“Do you like girls with long hair or short hair?” “I like girls who are like you, Lord Marionette.” You little Kitty, so you won’t let me sleep properly, huh?
Then nobody’s sleeping tonight!
Sandrone shut up immediately, and after that she didn’t make a sound all night—except that the noise of her tossing and turning in bed went on the entire night.
Sandrone was a puppet to begin with, so the sound of her rolling over and pressing down on the bed was especially heavy.
Still, at least she no longer suddenly called out his name while Piers was trying to sleep.
The tossing and turning was something he could just grit his teeth and endure—he couldn’t very well sneak in at midnight while Sandrone was asleep and unscrew her bolts, after all.
The next morning, Piers got up bright and early and caught the train to the harbor.
He grabbed half an hour of sleep on the way, only to be jolted awake by the cold sea wind mixed with the briny, damp smell of seafood.
Piers stepped off the train and, from afar, spotted an enormous metal ship in the distance.
Its sails were spread out dozens of meters up in the air, and at the boarding steps, several dozen Electro Cicin Mages and a dozen or so Cryo Cicin Mages stood in two rows.
The sheer scale of this reception really did live up to a Harbinger’s standing.
But Piers, being the kind of socially anxious person who wouldn’t even dare kiss his boss on the lips in public on the street, felt a bit panicked facing such a display—so he chose to…
use the adeptal arts he’d just learned to fly up onto the ship from the other side.
The moment he got up there, he suddenly spotted a Musketeer standing about half-asleep, propping up his musket.
This figure was exactly like himself back when he’d first started the job.
Holding fast to the principle that helping others is its own joy, he walked straight up and patted the Musketeer on the shoulder.
“Yo, brother, what’re you up to?
You look half-asleep.” The Musketeer, startled out of his wits, jolted awake.
Only after glancing behind Piers and seeing no one there did he let out a sigh of relief.
“You scared me to death.
I thought it was that new Acting Harbinger who got the job through the back door.” Hearing him say that, Piers suddenly got a wicked idea.
“From your tone, it sounds like you’ve got quite a grudge against this Acting Harbinger.” “Ugh—don’t even get me started.
Look, we just got back from Liyue and were nearly rounded up wholesale by the Liyue Qixing, and now we’ve got to head right back to Liyue with this so-called Acting Harbinger, supposedly because we who just came back from Liyue know the place better.” The more he talked, the angrier he got, until he just plopped down on the deck.
“How could we not be familiar with it—we nearly died there.
And this Acting Harbinger, I hear he’s some pretty boy, temporarily appointed by the Tsaritsa herself, who even knows where he crawled out from.” As he rambled on, he suddenly seemed to realize something and turned to look at Piers beside him.
“Huh?
Brother, who are you?
How come I’ve never seen you before?
Are you one of Lord Childe’s men?” “Oh, me?
I’m one of Lord Marionette’s men.
You don’t know yet, do you—that pretty boy, he’s one of Lord Marionette’s people.
I got sent over precisely because they were worried you all wouldn’t recognize that pretty boy.” “Eh-heh?
Well, this is the first time I’ve seen someone cursing himself out.” Guizhong stood beside Piers and reached out to pat his head, though Piers paid her no mind.
So terrifying—I’ve been haunted by a female ghost, requesting help, waiting online.
“Aiya, even I know that much intel.
See that honor guard over there?
Several of them are under that lord of the Seventh Seat—it’s exactly because they were afraid we wouldn’t recognize him.” As the Musketeer spoke, he pointed toward the boarding steps.
No wonder a few of them looked a little familiar from far off just now—turns out they were old acquaintances.
“This pretty boy is really something.
It’s been this long and he still hasn’t shown up.
No sense of punctuality whatsoever.” He was muttering away when, suddenly, a woman’s voice came from behind him.
“Lord Piers, why are you here?!” It was a Cryo Cicin Mage.
The instant she spoke up, even the honor guard that had been standing ready turned to look this way, and the moment they saw Piers, every one of them came rushing over.
“When did my lord board the ship?
It was careless of us—we actually failed to notice.” Those Electro Cicin Mages and Cryo Cicin Mages looked rather flustered, though a few of them didn’t seem panicked at all—on the contrary, they wore relaxed expressions.
Piers recognized those few; they were Sandrone’s people, old acquaintances, even.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, you all go ahead and set sail.
I’m not too fond of overly grand welcoming ceremonies, so I deliberately avoided it.” “Yes, we’ll go right away.” The Musketeer off to the side was already dumbstruck, the hand holding his musket trembling.
“Pretty bo…
ah no, Lord Piers, I was just talking nonsense earlier, I’d had too much bootleg liquor.” “It’s fine, it’s fine, I’m very magnanimous.
It was just a trifling little matter—I’ll definitely never forget it.” Piers deliberately flashed a sinister, ominous smile, and after he finished smiling he turned and left, leaving that Musketeer alone, frozen stiff on the spot.
Inside the ship’s cabin there were many small rooms, and on top of that, in keeping with a Harbinger’s reception standards, a large room had been set aside for Piers.
“No need to keep following me.
Go do your own things.
If there’s nothing to do, just go rest.
You don’t have to keep me company the whole time.” Piers walked to the door of his room and waved at the several Cryo Cicin Mages and Electro Cicin Mages who had been trailing behind him.
“Yes.
If my lord needs anything, you may call us at any time.
Although you are only an Acting Harbinger, Lord Childe instructed us that no matter what orders my lord gives, we are to do our utmost to fulfill them.” Having said that, those Cryo Cicin Mages and Electro Cicin Mages turned and left.
Piers pushed open the door, walked in, and flopped straight onto the sofa.
“Finally, finally I don’t have to deal with documents every single day—what a rare vacation!!” In truth, when Sandrone had brought the news that Piers was to be sent as an envoy to Liyue, Piers had nearly burst out laughing.
But he forced himself to run through every sad thing from this life, and his previous life too, and finally managed to barely suppress the corners of his mouth and let out an “Oh” in what he reckoned was his most indifferent tone.
“If that machine girl saw you looking like this, she’d probably be so furious she’d come over and claw at you.” Guizhong floated barefoot in the air, covering her mouth with her sleeve as she chuckled softly.
“Just don’t let her find out, then, problem solved.
How could I let the boss catch me in this slacking-off vacation mode?” Piers struck a textbook Ge You slouch, but the next moment, as if suddenly remembering something, he sat up abruptly and looked toward Guizhong in the air.
“Come to think of it, I’ve pretty much mastered all the adeptal arts you gave me last time.
Got any others?” Hearing Piers come asking for adeptal arts again, Guizhong immediately folded her arms across her chest, indignantly puffing out one cheek.
“Adeptal arts, adeptal arts, every single day—who does that?
Aren’t you supposed to cultivate for over a decade just to barely grasp a tiny bit of basic adeptal arts absorption, and then spend a whole lifetime only able to learn some basic adeptal arts!
Adeptal arts aren’t cultivated the way you do it!” Guizhong stopped paying Piers any attention altogether.
Actually, what she said wasn’t entirely correct either—the sort of person she described, cultivating for several decades to grasp a bit of adeptal arts basics, was already a genius among geniuses.
Most people couldn’t sense even a sliver of adept power even if they poured their entire lives into it.
____ 👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻 🔥 New history: Homelander: Founding the Hero Association Let’s achieve our community goals: