After hearing Piers finish, Tartaglia’s face immediately fell with disappointment.
A Vision didn’t merely represent elemental power—it could also gradually strengthen one’s physique through the use of that elemental power.
A person who had obtained a Vision, even without using it, would have a body considerably stronger than an ordinary person’s.
Of course, this strengthening was built upon one’s own foundation.
If the body was too weak to begin with, then even obtaining a Vision wouldn’t bring about any noticeable change.
So a contest between someone with a Vision and someone without one was inherently unfair.
“It’s fine.
It’s just a Vision—you still need to be strong yourself.
If you ever need anything, or if anyone bullies you, just tell me.” This duck-duck…
why is he being so nice to me on our very first meeting?
He can’t be one of those Chengdu ducks, can he?!
“Lord Childe, I believe this is our first time meeting, isn’t it?
Why are you being so kind to me?” “It’s because I feel a little guilty toward you.
After all, that whole mess in Liyue was something I caused, and now you’re the one who has to clean it up.
Diplomacy and all that is the most troublesome business there is—plus, I don’t like owing people favors.” At that moment, Sandrone came over carrying the tea refreshments, with Columbina trailing behind her, a slice of bread clamped in her mouth.
“Say, why have you gone and sat over here?
Don’t you have your own seat?” She set the assorted refreshments down on the table all together, then planted her hands on her hips and glared fiercely at Tartaglia.
“This fellow here and I really hit it off.
Why don’t you go sit over at my spot instead?” He pointed at the seat beside the Captain, but Sandrone didn’t so much as lift her eyes.
“As if I’d care.
Shoo, shoo, get back over there.” “Even a subordinate deserves at least a few basic rights…” Tartaglia wore an indignant expression, thinking that with a personality like Sandrone’s, she surely bullied Piers plenty on a regular basis.
But before he could finish, Piers cut him off.
“Ahem, ahem…
Lord Childe, you’d best go back to your seat.” Sorry, duck-duck, but I still prefer a soft, tsundere Puppet.
Tartaglia, caught mid-sentence, was stunned.
He looked at Sandrone, then at Piers, and suddenly felt an indescribable sense of grievance—the stifling feeling of having his bro snatched right out from under him.
“Fine, fine, you can have the seat.” The atmosphere of the tea party grew considerably warmer after that—except for the moment when Tartaglia remarked that the tea he was drinking tasted like a rag freshly fished out of a sewer.
But after Sandrone retorted righteously, “Il Capitano is drinking the very same thing as you—how come I don’t hear him saying anything?” Tartaglia said nothing more after that.
The young duck-duck was still too young; he had no idea that the Captain couldn’t taste anything at all, and that beneath his clothes there might well be nothing left but a skeletal frame.
After the tea party ended, everyone headed back.
Piers returned to his room to continue handling some documents, while Guizhong, having returned, grew bored all over again.
In these few days since Piers had brought her out, she was nearly bored to death.
Although Piers was good-looking, he was no fun at all to tease, and she found herself somewhat missing the round, chubby little Ganyu.
She also thought back to that little robot at today’s tea party—both its framework and its core were quite impressive.
“Hey, hey, little Piers, that superior of yours isn’t only a mechanical creation herself—she also seems quite the expert in mechanical research.
Mechanism arts and machinery are largely alike, with only minor differences.
Does she have any manuscripts or the like?
Could you help me request a copy?” Several thousand years ago, Guizhong’s mastery of mechanism arts had already been the foremost in all of Liyue at the time.
She remained just as interested now, and she also wanted to see whether anything new had emerged in the field of machinery—perhaps something she could incorporate into mechanism arts.
“Manuscripts?
I’ve actually collected quite a few.
I gathered them back when I was cleaning Lady Marionette’s room—she told me to just throw them away, but I kept them instead.” Piers got up and walked over to the bookshelf in the corner, rummaging through it.
Before long, he pulled out a book with an exquisitely bound cover.
“I was worried that with so many manuscripts they’d easily get lost, so I just had them all printed into a single book.
I’d originally planned to study it myself, but there’s simply too much I have to deal with every day.” He’d been meaning to see whether he could learn some of it—that way, perhaps combined with the memories of his past life, he could build some offensive weapons to defend himself.
After all, that’s how the protagonists in novels always did it.
After all, even though he’d trained up some martial skill at the Fatui’s training grounds, lacking a Vision was a fatal weakness.
No matter how strong a person was, if he could only rely on physical techniques, then enough Hilichurls swarming in would probably be enough to wear him down to death.
“Here, take it.” Piers tossed it straight over, but the book passed right through Guizhong’s body and fell to the floor.
“Forgot you’re in spirit form.” He rubbed his forehead a little helplessly, then picked the book up off the floor and set it on the table.
“I’ll handle the documents first and turn the pages for you on the side.
Just tell me which page you want to read.” “No need.
Watch.” Guizhong raised a hand, a gust of wind blew in from outside the window, and the book was flipped precisely forward by one page.
“Huh?
Aren’t you unable to use adeptal arts?” “I couldn’t before, and I couldn’t absorb the surrounding Lightrealm power either.
But these past few days things seem to have gotten a bit better.
I can barely draw on some natural forces now—though it’s only enough to turn the pages of a book.” “Sssss—why does this book look like it’s been licked by a donkey?
Ugh~” Upon seeing the very first page after the cover, Guizhong plainly showed a look of disgust.
The pages looked as though they’d been soaked swollen with water and then dried out in the sun.
“Ahem, ahem, that’s because these things were previously used by Lady Marionette as coasters for her teacups, so it’s inevitable they’d turn out a bit unsightly.” After that, Guizhong stopped fussing over it.
Setting aside her rowdy temperament, she began to read in earnest.
In an instant, the only sounds in the entire room were the rustling of a pen tip writing and the occasional gust of wind turning the book’s pages.
In the dead of night, after Piers finished approving the documents, he began to practice the adeptal arts.
He discovered that this adeptal arts business was truly a wonderful thing—even after staying up until the middle of the night, he only needed three or four hours of cultivation to feel completely refreshed, more effective than several hours of ordinary sleep.
It wasn’t until the next morning, when Piers opened his eyes, that he found Guizhong still sitting at the table, reading that book bound together from the manuscripts—she’d already turned to the last few pages.
“Sister Guizhong, you didn’t sleep all night?
You’re nothing but a spirit form now and you’re still pushing yourself this hard.” “Oh, it’s fine, it’s fine, I’m just about finished reading.
I’d originally assumed these mechanical principles wouldn’t differ much from mechanism arts, but only after reading did I realize they’re worlds apart.
Machinery emphasizes formulaic techniques, while mechanism arts emphasizes the conversion of adept power—only the assembly is similar.” She muttered excitedly to herself; in any case, Piers didn’t understand a single word.
Having talked on and on, she ended up tiring herself out instead.
“It seems…
I really am a little sleepy…” Guizhong swayed unsteadily, almost unable to stand.
Then, with a tap of her toes, her whole body floated up and flopped directly onto Piers’s back.
Guizhong’s figure was tiny, and sprawled across Piers’s back, she looked just like a small child.