Roughly two weeks ago, Yomite was visiting Diluc's mansion, and he made a nasty deal with Adelinde...to lure Diluc into her "Love Clutches"     

A deal with a cute devil...     

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"Welcome Master Yomite, I'm glad you visit us so often. Master Diluc is equally as happy I bet." the voice was feminine, high pitched and sweet, as if the owner of it had an addiction for sugar or some sort of sweet tooth.     

The maid who spoke to Yomite appeared to be a young woman with blonde hair and green eyes. She wore the typical maid outfit, consisting of a black and white dress.     

The attire wasn't particularly fancy but it certainly was professional looking and Yomite was all for hot maids in his book. After all, there were plenty of reasons why he enjoyed spending time at Diluc's mansion. One of them being that he hired many attractive women dressed as maids to serve him.     

And while he would never approach any of those girls since he wasn't the same he used to be back on Earth, he could always enjoy their presence from afar and watch how diligently they worked their sweat.     

"Adelinde, I'm glad to be back here. Diluc is starting to be one of my favorite people to spend time with," Yomite greeted the Head Housemaid who welcomed him and led him to the guest room where he'd been staying before.     

"I see, then I am happy you feel comfortable here. Master Diluc seems to have taken a liking to you as well, he has invited you to stay over several times now," Adelinde replied with a smile, however her expression became somewhat serious after she looked at Yomite's face.     

"Master Yomite, may I please speak with you privately for a moment?" Adelinde asked in a quiet, almost worried tone.     

Yomite nodded, "Sure, what do you need? Is something wrong? Just ask away."     

"Yes, it's regarding Master Diluc. You see..." Adelinde hesitated for a moment, glancing from side to side to make sure no-one else was nearby. If some maid overheard her, there would be trouble.     

Finally, after making sure they were alone, Adelinde whispered in a low voice, "...I'm actually...in love with Master Diluc. He's kind and gentle, and just as handsome," Adelinde confessed to Yomite with a blush creeping onto her cheeks.     

"...Ehm, I see..." Yomite stammered, confused as to why she was telling him all of this.     

He didn't know how to react to hearing this news, especially not from Adelinde herself.     

She was a maid of Diluc, a maid Diluc was rather close to, and he thought it was more of looking up to a motherly figure, yet it seemed there was some interesting development here.     

"So...what exactly do you want from me? I mean, if you love him, just tell him? Why did you come to talk to me about this? Shouldn't you go to Diluc directly and confess your feelings?" Yomite asked in confusion.     

"Yes, that's what I wanted to do, but I know Master Diluc better than anyone...Ever since he lost...his father, Master Crepus, he was never the same. He pursued the life of loneliness, hiding from the world in a secluded mansion... It's like...he's dead inside, but I know he's not! If someone were to approach him with love, he wouldn't accept it. So instead, I came to you..." Adelinde explained, her cheeks still flushed red.     

"Wait, what happened to his father, if I may? He never told me much about himself."     

"...Master Diluc's father...he lost his life while protecting him...a horrific monster attacked the transport fleet Master Diluc and Master Crepus were traveling with. The beast was powerful enough to wipe out an entire squad of knights..." Adelinde answered, her voice becoming sadder when speaking of the incident.     

There was no time for Diluc to send for help. The monster was stronger than any foe the young Cavalry Captain had ever encountered, and overpowered him.     

Ursa the drake, a creature that plagued Mondstadt for over a thousand years appeared right in front of the carriage. Carnage ensued, but Diluc's father managed to save his son by sacrificing himself.     

"With a heavy heart, Master Diluc returned to the Knights' headquarters, only to receive an unthinkable order from a man named Eroch. A man who ruined Master Diluc's life. He ordered Master Diluc to conceal the truth about the incident for his own profit..." Adelinde continued, her voice growing colder as she spoke, "The Knights of Favonius back then were full of corruption and people who only thought of their benefit, safe for a few."     

"This is a lot to take in..." Yomite replied, feeling somewhat sick to his stomach as he listened to Adelinde's story.     

Betrayal and corruption were one of his most disliked genres in books, and knowing his friend had to go through that was not a pleasant thought.     

He was beginning to understand why Diluc was so reserved, why he kept to himself and refused to let anyone close.     

He was hurt, deep down, and although Yomite hadn't experienced anything similar, he could imagine how awful it must have felt.     

And as Adelinde continued with her story, things got even worse.     

Inspector Eroch insisted that the incident must have been portrayed as an "unfortunate accident" in order to maintain the reputation of the Knights of Favonius in the eyes of the public.     

Such was the sheer outrageousness of this request that Diluc did not think it was even worth trying to argue.     

Adelinde once overheard Diluc's father tell his son that the world would never turn its back on the faithful.     

But then, right after his death, the Knights of Favonius trampled on his faith like it was nothing.     

Diluc resigned from the Knights that day and left everything behind, including his Vision, which was later returned to him by Kaeya.     

He then swore to avenge his father's death, and to find the source of that occult power which had caused his father's demise.     

"Master Diluc spent months travelling all across the seven nations of Teyvat in search of the truth. All clues pointed toward a behemoth of an organization... I'm sure you're already well acquinted with them, the Fatui."     

"That's right, we've met them quite often while exploring the world and they always went ahead to pick a fight with us. It was as if they received some sort of order to get rid of us..." Yomite nodded, recalling his fight with Childe.     

The vision he saw in Liyue, the vision of his death by the hands of Childe made him realize he was still weak and not prepared enough, hence why his plan further down the road was to make Lisa teach him and make him stronger that way.     

"...Master Diluc then learned that the Fatui made counterfeit Visions in secret, calling them 'Delusions.' I don't know much, but I heard from him that a Delusion could amplify the power of its bearer to its extreme, but also carried the risk of backfiring...That was what had caused Master Crepus' death..." Adelinde explained, her voice becoming quieter with each word.     

'Delusions? Did Childe have something like that? I don't believe he used it against me...'     

Yomite's brow furrowed upon hearing this.     

"The Fatui are more annoying than I thought...They really sound like the villains in some endgame story arc," he muttered.     

"Yes, unfortunately they're quite dangerous. Especially their lieutenants, also called Harbingers. Master Diluc encountered a few of them, and from his words, each individual is capable of annihilating a nation by themselves." Adelinde added grimly.     

Yomite sighed, the Fatui were annoying, but eliminating them from their roots would be close to impossible. At least for now. It seemed as though their troops were endless, quite powerful too...     

'From what I remember, their leader "Tsaritsa" is an Archon, and due to Snezhnaya nation being large, it also means she must have a lot of believers which increases her power...at least from what Venti told me, the more people believed in their Archon, the stronger they got.'     

A relatively simple process of faith turning into the source of power.     

Precisely because of this, Venti was quite weak compared to other Archons, as he never restricted the people of Mondstadt in any way, and as the years passed, less and less people still believed in him, while someone like Zhongli, appeared before their people every year and even made currency called Mora from his own blood.     

'No wonder he was so strong...'     

"So then, your whole point is that Diluc is always alone, and you want to shoulder things together with him?" Yomite concluded.     

Adelinde nodded, "Yes, I want to be there for him, support him, love him." She exclaimed, her face brightening up, "I'll try to leave some subtle hints so he would notice. As Master Diluc was never with a woman before and has no one but you to turn to, I believe he would go and talk to you about it soon."     

"That's...an evil plan," Yomite laughed, "If you want to make it work, you should probably start by getting closer to him. Maybe flirt a little. He is pretty dense when it comes to stuff like this."     

"Yes...I will..." Adelinde agreed, taking a deep breath.     

Yomite watched her for a moment, admiring her beauty before speaking, "...Well, you have what it takes I'm sure. Just give him some time to open up to you. And don't forget to get closer to him in general. Start talking to him more, touch him more often, either on his arm or hand. He will eventually start noticing."     

Adelinde blushed slightly at hearing him suggest such things, but she quickly recovered, "Thank you, Master Yomite. I will keep that in mind. Here, take this."     

She pointed towards a large crate hidden under the bed.     

"Hmm? What's this?" Yomite asked, curious.     

"It's payment for helping me. I didn't know where to put all of the Mora, so I put it there." Adelinde smiled, "You might want to use it to buy some new furniture for your new mansion. There is approximately 20 million Mora inside. It's all of my savings, I won't be needing it anymore if I end up marrying Master Diluc...and if that doesn't work then...well, I still work for him, and I live here as well, so I don't really need any of the money either way."     

"20 million? ...That's a lot." Yomite exclaimed in surprise.     

A part of Yomite wanted to refuse the money since he considered what he did to be nothing special, but it was indeed a lot of Mora...and gifts weren't to be refused...     

So instead of refusing, he accepted it and became her partner in crime.     

And so, 20 million Mora was obtained without a hitch.     

Seducing Diluc was a task that would require more than just charm however.     

The man was truly hurt inside, and having someone approach him with love would probably send him into a panic mode.     

At least, that was what Yomite thought and agreed on with Adelinde.