Hu Tao x Reader: Side Story: Shadow of Sumeru

Chapter 5: Meeting the locals

Nilou: "I think we did pretty good, if I may say so myself!"

Collei: "Yeah! It was uhm... it was really good! You're all such great dancers!"

Nilou: "Oh? Well thanks! I really appreciate you saying so! And I'm sure the rest of the team would be happy to hear it too! And you, Y/N? What did you think of it?"

Y/N: "Well, it was certainly an interesting performance. Differing quite heavily from the opera and concerts I'm used to, but it really was quite enjoyable. And I liked how well you seemed to recreate some of my life's moments through such a medium too... very impressive indeed!"

Nilou: "Oh! Thank you! Thank you! That really means a lot coming from the muse of our performance themself! And speaking of which, what do you think of the story? Did we do you justice do you think? We tried our best with our research, but there were a couple of blanks that we had to fill in ourselves. We weren't too presumptuous with any of it, were we?"

Y/N: "Presumptuous? Well... there were a couple of differing moments in your version of events I suppose, but the reality of those moments were far more boring than what you guys imagined to be the case. So I'm fine with that being what people think is the truth!"

Nilou: "Oh? Hee-hee! Well I'm glad to hear it! Althooooooough, I wouldn't mind hearing the real story straight from you sometime, if you'd be interested?~"

Y/N: "I suppose I wouldn't be opposed to that. Hmm, maybe even sometime in the next couple of days we could arrange something, particularly if we run out of things to do whilst we burn time waiting on that guy's results..."

Nilou: "Oh? You're waiting for somebody? Who is it?"

Y/N: "It's just some guy from the Akademiya . But I came here in regards to an Akasha Terminal issue, so I gave him the... faulty thing and he said he'd look into it for me."

Nilou: "Oh! I see! But don't you already have one? You're wearing it right now!"

Y/N: "This is... that is to say, the one I gave to be looked into wasn't mine. It was gifted to my... to a friend of mine back in Liyue."

Tighnari knows exactly what's going on because of Yelan's letter, and I trust Collei enough to tell her the full story later. But, for now at least, I'm not quite sure if I can trust other people with the full story of who it was that was attacked. Not Dottore, not Nilou and probably not any other citizens of Sumeru we end up encountering during my time here.

Nilou: "Oh I see! That must be frustrating! I always hear about students at the Akademiya throwing a tantrum when the Akasha denies them access to things they need, or when they get kicked out of a particular source of information. I'd imagine it must be even more annoying if it happened due to a malfunction! Especially because it's quite a trek from Liyue to Sumeru, right?"

Y/N: "Y–Yeah, that's right. But I've had good company with me during my journey in both nations, so it hasn't been so bad I suppose."

Collei: "Hehe!"

Nilou: "Well, that's good! But oh! I'm so sorry! You must be wanting to get on with your day and here I am chatting away to you like this. I'm sorry!"

Y/N: "Oh, don't worry about it! We were... well, we're just going to take it slow today I think. There are... There are a couple of things that me and Collei need to discuss later, but whilst there's still a bit of sunlight left in the day I thought maybe we might get something nice to eat and have a look at a couple of shops for uhm... inspiration, I suppose."