EN | An encounter she will never forget | ᴄʜɪʟᴜᴍɪ

1 - The letter

Lumine had just woken up around the now extinguished fire of the makeshift camp she had set up at the base of a tree before falling asleep, not far from the town of Mondstadt. Still dazed shortly after waking, she heard the pop that Paimon made when she appeared before her, as she stretched and yawned until her jaw dropped.

The Traveler, since she had started traveling with the little fairy, had been forced to get used to the incessant back and forth of this pixie between the real world at her side, and some sort of parallel universe she could go into. Very convenient to hide when there were monsters around, or even to sleep, but to Lumine's great regret who felt abandoned by her makeshift companion at the beginning of each fight. Well, she couldn't hold it against her because of her total lack of usefulness in this kind of situation...

However, her barely awakened mind didn't have the time to dwell again on one of the countless mysteries composing Paimon's very existence because the latter didn't wait long before interrupting her in her reflection.

"Hello, what are we going to eat— do today?"

The small fairy didn't waste time getting herself together before her friend detected that she was still talking about food... even if that didn't escape to Lumine. Suppressing a sigh of both amusement and exasperation, Lumine stood up as she finished stretching.

"Let's go see Katheryne to get some daily quests, that will get us some moras."

Knowing full well that this wasn't the answer the pixie was hoping for, but not resisting the urge to annoy Paimon, Lumine stifled a chuckle when she saw her companion's less than cheerful expression. Deciding to stop teasing her friend, the young woman finally decided to add what the pixie was hoping to hear.

"And if you want, we can even go eat some fisherman's toast at the Good Hunt—"

"Hurry up, Paimon is as hungry as a wolf!" cut the flying fairy before she even finished her sentence.

The latter had twinkling stars in her eyes, undeniable proof of her love for her favorite hobby: eating. She looked at the hungry expression on her flying companion's face as she waited for Lumine to arrive, and then followed her in the direction of the city—after having broken camp first.

Mondstadt was a city built on an island with a bridge as its only entrance. It was completely surrounded by castle-like stone walls, and was characterized by its windmills, the magnificent cathedral on top of the hill in the center, and above all by the giant statue of an angel at the foot of the cathedral, which was supposed to represent the Anemo Archon, the true symbol of the freedom he had brought to his country.

As she entered the city, the guard posted at the entrance greeted her with a nod, which she returned with a smile. A few feet away, she greeted a figure dressed all in red with a red bow on top of her brown head. It was Amber, a scout from the Order, who was running around like a rabbit, certainly to fulfill a quest. She stopped for only two poor seconds to smile at them, before setting off again as if her life depended on it.

Paimon and Lumine walked up the stairs to the Good Hunter to order the famous fisherman's toast. With each step they took toward the counter to order their meal, a rush of adrenaline flowed through Lumine. It was time. Time to fight, time to strike. The second the restaurant manager greeted them with a natural gusto, Lumine ordered two fisherman's toast with the speed of a shooting star in the sky. Mission accomplished. The worst had been avoided. Paimon had barely had time to open her mouth when the manager accepted the change Lumine had handed her.

Since that famous day when Paimon had ordered ten pieces of toast just for her, squandering their savings in the process, Lumine had decided to fight to prevent her from ordering again, thus saving her meager savings to the great displeasure of the stomach on legs next to her.