"Awake?"
"Where'd you go? You drank so much."
The next day.
Rowan woke up groggily, and Istaroth's gentle voice sounded from within his arms.
Rowan lowered his head and saw Istaroth lying against his chest, smiling as she looked at him.
He lowered his head and kissed her forehead.
"I ran into Venti."
"That guy insisted on drinking with me, said he was congratulating me and you on getting married."
"Smooth talker."
"I don't believe he'd do something like that."
Istaroth rolled her eyes.
Did he really think she didn't know Venti well?
With Venti's personality, as long as you give him good wine, he'll compromise and do almost anything.
But there was one major prerequisite—he couldn't go against his own principles and bottom line.
Venti looks like someone with no principles at all. As long as you bring out the wine, he'll do anything.
You can hit him, you can humiliate him, it's all fine.
But in reality, as long as you don't involve Mondstadt, most of the time he won't say much.
The moment Mondstadt is involved, don't expect him to give you a good face.
That was also why Rosalyne could slap Venti and even take his Gnosis, and Venti still didn't say much.
This was one of the underlying rules of Teyvat.
The gods love the people.
Back then, Decarabian chose to stop resisting precisely because he saw the people of Mondstadt resisting him.
He sacrificed himself, gifting all his power to Venti.
And Venti really was shameless in his own way—who knows who he learned it from.
As long as he could keep drifting along, he'd keep drifting along.
Calling Rowan "Father," though, didn't really violate any principle… but he still couldn't say it.
After all, Rowan could be said to have been brought into Mondstadt by Venti in the first place.
And now Rowan had become his "Father."
Would Venti be willing to say that?
In short—Venti didn't want to, and there was no need to.
Better to each address things their own way.
"My wife is so smart."
"Master Diluc treated everyone yesterday, so I drank too much. And Venti's bad—he kept forcing wine on me."
"He insisted on settling things with me in a drinking contest, so that's why I drank that much."
In short, all he had to do was dump the blame onto Venti.
Whether it was true or not—did that really matter?
Istaroth would judge for herself.
"You… if you can't drink, then don't drink with that wine鬼."
"He's a repeat offender. He can sleep in the street if he wants—his pride and dignity have been gone for ages."
"You're Mondstadt's Knight King. If you end up sprawled in the street like him, what will that look like?"
"Don't do this again."
Istaroth's expression cooled as she spoke—clearly, she accepted Rowan's excuse.
With Venti's personality, he really would do something like that.
Venti: So love really can disappear, huh?
"Alright, alright. Wife-sama, get up first—I'm going to wash up."
Faced with Istaroth's warning, Rowan naturally agreed without hesitation.
Istaroth kissed Rowan once, then got out of bed and went to the bathroom to prepare his toiletries.
When Rowan finished dressing and went into the bathroom, everything was already ready.
He washed up, ate breakfast, and then left the palace.
Today, he planned to go to the Church of Favonius.
It seemed the Security Bureau had reported that there were some issues over there they couldn't handle, and they needed him to go give some guidance.
Especially the matter of Miss Barbara's obsessive fan.
The cause was simple.
As Barbara was an idol trainee personally chosen by Alice, she had always served as a deaconess of prayer at the Church of Favonius.
After Rowan rose to power, she was even designated as the next Grand Priestess of the Church of Favonius.
But as an idol who would go on stage now and then to sing and dance, she naturally had many fans.
They even formed a private group called the "Barbara Fan Club."
That group didn't do anything else—just collected everything related to Barbara.
What she liked to eat, what she hated to eat.
What she didn't like doing, what she liked doing.
In short, anything about Barbara, they'd collect it.
If it had stayed like that, it wouldn't have been a problem.
It didn't affect Barbara's daily life, and Barbara herself didn't take it seriously.
But in these past few days, a sudden "crazy fan" appeared…
Every day he lurked around the church like a creep, staring at Barbara, causing her a lot of distress.
But as a prayer deaconess, she couldn't exactly scold him and tell him to get lost.
And she didn't know how to solve it.
The nuns in the church had already scolded that man many times, but he never changed—he still came every day.
After being scolded, he'd behave for a little while, but after some time passed, he'd come again.
It was like he knew Barbara couldn't do anything about him.
He even deliberately scratched up his hands and arms, just to get Barbara to heal him.
After reaching her limit, Barbara reported it to the Security Bureau.
But the Security Bureau didn't really know how to deal with it either.
Legally speaking, the other party hadn't done anything clearly wrong.
After all, you can't forbid someone from going to church and praying.
And besides, all he did was stare at Barbara—he didn't do anything excessive.
Even injuring himself was his personal choice.
So when the Security Bureau came, all they could do was persuade him to leave.
But because Barbara's identity was special—after all, she was basically the next Grand Priestess of the Church of Favonius—
This matter was reported upward.
Today, Rowan was coming to see exactly who this shameless man was.
Honestly, what Barbara should've done was find Jean and have Jean handle it.
This kind of person was pure scum—he specifically bullied someone honest like Barbara.
He knew Barbara would try to reason with him.
But if the Knights of Favonius stepped in, they'd throw him straight into prison without a second word, and every time, the sentence would get longer.
If that kept happening, he definitely wouldn't dare do this again.
Because right now, what he was doing carried no cost at all.
So of course he did it enthusiastically.
But once there was a cost, he'd weigh the pros and cons, and then decide whether he still wanted to do it.
Since Jean didn't have time to step in, then as Barbara's brother-in-law, Rowan would naturally lend a hand.
Dare bully our little sister-in-law?
He really was tired of living.
It seemed like this guy even showed up in the game.
"..."
(End of Chapter)
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