"Su Ran! Don't let yourself get tricked by women from outside!"
The moment that foxian woman left, the Tsaritsa immediately began lecturing him.
If he got deceived by some wicked woman from outside, then what would happen to her Snezhnaya?!
"Relax~ Miss Tingyun and I are actually pretty close. We already knew each other before today."
Tsaritsa: …
That only makes me more worried!
So you already knew her?!
Then why were you acting like strangers earlier?!
"When did you meet her?"
The Tsaritsa wasn't entirely sure whether this was just something he made up to placate her.
"Before I went to Belobog. Even before I picked you up."
Though the one he'd known was the real Tingyun—
Not this Phantylia in disguise.
"And besides, the show has already begun. How could I possibly fall so easily into a honey trap?"
Especially the honey trap of a Lord Ravager.
Who knew when destruction might suddenly strike?
And someone blessed by Nanook could never possibly be a good person.
The reputation of the Lord Ravagers stank across the universe.
No matter how unusual Su Ran's tastes might be, he would never be interested in a Lord Ravager.
After all—
That fake Tingyun kept calling him "Benefactor," but when it came time to fight, she'd be absolutely ruthless.
Not a shred of sentiment.
The real Tingyun, on the other hand—
That little fox sincerely called him Benefactor from the heart.
Unlike this fake one, who was only deceiving people.
"Kakfa, if you and Silver Wolf don't go help Blade, can he even escape the Shackling Prison?"
Kafka shook her head.
Although Blade's bounty was high, his combat power itself wasn't overwhelmingly terrifying.
What made him dangerous was his overwhelming vitality.
He was practically immortal.
That was precisely why Blade could start over again and again.
To the IPC, his threat level wasn't even as high as Silver Wolf's.
As for why his bounty was higher—
Probably because Silver Wolf was still relatively young.
A place like the Shackling Prison actually could contain Blade.
"Silver Wolf will make a move."
Rescuing Blade had never been Kafka's responsibility to begin with.
She certainly wasn't going to recklessly charge into the Shackling Prison herself.
Otherwise she might end up imprisoned too.
The reason General Jing Yuan wasn't pursuing her now was already because of Su Ran's influence.
There was no need to forcefully alter events just to keep Elio's script on track.
If her actions ended up conflicting with this Genius's intentions—
She feared the situation might spiral toward something far more extreme.
And that wasn't something she wanted to see.
"Silver Wolf…"
Even though Silver Wolf herself wasn't here, it was obvious the Stellaron Hunters truly depended on her.
A technical specialist really could solve countless problems.
"Elio's script has already been disrupted. So what about your script?"
Kafka was more interested in Su Ran's plans.
"My script?"
"Watch the show until the final act."
"..."
The smile on Kafka's face stiffened slightly.
"You really aren't preparing anything at all?"
Just… watching?
"Correct."
So this was absolute confidence?
"Can I ask what you plan to do at the very end?"
"Something similar to what Phantylia wants to do."
"..."
What Phantylia wanted was the destruction of the Xianzhou.
Was that really "similar"?
Kafka realized she genuinely couldn't understand Su Ran's thinking anymore.
"Who exactly is this Elio person? And what's this 'script' you keep talking about?"
The Tsaritsa was completely lost listening to these two riddlers converse.
"Elio?"
"He's someone capable of seeing the future. Because of that, he carefully arranges scripts so reality develops toward the ideal outcome desired by the Stellaron Hunters."
Su Ran gave her a rough explanation of Elio's existence.
The more the Tsaritsa listened, the brighter her eyes became.
If someone like that could be recruited by Snezhnaya—
"Stop fantasizing. The things Elio cares about involve preventing the universe itself from being destroyed by Destruction. He's not interested in Snezhnaya's tiny local affairs."
Su Ran knocked lightly against the little Snezhnayan duck's forehead.
A tiny place like Teyvat could never attract Elio's attention.
If not for Su Ran's existence—
That planet might never have entered the sight of interstellar civilization even by the time it perished.
"But aren't you already an example?"
The Tsaritsa rubbed her forehead where he'd tapped her.
"That's because Teyvat still has a few things worth caring about to me."
"But objectively speaking?"
"It's insignificant in the wider universe."
The only truly noteworthy thing there was elemental power.
Though that stuff also depended heavily on environmental conditions.
Still—
To the IPC, it definitely held some research value.
After all, Pathstriders couldn't be artificially mass-produced.
But Visions?
The Genius Society could absolutely reverse-engineer elemental power.
The IPC never lacked technical personnel.
There were plenty capable of deciphering the secrets of elemental energy.
"Is Teyvat really that insignificant?"
The Tsaritsa still had considerable confidence in her own strength.
From what she'd seen of the Xianzhou—
Aside from that General whose strength she couldn't gauge, nobody else seemed outrageously powerful.
She could beat them.
"When the time comes, I'll take you to witness a battle at the Emanator level firsthand."
After all—
Before long, there would be a grand spectacle of multiple powers joining forces against Phantylia.
The upper limit of Pathstriders far exceeded anything in Genshin.
Some Pathstriders merely walked far enough upon their Path to obtain strength rivaling Emanators.
That was something humans on Teyvat simply could not achieve.
—------------------------------
Pat reon Advance Chapters: patreon.com/YonkoSlayer