"Hmm?"
Almost as soon as the words fell.
Before Kai could react.
Jean beside him immediately looked serious and stepped forward.
"Senior Diluc, you have a clue?"
"Of course."
Diluc nodded: "Here's a story I heard from a certain Bard. Would you like to hear it?"
"Please tell."
The theft of the Holy Lyre der Himmel.
For the entire Knights of Favonius and even Jean, it was an undeniable humiliation.
After all, this was an artifact once used by Anemo Archon Barbatos. Failing to protect such a precious cultural heritage implicitly showed how dilapidated the current Knights of Favonius had become.
In this situation, retrieving the Holy Lyre der Himmel.
Was the only way to wash away this disgrace?
Given that, even if there was only a glimmer of hope.
Jean would not let it go!
"The story is very old, probably starting from..."
"Ancient times."
Kai was too lazy to listen to the specific story content, as he still remembered it.
The gist was the reason why Stormterror Dvalin became what it is today: during its battle with the Dragon Durin, its body was infected by the other party's blood, which had been corrupted by the Abyss.
This caused Dvalin to also be infected by the power of the Abyss, falling into a state of consciousness confusion for a long time.
As for what Jean and Lisa suspected.
That Dvalin's rampage was caused by the abandonment of the Four Winds temples.
That was truly just a baseless guess.
However, these matters.
Kai didn't care. What he cared about was... looking at Jean, who was listening intently to the story with a serious expression.
As if he thought of something that gave him an immense headache, Kai sighed slightly.
"Am I still being drawn into the plot?"
Unfortunately, his past memories were really too vague.
Otherwise, if he remembered just a few key nodes a little more clearly.
He could have found ways to avoid all of them and continue his daily life.
"This way, the days ahead won't be easy."
Kai muttered to himself.
Fortunately, he lived in Mondstadt. If he were in Liyue.
He might even have to participate in a relatively large-scale war between gods and demons, which would be even more troublesome.
"Is this the truth about Stormterror that Senior Diluc knows?"
While Kai was sighing.
Diluc and Jean's conversation had already ended.
Recalling the story, he had just heard.
Jean frowned slightly, clearly deep in thought.
To be honest... Jean didn't quite believe that Stormterror's sudden rampage was solely due to the abandonment of the temples dedicated to the Four Winds.
After all, as one of the former Four Winds and a familiar of Anemo Archon Barbatos, Dvalin naturally held deep affection for this city.
Perhaps the abandonment of the temple did make him somewhat angry upon awakening, but it wasn't enough to make him an enemy of all Mondstadt.
In comparison, the story Diluc told clearly aligned more with the truth.
"Kai, what do you think?"
After a brief moment of hesitation, Jean suddenly turned to Kai beside her, asking for his opinion.
"You're asking me?"
Honestly, when it came to work-related issues, Jean rarely consulted Kai.
Or rather, she usually wouldn't bring problems home to avoid causing her husband the same level of trouble.
But now... facing the theft of the Holy Lyre der Himmel, Jean was clearly feeling conflicted.
In this situation, even if she didn't want to bother her husband, having an extra person for an extra opinion wasn't a bad thing.
"I feel like the truth is probably pretty close to what Diluc said."
Since his wife was asking, though a bit surprised, Kai still answered based on the memories in his mind: "The invasion of Mondstadt by the Dragon Durin is documented in the library's books."
"In that battle, Anemo Archon Barbatos and Dvalin fought together, and both disappeared again after that battle. If they fell into slumber due to injuries... then everything makes sense."
"Indeed, an enemy that even The Anemo Archon couldn't defeat alone, and had to summon Dvalin to fight alongside him, must have been incredibly powerful."
Jean nodded slightly, apparently agreeing with Kai.
No... it wasn't that the enemy was too strong.
It was purely that Anemo Archon Barbatos was too weak and had to have his familiar come help.
Kai couldn't help but inwardly complain.
One must know, to become the Anemo Archon back then, it was purely because Andrius, the Wolf of the North, gave up godhood, which allowed Barbatos, who was merely a wind spirit, to gain a divine position for free.
After that, he just slept for hundreds or thousands of years.
If he could still be strong, then that would be truly bizarre.
To call him a god... in fact, apart from having a Gnosis inside him, Barbatos's strength among the Seven Archons was absolutely at the very bottom.
As for the Dendro Archon...
That was purely unexpected, that Khaenri'ah would suffer the Abyss disaster, leading to her accidental death.
If they truly fought, her strength might not have been that weak.
"I understand, so the Traveler's purpose in stealing the Holy Lyre der Himmel... is to use the Holy Lyre der Himmel to summon Stormterror, and then purify the poisonous blood within him?"
The Traveler has the ability to purify Abyss infection.
That red crystal, in fact, was the tears shed by Stormterror due to his suffering from the Abyss, and the impurities within it were all considered Abyss energy.
It was precisely because of this that Lisa's Vision would repel it.
Of course, all of this, for now, even if Diluc's words were well-reasoned, Jean, as the Acting Grand Master, couldn't simply trust it from any perspective.
After a moment of thought, she suddenly looked at Kai again.
"Kai... what would you do?"
Kai, who was idly spacing out, was suddenly roused by this question.
Looking at Jean's somewhat expectant expression, he thought for a moment and almost instinctively replied, "Of course, I'd just call the Traveler over and talk face-to-face!"
"Didn't he say he could purify the so-called Abyss infection? Then let him show us the purified crystal, and it'll prove it."
Hiss... something's not right.
Staring at his wife's satisfied and approving expression, Kai felt like he had been set up in secret.
What was she trying to do?