"N-No, not at all!" Paimon quickly waved her hands, flustered.
She wasn't stupid. "Confess and you'll sit in a dungeon. Lie and you'll be home by New Year's." That much she understood. Getting caught up in dragon-related trouble would be a nightmare.
"Hmm… that sounds suspicious…" Amber stared at Paimon, clearly unconvinced. The floating mascot wasn't exactly a great liar. Even a child could probably see through her.
Su Mo sighed and stepped in. "We did see a dragon yesterday. It was flying over Whispering Woods. But it didn't attack or anything—it just flew off. We have no idea where it went after that."
Notably, Su Mo didn't mention the bard who'd been conversing with the dragon. He wasn't technically lying—just withholding part of the truth. In a way, that made his statement more believable.
"Whispering Woods, huh? That matches up," Amber mused. "We received reports yesterday that a dragon was seen flying in that direction."
While it was too late to act on the information, it at least confirmed that they weren't lying.
As for Paimon's overreaction, well… considering her tiny floating form, it didn't seem worth digging into.
"Thanks for the intel. I should get back to patrolling the area," Amber said, clearly satisfied with their answers. "If you see anything else suspicious, I hope you'll let me know. After all, we can't have adventurers worrying about dragons while they're out completing commissions, right?"
"We will!" Paimon answered quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly.
Su Mo wasn't fooled. Knowing Paimon, she probably just wanted to get rid of Amber before the questions got any trickier. If Amber kept pressing, she might accidentally spill something about Venti. And judging by Su Mo's silence, he wasn't ready to share that part of the story yet.
Thankfully, Amber was the type who didn't dwell too long. After exchanging farewells, she turned and glided away on her wind glider, vanishing toward her next patrol area.
"So, what now?" Lumine asked, turning to Su Mo.
"We head back to Mondstadt and collect our reward," he answered without hesitation. "Our next goal is to find the Anemo Archon."
"To do that, our only leads are the Knights of Favonius and the Church of Favonius."
"Also, we'll need their help to track down your brother. But if we want their full support, we need to give them a reason they can't refuse."
In the original story, it was only after Lumine helped defeat Stormterror that the knights began to truly value her. That's when she was granted the honorary knight title. But this time, they'd arrived a bit earlier. They hadn't accomplished anything significant yet. In that case, even if they weren't outright dismissed, they likely wouldn't receive much help either.
After all, both of them were outsiders. The Knights of Favonius were already stretched thin—asking them to launch a citywide search just on a stranger's word would be too much.
"Right… my brother…" Lumine mumbled softly. She'd been so caught up in everything else, she'd almost forgotten the original reason she was here.
Even if they couldn't find the Archon right away, they had to at least post some missing person notices. And Mondstadt, being a city that housed hundreds of thousands of people, was their best bet to start.
Without the help of the Knights of Favonius, spreading missing person notices across the city would be an impossible task. Su Mo's reasoning was sound—just like always. It made perfect sense and was easy to trust.
"But what kind of reason would make the Knights of Favonius unable to say no?" Paimon asked curiously.
"The simplest way to make someone unable to refuse you," Su Mo explained, "is to do them a favor first. When someone owes you, it becomes easier to ask things of them. The weight of that favor determines how much they're willing to do in return."
Of course, this sort of thing only worked on people with a sense of honor.
"Whoa!" Paimon flinched. "That sounds super shady! Like some kind of sneaky scheme!"
"That's called strategy," Lumine said, siding with Su Mo. "It's a straightforward tactic. Even if they realize what we're doing, they'd still have to thank us."
Su Mo turned to Paimon with a teasing look. "For example, if I suddenly announced that I'll never refer to you as emergency food again, and I even start treating you as a valuable companion—"
"That would be like doing you a favor," he continued. "You'd feel grateful, and from there, I could probably get you to do anything I ask."
Paimon narrowed her eyes, clearly unimpressed. "Paimon's not that easy to buy off! And I was never emergency food in the first place!"
"If you really want to win me over," she added after thinking for a second, "you'd need to give me… at least 100,000 Mora!"
She counted on her fingers, convinced it was a massive amount.
"100,000… That's cheap," Su Mo muttered. His eyes lit up as he imagined the possibilities. If he could buy a Paimon for 100,000 Mora, he'd 996 overtime his way through it and bring home a dozen to warm the bed. (T/N: Bro pls calm down 😭 😭)
Unfortunately, that wasn't how reality worked.
"But even if you say that, Paimon," Su Mo said, "you can't deny it—you'd be happy if I really stopped calling you emergency food and treated you like a true companion, right?"
"Ugh… mmm…" Paimon wanted to argue, but after thinking it over, she had to admit—if Su Mo said something heartfelt like that, she would be happy.
"Fine! I can't refute that!"
Lumine chuckled, now fully understanding Su Mo's point. "Alright, I get the idea. So how exactly do we do the Knights a favor they can't ignore?"
"That's easy," Su Mo answered without hesitation. "The Knights are currently troubled by a dragon. If we take care of it for them, they'll owe us big time."
"Take down a dragon?" Lumine tilted her head. "That sounds… pretty difficult."
Although she had just received the power of Anemo from the Statue of The Seven, she wasn't confident in her ability to wield it just yet—let alone take on a dragon.
"No need to worry about that. I'm here," Su Mo said confidently, waving away her concern. "We won't have to worry about strength."
"Though, before we do anything that bold… it's probably time to upgrade our gear."
At that, Lumine glanced at the rusted sword in Su Mo's hand and then at the worn-out weapon she was holding herself. They worked, technically—but just barely. Weapons like these struggled even against basic Hilichurls. One bad clash and they'd probably snap.
"Yeah," she nodded in agreement. "We definitely need new equipment."
Back in Mondstadt, after reporting back to the Adventurers' Guild, Su Mo received 20,000 Mora as a reward. They also sold some items scavenged from the Hilichurl camp for a few thousand more, which easily covered their daily expenses.
With that done, they headed to the most famous smithy in the city—Wagner's Forge.
"Whoa, so many weapons!" Paimon exclaimed, darting around to inspect every rack.
"They look kind of ordinary, though," Su Mo commented after scanning the selection.
It made sense—they were all 2-star standard-issue weapons. Serviceable, but lacking anything noteworthy. In Teyvat, weapons mattered, but not to an overwhelming extent. Unless a weapon had some unique effect, most of its effectiveness came from the wielder's skill.
Just then, the blacksmith Wagner himself walked over, having overheard their conversation.
"These are mass-produced for regular adventurers," he explained gruffly. "If you're looking for something stronger, you'll need a custom order."
"Custom weapons?" Paimon's eyes sparkled with curiosity. "How much would that cost?"
Wagner didn't hesitate. "If you want a longsword on par with the Knights' standard-issue Favonius blade, it'll cost you at least 100,000 Mora."
He glanced between Su Mo and Lumine. "Depending on the weapon—one-handed sword, claymore, polearm—it might go up. But if you can provide a billet, I'll knock 90,000 off the forging fee."
"Hisss—that's expensive!" Paimon cried, recoiling as if struck. "It costs more than me!"
Hearing that, Wagner's temper flared. "Tch! Then don't buy anything! Look all you want, but keep your cheap talk to yourself!"
With a huff, he stomped back to the furnace and resumed hammering. Like his forge, his temper was fiery and quick to flare.
"He got mad that fast?" Paimon said, stunned. "I was just being honest! We really don't have the money!"
"Maybe he felt you were questioning whether his craftsmanship was worth ten thousands Mora," Lumine guessed, trying to explain the blacksmith's reaction. "After all, he is a master craftsman, and pride comes with the territory."
"But… we really don't have that much money," Paimon sighed helplessly, throwing up her hands. "Should we take on a few more commissions, save up, and come back later?" Even she knew by now that upgrading their weapons was a necessity—it just wasn't the time to be stingy.
"Yeah," Lumine nodded. "A few days should be enough. We can handle commissions pretty fast with the teleport waypoints."
"If only we had one of those… what was it called? Weapon billets?" Paimon muttered wistfully.
Just then, Su Mo spoke up casually, "Speaking of billets, I actually know where to get them."
"Eh?!" Paimon and Lumine both perked up instantly, eyes fixed on him in excitement.