Chapter 163
[The group followed Welt, who might have clues about the general, and found Master Songque playing cards and reading fortunes with someone. Seeing Welt chasing after her, Songque immediately grabbed her bucket and fled.
Sparkle asked Welt why he wanted to catch her and made a deal with him:
"We'll help you recover your lost item, and in return, tell us all the information about the general."
"This matter is of great importance, you..."
"Don't you trust the capabilities of the universe's famous great detective, Lady Sparkle?"
"You don't want to watch that person disappear into the crowd, not knowing when they'll show up again, do you?"
Welt fell silent, pondered for a long time, and finally decided to accept their deal.]
[Sushang]: "Songque, loves playing cards, can tell fortunes—this character is just Qingque!"
[Qingque]: "Don't just assume they're the same person just because they both have 'que' in their names!"
[Kiana]: "Who's Songque? Do we have someone like that here?"
[Honkai: Star Rail - Welt]: "She's from Mars. I can't say more about the specifics."
[Just as Songque was about to be caught, she boarded a starskiff, triggering a tense and thrilling starskiff chase! "Ouch... ouch ouch ouch..."
"What a pity, crash victim."
Songque retreated fearfully: "Eek?!
Wh-what are you going to do..."
Sparkle hopped around
Songque: "Don't be nervous, we just want to give you some... friendly greetings~"
"Waaah——~"
"Looks like she's really scared of you, my dear sister. And here I thought you two would definitely hit it off."
"After all, your voices sound exactly the same."
Sparkle began her performance again, squatting in front of the frightened
Songque: "Well, master who sounds just like me, since you've been caught, shouldn't you return what you took from us?"
Songque began vehemently denying her actions, completely refusing to admit she had stolen anything from Welt. However, facing a Masked Fool, none of this worked: "For stubborn children, we must provide pa-tient edu-ca-tion~"
Then began the Fool card duel.]
[Stelle]: "So unfortunate—why can Sparkle talk about patient education while pulling out Fool cards? Hey!"
[Sparkle]: "What? What else did you want to see? This is a 12+ game—there's none of the content you're hoping for~"
[Pardofelis]: ".........Not sure why, but I feel like this is somehow targeting me."
["Heroes, two heroes! I know I was wrong, please go easy on me—"
After losing the Fool card game, Songque successfully triggered her defeat CG. Then she obediently handed over the stolen wooden box. "In that case, can you let me go now?"
Sparkle blocked her path, smiling brightly: "Hey, wait a moment.
We went through so much trouble to catch you—letting you leave this quickly would be too easy."
"Then... what do you mean..."
"Hmm, let me think... Ah, got it~"
"As a native of the Luofu, you must have heard of Suanadouzhir, right?"
"I wonder if you're someone who likes it? Or hates it?"
Songque's face immediately changed dramatically: "No, wait, anything but that—"
"Don't be shy~ Since we've spent so much time together, consider it a gift. Please drink up—"
"No, no—!"
"I'll never do it again... Ugh! Cough cough..."]
[Bailu]: "So this is Suanadouzhir~"
[Qingque]: "What a terrifying form of torture."
[Stelle]: "Feels... not as bad as Himeko's coffee..."
[Kiana]: "Is this Suanadouzhir really that bad? Don't plenty of people like it?"
[Herrscher of Sentience]: "We don't have Suanadouzhir here, but we have douzhir—want to try some?"
[Kiana]: "I'd like to try it!"
[Stelle]: "Hope she'll be okay..."
["What a chaotic farce, but at least we recovered the lost item. Let's hurry back to return it to its owner and ask about the general's whereabouts."
"Seems like that's no longer necessary."
Taking advantage of the moment, Vita had already opened the wooden box.
Inside was a tiger-shaped seal—the Luofu General's Tiger Tally. "Looks like we went around in a big circle for nothing."
Sparkle and Vita went back to find Welt, who had been waiting for a long time: "Ladies, you've returned."
"Have you retrieved my lost item? Thank you—"
Sparkle blocked Welt's outstretched hand: "Wait. Before returning it, don't you think you owe us some explanation?"
"Ge-ne-ral~"
"...I originally planned to tell you later, but since you've discovered it early, I won't hide it anymore."
"That's right, I am the current general of the Xianzhou Luofu, Welt Yang. You can just call me Welt."]
[Yanqing]: "......Welt... General?"
[Stelle]: "Hahaha! The three-year term has ended! We respectfully welcome General Welt's return! Jing Yuan, you should obediently step down!"
[March 7th]: "I imagined all sorts of identities, but I never thought Mr. Yang would become the Luofu's general..."
[Silver Wolf]: "LMAO, even in an illusion, Fu Xuan still didn't get to become general."
[Fu Xuan]: "Shut up! What kind of general is an illusionary general? If I'm going to be one, I want the real thing!"
["If I hadn't seen your lost Tiger Tally with my own eyes, it would be really hard to believe you're that legendary general."
"So why did you orchestrate this [General's Disappearance] incident?"
"It couldn't possibly be because you got tired of the general's life and wanted to sneak away for some leisure time, could it?"
Hearing Vita's words, Welt nodded repeatedly, as if he'd found a kindred spirit: "You guessed right, that's exactly it."
"For many years, I've held the position of general, diligently carrying out the governance of the Luofu without ever slacking off."
"However, as time passed, I gradually grew weary of this unchanging life—is my work really meaningful? Even if I no longer served as general, the Luofu would certainly continue operating normally."
"At the same time, the dreams of my youth that had long lain dormant in my heart began to sprout again. All of this urged me to resign from my duties as general as soon as possible." "Therefore, I released news of the [General's Disappearance] and left the Divine Commission."]
[March 7th]: "So this Mr. Yang came to the Astral Express after retiring from the Luofu?"
[Jing Yuan]: "In a way, I'm actually quite envious of General Welt..."
If not for lacking a successor, Jing Yuan would have long wanted to retire from this damned general position and become a Galaxy Ranger. But while you can slack off casually in games, reality doesn't work that way.
[Stelle]: "This is what you call: General Welt's Mundane Stroll."
[Stelle]: "The world has suffered under Jing Yuan for too long! Jing Yuan, don't be unreasonable—hand over the general position!"
[Honkai: Star Rail - Welt]: "Stelle, that's enough. Stop messing around—this is just a game."