The Embers of King's Teyvat Journey

"Haha, there's an old saying in Liyue: 'Seeing is believing,' and today I, Pantarone, have truly experienced it firsthand." The rich man chuckled dryly again.

This intelligence officer is no ordinary person. He originally thought he could fool Yelan and Yujin, but now it seems he can only try to minimize his losses.

"Tell me your conditions." Now it depends on how much Ye Lan wants to eat and how much he wants to vomit.

As for Ember? Sorry, I didn't pay attention. In the rich man's eyes, this is his and Yelan's show from now on. People like Ember and Puppet, who don't understand politics and strategy, can go cool off somewhere else.

"Damn, are they going to fight again?" Yu Jin leaned against a big tree, looking at Ye Lan and the rich man in the distance, who were spitting as they talked, and thought that the two of them might start fighting again.

"Hey! I'm asking you, do the Catherines share a single consciousness or do they each have their own?" Ember asked, looking at the puppet with its eyes closed.

As an adventurer, he felt he should get to know his colleagues better.

"They're just puppets, why bother with all that?" the puppet said simply, and then fell silent.

Feeling bored, Yu Jin turned to look around. He nudged a tree behind him, only to break it in two.

He turned around and looked at the trees behind him. They had been full of life not long ago, but now they looked like rotten wood.

"Why are you doing this?" Ember looked around. Under the Doctor's influence, this land had now become a dead zone.

The puppet opened her eyes and saw Ember planting and fertilizing.

She only felt a blur before her eyes, and then a pit and saplings appeared on the ground. Moreover, these saplings had been fertilized with organic fertilizer from who-knows-where.

Night Orchid and the rich man were arguing, Ember was busy with ecological restoration, and Puppet watched Ember carry out ecological restoration.

Soon, greenery returned to the desolate land. The puppet, seeing the approaching embers, involuntarily took a step back.

“I haven’t touched it.” Yu Jin stretched out his hand, and there was no trace of organic fertilizer on it.

The puppet retreated even further.

Ember looked at the puppet. He had never thrown chocolate (poop) at anyone since he came to this world. This guy in front of him seemed like someone he could throw at.

However, Ember glanced at the puppet. Well, it was using Catherine's body. Oh well, Miss Catherine had helped him a lot.

Feeling utterly bored, the sun began to set.

The verbal battle between Ye Lan and the rich man was finally over, and the two slowly approached. Judging from their expressions, Ye Lan seemed to have gained some small advantage.

"Tell me your conditions, Ember," Yelan said as she walked over to Ember, who was squatting down.

Her discussion with the rich man was more about preliminary negotiations between Liyue and Winter, and Ember, who clearly did not belong to any faction, was naturally not considered in the discussion.

Ember stood up from the ground, looked at the rich man and the puppet, pointed to the saplings behind him, and then said:

"First, you fools must take good care of these saplings behind me. Clean up the mess you've made!"

Following the direction Yu Jin pointed, everyone looked and discovered that the previously dilapidated ground had been repaired and planted with many saplings of unknown species.

"Of course, no problem." The rich man suppressed his urge to complain and agreed to the request. Sending a few people was just a simple request.

"Secondly, since no one was killed, I'll be magnanimous and forgive you if you apologize." Yu Jin crossed his arms, waiting for the rich man and the puppet to apologize.

"I'm sorry to have troubled you."

"Yes...I'm sorry."

The rich man felt a chill run down his spine. The request was simple, but he found it incredibly strange. Could something like this really be resolved with just an apology?

Then Yu Jin saw Ye Lan run to a distance, and judging from the faint laughter that could be heard, she was very happy.

"Third, I want you to guarantee Catherine's safety. This is my final request." Ember nodded, accepting the apologies from the rich man and the puppet.

The rich man looked at the puppet, but it didn't move. He then realized that his request was probably impossible to fulfill.

However, the wealthy people didn't care too much. Originally, this negotiation was only to reduce the impact of this incident on the relationship between Liyue and Winter.

Compensating Ember was just a side effect. If it weren't for Night Orchid, he and the puppet would have abandoned the two puppets long ago and sent their consciousness back to Winter.

“No problem.” The rich man agreed to Yu Jin’s last request.

Chapter 94 Dandelions and Freedom

2023-08-28

"Goodbye."

"Bye-Bye."

On the outskirts of Liyue, Ember, along with Katherine and Night Orchid, parted ways at a fork in the road.

After the negotiations concluded, the puppet ceased its descent into consciousness, returning control to Catherine. The puppet controlled by the wealthy man, however, was destroyed by fire upon his return to consciousness.

Yu Jin looked at Catherine, who was following closely behind him, and asked, "Miss Catherine, what is your job in Liyue?"

"Huh?" Catherine only realized she had bumped into Ember after a moment of shock. She said as if waking from a dream, "Mr. Ember, could you please repeat the question?"

Ember turned around, quite surprised. Miss Catherine could actually make mistakes; it must be because the puppet had occupied Catherine's body for too long. Ember naturally shifted the blame onto the puppet.

"I say, does Miss Catherine have a job in Liyue?" Ember's voice rose a little.

"Yes, but I guess they've already finished get off work. If Mr. Ember doesn't mind, you can come to my house for a while." Catherine looked at the starry night sky, knowing that it was already late at night.

"Okay, okay!" Yu Jin readily agreed. He hadn't been to Catherine's place yet.

Catherine smiled and nodded, then walked ahead of Ember and said, "Then please follow me, Mr. Ember."

And so, Ember followed Catherine as they wandered around Liyue City. Finally, they stopped in front of a building bearing the insignia of the Adventurers' Guild.

“We were created to handle matters related to adventurers, so most places related to us have the Adventurers’ Guild logo,” Catherine explained when she saw Ember looking at the logo on the door.

The two then pushed open the door and entered.

The first thing you see is the living room, which is neither too big nor too small, and is designed in the Liyue style. It's definitely big enough to entertain guests.

At this moment, another Catherine was sitting in the living room; she was Catherine from the Adventurers' Guild.

"You... you're back?" Catherine from the Adventurers' Guild looked at her alternate self, her eyes filled with shock.

"Hmm... I guess so." Catherine paused for a moment, then smiled and said.

“It’s all thanks to Mr. Ember.” Catherine pointed to the curious Ember behind her. If it weren’t for him, she probably wouldn’t even have had the chance to come back.

“Is that so…” Catherine of the Adventurers’ Guild looked at her other self smiling, her voice gradually fading.

Ember looked around Catherine's living room. He noticed many strange and unusual things piled up in various places. Curious, he asked:

"Why is your living room piled with so much stuff? Do you guys enjoy shopping?"

"Haha, Mr. Ember, you're joking. We don't have that kind of desire. These things were all donated by everyone. Although we don't need them, they are still a token of our appreciation, and we can't throw them away, so they've just piled up."

Catherine explained with a smile.

Yu Jin nodded. He didn't know where many of the things here came from, and it would be difficult to buy these strange items.

Then he suddenly remembered that he had never given Catherine anything. After all, they had been colleagues for so long, and Yu Jin felt that he should give Catherine something too.

He glanced at Catherine and the others who were discussing machine maintenance not far away, and pondered what he should send them.

He quickly came up with his own ideas.

"Speaking of which, I don't think I've given you anything yet, have I?" Ember interjected at the opportune moment into Catherines' conversation.

"Mr. Yu Jin, you don't need to be so polite. There are many things that we don't need at all."

"Mr. Ember, you just need to enjoy your adventures. There's no need to send him anything."

As expected, the two Catherines refused, which was true for everyone, but they couldn't resist everyone's enthusiasm.

Ember pretended not to hear them. He looked at Catherine of the Adventurers' Guild and gave her a glass bottle.

The glass bottle was small, easily held in the palm of one hand. However, to Catherine's surprise, a dandelion was quietly swaying inside the tiny bottle.

“You really like dandelions from Mondstadt, and I think you’ll like them too,” Ember said, then handed the glass bottle to Catherine’s palm.

Then he scratched his head and looked at the other Catherine, "Um... I haven't spent much time with you, so I don't know what you like."

“Then there’s no rush. We can send it after Mr. Ember and I have more contact.” Catherine smiled and shook her head as she looked at Ember’s conflicted expression.

She then glanced at the clock on the wall and said to Ember, "Mr. Ember, it's time for us to shut down. Would you like to stay the night or..."

Yu Jin waved his hand and said to the two of them, "Indeed, it's getting late. You can come to me if you need anything in the future."

After saying that, he walked out of the house.

"It's not time to shut down yet, is it?" Catherine from the Adventurers' Guild asked, looking at the tightly closed door.

“It’s definitely not there…” Catherine suddenly collapsed to the ground, arcs of electricity flashing across her body, and wisps of black smoke rising up, filling the entire living room with a burnt smell.

“But… but I can’t hold on any longer. I can’t… let him see through my disguise. This… this is Master Puppet’s order.” Catherine’s consciousness blurred, and she felt like everything in front of her was spinning.

Upon hearing the word "puppet," Catherine of the Adventurers' Guild, who was standing next to her, also fell silent and said nothing more.

……

In the morning, the sun is shining brightly.

As always, Catherine stood at the front desk of the Adventurers' Guild today, greeting the endless stream of adventurers.

But just as she was busy, a series of intermittent whispers echoed in her mind.

Catherines don't usually talk on the shared network during work hours, so this situation is clearly an exception.

Catherine's busy figure froze instantly. She could tell that the voice belonged to another version of herself from Liyue.

"Self-destruction... leaving no trace..."

"Miss Catherine, what's wrong?" Someone noticed that Catherine's expression was a little strange, so they asked with concern.

"Nothing, what do you want me to do?" Catherine asked, while working, paying attention to the voice of her other self.

Is it on the verge of collapse, causing the isolation between the shared network and the everyday language module to fail?

"Go to Yaoguang Beach..."

The voice, like a murmur, echoed in her mind again, and Catherine's hands involuntarily clenched.

She had been wondering why her other self's body hadn't collapsed on the spot after suffering such great damage last night; it turned out it was all for this moment.

Go to Yaoguang Beach and stage an accident. This is the puppet's real purpose in letting its other self live a little longer.

"Why... why..." The slightly tearful voice rang out again, making Catherine's heart tremble.

Catherine recalled the days she spent working with her other self, how they took care of each other, tidied the room together, or discussed what they had been forced to do that day.