"Alright, I know you have many questions, so ask away!"
"Haha, it seems like you ate them all already… Hmm, for starters… who are you?" Beidou questioned.
"My name is Sai, and I am currently a small merchant in Liyue Harbor." He said.
"Sai, okay. Did you say we were 'summoned'? What's this about?"
"Well… The thing is: I don't know exactly either. But I know that this is the second- no- third time I'm summoned like this, and every time this happens I end up with someone else in a weird place. Just like you and me here on this coastline."
"But why was I summoned?"
"I don't know. As you may probably know, our memories get really fuzzy, so even knowing how long it has been is difficult. Although, I do remember us fighting some treasure hoarders in the meantime."
"And the one who did this is that traveler you spoke of?" She nodded in comprehension.
"Not just any traveler. THE Traveler. You can ask Nin- Ahem- the Tianquan about it. I'm sure she's gonna know about him."
"How do you know he's the culprit?" Beidou was confused once again.
"Because I saw him summoning us." He simply responded.
"You saw it happen?"
Sai nodded.
"After we got here, I saw him speaking some gibberish and slowly become translucent. He just disappeared out of midair."
"Oh, so that's why…"
"I also confirmed with Lisa, another person who was summoned last time, and she agreed that it was his doing."
"Lisa? Mmm."
She kept silent for a while before asking again.
"When did this last happen to you?"
Sai thought to himself that as expected, she caught on to the core of the problem.
"Uh… It has been several days since the last time. About five days, maybe?" He honestly didn't know for sure.
Without him noticing, more than a week had passed since his transgression.
"Five days… This is a problem… Who else knows about this?"
"In Liyue, I'm not sure. Maybe just me and you. But in Mondstadt, quite a few knights were already involved in this. Oh but you shouldn't worry too much. Although it's annoying, I think no one was harmed in these summonings."
'Except for me' he thought.
"What else do you know about this Traveler?" Beidou decided to just keep asking.
"I know that he is actually a being from another world, and that he is traveling the seven nations in order to find his sister."
"Another world…" She continued in a lower tone: "...maybe this is connected to the death of Rex Lapis…"
"He also shows no hints that he knows about the summonings."
"What does that mean?" She creased her eyebrow.
Sai looked away for a moment. 'I ended up speaking a little too much.'
"When he was questioned about it, he claimed that he had no idea what we were talking about."
"He blatantly lied?!" She stood up and faced Sai.
"No. It looked more like he genuinely didn't know."
"How does that make any sense…?"
"I don't know. But I suggest that you don't try attacking him or something if you ever meet him."
"Why?"
Sai looked into her eye. He decided to tell her because he was worried that something bad would happen to her. He then lowered his head and silently said:
"...Just a feeling."
…
Sai answered a few other questions she had, especially about his memories and about what happened after the fight. Once again, he was on the side of being questioned, and although he didn't like it that much, there was nothing he could do.
"Do you have any more questions? I will do my best to answer them."
"...No, I'm good. I don't like to waste time thinking about things I don't understand. Haaah, it seems like I was worried for nothing." She smiled brightly for once.
"Do you believe me?"
Beidou looked at him and answered:
"I don't trust you, our meeting here was too coincidental. But for now I suppose I can believe you, Sai."
He smiled too. 'She's not naive, but she still believes in me. Is that the benefit of the strong?'
"Hmmm, this does look like Gunyun Stone Forest, as you have told me." She looked around a little.
"Yeah. But I don't know exactly where."
"If you did, I would find it even stranger. This historical coastline stretches for a dozen kilometers or more." She turned to him. "What do you plan on doing now? Are you going back to Liyue? Actually, why were you sleeping here?"
"Oh, err, I was just very tired so I fell asleep here by chance, ha ha." He gave her a weird smile.
She said nothing and waited for him to continue.
"That's the truth, I promise! Actually, if not for you, I would be dead before the end of the day, probably."
"Ah, that's right… you said something along those lines before. You are a merchant, so it might have been very dangerous if you decided to leave on your own. You are lucky I found you." She nodded and sternly said.
"Ahem, that's why I waited here instead of looking around. I was hoping that you would be able to find me before somebody or something else."
"I see. So you haven't seen those Fatui around here, right?"
"Fatui? We fought one when the Traveler was here."
"But after that?"
"No, no. I haven't seen another soul except for you."
"Tsc, I wonder if those guys even have souls at all…" She seemed disgusted by them.
"But why do you ask? Did you perhaps meet them nearby?"
"...That's right."
"Oh." Sai nodded but didn't take it to heart. Meeting the Fatui was a common matter. He decided to change the subject.
"Captain Beidou." Sai sounded serious.
She looked at him and nodded once.
"Could you perhaps… help me get back to Liyue Harbor?"
She stared at him for a second and then:
"Pffft-Bahahahah! So that's why you were acting like that! Hahahah! Yeah kid, no worries, I can't just leave you here. I'll take you back safely."
Sai managed to release his momentary frown and give her an honest smile.
"Thank you very much, captain."
She took a big gulp of whatever was in the jar and started walking.
"Follow me. My ship should be anchored somewhere along the left coast, so we will find it soon if we keep going that way."
"Is that right? But how do you know this is the left coast?"
"The position of the sun." She pointed at it.
'Ah, that also works here…'
"Wait, this direction…" Sai flinched.
"What's the matter?"
"I- Nothing, let's go."
…
They kept a leisure pace as they walked. The three hilichurl camps they met were nothing to Beidou, who destroyed each and every one of them with her summoned greatsword. It was a bright red Blackcliff Slasher, not the Debate Club from before. Compared to it, this sword actually felt dangerous, even to Sai.
"This is weird." Beidou said after finishing off the latest camp.
"What is? Were there too many hilichurls?"
"No. That was a normal amount given the location."
'Normal amount? It isn't like in the game. We met three big camps in just two kilometers or so…'
"The problem" she continued, "is the Abyss Mage I just killed."
She had deflected a fireball with her sword, jumped into the mage, destroyed its shield with one slash and finally cut it in half with another one. Unlike with Amber, that mage didn't seem to have been playing around either, it didn't even have time to throw all he's got.
"It was a middle-level mage. They aren't supposed to appear randomly like this."
"How do you know it was middle-level?" Sai wondered.
"Because it took me two hits to kill, and because it was leading a horde."
"Huh…"
It seemed like Amber was much weaker than Beidou. Sai didn't know that Amber had had to defend him from its attacks whereas Beidou could focus solely on destroying the target ahead. She instructed Sai to stay hidden while she confronted the camps. Additionally, the mage took Amber by surprise that time.
"And why aren't they supposed to appear like this?"
"..."
Sai frowned, but it seemed like Beidou was pondering about something.
"It seems that Ningguang was right…"
"About what?"
"Nothing. Let's keep going."
"...Sure."
They continued on their way, leaving the blood pool behind. Nonetheless, anyone could notice with one glance that Beidou had participated in a huge battle because she was painted in a dark red mixture that more than just resembled blood. The smell was really strong, too.
"By the way, I noticed that you didn't use your Vision back there. Why's that?"
"Just because." She chugged the rest of the bottle's contents. "Fuuuu! That hit the spot!"
Sai's stomach grumbled again and Beidou looked at him with her mouth agape.
"Oh damn, my bad, kid. I didn't offer you any. When we get to the boat I'll get you something to drink. For now, I have this last bag of emergency food, you can have it."
She offered him some seeds inside a leather pouch. The words 'emergency food' reminded him of an old and overused joke from the Genshin community, but the thought escaped him quite fast.
"Thanks."
He grabbed a handful of those and just threw them in his mouth. Beidou, who was walking ahead of him at this time, warned him:
"Just don't eat too many at once. Dried Jueyun Chilies are still chilies after all."
"Hm? O-Hahhh! *Spit!* *SPIT!*"