EN | An encounter she will never forget | ᴄʜɪʟᴜᴍɪ

42 - An encounter they will never forget [END]

"Aether!"

Paimon's voice reached her even though she was several rooms away. Lumine was currently putting on her wedding dress in Mondstadt Cathedral. Paimon and Aether as well as Ajax's family and some friends had arrived well ahead of the ceremony time to help finish the few preparations. But strangely, for some time now, she had been hearing Paimon and her brother engage in lively conversations. With each friend she sent to see what was going on, she had one more friend who was starting to react strangely.

She was sure that something was wrong, that there was a problem, but she refused to go and see for fear of razing the entire city of Mondstadt. For several days now, the young woman had been a completely stressed-out ball of nerves. The approach of the big day she was so much looking forward to only made an anxiety rise in her. Of course, she was looking forward to officially being Ajax's wife, but that didn't stop her from being completely stressed for this day being certainly the most important of her whole life.

So if someone came up to her and told her that something had gone wrong, she was sure she would literally freak out. What's more, she had her own idea of what the problem might be, since she hadn't given her brother and Paimon dozens of tasks. In the case of Aether, it was to wonder if he wasn't even more stressed than his sister for this day. As for Paimon, let's just say that she wasn't very reliable as evidenced by the three tasks she had already given her and for which she had already failed miserably. However, since they were both her only family—she now considered Paimon as her little sister, especially since her return after the little fairy had almost killed her with her own hands out of hatred for being abandoned—, she had nevertheless entrusted them with a mission of the utmost importance. But when she heard the ruckus, she came to regret it.

She had really tried to concentrate on her outfit, her hairstyle, her make-up and the upcoming ceremony, but alas it wasn't easy having always as background noise animated discussions. Finally, unable to take it anymore, Lumine turned to her friends who were with her in the room to help her get ready: Natasha, Lisa, Amber and Xiangling. Barbara was preparing the service, while Jean was managing the final preparations. As for the rest of her female friends, they were either helping or hadn't yet arrived.

"Lisa, can you get Jean and Diluc to come, please?"

The hint of exasperation in her voice made it very clear to the librarian that she wasn't fooled and that she knew perfectly that something she wasn't going to like was going on. The latter smiled at her before leaving the room to bring back the two concerned.

A few moments later, the blonde and red heads appeared in the room.

"Lumine, did you need something?" Jean asked in a confident voice as if she were still ruling from her office. Diluc, on the other hand, seemed to hesitate before rushing into the room behind Jean.

"Lumine... are you sure I can get into this room like this?"

"Yes, don't worry."

The young woman reassured him with a confident voice. Sure, it was the ladies' den during the wedding preparation, but it wasn't like she wasn't dressed at all. It was true that she hadn't finished getting ready, but who cares, the one she was standing in front of was none other than Diluc.

Diluc.

In other words, him seeing her in that outfit wasn't going to change the image he had of her one bit.

"Look, I'm not going to pretend ignorance. I've been hearing Paimon and Aether fussing around for the past while, and I've only given them one task. Is this what I think is really going on?"

Diluc and Jean exchanged a sidelong glance at this question, clearly undecided as to what to say to her. Finally, the Acting Grand Master took charge of answering this thorny question.