The bat was tougher than anything he'd held.
Kairo flicked it again, felt that dense, steady weight, and couldn't help clicking his tongue.
"What in the world are you made of…"
He muttered, amused, spun the bat once, liked it even more.
"Yeah. This is the kind of weapon that's fun to use."
He put it away, did a quick wash, and flopped back on the bed.
Outside, Mondstadt's sky was ink-blue, stars still hanging on. The night wind slipped past the windows, bringing that cool-before-dawn chill.
Kairo tugged the blanket up and fell asleep.
Nothing else happened that night.
...
Dawn.
The sky was only just paling. The house was still quiet.
Then — click.
His door eased open.
"Humhum… the princess's plan is, as ever, flawless."
Fischl stood in the doorway, very pleased with herself. She glanced at the sleeping Kairo, corners of her lips curling.
She'd gotten up early on purpose.
Goal: get to Kairo before the others and "secure her rightful position" in today's expedition.
She checked the clock.
"Six twelve."
Perfect.
Enough time for… morning conquest.
She tiptoed over, lifted the corner of the blanket, and slid straight in.
Kairo, half asleep, felt something soft and warm burrow in beside him.
His brow twitched. He cracked one eye open.
Golden hair. A certain little head wiggling under his blanket.
"…"
Kairo was speechless.
"…You're here this early?"
His voice was lazy, full of just-woke-up helplessness.
"Hmph, of course." came Fischl's muffled voice from under the blanket, smug. "This Prinzessin must seize the initiative and retain ample preparation time."
Kairo glanced at the clock.
6:05.
"You're calling this 'ample preparation time'?"
He rubbed his temples. "We're meeting Lumine and Barbara at the Guild today. This is way too early."
"This Prinzessin knows precisely what she is doing…"
Her voice got smaller and smaller… until she curled deeper into the warm spot.
Kairo could feel her little waist shifting.
…this girl really knew how to make use of morning time.
Time ticked past.
About an hour later—
"Haahhh…"
A lazy stretch came from under the blanket.
A golden head slowly popped out. Fischl's violet eyes were half-lidded, face full of satisfied sleepiness.
She flopped back on the pillow, murmuring, "...How about… we don't go today?"
Kairo: "…"
So you snuck in at six a.m. just to skip?
He flicked her forehead. "Up. No flaking."
"Hmph…"
She pouted, rolled over, refused to move.
"Today we're going with Lumine. And Barbara."
Kairo reminded her, quite deliberately.
"…"
Still no reaction.
Kairo smiled slowly. "So… you want to stand up a prayer deacon of the Church?"
"!!!"
Fischl woke up instantly.
"W-wait — you mean, Lady Barbara will also attend?!"
"Of course." Kairo nodded like it was obvious. "It's rare for the Church's idol to tag along. And you're saying 'I'm not going'?"
"…"
That would be… bad.
She, the self-proclaimed princely envoy of Eclipse and Night, blew off an actual Mondstadt priestess?
If that rumor got out, her royal dignity would die.
Fischl quickly weighed her face vs. her laziness… and chose her face.
She sat up, still pouting. "Hmph. This Prinzessin is a keeper of holy covenants. Having promised, she shall not break it lightly."
Kairo couldn't hold back a laugh. "Alright, get ready. We'll grab breakfast at Good Hunter, then head to the Adventurers' Guild."
"...Fine."
She got dressed — clearly still wanting to crawl back under the blanket — and together they headed out.
...
At the plaza in front of the Adventurers' Guild, three familiar figures were already waiting:
Lumine, Barbara… and Klee.
Plus Paimon. And, today, Oz was present again.
"Ehehe, Kairo, you're finally here!" Paimon waved, very proud of herself. "We listened to you and bought a lot of sacks!"
She pointed at Lumine's waist — five or six folded burlap bags were hanging from it.
"Barbara also brought two." Barbara took out two neatly folded bags, a little excited. It was rare for her to go on an actual field commission.
"Klee also brought lots of bom— lots of things!" Klee hugged her backpack, eyes shining. "Klee wants to go fishing! With boom!"
"Good."
Kairo nodded. "Then we'll take all the commissions around Starfell Lake and Whispering Woods. If they're easy, great. If not, doesn't matter — our real goal is those two areas."
With the people — and elements — standing here, he wasn't worried at all about clearing monsters and stripping the place clean.
He led them to the commission board.
Right now, several adventurers were also picking tasks, chatting about rumors.
Kairo flipped through the board like he was shopping, stamped two Whispering Woods collection jobs, turned to leave with his little, overpowered party…
And then the square got weirdly quiet.
Because people finally saw her.
"Wait, am I seeing things—?"
An adventurer rubbed his eyes hard. "Miss Barbara… is going with Kairo to Whispering Woods?!"
"You're kidding…"
Another adventurer stared. "Isn't Miss Barbara always at the Cathedral? Even if she comes out, it's to sing or heal. She's never joined a field party, right?!"
"Never."
That one word dropped like a bomb.
Barbara. Barbara. Mondstadt's sweetheart, the Healing Idol, the girl people lined up to see — was joining a random-looking commission team?
Most ordinary adventurers… couldn't even talk to her privately.
Now Kairo just… took her?
"What kind of VIP treatment is that…!"
Jealousy burned hot.
"If Miss Barbara went on adventure with me, I'd even volunteer to go die in Wolvendom!"
"And also—"
Someone swallowed. "Did you guys notice? Miss Barbara looks really familiar with them."
That made the shock worse.
Barbara was always gentle, yes — but she was busy. She didn't go out to "hang with friends."
But right now she was standing beside Kairo, naturally, chatting with Lumine and Fischl like they'd already had tea yesterday.
That… didn't look like a one-off.
"Don't tell me… they've known each other for a while?" someone whispered.
"Can that be…" another adventurer was in disbelief. "Barbara has never taken the initiative to party up, right?"
"Now she's going to Whispering Woods with them?!"
"This is too much!!"
"And that's not even the worst of it," an older adventurer said in a low voice. "Did you notice they took two jobs? That means…"
Everyone suddenly understood.
Whispering Woods → rich in plants, slimes, hilichurl camps, and random drops. Not too dangerous, but very farmable.
Which meant—
"Kairo's going to do another one of his resource sweeps, isn't he?!"
"Ughhh, again! That guy is a walking locust plague!"
They all knew. Every time Kairo went out, the man didn't "gather." He cleared.
Like he was moving house with Mondstadt's wilderness.
Other people could maybe fill half a bag.
Kairo? He came back with sacks.
Now, with Barbara — the official Mondstadt mobile hospital — he could fight non-stop.
"Uwaaa, I'm so jealous!!"
"With Miss Barbara there, they don't even have to care about getting hit — it's actually unfair!"
"And just thinking about how much he's going to make today makes my chest hurt…"
"I wanna join too!"
"Dream on," someone sighed. "You think a party like that will let a random, no-Vision adventurer hop in?"
Silence.
Yeah… no way.
Kairo looked friendly, sure, but the people near him were all Knights-level, visitor-level, or weirdly chosen people.
Even Knights sometimes couldn't get that close.
They could only watch as Kairo's party walked away — Kairo, Lumine, Fischl, Barbara… and Klee.
"Ugh… I'm so jealous I could cry…"
"With Miss Barbara healing, they basically have infinite stamina…!"
"Why do they get to run dailies with an idol, and I'm stuck taking 'go catch 3 flying pigeons' commissions…"
It was tragic.
A couple of faster-thinking adventurers saw them leaving the city and immediately bolted — probably to go "accidentally" take the same commissions and see if they could stick close.
Kairo's side, meanwhile, had already crossed the stone bridge and left Mondstadt.
They had just reached the fork toward Whispering Woods when someone came jogging from the other path.
"Eh? Kairo!"
Amber.
Amber spotted them and waved hard. "Where are you guys headed? Need a hand?"
She hadn't expected to run into this party this morning — and it was even better when she saw who was with him.
"Amber?" Paimon flew over, happy. "Morning! We're going to Whispering Woods and Starfell Lake. Right now Paimon and Lumine are Kairo's assistants!"
"Assistants?" Amber blinked, then sighed. "Whispering Woods, huh? Then we're not going the same way. I'm doing clean-up."
"Clean-up?" Paimon tilted her head. "Did something happen? Didn't we just fix the dragon thing?"
Amber nodded, her expression finally getting serious.
"Last night, a bunch of monsters launched a full attack on Mondstadt."
"Jean was there too. We pushed them back, but we were fighting until morning."
"I've also scouted around — hilichurl camps are moving closer to Mondstadt. That's not normal."
"Hilichurls don't have the brains to organize that…"
"At first we thought it was the Abyss Order."
"But just now, Jean sent a message — she thinks it might've been the Fatui stirring the pot. I'm on monster-clearing duty and I have to scout for clues."
"Ohhh, so that's it." Paimon nodded hard. "Then we really can't go together."
"It's fine, there'll be next time." Amber waved it off, then suddenly turned back to Kairo, eyes shining with that sincere-outrider look.
"Right, Mr. Kairo — can you boost my speed again?"
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