𝐀𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐞 | Genshin Impact

ᴛʜᴇ ᴀʀᴄʜɪᴠᴇ

TWENTY EIGHT

THE YOUNG WOMAN couldn't help but cover her wrist with her other hand. They lay gently pressed to (Y/n)'s abdomen as she walked, following Noelle who attempted to engrave the layout of the Favonius Headquarters into her head.

The two then reached a single door. Noelle placed her hand against the knob, twisting it before pushing it open.

Inside was unveiled to be a few steps leading down to rows of shelves. And on those shelves were thick binders, boxes of varying sizes; some looking as if they contained nothing but stacks of paper. It must've been a maze, for if there weren't a walkway between the aisles, (Y/n) feared losing sight of Noelle's figure if she were to look away briefly.

They walked through the tall, dusty shelves, where at the end of the room was a desk situated in front of a half-round window. (Y/n) walked towards it, peeking through it with her feet lifting herself higher. Her eyes were leveled with the grass outside that surrounded the building, a few bushes obscuring most of the view.

"It tends to get quite dark in here past evening," Noelle admitted.

(Y/n) glanced back towards her. "Luckily for me, the dark does not scare me so easily."

Noelle flashed her a warm smile. "I'll let you get situated then," She said. "I'm sure you'll get a few visits today to keep you company."

The young lady bid (Y/n) farewell and went on her way, the sound of the door shutting close indicating she had truly left.

(Y/n) turned back towards the desk, her hand wiping the seat behind it.

That was a bad idea.

She furrowed her brows, wondering when was the last time someone had cleaned. Remnants of dust covered the tips of her fingers as she rubbed it away. So instead she walked over towards one of the nearest shelves, her eyes glossing over each individual case.

Some stuck out of place, so she used her fingertip to push them back in order. But one fell out as a result of the space she made when she pulled a binder to fix the pages clumped inside.

(Y/n) crouched down, picking it up gently as to not allow the insides to spill. Placing the binder on top of a box on its side, she then brushed the dust off the thin file. (Y/n) used her hand to peel it open, her eyes meeting a plethora of information.

"The requested scholar from Sumeru Academia..." She read, but came to find out the name was scratched off. So she continued, "...arrived as planned."

In fact, she noticed a lot more things were scratched off.

(Y/n) skimmed through the page, noticing a black pen was used to conceal information about the scholar mentioned in the beginning.

"Containment of..." She briefly paused as she skipped over the missing words. "The scholar left with the... with the what?" She asked herself.

Did anyone even know that this file containing this information was seemingly tampered with? (Y/n) shook her head. If anything, she'd like to believe they purposely removed the missing parts in case it got into hands such as hers. Someone who has no business sticking her nose into things like this.

Nonetheless, (Y/n) flipped through the other pages inside, her mind fogged by the amount of words that were blacked out.

"(Y/n)."

Her hands instinctively shut the file close.