" Why is it so hot today. " Wanderer fanned his face in contempt.

He has done multiple researches under the scorching desert sun in the past, so he was used to the place, and the weather never really bothered him, but today was hotter than usual. The heat was briskly seeping through his unique body structure. He was overheating, and his hat was doing nothing to help.

Cyno took a quick glance at Wanderer and studied his grim appearance. The anemo-bearer was lagging behind him, so the matra slowed down to match his pace. "You should take your shirt off. It will help with the heat."

"And look like you? Ha, no thanks." Wanderer quipped as he continued to fan his face. He was aware he was being mean to this matra guy, but the heat was really annoying him. (He can't really take his anger out on the sun, can he? It was anger displacement at its finest.)

He's, currently, what? Hangry...? Hot and angry? ...What. He internally cringed at the terms his mind came up with and shoo'd his thoughts away. Despite his verbal refusal to Cyno's advice, he still followed it by taking the white fabric of his cloth off and tying it on his hips. It helped alleviate the heat, though not by much.

" ...do you have a personal vendetta against me by any chance? " Cyno squinted his eyes at him, "because you've been nothing but unsavory to me the very moment we've met."

"It's because you're beneath me." Scara waved his finger like he's proving an obvious point.

Cyno crossed his arms, a certain glint in his eye. " ? I'd say we're about the same height."

" ? " Wanderer looked at him. His mouth opened and closed like a fish, unable to form a response. The air was silent for a few seconds before it was filled with the sounds of snickering.

"Get it? Because you said I was beneath you, but it can also mean that you're saying I'm shorter than you. Which is why I said we're about the same height...I apologize. I understood what you meant." Cyno deadpanned. "It was a joke. The look on your face was just too amusing."

" Oh, so I'm a joke to you now. " Wanderer fumed (he silently cringed at the matra's joke), but the original fire in it was gone. He crossed his arms as he half-heartedly glared at the matra; soon followed by a small smirk.

The next few hours of their travel was spent exchanging witty remarks with each other.

—-----------

" And what exactly are you doing here? '' Wanderer raised his eyebrow suspiciously. He wasn't expecting to see another scholar in the ruins, one of his classmates at that too. They were far out in the desert, and the chances of meeting anyone in this place was low, so this couldn't have been an accident.

The scholar let out a high-pitched scream. They looked similar to a scared cat with their fur up, and the wanderer almost found it amusing. Almost.

The scholar, embarrassed, furrowed his eyebrows and puffed out his chest. He stuffed his hand in his pocket. "T-This is my assignment location." he waved his free hand as if he's shoo-ing them, "so do leave the premises."

Wanderer raised his eyebrow higher. What?

" Your assignment location? "

"Yes, so you must leave immediately. I won't be able to focus with you two around."

Cyno crossed his arms. He stood silently by the side, letting the wanderer initiate the ... conversation.

" Really? Weren't you always assigned to sort thesis papers inside the Akademiya? " Wanderer silently snickered at the scholar's reddening face. "Hm, maybe I just remembered it wrong."

"Sorting thesis papers is an honor, excuse you! It means the sages trust me to go through and organize my classmate's theses." he fumbled for a few moments, "a-and I've read your theses. They aren't as great as people say!"

Wanderer looked at him, unaffected. "...your point being?"

"T-the professor–! Uhm, the professor told me I was overtaking your assignment." The scholar was quick to change the subject. His eyes darted around the room, looking at everything but Wanderer. "He said he was gonna relocate you, and that you have to go back to the Akademiya and get new instructions from him."

Cyno was about to butt in, but Wanderer glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. The matra got the signal and rolled his eyes auspiciously.

"Oh, I see." Wanderer smiled. "Thank you for telling me. It would've been so awkward if I did someone else's assignment."

He ushered Cyno to follow him, still sporting the nice-guy smile, "We should hurry up. I don't want to keep the professor waiting. Sages are busy people."

"So we traveled here for nothing. What a shame..." Cyno feigned disappointment as the two of them trekked outside the ruins.

The anemo-bearer was quick to sport a resentful look as soon as he faced away from the scholar, muttering 'dipshit' under his breath.

—---------------

The scholar waited 'till he couldn't hear their footsteps. He sat still for a few minutes, making sure the two of them were actually gone before releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding. "That was easier than expected..."

He delightedly faced the entrance of the inner ruins. "Wow...w-who knew he was so easy to fool?" He fought a nervous grin off his face as he pulled out a thin, cylindrical object from his pockets. He slowly pulled out and set down packs of the objects on the ruin floor, scattering them evenly.

Once he was content, he stepped back and marveled at his work. He leafed through the contents of his pocket, searching for the last ingredient.

"Where is it, where is it..."

...? Huh. He can't find it.

He made sure to pack everything he needed before going here. He even double checked, so he couldn't have forgotten it.

"Looking for this?" A voice above him spoke. He looked at the floating match being waved around his face and smiled gratefully.

"That's exactly what I needed, thank y–" the scholar froze. Wasn't he supposed to be alone in the ruins?

Time suddenly felt excruciatingly slow

Wanderer reveled in the scholar's fear-stricken face. He grinned smugly as he floated above his classmate, his back bent forward like a devil peering over someone's shoulder.

He snapped the match in two, purring out a boo. As if on cue, his classmate started screaming like there was no tomorrow. Wanderer doubled over and laughed. OH, that was the most fun he's had in ages!

He was ready to mess with the scholar more when the stern voice of Cyno broke through his laughter.

"You." He restrained the scholar by pressing the man's arms against his back, " a scholar of the Akademiya should know very well that explosives are banned in Sumeru. Smuggling in dynamite and attempting to blow-up ancient ruins...Your actions warrant punishment. You have the right to undergo due process, but keep in mind that anything you do or say will be used against you."

Wanderer pulled a weird face.

"What's your purpose here?" Cyno pressed the scholar down to the sandy floor, resting his knee on his back; tight enough to ensure the man can't escape, but loose enough that he doesn't suffocate. The scholar struggled underneath him.

"Can we save this interrogation schtick for later?" Wanderer looked at Cyno exasperatedly, "Just tie him up somewhere or whatever. I still have an assignment to work on y'know."

"I'll... Would you mind if you went on ahead? I'll follow you soon." It was clear Cyno still wanted to interrogate the suspicious scholar, so Wanderer just rolled his eyes.

"You better not take too long."

"Got it."

—--------

Wanderer scribbled down some notes in his notebook. It was a tiny notebook, one around the size of his hand. Nahida gave it to him when he was first enrolled in the Akademiya and he liked how convenient it was. He could write important things on it and hide it easier than the normal-sized ones. He could even stuff it with his tiny doll, the one hidden in the fabric of his clothes.

He ended up sewing a tiny aranara doll for Nahida in exchange for it (despite Nahida's protests). Whenever he did something similar like this for her she would remind him that "--not everything has to be transactional." accompanied by her usual metaphorical descriptions, but she always ended up taking the trinkets and thanking him.

He saw Nahida keep the doll he gave to her in the flower-esque center of the sanctuary. He remembered how it made him feel warm, like drinking his favorite hot tea on a cold Snezhnaya winter day. (Everyday was a cold winter day for Snezhnaya.)

He walked into another room and expressed light disdain at the state of it. Chunks of the walls and ceiling laid on the dusty floor, and most of the structure appeared to be broken.

Nothing's salvageable here, he muttered. He inspected the place's every nook and cranny but to no avail. There were no puzzles, no traps, nor a door that leads to another room. It was even bare of any Dahri symbols.

"Another day, another dead end I suppose." he sighed. Assignments were always a hit or miss. You either find something groundbreaking or end up writing the same thing that's been in someone's thesis for the millionth time.

The former would be a 'winner winner chicken dinner!', as Nahida would say.

He was about to leave the room and investigate the other floors of the ruin when something caught his eye. A small light was being emitted underneath the rubble, something the normal human eye wouldn't have caught.

It's a good thing I'm not human I guess, he thought bitterly.

He picked the large rubble up with ease and set it aside. He eyed his finding curiously. Underneath the rubble laid a stone slate: It was shaped like a triangle, a blue diamond-like object etched on the facing top. It had 6 symbols drawn on the main body of the slate.

"How curious." He took his notebook out and wrote a journal entry. He's seen his fair share of stone slates before, but none of them looked like this. Maybe this was gonna be his 'winner winner chicken dinner', though he wasn't gonna get his hopes up.

"I finally found you." Wanderer heard behind him. He turned his head and nodded at Cyno. His eyes were quick to lock at the matra's reddened knuckles but decided to not comment on it.

"Took you long enough."

"I wasn't aware you were getting bullied."

"Excuse me?"

"The scholar. He confessed. He was planning to bomb the entirety of the ruins you were assigned to so you can't write a thesis." The matra sported a stern look on his face. "It took me a while to make him confess."

Wanderer eyed Cyno's knuckles once again.

"He didn't explicitly say it but there's more people in it. The look on his face gave it away."

"Huh..." he lamely replied.

"You don't seem to be taking this seriously."

"It's not that dee– ugh. I don't really care. This isn't the first time those stupid scholars have tried something like this." Wanderer continued inspecting the slate. Turning it on every side, trying to see if there's a hidden compartment in it.

"It's a recurring thing? Why not inform the sages about it?"

Wanderer scoffed. "You really think they'd believe an outsider like me?" Cyno was about to retort but the anemo-bearer kept on going, "No, they wouldn't. Don't even try to butter it up."

" But they just wait and see... I'll graduate before any of those scoundrels can and parade my degree on their putrid faces." It seemed like the inazuman's motivation to graduate kept on increasing. If Il Dottore was here he'd be on his knees bawling his eyes out in jealousy. The wanderer laughed like a little gremlin at the image of Il Dottore's clones groveling before him.

Cyno sweatdropped at the sight of Wanderer shaking as he exaggeratingly laughed. It reminded him of TIghnari on shrooms.

"You did an impeccable job on figuring out he was lying. The scholar, I mean." The matra changed the subject.

"He was a shitty liar. He sprays a bad reputation to my kind."

"Hm. at least you're aware."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Whatever you think it means." Cyno grinned. He looked at the slate on the wanderer's hands, "jackpot?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out." Wanderer furrowed his eyebrows as he directed his attention back to the stone slate. There was no hidden compartment to it. Maybe it was just a simple glowing stone.

"I recall the traveler having something similar when she invited me to her party to explore the ruins. She used it to operate the ruin's mechanisms."

"Oh?" Wanderer raised his eyebrow intriguingly. He took another look at the stone slate before redirecting his gaze to Cyno. "Well, General Mahamatra, how would you feel about another adventure?"

—-------

End notes:

Next chapter preview:

" Hey Buer, how do you spell mischevious? "

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Author updated the fic earlier! yayyyyy. i'm only uploading 1 chapter per day (or after they upload a new chapter) sooooo ;-;)