Chapter 68: Young Knights

"What seems to be the issue, Mr. Lawrence?"

"Whatever issue do you mean? I am merely encouraging the staff of this shabby establishment to make haste! My time is significant!"

The young man's eyes drifted around—eyeing everyone present. Their looks of relief mixed with irritation did not go unnoticed as he, along with the other knights, circled around the nobleman.

"Forgive us for being rough, but we received a report of obstruction of business and a flashy-looking man making trouble. We would like to ask you to leave, Mr. Lawrence."

"You can't do this to me! I am a nobleman! A part of the Lawrence family!"

"Even so, the law does not discriminate, and anyone with an eye could see that you are being a nuisance. Please leave."

The nobleman, seething in anger, stormed out of the room. "I will remember this!"

All this time, Leo's eyes never left Diluc's figure. He was one of his favorite characters in the game; he even remembered buying the skin when it came out and having him at max constellation—a testament to how bad his luck is.

Noticing his gaze, Diluc turned towards Leo. "Is something the matter?"

"Ah! Sorry for staring, I was just surprised."

"Surprised about what?"

"Th-that's," Leo's brain stirred as he struggled to find an excuse, "I was just surprised to see... um..."

He frantically looked around, hoping to find an excuse while scratching the back of his head. Then, he noticed—almost every knight around him was not as young as Diluc. Most of the knights patrolling seemed to be between eighteen and forty, while Diluc appeared to be only a year or two older than him.

"I was surprised to see a knight my age! Is it normal for knights to enlist this early?"

"That's understandable, I do get asked that a lot, especially by foreigners. And yes, for the knights of Favonius, it is a blessing to have young talents join early." He then scanned Leo from head to toe. "Can I ask something?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I'm not familiar with your clothes, what nation are you from?"

Leo beamed, "I'm from Snezhnaya! I was on my way to Liyue when I heard there's going to be a festival here in Mondstadt, so I decided to drop by!"

"I see," Diluc's face distorted as he looked at Leo.

"Is there a problem?"

After a moment of contemplation, Diluc replied, "Where's your parents? Do they know you're here?"

Wait, I don't think this is the Diluc I know!

"My Dad is in Snezhnaya, he's the one who sent me out."

"And your Mom?" he pressed.

"I don't have a Mom," Leo said with an awkward smile.

Diluc's eyes widened, "I'm sorry! I did not mean to pry!"

"No, it's okay."

An awkward silence engulfed the two. Leo did not know how to continue the conversation, and Diluc seemed to be in the same state.

Suddenly, a boy with an eyepatch leaned on Diluc's shoulder. He has dark skin, gray eyes, and a cascading deep blue hair with a white streak in the middle. 

"Way to go, brother. You have such amazing communication skills." the boy said.

"What are you doing here, Kaeya? I thought you were with Grandmaster Varka with Jean?"

"We just finished helping with the decorations in the headquarters and were thinking of having lunch. We decided to invite you along and so we asked around to know where you are, and here we are."

Kaeya then eyed Leo with a smile on his face. "But it seems like you have a new friend here. Greetings, I am Kaeya, his adopted brother."

"Hello, I am Leonid, I'm from Snezhnaya."

Why am I saying my origins again? Whatever.

"So your name is Leonid," Diluc said, "It's nice to meet you."

"Wait, you're telling me you didn't introduce yourselves yet?" Kaeya exclaimed with a dumbfounded face.

As Diluc was about to explain with an irritated face, a hand crept behind the brothers and pulled them back.

"Ehem! May we take this conversation outside? We are being a nuisance here." 

A girl emerged from the door. She has deep-teal eyes and golden-blonde hair tied in a high ponytail, with soft strands framing her face.

"Hey Jean, what took you so long?" Kaeya asked.

Jean then looked at Diluc in a tired manner and answered, "Someone was so occupied with talking with his new friend that he forgot to ask the staff for any damages."

"Sorry," Diluc said with a dry laugh. "Leonid, if you don't mind, you can join us for lunch, we know a good place that serves good food."

Should I accept? There's no harm in it, aside from they might extract some info from me. Why am I even thinking they can do that? They're just children, they don't even know my Dad is a Harbinger. This would also be good to get some info, and besides in the future Diluc will...

"You can just call me Leo, that's what my friends are calling me. Sure, I'll join you."

"Great, then we have a date," Kaeya remarked.

"It's a date." Diluc flatly replied.

As the trio was about to step outside with Leo, one of his guards asked if they still had to buy new clothing. Upon looking at them, Leo can't help but feel bad as sweat pours all over their body and they start to smell.

"Um guys, I think you should go without me."

"What's the matter?" Jean asked.

"We need to buy clothes you see, me and my guards are bathing in sweat."

"If that's the case, we can wait. It's still a little bit early for lunch," Diluc chimed in.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Jean replied.

"Are we really going to wait?" Kaeya commented.

In response, Diluc held him in place and covered his mouth with a towel, resulting in Kaeya, struggling to break free and protesting as he kicked the ground, seemingly trying to step on Diluc's foot with gurgled noises.

"Go on, we'll wait," Diluc reassured.

Leo's eyes twitched looking at the hilarious way Kaeya splashes around. With a wave, he entered the shop.

***

A/N: It's been awhile! I know I didn't update chapters so let me apologize.

There are things I needed to figure things out IRL and tbh, it's hard for me to find time for myself, much more to write.

Especially with what's happening with Hoyo games rn, I'm feeling like giving up on their games, but we'll see. I didn't even finish the 5.2 main quest, I just watched videos of diff streamers playing it.

The updates for the next couple of months will be all over the place.