Chapter 126

***

"So? Are you willing to go with me now that you've begged out a free Diona special?"

"The drink was certainly amazing, there is no denying that...But before we go, I have a question."

It was indeed an important question.

"Can I pet you?"

Maybe not as important.

"Nya!? No chance! I won't let anyone touch my tail!"

She jumped away from him, hissing out in hatred.

"I didn't mean tail, I meant your ears. I want to pet your ears"

Her angry indignant expression warped into one of confusion and hesitation, "Ears? But what would be the point of petting them?"

"They look incredibly fluffy."

Yomite answered simply.

Hearing his reply Diona hesitated further, before leaking out a sigh and approaching him with moderate amounts of caution.

"Fine...But be gentle, they are very sensitive... And if you touch my tail, I will bite you real hard!"

She showed him her feline fangs as she hissed out the last threatening words.

Taking her threat into account, he steadily reached out his hand towards her fluffy cat-like ears.

(Ah...this is bliss...And the way they flutter when touched...Simply wonderful...)

He slowly petted her cat ears for a few minutes, stroking them lightly to make them flick back into shape.

His fingers brushed against the soft fur of Diona's cute ears, the tip of his middle finger gently grazing over them before moving down.

Diona purred softly, a contented and happy sigh kept leaking out as she enjoyed Yomite's pats, and seeing the phenomenon made him smile at her adorable actions.

She was just like a cute cat.

He then moved his hand further down to stroke her chin and she slowly leaned into his touch as though on instinct.

Her satisfied cat-like purrs reverberated on the surroundings, filling the room with a deep vibrato. It was soft and melodic, but still managed to be quite loud when compared to the sound of people talking over each other at the pub.

"W-why are you scratching my chin as well! I only said you could touch the ears! I'm not a cat! I'm a proud adult of the Kätzlein bloodline!"

Diona woke up from her satisfied stupor and finally seemed to have realized what happened or rather how she reacted to Yomite's touches.

Shaking his hand off of her chin, she jumped up and hit him squarely in the chest, making him gasp and cough a little from surprise. Soon however, he laughed out loud because of the sheer cuteness of her abrupt act.

He had to admit, Diona was pretty.

No, not pretty. Adorable. There was a HUGE difference.

"Alright, that's enough petting. At least for now. We can go visit your father. Lead the way."

"...For now!? There won't be any other chance for you! You took advantage of me!"

She yelled loudly, her tone laced with fury, fully knowing that nothing much even happened between them just now.

"Come on...don't make it sound so scandalous...I barely touched your chin at most…You only said I couldn't touch your tail..."

"Tch! I will remember that!" Spating the words out, she walked up to Margaret and told her that she needed to take a leave.

She was confused for a moment, afraid that something must have happened to her father for her to take a sudden leave like this, but Diona explained to her about her circumstances, and Margaret was more than happy to oblige to her wishes.

Diona was, after all, an indispensable member of her pub. She deserved the best treatment.

Diona then returned swiftly, pointing at the door she uttered out an order. "We are going." and without saying anything else, she stormed out of the tavern, not even looking back.

"Oh well...guess I will go too." Yomite sighed and said goodbye to Kaeya.

"Leaving already? See you next time then, lil' bro, but don't make me wait for too long. I would love to hear your answer regarding 'that' particular topic."

Yomite deeply sighed at Kaeya's words, reminded of the dark secret that the cavalry captain had shared with him, and left the tavern in contemplation.

He would have to think about the burdensome issue some other time...

Watching him leave, Kaeya laughed to himself in delight.

"He's...so interesting."

For the first time in his life, he didn't feel lonely, for he finally had a friend who he could maybe share his burdens with.

***

A medium-sized mansion was located in the center of the village of Springvale.

This was where the Cholera disease came to life. The epicentre of the malignant disease which was recently cleansed and the area was now, luckily, a safe place to visit.

A middle-aged man sitting opposite of the duo on the couch in the living room, furrowed his brow.

It was Diona's father that had luckily recovered from the disease thanks to Yomite's cure.

His name was Draff, a middle-aged, bearded man with cat ears.

(I only followed her because I wanted to see more cat girls...not this…old cat boy..ugh...)

He got shivers thinking of the fact and sighed heavily within his mind, once again confirming that the concept of plot armor and lucky coincidences simply didn't exist for him.

After he recovered from Cholera, Yomite decided to reveal the method to treat the diseases to the public.

He had enough money already so there was no need to profit out of it, not to mention he could earn more Mora at any time he wanted if he started selling ideas from his old world.

He had already made plans to do something like that in the future, but first, he would need to hire some people that would start working on it.

So, there was no point for him to keep the cure a secret.

Especially when it came to a dangerous and harrowing disease like Cholera...It was much better to let the whole world know that a treatment for such a terrible and newfound disease was found rather than to profitize from it.

At first, he did not want to reveal his name or identity, but somehow the public already knew who was behind the discovery of the new disease, and the words spread around Mondstadt, then Liyue, and then eventually the whole world of Teyvat.

At least that's what Jean had told him.

He wanted money, yeah, but he didn't want fame…

Fame was like a curse. Or maybe akin to a double-edged sword..

It could bite him easily in the ass at any time...although it might also bring him a couple of benefits such as discounts, free stuff, easier access to things that the public cannot even fathom to witness and so on.

And now, Diona had brought Yomite here, into her home, precisely because her father wished to meet the person that saved his village and his life, most likely to thank him.

But right now…

The person before him was coughing dryly.

Both him and Diona were presently sitting on a rug of a stuffed bear that was lying in the middle of the living room.

The atmosphere that Draff radiated felt very oppressive as he kept staring at Yomite with a stern expression of disapproval, and maybe even slight hostility.

At a glance, he looked like a normal middle-aged man with brown hair and unique cat-like ears, but his sharp eyes had been emitting an oppressive pressure for a while now.

Seeing that he was alone, without a wife, probably meant that he was either a widower or his wife had left him. Either way, it was pretty sad.

*Cough* *Cough*

Draff coughed dryly again, clearing his throat...

"So."

...He opened his mouth and let out a single word.

"Who the hell are you!? You can't have my daughter!"

He stood up and shouted as he pointed at Yomite with an accusatory finger. "How come my sweet little daughter already found herself a man!? Unacceptable!"

"D-Daddy!? It's not like that!" A loud gasp and a shrill squeal of protest escaped Diona's small being as she looked at her father with indignation.

Yomite quickly raised his hands in defense, not wanting to anger her father even more than he already had been.

The man was standing in front of him now, with a hand over his heart, looking as if he were about to collapse any second now from the shock of letting his daughter go…

Almost like he was having a heart attack...

(Woah...this parent seems a bit too much...This is completely different from what I expected...)

After a moment of tension, however, Draff's shoulders relaxed, he plopped back down at his sofa and started roaring in laughter.

"I'm just messing with you! I always wanted to say that! You should have seen both of your faces! Bahahah! Here, take her from me as soon as possible, my daughter bullies me on a daily basis..."

The last part of his sentence was said in a depressing tone, but his acting skills had indeed convinced Yomite.

He completely thought he was being serious before, shouting at him for stealing his daughter away…

He was readying himself for one of the cliché misunderstandings only to be played by the sly old fox of a man that Draff was.

"DADDY!!! I'm gonna kill you, you know!" The little small ball of anger and cuteness clenched her fists tightly in fury, readying herself to punish her father.

"Relax, relax! I just wanted to lighten up the atmosphere with a joke…"

Diona's nose slightly twitched as she sniffed the air around her, "You...You drank it again, didn't you! I can smell it!! Even if it's faint!! Where did you hide the bottle this time!?"

"D...Drank? Drank what? *cough* *cough* I did drink some water this morning if that's what you're referring to…Drinking water is very healthy..."

"You know very well what I mean! Alcohol! Alcohol! I told you not to! I always do! Yet you did it again! I hate you so much!"

She furiously stood up from the rag and ran into her room with tearful eyes emanating the sadness of her heart.

Draff, wryly smiled at that, his gaze landed on Yomite as he bowed, "I'm sorry you had to witness something like this...I intended to meet you and thank you personally, but Diona said she would rather look for you herself and bring you here. Sorry for the trouble caused, my daughter...is a very tough nut to crack..."

"It's fine, don't worry about it..."

He saw that they had their own thing going on, so he would really prefer to dip out of here as soon as possible...

"Thank you...You see...It's been like this for quite a while now...ever since her mom passed away…"

Thus Draff slowly recounted to him their tale...The sad tale of the feline father daughter duo...