Ryou reached the Ministry of Civil Affairs entrance.
[Ding! Detected Fatui activity nearby!]
The sound made Ryou freeze for a moment.
He didn't even react at first.
What's going on?
This "perception" comes with automatic alerts too?
Ryou remembered Ningguang leaving yesterday with a less-than-great look on her face. Putting that together with the paperwork he'd handled earlier, he formed a guess.
The Fatui's "Sigil of Permission" operation was probably exposed. They were worried something might go wrong, so they'd posted people around the Ministry of Civil Affairs to keep an eye on things.
He didn't care much about small fry like this. There were still two or three days before everything blew up.
And besides…
This year, it wasn't even his wife who was responsible for the Rite of Descension.
Still, once Ryou thought about how Liyue ran into crisis after crisis when the Geo Archon "died," he couldn't help thinking more carefully.
This was Teyvat. It wasn't the real world.
Monsters existed here. Gods existed. Adepti existed. Deities.
The idea of Liyue running purely on human governance was a pipe dream. Even after Liyue "entered the era of human rule," the adepti still protected the land—and Zhongli was still watching from the shadows.
Was that really "human rule"?
If Zhongli and the adepti vanished—if that deterrence disappeared—then the so-called human era would collapse within months.
And if you looked across the Seven Nations, Liyue was the most prosperous. Ryou didn't believe the other nations had zero thoughts about that. The only reason they hadn't acted was because Liyue had Zhongli, and it had the adepti.
Without them, Liyue would've been carved up long ago.
In Ryou's memory, before anything happened to the Geo Archon, Liyue enjoyed good weather and good harvests. People lived in peace. The economy thrived.
Then after the Geo Archon "died," what happened?
Osial burst out from Guyun Stone Forest and charged into Liyue. The entire city panicked.
Later, during Lantern Rite, Osial's wife stormed in. Liyue panicked again.
Even the Fatui, once everything erupted, went straight for the Jade Chamber. Liyue panicked for the third time.
All of it traced back to one thing: the Geo Archon's "death."
Before that, Liyue had enjoyed calm for thousands of years. That alone showed how much it mattered to have a god in place.
After the Geo Archon "died," panic swept all of Liyue. The pressure on the Liyue Qixing spiked overnight, and crises kept coming one after another.
And in Ryou's eyes, Liyue relying completely on humans?
Impossible.
Truthfully, Ryou didn't buy Zhongli's idea at all.
More importantly, his father was a current member of the Liyue Qixing, and his wife was, too. If anything happened to the Geo Archon, they'd be buried in work, crushed by pressure.
Ryou didn't want to see that.
He wanted to find a way to change Zhongli's mind—to make him understand that plan was doomed from the start.
The old man had lived for six thousand years already. As far as Ryou was concerned, another four thousand would still be easy.
With that settled, Ryou decided he'd go see Zhongli after he finished handling the Ministry's work.
As for Zhongli himself… Ryou genuinely admired him.
Not because of personality or anything like that.
Because that shield of his made Ryou feel safe.
Ryou shook his head and stepped into the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
"Ryou-sama!"
"Ryou-sama!"
…
The staff practically lit up when they saw him.
After all, Ryou had completely blown their minds yesterday. His talent had won them over, and their respect was real.
"Alright, alright. You've all worked hard. Back to it," Ryou said, waving them off. "My wife can't come in today. Bring all of today's paperwork to her office. I'll handle it one by one."
He glanced at them, clasped his hands behind his back, and headed upstairs.
"Yes, Ryou-sama!"
The staff brought everything up.
Ryou looked at the messy stack of documents and frowned slightly.
Without the "brain" bonus, this was going to be a headache.
Ryou: Brain, it's your time to shine.
[Ding! Brain entering Darkened Mode!]
[Ding! Brain: Darkened Mode active. Document processing efficiency increased by 500%. Duration: half an hour!]
[Ding! Hands entering Darkened Mode!]
[Ding! Hands: Darkened Mode active. Document processing speed increased by 150%. Duration: half an hour!]
Huh?
Beautiful.
Ryou chuckled at the notifications. Half an hour of buffs was more than enough to chew through all of this.
He picked up his brush—
[Ding! Detected Lumine and Paimon arriving at the Ministry of Civil Affairs!]
Ryou: ???
What the hell?
Lumine and Paimon… here?
And they chose the exact day Keqing wasn't around?
No—Tabibito.
What are you trying to do?
I'm a married man, okay?!
[End of chapter]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]