Quadruple split.

Chapter 2613 Interlude: Motives
Game time: 22:47 PM
Anka Market, Glass Court, Suite 888

"Welcome back, young lady."

The door opened and a little girl carrying a basket of scrolls titled "Heavenly Fire Burns the City" was ushered in. The tall, gentle-looking silver elf bowed to her, then took out a handkerchief and, while kneeling before her, wiped her body and clothes, asking softly, "Did things go smoothly?"

"Okay."

After secretly having dinner after leaving the villa area, the doll lazily said, while obediently letting the other person wipe her mouth, face and clothes, "But compared to figuring out the details of those two groups, I have an even bigger gain."

"Oh?"

In less than half a minute, the doll was transformed into a brand new, elven woman, almost like a porcelain doll. Sera Linxi, the manager of the Gold Coin Merchant Guild's Ninth Office in Anka Market, blinked and asked curiously, "What was your haul?"

“I saved Anka Market from a catastrophe, a catastrophe of a scale that was almost comparable to a natural disaster.”

The doll casually took off her clothes and took out a set of light gold, tight-fitting robes from the cabinet in the hallway. They didn't look like everyday clothes, and the design was quite avant-garde. She put them on and said slowly, "Really, I'm not exaggerating at all. If I hadn't turned the tide today, Anka would have been in big trouble tomorrow, believe it or not?"

Sera shook her head, picking up the clothes the other person had left behind, and replied succinctly, "I don't believe you."

"Hey!"

The doll pouted angrily and said dejectedly, "Why don't you believe me?!"

"Because it will..."

Serah paused for a moment, then continued after half a second: "Because you once said that Anka is most likely hiding some very terrifying beings, but whose way of doing things is very health-conscious. As long as they are there, Anka's sky will not fall down."

Having been struck right between the eyebrows by his own boomerang from years ago, the puppet took a while to recover before speaking in a dry voice: "Let me give you an example! And even if some people hiding in the shadows spying on the entire Anka can quell those troubles in time, it doesn't mean they can prevent them from happening in advance!"

"Their ability to nip any potential turmoil in the bud is the most valuable element of Anka Market in the last hundred years, without exception."

Serah Linxi calmly looked at the furious doll and said indifferently, "This was the main reason you persuaded me to work at the Anka office a few years ago, do you remember?"

"..."

The silence lasted longer than the previous two times combined. The doll, looking somewhat embarrassed, slumped its shoulders and raised its hands in surrender, saying, "Alright, alright, I admit that things may not be that bad, but I also believe that some extremely unstable factors have attracted the attention of a certain... or several people who have always been watching over Anka Market. What I just did was a good favor."

Whose favor?

Sera narrowed her eyes and asked methodically, "Is it from [Puppet] or [Viper Guild]?"

"No, darling, none of them."

The doll shrugged, quickly shuffled its short legs to the table, sat down, picked up the drink that once belonged to Sera, and took a small, satisfying sip: "Believe me, since that's a 'mysterious person' that even I can't find, then I'm probably not that mysterious in their eyes, so... you know."

Whether I understand or not is another matter.

Sera sighed, looking helplessly at the doll who was guzzling milk tea, and said with a sigh, "Do you know that eating and drinking like this is a very irresponsible thing to do?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

The doll's eyes widened, and it opened its mouth to spout a string of otherworldly slang: "As the saying goes, man is made of iron, food is made of steel, you'll get hungry if you don't eat. How dare you not let us eat? Tell me, what are you up to!"

"Simply put, this ridiculously expensive and sophisticated machine, while fully functional and even capable of escaping an epic-level sneak attack, does not include anything as impractical as a digestive system or a sense of taste."

Sera stared coldly at the plush toy that had finished its milk tea and was now reaching for the plate of cakes on the table. In a tone as cold as her gaze, she said, "Do you know how unpleasant it is to clean up all that mess in there every time?"

"Um……"

Under the other party's cold gaze, the doll awkwardly withdrew its small hand from the cake, its gaze wandering. It coughed lightly, clearly changing the subject, and asked, "What's the latest on that slippery dark elf and that two-headed ogre?"

"Just as you guessed, [Grey Wolf] August Cavill has completed a secret deal with the Violet Empire. Although it appears to be just a regular port lease and waterway shares, based on some hard-to-hide clues, I have reason to believe that the Violet Empire has changed its plans that it has been plotting for more than half a year."

Not minding the other party's change of topic, Sera readily provided insightful feedback. She took out a stack of parchment, quickly flipped to a certain page, and lowered her eyes to say, "For some unknown reason, they have stopped preparing for war against the Duchy of Skalan and have begun to resolutely and covertly destroy evidence, such as... selling a large number of warships whose purpose is difficult to explain."

While lazily fiddling with the silver cutlery next to the cake, the doll casually asked, "Is the source reliable?"

"Guaranteed to be reliable."

Sera nodded, then her brows furrowed slightly: "But..."

The doll looked up at her and asked, "But what?"

"According to feedback from sources, he is almost certain that he has been targeted by the Regent's [Female Bee], so even if this intelligence is true, it should theoretically be impossible for it to be transmitted back to us."

While looking at the briefing in her hand, Sera said softly, "However, the truth is that he not only successfully sent back the intelligence, but he also successfully left the Violet Empire and has now met up with the receiving personnel."

The doll smiled slightly and nodded, saying, "Yes, that's normal."

Sera paused for a moment, then repeated, somewhat confused, "Normal?"

"That's right, that's normal."

The doll nodded and lazily explained, "Think about it carefully and you'll understand. Of all the causes and consequences in this series of events, the only thing that His Highness the Regent needs to hide is the fact that the Violet Empire is preparing to launch a war against the Duchy of Skalan. As for the intelligence that the Violet Empire has abandoned its war against the Duchy of Skalan, there is actually no need to block it."

Sera pursed her thin lips into a thin line, puzzled, and said, "But before we..."

“It’s true that we… or rather, ‘I’ saw through the Regent’s plot against Scalan, but now that I think about it, the reason I was able to detect this through various clues was probably also part of Xiu Blaisen’s plan.”

The doll clicked its tongue and said with a forced smile, "Heh, what a clever scheme, what a clever scheme!"

Sera, who was trying to keep up with the puppet's train of thought, frowned. Although she did not ask directly, her face was full of confusion.

"It was a test, a test conducted by Hugh Blaisen on many, many people, including myself, subtle, elegant, and flamboyant."

The puppet, its gaze unfocused, uttered a few words, the silver fork slipping from its suddenly stiffened fingers and falling to the ground with a crisp clink: "He left behind some clues that only intelligent people could see through, then laid them out before everyone, arrogantly asking us, 'Can you figure them out?', and then quietly observed how things unfolded." Sera's pupils contracted sharply, a look of realization dawning on her face: "Then we—"

"All our meticulous planning after uncovering those clues turned into a performance in front of that bastard, like a monkey show to prove we weren't idiots."

The doll grinned, then bent down to pick up the silver fork, chuckling as it exclaimed, "What a brilliant scheme! Well done!"

"Miss, you..."

Sera sat down properly opposite the doll and asked curiously, "Aren't you angry?"

"Of course I'm not angry, because the regent didn't win anything from me. He just made many people, including but not limited to me, passively cooperate with him to prove something."

The doll shook its head and said in a light tone, "For example, Sera, what do you think I'd like to eat for a midnight snack?"

"cake."

Sera answered without hesitation. After all, the rag doll, who was currently gesturing with a fork at the cake in front of her, seemed to be filled with longing for the cake.

"bingo."

The doll smiled approvingly and then asked, "So, assuming I didn't ask you the question I just asked, would you be angry that I guessed I wanted to eat cake tonight? Even though it was all premeditated."

Sera shook her head and remained silent, clearly finding the example rather ridiculous and completely untenable.

That's because you've taken our relationship into consideration.

As if it could read minds, the puppet chuckled and said, "But it is precisely because our relationship with that regent is far less intimate than that between you and me that he was able to take my character into consideration as well. And for those who are truly capable of great things... character is often more important than wisdom, shrewdness, cunning, and methods."

Realizing that the other party was giving her some pointers, Sera's expression hardened slightly, and she nodded, saying, "I've learned something."

"In short, just keep an eye on [Grey Wolf]. He's not a bad guy. If necessary, you can help him in the name of [Puppet]."

While tapping the cake plate with a silver fork, the doll continued in a lighthearted tone, "And the other one?"

"After sending someone to make a tentative overture to the Woof Woof Adventurer Team, nothing else was done."

Sera shook her head and said softly, "Considering that the form of [Mr. Lake] is different from that of ordinary two-headed ogres, it is also possible that [Wildfire] is waiting for the other head to draw a conclusion."

"Heh, then he'll have to wait a while."

The doll yawned and instructed, "After my break, go find Wenger Pep, the deputy director of the Market Supervision Bureau, and have him use his personal authority to temporarily shut down the black market for today, and make some extra arrangements so that the guests can have a good time."

Sera frowned slightly and asked, "What arrangements?"

That's his problem.

The doll said casually, "If I'm not mistaken, the person who has been hiding behind the scenes for a long time has contacted that deputy director and given some instructions. All we need to do now is to simply imply to him that the 'Woof Woof Adventurer Team' has tacitly approved of tonight's targeted arrangements, which is already considered doing him a favor."

Sera nodded slightly and said seriously, "Okay, don't worry."

"If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have let you come here to help."

The doll smiled, then stood up and walked briskly into the bedroom, with Sera naturally following closely beside her.

After pushing open the bedroom door, the doll quickly walked into the bathroom, then went straight past the exquisite dressing mirror and into a dark room where the temperature was significantly lower than outside.

Before her were three 'containers' that looked sophisticated and complex enough, with a semi-transparent cube exterior and a base made up of a large number of engineering parts.

"I'm very busy, so I'll leave the rest to you."

Walking slowly to the only empty container, the doll turned to Sera and smiled before lying down inside: "If I have time tomorrow, I'll come back and check on things. If everything's alright, I'll ask you to write a report for me."

"Okay, Miss."

Sera bowed to the doll that had already entered the container and said with concern, "Please don't overwork yourself and ruin your health."

"Just do some maintenance when you're really busy."

I mean your own body.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm eating cake right now, it's lemon flavored."

"..."

"Haha, what a cute expression! Bye-bye then, remember to do your job well~"

After leaving those words, the doll tilted its head and, like the bodies in the other two containers, went into a 'shutdown' state.

Sera, after a brief stay, quickly left and within half an hour successfully contacted Wenger Pep, the powerful deputy director of the Anka Market Supervisory Bureau.

Just as the doll had predicted, the communication between the two went quite smoothly. She even noticed that when she indicated that the captain of the 'Woof Woof Adventurer Squad' had tacitly approved of certain actions, the stern, white-haired, handsome old man with a perpetually stern face actually breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Manager Serah."

Wenger took a sip of tea and said gently, "Or should I call you Lady 'Puppet' now?"

"Whatever makes you happy, Deputy Director Wenger."

Sera rose gracefully and bid farewell to the old man before her.

"It's our honor to be able to help in any way."

Chapter 2604: The End