Eye Of The Storm || Diluc X Reader

Chapter 24: A Gust Of Chalk

It'd been five days since your encounter with Mona. Five days since you didn't return to the city once again. To say you were in rough shape was an understatement.

You'd been adventuring into Liyue alone in the past five days, taking whatever dared to look at you the wrong way. Most of the time, you never left without a few bad cuts. Currently you were limping your way towards Dragonspine on top of the hills where Stone Gate was.

Your body was sore from the countless fights, sometimes even having to fend off a few Millelith that saw you as a threat. You were beaten up pretty badly, but still awake and moving- and that's all that really mattered to you.

You decided it would be best to head into Dragonspine until you recovered a bit and as well as avoiding the winery in general. The last thing you wanted was to run into Diluc in such a bad shape.

You kept trudging towards the foot of the mountain, the cold whips of wind caused your skin to prickle with goosebumps.

It was a common thing for people who go into Dragonspine to have a near experience with hypothermia.

Your whole entire core shuttered when you walked into the white landscape, though your wounds felt nice to have something cold on them for once. You watched your feet as they made a small trail in the snow, perfectly capturing your foots shape.

The random snowy region of Dragonspine next to Liyue and Mondstadt had always confused you.

You focused on your visible breath in the cold when you walked to who knows where, not bothered to make a mental path of where you were going. Who knows, it'll be fun getting lost in the mountains for a bit. Even then, it was a bit strange that you didn't see as many knights out to try and look for you since you were gone for a bit.

But you wanted it to stay that way.

You trailed along the path, walking up the natural slope to get a bit of a better view of what was going on around the small lake. To your surprise, you saw a cleared out treasure hoarder camp and a blonde man just standing there- painting.

It didn't take long for him to notice you standing there, actually it felt like he knew you were coming at how level headed he stared at you. He turned away from you, taking his attention to an unlit campfire and lighting it as an invitation to go and join him.

You quietly made your way down the slope and towards the camp, just slow enough that you wouldn't be on the verge of tears. The cold snow was now making your feet numb from your shoes, each small crunch of snow only making the feeling stronger and stronger. When you finally made it to the lake side and near the camp, he simply turned away once more to work on his painting.

You reached the now lit campfire almost shivering, but keeping quiet to not disturb him as you sat down to warm up a bit. The fire was just enough to restore sensation back into your feet but not enough to take care of your screaming wounds.

"I thought you wouldn't return here after your encounter last time." He spoke flatly as his eyes remained fixed on his painting.

Last time? Now that you'd think about it, he looked slightly familiar, though you couldn't really tell as his back was turned to you.

"I believe I never caught your name last time." You spoke, warming your hands on the fire.

You heard the ground shift a bit as his blue eyes fell on you. You broke your gaze on the fire to meet his analytical eyes.

"I'm Albedo, chief alchemist of the Knights of Favonius." He spoke softly, folding his arms nicely across his torso.

"If you're with the knights then I'm lead to believe you know of my name already." You hummed, standing up ever so slowly.