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"12 PM has already passed. In that case, registration is officially closed."
Qi Xiuming clapped his hands, signaling the staff to shut things down and pack up, while he himself ran out from the registration booth.
"As for the competition schedule—even though it's written on the flyer, I seriously doubt whether any of you actually read it…"
Paimon answered honestly, "We didn't have time to look yet, hehe…"
Qi Xiuming wore an expression of just as I thought.
"This competition spans a total of ten days. Tomorrow is the preparation period, including the opening ceremony, group assignments, and rule explanations. Starting the day after tomorrow, there will be five consecutive days of preliminaries. During that phase, each contestant only needs to attend on one assigned day."
"However, after the five-day preliminaries conclude, the 500 selected official contestants will enter a round-robin elimination stage. At that point, as long as you haven't been eliminated, you'll need to be present every single day. So please, please do not be late."
Qi Xiuming spoke with a smiling face, but Paimon could feel the pressure bearing down on her. She nodded repeatedly in response.
Charlotte, ever professional, asked, "May I ask how many people registered for this competition in total?"
"Including those who signed up today, 5,716 people."
"So many!" Before Paimon could shout it out, Kaveh blurted it out first.
"That's why even the preliminaries need five full days," Qi Xiuming said noncommittally, then shifted the topic. "By the way, Mr. Kaveh—if you wanted to sign up, why didn't you tell me earlier? Don't tell me you were planning to be the protagonist like that Inazuman brother over there?"
"Hah…" Kaveh let out a long breath. "Because I was hesitating too. In the end, deciding to sign up was entirely due to being coerced…"
"Coerced?" Qi Xiuming narrowed his eyes. "Who would dare coerce one of our partners?"
"Coerced?" Charlotte's ears perked up. "This is Sumeru's great architect, Kaveh, right? That sounds… very worth digging into!"
"Coerced? Don't tell me it was another bad actor from the Akademiya?" Paimon said angrily.
"Why are all of you getting so worked up?" Kaveh hurriedly denied it. "It's not that dark. I was in debt first… anyway, forget it. Let's not talk about that."
That only made everyone even more curious. Kaveh took several steps back as if fleeing and urged Victor Wang and Qi Xiuming, "We should go take care of proper business now."
"You already have an appointment," Kaeya said, glancing at Victor Wang.
"Looking for me?" Victor Wang paused, not daring to ignore him.
"Go handle your matters," Kaeya replied easily, then shifted his attention to Lumine and Paimon. "You've been in Sumeru for a while now, haven't you? How about giving me a tour?"
Lumine had been planning to rest properly with Paimon, so her words carried a hint of refusal. "We only managed to find this place by following the map, and barely made it here right at the registration deadline. I thought you were pretty familiar with Sumeru."
"Sharp as ever…" Kaeya smiled. "I wouldn't say familiar. I only snuck over once when I was very young. After so many years, things are bound to have changed."
Kaeya's childhood?
Lumine recalled how, a few months ago, while helping Diluc organize some letters, she had accidentally discovered hidden correspondence Kaeya had stashed away on the Knights of Favonius headquarters rooftop. Those letters mentioned the Alberich Clan and Khaenri'ah, seemingly tied to Kaeya's childhood.
With Khaenri'ah involved, Lumine's interest was piqued. "Then let's go. We can walk around and chat—like about when you came here as a kid."
Kaeya froze. "That… do we really need to go into that?"
"Just casual conversation."
"All right, all right. Since you're interested, let's find somewhere quiet to sit down and talk."
Victor Wang and the others left, and Lumine, Paimon, and Kaeya also departed. In the blink of an eye, only the Arataki Gang and Charlotte remained at the registration site.
After a moment's thought, Charlotte chased after Victor Wang's group.
Akira scratched his head and said, "The protagonist shows up last, right, boss? Did the protagonist just get stolen from us?"
…
"Mr. Kaveh, now that there aren't so many people around, what was that coercion you mentioned earlier? Care to tell us? Maybe we can help," Qi Xiuming asked curiously.
"It really isn't much…" Kaveh sighed, then raised his voice to imitate someone. "Ningguang lost ten million Mora, I gained ten million Mora, back and forth, that's a full twenty million Mora earned!"
"That's what Dori said. So, she wants me to participate in the bubble-blowing competition. As long as I win a prize, she's willing to erase double the amount of my debt compared to the prize money. The requirement is a bit high, but she's rarely this generous—it's practically like the sun rising in the west."
"That Dori?" Qi Xiuming asked.
"That Dori," Kaveh confirmed.
Qi Xiuming laughed. "That really is a unique set of values. But looking at it this way, the success rate of our plan should be quite high."
Leading Victor Wang and Qi Xiuming forward for a while, Kaveh stopped in front of a building materials shop that looked like it had been around for years.
"This place is Dori's largest partner in construction materials."
After a quiet introduction, Kaveh pushed the door open first, familiarly finding the shop owner and striking up a conversation.
"We want to purchase a batch of construction materials resistant to wind and sand corrosion. The quantity is very large. Since we're all acquaintances, let's be direct—what's the lowest price you can offer?"
"Oh? Picked up another big project?" the shop owner asked. "How come I didn't hear Lord Sangemah Bay mention it?"
"It has nothing to do with Dori this time. I'm designing a building for Liyue's Tianquan Star."
"Tianquan Star?" The shop owner frowned deeply. "What made her think of coming to Sumeru to build something?"
"Probably spotted some kind of business opportunity. I'm just the architect—I don't worry about that."
"Business opportunity… wind-and-sand resistance… Is it in the desert?"
"Ahem. Just give me a quote first. The Tianquan Star's agent is waiting right behind me."
Kaveh shifted slightly to the side, revealing Qi Xiuming and Victor Wang. The shop owner studied them carefully, memorizing their appearances, then said with a cheerful smile, "That depends on just how large a quantity you esteemed guests are ordering. Only then can I give you a bigger discount, right?"
"We'll need at least… this much," Kaveh replied without hesitation, pulling out several prepared design drafts. The most eye-catching among them was a school—just that single project alone represented a massive workload.
"Then I can offer you… this price." After some consideration, the shop owner quoted prices for stone and timber, then added, "There's also transportation—you'll need to specify the location so I can determine the nearest supply depot."
"Aaru Village."
"Aaru Village? Perfect!" The shop owner brightened. "I have a warehouse at Caravan Ribat. We can ship directly from there—much more convenient, wouldn't you say?"
Qi Xiuming stepped forward at just the right moment, answering in place of Kaveh. "As the saying goes, it's best to compare goods from three different vendors. Boss, don't rush—we'll take a look around elsewhere as well."
"Heh, don't worry," the shop owner said, patting his chest. "No matter how much you compare, you definitely won't find a lower price than mine."
"If that's truly the case, then this order is guaranteed to be yours," Qi Xiuming replied. "We trust Mr. Kaveh's recommendation as well. Still, since we're unfamiliar with the place, it never hurts to look around a bit more."
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