The ride back was quite awkward, to say the least as Yelan helped me onto my back with her legs tightly wrapped around my waist as the sitting area of my Anemo elemental was hardly big enough for two people to sit upon separately, and if anything, she had to lean on me as typically Lumine had to ride in my lap when we flew together.
"Do you think you could let us fly back to Liyue on these?" Ganyu asked excitedly as she watched the Mondstadt terrain pass by us as we flew deeper into Mondstadt.
"I don't mind... But Yelan might have an issue with it." I said wryly as Yelan's iron grasp on my shoulders tightened at the thought of flying on the way back.
"Yelan! Flying without needing to fight the creature you are riding upon is a heaven-sent opportunity! I also hear that Mondstadt has a great selection of vegetarian dishes we can try as well."
"Eating is the last thing on my mind," Yelan muttered with me barely hearing her.
"Oh Ganyu, by the way, there's a super chef in Mondstadt named Xiangling who from what I understand is from Liyue who is now experimenting on Mondstadt cuisine. Would you like to meet up with her and see if we can get some food?" I offered and Ganyu's face scrunched up.
"Ah, Xiangling..." She muttered but as she saw my expression of confusion, she swiftly waved her hands side to side as though to clear the confusion as she hurriedly spoke. "Oh no I didn't mean that I didn't like her or her cooking... It's just that if anything her cooking is so good that I can't help but get seconds or even thirds. Makes it hard to control your weight as a woman with how good her food is." She muttered at the end with a light blush crossing her cheeks.
"I see..." I replied as Yelan giggled behind me at Ganyu's expression. "Well, we aren't too far from Mondstadt now. Should I drop you both off outside the city so we don't go in together or should we play up the tourist angle as I use my Honorary Knight title to guide you around."
Ganyu looked over to Yelan but I couldn't see the expression of the femme fatale behind me, so I was quite surprised when Yelan fully leaned into me with her chest encompassing my back as she whispered into my ear. "I think the drop-off idea is better so we can find a good place to watch the church from a distance."
"Lady Yelan has a good point. But in the meantime, should a battle erupt, we will support you from a distance and we will do our best to intercept any Fatui reinforcements.' Ganyu said confidently as she patted her Cryo vision on her hip. "If anything with Yelan having a Hydro and I having a Cryo vision we are the perfect team to get the drop on any Fatui reinforcements."
Somehow, I sincerely doubted they would be able to freeze even Childe solid let alone the stronger Harbingers, but our goal wasn't to capture or even to kill them.
Just the fact that the Fatui were willing to engage in open battle in the heart of a city would destroy their reputation abroad leading their actions to be greatly restricted as none of the city countries of Teyvat would want powerful vision wielders from a hostile land doing operations in their city regardless of their wealth.
After another ten minutes of flying, we crested over another one of the large gorges that Venti made when he terraformed Mondstadt and we could finally see the spires and windmills of Mondstadt in the distance. "It's been a few years since I have been to Mondstadt," Ganyu said dreamily as she watched the city come ever closer.
"We can be a tourist once we capture and detain the Harbinger's Ganyu." Yelan chided making the secretary of Liyue pout at her.
Once we got closer to Mondstadt I brought down the Anemo elementals and the two girls hopped off with Yelan staggering a bit with how her legs had fallen asleep after being wrapped around me for the hour-plus flight back.
"Alright, I am going to turn in the commission as per normal for an adventure while you two do your thing. If my timing is right my meetup with Lumine is only in the next twenty minutes so be ready for us around the church of Barbatos." I explained with the two Liyue ladies nodding in understanding and seeing that they did I went ahead across the bridge that separated the island city of Mondstadt from the mainland while they hung back for a bit.
-
"Hello Kathryne, I completed that commission," I said as I passed over my guild token to her.
"Good work Jake there was significant pressure for us to solve the issues as Liyue has been busy with the coming Rite of Descension and the troubles of Mondstadt have stopped the forces of this land from clearing up the buildup of Cryo slimes." She explained as she handed over a heft bag of Mora to me.
"The speedy completion of the commission has entitled you to a moderate bonus with the full payment equally to a total of two hundred thousand Mora." She said methodically as she noted down the details of the quest as I put away the money in my space bag.
"Alright, I hope you have a good day Katheryne," I said as I finished signing a slip stating I received my payment.
As I went deeper into the city, I saw Lumine Jean and Venti along with Paimon eating some food on the outdoor eating tables that the restaurant had. "Hey, you guys got some food for me?" I asked smiling as Lumine met my eyes stood up from her chair and patted the chair.
"Yup, we can share," Lumine said happily as she pulled me into the chair and without any shame just plopped herself onto my lap and snuggled up against me as sat somewhat on her side so we could feed one another from her plate of chicken salad.
"Wow... No shame at all." Venti muttered as Jean nodded looking torn between somewhat uncomfortable and jealous at how affectionate we were being.
"Venti you are an alcoholic and Jean you are literally the definition of a workaholic if either of you wanted a relationship you just need to get out and touch some grass," I said wryly and then explained quite clearly how both of them were good people but simply too engrossed in their current habits to have a relationship.
"Oh, and who could I engage as a Paramore Jake?" Venti asked teasingly making me hum in thought at the very good question.
"Well, I think the biggest issue to you would probably be lifespan, so a supernatural race or vision wielder is the biggest requirement. I have no clue honestly." I said shrugging as I wrapped my arms around Lumine.
"Hoho not going to offer yourself Jake?" Venti teased as he rested his chin on his hands and pretended to look at me 'dreamily'.
Lumine however didn't like the twink Archon making a pass at her man, so she coughed loudly. "I have his heart... though I wouldn't mind if your shape changed into a womanlier form so we could make a bridge out of you." Venti not expecting such... Degeneracy blushed as Jean just face-palmed.
"Alright! Let's go to the church lest we spend the whole day ruining Jean's opinion of us." I said as I nudged Lumine to stand up and helped Paimon put away her leftovers earning a hug from the floating fairy.