Not long after Fang Qiu left, however, two people stepped out through the sealed door.
"Head of the Clan, how did the design turn out?" Thoma asked.
"Not bad, but there's room for improvement," Kamisato Ayato said, stroking his chin as he assessed it. "Take the spot where the corpse shakes. It isn't eerie enough. And the transition from the dreamy music to the ghostly wailing isn't natural enough. There's quite a lot to revise, so let's find somewhere to sit down and talk it over. Oh, right, one more thing: the door panel isn't thick enough. It'd be easy for someone to break. Thoma, send someone right away to order a heavy iron door."
"Yes, Head of the Clan." Thoma nodded eagerly.
Surely Miss Fang Qiu would come away with a true taste of the very essence of horror fiction.
Fang Qiu, of course, knew nothing about any of this. She was happily seated at a sweets stall, her cherry lips parted slightly as she popped a soft, chewy, cream-filled strawberry daifuku into her mouth.
"Mmm... so good."
Fang Qiu was delighted.
Once she'd finished the strawberry daifuku, she picked up her bags, big and small, and left.
She had barely gone when the daifuku stall was swamped with people.
"That girl looked so happy eating! Just watching her makes me want to try one. Boss, two of whatever that girl just ate!"
"I'll take three."
"Five for me! Boss, make mine first!"
"Ever heard of waiting your turn? Can you even finish five?"
"Mind your own business. I've got plenty of Mora, and if I can't finish them I'll feed them to the dogs."
"Come to think of it, that girl was really pretty. From her clothes, she looked like she was from Liyue."
"She looked so blissful when she ate."
The crowd buzzed with chatter.
Time slipped by, and before long it was afternoon.
Having dealt with the matter of Venti's stowaway trick, Kujou Sara made another patrol around Ritou. Now it was her break.
As she watched the crowds come and go, she drifted, without quite noticing, to the front of the International Trade Association inn.
"Come to think of it..."
Kujou Sara stopped in her tracks, looked at the inn for a moment in thought, and then walked inside.
It wasn't for any other reason.
She had suddenly remembered that Arataki Itto had said he wanted to recruit Fang Qiu into the Arataki Gang, so she needed to ask Fang Qiu how things stood.
While she was at it, she could confirm whether that little girl in red really was Fang Qiu.
As for the Arataki Gang business: if Fang Qiu hadn't joined, good. But if she'd been scared by Arataki Itto into joining, Sara would have to find a way to deal with it.
And she needed to warn Arataki Itto, too, so he wouldn't run wild.
And, with any luck, she could ask Fang Qiu for an autograph.
At the front desk, she used her authority as a member of the Tenryou Commission to get Fang Qiu's room number, then made her way straight to the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
She rapped on the door.
"Coming!"
A childish voice came from inside the room. Moments later, accompanied by a little "heave-ho," the door slid open.
But there was no one in front of her.
"Um, who are you looking for?"
At the sound of the voice, Kujou Sara instinctively looked down. A little girl in fiery red stood behind the door, one finger resting at the corner of her mouth, head tilted, gazing up at her in bewilderment.
Kujou Sara's pupils shook violently. She checked the room number again. It was exactly the number the front desk had given her.
Still refusing to give up, she scanned the room and found no one else there.
Which meant...
This little girl really was Fang Qiu...
Those works that had cut her to tears had actually come from the hand of a little girl like this...
So this was a genius from ancient Liyue?
As for the Mondstadt clothes the girl was wearing, there was nothing strange about that. Liyue was an open country, and wearing Mondstadt clothing was perfectly normal.
Wait.
This girl might not be a little girl at all, but an adult whose body had simply never grown.
Quite possibly.
While Kujou Sara stood lost in thought, Klee tilted her head and stared up at her in confusion.
She had woken from her nap that afternoon and waited in the room for a long, long time.
But Brother Albedo, Big Sister Honorary Knight, Little Paimon, and Big Sister Fang Qiu hadn't come back.
So she'd decided to go wait in Big Sister Fang Qiu's room for Big Sister Fang Qiu and Big Sister Honorary Knight and the others.
But the one who showed up wasn't any of them. It was this person.
And she seemed a little fierce.
"Um, are you Fang..."
Kujou Sara thought it over and began to speak, but before the word "Qiu" could leave her lips, a "Boom!" of explosion rang out from beyond the balcony.
"Hm?"
Klee and Kujou Sara both froze.
Then Kujou Sara's expression changed.
"Excuse me. Let me through."
She brushed past Klee and dashed straight for the balcony, with Klee right on her heels.
Below, along the ocean shore, mist and spray hung thick in the air. An explosion had clearly just gone off.
And not far from the blast site, several people were crawling out from behind the rocks.
"Boss! Boss! The blast worked! As expected of the Boss, you're amazing, you got it on the very first try!"
"Ha ha ha ha ha! Of course! Arataki "Greatest Under Heaven" Itto! Even when it comes to blasting fish with bombs, this great one is a first-rate genius!"
Arataki Itto surveyed the ocean water he'd churned muddy and said, "I picked the spot behind the International Trade Association inn on purpose. With a commotion this big, Miss Fang Qiu must have heard it, right? This feast of explosions is the welcoming ceremony for Miss Fang Qiu's induction!"
After a burst of roaring laughter, he turned and looked up at the inn.
The first thing he saw was a splash of vivid, fiery red.
Miss Fang Qiu!
Arataki Itto's eyes lit up.
Then he saw Kujou Sara standing beside Klee, her face dark as thunder...
"Hiss... B-Boss! It's Kujou Ten— Kujou Sara! What... what do we do?"
Genta had spotted her at the same moment Arataki Itto did, and he stammered out the warning.
"What's there to be afraid of? This great one's right here! We're just blasting some fish. What can she do to us?"
Arataki Itto waved a hand. "Ignore her. We keep playing."
On the balcony, meanwhile, Kujou Sara's face had darkened to the extreme.
"Fang Qiu... um... Miss. I have official business. Sorry to have bothered you."
Having said that, Kujou Sara saw the utter confusion on the other girl's face, but she had no time to deal with it. She turned and strode off, face thunderous.
Whether this girl was Fang Qiu could wait until later. Right now, the urgent matter was to deal with Arataki Itto before he stirred up an even bigger disturbance. Seething with rage, she was making her way out of the inn when she happened to see a white-haired woman carrying bags, big and small, walking back toward it.
It was the white-haired woman who had watched the show when Sara questioned Venti earlier...
So she was a guest invited by Yae Publishing House, too.
Sara just didn't know what she did.
And judging by how pale she looked, she must have been frightened by the explosion a moment ago.
Sara hurried out of the inn, rallied her people, and charged around to the back of it.
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