In the private compartment at the station, Piers sat on the sofa sipping hot coffee, several of the newspaper agency’s latest editions spread out on the table.
Katayena was clearly visiting a place like this for the first time.
She seemed thoroughly ill at ease, going so far as to lay a sheet of newspaper down on the sofa before she sat on it.
That card had been tucked inside the documents he’d been processing the night before last—more precisely, it had come with a letter.
The Wealthy One had written it to him, and the whole thing was nothing but pretty words.
Stripped down, the gist of it was this: by Her Majesty the Tsaritsa’s order, Piers was being dispatched as an envoy to Liyue, with treatment equal to that of a Harbinger.
This card could be used at any establishment in which the Northland Bank held a stake, with no spending limit.
“Um…
how much Mora did you just spend on the train tickets?
Let me pay you back…” Katayena suddenly worked up the courage to speak.
“We’ll settle up after you treat me to a meal.
At this hour, it looks like breakfast’s off the table—let’s just count it as lunch.” “Okay…” After a short wait, the train arrived.
The two of them boarded, and two hours later they reached the main city district.
After strolling aimlessly through the streets for a while, Piers found a restaurant, walked in, picked a random seat, and started ordering.
Little Katayena snuck a sideways glance, and the moment she saw what Piers had ordered, her face went pale.
So expensive.
The Mora I brought is barely enough for a single dish at most.
Looks like I’m definitely going to be washing dishes today.
Boo-hoo.
A dozen-odd minutes later, the dishes were brought out one after another, and Katayena still wore that timid, shrinking look.
“Hm?
Why aren’t you eating?
These dishes are pretty pricey.
If you don’t eat, I can’t finish them all by myself, and wouldn’t that be a waste?
This is all Mora, you know.” Hearing Piers say this, Katayena suddenly found it made perfect sense.
She immediately picked up her chopsticks and started wolfing down the food, the ferocity of her eating an utter contrast to the social anxiety from before.
This little girl can really eat.
Piers ate until he was about half full, and by the time he set down his chopsticks, Katayena had already polished off every single dish.
It was hard to imagine that such a tiny thing could eat so much.
After the meal, the two of them rose and walked to the entrance.
Katayena was just about to pay, but the thought of the Mora in her pocket made her hesitate again.
At that moment, Piers took out the same card he’d used to buy the train tickets.
“I’ll get it.” The waiter respectfully took the card from Piers’s hand, settled the bill, and handed it back.
“Let’s go.” Piers called out to Katayena, who was frozen on the spot.
Coming back to her senses, she scampered after him.
“Um…
how much Mora was it?
I’ll pay you back once I have money…” “Forget it, you’d best hold on to that little bit of Mora of yours.” “But I promised…
to treat you to a meal…” Little Katayena’s voice was still as faint as a mosquito’s whine.
At that moment, Piers suddenly turned around and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“Little comrade, are you trying to lure me into making a mistake?
If I really let you pay, wouldn’t that mean I’d committed an error?
Tell me, are you trying to seize the chance to report me.” He wore an aggressively imposing expression.
“N-no, that’s not it, I…
I…” The already-stammering Katayena was frightened into even more incoherence.
“Just kidding.
You head back first.
Tomorrow you new recruits will probably be handed some simple assignments.” Piers gave her a reassuring word, waved his hand, and left.
Little Katayena stood there blankly, no one knowing what was on her mind.
He still had a huge stack of documents to deal with.
Tomorrow he was leaving for Liyue, and once he was gone, Sandrone would once again bury herself entirely in her machinery research.
By the time he returned, the documents needing his attention would probably pile up enough to fill the whole room.
The place where they’d eaten wasn’t far from the Zapolyarny Palace.
To make it convenient for the Tsaritsa to summon them, most of the Fatui Harbingers lived in the surrounding area.
Piers lived very close to Sandrone, so he made it back quickly.
He walked all the way into the corridor within the Zapolyarny Palace’s walls, and after rounding a corner, Piers—now standing before his room’s door—suddenly stopped short.
“Come out.
You’ve been following me this long.
I clawed my way up step by step from the bottom, after all—if I couldn’t even spot you, I might as well find a cake and bash my head into it to end it all.” Standing at the door, one hand still resting on the handle, Piers spoke toward the corner off to the side.
At the corner, a timid figure slowly inched into view.
“Katayena?
It’s you?
Is there something you need?” At first Piers had assumed he’d offended someone who’d sent a person to tail him, and inwardly he’d even been marveling at how utterly terrible the other party’s stalking skills were.
“I…” This girl—why does she stammer the moment she opens her mouth?
Anyone with a short temper would be driven straight into a heart attack on the spot.
Piers understood that this girl had most likely followed him because she felt guilty over not having treated him to the meal.
The problem was that she’d meant well, so it wasn’t easy to just bark at her to leave.
“What?
Treating you to a meal wasn’t enough—now you want to come occupy my room too?” “No, no, I just wanted to thank you.
I was supposed to be the one treating you to a meal.
I wanted to see if there’s anything I could help you with.” Oh?
This girl—it’s rare for her to get out a whole sentence without stammering.
“There’s nothing to do.
Just head back.
In a sense, the Mora spent on the meal wasn’t even mine anyway.” With that, Piers pulled the door open and walked straight in.
A pile of documents was still heaped on the desk.
He walked over and sat down—at which point Katayena came bouncing and skipping in.
“Or I could tidy up your room for you, that works too.
Don’t worry, I’m quite good at it—I guarantee I won’t break anything.” She clasped her hands behind her back, revealing a rare, lovely smile.
Looks like if I don’t find this little girl something to do, she’s going to cling here all day and refuse to leave.
Tidying the room is a no-go, though—if something gets smashed or dropped, it’ll be even more trouble.
“No need to tidy the room.
If you really feel you have to repay me, then just come over and give my legs a massage.” Piers said it offhandedly, then picked up his pen and began reviewing the documents.
But hearing this, little Katayena froze for a moment, and then her face flushed red in an instant.
After hesitating for a few seconds, she still gingerly sat down to Piers’s left.
The next second, as though she’d made some great resolution, she grabbed Piers’s left hand and pressed it onto her own leg.
“M-massage…
go ahead…” Piers’s mind was wholly on the documents; he hadn’t registered a thing, and his hand instinctively gave a squeeze.
With that one squeeze, the already somewhat flushed Katayena instantly turned crimson all over.
“Ah—” Pretty soft…
wait, no—why am I smelling something that’s been electrically scorched?
It can’t be—!!!!!!”