"Bang!!!"
A loud bang rang out, and another human-shaped crater appeared on the floor of the Tenshukaku.
Raiden Ei crawled out of the pit, covered in dust, a few broken tiles caught in her long purple hair.
She looked at her slightly trembling hands —just three seconds ago, her proud Musou no Hitotachi had been shattered head-on by Guilliman's fist.
"Miss Raiden Ei, do you wish to continue the match?"
Guilliman elegantly adjusted the ribbon on his vambrace, as if that punch had been effortless.
"N-no..."
Raiden Ei's voice was muffled.
Her Dao Heart was completely broken, just like the pile of broken Naginata beside her.
the quartet watching from afar burst into laughter.
Elliot slapped his thigh: "I told you! Guilliman can pin down even a Bloodthirster, let alone a mere Electro Archon..."
"Ahem!"
Zane quickly covered his mouth.
Guilliman glanced at his Data Slate: "Mission completion 98%. It is time for me to return."
He turned toward the Raiden Shogun, who was eating dango.
"The administrative system I provided her has been updated to version 3.0. Routine affairs can be handled by the AI."
"Wait!"
A purple afterimage suddenly lunged forward.
Raiden Makoto, in a perfect slide-on-her-knees position, hugged Guilliman's leg, wiping tears and snot all over the exquisite blue and gold armor: "Lord Guilliman, you can't leave! What will I do if you leave!"
The entire hall fell silent.
The fried tofu in Yae Miko's hand dropped onto the floor with a pat.
Mechanically, she turned to Lumine and asked, "Did I just... see Lady Makoto... hugging a leg?"
Lumine silently raised her Kamera: "Yes, and the kind that cries and rubs herself against it."
Guilliman awkwardly tried to pull his leg away: "Miss Raiden Makoto, please maintain your dignity..."
"I won't!"
The usually dignified First Electro Archon was acting like a spoiled child.
"For the past three days, I've slept until I woke up naturally, the documents were approved automatically, and even the three-color dango were delivered right on time!"
She hugged tighter.
"If you leave, pack me in your suitcase and take me with you!"
Raiden Ei covered her face and quietly explained, "My sister used to be... a bit lazy about governing..."
"That's called knowing how to delegate!"
Raiden Makoto glared back at her sister, then looked up at Guilliman with a pitiful expression.
"Look how great Inazuma is now! The streets are clean! The economy has recovered! Even the Nobushi have switched careers to delivering takeout!"
She suddenly lowered her voice and said.
"How about... I appoint you as the Raiden Shogun?"
"Absolutely not!"
The Ultramarines objected in unison.
Gage even projected the Imperial Constitution directly: "Lord Primarch, according to Article 37 of the Macragge Fundamental Law..."
Guilliman sighed and took a delicate metal box from his waist: "This is the terminal for the administrative AI 'Heart of Macragge,' which I designed according to my own habits. It can handle 90% of routine matters."
He paused. "The remaining 10%..."
"Let Ei do it!"
Raiden Makoto snatched the box, instantly reverting to her elegant Raiden Shogun posture.
"Little sisters ought to exercise more~"
Raiden Ei: "???"
As a blue light flashed, the figures of Guilliman and the twenty Ultramarines gradually faded, finally turning back into exquisite chess pieces and returning to the board.
Raiden Makoto swiftly grabbed the Primarch chess piece and stuffed it into her bosom, as if afraid someone would steal it.
the quartet didn't care; they had already set it up so that Guilliman and the others would not appear unless absolutely necessary.
"Saiguu—!"
She rushed furiously into the Grand Narukami Shrine and dragged Kitsune Saiguu out of bed, where she was secretly eating fried tofu.
"Stop pretending to sleep! I know you can go a month without sleeping!"
"Oh, Lady Makoto~"
Kitsune Saiguu tried to cover her face with her tail.
"I'm just trying to recover my energy..."
"Recover my foot!"
Raiden Makoto immediately hoisted her onto her shoulder.
"If you don't finish approving these documents today, I'll carve the story of you secretly drinking the Imperial Wine five hundred years ago onto the Statue of the Omnipresent God!"
On the other side, Yae Miko was tiptoeing, trying to slip out the side door, when she was suddenly struck on the tail by a bolt of lightning.
"Where do you think you're going, Miko?"
Raiden Ei stood on the rooftop, holding the Naginata repaired by the quartet, a dangerous glint in her eyes.
"That Light Novel Tax Act you proposed last time—it's time you experienced it personally, isn't it?"
The Raiden Shogun was fine; she had been assigned to monitor Balladeer.
The young Harbinger watched the piles of documents floating past the window and silently reinforced the lock on the Brig door three more times.
"My dear little sister, tell me..."
Balladeer swallowed.
"Are they really swimming in a sea of documents?"
The little Shogun nodded gleefully: "Lady Makoto said anyone who dares to slack off will be sent to mine alongside Kujou Takayuki."
Meanwhile, inside the Tenshukaku's Administrative Hall, the holographic projection of the Heart of Macragge was operating furiously.
This super AI processed documents at a rate of three hundred per second, its mechanical voice constantly ringing out:
[Ritou Trade Agreement approval complete]
[Three Commissions quarterly budget optimized]
[Anomaly detected: Yae Miko's private dessert fund discovered. Fine automatically deducted]
Raiden Makoto was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes: "Lord Guilliman even thought of this..."
Suddenly, the AI's alarm sounded:
[Emergency detected: Lady Raiden Makoto's act of hiding the Primarch chess piece violates the Chess Piece Sharing Regulation]
[Disposal plan: Penalty is copying the Inazuma Civil Servant Code three times]
Kitsune Saiguu tried to seize the opportunity to sneak away, but Raiden Makoto grabbed her: "If we're going down, we're going down together!"
------
One hour later.
The sea breeze carried sakura petals across the plaza in front of the Tenshukaku. the quartet stared blankly at the surreal scene before them—
The Raiden Shogun was using a Naginata as a clothesline, draped with official documents covered in annotations; Yae Miko had reverted to her fox form, sprawled on the steps, her tail fur stained blue-black with ink; the most miserable was Raiden Ei, who had a stack of Official Self-Inspection Reports three meters high in front of her, mechanically stamping them.
"I always feel like..."
Jesse complained, "Inazuma has been led astray by us..."
"Remove the 'feel like'."
Zane adjusted his mask.
"This has completely deviated from the normal development trajectory of a nation in Teyvat."
Sangonomiya Kokomi walked over at that moment.
The Divine Priestess of Watatsumi Island had intended to ask about the Ultramarines' whereabouts, but upon seeing the wretched state of the Tenshukaku, she immediately turned to leave—
"Since you've come all this way~"
A slender white hand pressed down on her shoulder.
Kokomi stiffly turned her head, meeting Raiden Makoto's brilliant smile.
"Lady Shogun! I —I was just passing by..."
Kokomi's voice was trembling.
"Little Kokomi~"
Raiden Makoto affectionately wrapped her arm around Kokomi's neck.
"I heard you've been working on the Watatsumi Island Five-Year Plan recently? You can help us look over this Inazuma General Development Outline..."
"Wait! Gorou! Help—"
The resistance leader's cry for help was cut short as Raiden Makoto dragged her into the Administrative Hall with a textbook Grappling Technique.
On the way, she ran into Kamisato Ayato, who had been tied up by Yae Miko using a Gohei. The Yashiro Commission Head's usually elegant bangs were now messy like a bird's nest.
"Lord Kamisato?!"
"Your Excellency Kokomi..."
The two miserable companions stood speechless before the piles of documents.
The scene inside the Administrative Hall was even more horrifying—Kitsune Saiguu was buried in scrolls with only her tail sticking out, Balladeer was copying regulations with a sign around his neck reading "I will atone for my mistakes," and even Paimon had been captured and was being used as a paperweight.
"Lady Raiden Makoto! Didn't you say you had Lord Guilliman's AI?! Where is it?!"
Kokomi cried out in despair.
Raiden Makoto pointed plaintively at the smoking machine in the corner: "It overloaded... It's all Ei's fault for insisting it calculate the millionth digit of pi..."
Raiden Ei weakly raised her hand: "Sister, you were the one who said we needed to test the performance limits..."
"Shut up! Keep stamping!"