The Embers of King's Teyvat Journey

Those ordinary yet precious days played like a slideshow in Catherine's mind, and she felt as if something was blocking her chest, making it difficult for her to breathe.

"Why? Why? Why did you take advantage of her body! Why did you then send her to her death like this!" Catherine murmured to herself.

She was asking the puppet, asking another Catherine, asking herself.

"Clang!" A crisp sound came from her feet. Catherine looked down and saw the glass bottle that Yu Jin had given her fall out of her pocket and roll back to her feet.

Catherine's eyes suddenly lit up. "Yes! They're afraid! They're afraid of Mr. Ember!"

She grasped at a straw, picked up the glass bottle from the ground, and ran out of the Adventurers' Guild's front desk like lightning.

"Sister Lan, I need to take a leave of absence. Could you cover my shift for me?" Catherine's urgent voice came from behind, and everyone realized that Catherine had already disappeared.

This was the first time Catherine had walked the streets of Liyue during working hours. There were many people and many strange things, but she paid no attention to any of them.

As if guided by some unseen force, Catherine continued running along the street, and unusually, she did not return the greetings even when people greeted her.

Finally, Catherine saw Ember listening to a storybook with Zhongli at the end of the street.

"Oh? Looks like she's looking for you?" Zhongli asked Yu Jin, who was sitting to the side peeling melon seeds, as he watched Catherine rush over.

"Hehe, need any help?" Yu Jin stopped what he was doing and placed the melon seeds on Zhong Li's plate. He looked at the panting Catherine and asked with a smile.

"Please...please save her!" Catherine said urgently, clutching her chest.

"That's exactly what I was waiting for!" Yu Jin laughed heartily, immediately stood up, and vanished in an instant.

"Please sit down, Miss Catherine. With him in charge, there shouldn't be any major problems." Zhongli stood up and helped Catherine up.

Then he looked at the sunflower seeds on his plate and Catherine sitting opposite him and fell into deep thought.

I wonder if Miss Catherine brought any money with her?

Chapter 95 Catherine's Transformation Plan

2023-08-28

Yaoguang Beach is located east of Guili Plains. It is a rare, large expanse of shallow water in Liyue. Although it is a rare and beautiful sight, there are actually not many people who come here.

This is because the area has few special products and is sparsely populated. Monsters are more suited to this region than humans.

Catherine walked on the beach, most of her parts burned away. She was only able to retain a sliver of consciousness thanks to the puppet that had tampered with her body yesterday, allowing her to live a little longer.

However, the executive officer's goodwill was not so easy to accept; the puppet did this simply to avoid giving anyone cause for criticism.

As long as Catherine herself is damaged by "accident," the Ember cannot be blamed on her.

"Self-destruct..." Catherine repeated the last command the puppet had given her, walking step by step toward the distant ruins guard.

The closer Catherine got to the ruins' guardians, the slower she moved. She didn't want it to be destroyed like this, but she couldn't find a reason to disobey orders.

Dolls were originally created to serve.

Even as Catherine walked slowly, she didn't stop. The ruins guard wasn't far from her, and eventually, it detected her.

“&＃$…” After a mechanical sound, the guardians of the ruins in the distance launched several missiles.

"Ruin Guardian? So this is what it looks like." Catherine, who was created to handle adventurers' affairs, saw the true appearance of the Ruin Guardian for the first time.

Catherine stiffly raised her head; this was the first time she had ever voluntarily walked this far. She wanted to see what those things she had only heard of actually looked like.

"Whoosh—" The air howled, and Catherine closed her eyes, quietly awaiting her death.

"Boom!" An explosion rang out, and Catherine only felt a hot wind blowing by. The scene she had expected, where she was blown away, did not happen.

Catherine opened her eyes and found a figure standing not far in front of her.

“Waiting to die is not good, Miss Catherine.” With a flash, the distant ruins guards scattered into a pile of parts.

Ember gathered up the parts and walked up to the surprised Catherine.

"You're emitting so much black smoke, you could use it to smoke cured meat," Yu Jin remarked, noticing the black smoke billowing from Catherine's head and joints.

Catherine looked at the embers, unsure whether to feel disappointed or happy. But considering her own situation, she said, slowly and deliberately:

“Ember…Sir, you…you didn’t really need to come. I…I’m about to…be destroyed.”

Catherine's voice was not only intermittent but also hoarse and unclear; without careful listening, no one would associate it with Catherine's voice.

Most of her clothes were burned off due to the high internal temperature, and her exposed skin was covered in scars.

Oil kept seeping from her wound, and due to the persistent high temperature, it evaporated, emitting a pungent, strange smell.

Moreover, electric arcs flickered across Catherine's body from time to time, leaving patches of charred black marks on her skin.

Even more horrifying were Catherine's legs. Due to the long journey and the partial destruction of the aircraft, there was no trace of anyone below her ankles.

The steel and wiring were directly exposed on the damp beach. It seems that for an ordinary doll like her to reach Yaoguang Beach so quickly, she paid a considerable price.

"Puppets and rich people? Looks like they've lived long enough," Yu Jin remarked upon seeing Catherine's miserable state.

Ember felt that things couldn't be that complicated by the puppets alone, but with the addition of the rich, it made much more sense.

“No…no, I…have no…complaints.” Catherine shook her head at Ember. In her heart, she still saw herself as a doll, and always held the greatest degree of tolerance for Winter, who created her.

Upon hearing Catherine's words, Ember looked up at her for a long time. After a long while, he finally smiled and nodded.

"Alright, since you forgive them, then spare their lives. Excellent, excellent, their lives are perfectly suited for you."

Then he placed his hand on Catherine's head and said, "You said I didn't need to come? You're wrong. My human creation skills are far superior to those of some 'Winter's End'."

Then, a tremendous suction force came from Ember's palm, and Catherine was sucked into Ember's body.

After inhaling Catherine, Ember did not leave; he tapped his helmet with his fingers. The clanging sound of metal against metal echoed across Yaoguang Beach for a long time.

"A rich man?" Yu Jin thought of the guy who always had a smile on his face yesterday.

"Destroy all the trade routes of the rich in every country I've been to!" Black Knife was now kneeling beside Ember, awaiting his orders.

“As for the puppet…” Yu Jin thought of her unchanging face and some interesting ideas came to mind.

"She must have her own masterpieces, right? I wonder how her expression will change when her most prized possession is destroyed in front of her?"

After finishing speaking, Yu Jin lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then added:

"By the way, if her masterpieces are sentient, then forget it. Just destroy all her creations."

He tapped his forehead, seemingly feeling the punishment was too lenient, and then said with a smile:

"I'm going to take the doctoral exam. Hmm... I'll take the exam on limb regeneration."

"Does everyone understand?"

"understand!"

As soon as Yu Jin finished speaking, the black knives scattered and fled, leaving Yu Jin alone on the vast Yao Guang Beach.

It's Catherine's business to forgive them, but if they still dare to play dirty tricks during negotiations, then they shouldn't blame Ember for being impolite.

……

Everything was burning, everything was collapsing. Crimson cubes, writhing blackness, filled everything before Alex's eyes.

Alex slumped to the ground, bewildered. Why had Kanria been such a beautiful place just moments before, and now it was the end of the world?

"Ah—" A piercing pain shot through him, and Alex raised his arm, only to discover that his palm had turned completely black without him noticing.

Alex looked down and saw a monster reflected in the broken glass on the ground. The monster was just as confused, just as tormented, and just as desperate as he was.

"No—" Alex suddenly stood up, looked around, and wiped the large beads of sweat from his forehead.

"Was it another dream?" Alex got out of bed, poured himself a glass of water, and tried to calm himself down.

He drew back the curtains, and the bright sunlight made him squint. Alex looked at the scene outside the window and smiled contentedly. Was it really just a dream?

Stepping out of the room, Alex looked up at the sky, a pale white, completely different from the sky above the ground.

But it doesn't really matter. Although Kanria is underground, their human-powered light is enough to make the underground and the surface the same.

There are flowers, trees, birds, beasts, insects, and fish here. Everything that can be found on the ground can be found here, and things that cannot be found on the ground can also be found here.

"Ah... what should I do today?" As a mechanical designer in Canria, Alex had long since settled into a life of leisure, like someone who had retired.

However, he never considered why the mechanical design job, which should have been so demanding, was so leisurely for him.

Just as Alex was pondering where to go for fun today, not far away, Ember was leading Catherine furtively behind him.

“This… this is…” Catherine’s eyes widened. Where was she?

Why is the sky pure white? Why are there so many suns here? Why don't the guardians of the ruins attack others...?

Many questions arose in Catherine's mind, but Ember said nothing; he didn't know what to say.

He had never been to Kanria; this was just a fake Kanria created from his memory.

However, the guy in the distance was real, a guy who had lived in a daze for hundreds of years and knew nothing.

Ember, holding Catherine's hand, walked to Alex's side and said to him, "Brother, how about we repair the puppet?"

"Hmm?" Alex snapped out of his reverie and looked at Catherine, immediately becoming interested.

"Hiss... This wiring method seems to be from the third generation of ruins guardians, right? People still use such an old method?"

"Huh? How come the heat dissipation module of this machine is so bad? Did you not study 'Introduction to Mechanical Engineering' well?"

"How can it be so dilapidated? These marks, consciousness descent? What a mess! The consciousness core is so poorly made, and you still want to descent consciousness?"

……

Alex circled around Catherine as if she were an antique, seemingly very interested in her.

"Can it be repaired?" Yu Jin asked again.

"Who do you think you are?" Alex, the self-proclaimed ace mechanical designer of Canria, raised his head confidently.

Chapter 96 Alex's Delusions

2023-08-28

"Let's go to my studio first," Alex said eagerly. Actually, a life of leisure isn't all that great; sometimes you need work to balance things out.

Now Alex plans to repair the doll named "Catherine" to pass the time and hone his crafting skills.

Although he's a bit pretentious, deep down he really loves mechanical things. What he dislikes is the kind of mechanical design and manufacturing work that's all about following the rules and doesn't allow for any of his own ideas.