One day, in the nation of Mondstadt, the Angel's Share tavern is busy as always, with most people wanting to get away from the reality that is life. Most of the time, they do so via the drinks served in this tavern. Diluc Ragnvindr, the owner of this tavern, is currently overlooking the establishment.

He looks over at the current patrons of the tavern. The ambiance of the tavern has mostly remained calm, with people conversing and whatnot. No bar fights today so far...

Suddenly, the tavern door slams open. It seems Diluc may have spoken too soon...

"Time for my daily fill of wine!"

Yup, it's just as Diluc dreaded. A green-clad bard named Venti has appeared at the doorway, completely ready to drink the day away.

Diluc narrows his eyes at the bard as the latter walks inside and sits down at the counter in front of him. "What do you want?" He asked, his voice not hiding his "I am so done with this" tone.

Venti cheerfully raises one of the wine glasses. "Give me all the wine you can offer!" He requested.

Diluc sighs, already regretting this. "You are aware that we can't do that, right?"

Venti pouts. "Aww, you're no fun! As always!"

Diluc rolls his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Keeping bar fights from happening is totally a boring thing to do."

"Was that sarcasm I'm sensing?"

"Figure it out."

Venti sighs. "Fine, I'll just have one wine glass for now..."

"Oh, come now, Diluc. I'm sure there are better ways to treat your loyal customers than that."

Diluc sighs once more as he glances towards the direction of a very smooth voice, which came from a nearby counter seat to the right of Venti. That voice belongs to Kaeya, the Knight of Favonius' Cavlarly Captain. He also happens to be Diluc's adoptive brother...

Diluc sighs yet again. He's gotta keep track of how many times he sighs per day one of these days... "Kaeya, you do realize this is not a good idea, right?"

Kaeya shrugs. "Meh, worth a shot."

After Diluc made the drink and gave it to Venti (after ignoring Kaeya's shenanigans), the bard drinks the wine and as soon as he did, he immediately gets into a hyperactive mood.

"Wooooo! I suddenly feel so alive! Thank Barbatos! Wait a minute... I'm Barbatos!" He spouted during his drunken state.

Diluc and Kaeya both dismiss Venti's accidental confession of godhood as nonsense. After all, who's going to genuinely believe a drunken person's ramblings?

Diluc then hears someone clear their throat nearby. The tavern owner glances over to where the voice came from, which came from the left of where Venti is sitting. It's that mysterious Wanderer fellow, who has entered the tavern some time ago, apparently having traveled all the way to Mondstadt to simply hang out here in this tavern today. He was silent the whole time until he spoke up.

"May I have some water? Today is my birthday, so this is for a special occasion, as you can probably tell." The Wanderer explained.

Diluc brews up the water for the Wanderer with no problems. That's when Venti popped up to see what the Wanderer is drinking, and then he chuckles. "You're seriously drinking water for your birthday? You deserve so much better than that! How about you drink wine instead?" The bard suggested.

That earned a glare from the Wanderer. "If you would rather let alcohol control your impulses, then be my guest. How about you back off and mind your own business?" He retorted.

Unfortunately for the Wanderer, Venti's drunkenness prodded the latter to continue pestering the former. "Sounds to me that you need to make better life choices!"

Needless to say, a wind vortex sends Venti up into the air, all the way up to the second floor of the tavern, which ended with him landing on the floor of the second floor part of the building. The Wanderer sighs vehemently as he goes back to drinking his water. "Idiots..."

Kaeya watches with much amusement as Diluc went to write on the blackboard nearby. It now reads:

0 days since last bar fight

Kaeya laughs upon witnessing that. "You might as well add an hour counter to that, it has barely been a day since the last bar fight." He remarked.

"Yes, I am well aware of how much chaos alcohol can cause, Kaeya." Diluc sighed.

"And yet, you own one of the biggest wine enterprises in Mondstadt."

Diluc sighs for the fifth time today. Ironically, he feels he doesn't get paid enough to deal with this nonsense.

"Hey, guys, check me out! I can fly!"

Diluc and Kaeya glance up to see Venti standing on one of the second floor railings, clearly intent on jumping over the railing to prove that he has the ability to fly. Hoo boy, if he lets this continue on any longer, true chaos will happen.

"Venti, you better step away from the railing. Or else." Diluc threatened.

"TOO LATEEEE!"

After Venti yelled that out, he immediately jumps off the railing, turns into a wind ball, and crashes onto the ground, causing a mini wind storm in the tavern. Every patron gets blown around the wind many times, holding on for dear life. Once the mini storm is over, everyone is left dazed on the ground, even including the mysterious Wanderer. And yet, Venti gets up from that, as if nothing has happened.

Kaeya is the next to get up, and he spots the damage done around the tavern. His eyes widen with mild shock. "Oh dear... This can't be good." He stated.

Diluc then gets up from all that, and then stares at Venti with an unamused look on his face. Venti can only grin and chuckle nervously. "Ehe... It's just a prank, sir?"

Diluc's stare turns into a glare now. Something tells Venti that he just accumulated a whole lot of debt now...

#JourneyOfTheYear