“If you want to sleep, just go sleep in the bed.
Why are you sprawling on my back?
I still have to go meet the new recruits who joined under Lord Puppet this year.” “It seems I can’t get too far from you.
The farther I go, the weaker my soul becomes…” “Is that so?” But before Piers could get an answer out of Guizhong, she had fallen asleep sprawled across his back.
Holy crap, is this the legendary sleep paralysis?
No, sleep paralysis is when you’re actually sleeping—what should this even be called, getting clung to by some unclean thing?
Speaking of which, she won’t drool in her sleep, will she?
There was nothing to be done at this point.
Fortunately, Guizhong was only a soul-form, so Piers couldn’t feel any weight at all.
He carefully supported her with adept power, afraid that Guizhong would slip off of him.
Today was the day the Fatui reservists were promoted to official members.
However, aside from a few Harbingers, most of them basically just sent a single subordinate over—when it came down to it, it was nothing but a formality.
Generally, barring special circumstances, whichever Harbinger you served as a reservist under, that was the Harbinger whose subordinate you’d become once made official.
So going there was, at most, just a way to get one’s face known.
Piers had actually overseen quite a few of these sessions.
As he summed it up, this kind of formality was really just like the school officials giving their Monday speeches up on the stage back in high school in his past life—useless, and a waste of time.
The venue Piers had arranged for the official members was a small workshop under Sandrone’s name.
When he arrived at the spot carrying Guizhong on his back, the Fatui reservist members had already all gathered.
Katayena included—when Piers had been handling the paperwork and submitting the roster, he’d put her name on it too.
These reservist members were brimming with vigor, just like young people on their first day at work.
“Everyone, …” What followed was a whole heap of high-sounding rhetoric.
By the time Piers finished, he was practically running on empty, but the crowd across from him listened quite earnestly.
Getting the ceremony over with early, Piers had the Electro Cicin Mage trailing beside him arrange official lodgings for these people.
Just as he was about to leave, a voice behind him called out and stopped him.
“Big brother.” He turned to look—it was little Katayena.
Little girl, use my title when we’re working; if someone overhears, they’ll think there’s something going on between us.
“Oh?
Is there something else?
Or is there some part of the onboarding you don’t understand?” “No, no, I familiarized myself ahead of time these past couple of days.
I just want…
I just want…” Spit out what you want already—I haven’t even had breakfast yet.
This little girl, how can she get shy just saying a few words?
Even someone with severe social anxiety like me, who wouldn’t dare kiss a boss on the lips out on the street, can at least talk smoothly.
“I want to treat big brother to a meal, to thank big brother for helping me…” Hey!
You can’t say that, little girl—there are still so many people who haven’t left.
Aren’t you plainly telling them you got in through the back door?
This is tempting an official into wrongdoing!!
“No need, no need.
If you want to thank anyone, you should thank Lord Puppet.
I only helped pass along a suggestion.” “It’s…
it’s just one meal.
If it weren’t for you, big brother, I wouldn’t have had the chance…” Katayena was all timid and shrinking, her two hands clasped together, palms drenched in sweat, her breathing growing rapid.
“Fine.
I haven’t had breakfast anyway.
But…
do you have money?
Treating me to a meal isn’t cheap.” Piers spoke as he walked, trying to get a bit farther from the members who had just become official Fatui, otherwise there’d be misunderstandings.
“I…
I saved up some money before…
if…
if it’s not enough, could I borrow a little from you first?
I’ll pay you back once I have money…” Little Katayena followed carefully behind Piers, that frail body of hers dressed in a Fatui uniform—it looked to be the smallest size, yet it still billowed in the wind on her frame.
“Where…
where are we going…” “Aren’t you treating me to a meal?
What’s there to be had out here in the suburbs?
Of course we’re taking the train to the main city district.” Hearing Piers’s words, little Katayena shrank her neck and grew even more nervous.
The money she’d saved could barely cover a single meal at a restaurant near the workshop; if they went to the main city district, she probably couldn’t afford even one dish, let alone the fact that the train ride cost money too.
Katayena!
Pull yourself together!
Worst case I’ll just stay behind and wash dishes—I can’t very well back out at the last minute.
Little Katayena did almost nothing to hide it; that look of being deeply conflicted and then steeling herself was all taken in by Piers’s eyes.
And so it went all the way to the station.
The ticket office—obviously, like most stations, there were quite a lot of people lined up to buy tickets, and the clerk served them numbly.
Her face wore an expression that was utterly: the overtime stress is crushing, the boss is harsh with me, promotion is hopeless, why didn’t I just go die sooner.
“Your tickets, your card.
At the entrance there are leftover cookies and bread from the day before yesterday you can buy yourself—each person is limited to one bag of cookies or one piece of bread.” Of course, the people buying tickets rarely cared about things like service attitude; they only lamented why the cookies and bread cost more than twenty times the price in the main city district.
Finally it was Piers’s turn.
He stepped up and handed over a card.
“Hello, two tickets back to the main city district.” After saying that, he turned to glance at Katayena behind him, then hesitated and turned back to the clerk.
He was pondering whether Katayena was an adult—after all, a chronically malnourished child could also have this kind of build.
“One adult, one child.
Charge it to this card.” The clerk took the card and glanced at it, visibly freezing for a moment.
The numb demeanor she’d worn just now instantly took on a touch of obsequiousness.
After swiping the card, she handed the two tickets to Piers, then respectfully presented the card back into his hands with both of hers.
“There you go, please keep it safe.
Also, this train may take about half an hour’s wait.
There’s a private room inside the station; in the private room’s oven there are freshly baked cookies and bread, along with freshly ground coffee—all free of charge.” A guy off to the side, who had been so unbearably hungry that he’d gritted his teeth and spent a fortune on a single cold loaf of bread: ?
“Why does he get it for free?” The man looked at the clerk and asked.
The clerk immediately switched to a thoroughly impatient look.
“Because the bread and cookies in the private room are freshly baked, and the coffee is freshly ground.” “Why is what I bought so expensive?” “Because what you bought is the leftovers from the day before yesterday.” For a moment the man’s brain couldn’t quite process it; a few seconds later, once it registered, he was even more dumbfounded.
“…” “Then I want the bread and cookies from the private room too.” “Private room?
What private room?
Did I say anything just now?” The clerk simply played dumb, so the man pointed in the direction Piers had gone and demanded an answer.
“Then what’s that place he and that little girl went to?” “A private room.” “Then I want to go too.” “Go where?” “The private room.” “What private room?
Did I ever say that?” “…”