Chapter Text
Flins made a terrible mistake.
He walked past Aino’s home without any sweets and without Ineffa.
This is how he found himself in the middle of a mechanical engineering lecture ten times more terrifying than the Wild Hunt.
“Okay, so you see this simple circuit diagram, right Mister Flins?” Aino pointed at the blueprint which looked, at least in Flins’s eyes, even worse than Varka’s handwriting.
“Aino, this does not look quite as simple as you made it seem.”
“Just look here!” Aino’s oversized sleeves pointed at a strange picture of what Flins had to assume was a lightbulb. “You just put the bulb, and then keep turning like you’re opening a bottle of… hm, what do adults like to drink? Oh, like opening a bottle of wine! But you’re actually closing it, so it’s like this!” Aino attempted to make the hand motions to match, but it looked more like she was choking someone.
“Er…” Flins looked through the diagram, pointing at a line connecting to the lightbulb. “So remind me Aino, this thing over here-”
“The wire, that’s where the electricity flows!”
“Right… So what does this part do in this other diagram?” Flins pointed at a box looking shape.
“That’s a capacitor!”
“A cap-a-city?”
“Uh, no, a cap-a-cit-or.”
“What is it?”
“It stores charge!”
“...Charge?”
“Mister Flins, were you listening during our last class?!”
“I may have dozed a bit…”
Thankfully, before Flins had the pleasure of seeing an Aino that was even angrier than the one time Ineffa refused to make her Krumkake before bed, the robot herself appeared to save him.
“Oh, Flins.” Ineffa walked into the mini inventor’s home with a bag of groceries. “It appears that Aino has decided to try teaching you again, despite several failed attempts over the last three weeks.”
“Failed attempts?!” Aino jumped up out of her seat. “No, no! Last time, I was able to get Flins to remember what electricity was!” The young prodigy turned to face the fae. “Come on, prove it to her!”
“Was it the… magic of protons?”
“...No.”
Ineffa blinked before shaking her head and placing the groceries away. “I was considering asking you to take care of Aino next week, however, I fear that would be unsuitable for the both of you. I assumed that due to your previous encounters with the Wild Hunt, taking care of a child would be rather simple, but it appears not.”
“That is perhaps for the best.” Flins sighed, already starting to feel drowsy, before a lantern (not a lightbulb, those things would forever haunt him now) of an idea popped into his head. “Would it help if I asked for someone to help take care of Aino?”
“Thank you.” Ineffa nodded. “That would be beneficial.”
“Awwww…” Aino grumbled. “No Krumkakes and no Mister Flins to teach for a week?”
“Aino, you do know I am going to pick up supplies you requested, correct?” Ineffa started to prepare the young girl’s dinner. “Unless you would rather I not go–”
“No no no!” Aino quickly exclaimed. “I need them for my special project!!!”
“Then it is decided.” Ineffa stated. “I do hope you won’t be too difficult to your caretaker.”
“I am not difficult!” Aino pouted.
“You may not be difficult Aino,” Flins muttered under his breath. “But whatever you’re trying to explain to me on this strange blue paper is.”
Flins: Four Hours Later, Lightkeeper’s Headquarters
“Young Master Illuga.”
“Oh, Mr. Flins.” Illuga quickly turned to face his senior. “Did you need something? Is there another Wild Hunt attack nearby?”
“No, nothing of the sort, but I have a question to ask of you.” Flins turned the young Squad Leader away from his desk filled with paperwork and reports. “Next week, Ineffa will be out of town, leaving Aino by herself, so she would like someone to take care of her. Would you be able to do so?”
Illuga raised an eyebrow. “You want me to leave my post to babysit a child prodigy?”
“Yes.” Flins replied. “Though I don’t think she would appreciate it if you were to call it babysitting.”
“Well, I, uh…” Illuga stuttered trying to come up with a coherent sentence. “I do have a lot of work, and I wouldn’t want to leave the rest of the Lightkeepers to have extra work, and–”
“I will take care of all your duties, do not worry about that.” Flins added, remembering how much of a workaholic the young man was. “Just think of it as real world experience. The duty of the Lightkeepers is to keep the people of Nod Krai safe after all.”
Illuga looked like he was about to protest before he finally shook his head and sighed. “I’ll do it. Just please, make sure no one gets harmed in my absence.”
“I will make sure of that.” Flins bowed, and stepped out of Illuga’s tent.
And with that, I won’t have to listen to anything about… er, what was it called again? Right, metronika eugenieering, for a week.
Ineffa: Tuesday, Nasha Town, completing tasks
The next day, Ineffa had still not heard back from Flins about a potential caretaker for Aino, so she decided to set out to find one herself.
Jahoda has less self-control about sweets than Aino, so that wouldn’t work.
Nefer’s distant personality would not be suitable for a task such as taking care of a child.
Flins already said no, and Aino would probably mentally destroy him with her lectures.
Lauma is a very busy figure, so it would be rude to bother her.
Linnea seems adverse to technology, and our house is filled with mechanical contraptions.
It seems that no one I know well would be able to properly take care of Aino, especially for a week.
Then who…?
“Hahaha! Well look who it is!” The voice of what sounded like a mentally unstable person laughed behind Ineffa. “Still up for a spar yet? I’ve been waiting.”
Ineffa turned around and quickly scanned the person. “Ah, Lohen. Vice Captain of the Fifth Company. I was under the impression that all the Knights of Favonius had left after the Wild Hunt threat had reduced.”
“Yeah, but I’m back!” Lohen exclaimed, before his smiling expression drooped. “Doing stupid letter duty, nothing exciting about that…”
“Letter duty?”
“Yep, I bet Varka made me do it just so I’d be gone for a while.” Lohen groaned. “You just walk around, deliver letters, and try not to start any violence.”
“Has such violence occurred before?”
“...Maaaaaaybe.”
“Hm…” Ineffa started to shift through all her information stored in her database about the knight.
Subject: Vice Captain of the Fifth Company, Lohen
Strength and Endurance: Exceptional
Childcare Experience: Unknown
Easily Motivated by:
- Sparring
- Fighting
- Action
- Lohiketto
Sources: Illuga and Varka (~87.95% reliable)
Probability of Caretaker Success…
Calculating…
Require more information!
“Lohen, have you ever taken care of children before?” Ineffa questioned, trying to see if she had any other snippets of data on the Vice Captain.
“Uh… Klee likes me? I think.” Lohen mumbled the last part under his breath. “Well, all I can say is that whenever I’ve had to take care of her she ends up still in one piece and with no exploded bombs– Wait, why do you wanna know this?”
Subject: Klee
Family Ties: Daughter of Alice, Codename “A” of the Hexenzirkel
Danger Level: 11/10
Subject: Vice Captain of the Fifth Company, Lohen
Childcare Experience: 1 extremely unstable child
Probability of Caretaker Success…
Calculating…
- 56.67% Success!
- Recommendation: Bring supervision for the supervisor.
Well, I suppose 56.67% is better than Flins’s 49.98% success rate.
And that was the previous highest success rate I had gotten.
“Lohen, would you be available to stay in Nod Krai next week?”
“I mean, it’s better than going back to Mondstadt with nothing to do, so yeah.”
“Aino is without a caretaker for the next week while I go to collect some supplies. Would you be able to stay with her?” Ineffa quickly remembered to mention his reward. “If you do so, I will spar with you after I return.”
“A spar?” The crimson in Lohen’s eyes shone even brighter than before. “Okay sure, I’ll do it.”
Task Completed.
“Excellent. Please come to the Clink-Clank Krumkake Craftshop at exactly 7 o’clock on Monday.” Ineffa smiled as she walked away, onto her next task of the day. “Thank you for your service.”
“No problem!” Lohen waved as she walked away, but she picked up on a comment she was 89% sure the knight wanted to keep to himself. “I could have sworn she was gonna ask me to fight a crazy child monster of the Wild Hunt, but Aino’s close enough.”
Monday, 6:57, Clink-Clank Krumkake Craftshop
“I already told you that you didn’t have to come walk me there.” Illuga mumbled. “I’ll be fine.”
“I am aware of that.” Flins looked down to face him. “I came to ensure that you would not get distracted.”
“Distracted by what?!”
“Work.”
Illuga opened his mouth to protest, then closed it again. The two of them stood in front of the door for a minute, like they were contemplating their life decisions that led them here. Illuga knocked on the door, and it opened instantly.
“Oh. Flins.” Ineffa blinked. “I did not expect you to come with Illuga. Did you require something before I leave?”
“I brought you someone to take care of Aino.” Flins answered. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Yes, but since you did not tell me in advance, I also brought someone to take care of Aino.”
Illuga’s eyes widened. “Who did you ask to take care of Aino?”
“I invited—”
“...Birdie?”
Illuga whipped his head around to find none other than Lohen, the Vice Captain of the Knights of Favonius, standing behind him.
That knight also happened to be his boyfriend.
“Bunny?!”
“Oh, I think this will go just fine.” Flins chuckled, watching the two shorter men stare at each other, their faces turning more and more red by the second.
“Recalculating…” Ineffa stood still for three seconds, before concluding. “Success Rate: 89.78%. Having two caretakers for Aino will greatly increase chances of success, therefore, both of you can take care of her.”
“That is… oddly specific.”
“It is just an estimate. I still have not counted all the variables. However, if I did, I believe the success rate would be—”
“Oh!” Aino appeared behind Ineffa from thin air. “Who are the two red boys?”
“They will be your caretakers for the week, Aino.” Ineffa then turned to face Illuga. “According to my data, you are the superior cook among the two of you, so I have left you instructions for Aino’s favorite dishes. Just make sure to not give her too many sweets.”
“Aww…” Aino mumbled. “I wanted lots of krumkakes.”
Lohen went up to the young prodigy and knelt down. “Y’know, I bet if you’re really nice to Birdie— I mean Illuga, he’ll have to make krumkakes for you. I mean, it always works for me when I ask for Lohiketto.”
“Lohen, you’re not supposed to tell her how to weaponize food!” Illuga’s eye twitched. “But he’s right, I probably would.”
Ineffa again recalculated the outcome of the caretaking mission before taking her leave. Success Rate… 93.45%. I believe they will be just fine.