God of Alchemy | Genshin Impact x M!Reader

2

Slicing the head off of its body again, Aether sighed in relief. He had just battled one of those monsters for a long while now and he had just defeated it. Well, he hopes he had defeated it. No matter how many times Aether cuts its body, the limbs would regrow and even the amount of blood it lost doesn't matter. "Are you done?" Hearing the squeaky voice, Aether turned around. Seeing his flying companion, Paimon.

Nodding his head, "Just finished and I don't think it's going to start moving again..." Aether hoped that he didn't jinx himself. Checking the body, it didn't seem to have any kind of moments. Aether sighed once again in relief. Already feeling tired right after the battle but he didn't lower his guard just yet. Just in case another monster shows up. 

"Just what are these monsters? I've never seen anything like this before." Paimon looped two fingers around her chin, scanning the monster's dead body. Trying to recall if she had seen this before. But nothing would come up to her mind.

"Do you have any idea, Paimon?" Aether asked, scanning the corpse also. It was insanely similar to a human with the exception of its gray skin and bloodshot eyes. Drool would drip down from its mouth and its teeth were as sharp as those creatures in the sea.

 "How about we go to Jean and tell her this? We're already going back to Mondstadt anyway." Aether nodded at Paimon's suggestion. Since they're already going back, reporting this to Jean shouldn't be a hassle nor a problem. Besides, Aether is still the Honorary Knight of Mondstadt. Ignoring this and not reporting to Jean would just mean that he's just neglecting his duties as a knight. They had just left Springvale some time ago so it shouldn't be too long for them to arrive at Mondstadt.

Upon arriving, the two guards (Swan and Lawrence) saluted at the two and greeted them with warm smiles, "Right! Traveler!" Swan called out to the two. Aether let out a hum as a reply, "Acting Grand Master Jean told me that you should head off towards the headquarters as soon as possible. She has something to tell you." Aether nodded at his message and thanked him before dashing straight to the knight's headquarters with Paimon in tow. Not long after, they've arrived at the knight's headquarters and soon into Jean's office. Nothing much had changed. Except for the fact that a stack of books was placed on the floor of the mini library and stacks of papers were placed on Jean's desk.

Said female hunched over, a tired look on her face. "Jean! We're here!" Paimon announced themselves. 

Aether nodded as a simple greeting. "Huh? I'm glad that you guys are finally here," Jean can't help but say that. With how many reports that she had received on these mysterious monsters, she'd been working non-stop. Recruiting some adventures to escort merchants, assigning some knights, and even doing patrol by herself. To say that she has overworked herself was an understatement. 

"Shouldn't you be taking a break? You look like kinda tired?" Paimon asked, eyeing Jean's haggard look.

"That's what supposed to be happening right now..." Hearing a new voice, both Aether and Paimon looked back. Seeing Lisa in the doorway with a tray of food. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Cutie? Paimon?" She greeted before walking off towards Jean. 

Placing the tray on the table. "Thank you, Lisa. Sorry for troubling in these times." Lisa can't help but sigh in annoyance. 

When has Jean been a bother to her? If only Lisa would've force Jean to take day-offs and let her rest every now and then. "Of course not. It's better if I work alongside you with those reports," she said. 

"So? Why are we called here again?" Paimon asked. A bit eager to exactly know why Jean had wanted to meet them. "Ah! Right!" Jean got up from her seat. Grabbing a few pieces of paper before approaching Aether and Paimon. 

"Have you heard about those new monsters that have been wreaking havoc, correct? There are multiple reports about it and the knights have been handling them but they don't know how to kill it. And only a couple of adventures has successfully killed them so they're been escorting merchants all around." Giving Aether the papers, the blonde male scanned the notes.

A bit surprised at how clean Jean's handwriting is and the notes she took were quite precise. It even included a doodle of how the monsters looked like. Aether wanted to chuckle at how cute it was but it didn't seem right to be chuckling right now.

"We actually battled a few of them! Though it took almost a whole day for us to defeat two of them," Paimon said, a bit exaggerating. 

"Then do you have any means to get rid of them swiftly?" Jean asked, eager to finally found a solution to her problem. 

"We don't... we just cut all of the limbs but they would always regenerate but I did find that cutting off their heads might be a good strategy but they would recover also. But after cutting it off a few times, they wouldn't move so we would assume it's dead," Aether explained. Handing the papers back to Jean. 

The blonde female couldn't help but sigh. "Well... at least we finally found a way but the knights would still have a hard to deal with them," Jean said with a sigh at the end. 

"Come now, Jean... At least we found a way to get rid of them. And with the Aether here, it's going to be fine," Lisa said in an attempt to comfort Jean. 

"That's right, Jean!" Paimon added, "So you shouldn't push yourself too hard!" Paimon crossed her arms on her chest.

Jean grinned at this. Grateful that she has people who always take care of her when she forgets to do it herself. Opening her mouth to say something, she was cut off when the door opened. "Hello! I heard that the traveler is here?" Knowing the familiar voice, all of them glanced towards the door and saw Venti with a smile on his face. 

"Venti! What are you doing here?" Aether asked. A bit shocked that a bard was here at the knight's headquarters and was looking for him. "Well... you see..." Venti rubbed the backside of his neck. 

"What is it? This isn't like you, you know?" Paimon said. Confused about why Venti was so flustered on something.

"Do you perhaps have anything to report about? If so, then please tell me. Don't be so uncomfortable." Jean interjected. 

"It's about those monsters, you see..." Jean's eyes widened. Wondering why the Anemo Archon is concerning himself with this kind of problem. "Lisa? Do you think you can order some food at the Good Hunter for me? I'm getting hungry?" Jean asked, trying to kick her out. To let Venti talk a bit more comfortably. 

"Huh? I mean... sure..." Lisa said. Confused about why Jean would want to get food from Good Hunter when she just delivered food not too long ago. Jean didn't even touch the plate of bolognese that she made for her. Perhaps Jean is craving for more? After all, she's been stressed all this time so she might want to eat a lot more than usual. It didn't take long for Lisa to say farewell and left.

Jean took her seat and faced Venti, "Have you figured out something, Venti?" she asked. Leaning on her chair a bit. 

"It's not like I figured out something but I think I do know a person who might know about it," Venti said. 

"Who is it? Are they willing to handle those monsters for us?" Jean asked a bit too eager. 

"That depends..." Venti rubbed the backside of his neck once again. 

"What do you mean?"

Edited: July 2, 2021