Scara becomes a scholar...? [Genshin Impact Crackfic]

- Prologue -

Before we start... please note that this is a repost (with permission) of an existing fanfic called "Scara becomes a scholar...?" on Ao3. Please remember to support the author, SkittleMilkz, on Ao3! This fic wouldn't be alive without them ^_^

I'll speak on the author's behalf but this story gets pretty canon-divergent. They wrote this months before it was officially confirmed that cyno wasn't a vahumana scholar!! so just keep that in mind in case you get confused (cuz i was too til I read the published date). 

Oh also apparently english isn't the author's first language so there might be some errors here and there, but nothing too big. personally i've enjoyed the book so far, and i hope you will too.

with all that aside,

Happy reading! 

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"You think I'm just gonna pull up there and spend my time with those-- those, what? Those snobby, good-for-nothing scholars?" Wanderer sneered in disbelief.

He stomped his foot angrily on the luminescent floor of the sanctuary. Nahida was standing before him. He couldn't quite discern what her intention was, but he knew she held no malicious motives, and that was the sole thing keeping him from exploding.

He was being forced to go to school, by the Dendro Archon no less. The situation was ridiculous in itself.

" I'm older than anyone in that Akademiya for archon's sake--- Hell. I'm the same age as you, Buer! " his vision growed brightly at his outburst, reacting to his splurge of emotions.

"The change of scenery might be nicer than it lets on. You should give it a chance." Nahida floated to the flower-shaped table situated in the middle of the sanctuary and seated herself. She patted the space beside her.

" What am I even supposed to do there? Suck up to the teachers?" He rolled his eyes and sat next to her, " Oh sir, you're so silly! 13 raised to the power of 2 isn't 144, it's 169! " he yapped mockingly, folding his hands to make it look like a makeshift-mouth.

Nahida giggled, pulling out an envelope from her back. It had the Vahumana darshan symbol on it, " everything you'll need to know about it should be written here." Wanderer raised his eyebrows.

She struggled to open the tight-sealed letter. Her small hands did nothing but crease the edges of the letter's envelope He would normally ridicule other people for being unable to do something, but he didn't make fun of her for it.

Nahida handed the (still sealed) letter to Wanderer and smiled apologetically, mumbling out a ' sorry I can't open it '. Wanderer scoffed and took the envelope from her hands, opening it with ease. (He cheated a little bit by cutting through the swax using his anemo, but no one needed to know that. )

He took a quick look at the contents of the letter, squinted his eyes, and handed it back to Nahida. The letter contained intricate words, and as much as he hated to admit it, he's not that well-versed in reading. The fact that it was written in cursive was not helping at all.

He grumbled under his breath.

Nahida took in his silent distress. She carefully read the letter out loud and made sure to explain parts that could be too difficult to digest. Wanderer's eyebrows were furrowed angrily (he was silently cursing whoever invented cursive) but he was grateful for her gesture.

-

"Oh, Mr. Wanderer, you're really amazing at this! " Janaki, a fellow Vahumana scholar, praised. She clapped as he finished presenting another finding. Other scholars joined in the praising too (while some stayed in the corner and observed him silently).

Wanderer felt himself preen at the scholars' words. He's been getting a lot of compliments lately, and hearing one everytime he presented was exhilarating. He already came up with an assumption that they're only being nice to him because he has connections to the dendro Archon, but he decided it was better to revel in the moment while it lasted.

When Wanderer was first assigned to Vahumana, he wasn't expecting to be immediately given work to translate Dahri ruins (Archaic Khaenr'iahn term). He assumed they were testing him, to see what the Dendro Archon's right-hand-man had in store. (Maybe to find his weakness?, he thought) Surprisingly, translating the runes felt like second nature to him, so he was quick to make inscriptions digestible for the common folk, which then soon earned him a name in his darshan.

" The Wandering Dahri " when Wanderer first earned the title he boasted about it to Nahida for hours. At least those pungy scholars know I'm above them, he tutted.

Nahida would always ask him how his day went. It first annoyed him to no ends, but he soon found himself rambling to the archon about 'some annoying scholar he had to be paired up with for an assignment', compliments he received, and things he learned that seemed cool.

School life was good.

-

School life is not good.

The Vahumana scholars (which includes him now apparently) were assigned new work. Each assignment was different for each scholar, and Wanderer was assigned to investigate some ruins far in the desert.

To help them on their assignment they were paired up with Vahumana graduates. Wanderer was paired up with a matra. Whoever it was, he didn't know nor care, but they better not bring him down.

Wanderer tapped his foot in frustration. All his other classmates had already set off while he's still in the Akademiya, standing by a corner. His partner was running late.

Their teacher promised him that his partner was efficient, reliable, and incredibly great in his field. But if that was the case, pray tell, why isn't this oh-so-reliable partner here yet? He huffed angrily. If this matra was late for another minute he was just gonna set off in his own.

He spent the next minute conjuring up malicious thoughts about his 'reliable' partner. (He would probably not act on it though. He didn't wanna upset Nahida.)

A pair of feet entered his line of vision, one he didn't pay any attention to, until the owner coughed in-front of him.

He peered up and raised his eyebrows. The man before him was shirtless...? he averted his gaze and locked his eyes with theirs.

"Are you the Wanderer by any chance?" Wanderer offhandedly nodded as the man introduced himself. "I'm Cyno, the General Mahamatra of the Akademiya. I will be your partner for this assignment."

"You took your sweet time getting here," he took in the matra's appearance, "yet you couldn't even grab yourself a shirt."

Cyno felt irked at the comment on his appearance, but he forced a polite smile at the blue clad man before him. "I apologize for being late. I was on-duty capturing a criminal."

Wanderer grinned smugly at the man before him, quipping, "ok hotshot, whatever you say," before walking away with their assignment's location in mind.

Cyno sighed in his head exasperatedly. This Wanderer person was definitely gonna be a pain in the ass for him. 

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I'm still not over how I didn't get yelan on my acc T-T) pls come home to me on ur rerun, my ayaka and yanfei can't share xingqiu in abyss huhuhuhu