Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

"A robot vacuum cleaner? Haven't you ever seen one in your Shaniat family before?"

"Why is that disc-shaped thing called a robot? How does it resemble a human? Wait... you're not talking about those two little girls, are you? I always thought they were your sisters!" Sirin exclaimed in surprise.

Shen Liang glanced at Kiana, asking her with his eyes what was going on. Kiana shrugged. "The Shaniat family lives in a castle, as you know. Although it's modernized, a castle is still a castle, and there are many things that can't be installed there. Right now, they rely on heating pipes for heating, and fireplaces for heating. There's no place to install air conditioning. As for a robot vacuum cleaner, the castle has all sorts of steps and floors, which are all handled by maids. Robots can't do that at all... She's never even seen one before."

Chapter Ninety-Two: The protection of the Saintess's blood is leaving her.

“The Shaniat family has over a hundred maids! Who needs something like this! Cleaning with machines is soulless!” Sirin retorted, her sore spot hit and her face flushed with embarrassment.

“You stepped on my carpet without taking off your shoes,” Shen Liang pointed to her feet.

"Hmph, human, you should feel lucky. Your carpet is under my feet, an honor many would dream of." Sirin looked down at Shen Liang arrogantly. "What, you want me to take off my shoes? Then come and serve me yourself~"

Shen Liang glanced at her fair and smooth little feet in her sandals, but he didn't feel any resistance. He had been washing the feet of the girls in the orphanage for so many years that he couldn't even remember how many years he had done it, let alone taking off their shoes.

But now Kiana glanced at him, her eyes carrying a hint of threat.

—Sigh, you can't take advantage of a fool.

"Not coming? What a pity, human. You've repeatedly rejected my advances. Is it because my sister is getting in your way? Don't worry, even if I take everything she likes away, she won't dare say a word." Sirin tossed her hair and said proudly, "Everything of the Shaniat family, even the world, will belong to me. Kiana's likes and dislikes are nothing to worry about."

"It's mainly because your hair is too long," Shen Liang sighed. "It's not good to get the carpet dirty."

"What's wrong with my hair being long?" Sirin asked, puzzled.

Shen Liang tilted his head and examined her snow-white hair. He wondered if all the girls in the Shaniat family had such beautiful white hair. It was obvious that Xilin had been carefully styled by her secretaries. Her hair was long enough to reach her ankles but it did not look bulky or cumbersome. Instead, it highlighted her elegance and pride and looked very beautiful.

But no matter how beautiful it looks, long hair is still long hair. There are many drawbacks to having hair that reaches the ankles. Xilin has already developed the habit of avoiding stepping on her hair when walking, but she has not yet developed any other good habits.

The spectral scanning robot, worth nearly 500,000 yen, accurately scanned the small pebble stains on the carpet, which had come from Sirin's feet. It was flashing red as it carried Rosalia toward them and then accurately sucked up Sirin's long hair.

"Drip drip drip."

"Ouch!"

After Kiana decisively disassembled the power supply, a group of people surrounded Sirin, who was sitting on the ground sobbing, and hurriedly pulled her hair out of the robot vacuum cleaner. The ends of her neat and smooth long hair had become shaped like a feather duster.

Kiana hid the frightened Rosalia behind her back, and while Sirin was still feeling down, she quickly told Rosalia to go upstairs and hide. Then she cleared her throat and said, "To be honest, Sirin, you didn't come to Japan just to see me, did you?"

"Oh no, my hair..."

"Oh, it's only a few centimeters shorter. It'll grow back in two months, and you'll still be the beautiful Queen of the Sky." Kiana shook her head. "I don't know why you insist on keeping it so long. Is it just to look more imposing?"

“Without this long hair, how could all those branch businesses of the Shaniat family obey me?” Sirin touched her hair and gritted her teeth. “You don’t manage anything. The entire Shaniat family depends on me to run it. Do you think being the acting head of the family is easy? I’m only nineteen!”

"What does that have to do with hair..." Kiana didn't understand her logic.

"There is a connection!"

Shen Liang could roughly understand; this was probably something like "aura" or "presence." This long, ankle-length, cold and aloof aura easily evoked a sense of awe in others, making them feel like they were saying, "You're so awesome, so elegant, so domineering; I'm no match for you." In other words, it was that feeling of being the epitome of a queen.

Normally, it's hard for a nineteen-year-old girl to have a queenly aura. Xilin used this method to make people feel that she was noble, arrogant and domineering... Although Shen Liang had seen her being bullied by the robot vacuum cleaner and crying, it was hard to maintain this impression, but it was still effective for others.

"It's because of St. Freya Academy," a secretary reported.

"Hey, did I tell you to say that?!" Sirin said angrily.

“But Miss, the other party is the Second Miss,” the secretary replied sternly. “Theoretically, you have the same right to know about family affairs.”

Xilin was furious.

"St. Freya Academy has become the largest Destiny Branch in the world, and also the largest concentration of extraordinary individuals. There are quite a few extraordinary individuals gathered in Japan now, and the Shaniat family is not prepared to let this opportunity slip by," the secretary said.

Shen Liang and Kiana were both drawn to the question, and with a slight frown, asked, "What does the Shaniat family want?"

With extraordinary forces converging, is the Shaniat family planning something big? This extraordinary family, hidden in the shadows of history for a thousand years, is finally going to rule this small country and bare its fangs?

“We’re in the real estate business! I’m planning to build a shopping street in Bunkyo Ward. Once the towns around St. Freya Academy are developed, the land here will appreciate more than tenfold!” Sirin rubbed her hands together excitedly. “This is a project worth hundreds of billions of yen. We’ll be the first to arrive, monopolize the tourist market, and then we can take over a few more streets. All the prime real estate around St. Freya will be mine!”

……

Shen Liang and Kiana exchanged a glance.

Although Celine was full of enthusiasm and felt she was really going all out, the way things were going seemed a little different from what they had imagined...

Well, how should I put it... is that all?

"Alright, as you can see, I'm living a very happy life. I'm enjoying the good life and don't need you to take care of me. You go ahead and do your career. As for me, I'll continue living my life. Goodbye." Kiana waved her hand casually. "That's all. I'm doing quite well with my junior brother."

Xilin withdrew her vision for the future. She frowned, glanced thoughtfully at Kiana, and then looked at Shen Liang.

"Actually, there is one more thing."

"what?"

Kiana noticed that the secretary Sirin had brought around suddenly fell silent.

“That old woman, it’s almost time.” Sirin hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, “The Shaniat family is going to choose the next saintess. Kiana, you have to come back with me. I know you don’t like the Shaniat family, but you have to go back this month at least.”

Kiana froze, and instinctively stood up from her slumped position on the sofa.

She disliked the Schariac family because she had grown up fighting alongside her father in Northern Europe, facing assassins relentlessly pursuing him in a snow-covered cabin. She harbored no affection for Destiny, nor did she reciprocate the feelings of the Schariac family, the pillars of Destiny…

But that doesn't mean she hates her mother.

"It's almost time... What do you mean?" Kiana asked in a low voice.

“You should know that Valkyrie, this day will come sooner or later,” Sirin said. “She is the purest bloodline of the Shaniat family, so this day has been delayed for a long time. If it were an ordinary person, they would have become a suicide soldier by being thoroughly corrupted by Honkai energy in Siberia. But that woman is already forty years old, and the protection of the blood of the saintess has begun to gradually transfer to our generation. She is about to give up.”

Kiana fell silent for a long time.

Hmm? .jpg

Chapter Ninety-Three: Two Million Mora

When Shen Liang returned to the island, he saw a single tent pitched in a corner of the dock.

He glanced at it twice and then stopped paying attention, but before he could take two steps, a boatman suddenly appeared out of the way, panting, and ran up to him, stopping him. The boatman looked him up and down and then asked with some suspicion, "Are you... Mr. Shen Liang?"

Wasn't Mr. Shen Liang supposed to be a man? Why does he seem like a noble lady dressed as a man?

Shen Liang knew his reputation might not be very good in Inazuma, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that ordinary people probably didn't know him very well either. There were countless foreigners in the world named Shen Liang, so he nodded and said, "It's me."

"It really is you! Please wait here, don't go yet, I'll go get someone!"

The boatman immediately ran towards the tent and shook it violently. "Hey, young master Thomas, the person you've been waiting for has arrived. Black hair, male, less than 1.6 meters tall, a stranger. 50,000 Mora, you said it. I've been looking for you for three whole days."

"You earned 50,000 Mora just by sitting at the dock, didn't you make the money?" A young man's voice came from inside the tent. Then Shen Liang saw a blond, blue-eyed foreign man yawning as he walked out of the tent. His eyes lit up when he saw Shen Liang, and he hurriedly ran over, extending his hand. "I've been waiting for you for a long time, 'Peerless of the West'. My name is Thomas, and I was sent by the Kamiri family, the company's liaison officer, to meet with you."

Shen Liang knew that the head of the guild, Shen Li, was usually in charge of receiving foreign guests.

However, he was more curious about another name Thomas used.

"Unrivaled in the West?"

"You didn't know?" Thomas saw Shen Liang's confused expression and suddenly realized, "Oh, it seems that Lady Ryoko has been living on Umijima Island for a long time and is unaware of the outside world's opinion of you. Generally speaking, with Nashiina as the boundary, Umijima Island and Hachibun Island belong to Inazuma's 'Kansai', while Narukami Island and Futabasa Island belong to 'Kanto'. In this war, the Coral Palace won a great victory, and among the countless rewards they gave you was a 'Jade Dragon Flag,' which is proof of the Coral Palace's 'unparalleled in the West'."

Shen Liang remembered. Indeed, after the battle, when it came time to reward those who had contributed, the Coral Palace Heart Sea simply didn't give Shen Liang any reward because they didn't know what to give him. They even said with certainty, "If you want it, just take the Coral Palace." "I have nothing left to give you." "Liangzi, do you think these few pounds of my flesh are worth much?"

In the end, he only got a golden brocade banner, which he casually hung on the bedroom wall. Little did he know that it was the so-called Jade Dragon Flag, symbolizing "unparalleled in the West".

That's true. Apart from titles and honors, it seems that Haiqi Island really can't offer him much more. He is now half a living god on Haiqi Island, a trusted advisor of the Coral Palace, and a major merchant who controls the lifeline of agriculture... In a sense, although he has no official position on Haiqi Island, he has real power. If he were to appoint or dismiss a living god priestess, the Coral Palace probably wouldn't dare to utter a word.

“However…” Thomas hesitated, glancing at the steel beast beneath Shen Liang, “Didn’t you come to Inazuma for sightseeing? What is this alchemical product…? It looks terrifying.”

Shen Liang twisted the handlebars, and the steel beast roared and started smoking.

The Harley-Davidson FXDR114 motorcycle is a favorite among fans of American muscle motorcycles. This kind of toy, which is difficult to ride on the road, is not something Shen Liang would buy. Not to mention the high price, it weighs nearly 300 kilograms, and if it flips over, it would be quite troublesome for Shen Liang to lift it up. Therefore, it belongs to Kiana.

This Harley was shipped from Germany to Japan, but Japan prohibits heavy motorcycles on the road, so Kiana really didn't have any use for it and it remained locked up inside St. Freya Academy.

In Teyvat, a continent where most areas lack proper roads, a heavy motorcycle capable of off-road and water-crossing would be more convenient for Shen Liang. When he mentioned it to Kiana, she readily patted her chest and said, "Sure, I'll give it to you as payment for three years' rent."

"It's just a vehicle, want to come on and give it a try?"

"No, no, I'm not an alchemist!" Thomas quickly refused. "The civilians here will be frightened. Let's put away this alchemical equipment and figure out how to get to the main island."

Shen Liang regretfully drove his motorcycle into the teleportation screen and then jumped out. He was actually looking forward to racing in Teyvat; the thought of a place without traffic laws was incredibly exciting.

"How to say?"

"Due to the isolation order, foreigners can only leave the remote islands to go to the main island where Inazuma Castle is located by going to the Far Kingdom Supervisory Office to complete the procedures. Well, it requires some money."

"I have to pay money to come to Inazuma?" Shen Liang's expression was somewhat subtle.

“If Mr. Ryoko comes through official diplomatic channels, of course there’s no need to spend money.” Thomas glanced at him and laughed, “But then, Mr. Ryoko wouldn’t just be greeted by me, a housekeeper, but by a group of Tongxin filled with hatred in their eyes. Do you want to encounter that kind of thing?”

Shen Liang was too lazy to answer such a question.

The two then left the pier. The island was where Inazuma received foreign merchants and was also under the jurisdiction of the Kanjō Magistrate. The island was not large.

As Shen Liang traveled along, he discovered that this place, compared to Haiqi Island, truly gave him the feeling of a "city".

Umijima was too poor; the people lived in villages rather than cities. Narukami Island, on the other hand, was quite well-organized, even though it was just a small island with a pier.

Most of the island has been developed into urban land. The streets leading from the pier are paved with bluestone bricks and are clean. Wooden houses with blue tiles and brown eaves line both sides of the streets, forming residential communities around the shopping streets.

The passersby were either dockworkers dressed in local clothing, clogs, and linen, or merchants from the seven countries, dressed in various styles. Most of the shops around the street were also foreign shops, and even though Shen Liang wasn't very familiar with Teyvat script, he could recognize some of it after a few glances.

There's Chu Yu Trading Company in Liyue, a fertilizer specialty store in Sumeru, the "Winds of Voyage" tavern in Mondstadt, and the "World Merchants Guild" which is frequented by foreigners.

In contrast, locals mostly sell souvenirs, seafood, boatmen, and local snacks. It seems the lockdown has been quite effective; most foreigners are likely isolated on this small island.

"How much is the handling fee?" Shen Liang asked the female inspector of the Yuanguo Supervisory Office with a frown.