We weren't supposed to be Main Characters ✔

Chapter 5

Childe stretched and yawned loudly after he had done checking documents that Ekaterina brought earlier. He was bored out of his mind. It had been a week since he had seen Lumine.

Last time, after getting medical treatment from Lumine in complete silence at Zhongli's place, he only thanked her quietly before leaving. Then, he got several complaints with Qixing so he had buried himself in his office, partly he wanted all of this to be dealt with quickly and partly he was worried about Lumine might still be mad at him. She didn't even look at his face while dressing his wounds last week.

"Ekaterina? Is there anything left?", he asked her as he dropped finished ones on her desk.

"Eh? Already?", she blinked at the papers before looking up, "nothing more at the moment, sir."

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "then, is there anything that I should do?"

She shook her head, "no, sir."

Noticing his bored expression, she suggested, "how about going for a walk, sir? You don't go out anymore."

He just shrugged and rubbed his sore neck.

So, she told, "that adventurer girl has been walking by the bank several times this week."

That got his attention as his body stopped moving and became stiff.

She continued, "she always walks by around noon and evening. She would slow down to sneak one or two looks at the bank before walking away."

"Thanks for the report, Ekaterina. I am going for a walk", he announced as he speed-walked towards the door.

She exhaled in relief quietly after his departure.

~

Ignoring people's stares, he went around Liyue Harbor, looking for the petite blonde girl.

"It's afternoon so she is probably training or drawing", he murmured to himself.

When he reached Yujing Terrace, he found Lumine smiling while talking with Aether and Zhongli animatedly. He braced himself some glares before approaching them with a friendly smile, "hey, long time no see."

Unexpectedly, he saw a split second of Lumine's face brightening up upon his appearance before composing herself with a neutral expression. Zhongli nodded at him with a calm expression and Aether replied his greeting with a friendly wave, "Childe, finally done with paper works?"

Childe chuckled tiredly, "yeah, finally."

"So, what are you guys doing?", he asked as he subtly took a place beside silent Lumine.

Aether took out stones of remembrance, "you remember these right?"

Childe looked closely and nodded, "yeah, Lumine and I found some of them before. Why?"

Aether answered with a grin, "well, we got a commission from an archaeologist to investigate a certain ruin Cuijue Slope. And, Zhongli here learned that these stones can be used to open that ruin."

Zhongli nodded, "indeed, after listening to what you have read from the stone tablets around that area, I'm quite certain if we offer these to the nine pillars. The ruins will be opened for us. But, this will be dangerous so I will go along with you."

Lumine told him with a smile, "we would be thankful if you tagged along with us, too. We aren't really experts with word puzzles."

Childe asked her from the side, "can I come along, too? It has been a while since we last hung out."