Noelle stayed in the Serenitea Pot which Aether got from Madame Ping, as she volunteered to unpack most of their belongings, and placing the furniture that Aether has requested to create.

Within the mountainous hills resembling that of Liyue's, Noelle felt calm in it's atmosphere until she remembered that she has to see Aether after finishing her duty.

Using the charm that Aether gave her, Noelle's body then teleported to where Aether is, surprising some of the people there. They were now on board on a ship, at sea.

"Whoa, where did you came from?" A sailor asked.

"Isn't that an adeptal artifact that she is holding?"

"Must be somebody important..."

Noelle quickly blushes, and dashed towards Aether before hiding behind him, who defused the situation.

"No worries, ladies and gentlemen, this is my... My companion! She meant no harm, and is simply here to accompany me!"

"Hmm...!" A tough, feminine voice clears her throat.

Noelle looked to see a rather tall woman with an eye patch, looking down at her from the upper deck, with an impressed smirk.

"Yo! You must be the Maid-Knight that I've heard from Ningguang and the Storyteller back at town!"

"But I am--" Noelle is about to correct her, but Aether interrupted.

"Captain Beidou, she's a future Knight, she's not official yet!"

"Thank you, Honorary Knight..."

"I see. But that doesn't change the fact that Ningguang witnessed her going toe to toe with a Fatui Vanguard, and effortlessly beat him!"

Beidou walked down to where Noelle is, and prepared a barrel before placing her arm on top of it.

"I'd like to see how tough you really are!"

"This is new, Captain Beidou wanting to challenge someone in arm wrestling..."

"But none of us can even beat the cap... Looking at that maid, she's totally outta her league!"

From the top of the mast, a boy in Inazuman attire looked down, interested in the upcoming arm wrestling match.

"Honorary Knight... Should I?"

"Yeah, Noelle."

Noelle then prepared herself, and placed her right arm onto the top of the barrel. Both Noelle and Beidou then grabbed each other's hands, before Beidou told her.

"On 3, we go, understand?"

"U-Understood!"

"1...!!!"

The entire crew looked at Noelle with mocking looks.

"2...!!!"

Aether puts his hands on his hips, before he looked at the horizon as he already knew what the outcome is.

"3!!!"

The match starts, but neither of their arms are budging.

"Y... You're not bad!"

"You're impressive as well, Lady Beidou..."

They begin to increase the force, so hard that the barrel underneath their arms begin to crack slowly, surprising everyone except for Aether, who whistled a tune.

A few seconds later, the cracking begins to spread from the top to the bottom of the barrel, and the floorboard of the ship, until the barrel shatters due to the extreme amount of inhuman force. A dust cloud surrounds where both girls are, and when it dissipated, Noelle is seen kneeling while Beidou is lying on the ground, with her hand still grappling Noelle's, but it's already hitting the floor.

"N...No way! The Captain lost to a maid...!?"

Beidou widened her eye, as she then looked up at Noelle, who pulls her right back up to her feet.

"F-Forgive me! I went too far!"

"Nah, it's... It's fine, really. At least that smash just now didn't dislocate my arm."

Beidou begins to shake her arm once, and a loud crack is heard.

"...Nevermind that." Beidou said in pain, with her eye slanting due to it.

Noelle then helped Beidou in relocating the dislocated arm, in a matter of second.

The whole crew on the ship looked at Noelle, who then went back into being shy and ran back to Aether.

The boy on top of the mast witnessed it all, and smiled a bit.

Later that night, the ship hits a storm at sea, and the passengers who aren't part of the crew went to their quarters.

Noelle massages Aether's arms, as they felt sore.

"How come that you didn't tell me that you're participating in a fight tournament, Honorary Knight?"

"Sorry, but I really needed to go to Inazuma... And I ended up forgetting to tell you." Aether said, scratching the back of his head.

"If only you were there to watch, Aether just wrecked the other contestants with ease!"

"Ah, as expected of the Honorary Knight!"

"Noelle, there's something that I wanted to tell you."

"Go ahead, Honorary Knight."

"That's the one I'm wanting to talk about. In my book, you're a Knight of Favonius by now even though I'm no Grand Master. In that case you can call me Aether."

"Ah? Alright then... A...Aethe--" Noelle finds herself in difficulty trying not to call Aether by rank.

"Come on, Noelle. Don't force it." Aether patted her head gently.

"A...As you wish, Aether."

"That's the spirit!"

Paimon and Aether laughed heartily, followed by Noelle who chuckled a little, closing her eyes happily.

A moment later, the white haired boy walked towards them.

"Hey there, Traveller."

"Ah, Kazuha! I'd like you to meet Noelle. Noelle, he's Kazuha Kaedehara, from Inazuma."

Noelle stood up, and bowed in front of Kazuha.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Master Kaedehara--"

"There's no need for such formality, just Kazuha is fine!" Kazuha chuckled.

"He's good at making poems, Noelle. If you want one, just ask him." Aether said jokingly.

"Yeah, as if I'm a poem dispenser right now." He said back sarcastically, before looking back at Noelle.

"So, Noelle..."

"Hmm?"

"What's your relationship with the Traveller?"

"E-Eh!?"

"Could it be that you're soulmates?"

"Kyaaa!?" Noelle held her cheeks as she shrieked after hearing that last sentence.

Aether quickly calmed her down by placing his hands on her shoulders, and told Kazuha "W-What're you saying!? I'm simply her superior in the rank of the Knights!"

"Ah, really? Because both of you seemed to be especially close--"

Paimon seals Kazuha's mouth with her hands, and told him "T... That's enough already! They're both agitated now!" As Kazuha begins to protest with muffled words.

As the passengers headed to sleep, Aether and Kazuha were playing with some dices until Kazuha dozed off. Realizing that, Aether then begins to slump down tiredly, his head then hit a soft area.

"Hmm?"

It turns out, his head landed on Noelle's lap. The Maid-Knight is already asleep at this point while sitting down against the wall. Due to the comfiness of where his head is, Aether begins to doze off peacefully, his last sights darted from a snoring Kazuha, Paimon falling off a ledge where she slept on, and finally, Noelle's peaceful face as she slept.

Paimon woke up, shaking her head dizzily after the fall. She then looked around and saw a sleeping Aether, his head resting on Noelle's lap. Their faces looked so peaceful.

"They sure are close~" Paimon said reassuringly.