Chapter 131: Just kiss him directly! He can't resist! (Patreon)

"You're just going to stand there and watch?"

Piers suddenly shouted this. The next moment, someone with a build identical to [Il Dottore]'s came strolling over, twirling a small knife on his finger — though the man seemed to have obscured himself somehow, his face hard to make out.

"Thank you for remembering to leave the final blow for me. Heh~. After all, no one knows yourself better than you know yourself. If it were someone else doing the killing, it'd naturally take some effort — but when it's yourself, there's basically no trouble at all."

"I don't know why, but even though you've always talked like this, you always give me a thoroughly unpleasant feeling. Don't tell me now that he's dead, you're planning to stir up trouble of your own."

He walked up to Piers with a smile, the knife in his hand drawing a light line across the back of [Il Dottore]'s neck.

"How could I? Compared to him, I'm at least a decent person. At least I'm not that mad."

"Killing yourself doesn't count as mad?"

"Doesn't it?"

His tone light and easy, he reached a hand into [Il Dottore]'s back and pulled the entire spine straight out.

The whole process was gruesome enough that Piers didn't want to watch, and had no intention of letting Sandrone see it either. He simply walked away.

"He's yours now. Our deal is done."

A long while later, once Piers's presence had faded away entirely, Dottore — still standing there, knife in hand — slowly crouched down and gently stroked the corpse on the ground.

His long, blood-streaked fingers traced slowly along the corpse's back, moving up to its face, before he peeled the half-mask off it and put it on his own.

"Heh~. I really didn't expect I'd end up with such a foolish Segments. I could destroy other Segmentss with a single thought — let alone control your actions — and yet you actually tried to kill me?"

He hooked his fingers into the corpse's eye sockets and hauled it up into a sitting position.

"Of course you know yourself well. Every Segments knows Zandik is a selfish man through and through. Nearly all his Segmentss inherited that fine tradition — enough to drag his own original body onto the dissection table without a shred of hesitation, even after it was dead."

He rested a hand on the corpse's shoulder. The two of them faced the sun just rising on the horizon, their backs looking, from a distance, like the very best of friends.

"But you forgot — my selfishness is something every Segments agrees on. I'm the most selfish Segments among all the selfish Segmentss there are. Why would I ever cooperate with you? Since you wanted to put on a show, then I'll let you have your show. But don't worry — I'll avenge you."

At the Kuuvahki Experimental Design Bureau, Piers carried Sandrone in his arms; the guards saw them and didn't dare stop him.

Strange. It just felt... too easy. Does [Il Dottore] really die that easily? And why hadn't the quest cleared, even with [Il Dottore] dead? Was the System broken? Did he still have to deal with the Moon Hunter too?

Piers walked while thinking it over, so lost in thought that he didn't notice anything until he'd reached Sandrone's room. The two [Electro Cicin Mages] at the door obligingly pulled it shut behind them — after all, if they left it open, they wouldn't get to press their ears against it and eavesdrop in good conscience.

"Could you... put me down first."

Sandrone was curled up in Piers's arms; already not very tall, curled into a ball she looked even smaller.

Her voice snapped Piers back to himself, but looking down at her, he had no intention of setting her down.

"No. If I put you down, what if you go running off again? You nearly died. If you'd died, I'd have had to inherit the Seventh Seat, and I have no intention of becoming a Harbinger."

"I wouldn't..."

Sandrone stayed curled in Piers's arms, her voice tiny — this was likely one of the rare times she ever murmured so softly.

"So... what exactly have you been up to? That huge explosion — it drained every last bit of the adept power I had stored in your body, all at once?"

Piers lowered his head slightly, leaning closer. Sandrone instinctively shrank her neck back, wanting to pull away, but held in his arms, there was nowhere to go.

"So, so, what did they say?"

One of the [Electro Cicin Mages] at the door asked the other, who had her face pressed to the crack, eyes bright with gossip.

"Lord Piers has Lady [Marionette] in his arms, saying something about the thing he left inside her body—"

"That juicy?! Let me have a look, quick!"

"No way, I haven't had enough yet."

"Let me look, just one peek!"

"No. One peek and I won't be able to drag you away."

"I simply couldn't stand Dottore. I wanted to fight him."

Sandrone's eyes darted about, flustered.

"Oh?"

"You... you didn't even bother telling me you were alive. You made me..."

"Made you what?"

"Heh. Made me unable to find you when I wanted to order you to do something. What else?"

Sandrone's eyes grew even more flustered; she simply closed them and started babbling, guilty and incoherent.

"Is Lady [Marionette] closing her eyes because she wants me to kiss her right now?"

"No... no, what are you talking about? Who wants you to kiss them."

That one line from Piers made Sandrone's eyes snap open, but held like this in his arms, looking up at him with open eyes only made her gaze grow more bashful.

"No? So not now — does that mean you wanted it before?"

"I wanted it even less before!!!"

Even curled up in Piers's arms, Sandrone still hissed at him.

"Wanted it even less before? That just means you want it more now than you did then, doesn't it."

"You!! Let go of me, right now!"

Sandrone struggled, but Piers kept her held tight.

"Can't let go. What if I do and you go off and do something dangerous again?"

"I won't. Let go of me first."

Her tone had gone soft, nothing like her usual commanding voice. Piers set her down and reached out to pat her head; Sandrone didn't dodge away, letting him touch her hair.

"How could you be so foolish? Actually thinking of going to fight [Il Dottore]. If you'd died, I'd have been devastated." Piers stared quietly into Sandrone's eyes, and with the two of them holding each other's gaze like that, he said it in earnest.

Because I saw him kill you. I wanted to avenge you, or... go join you...

That was what Sandrone thought to herself. After silently repeating those words twice in her head, she finally spoke aloud.

"Hmph! What do I care if you're sad."

"Lady [Marionette], you can't do this!! Tsundere routines are already out of style! Just kiss him already! He can't take it anymore!!" The door of the room suddenly burst open as one of the [Electro Cicin Mages] on guard came rushing in.

What Sandrone said aloud and what she actually thought were two entirely different things, so when the [Electro Cicin Mage] came bursting in, she instinctively pressed herself deeper into Piers's arms.

For a moment, the room went dead silent.

"Ah... um, wrong room. Never mind, never mind, please, carry on, my lords." She scurried back out and shut the door as clumsily as she'd burst in.

"Um... could you use that thing you had before — the one that blocks sound between the room and outside." Sandrone hid her face against Piers, head bowed.

Piers raised a hand and swept it through the air; an adept-power barrier sealed the room off, and no sound from inside could escape anymore.

Sandrone suddenly let out a soft laugh, sly and mischievous, like a little fox about to steal a snack.

She braced her hands on Piers's shoulders and slowly rose onto her toes, her timid frame inching upward, little by little, as though testing what he wanted.

Until their noses touched, ever so lightly.

The distance between their lips closed to zero.

Unlike always, the gears behind Sandrone's back spun fast this time — nothing like their usual, steady pace.

The next morning brought another rainy day. Piers and Sandrone sat by the window, listening to the rain, two cups of hot coffee set on the table in front of them.

Sandrone picked up her coffee, about to take a sip, but the hand holding the cup was caught by Piers.

"I asked around while I was out just now — you haven't slept in days. Save the coffee for after you wake up. Sleep first."

The corners of Sandrone's mouth kept curling up, though with effort she managed to keep it from showing too much.

"No. I'm afraid if I sleep, I'll wake up and find out this was all just a dream."

Even now, it all still felt too unreal to Sandrone. She was terrified that this was nothing but a dream of her own — one she'd drifted into while dozing at the table yesterday in the rain, or perhaps the last flicker before Dottore killed her.

"What, missing me that much? A dream born from missing me so badly your core algorithms can't even tell dream from reality anymore?"

"Whatever you say, I'm not going to sleep — unless... you sleep with me."

Her voice already sounded thoroughly drowsy. Her body was too worn out for Sandrone to spare any energy on being shy or prickly about it — the words came out more like a plea to Piers than anything else.

Piers reached out with his other hand, took the coffee cup from her, and carefully helped her up, walking her over to the bed.

"Come on. I'll stay with you. When you open your eyes, I'll be right here beside you."

He lay down on his side right away. Seeing him lie down, Sandrone slowly climbed onto the bed too, but she didn't close her eyes — she just kept quietly watching him.

Only once Piers's eyes had closed did she curl herself up and inch closer, little by little, slowly burrowing into his arms.

In that moment, the tension she'd carried for days finally eased. She fell asleep instantly, looking for all the world like a little kitten.

"Ineffa! Ineffa!"

Aino was making a racket first thing in the morning.

"What's wrong, Aino?"

"Have you seen where Brother went?"

"In the middle of the night I heard an explosion in the distance. Right around then, Piers left the workshop."

Ineffa took a freshly baked krumkake out and set it on the table.

"What?! Why didn't you try to stop him?"

Aino grabbed the krumkake and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Aino, I quietly ran a combat-strength assessment on Piers a while back. His strength falls outside my evaluation range. After he headed over there, no more sounds came from that direction at all — if something had truly been able to threaten him, there should have been a lot more commotion. So there's no need for us to worry."

What Ineffa said made perfect sense, all backed by precise analysis. But Aino didn't like being reasoned with, and since she couldn't argue against it either, all she could do was puff out her cheeks and sulk.

By evening the rain had gradually thinned, and Sandrone finally woke up. The instant awareness returned, she snapped her eyes open in a panic — but seeing Piers still asleep right in front of her, she finally let out a breath of relief.

Seeing his eyes still closed, Sandrone worked up her nerve and leaned in, nuzzling her face against his neck.

"Now, now, Nellie — you're awake, so get up. Since when does a puppet lie in bed being lazy?"

That gave Sandrone quite a fright; her body sprang back like a released spring.

"You—you—you, you were awake and didn't say anything!"

"Aren't I telling you now?"

Piers pushed himself up to sit, leaned slowly toward Sandrone, and pressed a hand against her forehead.

"You look to be in good spirits — your body must be well rested too. Next time, remember not to push yourself this long without rest. Overloading machinery causes problems just the same."

As he spoke those words of concern, Sandrone was caught off guard for a moment, but slowly, the gears behind her back began spinning faster and faster.

"Ah—! You... get away from me, who asked for your concern."

Sandrone shoved his hand away and scrambled off the bed in a fluster.

This Kitty really doesn't recognize anyone the moment she wakes up — a textbook heartbreaker.

"I wonder who it was this morning who insisted on sleeping wrapped around me. What, has our Lady [Marionette] already found someone new?"

"I did not!"

She protested on reflex, then realized something felt off about that.

"All right, come here. Let me refill the adept power in your body — otherwise, if something happens again next time, I might not make it in time."

Piers got off the bed and walked toward Sandrone.

"Hmph! Who asked for your concern."

Sandrone tilted her head, but didn't step back — she just stood there waiting for him to come over.

"Oh, right, I need to go out again for a bit. If you don't mind, save me a portion of dinner."

Piers said this while channeling adept power into Sandrone's body, but the words gave her quite a fright the moment they left his mouth — because that was exactly what he'd said the last time he went out, right before he went to meet [Il Dottore].

And in the end, he'd ended up dead.

"No. Eat it or don't, I don't care. I have things to do too."

"What could you possibly have to do?"

"I'm coming with you. To supervise your work."

Sandrone tried her best to act like she didn't care, but her intentions showed through all the same.

"I'm not going for work. It's personal business."

"Then I have even more reason to come along. Handling personal business on work hours — I'd love to see just what business is so important."

Piers walked to the window and pulled back the curtain.

"Lady [Marionette], did sleeping addle your brain? It isn't work hours anymore. Aside from the Fatui soldiers assigned to fixed night-watch posts, everyone else is free to move about as they please."

"Is there some rule that says a superior can't tag along with a subordinate during free time?"

This Kitty — keeping tabs on me all the time isn't enough for her; now I go out just once and she still won't let go.

"Fine, fine. If you want to tag along, then tag along."

To spare Sandrone's feelings, Piers didn't use his adeptal arts, and simply walked out of the room with her. The two [Electro Cicin Mages] guarding the door stood on either side, faces perfectly straight.