Sorry, I kinda fell asleep at 5 pm yesterday and woke up just now at 8 am the following day, forgetting to post a chapter lol.
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Draff started recollecting his past.
Apparently, Diona's mother passed away shortly after she was born, which led to his alcoholism tendencies.
That was also the reason why Diona was so much against alcohol and despised it.
Yomite wasn't sure why he would say something like that to a complete stranger like him though.
Then again, he might have just wanted to make sure his daughter wasn't hated or misunderstood by him and other people around her, simply because of the way she acted to them...
He knew he wasn't the best father out there, yet he tried his best.
Raising a kid alone was quite the task.
Yomite's father was the same.
Full of worries, problems, and very depressed at times.
Sometimes he even saw him drink alone through the night instead of sleeping which pained him, but unlike Diona who shouted at Draff for being an alcoholic that wanted to drink away at his sorrow, Yomite didn't say anything like that to his father...
Once in a while, Yomite just stopped and wondered to himself, whether that was the right thing to do.
Maybe he should have been like Diona. Keep on bothering his father to stop and maybe he would have eventually stopped.
Yomite didn't want to listen to anything sad again, so he asked Draff about their race instead.
As he was very much interested in the cat folk.
Draff reintroduced himself as the head hunter for the village of Springvale with a firm belief of sustainability.
As for the cat ears, he explained that they were the traits that came out of his Kätzlein Lineage.
The Kätzlein Bloodline, was a family that had been in Springvale for at least three hundred years and they were a line of renowned hunters.
They were a family who were well-known for their feline features, as well as their hunting prowess. Skills such as infiltration, hunting, archery, climbing, and dodging came almost naturally to members of the lineage. They even had keen eyes that were able to see well in the dark.
All of the members owned a pair of cat ears, but only Diona was born with both the cat ears, and the tail, which was an anomaly.
And that anomaly could only signify two things.
She was either born with a stronger innate gene that greatly strengthened her abilities as a hunter and a large-scale mutation occurred within her body which resulted in her having a tail.
Or the Queen of Kätzleins, the old folk legend of the Cat Goddess, had bestowed a blessing upon her, giving Diona her own lucky tail.
Either way, everything Yomite just heard was very interesting.
But he was also a bit disappointed.
It would appear that other than Diona and Draff, there were currently no known members of the tribe, who were still alive.
The feline features of members of the Kätzlein lineage were exceedingly rare in Mondstadt, and during the Cholera disease, quite a few of the members had succumbed to the disease.
Draff himself almost didn't make it. If it weren't for Yomite's way of treating the disease and Acting Grand Master Jean, who dealt with the problem as fast as she could, he might not have been here right now...
Diona on the other hand was luckily out of danger at the time, simply because she was working, and once her shift was over, she wasn't allowed to go back to the village and had to stay at Margaret's place for a long time.
Yomite was glad he came to pay them a visit.
He learned something new again.
Mondstadt itself had a rich and interesting history, he couldn't wait to learn more about Liyue, as that was where he planned to head out next.
"But anyway, enough pointless chatter." Draff stood up and went outside for a bit.
A couple of minutes later, he returned, with two freshly plucked out fowls in his hands.
"Most of the meat from our hunts goes straight to the Good Hunter, a restaurant in the city. That means that what I'm giving you right now, is the most fresh meat you can get!"
Draff's eyes darted from one fowl to another and his hands flew as they talked. He never seemed to stop and his grin got only wider and wider.
"Really?"
Draff's grin only grew as he listened to Yomite's question of doubt.
"Of course! Let me put it this way...every time you eat meat in the city, you're eating something caught by a Springvale hunter. And I am the head of those hunters! You could say I'm the man of the house of this whole darn town! Hahaha..."
Draff laughed and opened up a new bottle of wine for himself. He offered Yomite a glass as well, but he politely declined.
Tomorrow was an important day, and if he were to feel unwell because of alcohol, he wouldn't forgive himself.
He was already hesitant when Diona served him the drink back at the tavern, but it turned out it luckily wasn't much of an alcohol, although he would never forget that exquisite taste...
"Haha! That's the expression of someone that drank my daughter's cocktail! I can smell that from miles away! You must want to drink it again, no? Everyone acts the same! My daughter is simply amazing!"
Yomite was stunned. Draff was right on the mark...
"Yeah...the taste was incredible..."
"Then what are you waiting for? Go up to her and ask her to make you another one!"
Draff laughed and went to prepare the fowls.
"These two fowls will be your gift, I will make sure they are the best fowls you could ever eat! Period!"
Yomite nodded with a warm smile and climbed the stairs up, he knocked on the door of what appeared to be Diona's room and soon enough, an annoyed voice rang out, "I heard everything."
She left her room and closed the door behind her.
"Just for the courtesy that you saved my daddy, I shall make you one drink for free!"
"Thanks, I appreciate it. But can you make it non-alcoholic this time? I have a special occasion tomorrow and I need to be in tip top condition for it."
"Without alcohol?" Diona silently gazed up at his tall frame as she scratched behind her right fluffy ear.
"Sure. Wait a minute."
She went back into her room, but once again, shut the door behind her, without letting Yomite take even a single peek inside.
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