Hu Tao Is Monetizing My Existence. [156]

As one of Teyvat’s top alchemists, Albedo possessed extraordinary skill—and equally extraordinary destructive potential.

Not everyone in Mondstadt was fully at ease with him. Rosaria, for one, had always kept her guard up around him.

As one of Mondstadt’s shadow operatives—the kind who worked in silence—suspicion and vigilance had become second nature to her.

And her instincts were screaming: this explosion on Dragonspine had everything to do with Albedo.

She crossed her arms. Even beneath the thick winter coat, her striking figure was hard to ignore.

“You know how I am, so don’t try to brush me off with a line like ‘classified information.’”

There were very few matters within Mondstadt that even she didn’t have clearance to know about.

Diluc, too, was staring at Kaeya. His expression remained icy and composed, but there was a sharpness in his gaze that cut straight through.

“I’d like to know as well—what could have caused an explosion of that magnitude?”

“Ay, what am I going to do with the two of you?” Kaeya sighed dramatically, though he didn’t actually seem annoyed—and he didn’t try to hide anything, either.

“It’s nothing too serious, really. Albedo was conducting a detonation experiment. He had someone bring in a large quantity of explosives. The blast you saw? That was from the bombs going off.”

Diluc: “…?”
Rosaria: “…?”

That’s it?

It sounded plausible, and yet… something about it felt off.

Rosaria frowned. Diluc narrowed his eyes.

Though they operated in very different ways, the two protectors of Mondstadt shared the same gut feeling in that moment.

They weren’t part of the Knights anymore—or in Rosaria’s case, not directly involved with intel operations—so if Albedo had submitted an official request to conduct the experiment, and the Knights approved it, they’d only learn of it after the fact, just like now.

After all, alchemists doing fieldwork wasn’t exactly a rare occurrence. No one paid close attention unless something big happened.

And this explosion? That was something big.

Kaeya’s presence here as the Knights’ Cavalry Captain also lent the event a veneer of official legitimacy.

Still, now that they’d come all this way, there was no chance they’d leave without seeing things for themselves.

“Where’s the path to the summit?”

Kaeya spread his hands helplessly. “Knew you’d ask that. Alright, follow me.”

The two of them ascended the mountain behind Kaeya.

Thanks to the lift mechanism Albedo had crafted and the expanded tunnel paths they’d carved out during downtime, getting to the summit had become much easier.

When they reached the top, the sight that greeted them was not what one would expect of a mountaintop.

Rather than a pointed peak, the summit was a vast depression—a massive crater that looked like it had been carved out by an explosion.

And suspended above the crater were countless fragments of floating stone—varying in size, some large, some small—hovering midair in defiance of gravity.

At the center of the crater, Albedo had constructed a small makeshift laboratory, calmly continuing his experiments as if the world around him didn’t exist.

“Whoa—it’s the grumpy big brother and the nun lady you barely see!”

It was Klee, who gasped with delight when she saw the two newcomers.

She had met both of them before, though her impressions of them were vague at best.

She’d seen Diluc a few times, but he always seemed grumpy and rarely smiled.

For someone like Klee, whose mood was always sunny and who laughed easily, it was hard to understand how someone could be in such a constant state of not-happy.

As for Rosaria, Klee had glimpsed her around the city and the cathedral, but in her mind, she was “the nun who doesn’t act like a nun.” That was about it.

“Klee, what are you doing up here?” Rosaria’s sharp momentum suddenly softened.

Klee’s presence here… explained a lot.

“Heehee, I’m here helping Albedo with his experiments! I’ve been super helpful!” Klee said proudly, hands on her hips.

Diluc glanced at Klee, then over to Kaeya.

Kaeya tilted his head and shrugged—see? I wasn’t lying. Ask her if you don’t believe me.

Rosaria, undeterred, knelt slightly and coaxed more intel out of Klee like a pro. “Oh? And what kind of help did you give?”

“Klee set up tons of bombs! Those floating rocks? All mine!” Klee pointed at the fragments overhead with obvious pride.

She was the hero who blew up the bad Nail!

Rosaria fell silent.

Then, mentally, she updated Klee’s danger level—again.

She gave the girl’s cheek a mildly irritated pinch, but said nothing.

“What are those floating crystal fragments?” Diluc asked.

The crystals were mostly blue—some encased in rocky shells, others pure and translucent—and all of them hovered eerily in midair.

No matter how you looked at it, they weren’t natural.

“Those are the remains of what we blew up,” Kaeya replied, then glanced at Klee. “Klee, show them the photo.”

“Okay!” Klee handed over a group photo they’d taken in front of the Nail of the Heavens. Kaeya passed it to Diluc.

The photo showed what the area looked like before—back when the Nail was still intact.

“That thing’s called the Skyfrost Nail. It fell from the sky thousands of years ago and lodged itself into the mountain. These floating pieces? They’re what’s left after we blew it up.”

Rosaria leaned over to look at the photo. Her gaze barely paused on the Nail before zeroing in on a particular figure.

“Who’s this?”

“That’s Jiang Bai. He’s from Liyue. He helped out with the experiment. He left yesterday,” Kaeya said.

“And why,” Rosaria asked pointedly, “was a Liyue citizen involved in an internal Knights experiment?”

“That would be because he’s my assistant,” Albedo spoke up just then, finally walking over.

He and Kaeya had already worked out the official story. They would tell people the explosion was caused by a confidential experiment. The Acting Grand Master, Jean, and Grand Master Falka had both been informed.

Once they returned, Kaeya would submit a full report outlining the entire sequence of events.

To avoid unnecessary complications, both Jiang Bai and Hu Tao would be referred to publicly as Albedo’s research assistants.

Once Grand Master Valka had reviewed the report in full, it would be up to her whether to classify the incident as confidential.

“I’d love to ask why you’d bring a Liyue native in as your assistant, but I’m sure you have a hundred reasons, and I’m too lazy to hear any of them. If the explosion was from an experiment, then I’ll stop worrying about it.”

Rosaria stretched lazily, reverting to her usual laid-back demeanor.

But before she left, she looked straight at Albedo, a flash of danger in her eyes.

“But listen, Albedo the Great Alchemist, next time you plan to do something like this—maybe think about the impact it’ll have first.”

—

T/N: afiafoas Rosariaaa step on me

This is a fan translation of 胡桃拿我冲业绩 by 余溯. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!