"I'll gladly accept the flower. Now, we should talk about serious business."
"Miss Donna, do you know why we're here?"
Lisa put away the fresh rose and turned to Donna—the target of this visit.
Donna blinked in confusion.
"Serious business?"
"Isn't buying flowers serious business?"
Rowan's mouth twitched. He was speechless.
Why did this girl's brain circuit feel so similar to Sara's?
There was definitely something off there.
Lisa obviously wasn't talking about flowers.
With this level of slowness, she was almost guaranteed to make Lisa blow her top.
Sure enough, as soon as Donna tossed that question back at her, Lisa's entire aura shifted.
She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
"Haaah… As expected, it's the same old story again—people who don't take books seriously at all."
If this kind of thing happened in Sumeru, a person like this would be despised by everyone.
Knowledge was extremely important; and books that recorded knowledge were naturally just as precious.
No matter what was written inside, they should all be treated with respect.
But along the way, from Marjorie, to Sara, to Donna—
Every single one of them had worn that same "What are you talking about?" expression the moment Lisa asked about their overdue books.
It was enough to make Lisa genuinely angry.
Her tone sharpened.
"Do you still remember The White Princess and the Six Dwarfs?"
Isn't that just Teyvat's version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, minus one?
Rowan silently complained in his heart when he heard the title.
Donna's reaction, however, was very telling.
Her eyes went wide with panic, and she started stammering.
"Ah?? Th-that, that…"
"What do I do?"
Donna's behavior gave Lisa a very bad feeling.
Could it be that the book…
After hesitating for a moment, Donna finally answered honestly,
"I… lost it…"
Just like that, Lisa's suspicion was confirmed.
She didn't scold Donna immediately.
Instead, Lisa just stared at her quietly, clearly wanting to hear the whole story from beginning to end.
How had she managed to lose the book?
"A while back, I remembered the due date was almost here, so I was getting ready to send the book back to the library."
"But no matter how I looked for it, I just couldn't find it. I've been searching on and off for days and still haven't seen any sign of it."
"It's like someone took it away. I always kept it on my bedside table…"
Donna looked just as wronged as she sounded.
She hadn't thrown the book around or treated it carelessly, yet it had vanished into thin air.
There was nothing she could do about it.
She watched Lisa anxiously, hoping Lisa wouldn't pin all the blame on her.
After listening to the whole story, Lisa gave Donna a once-over.
There were no signs she was lying.
"If someone really did take the book, then you didn't do anything wrong."
"In that case, the debt lies with the thief who stole it."
"And they'll pay threefold—no, fourfold—for it."
A spark of Electro flashed in Lisa's eyes.
Anyone who wasted her time would pay the price.
And someone who stole books from her library absolutely had to be punished.
"Let's go, little cutie."
"I leave a personal mark on every book. Once someone steals one, they're bound to leave a trail behind."
Rowan and Lisa left the flower shop and followed those traces straight out of the city.
Once they passed through Mondstadt's main gate, Lisa knew Donna had told the truth.
Given the way the mark had moved, it was obvious the book had been stolen.
Otherwise, why would its trail lead outside the city and into the wilds?
And this particular book wasn't from the restricted section, either.
So why steal it?
The two of them kept following the trail until they finally stopped beneath Starsnatch Cliff, not far from the ruins of a thunder temple.
Facing the ruin entrance, shrouded in Electro, Rowan couldn't help cracking a joke.
"Didn't expect our book thief to be this good at hiding—actually using a ruin as a hideout."
"Or is it that you Mondstadters just don't like living in the city and prefer camping out in ruins?"
"Pretty weird hobby if you ask me."
Lisa shot him a helpless sidelong glance.
"Please don't casually speculate about Mondstadters' living habits. It's obvious this isn't a Mondstadter's doing."
"Little cutie, if you keep this up, you won't be cute anymore, you know."
"This is clearly the style of those annoying troublemakers."
Rowan shrugged and dropped the teasing.
"You mean the Abyss Order?"
"As expected of you—we really are of one mind."
Lisa smiled in praise, then explained,
"Mm. The Abyss Order is the most likely culprit."
"Those people move like ghosts. Before you came to rule Mondstadt, they'd sneak into the city at night all the time."
"If it weren't for the Darknight Hero, Mondstadt would've been completely stripped bare by now."
Before Rowan took the throne, Mondstadt's night watch was practically symbolic.
Aside from the two guards stationed at the main gate to keep up appearances, the back entrances weren't guarded at all.
If not for that justice-obsessed Diluc stepping in again and again, Mondstadt would've been in ruins.
Now that Rowan ruled the city, Mondstadt at night wasn't just brightly lit, it was patrolled in overlapping shifts.
The Abyss Order had no opportunity to slip inside anymore.
Because of that, both Diluc and Rosaria had put their night operations on hold.
Rosaria, especially. Diluc still had plenty to do—brewing wine, tending the bar, managing the tavern.
Or dropping by the Intelligence House to share intel with a certain big boss behind the scenes.
(The fact that the mysterious boss of the Intelligence House turned out to be Neuvillette… well, tsk, tsk.)
"On top of that, the elemental seal at this ruin's entrance still carries magic traces left behind by an Abyss Mage."
Lisa studied the seal closely, feeling the lingering power before confirming her conclusion.
"In that case, I'll be counting on our Rose Witch, Lisa, to break the seal for us."
"My strength is a bit too much. I can't exactly break it without your people in the city noticing."
Rowan clenched his fist, ready to step forward—then relaxed it again.
With his current power at the level of a god, this kind of seal was far too weak.
If he really went all out and tore it open, there was a good chance he'd bring the whole of Starsnatch Cliff down with it.
Better not fool around.
If that happened, Venti wouldn't even have a place left to stand and play his lyre.
Lisa didn't seem surprised by his words.
With Rowan's strength, having him deal with a seal like this would be overkill.
Better to let her handle it.
"Alright then, I'll take care of it."
"Nice and easy."
(End of Chapter)
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