Grounded

15: Liyue Roadtrip 1

Este slowly hums under his breath.

The song is an old classic song from the 90s. One of Veera's favorites. Not that anyone would actually recognize the lyrics. If someone does, they would not be native to Teyvat. As far as Este is aware, Swedish wasn't one of the local languages in Teyvat.

He continues his humming, and no one says anything. The inside of the wagon is dark, and smells of something stale.

His father is at the front of the wagon, holding the reins of the horse, and his mother is left behind in Mondstadt.

The whole thing looks less like a proper cart and more like an old prairie schooner. The real reason why keeps calling it a wagon and not a cart like it's supposed to be.

Este doesn't really see the point of his father bringing Este along with him to a visit in Liyue.

The glass tycoon that is his father had suddenly just came home in the middle of the week, and grabbed Este with him. His mother got no explanation, and the only reason Este knew they were headed to Liyue in the first place was because one of his fathers bodyguards spilled that they were on a business trip.

They had a lot of business partners in Liyue, but it isn't exactly necessary for Este to go there right now.

He is 12 for Barbatos sake, he expected to start meeting the future business partners when he was over 15 at the very least. Is it even remotely a good idea to bring your child along for a business trip?

If it was a vacation, the fine!

Bring your wife and kids, but a formal business trip? Este shakes his head, and continues his humming.

Thinking of Liyue brought the people in it to his mind.

Xinyan had been Veera's favorite character. Yanfei was a close second.

Mostly just because of the aesthetic. Veera was the type of girl who wore fishnets and chokers daily, and with her hair usually dyed a hot pink she was a sight to behold.

Xinyan was really pretty, and she wore just the kind of stuff Veera would as well.

Now to be frank Este couldn't see as much of Xinyan's appeal as before. But he still remembers the innate love Veera had for anything with the punk aesthetic.

Now there were a few jarring differences.

Xinyan was a rock star, and while Veera loved the outfits, the actual music on the other hand...

Well, both Este and Veera preferred a different kind of music.

Most notably, classical opera.

The reason why was rather obvious. Because just as Veera was Este's previous life, Veera also had her previous life in Nicolas.

Nicolas had been an opera singer. His influence on Veera had been huge, maybe a bit bigger than Veera's influence on Este. The result of that is the fact that all of them have a persistent love for opera and all kinds of classical music.

Nicolas had been a rags to riches story. He had climbed his way up from the streets only using his voice in the beginning, and by grasping onto every opportunity that came his way.

Nicolas could play an orchestra by himself.

Veera had of course hated the idea of losing those skills, but at the end of the day, she sticked to only training her voice to the same glory as Nicolas and playing some piano.

The violin, the harp, everything Nicolas learned was only a memory to Este.

Este still tried to train his voice up.

He missed music, all types of it really, but especially the modern kind. In here, music mainly played by bards had a very distinct tune to it, with their lyres and flutes. The erhu was a beautiful instrument, but there were only so many times he can tolerate hearing it be played in a row while near the cathedral.

Actually thinking about music puts Este in a humorous mood.

Why? Well the reason was simple.

When Este had been maybe, 3 or 4, and first been starting to train his voice back up, he had contemplated on his song choices.

Of course, Queen was an absolute must. Not only for the fandango, but because Queen's songs just needed a really wide vocal range and as such was good for advanced practice.

He had sung Bohemian Rhapsody at least a hundred times, and more than twice has Diluc heard the lyrics and Este has caught him nodding to his singing.

Kaeya had even hummed it a couple of times, and each time he hears Barbara sing the whole song perfectly he loses just a little more of his sanity.

It was a sin of his own making.

They don't even fully understand the lyrics. Mondstadt's language is what Este would call a very weird German dialect. Like German, but it was obviously tweaked a little to the left.

Este is just glad Barbara hasn't yet completely learned Don't Stop Me Now.