(meanwhile) outside their heated doors

While the party enjoyed their first night in Inazuma, Yelan was working overtime.

From the shadows of the nearby forest, the skilled spy moved like a ghost. Three separate groups of assassins — likely sent by elements within the Tenryou Commission who had already caught wind of the unusual outsiders — attempted to approach the house under cover of darkness.

None of them made it within fifty meters.

Yelan took them out one by one with silent, professional efficiency. A precise strike to the neck here. A binding of hydro-infused ropes there. One by one, the would-be killers were neutralized, gagged, and left tied up in the undergrowth for the authorities to find later (or not).

Not a single member of Aether’s party noticed a thing.

When the last assassin was securely bound and unconscious, Yelan leaned against a tree, exhaling quietly as she wiped a small amount of blood from her cheek.

She looked toward the warmly lit house where the Traveler and his companions were currently occupied.

“…His cock better be worth all this extra work,” she muttered under her breath, a mixture of irritation and reluctant curiosity in her voice.

She had already gone far beyond simple observation. Protecting him from the shadows, eliminating threats before they could reach him… this was starting to feel less like a mission for Ningguang and more like personal investment.

Yelan adjusted her disguise, melted back into the darkness, and resumed her silent watch.

Whatever this Traveler was… he was already making her life significantly more complicated.

And she hadn’t even tasted him yet.

No one inside the house had noticed the assassins that night.

But high above, perched silently in a tree in her crane form, Cloud Retainer had watched the entire thing. She observed Yelan’s silent, efficient work without intervening or reporting it to the others. For now, she simply filed the information away.