Meanwhile, while Setsuna was busy flirting and fooling around with the girls, aside from the shipgirls and Heroic Spirits who had come specifically to spend time with the Commander, as well as The Herta and Ruan Mei, who had nothing but research on their minds, there were also people who had entered the pocket universe for entirely different reasons.
"Ah, three months of vacation in here while only one day passes outside. This is amazing."
Qingque munched on snacks as she strolled along the outskirts of the seaside city.
She felt that the pocket universe's spacetime distortion effect was the single greatest invention ever created for slacking off.
"If only the Xianzhou's Delves had this kind of effect. Every day after work, I could go home and activate time distortion. A single night could last dozens of days."
"Wouldn't that mean working for one day and then getting dozens of days off? Ah... just thinking about it feels incredible."
The more she looked at those shipgirls and little girls, the more envious she became.
"Lady Diviner, could I immigrate to the Starsea Empire?"
"No."
Fu Xuan raised an eyebrow and rejected her expressionlessly.
"Considering how dreadful your performance was last time, I originally had no intention of allowing you to join the delegation again. I only let you come this time because Officer Grey spoke on your behalf."
"Our purpose in coming to the Starsea Empire is to strengthen relations between our two sides and study the Starsea Empire's advanced methods of divination and deduction."
"You should be diligently improving your own abilities as well. If you keep indulging in entertainment like this, how am I supposed to entrust the Divination Commission to you in the future?"
"...Huh?"
Qingque looked utterly dead inside.
"Entrust the Divination Commission to me? Then what are you going to do, Lady Diviner?"
"Naturally, I'll take over as General of the Xianzhou Luofu."
"Jing Yuan has already promised to recommend me one hundred and twenty-three times, and the last time he was very serious! He said that if the Sacrosanct takes a liking to me, he will strongly recommend me as the next General of the Xianzhou Luofu..."
"Tch."
Qingque was filled with envy.
When she thought about it, it did make sense. The Xianzhou Alliance's ties with the Starsea Empire were becoming increasingly close. Choosing someone with a good relationship with the Sacrosanct as General would also make it easier to cling to a powerful backer.
Jing Yuan could not personally come to the Starsea Empire to pay his respects to the Commander, and among the remaining high-ranking Xianzhou officials, Fu Xuan did seem to be the most suitable.
If only the Sacrosanct would take a liking to me...
Qingque muttered silently to herself.
She figured that as long as Setsuna said the word, Fu Xuan would definitely release her without hesitation, allowing her to live a blissful life in the Starsea Empire where she could eat, sleep, play mahjong, and game whenever she had nothing else to do.
Unfortunately, she felt that an exalted Aeon and ruler of an empire probably would not go out of his way to request a mere low-ranking diviner like her.
And as for doing what Tingyun had done... Qingque did not have that kind of ability either. She felt that when it came to personal charm, she was still quite a bit behind Sister Tingyun.
The two chatted back and forth as they toured the pocket universe together.
Aside from partying, plenty of girls and little girls also spent their free time looking for entertainment.
The recreation center was packed with all kinds of advanced gaming equipment, enough to leave anyone dazzled.
"Whoa, holographic games? There are even consciousness-upload games?!"
Chtholly, Nephren, and the other newly arrived fairies stared in amazement.
"Yeah, yeah! You upload your consciousness into the game or movie world. It's super realistic and super fun!"
"If you're timid, whatever you do, don't pick a horror movie. If you actually get scared to death, we'll have to go find Ereshkigal and ask her to revive you."
"..."
Judging from how casually and expertly the little girl explained it, Chtholly had the strange feeling that an accident like that had genuinely happened before.
Getting scared to death while playing a game and then being dragged back by the Goddess of the Underworld—entertainment in the Starsea Empire was apparently just that hardcore.
"Oh..."
Qingque was not particularly interested in those high-tech games. After casually playing a couple rounds with Fu Xuan, her attention naturally shifted toward more traditional entertainment.
"Big Sister Qingque, want to play a few rounds?"
Several little girls and little shipgirls enthusiastically called out to her.
"We're having a tournament."
"Sure!"
Qingque rolled up her sleeves, found an empty seat, and sat down.
"I just went and prayed to Goddess Eris and received a blessing. I feel ridiculously strong right now!"
"A tournament? What kind of tournament?"
"Chess, mahjong, and poker tournaments."
Little Cheshire swayed her head smugly as she explained.
"Whenever we vacation in a pocket universe, people always play. Everyone collects plenty of trophies and souvenirs while fighting aliens and monsters in other universes, so we might as well gamble them for fun."
"Oh, sometimes we also wager meal vouchers for the Totsuki restaurants. You can even wager your chance to spend time with the Commander, though hardly anyone does that."
Normally, there had to be some kind of stake when playing cards. Otherwise, winning and losing would be meaningless.
The Starsea Empire had no currency, and everyday resources were practically limitless, so the stakes became trophies acquired by expedition teams while beating up aliens and monsters in worlds such as Konosuba and the Three-Body universe.
Or curious little objects they had created themselves using magic, alchemy, and similar methods.
As for meal vouchers from the Totsuki chefs, their value came purely from scarcity.
"Oh..."
Qingque rubbed her hands together eagerly.
She cautiously looked around at her opponents. Schwi was not here, Shiro was not here, and Yukikaze was not here either. Perfect.
Since everyone possessed Eris's blessing, their buffs had effectively been raised to the same level.
As long as she did not challenge those absurd monsters with ridiculous computational ability or luck, winning and losing would ultimately come down to luck of the draw and actual skill.
"But I haven't participated in any expeditions, so I don't have trophies..."
"Um, will you accept Xianzhou strales and local specialties?"
"No problem. Those work too."
Clack, clack—
She began playing mahjong back and forth with several little shipgirls and little girls.
"..."
"Mahjong!"
"Mahjong again!"
"Dealer's heavenly hand! Pure suit!"
Perhaps today's opponents were all normal people and simply were not that strong, or perhaps there were no Ex-Machina crushing her with overwhelming computational power, but Qingque felt like her luck was absolutely incredible.
Victory followed victory.
Soon, she had won so many miscellaneous prizes that she could barely hold them all.
"Um... here. I found this while fighting the Demon King in the Konosuba world..."
"This is an alien handicraft from the Three-Body universe..."
"This is a manga Nyaruko lost to me the day before yesterday..."
Yoshino reluctantly pulled a limited-edition manga from her bag, while the little shipgirls also took various curious objects out of their rigging.
"Huh?"
Qingque casually flipped through them. She was not particularly interested in entertainment products.
But those Hero's Swords, equipment dropped by Demon Kings, rare materials, and similar items were genuine treasures!
They could definitely be exchanged for a fortune, enough to let her live a carefree life of luxury for the rest of her days.
"Come on, come on! Keep going! Let's fight!!"
"No child cries every day, and no gambling degenerate loses every day! Hahaha, is my luck finally turning around today?!—"
She enthusiastically prepared to fight another three hundred rounds.
"I'm done, I'm done!!"
Yoshino hugged her puppet, jumped down from her chair, and ran away.
"Big Sister Qingque is way too good! If I play a few more rounds, I'll lose everything I own. Waaah..."
"I'm going to play with the Commander. I lost way too badly today..."
The little shipgirls fled along with her.
"Huh? You're leaving already?"
Still unsatisfied, Qingque prepared to find some new opponents.
Most little girls and little shipgirls were not particularly skilled at card games. They only played casually for fun and naturally could not compare with a professional enthusiast like Qingque.
Qingque had won so easily that she was starting to feel bored, and even a little inflated with confidence.
"Looks like I'm actually pretty strong!"
"The first time I came to the Starsea Empire, I just picked the wrong opponents. Mm."
While she was looking around, the nanomachine girl who had been watching from the side suddenly popped up.
"If you're done bullying the low-level tables, want to check out the high-level games?"
"High-level games?"
Qingque looked curious.
"What? With Yukikaze and Schwi? No, no, no. I can't beat them."
"No."
Grey shook her head.
"The high-level games are unrestricted matches. It's not just luck and skill. You can use any nonviolent power you want to win."
"The technical difficulty is much higher, and so are the stakes. If you win even one round, you might earn enough to buy Starskiff Haven, the Exalting Sanctum, or even an entire Delve."
The nanomachine girl whispered like a devil. Faced with such enormous temptation, Qingque immediately became interested.
"Unrestricted matches?!"
She repeated the phrase.
"Any nonviolent method? So flipping the table with brute force is banned, but things like cheating are allowed?"
"Mm-hm. As long as you don't get caught, cheating doesn't count as cheating."
Grey crossed her arms and confirmed it.
"You can even call in artificial intelligence to help analyze the data and calculate the hands. You could bring Diviner Fu along and have her cast a divination, then use predictive deduction methods to play. That's perfectly acceptable too."
"!!!"
Qingque was overjoyed and immediately grabbed Fu Xuan.
"Lady Diviner!!! Our chance to generate revenue for the Xianzhou has arrived!! Doesn't your Omniscia allow you to perceive changes in all things and calculate countless possibilities?!"
"???"
Fu Xuan stared at her in confusion.
"Absurd!"
"How could I possibly join you in slacking off and playing around? And you actually want to use the Omniscia at a gambling table? Utterly ridiculous."
Despite what she said, Fu Xuan was somewhat curious about these so-called "unrestricted matches."
In her understanding, card games ultimately came down to luck and skill. With a casual calculation, she could predict other people's hands and the progression of the game with considerable accuracy.
If she truly entered a match, perhaps she could not guarantee victory every single time, but she could minimize losses whenever she fell behind and press her advantage whenever she was ahead. Defeating most opponents should not be difficult.
She wondered what kinds of abilities the monsters at the high-level tables possessed.
"Ugh..."
Qingque tried persuading her from every angle, but she could not lure the Diviner onto the pirate ship.
So she had no choice but to go take a look herself.
"Over here."
An Angeloid led them to the high-level area on the second floor.
"Unrestricted matches have a certain entry requirement, and the stakes are usually considerable. However, since this is Miss Qingque's first time here, we can put your wagers on account for now."
Sophon thoughtfully explained.
"No problem!"
Qingque had just won a pile of trophies, had received plenty of travel allowances from the Xianzhou, and had Diviner Fu there as backup. She was brimming with confidence.
Out of caution, she watched several rounds first.
Unfortunately, she could not figure out what was special about them. None of the players displayed Schwi's monstrous computational power or absurd luck.
Not seeing Eris there also made her breathe a sigh of relief.
She casually found a table with an open seat and sat down. Looking around, she was not particularly familiar with anyone there, and two of the players were completely new faces.
"I'm Mio. A pleasure to meet you. I come by occasionally."
The Spirit of Origin gracefully nodded in greeting.
"Pandora. You may call me the Witch of Vainglory."
Another girl with silver hair, blue eyes, and a pure white dress nodded.
"I'm Haruhi Suzumiya. Hello, nice to meet you! Um... I don't really understand these rules. Could you explain them again?"
"Oh..."
Aside from vaguely recognizing Mio, Qingque had hardly ever seen Pandora around the capital and had never spoken to her before.
Haruhi Suzumiya had only just arrived. She looked young and was obviously a beginner.
"Ha!"
Qingque decided to test the waters with a few rounds first.
"Lady Diviner, financial freedom begins today! The advantage is mine!"
"Help me out a little. When we get back, I promise I'll work hard... no, I'll buy you the most advanced Starskiff as a gift!"
"And what if you lose?"
Fu Xuan asked one more question uneasily.
"No problem. Aside from ordinary chips, you can mortgage things like your clothes to the Commander, same as last time."
Grey patted her chest.
"And we accept people as collateral too. That's a classic gambling-table plotline, isn't it?"
"???"