Chapter 403: Not a Normal Person
Despite the heavy, oppressive glare directed his way—a silent accusation of intentionally provoking the executive—Glenlivet did not flinch. He leaned back, entirely unbothered by Gin's first two interrogative strikes, and offered a blunt, almost flippant response.
"How do I know?" Glenlivet let out a dry, mocking chuckle. "Naturally, it is because I have seen Pandora with my own two eyes. It sits right in the hands of my highly irresponsible mother." He dragged out the final word, lacing the syllables with a thick layer of venom and disdain.
"Is that so." Gin narrowed his eyes, the emerald irises glinting sharply beneath the brim of his fedora. His instincts, honed through years of bloodshed, screamed that something was entirely off about this narrative., it unsettled the seasoned killer to hear an artifact of such mythical, world-altering value tossed into conversation as casually as one might discuss the weather.
"Of course." Glenlivet rolled his eyes, his youthful features twisting into a scowl of open displeasure at the blatant mistrust.
He waved a hand dismissively before launching into a brief, cynical explanation of the gem's supposed miraculous properties. "The legend states that a celestial body known as the Volley Comet passes close to Earth exactly once every five hundred years. During that precise cosmic window, if the Pandora stone is held up to the light of a full moon, it will shed a single tear. Swallowing that tear is said to grant true immortality."
Cointreau let out a derisive snort from the corner of the room. "Hearing it laid out like that again, I cannot help but feel that anyone who actually buys into these fairy tales suffers from a severe deficit in intelligence."
The logic was absurdly flawed. With an opportunity that only presented itself once every five centuries, the enigmatic boss of the Zoo syndicate had to be out of his mind. What if the comet passed before they even located the gem? If they missed that narrow window, were they supposed to just sit around and wait another five hundred years? No mortal could possibly survive long enough to see a second chance.
A heavy, suffocating silence descended upon the room. Every head turned slowly, fixing Cointreau with varying degrees of strange, warning glances. His careless words carried a dangerous double meaning. He was not merely insulting the fanatic members of the Zoo. He was inadvertently mocking a certain high-ranking figure—their own Boss—who harbored a similar obsession with eternal life and had mobilized the entire Black Organization to hunt down the very same mythical stones.
Ignoring the sudden drop in room temperature, Glenlivet shifted his gaze toward the blond intelligence officer. His indigo eyes narrowed into an unfriendly, calculating stare. "Bourbon. Given your penchant for snooping, you must have heard the rumors from those women at the Jade Chamber by now. Specifically, the whispers regarding a certain woman acting as my mother."
Bourbon offered a calm, practiced smile, completely unruffled by the hostility. "I only stumbled upon that piece of information quite recently myself. Word on the street is that your mother is none other than one of the Seven Ministers of the Teyvat Organization. A rather terrifyingly significant background, I must admit."
Glenlivet let out a cold, biting sneer. "Heh. That woman goes by the name Raiden Ei. If you ever find the spare time to dig into her files, you will discover that she possesses a sickeningly youthful appearance. She looks like she is barely in her twenties. Looking at her, you would never in a million years guess she has a child as old as I am."
For a fleeting second, the perpetual mask of icy indifference on Gin's face cracked. A rare, genuine flash of shock widened his eyes. "Are you implying that Raiden Ei not only possesses Pandora, but that she has already extracted its tear and achieved immortality?"
"To call it true immortality might be stretching the definition," Glenlivet replied, his tone dripping with complex resentment. "It has not quite reached that absolute level. However, it remains an obvious fact that she possesses a terrifyingly tenacious life force. She has walked this earth for several centuries."
While the young man did not explicitly confirm that the Minister of Inazuma had swallowed the legendary tear, the heavy implication hung in the air. He was painting a clear picture: Raiden Ei had maintained her pristine, unchanging youth across the ages through the power of that very gem.
Vermouth uncrossed her long legs and leaned forward, resting her chin on her hand. Her blue eyes sparkled with sharp intrigue. "Glenlivet, you claim she has lived for centuries. Do you have a single shred of concrete evidence to back that up?, if a person's physical appearance remains entirely frozen in time for hundreds of years, they would inevitably leave behind a massive trail of historical clues. Society notices those who do not age."
Bourbon seized the opening to voice his own lingering suspicions. "You say the Minister of Inazuma holds Pandora. If that is the absolute truth, then explain something to me. When I assisted the operatives from the Jade Chamber in capturing Spider, their genuine reaction suggested they thought the gem was a complete myth." He mentally replayed the scene, recalling Ganyu's unusually sharp-tongued critique regarding how the Zoo's ultimate goal sounded like nothing more than an ethereal, illusory pipe dream.
Deep down, Bourbon did not buy into the fantastical claim that Raiden Ei was a centuries-old immortal. However, if her biological situation was somehow similar to Vermouth's unnatural youth, he could entertain the possibility. After all, piecing together the fragmented intelligence he had carefully extracted from Mouri Ran and Natsume, it was highly probable that Raiden Ei had been around for a significant stretch of time. She was recognized as an incredibly senior elder connected to the Kamisato Clan.
Glenlivet turned his attention back to the silver-haired actress, addressing her query first. "The answer to your question is quite simple. It is because she is a complete and utter shut-in. To the best of my knowledge, that woman has not stepped foot outside her residence in centuries."
He paused, a dark amusement flickering in his eyes. He deliberately omitted the minor detail of a recent incident, where a group of foolish individuals who did not know any better had provoked her. That blunder had prompted Raiden Ei to take a remarkably rare, long-distance trip solely to deliver a brutal, hands-on lesson in respect.
From the back of the room, Vodka, who had remained entirely silent throughout the heavy exchange, finally reached his breaking point. Unable to suppress the sheer bewilderment bubbling in his chest, he blurted out, "How the hell could a normal person endure staying locked indoors for hundreds of years?" His eyes were blown wide behind his dark sunglasses, his blocky face a portrait of absolute disbelief.
Glenlivet stared at the hulking man as if he were looking at a particularly slow insect. "That is precisely the point," he drawled, his voice dripping with condescension. "She is not a normal person at all."
Bourbon turned his head slightly, casting a subtle, sidelong glance at the young operative. 'Well then,'the blonde spy thought to himself.'Someone certainly does not pull any punches when evaluating his own mother.'
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