Something Sweet

Chapter 14

Revised

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Chapter 14

"You're here rather early for someone recovering from a back injury." The cavalry captain smirked, knowing too well the arrangements were all staged. " I didn't expect to see you here before me. But, then again, this would be considered rather urgent." Kaeya casually shrugged.

"Get to the point." Diluc urged.

The request to meet by the riverbed arrived three days after Lisa's visit.

With restrictions on visiting the winery, Kaeya respected the regulation by arranging their meeting point just outside the boundary.

"Where should I start?"

Diluc sighed at the question, "What were they doing inside her residence? Start there."

"Right, right..." Kaeya hummed, stepping closer, "Here. I believe this is yours."

Diluc didn't remove the hood of his cloak, which concealed his hair, as he turned to face the cavalry captain.

With his sight dropping to observe the familiar piece of fabric, Diluc recognized his coat, which happened to be the one he had allowed Jean to wear the night of her rescue. "Why do you have this?"

A thin, forced smile remained on the blue-haired captain, "It was in his hands the night I took him in for questioning."

Diluc couldn't help the short hiss as he vented his setback. Of course, the immediate thought was to question how or where the intruder found it in the first place, but it wouldn't matter at this point. The fact was his personal belongings were found inside Jean's home.

"They know..." They must know--

"Not necessarily... I claimed it as my own and guided the questioning in a different direction."

Another sigh left the scarlet-haired man, "Fair enough. However, I doubt their incentive was to target the life of our Acting Grandmaster inside Mondstadt. Quite a tactless and downright act of suicide if you ask me."

"Reckless and indeed unwise... but after a few days of interrogation, he confessed."

"He confessed?" Diluc raised a brow, sounding completely skeptical over the sudden outcome, "That easy?"

"Well... it was more of a negotiation?" Kaeya sheepishly smiled.

"Negotiation?" Diluc irritably took a step closer, "What do you mean you negotiated? What is there to negotiate when he's clearly guilty of a crime?"

"To start..." Kaeya raised his hands defensively, trying to wave off Diluc's rising temper, "His confession wasn't that of an assassination attempt, but more of a task to look for proof."

"Proof? What proof?"

"Proof of whether or not... Jean is carrying a child. I'm assuming quite a speculation was made after her previous appearance, but to confirm, they had sent someone to investigate since Jean hadn't been seen since that day."

Things weren't adding up... to break into someone's home due to mere curiosity... there had to be another motive. Looking back at things, the fatui have been continuously crossing lines within Mondstadt, which could raise tension and threaten the peace. But why Jean? Why was their attention suddenly fixated on her? Was it her position as acting grandmaster, or... "For what reason?"

"To put it bluntly, he needed proof of Jean's condition. Whether Jean was pregnant or not, that's what he was tasked to confirm." Kaeya shrugged, unsure of the reasoning. "I found his answer farfetched, so I negotiated his freedom to--"