A Hunter In Teyvat

I walked into the kitchen and saw that Noelle was no longer in her armored maid uniform and was instead in a cute white with gold embroidering sleeping dress that didn't reach her knee. "Hello Jake, I already started the noodles as you can see." Noelle said smiling gently seeing me walk into her kitchen.

I hummed in thought and walked over and stood beside her to check the contents of the pot of noodles she was cooking. "Alright, it's looking pretty good. Now let's get the meat cooked so we can add it to the spaghetti sauce."

I moved aside the noodles that had already been eighty percent cooked and then after we cooked the ground beef and added said meat to simmer in the spaghetti sauce me and Noelle began to assemble the lasagna.

"You said previously that this was supposed to be a divine inspired dish. So should we be praying as we make this?" Noelle asked me innocently and I imagine sending prayers to Raiden Shogun and Zhongli and their expressions as they realized our prayers was about a dish that had absolutely nothing to do with them.

Venti would probably just laugh and ask for a plate shamelessly taking advantage of it being supposedly in honor of the gods.

"If I were to pray to any god, I would pray to the Stove God Guoba." I said smiling at thought of the faded god, teddy bear god that was following that chef Xiangling around.

Plus, he literally shattered his consciousness into thousands of pieces forming smaller bodies in order to protect the humans he was protecting and guiding to a better land. Said people would actually end up founding Liyue Harbor the most prosperous land in the world of Teyvat.

"Oh, you know about the gods outside of the Seven Archons." Noelle asked lightly we stood closely to one another as we were stacking the lasagna layers, sometimes bumping into one another and I noticed she had taken a bit of a blush from the steamy food which was a contrast to her silver hair and pale complexion.

I nodded to her question, and I considered if I should drop some interesting lore but decided to simply leave it in her hands if she wanted to know more. "Well yes... The times leading up to the Archon War was a far... Far different time in comparison to the current days of general peace we have today. Like how Catkin here in Mondstadt is super rare along with the other Yokai races that had their own magical powers and didnt even need Visions to bend the world to their will. All those races are almost or are already extinct." I said thinking about how there were a lot more Adepti in Liyue and likewise with all the Yokai of Inazuma.

But whether it was during the insane days of the Archon War where gods butchered everything to become the new rulers of the coming age and then the catastrophe that was Khaenri'ah that brought waves of monsters basically everywhere. All the Yokai races were practically wiped out as far as I knew.

Noelle looked surprised to my knowledge, but I wasn't all that surprised, as Humanity in this current age was heavily reliant on Visions for a very good reason due to how instinctive they were and the ease of use. But the magics and alchemy one could learn from a place like Sumeru was a work of years. And such knowledge with how Sumeru literally treated knowledge as something to be hoarded and valued ensured such knowledge rarely left their lands.

"So, how's becoming a Knight going?" I asked as we were putting the finishing touches on the Lasagna.

Noelle froze for a moment before she smiled softly and begin to speak. "It's kinda complicated but according to the Acting Grand Master, I need to cultivate my mind and understand my limits before I will be ready to join."

Kinda surprised she isn't salty that the literal terrorist child that was Klee had already become a knight but then again, she was actually pretty happy serving as a maid for the Knights and the people of Mondstadt.

"The fact that you are mature enough to accept that you can improve mentally is a great sign that you are well on your way." I said giving the Maid of the Knights a pat on her shoulder earning a smile and she gave me a swift side hug in me showing belief in her.

Plus, if Jean and the others trusted her enough to bring her on our Fatui extermination then she was basically a shoe in for the Knights.

Finally with the Lasagna assembled and put into the oven to bake for about thirty minutes me and Noelle walked back into her living room where the rest of the girls were already relaxed and sprawled out on a couple couches.

"Wow... Me and Noelle were working to the bone sweating over a hot stove and you girls are just sitting here dripping grape juice... For shame." I said snootily and the girls for a moment did look contrite but Noelle's giggles and her nudging me in the side made me grin and Amber snickered while Eula scoffed rolling her eyes.

After sitting down beside Lumine I looked over to Eula and saw that she was also wearing a wearing a sleeping nightgown but was colored a light blue and exposed her cleavage. "So Eula. Me and Lumine know a good bit about Noelle and Amber, can you tell us a bit about yourself?"

Lumine and Paimon perked up from their conversation with Amber about the pros and cons in hunting animals with a sword versus a bow and arrow.

Eula's face twitched at my question, and I realized how open handed my inquiry may have looked but before I could backpedal, she took a swing of what I realized was actually wine as was shone when she had a slight blush on her face as she shook her head to clear away the taste. "Oh, as you may have noticed, I am a member of the Lawrence clan... And disregarding their issues and the general opinion the people of Mondstadt hold for me and my clan, I enjoy reading and playing on my bone whistle." She said lightly and Lumine nudged me as she leant forward.

"Honestly us three have little care for your connection to the Lawrence clan as we are to put lightly foreigners to Mondstadt so don't worry about us being prejudice or whatever!" Lumine said proudly with Paimon agreeing with a cry of 'Yeah!'

Eula covered up her embarrassment at our encouragement by covering up one of her eyes and sighing loudly muttering something about us being impertinent or something before she spoke up. "Other than my deep joy in dealing with the Abyss Order and the encroaching threat of the Fatui I mostly spend my time privately at home as I am not all that welcome in a public setting for obvious reasons."

Honestly that makes sense as even the lady who runs the Good Hunter restaurant, we are always going to, used to refuse Eula service. It got bad enough back when she was younger that she needed to hunt her food outside the city as though she was Naruto in some bad fanfiction where the villagers wanted to starve them to death.

"So, what kind of food is your favorite? Oh, and what is yours Amber?" I asked seeing how Amber looked a bit unsettled at the mention of the Fatui and what we did today.

Eula and Amber then told me about their favorite foods with Eula saying how she enjoyed lighter foods unless she was properly settled in for the day, as heavier foods would make her feel ill if she trained or needed to fight. Whereas Amber went a long-winded explanation about Outrider Steak was a cooking technique where you cook the hell out of one side of a steak, never flipping it and afterwards you scrap off the burnt parts and dip it in some kind of sauce.

But as I was talking to the girls I grunted as Lumine nudged me. "How's the food?" I froze and kinda felt depressed for a moment as I realized I didnt have my old egg timer I had in my previous life that would keep me from burning both my food and my house down.

"Let me go check." I said standing up to go back into the kitchen and I heard Noelle quietly excused herself as she went to follow me.