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

Fools: I can hardly help but laugh when I see someone being taken advantage of!

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On the day of delivery, the weather was fairly good. Several transport trucks covered with dark tarpaulins were lined up in the open area designated as a temporary receiving zone outside the west gate of Mondstadt. Fanes stood to the side of the last truck in the convoy, holding a signed delivery list in his hand.

Qin, leading a small team of civilian staff from the Knights Order, stood at the edge of the receiving area, confirming the procedures with the logistics officer in charge of the inventory.

The truck doors were opened one by one, and the soldiers of the Fools began unloading the cargo. They moved swiftly, carrying wooden crates in pairs along the ramps into the receiving area, where they placed the crates in designated locations according to their numbers.

Each wooden crate landed precisely within a pre-marked white line, as if an invisible ruler had been used to calibrate each crate along the seams of the ground.

After completing one round of unloading, they returned to the truck, silently waiting for the next round, then moved the next batch of boxes out and placed them in their designated locations before returning to the truck to await the next instructions.

The entire transportation process proceeded at a fixed rhythm and intervals, without pauses, extra movements, or whispers.

Qin stood at the edge of the receiving area watching this scene. Her gaze swept across the faces of the soldiers carrying the boxes one by one, and then she turned her head and whispered something to the knights' logistics officer beside her.

"Their operating procedures were much more standardized than we expected. From moving to placing, there were no obvious delays in each step."

The logistics officer also looked in that direction: "Moreover, they didn't exchange any unnecessary communication throughout the entire process. They rarely even made eye contact. Every action was independent, as if each step had been tested separately and no additional instructions were needed to confirm the next step."

As a soldier carrying a long wooden box passed by Qin, he turned his head slightly and curved the corners of his mouth in Qin's direction. The curve was small, but enough for Qin to notice that the expression was not the perfunctory courtesy she usually saw from the soldiers of the Fools.

After he put down the box, another soldier smiled at the logistics officer before turning around to move on to the next box.

Qin stood still, watching the smiling fool soldiers, her gaze lingering on their faces for a moment.

"When did the Fools' service become so good? Before, they never made any unnecessary expressions or movements while doing their work. Today, not only are their movements smooth, but they also have smiles on their faces."

Fanes was standing beside the last car in the convoy, checking the numbers on the last batch of boxes. Hearing the harp, he closed the manifest, walked over, and offered an explanation.

"These soldiers are all professionally trained, to the point where they can control their bodies and facial expressions simultaneously. In Winterfall, smiling service has become one of the basic requirements for the Fools' cooperation with the outside world. Since I decided to adjust our internal approach to foreign negotiations, smiling has become the new normal in our diplomacy."

Qin stood there for a moment, as if using that brief pause to reassess whether what she had just heard matched the descriptions recorded in her file: "...I just hope those soldiers can maintain this state when the next contract is signed."

The payment was made promptly. After confirming that the quantity and type of all the boxes matched the list, Qin signed a bill accepted by the Northern Bank and handed it to Fanes: "Pleasant cooperation."

Fanes took the receipt, checked the amount and signature, and put it in his coat pocket: "Pleasure doing business with you."

After the handover was completed, Qin and her men began to inventory the contents of the crates, checking for any signs of wear and tear from the transport. Fanes walked back a few steps along the convoy, and as he approached one of the vehicles, he saw several knights standing near a wooden crate whose internal compartments were visible, talking in hushed tones.

One of them pointed to the interface on the inside of the armor and turned to say something to his companion.

Fanes did not continue forward, but turned and walked towards the city, his pace quickening somewhat. He paused at the edge of the steps as he entered the main entrance of the Goethe Hotel.

Fanes recalled the news he received yesterday—Luminous had begun to move around Mondstadt, and judging from her movements around Whispering Wood, she was moving faster than expected.

Ying is adapting to this world. So, where is that traveler he planned for—the one he treated as a joke, a business deal, and some kind of predictable variable—now?

Fanes realized that two weeks had passed since she left the camp. Given her proficiency in traversing Hilichurl camps, she should have already mastered some basic survival skills and habits.

If Ying can reliably obtain food and supplies in the wild, avoid unnecessary battles, and maintain a certain movement speed, then she should be approaching a gathering point by now.

Has Ying learned the language of this world? Has she met anyone who can help her adapt to this world more quickly? Does she know that she is walking into a map that has been divided up by various forces, and each area has its own rules and boundaries?

While Fanes was thinking these things, he didn't slow down. He walked up the stairs, glanced at the sky outside the window as he turned the corner on the second floor, then pushed the half-open window a little closer and continued deeper into the corridor.

At the same time, on the east coast of Mondstadt, Ying was sitting on a smooth rock washed by the sea, holding a sharpened branch in her hand, and was pushing a dead shallow-water crab from the edge of the sandy beach to the surface.

Sunlight filtered through the edge of the clouds, casting dappled reflections on the water's surface. She had just finished handling the crab and was about to stand up when the fishing line suddenly tightened. The force wasn't strong, but the direction of the pull was different from the previous times.

Ying looked towards the water's surface along the direction of the fishing line and saw a small, white, humanoid creature hanging from the end of the line, flailing its limbs and trying to climb out of the water to find a place to land.

It was not much bigger than an adult cat, and had a pair of small capes on its back that it was fanning at an unskilled frequency, each fanning splashing a small patch of water.

Ying lifted the fishing rod up a little, and the small white creature was pulled closer along the curve of the fishing line. She reached out and lifted it up from the water.

Paimon was soaking wet, her hair plastered to her face, and her clothes dripping. She sat on the edge of the reef, catching her breath, then looked up at Ying and said, "Thank you for fishing me out! I almost drowned!"

Ying squatted on the reef, looking at her: "Don't you know how to fly?"

Paimon's expression froze for a moment, then she jumped to her feet, clenching her little fists and stomping her foot in mid-air: "That's not the point at all!"

Paimon paused, as if adjusting his tone, "I can be your guide in this world! Trust me, I know Teyvat very well!"

Ying sat on the reef, watching the little guy in front of her trying to prove his worth. He was still holding the fishing rod, but the fishing line had been reeled in, and water droplets were dripping down the rod.

"Do you know where I can buy a change of clothes around here?"

Paimon stood there, as if using that pause to confirm whether what she had just heard matched her expectations: "...Of course I know. I can take you to Mondstadt. But you have to promise me that you'll share your food with me every time you eat from now on."

Ying thought for a moment and figured that such a small creature probably couldn't eat much.