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"Adelinde, I'm home." Pausing to shake the dust off his boots, Diluc stepped into the brightly lit manor. Perched on his shoulder, you stared at the extravagance of it all.

A spacious living room greeted you on either sides, filled with velvet couches and cushions for the weary. Moonlight flooded through curtained windows, illuminating ferny plants and vases. Rosewood tables... mahogany cabinets... chandeliers carved from gold and crystal...

Mister Strawberry has a castle? Mister Strawberry is a king!

A maid curtsied to Diluc, which only confirmed his kingly status in your eyes. "Welcome back, Master Diluc. How was business at the tavern today?" She caught sight of you and wrinkled her nose. "And what is that, sir? A... beast you captured?"

Bwehhh! You're a mean grownup, Miss Maid! But I'm not scared, 'cause I have Mister Strawberry.

"Adelinde," Diluc said, not unkindly, "you've served the Dawn Winery faithfully, so I'll let this one slide. But please don't refer to my pet Fungus as a 'beast'. And if anyone asks... Dandy has always been my pet. This is a matter of utmost importance, do you understand?"

Looking taken aback, Adelinde stammered, "Y-yes, Master Diluc. But why—" Flinching under his crimson glare, she muttered, "I'll fetch your supper, sir."

Heehee! I win, Miss Meanie-Maid! Mister Strawberry is a nice grownup. He's my friend!

Chirping in triumph, you grabbed Diluc's ponytail and began climbing up it as if it were a rope. "Don't." Diluc batted at you, but you only clung on tighter.

With a resigned sigh, Diluc draped his black coat on the nearest couch, then sat down. Now that Adelinde was gone, you half-expected him to demand, "Explain why you stole the Holy Lyre!"

Instead, he sighed and leaned his head back. "You know, I still don't know your real name, little mushroom. Guess you won't be able to tell me, will you?"

It's (Y/N), Mister Strawberry!

"That reminds me... there was once a real 'Dandy', though he wasn't a Fungus. He was a turtle that two children adored. Jean and I took good care of him." Diluc stared into the fireplace, deep in thought. "Kaeya was always trying to bury him in the garden." His smile soured a little.

Gasp! Mister Blueberry knows Mister Strawberry?

"Judging by your reaction, you've met Kaeya before, haven't you?" Diluc asked. "Let me guess—he tried to interrogate you? Perhaps threatened to remove you from Mondstadt?"

You nodded earnestly.

"He hasn't changed." Diluc was silent for such a long time that you began to wonder what was wrong. Then you realized he was fast asleep, his head slumping onto his hand. A few strands of red hair fell into his eyes, and his scowl slipped away, leaving only exhaustion in its place.

Hmm... Mister Strawberry doesn't like Mister Blueberry. I wonder why?

So... I gotta find the correct thingy to know about Mister Strawberry's past? Well, it must be a super-fancy thingy! Grownups looooooove money.

You floated towards the gold chandeliers. They looked expensive, so they had to be important, right? But when you touched them, they only swayed and glowed, casting their warm light on the quiet manor.

Next, you drifted towards the long dining table. The maid, Adelinde, had set out a feast: grape juice in a glass, roast fowl on a gleaming platter, a bowl of steaming radish soup, and salad with eggs and apples.

Wow... this looks sooooo yummy! Mister Strawberry won't mind if I help him eat some, right? Sharing is caring!

You sat down at the head chair at the dining table. Huh, it must be lonely to sit here. You'd need to shout to talk to the person at the other end of the table. Then again, why talk when there was delicious food to be devoured?

Heehee... it's like I'm a king!

You pretended to give a heroic speech to your (imaginary) friends at the table. "Chirp! Burble chirble!" You imagined everyone applauding. Then, on your cue, your imaginary friends dug in.

You slurped up some of the soup and gobbled up the salad. Then you sipped the grape juice to wash it all down. Er—for your investigation, of course. It was all for the investigation. You totally hadn't forgotten about the quest.

Okay! Back to work, my loyal subjects! Your king departs on an um-portant quest to find Mister Strawberry's meme-toe.

Bidding your imaginary subjects farewell, you returned to investigating the manor. Passing by the living room, you noticed one vase that was out of place amidst the dark, elegant colors of the manor. Gleaming red, blue, and green, it stood out like a preening peacock in a nest of gray falcons.

As soon as you touched it, the vase began to glow. You found yourself sucked inside...

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"Heeeey! Wait for me!" a voice called.

You blinked, disoriented. You felt as if you'd just been sucked into a vacuum cleaner and spit back out again. When your senses recovered, you saw that you were on a strip of sandy beach. The shimmering blue ocean stretched in front of you, and cliffs closed in on either side, forming a perfect bay.

Weird. It was nighttime just now, but... now Mister Sun is way up in the sky!

The bright sunlight shone down on two children chasing each other on the beach. One was fair, with scarlet hair and a lively, almost wicked smile. The other was dark-skinned and slender, with deep blue hair and timid eyes.

"Diluc... slow down! I can't catch up!" the blue-haired boy hollered.

The redhead grinned mischievously over his shoulder. "That's 'cause you're a slowpoke, Kaeya!"

If you hadn't heard it firsthand, you wouldn't have believed it. Those two children were Diluc and Kaeya? Playing together... laughing together... without a trace of animosity. Had you been transported... to the past? To their past?

I get it... so that vase was a magic portal!

Now you just had to figure out what the system wanted you to know. But before you went to investigate, you should probably turn into a human. After all, most people seemed to consider Fungi as monsters, and you didn't want to scare them away.

Pop!

Right before you were about to join Diluc and Kaeya on the beach, a red-haired man in a black coat with rolled-up sleeves strolled out towards the boys. "Diluc, Kaeya, you'll wear yourselves out running around like that. You're too big for me to carry both of you back home, so why don't you play something else?"

Is that... Mister Old Strawberry?

Ignoring his sons' groans of "Dad, you ruin all our fun," their father returned to lying beneath a nearby tree. The boys crouched down in the sand, where waves lapped at their feet.

"Let's dig up crabs!" Diluc suggested, struck by inspiration. Rummaging around in the sand, he bumped into a small, scalloped shape. "Hey, a shell!"

Kaeya looked enviously at Diluc's shell. "I want one!" He began digging.

I don't get it... they look so happy! How come they're sad now that they're big and tall?

"Look! There's a really cool one out on that rock!" Kaeya exclaimed, pointing at a large rock out to sea. You could see the seashell—a pearly pink conch. "Oh... but Dad said we're not allowed to go in the water."

"C'mon. Dad won't see," Diluc said with a quick glance at their dozing father. But Kaeya pulled him back.

"Don't. We'll get in trouble," he pleaded.

For a moment, determination and stubbornness flared in Diluc's eyes. Then, with a sheepish smile, he stepped back. "You're right. Dad would probably ground us. But I wanted to get that seashell..."

You figured this was your cue to jump in. "Hi!"

They both jumped. Kaeya dove behind Diluc, and Diluc tried to dive behind Kaeya at the same time, so they ended up crashing into each other and sprawling out on the sand in a tangled pile.

After dusting himself off, Diluc turned to face you, while Kaeya spat out sand, smiling despite his misfortune. With rounded faces and wide eyes, they couldn't be older than six or seven.

It's Little Strawberry and Little Blueberry! But... they're still taller than me. Wah!

"Who're you?" Diluc asked, tilting his head and regarding you with ruby-like eyes. Damp with sea spray, his long lashes caught the sunlight. "I've never seen you in Mondstadt before."

"I'm..." I can't tell them my real name... or else they might remember me, and weird stuff will happen in the future! "I'm... um... I forgot."

"You forgot your name?" Kaeya asked incredulously.

"Um... it's a secret. A big secret... that I forgot about. So I can't tell you about the secret. Because I don't remember it. What secret?" You were confident in your acting skills.

"Tell us! Tell us! What's your real name? What's the secret?" Diluc begged, jumping up and down. Evidently, he was not fooled by your superb acting.

Surprisingly, it was Kaeya who came to your rescue. "Secrets are secrets. Stop it, Diluc, or I'm gonna tell them about the time you spilled grape juice on Dad's favorite—"

Diluc clamped a hand over Kaeya's mouth. "Don't!"

"Then stop jumping around like an angry Slime!"

"I wasn't," Diluc protested.

"Yes, you were. But it's okay. Even if you're a Slime, you're still my brother. Anyways..." Kaeya smiled at you. Unlike his grown-up smile, he seemed to truly mean it. "You're not from around here? Are you a traveler?"

"Yeah!" Relieved for an excuse, you said, "I'm on a big, um-portant quest."

"What's the quest?" Diluc and Kaeya blinked at you like a pair of owls.

You thought fast. "...I'm gonna make everyone smile! I wanna help lotsa people and make lotsa friends. Oooh, and eat food! I can even help you get that seashell on the rock over there."

Kaeya and Diluc exchanged shocked glances. "How'd you know I wanted the shell?" Diluc asked.

You tapped your head. "'Cause I'm magic! Watch!" You pointed at the seashell, forming a bubble around it, and pulled it slowly towards the shore. "C'mere, shelly shelly shell!" You had never tried using the shield to transport an object before—it cost a lot more energy than you thought it would. "Euuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurgh!"

When you thought your strength was sure to give out, the pink, shimmering conch fell down into Diluc's waiting hands. He rubbed the sand off its smooth surface.

The shell was indeed pretty. It was the color of dawn, with little patterns that almost looked like flames. Diluc admired it, turning it this way and that, while Kaeya peered longingly at it over his shoulder.

"Here." Diluc turned and placed the conch in Kaeya's hands. Surprised, Kaeya nearly dropped it.

"W-what? Huh? But you wanted it so much..." Kaeya said.

"I wanted it so you could have it, you Slime-brain!" Diluc giggled. "You were staring at it like..." He made his best impression of a goggle-eyed Kaeya.

"Yeah!" you chimed. "Little Blueberry, you should take it! It's your present."

Kaeya looked down at his feet, flushing with happiness. "Thanks... you guys. You didn't need to get it. It's just a shell." He was quiet for a moment. Then he looked up, his eyes flashing. "Diluc? We're always gonna be friends, aren't we?"

Diluc stared at Kaeya as if he'd just asked if the sky was blue. "Of course."

"Let's make a promise," Kaeya insisted. "A promise to be friends forever. We can use the magic seashell to make the promise."

So, under the blue sky and light breeze, all three of you promised to be friends forever.

"Hey, you're a traveler, right?" Diluc tugged your sleeve. "Don't forget to come visit us! 'Cause at the end of your quest, when you come back... me and Kaeya will still be best friends."

"And we'll all come back to the beach and play together!" Kaeya agreed happily. "It'll be just the same as today, except even better!"

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You wandered aimlessly past the tree where the red-headed father was sleeping and into the forest beyond. When the laughter of the children had all but faded behind you, you blinked and found yourself back in Dawn Winery. The fireplace was sputtering out. Diluc was still asleep. A blanket of quiet had settled over the dark manor.

I'm... back.

Perhaps you should have felt sad, or happy, or confused. Instead, every feeling in your body was eclipsed by tiredness. You headed for the couches in the living room. Not to sleep, of course. Just to... test them out a little! At least, that was your intention, settling onto a comfy cushion.

The next thing you knew, you were awakened by a THUD! from outside. Hurrying to the window, you saw masked figures in the vineyard.

"Hurry," one of them growled.

"S-sir, are you sure the Holy Lyre is inside?"

"He must have it. Diluc Ragnvindr has been interfering in our plans for years. Who else could have taken it?"

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