in pain, and was finally woken up by him.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw himself being surrounded. Even someone as mentally strong as Ventara couldn't help but change his expression.

If she hadn't recognized the familiar full curve of the chest muscles in front of her, she would have almost kicked the man down.

"Didn't you promise not to touch me, Duke?" Ventara got angry even after waking up, with a cold face as if he was owed money.

Leosli was choked by her preemptive attack, and he didn't have the chance to ask the original question. He could only explain why she was here.

"Maybe you can take a look, this is my territory."

Ventara looked around doubtfully and saw her own pillow at the other end of the bed. This was indeed the place she had given to Leosley last night.

The guilt just lasts for a moment.

Her eyes drifted away, but became firm the next second, as if she had convinced herself: "You mean I crawled in here from the other side of the quilt in the middle of the night? Impossible, I always sleep well, you must have secretly brought me here last night."

To be fair, this is entirely possible given the Duke's shamelessness.

The more she thought about it, the more it made sense.

It's a pity that someone got the point wrong: "How do you know you sleep well?"

It stands to reason that it is difficult for people to discover problems with their sleeping posture after they fall asleep, right?

Of course, Ventara didn't know what she would be like after falling asleep, but she always stayed quietly in her bedtime position when she woke up every day, so there must be no problem.

Worried that this evidence was not convincing enough, she not only told the story, but also made up a story: "And other people said the same thing."

Someone else? Is this someone else the same person as Huta?

Leosley felt his two canine teeth begin to itch again.

He asked calmly: "Others? Who do you mean?"

Ventara had no idea who this other person was, so he said vaguely, "It's someone you don't know anyway, so there's no point in asking this."

After she said this, Leosli became more certain of his guess. He gritted his teeth secretly and vowed to find this so-called "Xuta".

As for what to do after finding it out? He swore in the name of the warden of Mellow Petersburg that he would never take revenge on others.

He was thinking about what to do if he met Xuta in the future, while Ventara was already getting ready to get up.

She sat up in bed and stretched.

The pajamas that the Duke specially prepared for her were thin and light. As she stretched out her hand, they were pulled up, revealing her slender waist with light bruises on it.

——It has been two weeks since the accident caused by drinking, but since it was someone’s first time, he was inevitably not careful and left some traces.

When he saw this scene, Leosley's expression softened.

No matter what, Ventara is his lover now, and he will never let her go, no matter who that Xuta is.

But Leosli didn't expect that the person he had been thinking about, Xuta, would appear so soon.

*
Under Wentala's hurried urging, Leosli decided to take her to the dog cafe that she had been longing for as soon as possible.

The store manager is a young man with fluffy, soft curly hair. He exudes a harmless temperament, much like the dogs he keeps in the store. When arranging today's itinerary, Leosli specifically dealt with him and learned about his experience in opening this store. He knew that he started from scratch and that these puppies were originally stray dogs. They became what they are today under his day-to-day care.

Leosley admired young people like the store manager who were promising and caring. When he entered the store, his tone was quite friendly: "Good morning, Mr. Bernard."

Bernard was his last name.

Unlike Fontaine who likes to call people by their first names, the manager's country prefers to call people by their last names, so to this day Leosley still doesn't know his name.

But these are digressions.

Hearing Leosley's voice, Bernard immediately stopped what he was doing and put the puppy, whose nails he was about to trim, on the ground.

"Duke, you are here." The young man had a gentle smile on his face, which looked very soft. "The message has been posted. There will be no other guests today. You can enjoy this private time."

Leosli nodded and was about to say something, but Ventara beside him suddenly whispered: "Xiuta..."

The Duke's eyes grew sharper.

He looked at Bernard, then looked at Ventara who was looking down at something, and suddenly smiled: "Mr. Bernard, can you come over here for a moment? I have something to tell you."

Bernard approached, puzzled.

On the way, he couldn't hide his curiosity and looked at Ventara beside Leosli.

I've never seen this face before... She seems very close to the Duke, are they lovers? No wonder the Duke booked the room today, it turns out he wanted to please the beauty...

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his guess was right, and he quickly looked away to avoid the Duke being unhappy with his actions.

But it was too late. Leosli took his little action in full view and his smile deepened.

"Ventala, you rest here for a while. I'll be back after I finish talking to him."

Before leaving with his men, Leosley did not forget to tell Ventara where he was going, and then glanced at Bernard who was in a state of confusion, feeling like a legitimate girlfriend deliberately showing off her closeness to her boyfriend in front of the mistress.

Bernard: confused and at a loss.jpg
Ventara didn't answer him. She squatted aside and teased the puppy that Bernard had just put down, whispering "Xiuta's" name.

It's a pity that someone has gone too far and completely missed the opportunity to discover the truth.

The black and white puppy looked only a few months old, but was already quite lively and affectionate. It played with her enthusiastically and would lick her cheek from time to time.

The scene in the dream seemed to reappear, and Ventara couldn't help but smile softly.

The puppy's tail wagged even more happily.

"Xiuta, Xiuta--" She called over and over again, and the puppy squatted beside her obediently, responding cooperatively over and over again, showing great human nature.

When Leosley came back after indirectly showing off his relationship with Ventara in front of Bernard, what he saw was a man and a dog almost sticking together.

The other neglected dogs in the dog cafe had already surrounded her, looking enviously at the black and white puppy being caressed in her arms, but they didn't dare to go up to her because of someone's neglect.

Bernard walked up and touched the other dogs’ heads, saying with emotion, “You seem to really like this puppy.”

Ventara rarely talked to strangers, but she was in a contented state at the moment, so she naturally didn't mind chatting more.

She nodded, almost reluctant to put it down. "Yes, it's very much like the one I once had."

Bernard was a little curious: "Once? What happened to the puppy afterwards?"

Ventara shook her head: "I don't know either. It was actually a puppy my grandmother bought for me, but after my grandmother died, I was adopted by someone else and never saw it again."

Bernard quickly apologized: "…I'm sorry to ask about your sad story."

Ventara waved his hand, indicating that this had nothing to do with him.

At this point, Leosley's limited patience had run out.

He put his arms around Ventara from behind and rested his chin on her head.

Such behavior finally drew back Ventara's attention, and the latter unsatisfiedly pulled away Leosli's hand that was holding her, but she couldn't stand the fact that someone was determined to make their intimacy more obvious.

Unable to pry it open, Ventara had no choice but to surrender and let him continue, while she played with the puppy in her arms.

But Leosli didn't intend to stop there. Seeing that she ignored him again, he immediately turned to verbal harassment: "Ventara, this is the first time I hear you mention your life before you were adopted by the Delascos. Why didn't you tell me?"

Hey, the vinegar smell is incredibly strong—

However, Ventara was very slow in dealing with such matters. Even Bernard, who was not involved, felt that something was wrong, but she still looked indifferent.

It was not until Leosley asked again that she rolled her eyes at him and said ruthlessly, "You've never asked before."

This time, Leosli finally couldn't help himself and bent down to bite her cheek.

It wasn't a very strong blow, but it still left a shallow tooth mark on the girl's face, earning her a puzzled look from Ventara.

(End of this chapter)