"Hey! Traveler, why did you suddenly grab me?!" Paimon put her hands on her hips, saying indignantly.
"Don't make a fuss, Paimon. I think I've found a way to leave Ritou."
Lumine gestured for Paimon to be quiet, then clung to the wall, carefully observing the positions of the Kanjou Commission's internal staff. After ensuring she wouldn't be discovered, she pulled Paimon over the wall and into the courtyard.
"Uh… I'm a bit confused, Traveler. Is the 'way' you're talking about just climbing over a wall?" Paimon scratched her head, puzzled.
"Of course not, Paimon. Do you see that girl? She's our target."
"Traveler, are you saying you want to…"
"Of course not! Paimon, you're overthinking it! When we were talking to Hiiragi Shinsuke earlier, this person kept hiding in the shadows and winking at us. My intuition tells me she can get us out of Ritou."
"Eh? Is that so?"
After explaining to Paimon, Lumine moved through the blind spots of the Fatui and guards, arriving in front of the girl.
"Do you need something from us?"
"Ah!?"
The girl was startled by the Traveler's sudden appearance, but quickly reacted, pulling the other person directly through the window into her room and closing the window.
She then opened the door to check the hallway, and only after ensuring no one was in the corridor did she let out a sigh of relief.
"Hello, foreign Traveler, my name is Hiiragi Chisato, and Hiiragi Shinsuke is my father."
"Oh! So you're the Young Miss of the Kanjou Commission!" Paimon's eyes lit up. A Young Miss, she must have a lot of Mora, right?
"That's right." Hiiragi Chisato nodded, then continued, "I see you two are worried about how to leave the island, aren't you?"
Lumine replied, "Yes, since you called us here, I presume you have a solution, right?"
"That's right. I can safely get you out without you being wanted, but you need to help me with a favor."
"What favor?"
"It starts with the Fatui stationed within the Kanjou Commission. My father is cooperating with the Fatui, he sought them to protect him." Hiiragi Chisato said.
"Protect?"
"Yes, about four months ago, a lock of my father's hair was suddenly hung on our front door. After that, to ensure his safety, my father sought the Fatui to strengthen security."
"So you want the Traveler to help you find that assassin?" Paimon asked upon hearing this.
"Of course not, I don't even know when that assassin will come, and you can't leave the island, that's simply asking for the impossible!" Hiiragi Chisato waved her hand.
"Let's put it this way, I suspect that assassin has already succeeded…"
"What!? But your father is still fine, isn't he? He was just talking to us!" Paimon said in horror. If that assassin had already succeeded, was the Hiiragi Shinsuke standing in front of them a ghost?
Souta's mouth was also slightly agape, her face filled with disbelief.
"The problem lies with my father. It's as if, from a certain point in time, I felt he was different. I can't quite explain how, but he feels very different from before."
"So I believe the father you just saw is fake! And the real one has already…"
Hiiragi Chisato didn't continue speaking, tears welling up in her beautiful large eyes. Looking at her expression, Souta understood what she meant without her needing to say more.
"Do you have any clues now?" Souta asked.
"Hmm… Let me think…" Hiiragi Chisato lowered her head in thought for a moment: "Oh, right, I found that my father is not in his room every Saturday midnight."
"At that time, I couldn't sleep for some personal reasons and intended to take a stroll in the courtyard. But when I passed by my father's room, I found no one inside."
"And two weeks before I noticed this phenomenon, a samurai from the estate disappeared without a trace. Everyone said he had accumulated enough money and was going back to his hometown to live, but connecting it with my father's strangeness, I felt things weren't that simple."
"So you think there's a connection between the two, is that right?" Souta asked.
"I'm not sure, mainly because besides me, no one else has noticed my father's strangeness…"
"By the way, do you have any ideas, Traveler? Once the truth is found, no matter the outcome, I will send you out of Ritou!"
Hiiragi Chisato's attitude was very sincere. She truly couldn't bear it anymore; the person closest to her might be something disguised, and just thinking about it filled her with immense dread.
"Hehe, just leave it to us, the Traveler is very good at this sort of thing!" Paimon comforted Hiiragi Chisato, then once again, took it upon herself to accept the commission.
"Paimon is still the same, I'm always busy running around, and Paimon is just watching from the side."
"Hey! How can you say that about me? I'm cheering you on very hard, you know!"
Ignoring Paimon, Lumine finalized the plan: "In any case, tonight at midnight, we'll follow Hiiragi Shinsuke and see. We're bound to find something."
That's right, today was Saturday. If they waited one more day, they would have to wait another week.
"Okay, come find me here at ten tonight. I'll keep the window open for you." Hiiragi Chisato nodded and said.
Archon Mission Updated
Inazuma: Steadfast Narukami, the Everlasting Elysian Realm
Ritou Escape Plan: Wait until ten tonight, and rendezvous with the Young Miss of the Kanjou Commission, Hiiragi Chisato, in her room.
Side Quest: Inazuma's Waypoint
You discovered that Inazuma's Waypoint is activated. You decide to investigate why.
Souta was very curious about Inazuma's Waypoint. One must know that in Mondstadt and Liyue, those anchors had been left for an unknown number of years, but in Inazuma, they were activated.
However, even though it was activated, if she wanted to use it, she still had to go there herself, just like a bicycle. You can definitely ride it, but you have to sit on it to ride it.
After all, you can't stand by the roadside and pedal a bicycle in Akasha, can you?
Time slowly passed, and in a blink of an eye, it was already afternoon. The Traveler was still in the city learning about Inazuma's situation, while Shiki encountered some minor trouble.
They had already completed the repair of two warding stones. When preparing to go to the third one, since there were no anchors on the entire western side of the island, Shiki decided to pass through from below.
She thought that with such a large area, it shouldn't disturb this guy, but unexpectedly, it still woke up.
But then again, it didn't matter.
Clatter, clatter…
Accompanied by a series of mechanical sounds, the huge Oni mask in the center of the area split in two, and then this mechanical construct, which had been dormant for an unknown number of years, stood up from the ground.
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