***

As he looked at Hu Tao from every direction, holding her in his arms and making her ears red from embarrassment, he noticed that her Vision amulet wasn't anywhere. She usually had it either on her back, pinned to her bosom or on her coat.

(She must have placed it inside of her pocket.)

Yomite had this thought recently...

He really wondered where the Visions came from. Apparently Lumine didn't have one, but that was kind of self-explanatory considering she also wasn't a being of this world.

"I dunno...It just appeared in my bag one day...I don't really need it honestly, but it does help sometimes. Of course, I don't need it to kick my dear assistant down into the dirt during spars~"

Was Hu Tao's carefree answer. He will beat her up badly one day, he promised himself that...

And as for Fischl...

"Slowest energy of the shattering moon surged from within my mind and the coldest power of ashen thunder surged around my feet! It answered the summoner's offer and appeared right before my emerald eyes of solemnity, as the electric curse laid upon me sprayed off the hottest of kraken; attending my needs!"

"..."historical

(That's that.)

He wanted to ask Venti about Visions one time, but he simply waved his hand. He didn't want to talk about it. Either something bad happened in his past, or he wasn't allowed to talk about it because of someone, or something...

(I guess I will have to go ask Lisa about it later. Maybe she will know something.)

Lisa Minci, the librarian disliked people, and even more so, going out. He noticed this before, but all she did was lay on the couch and drink tea..This kind of life was enviable.

She was reluctant and lazy to leave the library at first, but seeing that Yomite kept Jean's secret, she decided to help him out a bit.

Lisa was apparently a powerful mage recognized as Sumeru Academia's most distinguished graduate in over 200 years.

A prodigy in elemental magic, who now occupied the library of Knights of Favonius like a lazy bum, doing nothing the whole day but existing.

He didn't believe it at first, but her extensive knowledge about elements was frightening. She saw through Yomite's Tempus of Particles cube ability with one look just like Iris did, and even mentioned that he should try changing its form into something more manageable first, giving him some good pointers.

Yomite was thinking about this for a long time now..

While he definitely got better with the control of the cube and he no longer needed to worry about killing his own teammates by his stupidity and lack of control of the ability, the time it took to form the cube was still nowhere near enough...

(If I could create it in a blink of an eye...it would be neat...but so far it doesn't seem to be possible..)

Yomite wondered whether changing the form and tuning down the output of the cube ability would make it easier to cast.

He was thinking of summoning it like a laser from his eyes, palm or even fingers instead of the cube. Although the most logical one was probably the fingers, as he would be able to aim the laser pretty well.

The palm wasn't bad, and as for the eyes...that seemed a bit too dangerous to play around with..

He wasn't going to be Clark Kent any time soon.

If he remembered correctly, Superman's skill was called Heat Vision which was the power to project beams of concentrated heat from one's eyes. Pretty cool, but a potent and dangerous ability.

Not to mention, he could also regulate the temperature of his output, which ranged from gently breathing warmth onto something or someone, to reaching levels hot enough to melt steel or strong enough to demolish a skyscraper..

Such power would be way too hard to control without adequate training and hardships.

..

..

.

"Doesn't it look a bit childish..?" Hu Tao asked as she pulled on her collar.

She looked at herself in the mirror many times, she had to admit it was very fancy and fashionable, something she wasn't used to wearing.

At first she wasn't sure if it fit her, but the woman named Blanche complimented her a whole lot, and even the women workers who were stationed inside only gave her praises.

She loved the dress and it was comfortable to wear, yet somehow it seemed as if every person on the street turned to look at her, which made her remember how it was back home in Liyue..

That bitter memory made her think whether she should want the dress or not, else it might attract unwanted attention.

"No way! The dress looks amazing! A gothic lolita!" She rolled her eyes at Yomite's outburst but smiled at him nonetheless.

If only he put so much passion into training.

Still, it felt weird for her to be complimented by so many people.

Usually she only ever received praises for performing soul parting rituals and for her professionalism.

Hearing it from people around her just because she put on fancy clothes felt weird, albeit really nice.

Ever since meeting him, her life changed and turned all around for the better.

For some unknown reason, tears welled up at the corner of her eyes but she blinked them away and tried to smile.

Hu Tao was truly glad she didn't cut him down back then in the forest of Wolvendom when they first met.

In the forest where he lied...

Back then...he told her an obvious lie about eating a squirrel that granted him the aura of death...

Not a chance...

The cycle of death did not work that way.

The aura of death only appeared on people that died and were about to turn into vengeful spirits.

There was an exception to that rule, of course. There always was, which was why she was so interested in him and followed him around.

She told herself she would observe him, simply because cases like his were interesting, rare and strange.

She only knew of one other individual like him. Her name was Qiqi.

The little girl who died in the past and was revived by the power of mighty Adepti.

She was a poor soul who emanated the aura of death and vengeful spirit, yet all she wanted to do was to live.

She had no intention of hurting anyone as she was completely harmless. The fear of death in her gaze and her desperate attempts to run from Hu Tao was apparent, so Hu Tao made an exception.

If that reached the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor elders, she was bound to be punished severely.

And she was bound to do the same exception again.

Clenching the hem of the skirt in her hands, she made a decision..

There was no longer any point in going back to Liyue...