Genshin Impact, the spear remains.

"Paimon~"

Ying's eerie voice sounded behind Paimon, startling her.

"No, I didn't want these two apples out of selfishness."

Although Paimon kept denying that she had any selfish motives, her eyes never left the two apples.

"I was thinking, could I take it back and let the cook see it? Isn't he a professional when it comes to using these vegetables and fruits?"

"Hmm... what you said makes some sense."

After hearing Paimon's words, Ying pondered for a moment, then raised her golden eyes and looked at Beatrice.

"As Paimon said, Miss Beatrice, if you don't mind, could you sell us these two apples? Our... companions might be able to offer some advice on this."

When Ying paused noticeably as she pondered the relationship between Bai Qiyun and her relationship with Paimon.

Although they spent relatively little time together, Ying still preferred to call him a "comrade".

"apple?"

Beatrice glanced at the apples in her hand and quickly waved them away. "No need, it's just two apples. You can take them. In fact, we have plenty more if you need them."

She pushed the two apples into Paimon's hands. The apples, which were originally the size of a fist, were now piled up and completely blocked Paimon's small body.

The money bag that Paimon had been holding was taken by Ying.

"Ah, Ying, come quick and help!"

Paimon struggled to carry the two stacked apples with both hands; the apple peels were pressed against her face, and the high pile of apples made it impossible for her to see anything in front of her.

The little guy kept kicking his legs in the air, which looked rather comical.

Ying had no choice but to take an apple from her hand.

The moment the apple was taken away, light once again entered Paimon's eyes.

The little guy immediately cheered up, flying around in the air with the apple in his arms, completely unrecognizable from his previous look of being on the verge of death.

"By the way, Miss Beatrice, we'd like to ask where Mr. Drouf is; we need to speak with him."

After putting the apple and purse into her backpack, Ying told the girl in front of her why she had come.

"Mr. Dulaf? He seems to be looking for his pigeon up ahead. You two should go and take a look. Also, if you notice anything different about that apple, remember to come back and let us know."

Before leaving, Beatrice made a point of mentioning her apple.

The girl who had passed Mondstadt found the forest ahead even more deserted.

--------

A man named Dulaf stood on the earthen platform, confirming the information brought back by the carrier pigeon.

Today marks exactly twenty days since the spring's unusual activity, but during this time, he has found no useful information, and even the letters he sent out to the surrounding villages for help have not received any valuable responses.

The pigeons brought back mostly trivial matters from various places, and few places offered answers to his questions.

This kind of thing should normally be reported to the Knights of Favonius, but Mondstadt is currently embroiled in the Dragon Plague and is unable to handle such a trivial matter that is not critical.

Haven't you noticed that the Knights of Favonius patrolling Clearspring Town have almost disappeared lately? I heard the Knights organized a cleanup operation before, and everyone ran there. There's no one left here.

Even if the messages brought back by the pigeons are useless, he still has to read all the replies one by one, otherwise he would be completely incompetent as a leader.

"Sigh, where have they all gone?"

Dulaf touched the cat ears on his head, worrying about the location of the remaining carrier pigeons.

All the other pigeons returned obediently, so why are there a few missing?

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Drouot?"

After walking for a long time, Ying and Paimon finally met someone in the forest.

Hmm... calling it human doesn't seem quite right either; the cat ears on its head are the most obvious proof that it's not human.

However, on the continent of Teyvat, people of this caliber are still referred to as humans along with other humans.

"Hmm? You two are...."

As Durov was pondering what the pigeons were thinking, he looked up and found two living people standing in front of him.

One is a blonde girl dressed in strange clothes, and the other is a little elf floating in the air.

Hmm? I feel like I've heard this group somewhere before.

"Oh! You must be an honorary knight."

After a moment of recollection, Dulaf remembered that the carrier pigeon that had returned from Mondstadt mentioned the group that had recently protected Mondstadt from Stormterror. Wasn't this the very group?

"Hehe, I didn't expect anyone here to know us."

Paimon, as always, deliberately indulged him.

However, compared to her companion who was grinning foolishly, Ying was more concerned about what she was about to say.

"If the Knights of Favonius have no other honorary knights, then it should be us."

"What brings you two here?"

Although Dulaf was very interested in the rumored knight of honor, the more important thing at the moment was to find the lost pigeon.

He didn't want to waste too much time on these two people.

"We came on behalf of the deer hunters to buy some Dudu Lotus. We heard that this specialty is sold in Qingquan Town."

Because Ying and Paimon didn't actually know how many Dudulian the Deer Hunter's Restaurant needed, but they had heard Miss Sarah say that the Dudulian had been sourced from Springvale, so they could just register there.

"Deer hunters? Oh, so it's you who came to pick up the goods. I've already prepared them; they're in the town's warehouse. But... are you in a hurry?"

Although there have been problems near the spring recently, there are still quite a few Dudu Lotus that were stored before, which is more than enough for this batch of goods.

Counting the days, it was time for the deer hunters to come and restock, so Dulav put all the Dudu Lotus into the warehouse yesterday for people to come and pick up.

"Are you in a hurry? Well, we are a little anxious."

It sounds like Dulaf has some unspeakable difficulties.

Dulaf looked around at the flocks of pigeons with a helpless expression, his words filled with apology.

"Um, gentlemen, I'm a little busy right now. Could you wait until I've taken care of the pigeons?"

"Pigeon?"

From the moment she started talking, Paimon had been very interested in these plump white pigeons on the ground, but since they didn't say anything, she couldn't ask them directly.

The little sprite floated down, very close to the pigeon.

But unlike the pigeons I'd seen before, these pigeons showed no sign of panic when Paimon approached, perhaps because their owner was there.

"Hmm, all the carrier pigeons I sent out should have returned by today, but a few are still missing. I need to hurry up and find them, otherwise they'll really be lost once they run far away."

Seeing how anxious Dulaf was, Ying realized that those pigeons were really important to him.