( Authors note: ive decided on ryumas power level to be mid-high strength among lore wise character, a lot of them can beat him but i dont want him overpowered in the first 10 chapters, as him soloing archons with minimal egfort will be EXTREMELY boring, so he'll stay like this for 20 chapters before i make him stronger, now on to the story, and i also apologize for not releasing a chapter yesterday, so i rushed this chapter so it may not be great as I expected )
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"Thats so awesome big bro! You defeated those hillichurls so quick!" Said a young kid around the age of 8, with gleaming eyes looking at his saviour
'Kids always get impressed at the simplest stuff, dont they?' Ryuma thought as he smiled warmly
'They are kids afterall, they mostly stay in the city and never witness anyone fighting creatures most of the time' xie shen telepathically communicated with ryuma, a skill he learned moments ago, with a wry expression
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A few minutes ago
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As ryuma was walking to liyue to get his bizarre stand, he was close to a certain bridge till he heard some shouts, one of them was a young voice shouting for help, and two pyro hilichurl taunting what seems to be a crying child
Ryuma then felt anger boiling inside of his heart, he always had a soft spot for children as he loved taking care of them
'my pity for these goblin wannabes is dropping everyday' he thought
Of course, the aspiring chef rushed in the scene, gripping his dual swords tightly, he wouldn't let situations like these go on any longer
One of the hilichurl archers didn't have the time to react as he swiftly cut the archer in to 2 diagonal pieces, while the other hilichurl saw him, it was too late as it didn't get to grasp its weapon before ryuma plunged in, stabbing its head and breaking the mask as the blades went in to its skull, effectively killing it
After the bloodshed, ryuma calmed himself down as he saved the child, speaking of the latter. He look at the child, who was beginning to calm down
"You alright kid, are you hurt anywhere?" He spoke to the child with genuine concern for the young one
"..y-yeah.. im ok, thank you" the child muttered
"Cmon lil guy, lets get you back to home, you mustn't stay here" he began walking on the path to liyue
The kid quickly followed the older one and began walking with him
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Current time
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"Dont sweat it kid, these hilichurls aren't a big problems for adventurers" he replied to to younger one
"Yes they are! Daddy used be an adventurer! He said they are a pain in the butt!" The child quickly replied back
"Is that so…" he quickly deduced as this child's father as a low-ranked adventurer, but a new thought came in his mind
"What are you doing this far from liyue harbor? A child like you should probably be playing with other kids, not straying this far and encountering dangerous creatures" ryuma scolded the curious child
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"I… uh… do you promise not to tell anyone?" The kid said worriedly, if he told his parents about this then he'd get into a lot of trouble, which the young one didn't want
"Alright~ I promise i wont tell anyone, so you could tell me now" he smiled, half guessing the answer
While Shen xie, who was in the mind of ryuma, looked at him oddly, reminding him of a certain person
"I was angry at mommy and daddy, so i ran away from home…" the boy recalled his memories, and began telling more and more things after that
'Ah.. the most ironic thing about children, they get mad and say they are leaving the house, but this kid has the balls to do it' he respected the kids courage for him to do that, as he remembered while he was working in a restaurant, he saw a middle aged man walking in with a kid who seems to be his son, when the father said he couldn't order a specific item the kid wanted, the child went on to ballistic and began crying and saying he will go alone and never come back home again, to which both he and the father doubted
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"I guess we've finally arrived, i need a break…" ryuma panted, he then at his shoulder to see that the kid was still sleeping
While he was on his journey, the kid felt tired of walking. so he of course offered him a piggyback ride, the kid accepted the offer and what led him to fall asleep on his back, which put extra weight on ryuma causing extra wait to tire him out more
After a moment of walking, he finally arrived at the bridge connecting him to liyue harbor, a beautiful city that is based off of china in-game, seeing it in first person was an amazing sight to behold, which also seems to be larger then in game. Less things to load, he guessed
Seeing the expression and his thoughts, xie shen smiled in pride, since he could access ryumas memory, he was disappointed to see that this entire world was just a simple 'fictional' game for people to play, but even more so to see that the same game didn't make liyue harbor look good then it actually was, making people prefer inazuma, mondstadt, sumeru more
As he was about to cross the bridge, he saw that the millelith guard eyed him intently, but he saw ryuma looking at him, he quickly stopped gazing at him and stood his usual pose, which left ryuma with some suspicion, so he asked xie shen so he could confirm
'It has been 4 years since i went with my father, that guard has been there when i left, so he may have remembered us, and plus you have a child on your back, so no wonder why he looked at us suspiciously'
He answer was partially right, he better find this kids parents so he doesn't get accused of kidnapping
First, he's gonna have to find a millelith soldier walking around liyue, second he's gonna walk up to him and tell him he found this lost child, third he's gonna give him the child and go off to find his sister… he's starting to sound like sound like aether, isn't he?
After some walking around, he found a millelith Soldier walking around just as expected, so he walked up to him, and tapped the soldier's shoulder, which the latter turned around and put his attention on ryuma
"Greeting young man, how may the millelith be of your service?" He tapped the polearm on the ground
"Hello my kind sir, while i was on my travel to liyue, i found this lost young child on my way, so may i request to find his parents if you have time to do so?" Ryuma asked nicely
*Sigh* "damned kids these days, causing major problems to their parents" mumbled the tired soldier under his breath, he looked as he was tired of dealing with kids
"What was that?" Ryuma definitely heard him say something
"No problem indeed! I thank you for keeping the child safe, i you dont mind, you could wake him up from his slumber?" The millelith soldier asked
"Ah! No problem… oi kid, wakey wakey, we arrived in liyue now, stop sleeping on shoulder" he said to the kid gently, who was beginning to waking up from his gentle nap
"Hnnn… already..? Just 5 more minutes…" the child said tiredly, now on the 'i dont wanna wake up' phase all kids have
"No more, let this kind sir lead you to your parents, you cant just stay with me forever, cant you?" He said to the little kid, unaware of the soft smile on the soldier's face
"Fine… put me down now…" the kid muttered
As the child requested, he put him down and the kid went to the millelith dude, which led ryuma to turn and began to leave, however, the kid had one last thing to say
"Big bro!" The kid yelled out, gaining ryumas attention once more
"Yeah?" the latter replied
"Will… will i get to see you again?" The youngling asked with a sad face
And to that. ryuma was hit with a wave of guilt, but despite it, ryuma only smiled and began walking and replying with:
"You could only decide on fate for that one, kid." He finally walked away, not wanting to hear the response
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'This is so damn cliche… mcs saying they will meet again, and the rest of the story they never even think about visiting again or forget, thank god i replied with that, seems more genuine' he thought, in many cases, stories dont even to try to make their main characters go to the same places again, take naruto for example, he promised he will visit wave again, yet he never even said anything about wave for the rest of the storyline
'Heya! Got a quick question, can you pleaaseee go to wanmins? I haven't had them in forever!' Xie shen telepathically communicated to ryuma, frightening the latter
'Crap! I forgot you could do that… yeah sure, you glutton.' Replied ryuma with an unexpected look on his face, meanwhile xie shen was frowning at his response, but still happy nevertheless as he was getting free food
As he found out recently, despite being in the back of his mind, xie shen could still feel whatever ryuma feels, which led ryuma to start eating more then necessary for his satisfaction, which slightly annoyed ryuma
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'Ah, this dish tastes the same as i reme-' cie shen was about to finish the sentence before ryuma cut him off
'Please… PLEASE dont continue that, i had enough of it' ryuma thought as he remembered playing co-op with brian, he was a zhongli main, somehow making zhongli as a dps for his team, and the voice lines… he kept saying the same thing over and over! That really irritated him
'…it doesn't taste as good as your cooking tho, and thats your problem as now i am addicted! I cant enjoy wanmins as much as i used too…' xie shen said in a frustrated tone, changing the conversation quickly
Ryuma smiled in pride, when he was walking and had not met the kid yet, he took a small break and cooked a simple dish, which then lightened up xie shen as he never tasted something better then wanmins, and forcing him to eat more
As he was calling back the memories, from the corner of his vision, he saw a familiar face for him
But that same familiar face isn't what he wanted to meet yet, he panicked as it wasn't time for him to search for
It was his sister