Chapter 120: Flat Furina (Patreon)

Maybe it was all in her head, but she still felt a little cold at first. Slowly, though, she realized she genuinely couldn't feel the chill anymore — it was almost as warm as a room with a lit fireplace.

The streets of Snezhnaya saw few passersby. Even on a fine day, hardly anyone had a taste for smoke and soot-tinged air, and most people wouldn't wander the streets aimlessly unless they needed to buy daily necessities.

So no one paid any mind even to Furina's strange, season-defying outfit.

"Hello — half a jin of coal and twenty bundles of dry kindling, please."

Piers set some Mora down on the counter. The shopkeeper behind it didn't even glance up at the two of them — he simply hauled what Piers had asked for out from the storeroom, took the Mora, and that was that. Piers gave a wave of his hand, swept the goods into his cavern realm, and left with Furina.

"Come on, let's get you some clothes. Next time, give that cowlick on your head a little wiggle and think things through before you go shopping."

Furina blinked, caught off guard, and it took her a moment to work out what he meant. As they walked, she suddenly muttered to herself, "Did he just call me an idiot?"

Piers hadn't lived here in a long time, and plenty of the vendors had changed since then, so he could only walk Furina along the main road, looking as they went.

Even so, it didn't take long to find a clothing shop — one that, as it turned out, specialized in women's wear.

The shopkeeper spotted Piers and Furina the moment they approached, though her attention was almost entirely swallowed up by what Furina was wearing.

Seeing how perfectly at ease Furina looked despite the cold, she began to wonder if the outfit was made from some new kind of heat-generating fabric.

"Shopkeeper, could you help find something that'd suit her?"

"Of course, of course — I'll fetch a few pieces right away."

It was only when Piers spoke that the shopkeeper's thoughts snapped back into place, and she answered almost by reflex. A few minutes later, she'd brought out several outfits, all in colors and styles currently popular in Snezhnaya.

"Take a look, sir, see if anything catches your eye. These are all styles Snezhnayan girls have been loving lately — if you like one, why not buy your girlfriend a piece?"

The shopkeeper had naturally taken them for a couple, and Furina didn't correct her. Piers was just about to explain otherwise when Furina cut him off.

"What do you think — how would this look on me?"

She held up a blue-and-white cashmere gown against herself and looked at Piers, a matching shawl draped over the shoulders for extra warmth.

"It looks good. Why don't you go try it on in the fitting room?"

With his answer in hand, Furina took the shawl and disappeared into the fitting room nearby.

A few minutes later, she stepped back out. Credit where it's due — the shopkeeper had earned her trade; she'd sized Furina up with a single glance, and even the fit was spot on.

"Does it look good?"

"It really does. The other pieces look good too — if the sizes fit, let's just take the whole lot."

It was the shopkeeper's first time seeing anyone shop like that. It took her a few seconds to process it, and once she did, she immediately reached for the boxes.

"Right away, right away — I'll box it all up for you."

"And this one..."

Furina pointed at the one she had on.

"Keep it on — it suits you."

It was an honest assessment — Piers genuinely thought so. The dress suited Furina well, right down to the color scheme. But hearing him say it brought a faint flush to her cheeks.

The shopkeeper, busy packing the clothes, caught the shift at once. She leaned in close to Furina's ear with a conspiratorial air and asked—

"Miss... I happen to have some more intimate pieces in stock. Care to try one on? I guarantee your boyfriend will love it."

Furina might be slow on the uptake, but she'd played plenty of roles in her time, and scenes like this one clicked almost instantly.

She'd seen scenes just like it in romance scripts before, so she understood exactly what the shopkeeper meant. The faint flush on her face deepened instantly into a full blush — but she nodded anyway.

Just as she expected to be led somewhere else to see the intimate wear, the shopkeeper simply pulled open a door to a side room — and the entire space inside was packed wall to wall with underwear of every style.

"Come on in, dear customer — take a look and see what catches your eye."

Furina had assumed the shopkeeper meant to pull her in, but instead the woman grabbed Piers and hauled him along, leaving Furina staring in shock.

"No — no, you can't look!"

Furina dashed forward and clapped her hands over Piers's eyes.

"Oh, come now — with a relationship like yours, what's there to be shy about? I just told you I'd guarantee your boyfriend's approval, and you agreed, didn't you? Oh, right — sir, what size does the young lady wear?"

As she asked, the shopkeeper glanced at Furina's chest, then suddenly seemed to realize the question had been unnecessary.

"Let me grab a few pieces for you to look at."

"No, no, absolutely not."

Furina said it while shoving Piers back out, then shut the door to the side room behind him too. Just before it closed all the way, she paused, poking her head out to give Piers a bashful look.

"Wait for me out here. No peeking."

Piers simply sat down on a stool outside. He had no interest in peeking at anything — he wasn't some kind of pervert.

Still, with an adept's constitution, that flimsy door offered next to no soundproofing. Even without seeing anything, he could hear every word spoken inside just fine.

"This one, then."

Furina's voice drifted through the door.

"Miss, isn't that one a bit big?"

"It's not big. This is exactly my size."

Furina's voice sounded oddly urgent.

"I've been selling these for years — trust me, that's too big on you. Let's try a smaller one."

The shopkeeper kept pressing the point, patient and persistent.

"This is my size. Really."

"Well then, how about I call your boyfriend in to settle it?"

"Call — call him for what? What would he know about it?"

"Something like this, the person who's seen it firsthand would know best, obviously."

What in the world was going on in there?

Piers finally gave up and used adept power as makeshift earplugs, blocking it all out.

After a while, Furina emerged, red-faced, clutching a box to her chest.

"Sir, the young lady's made her choice — care to take a look yourself?"

"No need!"

Furina and Piers blurted it out in unison.

"Well... as long as she likes it, that's fine."

The shopkeeper caught on and let the teasing drop.

Once they were outside, Piers swept the whole stack of clothing boxes into his cavern realm.

Around noon, the two of them grabbed a meal out, and by the time they got back to the apartment it was already afternoon. Since Furina couldn't cook, Piers picked up some decent instant meals that just needed heating up.

"All right, I think that covers everything. If there's nothing else, I should head back — I've got work tomorrow."

"Oh — right, no, nothing else. How much Mora was it all together? Let me pay you back."

"No need. Call it my welcome gift for your trip to Snezhnaya. I'll probably be heading out on assignment before long, and I won't be able to come see you for a while after that."

The moment Furina heard he'd be leaving on assignment, her expression wilted. Some part of her wanted to do what the heroines in the scripts she'd read always did — throw her arms around him and beg him to stay.

But a script was a script, and there was a world of difference between playing a part and living it. No matter how many times Furina rehearsed the scene in her mind, she couldn't work up the courage to actually ask him to stay.

"Here — this is for you."

She stepped forward and pressed a white ribbon into Piers's hand.

"What's this?"

"It's the ribbon I tie my hair with after washing it... I didn't have anything better to give you, so — here, take this."

The ribbon was still damp, carrying with it a faint, sweet scent of a young girl's freshly washed hair.

The next day, Piers sat in his chair as usual, waiting for the day's documents to arrive. But today, only two came.

Piers recognized the packaging at once — he'd seen it before, on his last trip to Fontaine. It was a personally handwritten deployment order from Her Majesty herself.

"My lord Piers, today's documents have all been handed over to Miss Katarina — but this one..."

"I understand. You may go. The other document is meant for Lady Marionette, isn't it? Give it to me as well — I need to see her anyway."

Piers held out his hand, and the Electro Cicin Mage who'd brought the documents obediently handed both over, then bowed and withdrew.

Piers opened the top document right away. Just as he'd expected, it was an order transferring him to Nod-Krai.

Given his rank, the Tsaritsa hardly needed to issue the order herself — she could simply have given the order to Sandrone and told her to bring Piers along.

That she'd handled it personally was probably thanks to how well Piers had performed on his last few assignments. He'd handled Liyue's diplomatic affairs entirely alone, so naturally all the credit landed on him.

As for Fontaine, knowing Arlecchino's personality, she'd probably pushed all the credit onto Piers when she filed her report. A tool that worked well, after all, was worth keeping — and a personally written order was a fine way to boost a subordinate's loyalty.

"Honestly, I'm not even a Harbinger — why does everything have to involve me? I've done all this work; when do I get made one already?"

Grumbling to himself, Piers put the order away and got ready to deliver Sandrone's copy to her.

"My lord Piers."

A voice suddenly called out from beyond the door. Whoever it was tried to push their way in, only to be stopped by the two guards stationed there. Piers thought the man looked vaguely familiar, and from how urgent he seemed, something must be wrong.

"Let him in."

At Piers's order, the two guards let the man go.

"My lord Piers!"

"And you are?"

"I joined Lady Marionette's ranks the year before last. You're the one who led us through our induction oath back then."

Something about this felt off to Piers — mainly because the man standing in front of him clearly looked a good deal older than he was. It was a bit like some Fontainian telling Furina he'd grown up watching her performances.

There was nothing technically wrong with it, but it still felt strange.

"So... is something the matter?"

Piers set the odd feeling aside for the moment.

"It's about Officer Velizmir."

"Velizmir? What about him? I recall processing his request to return to Snezhnaya a while back — he should already be here by now."

The name did sound familiar to Piers — he recalled Sandrone building a self-aware mechanical marionette a couple of years back.

To show off just how impressive her creation was, Sandrone had granted him the rank of Officer the moment he came into being, sending him roaming through other nations to gather ancient technology.

Velizmir, for his part, held Sandrone in tremendous regard — possibly with feelings that ran a bit deeper than reverence — which meant his relationship with Piers was, by his own reckoning, unusually poor. Of course, that was purely his own perception; Piers had never given him much thought at all, and the two of them rarely interacted.

It wasn't just Piers — even Sandrone had never paid him much mind. She'd only built him out of curiosity about other nations' technology in the first place.

Eventually she'd even handed off the job of directing Velizmir's ancient-tech searches to Piers, and after that Velizmir threw himself into the work even harder, hoping to catch Sandrone's eye. Unfortunately... it never worked.

"Officer Velizmir — he defied orders and smuggled himself into Natlan without authorization. He even took a squad with him, saying he meant to — meant to capture the Eleventh Seat of Natlan's Sovereign Lords and bring her back as an offering to Lady Marionette."

"The Eleventh Seat of the Sovereign Lords — Ineffa!"

"Yes, yes... that's the name they mentioned."

The Fatui agent nodded hastily.

"When did they leave?"

"They set out the day before yesterday. I submitted the report that same day — it should have cleared review and reached you yesterday, but yesterday was your rest day. Then today I heard the report I'd filed had been passed on to Miss Katarina instead, so I came straight here..."

Piers pressed a hand to his forehead, at a loss for words. He knew the Genshin Impact storyline well enough, but he could hardly remember every single NPC. Only now, belatedly, did it dawn on him — Velizmir was probably the NPC tied to Ineffa's storyline, the one that unfolds after Natlan's main quest wraps up.

"How many people are in the squad he took?"

"Not counting him, five — all veterans who'd worked with him many times before."

Piers sighed, a note of genuine regret in it. If he remembered right, every one of those men was fated to die at the hands of Ineffa, her body possessed by the Eleventh Seat. As for Velizmir himself — he'd die at the Traveler's hands.

"What a waste. Looks like I'll have to put together a whole new team to hunt down ancient tech."

They weren't especially close, but beyond giving orders, Piers had exchanged a few words with Velizmir here and there — precious few, admittedly. The man had apparently held quite a grudge against him, though Piers couldn't recall ever doing anything to offend him.

Knowing the man as he did, Piers figured that even if he sent someone to Natlan right now to order him back, Velizmir probably wouldn't come. Which really was a shame — training up another squad with that kind of expertise in ancient ruins wouldn't be easy.

"Wait. This shouldn't have been such a pressing matter — so why did you come running the moment you found out the report had gone to Katarina instead?"