EN | An encounter she will never forget | ᴄʜɪʟᴜᴍɪ

28 - Marriage ? Detective Teucer leads the investigation!

The group ended up with three people: Childe, Lumine and Teucer. The fake institute was close to where they were now, but not close enough for Teucer not to have time to ask questions...

"Say big brother... is that the nice lady you're dating? The nice lady is wearing your mask, and you're wearing a pretty flower like the one she has!"

"Uh... yes, that's her—" he barely had time to answer before he was cut off by the little boy.

"When are you getting married then?"

Childe had expected anything but this, and obviously, Lumine had too, as evidenced by the confused and embarrassed look she gave him. They had never talked about it between them since their relationship was quite recent, so Childe had no idea what to say to his brother. Had he thought about it? He had to admit that he had. But if he started to give his brother any hope, he was going to have him on his back every time he saw him... Instead of answering, he decided to cloud the issue by trying to divert his attention, which worked to his great relief.

"Uh... Here we are — welcome to Liyue's Institute of Toy Research!"

"Yeah, we're here! I can already hear the sounds of machinery inside. Awesome!" exclaimed Teucer as he ran towards the entrance of the ruins.

"W-what is this place?" asked Lumine, who had come closer.

Childe didn't fail to notice her stammering and slightly red cheeks, probably caused by the boy's question. He didn't know what kind of face he was making himself, but he was certainly as red as she was.

"Based on my limited understanding, I believe this is one of Dottore's research facilities. Dottore is another one of the Fatui Harbingers. He loves tinkering with old things, it's a... personal passion of his. So, he converted these ruins into a ruin guard research lab. As to why the ruin guards have been moving outside of this area recently... I can only imagine that he's gotten bored of playing around with them, and has lost interest in this place."

"Wow, yet another Harbinger with a bad attitude!" sighed Lumine. "But at least this explains why you were totally okay with bringing Teucer here. Seems you did your homework ahead of time."

"Well... I wouldn't go quite that far. I actually have no idea what this place is like on the inside."

"W—Wait, so... are you or are you not worried about your brother's safety?" she asked with concern.

"Of course I am... But no matter what the danger is, I will parry it. Isn't that what any older brother would do?" he said, puffing his chest out, proving that he could always be counted on.

"What are you guys chatting about? Come on, let's go in!" Teucer interrupted, coming closer.

They laughed lightly before following the boy toward the entrance of the ruins.

"I'm going to go play with Mr. Cyclops now!"

Teucer ran without waiting for the couple and passed without stopping through a door that closed behind him. Childe and Lumine tried to open it again, but it was locked. This was definitely the worst-case scenario. How was Childe going to protect his brother if he wasn't with him in the ruins? After looking around for another entrance, he found what he was looking for.

"There's another path over there — let's move!"

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The Harbinger and the Traveler hurried through the dungeon to reach Teucer. They found him safe and sound, but alas they were separated by a partition. They had to move on until they came across a riddle to solve to open a door on Teucer's side.