VI

For the next few months, that was your routine. Wake up in the early morning, shake Ariel till he had to get up, exercise, practice your archery (you were picking it up rather well if you do say so yourself), and get teased by Kaeya during his evening patrols.

You were handling those better as well. His lean ins and sultry comments. They still made you flustered but they never left you in silence.

Your time in Teyvat has been enjoyable, pleasant, nothing exciting at all… which confused you. Normally, when someone gets isekaied they're right at the beginning of the story, experiencing it alongside whatever twin from the start. However your twin has not shown up, there has not been a single Dvalin attack, and when you asked Kaeya about both, he had only responded with confusion.

It took you too long to realize that you had started before the canon storyline. Kaeya looked the same as he had in the game, and the glimpses you had of Amber when she ran around the city also had her looking like her youthful self, so you assumed that it wasn't too far back. You still had no clue and this waiting was making you somewhat anxious.

Knowing the terror that Dvalin was going to bring on the people and your twin (whichever it turned out to be) losing their sibling, made you sad in a way. Once you had gotten into Genshin, all you wanted to do was go on the adventures and get to know the characters, and you still do, but they weren't characters anymore. This was your new reality and you could no longer think of these people as avatars for a video game. They had thoughts and feelings and made daily decisions. They lived lives with habits there was no way you could know about just by playing the game.

Sara bought back up supplies from the general store across from Good Hunter when she thought she was running out of ingredients in the middle of the day. Flora liked to talk with Marjorie, exchanging fascinating knowledge of flower language and artifact history. Donna really enjoyed the ever so famous sticky honey roast and would visit Good Hunter frequently to have it, often striking up conversation with Sara.

There was an inkling of guilt, something that stirred in your stomach and made you queasy. You were essentially letting this happen, and though you didn't particularly care about the timeline, exposing some kind of psychic knowledge of upcoming events by warning the people to prepare would make everything more difficult. Besides, nothing terrible happened during Dvalin's attacks right? Little destruction here, some tornados there, but nothing too bad?

Ugh, what a bad justification. But if you were known to have the ability to see into the future (because that would be the easiest thing to play it off as) People might start coming to you for help you couldn't give, or expect answers about bad things happening that you didn't have. You didn't even want to know what would happen if someone like Dottore found out that you could see the future.

But it would all work out in the end. Yeah.

For now, you're signing up for the Adventurer's Guild. Your archery has gotten to a point where you could accurately aim, fire, and maybe kill something moving, so if you encountered some weak slimes or one hilichurl, you could survive. Now you could take smaller tasks that were out of the city as well as in, you'd be starting with more jobs available to you.

Skipping up to the counter, Kathryne waved at you with a smile. She greeted you and was very kind as you enthusiastically signed up. Thankfully, you didn’t have to wear one of those hideous green outfits and could keep your snazzy black boots.

Speaking of black boots, your next stop was Ms. Blanchard so you could acquire a side pouch for anything small you might need. You already planned to use one of the better practice bows lying around in the training area, nobody would know it was missing anyway, and a matching quiver, because you could not magically summon an infinite supply of arrows. However, you managed to buy some cheap medical supplies, which probably wasn’t a good thing but whatever, and you wanted a nice bag to carry them around in on your commissions. Unfortunately, you didn’t think the wondrous Teyvat Fried Egg would be able to save you if you keeled over from a particularly hard slime shove.

You swung open the door to Ms. Blanchard’s little corner store and walked up to her counter. You greeted her with a smile and she did the same. Her white hair was done up in an elegant bun with a couple frayed locks falling in her face and a green dress hugged her thin figure. Her hands were clasped neatly.

"What can I do for you today [y/n]?" Her lightly accented voice was pleasant.

"I just need a side bag for my adventures." You drummed your fingers on the counter.

Ms. Blanchard's eyes seemed to light up a little more. "Oh yes, you're starting the Adventurer's Guild right?"

Spreading your fingers across the counter you leaned forward slightly. "Yup! I was making sure on our deal to always buy my accessories here."

"Well I have just the thing for you!" Her fingers fluttered with excitement as she shuffled over to the backroom, calling out to continue the conversation as she did. "I've been preparing this since you told me a week or so ago that you planned to join soon."

You waved your hands in a dismissive manner, despite the fact that she couldn't see you. "Ms. Blanchard you didn't have to do that!" You called out. "I mean, I'm incredibly grateful but you didn't have to make me anything!"

"Nonsense!" Her voice traveled back to the door and she emerged with a brown leather bag clutched between her spindly fingers. She placed it on the counter and pushed it towards me. Her insistent look had me crumbling immediately.

Picking it up you felt the smooth leather under your rough fingers, the small buckles chilling your hands. It was definitely a nice bag. Big enough to carry plenty but small enough not to be a nuisance. It had one strap near the top of the biggest poach that went around your waist and a smaller strap near the middle that wrapped around your thigh, making sure it wouldn't move around to fall off so easily.

Putting it on you tightened the straps properly and shook my leg a little. Small giggles had your face burning but you smiled nonetheless.

"Alright." You conceded. "How much is the bag?"

Ms. Blanchard clapped her hands. "10 mora."

You choked. "10?!" Your eyes widened at her nod. "Ms. Blanchard," you were practically sputtering at this point. "This is worth at least 3000! This is a really nice bag! I can’t take it for 10!"

Her face hardened and her hands went to her hips. "You can and you will. I have enough money to live the rest of my life without this store. It may not look like it but this place is quite popular and I make good money."

Her stern frown faded and she walked around the counter to grab your hands. "I didn't give you a lot to survive. I'm actually surprised that you made it this long, you must have rationed it well." She patted your hands, that familiar warmth calming you down. "I can spare a bag for a kind youngin like you."

"Thank you." You clapped her hands harder, but not enough to hurt. "Thank you so much, I don't know what I'd do without you."

She chuckled. "Well don't be too excited." She bumped you with her hip and walked back around the counter. "Once you start making good money, these prices are going right back up."

You laughed and fished out the mora necessary, handing her the ten. "That's fair."

A million thank yous and a goodbye later had you walking out of Ms. Blanchard’s store with a nice new leather bag.

It was still early in the morning, you wanted to sign up for the guild as fast as you could so you could do commissions that day. Graciously, you let Ariel sleep in while you do these errands and sure enough, when you get back to your inn room, he was still curled up in his love seat, sunlight reflecting off of him in a way that truly made him look angelic.

You shook him awake, his eyes blinking before catching you and smiling. "Hey."

"Hey." You responded, a soft smile on your own face. "It's time to do commissions."

"You signed up?"

"While you were asleep." You confirmed.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

You shrugged. "I wanted to let you sleep in. I figured that once I get a hang of my commissions I could let you sleep through them and I'll wake you up closer to noon."

"But what if you get hurt?" Looking over to him you saw a hint of panic in his eyes.

You held out your hand and he grabbed it. "I did say 'once I get a hang of it' for a reason. I would never want you to worry on purpose but commissions can be tedious and I didn't think you wanted to tag along every single time."

“You’re right. I just want you to be careful.”

“Awwww.” You nicked his jaw with your knuckle and went to walk back out the door, your angelic friend following behind.

-

Okay, so… commissions were a little harder than you expected them to be. Running around the city was you’re normal, you did it everyday to get that stamina up, but running round the whole country? No. You’re legs burned by the time you had to do the second commission, going from Springvale all the way to Wolvendom, first taking out a small group of slimes annoying the citizens, then collecting wolf hooks for a girl who needed them for a desert, but was too scared to go into the forest to get them herself.

It was fine, you could get used to this.

Ariel was no help at all, but you didn’t expect him to be. You told him that you wanted to do these on your own. You had to build experience in fighting outside of training, you needed to learn how things were done, you had to get used to running everywhere (because apparently the waypoints truly are just pretty statues this time), and most importantly, you had to earn this on your own.

You were the one who needed stuff from Ms. Blanchard and you were the one that wanted to go on adventures. That means you had to pull up your bootstraps and get to work like everyone else. You couldn't rely on Ariel’s amazingness (and he was amazing) or Ms. Blanchard’s kindness and think that it’ll spread to everyone. You had to do your own work, your own research, and earn your own money.

Luckily, you had no problem with such grueling tasks. Though you were never the most physically fit in your first life, determination and hard work were no strangers to you. Having to please your parents, even with your lethargic attitude toward school, was an absolute must and you worked your ass off everyday to make them happy.

The beat out procrastination allowed you to finish these after noon, which was a good time considering you were planning on it taking most of the day.

Sweat dripped down your brow and bruises from some of the tougher enemies littered your legs and torso, but overall you were left with a feeling of deep satisfaction.

Stumbling back to the guild you were followed by Ariel's quiet praises and critiques almost lost to the hustle of the fully awake city. You picked up your money, a grin never leaving your face and went back to the inn.

The shower you had after was the best you'd ever had in your life.