Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

Fanes received the intelligence on the terrace of his usual restaurant in Fontaine Harbor. The weather was lovely that day, and he was sitting under the awning reviewing a report on the production capacity of the new winter industrial zone. The intelligence had been transmitted via an encrypted channel, and the sender's signature was that of a Mondstadt resident.

The report was short, essentially stating that a patrol near Whispering Woods outside Mondstadt reported seeing a suspicious blond outsider, not very tall (from Thunderfury's perspective, everyone looks short), wearing a dark cloak, pacing back and forth in the valley for some time, seemingly searching for something. A note was added after the report.

"The characteristics described by the witness match several of the types of people you previously advised to pay special attention to. Please assess whether it is worthwhile for you to make the trip yourself."

Fanes read the intelligence report over and over again three times, then put it down and leaned back in his chair. The vague image of the traveler floated into his mind—blonde hair, cloak, descending from beyond the world, traveling through seven kingdoms—although the timeline was slightly ahead of the original plot, it was still about a year or two before the main storyline began, so the traveler shouldn't be in Teyvat now.

However, you can't be sure about these things; he had seen plenty of things like the butterfly effect in his previous life.

Fanes put the panel into his coat pocket, stood up, and walked to the edge of the terrace. The evening breeze was blowing from the direction of the harbor, and the lights on the opposite bank were already on, casting a shimmering, fragmented glow on the water.

Fañez glanced down at the half-eaten cake and the still-warm tea on the table, then turned and walked down the corridor away from the terrace.

As he passed the side gate of Momang Palace, he didn't stop, but turned a corner and headed towards the side gate entrance, where he found Funina standing by the half-open window in the corridor, looking at a document.

Fanes stopped a few steps away and said, "I'm going on a long trip tomorrow, and I probably won't be back for a while."

Funina looked up from her documents and asked him, "Where are we going?"

Fanes leaned against the wall in the corridor and said, "Something's come up in Mond, and I need to go check on it myself. It'll probably take a few days, maybe longer."

Funina closed the file and hugged it to her chest: "Are you coming back for dinner today?"

Fanes shook his head: "I'm not coming back. The shop at the port is closing down. Silly Fufu, let's keep in touch."

Furina stood there, clutching the folder tightly: "...I'm not silly Furina."

Furina's voice wasn't loud or soft, but it was a little faster than usual. Fanes had already walked down the corridor to the side door, and his voice came through the crack of the slowly closing door: "It's silly Furina."

The door closed behind him, and the light from the hallway lamp cast a narrow spot along the edge of the door, then disappeared.

Fu Ningna stood by the window, looking at the closed door. After a while, she turned her gaze back to the folder in her hand, glanced down at the line on the cover that she had already read once, and opened the page. Her eyes moved from the first line to the next without stopping.

Fanes boarded the ship bound for Mondstadt early the next morning. The voyage was short, and he spent most of his time in his cabin reviewing supplementary intelligence sent from Mondstadt.

The eyewitness accounts remained vague, lacking more specific details for cross-verification, and no clear photographs were taken. But Fanes felt that the "yellow-haired" mark was worth the trip; what if it really was a traveler who had woken up early? He couldn't just leave without even exchanging a glance when the other party had just landed.

On the evening of the third day, Fanes arrived at the valley outside Mondstadt. The sky was darkening, and the light in the forest had sunk to the middle of the trees, leaving only a sliver of golden-red afterglow at the top of the canopy.

Fanes followed the route reported by the patrol for a while and saw a figure on a slightly elevated grassy slope at a bend in the valley.

The figure stood with his back to him on the grassy slope, looking down at something in his hands. A dark cloak fluttered slightly in the evening breeze, and short, light blond hair stood out starkly in the twilight, its length perfectly proportioned to his figure—it was indeed very similar. Fanes quickened his pace, speaking as he rounded the bushes: "Feed—it's a journey—"

Fanes didn't finish speaking because the man heard the voice and turned around.

Short, bright blonde hair. Dark boots and gloves. Her face was mostly covered by a mask, revealing only a pair of light-colored eyes. In the dim forest light, her gaze held a maturity beyond her years, like an old mirror with a thin layer of dust on its surface, but the underlying color still reflected the surrounding contours.

He stood tall and straight, his posture possessing the stability of someone who had traversed a long journey. It wasn't a deliberately posed pose, but rather a natural expression ingrained in his bones through the repeated folding and tempering of time and experience. He turned his head slightly towards Fanes, and that posture perfectly matched the silhouette Fanes had seen in the documents and fragmented images in his memory.

Daines Reeb. Not a traveler.

Phanes stopped a few steps away from him, swallowing the second half of the word "traveler," which fell down his esophagus and chest, lingering there for a moment before dissipating.

Fanes stood there in silence for a moment, then lowered his half-raised hand: "...What a waste of time."

Daines Reb stood on the grassy slope, looking at the person who had suddenly stopped in front of him. Fanes stood in the twilight, tilting his head slightly, like someone who had just received an expectation only to find that it contained something completely different from what he expected, or like a visitor who had just arrived at a door but found that the address did not match his memory, and was reorganizing his set of words that he had not yet had a chance to fully develop.

Daines Reeb spoke, his voice neither loud nor soft: "You know me?"

Fanes put his half-raised hand back into his pocket: "I know you. But you probably don't know me."

Daines Reeb looked at him for a moment, as if trying to determine which level of understanding was being applied: "You are one of the Fools."

Daines Reb didn't use a question. Fanes glanced down at the badge on his collar that he hadn't yet covered: "Yes."

Daines Reeb continued, maintaining the same pace as before: "You're not a traveler who just happened to be passing by at this time. You're here to confirm something."

Daines Reeb's tone was calm, without hostility or tension, as if he were stating a fact he had observed for a moment.

Fanes sat down on a flat rock on the side of the grassy slope: "I originally wanted to confirm if the other 'traveler' had arrived. But it wasn't her. So now I really am just a traveler who happened to be passing by."

Daines looked down at Fanes for a moment, then sat down on another rock next to him. The action itself carried a certain tacit understanding, as if the two needed to confirm the direction of their conversation, adjusting their positions in sync to calibrate their relative height and distance, so that the conversation could proceed at the same pace.

Dainesreb sat there gazing at the darkening horizon and said, "The 'traveler' you mentioned, she hasn't arrived yet."

Fanes turned his head to look at him, the corners of his mouth curving slightly wider: "How did you figure that out?"

Daines Reeb sat down beside him, his gaze fixed on the darkening horizon in the distance: "Because if she arrives, the logic of how this world works will change. Not yet."

The evening breeze swept through the valley, carrying the sound of water and the scent of earth as it passed between the two. The branches of the lone tree on the grassy slope rustled softly in the wind, and a few dry leaves fell from the branches, swirled in the wind, and landed on the grass between them.

Fanes sat on the rock, neither pressing further nor rushing to leave. He put the words he had swallowed halfway through his journey back into the "we'll talk about it later" box, then tilted his head slightly towards Dainesreb: "So, what brought you to Mondstadt this time?"

Daines Reeb sat on the nearby rock, not answering the question immediately. His gaze was fixed on the edge of the tree canopy in the distance, being swallowed by the night, as if he were measuring the distance between them from a familiar position. After a few moments, the wind, carrying the sound of water, passed through the bushes beside him, stopping at a barely noticeable depression at the base of the old oak tree in the distance. It swirled slowly near the shallow hollow covered with fallen leaves until it settled and gradually came to a stop.