Hu Tao x Reader: Side Story: Shadow of Sumeru

Chapter 5: Meeting the locals

Nilou: "... Inspiration?"

Collei: "Oh right! You said you wanted to see some furniture shops and things like that, right?"

Nilou: "Furniture shops? Oooh! Are you here to do some shopping?!"

Y/N: "Well... not exactly. But I thought that whilst I'm here, and with some time to spare, it's something I could at least take a look into..."

Nilou: "Oh I see! Well, I would love to join you, if you'd have me, but unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to sneak away again anytime soon. I nearly gave my team a heart attack with my last disappearance! Hee-hee! Ah! But you said you've some time to spare right? Well, I'd love to talk some more with you two; and I would love to learn more about you Y/N, and all of the things that we could include in any future versions of our performance in your name... if you'd give us your blessing to continue that is?"

Y/N: "Well... I suppose it is still kind of weird to watch a performance that is based upon my life... though I definitely enjoyed your performance! So I'm not going to say no, and I guess if you have any other questions then I suppose I don't mind answering them. It'd only mean a more accurate representation of my character after all, which might very well save me from the regular rumours that seem to pop up from time to time!"

Nilou: "Oh? Hee-hee! Well, I'll be looking forward to it then! You should be able to always find me down here in the Grand Bazaar. But if you can't find me, just ask somebody at the Theatre and they'll help you, okay? Okay! Oh! I gotta go! Toodeloo!"

Nilou seemed to have been waved over by somebody back by the Theatre's stage, and so she said her farewells to the two of us before skipping on back to the stage. After which there were a couple of moments of silence before Collei then spoke up again.

Collei: "s–So... uhm... I'll show you where that furniture place is now, if that's alright with you?"

Y/N: "If you would? That'd be really helpful, thanks Collei! "

Collei: "It's... It's nothing, really! Come on! It's this way!"

* * *

After that, Collei had led the way towards this furniture shop that she had told me about. It wasn't really all that far away from the Grand Bazaar that we were just in... and yet, it took us quite a long time to get there. It seemed to me that this might be because Collei seems to be moving a lot slower now than she was before.

I suppose this is the first time that she'd been moving on her own since back then when she and Nilou found me, after Nilou had already started running back to the Grand Bazaar, when I noticed that Collei had fallen behind and seemed to be both out of breath and limping quite badly on one of her legs.

FLASHBACK Y/N: "Is everything alright Collei? Did you hurt yourself?"

FLASHBACK Collei: "n–no... I–I just... I'm not supposed to do anything too strenuous anymore... and I already ran with Nilou to find you... and now it's starting to hurt again..."

I remember Tighnari had been speaking to Collei about whatever this is that ails her just before he departed. He seemed quite keen on Collei travelling with me. Or, to put it more accurately, for her to spend time within my Serenitea Pot whilst I travelled...

For the last couple minutes, I had been speaking with the owner of this furniture shop, and I had actually managed to get some of the things I was hoping for, that being a collection of local timber, as well as also a handful of recipes so as to craft said furniture myself. It was only a short time that I was speaking with the shop owner, but from the corner of my eye I could see that Collei was in a far worse shape than she was earlier... she was now kneeling on the ground behind me, with a hand on her chest and she seemed to be breathing very heavily now.