Eleutheromania (Various Genshin x Reader)

Golden House Battle -41-

When tasked with thinking about dangerous animals, people often naïvely neglected birds for whatever reason. Yet you'd make the case that birds were some of the most dangerous (natural) creatures in Teyvat. While animals like sharks were confined to the ocean, or lions kept on land, birds had the freedom of the sky - the overseers of both land and sea.

The Red-Shouldered Hawk, for example, hunted both fish and small mammals like mice, chipmunks (even Paimons if they're ambitious enough). It all depends on availability. They'd even be willing to eat other birds and, though you haven't heard of any recorded cases, you wondered if this bird-of-prey would be willing to prey on hummingbirds.

Well, you suppose you were about to find out.

~*~

You remembered seeing the Golden House as a kid, never going inside but always being amazed at the imposing structure. For a while, you had believed that it was Rex Lapis' palace. Alas, it was only a minting house made of gold and precious Nanmu wood containing the majority of Liyue's (and perhaps the rest of Teyvat's) wealth.

Despite this, the house lacked any security it would usually have. This was, of course, incredibly suspicious - but Aether still marched through the doors without a care in the world and, miraculously, wasn't immediately jumped upon entering.

"Wow... This is the Golden House?" Paimon breathed out in disbelief, "It looked impressive enough from the outside... But who would've guessed that it was even fancier on the inside... and so full of Mora!!!" The little pixie squealed in awe.

Indeed, the inside was somehow even more impressive than the outside. It could easily be mistaken for Rex Lapis' palace/treasure hoard with the oceans of Mora beneath you. Still, you were a little more preoccupied by the suspended corpse of the Geo Archon himself at the far end of the room to notice. So Morax eternally rested amongst his most beloved creation aside from Liyue itself, a fitting tribute albeit a suspicious context.

Paimon floated towards the edge of the platform to look over the mountains of money. "This is where all of Teyvat's Mora is minted, right? In that case, maybe they won't notice if a few Mora go missing..." She said with a mischievous glint in her eyes before you grabbed the back of her collar and hastily pulled her away.

"Don't even think about it," you hissed, "not even Treasure Hoarders like Freckle Huang are dumb enough to steal directly from this place. Touch a single Mora and we're done for!" You warned. Clearly, if stealing was that easy, this place would have been emptied a long time ago.

Realization spread across the pixie's face. "Ooh, so it's a trap. Tricky, tricky... Good thing Paimon's got an expert thief here! But even if we can't take any, we can still have a closer look, right?" she argued, eyes going back to the gold, "Or better yet, take a nap on top of a mountain of Mora! It's like a dream come true!"

"We'd better check on the Exuvia first," Aether began unsurely as he looked about, "But... something feels amiss here."

You quickly got back on topic with a nod. "You're right. It's too quiet. There's always guards here, especially if the Exuvia was being hidden," you agreed, hand reaching down to cover the hilt of your dagger for reassurance.

The three of you carefully approached the Exuvia, unmoving yet still undeniably majestic. Unfortunately, before you could have too good of a look, Paimon let out a noise of distress. "Huh!? Aether, Y/N, look! What happened here?" She cried.

Both you and the blonde turned to the side of the room, an area hidden by shadows and pillars, only to discover the still bodies of the Millelith. Aether rushed forwards, placing his hand against one of the guards' necks before letting out a strained sigh of relief. "They've only been knocked unconscious," he reported nervously.