บท 19: Venting
Listening her true name, Allen wasn't really shocked. A rich girl with light purple and diamond-shaped amethyst eyes, plus the name King seemed to not even try to hide it. Allen had long since discovered but either way he found cute and childish her way to try to hide it.
However, he was more shocked about another thing "From the Liyue Qixing?"
"Yes" Keqing nodded " The Liyue Qixing is a committee made up of seven merchants and business leaders who govern Liyue, specializing in the commerce and trade sectors. Our job is to implement the policies laid out by the Geo Archon Rex Lapis and manage the day-to-day governance of the region of Liyue."
Of course, Allen was already aware of all of that, however, and he knew that Keqing was a Qixing in the future, but he was surprised that she was one being so young "But, aren't you too young?"
"Yes, now I am unable to do the actual work, having the position only in name while my big sister does most of it" Keqing made a sad face "The previous Yuheng was my mother" She turned over the cliff, looking at the scenery "I've been told that this was her favorite place. She was very good at her work and was loved by everyone so much that the other Qixing even decided to keep her Yuheng position for me."
"Yuheng is in charge of the land, livelihood management, construction, and Real Estate. Even when following Rex Lapis' policies, it could be said that the actual Liyue is based on my mother's image and interpretation."
"She is already gone" Allen said sadly.
"Mm" Keqing nodded "I've never met her. She died just giving birth to me. Everyone says that I am exactly like her, like two drops of water, even in our character. I don't like it." She stated.
"Everyone sees her in me, but I will never be able to see her. The only thing that I have from her is this" Keqing took from her pocket a purple jewel.
"A Vision..." Allen recognized it immediately.
"Yes, this was the only thing left from my mother. I have activated this vision even before I have memory, having it always with me." Keqing said sadly "The only thing left to me is something from gods! My mother worked for the gods and she died for them! Passing this stupid vision to me!" She threw the vision to the ground angrily "And here I am! Being forced to repeat the same like as some god's planning!"
"It doesn't matter what I do. I'll always be my mother's image, the one chosen by the gods, so of course, I'll need to do everything correctly. It doesn't matter how much effort I put, all the credit goes to the Vision!"
Keqing fell over her knees, taking the Vision again into her hands while tears started falling from her eyes "If everything is a plan of god. If everything is followed by their might. Why did my mother need to die?!" She started uncontrollable crying.
Seeing the little girl crying, Allen had a contradiction inside his mind, due to his both lives. For one, following Joseph's knowledge, he really didn't know how to be able to console her. So this time, the other part took charge.
"Pam!" A sound rebounded all over the place as Allen slapped at Keqing's face.
Keqing slowly turned around with a shocked face only to see Allen's angry face.
"Oh, poor you!" Allen said sarcastically "The poor little girl whose mother died and left her with what? With food, clothes, riches, people that care and love you!" He shouted angrily "Yes, you will never be able to see her, but people tells you stories about her, you knew who she was."
"Y-you don't know anything!" Keqing seemed to recover from the shock and shouted angrily.
"Of course, I don't KNOW!" Allen shouted even strongly "But do you want to know why I know? Not having parents since the day you can remember, not even knowing who they are, being thrown into the world without anyone to protect, being dragged from place to place to barely stay alive!"
"Y-you" Keqing shily retreated under Allen's strength.
"The only hope of you being a sister, your last strand that keeps you alive, your only support. To see that support slowly being broken, falling into an unknown and mortal disease, seeing how your only sister dies without being able to do anything! How your only support becomes more of a burden! Finally, even having to fucking make deal with a demon to live! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS THIS?!"
Keqing avoided her gaze "Sorry." She didn't dare to even move under Allen's mad gaze.
Listening to her, Allen finally recovered from his venting and was a little ashamed of his act "Sorry, Keqing. I shouldn't vend my anger in you."
"No. I am sorry" Keqing said with sadness "I thought only of myself and never thought about others having it worse."
"That's nothing wrong" Allen answered "And kind of normal. In the end you are..., what? 9 or 10 years old. It's normal to act like this."
"Why do you say it like if you aren't of that age?" Keqing said frowning.
"The experience" Allen said comically opening his arms wide "I know quite a good deal of bastards." Keqing smiled.
"Don't think about what you don't have or have lost, think about the present and future, about the things that you have and the things that you can obtain" Allen said taking out his own Cryo Vision "I'm glad for the gift and I would most probably have died without it, but everything that I have obtained is thanks to it? Don't joke around. This may be a borrowed power, but is mine now and I would make the most out of it."
"I think that I understand" Keqing said thoughtfully looking at her own Electro Vision, clenching it as it started to glow. She made a smile but quickly turner cold, her gaze turning sharp "We are not alone."
Allen looked confused, but quickly discovered a group of 15 adult men approaching them from both sides, being completely surrounded. They were wearing ragged clothes and their faces were half covered by a rope, giving the image of bandits.
"Treasure Hoarders" Allen discovered.
"I didn't have much faith, but it seems that the information was correct. Yuheng herself, away from Liyue Harbor and without guards. Today is our lucky day." The one in the front said delightedly with glee shining over his eyes. Most of them carried knives or shovels, but this one carried a big hammer, seeming clearly the leader of the group.
"We will obtain a great fortune with the ransom" The Hoarders laughed it off.
"Don't be too confident." The leader warned "Both of them are Visions' users. Don't lower your guard and attack at the same time."
"Fuck!" cursed Allen. With preparations or with his uniform at least, he was sure that he would be able to take out these many adults, but without a bow, low distance, no way to hide and being surrounded, the odds were against him.
"Charge!" The Hoarder started their attack, with two big guys swinging their shovels at them.
Allen clenched tightly his Vision which started glowing pale blue. From it, ice started forming an arc, creating a bow made of ice. He tensed the string, an ice bold condensing over it.
"Shot!" Allen shot the ice bolt towards one the shovel's users, perfectly avoiding his shovel and hitting his chest, however, against Allen's hopes, it didn't make any damage to him, not stopping his charge. Not only that, his created ice bow shattered in pieces with a single use.
"This is..." Allen's eyes went wide as he realized his error. Over these months of training with the Fatui, he had heavily focused on his Vision which was the one that showed the biggest strength. In his training, he had been able to create a bow and shoot multiple times, but it was far stronger to use a real one and improving the arrows, so he rarely used it and keep it as for emergencies like this one.
However, Allen discovered that this capacity and strength wasn't his. He was only able to exert that strength at Snezhnaya where thanks to the climate and the Tsarita's presence, the Cryo Element was at its highest so it was normal for Allen to be able to exert more strength. He hadn't taken into account that weakness away from Snezhnaya that error possibly costing him a lot.
"ARGGGGGG!" Just as the Hoarder was about to hit Allen, lightning run amok his body, electrocuting him and making him lose consciousness. Behind him, stood Keqing with an Electro knife being formed in her hand by her Vision.
"Do you know what I also have" Keqing said turning to Allen "Combat training!" Keqing clenched her vision and jumped forward, cutting the next Hoarder who similar to the other, fell over with one hit.
Keqing turned over the leader who like the others was shocked by the might of the little girl.
"I lack control, but I am quite confident in my output" Keqing said with confidence, lightning surging from her Vision as it started surrounding all of her body. She jumped forward like a straight arrow at immense speed towards the Hoarders in front of her, rebounding and incapacitating them before jumping to the next one, defeating 6 more before he was able to reach the leader.
"Don't fuck me, kid!" The Leader shouted angrily hitting the ground, lifting a good deal of soil.
"Ahh!" keqing was unable to avoid the move, hitting the soil and rebounding back, clashing against the hard ground and stopping his charge.
"I'll take care of the Yuheng, quickly take care of the boy. We will use is as a hostage" The leader commanded.
"Yes!" A group of three made Allen his objective. One was a scout wielding knives, another one a pugilist that used his punch and finally one using a hammer.
"Surrender, boy!" The pugilist said cockily as he threw out a punch at Allen very confidently. Having seen Allen's last attack, he thought of him as useless.
"Idiot" Allen coldly stated as he lowered his body a little avoiding the attack. One of the advantages of being a kid is the lower hit box, being difficult to hit with upwards punches.
From his trousers, Allen took out one knife with each hand, piercing the Hoarders's left calf with his right knife.
"Aggg!" The Hoarder shouted in pain as he kneeled on the ground, his shoulders falling at Allen's length.
"Yes, I'm not strong as Keqing, but I am far more decided" He said coldly swinging his free hand, piercing over the Hoarder's neck, blood surging like a fountain from it and the body stamping on the ground.
"What?!" The Hoarders were shocked by the ruthless act, seeing their partner probably dead body.
Allen looked coldly at the body. If he was shocked of anything it was in how he didn't feel anything killing someone. That was due to the merging of his both memories.
Joseph was calculative and decided, being able to coldly act if necessary. However, he was stopped by the decency and morality of his world, never reaching such extreme. On the other hand, Allen was shy and timid, but he had experienced the cruelty of the world, especially Snezhnaya, where it was the law of the jungle where strength commanded.
Joining both of them, he gained that ruthless attitude that bordered sociopathy against the enemy. In the end, in Roma do as Romans do, so in a world full of monsters and people trying to kill you, kill them before they were able.
"This bastard!" The Hoarders shouted angrily, one of them throwing a knife at him while the other swung his hammer.
Seeing the attacks, Allen jumped backward while he threw both knives that shined with a blue glow covered by ice. One of them pierced over the hammer's user right shoulder, staggering and failing his attack on Allen.
The other knife directly hit the scout's right thigh, piercing him. The scout's knife had already been thrown, but with Allen's jump, he covered with the pugilist's body, the knife piercing him.
"Fucker!" The hoarders shouted even more angrily. Allen's knife injures weren't much profound, causing low damage, but it had damaged their pride a lot.
"Burst!" Allen snapped his fingers, the pierced knives glowing strongly "BOOOM!" Both knives exploded, splattering meat and blood everywhere. Then, Allen turned around, completely ignoring their cries. They are still alive, having lost one extremity not being a mortal one, but the pain and shock would be far enough to take them out of combat.
Allen lowered his body, taking the scout's knife pierced over the pugilist before running towards Keqing who was fiercely fighting the leader. However, the last three Hoarders jumped at Keqing's back, preparing to attack her while being busy.
Seeing that, Allen threw the knife between the three Hoarders "BURST!" He shouted as he snapped his finger.
Seeing the incoming knife and Allen's words and having seen the explosion that incapacitated their partners, they decided to stop the attack, quickly jumping backward and avoiding the knife that of course didn't explode.
"Idiots" Allen laughed. Shouting burst, snapping his fingers, all of them had been planned moves to create a future decoy. His knives were already prepared to burst since the start of the battle, but to create a new burst with the newly acquired knife? He would need at least a minute, but the enemy had no idea of it so it was best to use it as a trick, becoming the perfect decoy.
"YOU!" The three Hoarders shouted angrily and run crazily toward Allen, swinging their weapons at him, ashamed of having been tricked.
"Don't you forget about something?" Allen said grinning as he looked over the Hoarders, Keqing wearing her Electro knife charging against them.
"AAGGGG!!" The three Hoarders shouted as they were electrocuted by Keqing's swing.
"YOU ARE THE ONE FORGETTING!" The leader shouted as he swung his warhammer towards Keqing's back who due to her last movement was unable to avoid it.
"Fuck!" Seeing the attack, Allen jumped forward, gripping Keqing with his left hand and spinning Keqing's body, bringing her behind him while with his right hand, that was covered in ice, covered his body and faced against the mighty warhammer that unavoidable clashed at him.
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