Chapter 172: Processing documents, I thought I was processing documents (Patreon)

What's with this Kitty? Isn't it just accompanying her to the Imperial Capital Assembly? It's half an hour, tops. I say yes, and then she asks why I didn't ask why?

"Why would I ask? When have I ever refused Lord [Marionette]?"

Inwardly he was roasting Sandrone without mercy, but his mouth said something else entirely.

Piers never passed up a chance to tease Kitty, and sure enough, the clockwork on Sandrone's back visibly spun faster the moment she heard him. The whirring was unmistakable in the quiet room.

Later that evening, Piers went back. Guizhong was still asleep in bed, the blanket wrapped tight around her, with only half her face showing.

At this hour she had to be awake already. She was just too embarrassed to face Piers, so she was pretending to sleep, and he didn't plan to wake her.

With a wave of his hand, he tucked her, blanket and all, into the cavern realm. The bed was left empty, with only a faint dent in the pillow.

…

The next morning, Piers showed up as promised and went with Sandrone to the Imperial Capital Assembly.

The schedule was nearly identical to last time, and so was the procedure. Once everyone concerned had arrived, Rooster declared the meeting open.

If anything was different, it was that Sandrone and Regrator were both present this time. Pantalone sat at the far end of the long table and even gave Piers a slight nod of greeting. Piers looked away.

Vesna, of course, was absent again, probably off playing in some street. Her seat was still occupied by that familiar Vila.

The opening was almost word for word the same as before, and Piers, naturally, didn't listen.

He was thinking about something else, something that concerned himself. His soul was still incomplete. By rights, he should ask Zhongli to help him find a way to make it whole.

To Piers that seemed the simplest option, but back then Zhongli had only told him about the problem with his soul and offered no solution.

That made things a bit troublesome. When Zhongli spoke, he always raised a problem and tacked on the answer. He never left out what needed saying.

Before, Zhongli had always laid out the solution along with the problem. This time he hadn't. Most likely he hadn't forgotten. He meant for Piers to work it out himself.

But honestly, ever since coming back from Liyue, Piers had been completely in the dark. His brow was faintly furrowed and his gaze rested on the wood grain of the table as he zoned out.

Just as he was zoning out, Rooster's gaze swept toward him.

Perhaps it was the spider-sense he'd honed slacking off in class in his past life, but Piers instantly turned deadly serious. Anyone who didn't know better would think he'd been listening intently all along. His back went straight and his eyes met Rooster's steadily.

"Lately, public opposition to Project Stuzha has been growing louder. Some extremists have even slipped in among the opposition and used irregular means to pressure others into changing their votes. I ask that the Adventurers' Guild cooperate with the Winter Pact in investigating."

Seriously? If I'd known, I wouldn't have come. How did I end up with work out of this?

The Adventurers' Guild was nominally under Sandrone, but Piers was the one actually running it behind the scenes, and he knew its every detail far better than she did.

"Within Snezhnaya City, the Adventurers' Guild's operations will be hampered to a certain degree. If you need the Guild's full effort in the investigation, Lord Rooster will have to issue the relevant documents."

"The relevant department will issue the documents in due course."

After that one remark, Rooster's gaze moved off Piers and he went back to droning on. The moment Rooster looked away, Piers drifted off to other thoughts again.

When the meeting finally ended, Piers and Sandrone returned to Zapolyarny Palace together.

Rooster's efficiency was far from ordinary. Piers had barely set foot back in Zapolyarny Palace when the authorization for the adventurers arrived, the envelope stamped with a fresh seal, the smell of ink not yet faded.

As far as gathering intelligence went, the Winter Pact was actually no match for the Adventurers' Guild. That was the Guild's whole business, while the Winter Pact's work had little to do with investigation.

But this was Snezhnaya City. In other nations the Adventurers' Guild could of course run wild, but in Snezhnaya, this was the Cryo Archon's turf.

The Guild had to rein itself in hard. After all, it was essentially a Snezhnayan organization, and what organization investigates its own family? Besides, if the Guild were to dig up what Tsaritsa was up to these days, things would get rather frightening.

Zapolyarny Palace.

Piers sat in a corner of the sofa, holding a mug of hot coffee that Sandrone had had a little robot bring over. Cocoa lay curled in a ball across his lap, the tip of her tail occasionally brushing his wrist.

The fire crackled in the hearth, now and then spitting out a spark or two that hit the iron grate and bounced back. It was one of the rare mid-shift breaks in Piers's workday.

Three days had passed since he came back from Liyue. Guizhong's situation and the Ruler of Death's situation were all piled up in his head, but what pressed hardest right now was the System quest that still hadn't been settled.

The Rokot and the like were really minor matters. If it had been anything serious, Rooster would most likely have stepped in personally. Raising it at the Assembly was probably just a show of deterrence.

Guizhong's power had been restored, yet the quest showed as incomplete.

Either the System was glitching or Ronova had a trick left up her sleeve. Piers leaned toward the latter. The Il Dottore incident had already burned him once on exactly this, so he tended to trust the System.

"What are you thinking about?"

Sandrone's voice came from across the room. She sat at a small table by the hearth, a delicate little part in her hand, turning it over in the light.

That's right, Sandrone had come to Piers's room, on the pretext of seeing how he worked day to day. In truth, of course, she was ogling him with perfect self-assurance.

"Wondering why you've been feeding Cocoa so much that she's gotten this fat…"

"She fattened herself up. Nothing to do with me."

Sandrone didn't even turn her head, her tone flat.

Piers glanced down at the kitten in his lap, drained his coffee, lifted her with one hand off his lap onto the sofa, then got up and went back to his workstation.

"Lord [Marionette], what do you make of the Rokot business?"

He stretched his stiff joints and looked over at Sandrone.

"That's the job Rooster gave you. Nothing to do with me."

"How's it nothing to do with you? It's work Lord Rooster assigned to the Adventurers' Guild, and you're the Guild's boss, remember?"

Sandrone shot Piers an exasperated look.

"You know perfectly well I barely handle Adventurers' Guild matters. Just decide it yourself."

"Since you're still here, naturally I wanted your opinion first. But if that's what you say, and since Lord Rooster gave the charge in person, then the Guild must carry it out with everything it has."

That was what Piers said, but the document he was drafting showed no trace of the word "urgency" anywhere between the lines. It was perfunctory in the extreme. Anyone who received intelligence like a normal person could tell Piers meant for them to go through the motions.

Of course, that was exactly what Piers intended. He didn't plan to focus on the Rokot for now. He was more interested in Mitya.

After all, being noticed by the Ruler of Death was no small thing, and Piers was curious. Besides, that sliver of his soul had long since flowed into the leylines. In theory it should be in the Ruler of Death's hands now, and to get it back he'd need her to show herself.

Not knowing the plot was agony. Ever since getting into Genshin Impact, Piers had never wanted to see the main story as badly as he did now. Back then he'd have given anything for a skip button.

If I could just know the Snezhnaya storyline, I'd gladly sleep hugging Kitty every single day.

Ding—

Almost the instant the thought crossed his mind, the long-absent System chime rang out. Puzzled, Piers curiously opened the panel.

After all, the quest list held only Guizhong's quest, and he hadn't done anything. It couldn't have just been completed out of nowhere.

The interface was just as he'd figured. Guizhong's quest was still there, uncompleted.

Then Piers looked elsewhere and suddenly noticed two items in his inventory that he'd never seen before. He was certain he hadn't pulled them.

Because apart from Sunsettia and the Hilichurl's Wooden Club, the only things he'd pulled were eight copies of "How to Be an Interesting Person," and everything he pulled had a colored border marking its rarity. These two had no colored borders.

What the hell are these?

Curious, Piers opened one to check its name, and the first one left him completely stunned. It was a video, titled [Genshin Impact 7.0 Main Story].

Holy crap, I really did wrong it. The System actually gave me a main storyline for free. I knew it was a good System. I repent for every bad word I ever said about it.

After a round of impassioned inner penance, Piers curiously moved to open the second item. The first was the 7.0 story, so the second couldn't be 7.1, could it?!

But as everyone knows, the more you want something, the less likely you are to get it. Piers's wish went unfulfilled. The second item was also a video, but it wasn't the 7.1 story.

As for the title… [The Child Who Fell in Love with His Mother Ended Up Inside the Body of the Grandfather Whom His Mother Deeply Loved, and Stayed with Her Forever.]

What kind of thunderbolt of a title is that? Long, fine, but I know every single word, so why can't I understand them strung together?

Without a moment's thought, Piers decided not to watch that video. The title alone was scary enough to make a person cry. Who would dare watch it? Huh? Answer me!?

He shoved the video into the farthest corner and went to open the first one, the Genshin Impact main story. But just as he was about to, his peripheral vision caught his pull count in the upper right corner jump from zero straight to negative eighty.

?

Piers opened with a question mark, but it took him only a second to understand why.

That black-hearted profiteer of a System. No wonder it was so generous this time. It was a paid service! Eighty pulls for two videos? What's the meaning of this? Can I at least refund the second thunderbolt video? Forty pulls back, maybe?

Sadly, the wretched System had no voice communication feature, so no matter how unwilling he was, there was nothing he could do.

At best he could comfort himself: eighty pulls in his hands would probably yield only a single gold item anyway, so buying the 7.0 main story wasn't a bad deal.

With that thought, Piers opened the video. To his surprise, the instant he did, a stretch of the 7.0 main story appeared in his mind, and the video showed as fully played in the same moment.

He'd assumed it would take several hours like before. He'd even mentally prepared for it. Instead the System had compressed it and stuffed it straight into his head. Still, it was a good thing. At least he wouldn't waste time sitting through the story.

As the video's information entered his mind, Piers also understood the whole story behind the Ruler of Death knocking people out. She had actually killed them for a while, then revived them afterward.

He'd already been planning to look up Mitya, and having seen this, he had even more reason to. Get Mitya to draw out the Ruler of Death, confirm whether his soul was in her hands, and as for how to take it back from her…

He certainly couldn't beat her in a fight, but judging from the way she killed people and brought them back, she really did follow the rules. Since fighting was out, he'd have to rely on his silver tongue.

Even if that failed, it was no big deal. In theory, as long as Piers stayed within the rules, the Ruler of Death wouldn't kill him for good.

Just then Piers suddenly remembered what Zhongli had warned him about: the deity above the heavens who governed death showed no favoritism, and as long as one stayed within the rules, she wouldn't act.

You old geezer! How far can those eyes of yours see?!

Piers slapped the table and shot to his feet, startling Sandrone, who had been absorbed in admiring her part nearby.

"Are you sick?!"

"Dear Lord [Marionette]~"

Piers walked over with a sinister look.

"Y-you, what do you think you're doing?!"

The commotion made Sandrone jump to her feet. She was alarmed, but in the depths of her eyes there was a flicker of tiny anticipation.

"I suddenly have a favor to ask you."

Piers kept approaching. The spot where Sandrone sat had a wall right behind it, so she had nowhere to retreat and could only press herself against it.

"W-what favor…"

By now Piers stood right in front of Sandrone, less than a foot between them. He stopped walking but kept leaning forward, scaring her into shutting her eyes and hunching her shoulders.

"I just… could you handle the rest of the documents for me? Something just came up."

"How about tonight!!!"

Sandrone shouted with her eyes squeezed shut.

"Huh? It's just some documents. Why put it off until tonight? Does Lord [Marionette] have something on right now?"

Sandrone suddenly realized what had happened, and was instantly mortified.

"Oh, handling documents…"

"Yeah. What did you think I meant?"

"Oh, nothing. I thought it was documents too. Sure, sure, leave it to me."