Knights of Favonius Headquarters... Kai lay leisurely on the sofa.
Lumine and Diluc sat on chairs not far away.
As for Venti, he stood awkwardly to the side, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the slightly silent atmosphere.
Before they set off, Diluc had suggested that they meet at Dawn Winery.
After all, due to past events, Diluc held a considerable amount of animosity towards places like the Knights of Favonius.
In this situation... Diluc was clearly not too willing to enter the Knights of Favonius's territory.
The problem, however, was that the Temple of the Thousand Winds was too far from Dawn Winery.
Kai's teleportation waypoint had not yet unlocked that far.
Additionally, Jean was leading the Knights of Favonius on an expedition, so they would obviously have to return to Mondstadt first.
In this situation, after careful consideration, it was indeed easier to meet at the Knights of Favonius Headquarters.
"Although he seems quite resistant to the Knights of Favonius on the surface,"
"I don't see you looking very uncomfortable sitting here."
Kai scratched his head, looking at Diluc, and couldn't help but start chatting with the somewhat tsundere winery owner.
"Hmph, this is a one-time thing."
"Don't expect it again."
Diluc replied coldly, getting up somewhat irritably and walking towards a nearby bookshelf.
He clearly didn't want to discuss this topic further.
"Kai, what exactly happened between Master Diluc and the Knights of Favonius?"
Paimon couldn't help but rub her head, watching the two's somewhat strange conversation with wide eyes.
She was clearly very confused.
She seemed to recall Lisa mentioning something about past events that made Master Diluc extremely unwilling to set foot in the Knights of Favonius's headquarters.
But the problem was, from Paimon's perspective, she could clearly feel that at least when it came to Mondstadt... Diluc genuinely wanted to protect it.
This could be seen from his unreserved efforts to establish an intelligence network after the Stormterror incident,
and his subsequent actions in defeating the Fatui and collecting tear crystals.
In this situation, he inexplicably had such a strange relationship with the Knights of Favonius, who represented the protection of Mondstadt.
This made little Paimon, and even Lumine,
feel very curious.
"I'm not at liberty to answer that."
"If you're really curious, you can ask Diluc."
Kai explained casually.
Although he occasionally teased Diluc, he wouldn't casually tell others about such sensitive matters.
"After all, this matter is Diluc's unresolved issue."
"If the issue can't be resolved…"
"Then the problem can absolutely never be solved."
In fact, the feud between Diluc and the Knights of Favonius probably involved the previous generation of Mondstadt's high-ranking officials.
At that time, Mondstadt was arguably at its weakest period in history.
Among the Four Winds… Dvalin, the Dragon of the East, had fallen into a deep slumber.
The titles of Dandelion Knight of the South Wind Lion and North Wind Wolf Knight were vacant.
This indirectly led to the entire Knights of Favonius being leaderless.
Out of necessity, there even appeared a so-called Inspector General leading the Knights of Favonius.
This dramatic scene unfolded. It was precisely because of this that, under the distinctive leadership style of this Inspector General,
for the sake of upholding the Knights of Favonius's honor, he forcibly covered up the heroic sacrifice of Diluc's father, Crepus, in a battle against a demonic dragon. It was precisely because of this… that an enraged Diluc chose to leave the Knights of Favonius.
To this day, he still cannot resolve this issue.
He even maintained a non-cooperative stance with the Knights of Favonius for a long time.
It wasn't until he met Kai… that he would occasionally provide information to Kai, which could be considered indirectly helping the Knights of Favonius.
"If that incident had happened two years later,"
"And encountered Varka leading the Knights of Favonius, or Jean commanding,"
"This kind of thing probably wouldn't have happened."
Gazing at Diluc's back as he read alone,
Kai thought to himself, feeling a little helpless.
"Forget it, after Varka returns from the expedition."
"I'll quickly resolve this matter."
Depriving others of their honor is not something the Knights of Favonius should do.
At least if Kai were a high-ranking official of the Knights of Favonius, he would absolutely not pull off such an outrageous move.
Fortunately, after that Inspector General was discovered to have signs of treason, he immediately fled Mondstadt at light speed.
Otherwise, if he continued such distinctive behavior… honestly, Kai was really afraid he wouldn't be able to resist.
He might sneak into the other party's house in the middle of the night and directly "snip" him.
"Sorry, I'm back."
Just as Kai was deep in thought, suddenly, a familiar voice sounded from outside the office door.
Immediately after, Jean and Lisa walked in one after another.
Although they had already decided to meet at the Knights of Favonius's headquarters, when they actually saw Diluc, Jean and Lisa still couldn't help but exchange glances.
They were slightly surprised.
"I didn't expect you, Senior Diluc, to actually come."
"Don't misunderstand, it's just Kai's invitation."
Diluc didn't even turn his head, acting extremely cold.
"I'm helping for the sake of Mondstadt; it has nothing to do with the Knights of Favonius."
"Understood, understood…"
"What a tsundere. Actually, if that matter could be resolved,"
"You, Diluc, would probably really want to return to the Knights of Favonius, right?"
Kai complained helplessly.
To put it bluntly, Diluc's feud wasn't with the Knights of Favonius.
It was with the previous Inspector General.
As for Jean and the others, they were merely implicated.
It didn't have much to do with them.
It could be said… if Varka were to run to the winery now, pat Diluc on the shoulder, and ask for his help, although he might mock him with a few cold words, the final outcome would definitely still be to help him out.
Of course, afterwards, he would have to add that it was in the name of Mondstadt.
"Hmph!"
Not understanding what tsundere meant, Diluc snorted in response.
"Anyway, how did things go on your end?"
Walking in front of Jean, he carefully scrutinized her body back and forth.
After confirming that there were indeed no injuries,
Kai finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked.
"The intelligence wasn't wrong; we indeed found the tear crystal in Dadaupa Gorge."
Jean nodded, taking the wooden box containing the crystal from Lisa's hand.
Indicating that the item was inside.
"And when we went there, we found that the Hilichurl seemed to be worshipping it as some kind of sacred object."
"Now it seems, Dvalin…"
"Was indeed affected by the Abyss Mage before this situation occurred."
The matter of Hilichurl being connected to the Abyss is basically known throughout the entire continent of Teyvat.
If everything before was merely a judgment based on various pieces of intelligence,
then now, Jean could probably be 100% certain.
Dvalin's current state is absolutely related to the Abyss.
And this impurity appearing in the dragon tears is also the purest Abyss power.
"Don't worry, since Venti said he could solve Dvalin's problem with the Holy Lyre der Himmel,"
"Then there's absolutely no problem; Jean, you don't need to worry too much."
Kai smiled as he took the wooden box, then pinched Jean's cheek to comfort her.
Only then did he turn to look at Venti.
"The dragon tears have been collected."
"The rest is up to you…"
"No problem, our Bard?"