Chapter 1: Invitation to Mundane Life

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Sunlight peeks through the windows of the Serenitea Pot, indicating that morning has long came. Although time itself remains relatively stationary in the Serenitea Pot, Lumine had insisted Tubby to include a day-night cycle regardless. With much insistence from Lumine, Tubby finally relented and added it in in a flash. The realm of the adepti sure is a unique existence of its own, Lumine once marveled.

Ever since she owned the Serenitea Pot, a new task was added to Lumine's bucket list of daily chores --- to obtain materials to furnish the place she now proudly calls home. Tubby, the teapot spirit in charge of the teapot's maintenance also gave Lumine a couple of Realm Dispatches, just in case she wanted to invite a couple of friends over.

Yet despite owning the Serenitea Pot for months on end, things had barely changed since she first got it. Partly because she's often occupied with commissions and tasks at hand, so much so that she didn't have time to really sit down and furnish the teapot. Thus, her realm was nothing more than a few lonely bamboo trees outside of a fancy Liyue-style mansion. (And a few rock formations here and there, if we're counting.)

Thus Lumine was highly self-conscious about inviting people over. (Except for Paimon, who only wanted to show off their realm to others.)

"So Traveller, who are inviting over first? Paimon's curious." asked Paimon, just as they were stepping out of the Serenitea Pot after finishing furnishing it briefly.

"Hmm...I'm not too sure, there are so many friends that we've met along the way." Lumine replied.

"Paimon's definitely inviting Xiangling over! She's such a good cook, if we invite her over, we'll get to eat a lot of yummy dishes every day!" said Paimon, with a sparkle in her eyes.

"I'm...not too sure about that Paimon. Besides, Xiangling's really occupied these days, it'll be better if we wait for some other day." said Lumine, definitely not rejecting the idea of inviting Xiangling over in fear of having to eat some weird slime dishes she's going to make.

"Aww....that's a shame..." said Paimon

Lumine chuckled at Paimon's reaction, but the question still remained, who will she invite for the first time? Sure, her abode is more of a house surrounded with a few lonely bamboo plants and a few rocks here and there, but it was still her home.

It's the thought that counts, she convinced herself, trying not to think about how sorry her realm looked like.

"Huh, this isn't Liyue Harbor. Traveller, why did you teleport us to Wangshu Inn?" asked Paimon, visibly confused by the fact they weren't in Liyue Harbor.

"Huh?" she exclaimed as she snapped out of her thought processes. After discovering that she could interact with any teleport waypoint in Teyvat despite being inside the pot, Lumine had simply gotten used to leaving the pot this way. 

"Uh....oops? Ehe...heh..." said Lumine sheepishly.

"What are you doing here?" a familiar voice rang above them.

The two looked up to find Xiao standing on the roof, a bit peculiar considering that this Yaksha is barely seen at the inn at any given time.

"Xiao! Paimon didn't expect to see you here!" said Paimon as she waved at Xiao, trying to be seen. (Since our little emergency food here is quite bite-sized)

"The demonic activity these days have ceased, thus I have more time than I used to." Xiao said, after he appeared before the traveler and her companion by teleporting off his previous location.

"Waahhh! Can you stop doing that?!"screeched Paimon, terrified at Xiao's sudden appearance.

"Hmph, and you call yourself the traveller's best companion. How can you be counted on if you are scared of something so minute?" questioned Xiao.

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