"Um, Rosaria, we're here to find Albedo. Do you know where he is?" Seeing that the two had finally stopped arguing, he quickly asked Rosaria, changing the subject.
"Albedo? What do you want him for?" Rosaria frowned slightly and immediately asked.
He certainly knew they had come to the snowy mountain to find Albedo, but the specific details were not very clear.
"We took on a commission that asked us to cooperate with his experiment…" He told Rosaria the whole story from beginning to end.
Rosaria's frown deepened after hearing it.
"I advise you to give up this commission. Albedo is not a simple character. As outsiders, you don't understand him, yet you dare to casually become his experimental subjects?"
"Huh? This…" He scratched his head; he really hadn't thought too much.
Mainly because Sucrose didn't seem to be lying, and her reaction showed that she respected Albedo from the bottom of her heart.
So he thought Albedo should be a good person to some extent.
Even if this experiment had some dangers, neither he nor Lumine should be in trouble.
"Then, how can we trust your one-sided story?" Lumine couldn't help but speak.
She had a lot of opinions about Rosaria and had to argue at every turn.
Of course, even excluding her personal prejudice against Rosaria, she wouldn't easily trust others until she saw Albedo with her own eyes.
"Whatever, you do as you please. The worst outcome is simply that you're transformed by alchemy into an incomprehensible monster, making me work a bit of overtime." Rosaria glanced at Lumine, then shifted his gaze back to him.
"But you, you'd better not meddle, otherwise, it won't be easy to explain to Acting Grand Master Jean. You know what I'm talking about."
"Ah… haha, is that, is that so…" He was slightly stunned, then smiled a little guiltily, but his heart was incredibly nervous.
Rosaria's words seemed to be hinting at something.
Could it be that Rosaria knew about his relationship with Acting Grand Master Jean? Otherwise, why would he say something like that…
"What do you mean? What does this have to do with Acting Grand Master Jean?" Lumine, seeing his cryptic manner and the seemingly unspeakable secret between him and him, was again furious.
"Nothing, just advising you. If you insist on going, I won't stop you. You'll have to bear the consequences."
"I'm leaving first. Albedo's camp is just ahead; you'll see it if you walk up." Rosaria didn't answer Lumine's question and simply turned and left.
"Wait…" He was about to call out to Rosaria, but the other party stopped on his own, turning around.
"Oh, right, you should still remember what happened between us before, right?" Rosaria asked him expressionlessly.
"Before? Ah, I remember." He briefly recalled, then nodded.
He was probably referring to the time he stood up Rosaria and was then asked for compensation by Rosaria.
"Good that you remember. Who knows when I might need it." Rosaria nodded with satisfaction, a slight curve appearing at the corner of his mouth, then left without looking back.
"…" He silently watched Rosaria's retreating back, feeling a bit uncertain.
Did Rosaria really know about his relationship with Acting Grand Master Jean? His words just now seemed to carry some kind of hint.
"Hey~" Lumine's voice carried a hint of resentment. Only after calling his name did he come back to his senses.
"How exactly did you meet him? Such a strange person…"
"Uh…" He felt a headache coming on. Seeing Lumine like this, it was as if he had been caught cheating by his wife and was being asked to explain.
Even though he and Lumine were completely innocent, he still had this illusion.
A moment later—
He finally managed to generally explain his situation with Rosaria, including some of Rosaria's nonsensical remarks.
The only thing about Acting Grand Master Jean that he couldn't explain was that he could only say Rosaria and Jean had a good relationship, which was why he mentioned it… This reason was actually quite stiff, and besides, he wasn't really sure what Rosaria's relationship with Jean was like.
But there was no way around it; he also didn't know how much Rosaria knew about his and Jean's affairs, so he could only bite the bullet and explain.
Fortunately, after Lumine understood the general idea, she didn't press further.
She only told him to be careful of Rosaria, saying that person must have ill intentions towards him or something…
He thought Lumine was overthinking it. Rosaria might have been affected by his physique at times, but it was clear that the other party was someone who could control himself very well; nothing had happened even when they slept in the same tent before.
Now, as long as he could maintain his distance from Rosaria, how could anything go wrong?
"Alright, but in the future, if he—no, no matter who—bullies you, you must come to me immediately, okay?" Lumine looked at him with a hint of helplessness.
Rosaria was definitely not joking; he knew very well that her gaze was exactly like his own.
How could he feel at ease with Star looking so unguarded?
Although, this should probably be a good thing for him, since what he was thinking wasn't exactly presentable.
"Alright, alright, don't worry," Star said, feeling very confident in Rosaria.
"But, let's not go to Albedo's place," Paimon couldn't help but say to the two of them.
Rosaria's words just now had clearly scared him. Although he really wanted the so-called generous Reward, he also didn't want Star and Lumine to turn into irrational monsters.
"It's fine, let's just go and see. He might just be trying to scare us," Lumine scoffed at Rosaria's words.
Although his current strength was only one-tenth of what it once was, he was still far beyond what an ordinary Adventurer could compare to.
Even if that Albedo really had some issues, he could easily handle it; at least he wouldn't be easily taken advantage of.
"I also think he's probably just trying to scare us," Star nodded and said.
Leaving aside the issue of strength, as the chief alchemist of the Knights of Favonius, Albedo shouldn't, by any reasoning, attack the hero who saved Mondstadt without cause.
If he did, how would he explain it to the Knights of Favonius afterward?
"No matter what, we'll know once we go and see."
The group made their decision and walked along the mountain path towards Albedo's camp.
And in a place they couldn't see, Rosaria, who should have left long ago, suddenly reappeared behind them. After they had walked far enough, he started to follow them.
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