Stolen Treasure - beigguang

Chapter One

Three short raps sounded against Ningguang's door, signalling her attention away from her paperwork.

"Lady Ningguang? You wanted more information about possible ways to investigate and stop the Treasure Hoarders from the inside. I have prepared some files for you listing possible solutions." Ganyu's soft-spoken voice could barely be heard through the thick wood of the door.

Ningguang placed down her pen and made her way to the door, opening it. "Thank you, Miss Ganyu. Would you like to join me for some tea after a finish reviewing it? We could go to Wanmin and taste their Black-Back Perch Stew, which I hear goes quite well with their peppermint tea."

"Ah! I would love to, but I have some work I must attend to. I'm afraid I'll have to decline for now," Ganyu gave a bashful, shy smile, before delicately placing a few files in Ningguang's waiting hands. "Besides, it looks like you have some work to attend to as well."

"It seems I do. We'll have to put a rain check on the tea then; perhaps next Wednesday would be amenable to you?"

"Wednesday sounds fine! I'm looking forward to it, Lady Ningguang."

"As am I," Ningguang spoke, but Ganyu was already shuffling out of her office. "Well, I've got work to do, I suppose."

Ningguang begrudgingly walked back to her desk with the files, placing her previous paperwork to the side for later. She picked up the first out of five files Ganyu had brought her- it was going to be a long day. She noticed that each of these files had clearly been labelled based on subject, and within the files, colour-coded based on relevance. Ah, the Yuheng must've reviewed these files. Ningguang felt a bit bad; Keqing already had enough work on her plate, let alone having to deal with a minor concern such as permanently stopping Treasure Hoarders. If need be, they could just temporarily wipe them out and deal with them later.

The first file was labelled, "Spies". Spies, hm? Ningguang flicked to the first page, which detailed that the main idea was to send a spy within the Treasure Hoarder's ranks to find out who the big boss was, and then defeat them. After that page, there was a list of all possible spies, sorted by their likelihood of being able to complete the task. Curiously enough, down the bottom of the very last page, was a messy, unorganized scrawl, "Should we suggest Beidou?". It had clearly been forgotten about, but it was unlike the Yuheng to be unorganised. Keqing left the note there on purpose.

Ningguang had eyes and ears all throughout Liyue Harbour, so she was not unfamiliar with Captain Beidou, the pirate whom the kids by the dock so heavily idolised. Strangely enough, she had never lain eyes on Beidou in her life, despite how frequently the children said she was here. Ningguang also reflected on the fact that none of the adults by the dock even spoke about Beidou, so Ningguang had to admit, she thought the captain was a made-up character in the kids' childhood games. But if the Yuheng had mentioned this Beidou... maybe it was time to take a closer look.

...

"Do you think she found it?" Ganyu questioned.

The Yuheng glanced over her desk at the other. "Undoubtedly. The real question here is; did she take the bait?"

...

"Beidou! Beidou!!! Captain Beidou!!!" All the kids cheered at the docks as the Alcor sailed into the harbour.

The salty ocean breeze swept Beidou's hair away from her face as she stuck a majestic, heroic, absolutely amazing pose at the front of her ship. Her and the rest of the crew had just returned from a trading trip to Inazuma and were absolutely exhausted. So was she, but she had a reputation to uphold!

As soon as the Alcor was properly docked, Beidou quickly helped set up a ramp from the ship to the dock, before speed-walking as fast as she could towards the children playing at the dock. Couldn't set a bad example of running around water, oh no. She was so excited to give each of them their own souvenir. Beidou had thought long and hard about each and every one of the gifts she brought from Inazuma and hoped they all liked their gifts.

Reaching the kids, the children immediately assaulted the captain in a bone-crushing squeeze, almost cracking a rib or two from their vice-like grip.

"Beidou! We missed you so much!"

"Yeah! Yeah! You're the best pirate ever, sailing across the seas!!!" The children positively screamed in delight, and their faces only lit up more when Beidou told them that she'd brought extra-special souvenirs from Inazuma.

Beidou handed out three signed copies of an Inazuman light novel to each of the kids. Signed! Copies! It had cost her way too much to get something that the children would enjoy. For some reason, the light novels where received with complete silence. The kids' happy faces were now replaced with very confused, almost disappointed ones. Where they... where they not interested in action-packed pirate-themed light novels? She'd assumed because they were obsessed with the fact that she was a pirate. Or perhaps...they couldn't read???? Wait, no, Beidou knows that they all go to school, and they're around eight so they should be able to read. So what was the problem? What had she horribly miscalculated this time?

Little Lulu was the first to speak up, "Beidou...This is written in Inazuman. I can't understand the book if it isn't in Liyuan!"

Oh. Oh, right. Beidou had forgotten that not many Liyue citizens knew a language outside of Liyuan and maybe Mondstadtian. She had completely overlooked and forgotten about the fact that all the light-novels in Inazuma were written in their language.

She had to fix this, now.

"Well, you see, I thought this could be a fun learning opportunity! We can read it all together, and I'll teach you Inazuman along the way! You guys always wanted to learn another language, right?"

The kids' faces immediately brightened again, as if Beidou had flicked on a light switch. Their faces shone with glee, not unlike the vast expanse of glittery stars above on a winter night.

"Yeah! This is so exciting!" The kids screamed in unison. They started jumping around in circles excitedly, then threw themselves at Beidou, giving her a bigger bear-hug than even the one before. "Thank you so much, Captain Beidou! You're the best good pirate ever!!!"

Nice save, Beidou thought to herself, looking around the harbour. She looked around at the beautiful scenery, the people bustling about the marketplace, the familiar red of Liyuan architecture...but she failed to notice a particular set of golden eyes gazing down at her.