Paimon asked with curiosity,
"Are you from Liyue?"
"What brings you all the way to Starfell Lake?"
"Could you be the legendary grand adventurer?"
The name Jiang Chen certainly didn't sound like it belonged in Mondstadt; it was unmistakably a Liyue name.
"Not at all!"
"I'm from another world."
Jiang Chen looked at Lumine with great interest.
He was eager to see Lumine's reaction upon hearing that he came from another world.
It was no secret in Teyvat that travelers from beyond the starry seas existed.
Many people had heard of them,
but few had ever seen one.
Hearing Jiang Chen's words, Lumine's face instantly filled with astonishment.
"Oh?"
"Then aren't you from another world, just like Lumine?"
"Lumine, did you hear that?"
"He's from another world too."
"Could he have news about your brother?"
Paimon looked excitedly at Lumine.
Lumine nodded.
"When you came to this world, did you see a god with white hair?"
When they were leaving this world, their path had been blocked by a deity with white hair,
who had even gone so far as to seal her away.
She had only recently awakened.
Now, upon hearing Jiang Chen say that he was also from another world,
she wanted to ask if he had ever encountered that deity.
"No!"
"I just suddenly appeared right here by the statue."
"I don't even know how I crossed over."
"I woke up and found myself in this exact spot,
and then you guys showed up."
There was no reason to hide any of this,
so Jiang Chen told them the honest truth.
Hearing this, Lumine's face fell in disappointment.
It seemed she wouldn't be able to get any information about her brother from Jiang Chen.
"Is that so?"
"Looks like I'll just have to search for him across Teyvat."
"Since you've just arrived in this world too, would you like to come to Mondstadt with me?"
Lumine extended an invitation to Jiang Chen.
Let's head to Mondstadt together.
Jiang Chen, having just arrived in this world, must know absolutely nothing, right?
"No problem!"
Jiang Chen didn't refuse Lumine's invitation;
he agreed right away.
Lumine nodded, her gaze turning with curiosity toward the Statue of The Seven.
Was this the statue of Mondstadt's Anemo Archon?
Filled with curiosity, Lumine stepped forward and reached out to touch it.
The next moment, the statue burst into brilliant light.
Seeing the radiating glow, Lumine stood frozen in surprise.
A wind had risen.
As the statue lit up, a breeze began to sweep across the area,
and even started flowing directly into Lumine's body.
The strange sensation subsided almost as quickly as it had begun,
and Lumine had mastered the Anemo element.
Feeling the gentle breeze dancing at her command, Lumine was utterly astonished.
"Wow!"
"Lumine, you've mastered the Anemo element!"
Seeing this, Paimon grew immensely excited.
You could actually do that?
Wasn't that just a bit too amazing?
Lumine herself found it a bit hard to believe.
"Jiang Chen, you're from another world too—did you gain any power from the statue?"
Lumine turned her gaze toward Jiang Chen.
Could this be a special ability possessed only by those who came from other worlds?
Hearing her question, Jiang Chen turned serious.
"I did!"
"Though mine isn't of the Anemo element."
With that, he thoughtfully demonstrated.
Mana Burst (Flame).
A ball of fire materialized in the palm of Jiang Chen's hand.
At this sight, Lumine's eyes widened in shock.
"Ah?"
"It's really true?"
Clearly, Lumine believed it!
And not only Lumine—Paimon believed it too.
"Whoa!"
"Pyro element?"
"That means you guys can trigger Elemental Reactions!"
Paimon looked at Jiang Chen and Lumine with delighted surprise.
Hearing this, Lumine looked puzzled.
"What's an Elemental Reaction?"
It seemed this triggered a keyword, and Paimon eagerly began to explain it to Lumine.
Once she understood the situation, Lumine looked thoughtfully at Jiang Chen.
"Wanna try it out?"
Hearing her suggestion, Jiang Chen shrugged.
"I'm game."
Mana Burst also involved manipulating the Pyro element,
so triggering an Elemental Reaction shouldn't be a problem at all.
"Palm Vortex!"
Without hesitation, Lumine raised her hand and gathered a swirling gale in her palm.
Seeing this, Jiang Chen decisively flicked a ball of flame into the vortex.
In an instant, the Palm Vortex transformed into a massive fireball that Lumine hurled forward.
The fireball struck the surface of Starfell Lake and detonated in a tremendous explosion.
Witnessing the spectacle, Lumine's eyes went wide.
"So cool!!"
She was more than satisfied with the sheer destructive power.
At the same time, she felt she now had a profound understanding of Elemental Reactions.
"Feels pretty good."
Jiang Chen likewise judged the power output to be quite respectable,
even though... it didn't hold a candle to one of his casual normal attacks.
Still, credit where credit's due.
After testing the might of their moves, the two headed back to the shore.
Lumine remained immensely curious about Jiang Chen.
As the trio chatted, they began making their way toward the Whispering Woods.
What was Jiang Chen's world like before he came here?
Lumine was dying to know.
"The world I lived in before crossing over was just an ordinary technological world."
"Nothing like the elemental powers of this world."
Jiang Chen explained as they walked alongside Lumine.
Hearing this, Lumine understood immediately.
She and her brother had visited worlds like that before.
Since Jiang Chen put it that way, she had a pretty good idea of what kind of world he came from.
As they chatted, the conversation drifted toward anime.
Though many of her memories had been sealed away,
Lumine still retained a great deal of knowledge.
Only her memories tied to this particular world had been locked away;
the information and media they had experienced in other worlds remained untouched.
Jiang Chen was a total otaku, and once the topic turned to anime, his enthusiasm spiked.
They talked about everything from Naruto and Bleach to One Piece and Attack on Titan.
Along the way, Paimon listened in total bewilderment,
completely unable to follow what the two of them were talking about.
However, when Jiang Chen and Lumine started discussing Fate, Jiang Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"You've watched Fate?"
Hearing Lumine bring it up, Jiang Chen was genuinely startled.
She'd even watched that?
"Mhm."
"I've seen it."
"I've played the games, too."
Of course she had seen it.
After all, that anime existed in other worlds as well.
"Then... take a look at this."
With those words, Jiang Chen summoned Vasavi Shakti.
When Lumine saw the weapon in Jiang Chen's hand, a flurry of question marks crossed her face.
"This looks... kind of familiar??"
Lumine was completely baffled.
What on earth was this?
And why was this weapon so achingly familiar!
Hearing her, Jiang Chen chuckled.
"O Sun, render death!"
Instead of unleashing the Noble Phantasm fully, Jiang Chen merely chanted its incantation.
Hearing those words, Lumine's mind went blank.
"Huh?"
"Karna?"
"What the hell?!"
The silent maiden let out a blunt curse.
The moment Jiang Chen said that, it all clicked into place.
What the hell—wasn't this Karna's Noble Phantasm from Fate?!
"That's right!"
"It's him!"
"When I touched the statue, this was the Spirit Graph I acquired."
Jiang Chen put Vasavi Shakti away,
taking the opportunity to explain his abilities.
Since she knew about Fate, she would figure out sooner or later that he possessed a Spirit Graph.
Better to just lay it out in the open now.
As for Lumine, hearing this only made her suspicious.
Could this guy actually have a system?