Genshin Impact: Reborn Engineer

Ryuzu carried Carman and Clervie back to the city.

"Why are you taking me back to the city? Isn't that too close to the Hearth?" Asked Clervie, she was giving Carman and Ryuzu, or Director and Production Manager as she currently knew them.

"Tell me, when looking for a runaway, what do search parties do?" Asked Carman.

"They spread out to cover more ground?" replied Clervie.

"Yes, and it would be assumed that a runaway would not stay in one place for too long right?" responded Carman

"Yes??.." said Clervie

"So, given that they do not have infinite resources and personnel, they will have to stretch their people thin to look for you. Given your proclivity towards freedom and the fact that runaway children seldom stay near the place they are escaping from, where are they least likely to focus their search after some time?" Said Carman.

Clervie's eyes widened, "the city?"

"Exactly, your mother might have a few hundred to a thousand people to send looking for you, but Fontaine is a large place full of places for a person to hide, furthermore, after a while, it would be easy to assume that you managed to escape to another nation. Now your mother belongs to a powerful organization with the might of a nation behind it, so she could request aid in searching for you. But she strikes me as the prideful type, so I don't think it is likely that she will ask for assistance, especially as it would put her in a humiliating position as she cannot find her own child." Said Carman

Clervie was nodding as she listened to Carman, his logic making sense to her. Originally she had been planning on trying to escape Fontaine, where would she go? She wasn't sure, she could have either headed to Sumeru through the desert, or Liyue and possibly later Mondstat through Chenyu Vale. But with Mother's spies, it would be a difficult journey to make, and there was no guarantee that she would be safe even after reaching her destination.

Ryuzu carried them back into the city, scaling the wall with quick powerful steps and hopping over the top before jumping off and landing on the top of a building. With quick movements Ryuzu navigated to a familiar alley. Landing on the ground, Ryuzu put the children down before moving a pile of boxes and grabbing the wall behind it by a hole large enough for a child to fit through, before pulling a large section of it out.

Clervie and Ryuzu stepped through, the latter pulling the wall back into place behind her. Carman pushed the boxes back into place, leaving a small gap for him to squeeze through as he shimmied himself through the hole and into the room.

Didn't think that this room would still be this useful when I left. Thought Carman.

"Well then, Ms. Clervie, for now, this will be your base, I will drop by to drop off supplies, but for the next few weeks you will have to take shelter here. If you need to leave, ensure that you are not followed, but before all that please step over here." Said Carman as he directed Clervie to stand on a medium sized circle he had Ryuzu carve into the ground in preparation.

As Clervie stepped up to the circle and started looking at it suspiciously, Carman said, "I will be using this circle to change your hair and eye color, then Production Manager will help you with changing your hairstyle, we can't afford to leave any easy identifiers for your mother's people to discover you. This change isn't permanent, as your hair will still be red as it grows and your eyes will slowly change back to their natural color, so you will need to undergo this procedure several times in order to maintain this disguise."

"I see, will this procedure hurt?" asked Clervie.

"Your hair has no means to convey the sensation of pain otherwise cutting hair would be considered a form of torture, as for your eyes, you will only feel a slight tingling, there are no nerves in the area I will be changing." Said Carman as he placed a few chunks of Condessence Crystal onto the Transfiguration Circle to power it.

Clervie watched the circle glow as the masked child placed his hands on the circle after placing chunks of crystal onto it. After a few seconds, she felt the tingling sensation he had mentioned, at the same time she could also feel something in the air surrounding her. She wasn't sure what it was, but she felt it as it concentrated, condensed? Neither were quite the right word as this substance moved from one of her eyes to the other.

After a few more moments, Carman was finished, He had changed the melanin content of Clervie's eyes, changing her emerald orbs into sky blue peepers, and her once pencil straight red hair had been changed to a wavy woody brown. Stepping away, Carman let Ryuzu take the lead on helping Clervie decide on her haircut.

After some discussion, Clervie settled on a short haircut, short around the back and sides with the top left a little longer.

While Clervie's hair was being cut, Carman was placing furnishing and supplies into the room. He started by placing a cot with some pillows and a blanket, a table with two chairs. Books and newspaper articles on various topics, shelf stable snacks, fresh fruit, a jug and reserve of water, cups, bowls, and other miscellaneous items.

Clervie looked around the room, wondering how the small boy had managed to carry these supplies. It was clear that the boy was a Vision barer, as there was a Hydro Vision hanging from his belt, however, as he was pulling out the various objects, she hadn't seen a hint of him using it. It was as though he was using magic rather than elemental energy, wherever he looked objects would just appear. She wanted to ask about it but as they barely knew each other, it was unlikely he would give her a straight answer.

"Well, thats should do it Ms. Clervie, these supplies should last for the next few days. I have provided you with materials to stimulate you intellectually and a few weights to exercise with. I will be stopping by in the evening every few days to replenish your supplies, so if there is anything you require, please let me know." Said the masked boy.

"Thank you, but could you stop using "Ms. Clervie" when talking to me, it feels weird." said Clervie.

"What would you rather be called?" the boy asked.

"Just Clervie is fine. Also how long will I have to wait in this place? I didn't escape one prison just to run into another cage." she said.

"Let's see how things settle after a week of your disappearance. With your mother's forces, searching the city should be a rather quick affair. And with hopefully nobody spotting you on your way here, they should assume that you did not circle back here and continued onward in the direction your escape vehicle was left." Said the boy.

"Alright, I will trust you on this. But I am only going to stay here for a week, I don't like being confined in a room" Said Clervie.

"Perfectly understandable. I assure you, you should be able to venture outside soon, in the meantime, please come up with a name to go by while you are outside, the disguise will be a mute point if someone under your mother hears someone call you by your real name." said the boy as he and the lady in the veil walked to the wall, pushed it open, and then pushed it back into place.

Clervie settled down in a chair, and started to contemplate what had occurred within an hour of this escape attempt. This series of events had strayed far from what she had originally planned, but somehow, she felt that the outcome would be favorable to her. The oppressive feeling she had felt after landing the dragonfly had mostly disappeared after knowing she had help, very competent help at that, in this escape attempt.

[One Week Later]

Carman was sitting in the middle of class, his class was in the middle of a hands-on assignment, opening up various dog gardemek models and trying to identify the issues each one had. Suddenly a notification noise rang in his mind.

-Ding-

[Prerequisites of Secret Quest: Deny Fate have been fulfilled]

Not moving his eyes off the gardemek he was observing, Carman mentally navigated to the quest tab of his system and opened this new hidden quest.

[Quest: Deny Fate (Secret)

Prerequisites: 

Reach level 20 Change one detail in the backstory of a lead character from GI.

Details:

Due to your intervention, the fate of a person has been changed, albeit in a minor way. However, fate has a powerful corrective force, the person known as "Clervie" while managing to escape the eyes of the House of the Hearth must eventually return, and in doing so will face her death by the machinations of her Mother Crucabena.

Task: Deny fate once again, subvert the canon event of Clervie's death in Peruere's (Arlecchino's) backstory.

Rewards: 1 Million Mora, 20 thousand system points, 1x Derivative Skill Ticket, [Alchemy Recipe: Transcended Water], Research Notes of Raiden Ei, 1x Mythical blank schematic..

Carman's spine tingled in excitement as he read the rewards for the Secret quest. That was a lot of mora and system points, but given the task he had been given, he understood why it would be so high.

'It seems that I have to help her get stronger, or convince her to never go back to the Hearth… then again.. if Clervie hadn't died, then Peruere would not have resolved to kill Crucabena. Now that Clervie is safe, I don't think she has anyone she really cares about, at least not to the extent where she would proactively work to protect or avenge.' Carman sighed as he finished writing down his observations on his paper before handing it over to his teacher.

'At least this means that Clervie has actually managed to escape the eyes of the house, at least for now. She should be able to move outside without worrying about being caught. I doubt Crucabena would be stupid enough to stop looking after only a week, but it seems she is no longer actively looking in this area.' Pondered Carman.

Ryuzu had been spending time with Clervie, making sure the girl had the supplies she needed, and offering social interaction. From how quickly she had bonded to Ryuzu, despite Ryuzu never letting her see her face or know her true name, they had managed to bond over a few stories that Ryuzu had picked up to read while Carman slept.

Clervie had initially settled on the name Clarence, as it would allow her to easily learn to respond to the name rather than Clervie and offer an excuse if she messed up. However, it was too close in Carman and Ryuzu's opinion. After another day, she came up with the name Sylvain while a bit on the nose in regards to her now brown locs was at least distinct enough not to draw suspicion.

Finishing work for the day, Carman once again ignored Camile's pointed looks, he still wasn't sure why she was bothering him of all people. It didn't seem to be a matter of class or agism oddly enough, but he didn't have the time to find out, as he was rather busy preparing for future projects.

Carman made his way back home and put his school supplies down before changing into his Director's clothes once more. It was time to visit the new member to his organization and initiate her.

-To be continued