"Wait... wait a minute, are you really leaving? Didn't you say you would guide me in handling state affairs? I haven't fully mastered it yet, and you're leaving like this. Isn't that a bit inappropriate?"
In the Plane of Euthymia, Ei heard Durandal (clone) and grabbed her shoulder, saying somewhat anxiously.
"Hmm? Inappropriate? My appearance was originally to punish your disrespectful behavior towards my Main Body. Logically, my time here should only be a few days. The reason I can stay for so long is because there's no combat, which reduces the consumption of maintaining my existence."
"But... but didn't you say..."
"What? Staying alone in this place for hundreds of years, and suddenly having someone accompany you here, you've finally gotten used to this life and can't go back to how it was before?"
Durandal saw Ei's embarrassment and asked with a teasing tone.
This time, Ei nodded honestly, indicating that she was indeed in this state. After this period of care and tasting the desserts Durandal made for her, she declared that she had become Durandal's shape and could not change.
"Dream on, you want me to stay here. Even as a clone, I can't stay in this place forever. Didn't you say you wanted to become a self-reliant god? You're still the same as before."
Durandal pressed Ei's face and rubbed it repeatedly. During this time, she often used this move to punish Ei when she was lazy or made mistakes.
At first, she would struggle, but after gradually getting used to it, Ei became too lazy to resist. She even developed some immune, and no matter how Durandal rubbed, it had no effect.
"You should go stick with your precious sister. If there are no problems, her integration progress should be almost complete, probably in about another week."
The reason she was here was because Ei was anxious about Makoto's integration speed and kept bothering her, so she sent the clone into the Plane of Euthymia to punish her.
But... how should I put it? Durandal felt that the purpose of the punishment was not achieved at all. Not only that, but it even created a slight dependency effect on her.
This person... could she be the type who gets clingy with a little care? Is she really a child? You should grow up a bit, Lord Raiden.
"No matter how you try to stop it, the power sustaining my existence is almost exhausted. I also advise you not to think about using the same method to make the Main Body punish you in the same way. I said our memories are interconnected, and she already knows your performance. Do you think she would do something that has absolutely no punitive effect again?"
"It was a punishment! It definitely was a punishment! Didn't you see how these documents have been giving me a headache lately? How is that not a punishment?"
"That's your responsibility to fulfill. When you finished those documents, didn't Makoto also praise you? Didn't you feel happy when you were praised?"
"Yes... yes, I was very happy."
Completely unable to refute, damn it! (〃＞dish＜) Is there really no way to make her stay? If she leaves like this, won't my dessert freedom be gone?
Ei once again felt her powerlessness. The last time was five hundred years ago when Inazuma faced a catastrophe and Makoto died.
This time facing Durandal, neither her identity as a god nor her combat prowess could make her stay.
Should she issue a commission to the companion by her side, asking him to beg Durandal to leave a clone to help her and guide her in mastering state affairs?
(The Indestructible: Assisting with state affairs is false, private chef is true. Indulging yourself like this is not conducive to pursuing eternity.)
(Ei: Just eating a little something, what does that have to do with my pursuit of eternity? Don't listen to the Shogun's nonsense.)
Regardless, Durandal (clone)'s departure was inevitable. Although Ei was very reluctant, she could only watch as she gradually disappeared into the Plane of Euthymia due to lack of power.
It wasn't until Durandal left that Ei accepted the fact that she was gone. She sat back down at the desk with the state affairs, preparing to find something to do to keep her mind off Durandal's departure.
But she couldn't calm down. She wanted to eat something to cool off, but as she ate the sweets Durandal left behind, the feeling became even stronger.
"What's wrong with me? I've been getting stranger and stranger lately."
Ei shook her head. Ever since she met Durandal, she felt she was increasingly unable to calm down.
They weren't even friends, so why did she care about her so much?
Friends... Thinking of this, Ei remembered their agreement, the promise that Durandal would be her friend after she successfully became self-reliant.
No matter what she wanted to do, she had to at least become friends. How could she be considered self-reliant? Managing Inazuma well should count.
Although the situation in Inazuma is developing in a good direction, to make it more prosperous, trade with other nations is absolutely essential.
But... because of the sakoku decree, foreign merchant ships simply couldn't enter. Even if they wanted to do business, there was no way.
The biggest obstacle currently is the Raiden Shogun. Only by making her see her own resolve can she change the rules she designed for herself and end the sakoku decree.
"...I didn't expect the biggest enemy hindering Inazuma's development to actually be 'me'."
Her past actions, designed not to leave herself any room for retreat, became the biggest obstacle. But it didn't matter, even without any retreat, she would forcefully carve a path, and no one could stop her.
For some unknown reason, Ei's motivation for growth changed. Besides herself, no one knew what the reason was.
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Outside, Durandal, after resting for a while, finally started moving with Lumine.
This time, they came to the Adventurers Guild, wanting to see if there were any interesting commissions with a good Reward.
"Hmm? Why is the Reward for this commission so high?"
In the most prominent place on the commission board, a very generous Reward commission was displayed. But what was puzzling was why such a high Reward commission had not been taken. Why was that?
"...Because this commission is quite special, and its difficulty might be even higher than the situation on Seirai Island."
Katheryne walked over, explaining with a friendly smile.
"Higher difficulty than Seirai Island? Do we have to go investigate some abnormal area again? Speaking of which, does Inazuma even have such a place now?"
The previous Seirai Island investigation was mostly done, with only Sangonomiya Shrine remaining uninvestigated. Besides these places, are there other special areas in Inazuma that haven't been investigated?
"Regarding this, you will need to inquire with the client. I believe she can answer your questions in detail."
Katheryne briefly explained the client's location and identity, then sent them to find the person. For some reason, Katheryne seemed visibly relieved when she heard Lumine was willing to accept the commission. What was going on? Could it be a very difficult client to deal with?
With this confusion, Durandal and her group found the client, Miss Sumida. Before they even got close, she noticed Lumine walking over, her eyes lighting up.
"Are you the legendary Lumine?"
"Leg… legendary?"
Lumine blinked. It was her first time encountering someone like this. Even Hu Tao wasn't this excited… By the way, what exactly are you so excited about?
"Hmm~ Has the Traveler's reputation grown so much that it can be described as legendary? Then can Paimon, who is always with the Traveler, also be described as legendary?"
"This isn't the time to talk about such things, Paimon."
Lumine could tell that the other party's excitement wasn't from meeting an idol or anything, but for some other reason.
Sure enough, Sumida asked many strange questions, many of which had nothing to do with what Lumine had done before, making Paimon realize that something was amiss.
Could it be… that Katheryne meant the difficulty was in communication, not in the mission itself, when she said the difficulty was higher than Seirai Island? If so, Katheryne was indeed not wrong.
Thinking of this, Paimon poked Lumine's shoulder. Lumine nodded, finding this client quite unreliable, and prepared to leave with the others.
"Wait… wait a moment, don't go, don't leave."
Noticing Lumine's intention to flee, Sumida quickly stopped Lumine, explaining, "I… I heard a lot about you from Miss Katheryne before. Honestly, you fit the description of a light novel protagonist quite well. I thought your experiences would also be similar to a light novel protagonist, but I didn't expect such a big difference. Indeed… are such people really that rare in reality?"
"By 'light novel protagonist,' do you mean the kind from wish-fulfillment stories?"
As someone who had read quite a few light novels, Durandal couldn't help but say when she heard Sumida's remarks, "'The best sword in the village,''surrounded by Beautiful Youths,' 'defeating a giant dragon,' 'caught in a major crisis concerning the survival of a nation,' 'an antagonist group composed of a few elites with numerical designations,' and 'a Traveler from another world'—these are all settings from wish-fulfillment stories. Is this the protagonist you're looking for?"
Hmm? Wait a minute, listening to Durandal and Sumida discuss light novels, Lumine suddenly felt that, apart from'surrounded by Beautiful Youths' being debatable, the other descriptions fit what Sumida had just said.
Am I… really a light novel protagonist? Lumine had such a thought, after all, her experiences were indeed quite rich.
After chatting for a while, at Lumine's reminder, Sumida finally remembered the commission. She cleared her throat a few times and explained.
"This commission is actually to ask you to go to Tsurumi Island for me."
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