Seeing Jean out on the streets of Mond was always worthy of attention.
The citizens were fervently loyal to the blonde woman, and revered her enough to mostly let her confident stride uninterrupted, assuming she was straight down to business, even though most times whatever little problem they had in their lives and every small request was sent straight to her desk without a second consideration for her health.
This time she pretty much strode into Angel's Share without anyone getting in her way together with a rather huge group of individuals all possessing Visions, and what appeared to be the young Visionless man who drove the Stormterror away a few days ago.
Those who wanted to go for a drink immediately turned around and went to the Cat's Tail tavern instead, as not to bother them, and those who were dead drunk inside of the tavern also left, afraid there would be consequences if they didn't...
Anyone could tell something big was about to go down, even the Fatui were silently gazing from afar and wondering what was happening.
The biggest problem the group was facing currently, was that they didn't have enough people.
Lisa was too tired to be useful. Not to mention, she refused to go outside unless she had to pick up books from poor souls who forgot to return them during the deadline.
She hated people and would only occasionally go out, which was also like once per four months. A complete shut-in.
Amber was busy patrolling the borders of Mondstadt and Liyue. It would take them ages to contact her and Jean felt like Amber wasn't ready to face danger of that caliber yet.
If things were to go south, they would be forced to fight with Stormterror and Amber was the kind of person who would freeze in fear during a battle against such a terrifying opponent.
Same for Noelle.
That only left the Daredevil, Kaeya, who was currently nowhere to be found...
The only clue they had was that he might be in the Angel's Share pub with Diluc, but the chances were pretty low, so asking Diluc was also in motion.
"Welcome to the Angel's...Ugh...Jean... and...Kaeya's brother..." The familiar and ever-so irritated voice greeted them dully from behind the counter. "I thought my day couldn't get any worse."
Yomite let out a sigh, "Why are you still calling me Kaeya's brother... shouldn't I be your brother in that sense too?"
"Absolutely not. I have nothing to do with him and his games. He can even adopt three more sisters and twenty brothers for all I care. I am a single child and I always was."
Muffling a chuckle, Jean sat atop of one of the stools in front of the counter. "Hard day, sir?"
Her group followed her and sat down on the empty stools. Wondering what this 'sir' thing was all about.
Half smiling, the tavern owner shot a sharp stare straight to her eyes and kept cleaning glasses.
"Stop calling me sir...That was a long time ago. No need to bring it up. It's uncomfortable. We are no longer colleagues. I don't work for those incapable Knights of Favonius anymore..."
"Oh, right...I'm sorry, Diluc." She smiled, looking at the floor tiles, admitting that the term was probably still going to linger for a little while longer in her vocabulary, and not by her choice.
The name Diluc, was known to every Knight.
He used to be an indispensable force in the Knight ranks.
A young genius Knight that got a Vision which burned full of passion.
Everything was going smoothly, until that tragedy happened.
On Diluc's eighteenth birthday, he and his father, Crepus, were returning from Angel's Share to Dawn Winery, which was where their mansion was located, when they were suddenly attacked by a dragonic creature that plagued Mondstadt for over thousand years, named Ursa the Drake.
Even Diluc with his Vision was unable to land a scratch on it, but his father, Crepus managed to drive it away, unfortunately losing his life in the process.
With a heavy heart, Diluc returned to the Knights' Headquarters in Mondstadt only to receive an unthinkable order from an inspector: "Conceal the truth."
Higher-ups insisted that the incident must be portrayed as an unfortunate accident in order to maintain the reputation of the Knights of Favonius in the eyes of the public.
Such was the sheer outrageousness of this request that Diluc did not think it was even worth trying to argue.
Diluc's father had once said to him that the world would never turn its back on the faithful.
But now, the Knights of Favonius trampled on his faith like it was nothing.
So much for the city of freedom.
Following this, he resigned from the Knights that day and left everything behind, including his heart.
An unknown time after Crepus' tragic death, the Fatui somehow managed to slay the calamity called Ursa.
This incident indebted Mondstadt to Snezhnaya and forced them into a less favorable position with the Fatui.
Now, if Mond were to lose Stormterror, or worse, If Jean was forced to ask the Fatui for help to deal with the Stormterror, she would have practically given away full control of the city to them.
Which would be unacceptable.
Losing her train of thought, she then remembered why they had come here in the first place.
She looked around and simply stated, "Kaeya isn't here," making it sound more like an assertion than a question in itself.
She had just noticed.
But this expedition needed him. He was a powerful individual.
One of the best Knights currently residing in the city.
Hearing his name however, the stance of the red haired guy shifted dramatically. He turned his back on her and reached for another glass.
"What makes you think he would be here?" He turned again, but wasn't exactly facing her.
"You're his boss. If the guy isn't at his office during working hours then you might consider it as a discipline problem."
Jean sighed, tilting her head and staring back at him with a grave tone in her voice. "How long are you two going to keep up with this nonsense?"
Dryly, Diluc only answered, "Don't know what you're talking about."
"Seriously?" She shifted on the stool and faced away from him. "Mond has been sitting on edge since you guys stopped calling each other 'brothers' and we all just--"
"Mondstadt sits on the edge practically whenever something just happens," He interrupted, "This is why everyone drinks so much. There is nothing else to do. It's a very boring city."
"Stop changing the subject..."
"I didn't know there was a subject. You came here looking for Kaeya. He's not here. That's about it. You can leave now, if you are not ordering anything. You have a rather large group sitting next to you, blocking stools for potential customers."
