An unfortunate accident, or an attempted assassination?
Y/N, the gender neutral partner of Hu Tao now heads to Sumeru to uncover the answer of what exactly happened to their girlfriend, and to free her from whatever ails her now as a result of that...
The pack of oversized cats had clearly been sufficiently intimidated, as the whole lot of them had all gone scurrying away after a good couple hits from Collei's handheld weapon. Leaving the two of us alone on the path with no more large predators in sight, Collei seemed to be holding a triumphant pose against the retreating beasts, with her hands on her hips and a big smirk on her face, but after a moment or two of holding that heroic pose, she quickly turned around and looked at me with a face of worry.
Collei: "Are you alright, Y/N? They didn't get you, did they?"
Y/N: "No, no... I'm okay. I was just surprised to see a monster that big, let alone a pack of them! Isn't this the main road to the city? And what even were they?"
Collei: "They're called Rishboland Tigers. They're not so bad, as long as you know what to listen out for! And a good couple thwacks with my boomerang and they'll scatter! That's one of the things that Master taught me, so that I didn't get gobbled up on my patrols!"
Y/N: "Oh, well I'm glad you learnt all of that. You've been a great guide so far! So, I'm guess that that's Sumeru City then...? Just past this bridge here?"
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Collei: "Huh? You mean you couldn't tell?"
Y/N: "Well, I'm not all that used to cities being built around and on large trees I guess! I'm more used to the look of cities from the other three nations I've been to: Mondstadt, Inazuma, and Liyue of course. I just... I guess I didn't want to assume anything!"
Collei: "Oh, I think I understand... maybe...? But yeah! We're coming up on Sumeru City now! Do you... Did Master tell you anything about where to look for the things you wanted to find out?"
Y/N: "I don't think he did... no. And it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that we can go straight to the Akademiya about, the general gist that I got from Tighnari is that this whole thing was being kept on the downlow..."
Collei: "Huh? Hmm... Oh! I think I know a place we can go! I'm pretty sure they call it the 'Grand Bazaar,' but I'm sure it'll be exactly the place for us to find out what you need to know!"
Y/N: "Oh? And why's that"
Collei: "Welllllll... I'm not entirely sure why, but I know that the sages at the Akademiya don't really like the people at the Grand Bazaar, something to do with them not liking the performances or something like that? I'm not too sure..."
Y/N: "Ah, I see. So that means that there'll probably be somebody there who also dislikes the Akademiya enough to have the information we need? Well it's worth a shot at least! Thanks for the intel Collei, I'm sure that I would be totally lost here without your help!"
