"To the main continent? This book?" asked an incredulous Shogun. It was more than embarrassing enough for her that this abomination was going around Inazuma but even the main continent wasn't going to escape my plans.
"We need to solve this. Our international relations could be damaged" she said, making my jaw touch the floor.
The people around looked a bit surprised but didn't mind it much. Maybe the Shogun had some contact with a few eminences of faraway lands.
But I knew what was happening, and this stubborn woman didn't talk with absolutely anybody. Time probably stopped for her at a time when Inazuma bought food from other countries.
But my surprise hearing that was majuscule.
"Shogun-sama. What relationships are you talking about?" I asked with incredulity in my voice.
"The ones with Liyue" she calmly asked looking at me.
"Shogun-sama, we have literally zero contact with Liyue" I slowly spoke. "We only buy food, but it's just an automatic trade, we don't speak with them at all".
"....." she just looked at me with a surprised expression. Of course, only I knew it, I could see her soul. For the people outside, the Shogun didn't deign herself to answer me.
"Learn your place boy! The Shogun is probably in contact with that puny Rock God, or other similarly powerful beings. It's not something we mere mortals should be interested in" the leader of the Hiiragi Clan jumped at the chance to mock me. I wasn't interested right now in him.
Yae's dear friend felt a bit relieved hearing that. 'Hmm, that's a good way to escape without exposing my ignorance', is what she was probably thinking. But when she looked at me and saw my unbelieving expression, she got a bit nervous again.
"I guess so" I slowly spoke, making her relax. "As you all know, I know Rex Lapis. I will ask him if he speaks with your Excellency. I will also tell him that you called him puny, maybe when his meteorite approaches collides with your enormous ego, it will be able to make a dent in it".
And now that I reminded the Shogun I would catch her in her lie, she was nervous again.
"What do you think we should do?" And now she was trying to change the topic.
"Ignore them" I said shrugging my shoulders. "We just buy things, we don't talk with them. We will not affected by what they think".
The Shogun looked tongue-tied. She probably didn't know that relations had been cut like this.
Where was Inazuma getting the food from then?, was the obvious question.
Inazuma had a lot of land, but a lot of it was inhospitable, so we didn't have land to plant crops enough for the whole population.
And the answer was even more obvious, we don't get food. A lot of people are hungry, but 60% of the food is dedicated to the 5% on top.
"Anyway, we should focus on resolving our situation here. I suggest that you release a statement along with Yae to condemn this shameful action" I said confidently. Of course, if she does this, it would be seen as proof that it really happened, Yae and her 'dear friend' should just ignore the problem and it will end as what it is, a work of fiction. But the moment she makes one of her extremely rare appearances just to speak about this will give credibility to the book.
"Hmmm, it's a reasonable plan" she nodded and stood up. "I will speak personally with the Head Priestess". I realized how seriously she was taking this whole thing. When she said personally she was referring to her person, Yae's 'dear friend'. Well, more fun for me.
"Then let's go. Let me escort you, my mom told me that letting a girl go alone can be dangerous" I shamelessly said to the stunned Gof of Thunder, who was looking at me incredulously.
I mean, I said the truth. What if some guy is causing trouble and she decides to use her scary sword? We will lose the scarce land we have remaining.
"Kenshin, what are you saying?" asked a confused Sara. She was probably too confused to be angry.
"Well, no matter how powerful she is, she is still a woman, right? And I fear my mom more than I fear our God, so my course of action is pretty obvious. No harm will befall our Eternal Excellence for as long as I am with her!" and I proudly held my fist to my heart. I don't remember if this gesture was from here or Mondstadt.
"Let's go then" the Shogun decided not to think more about this. Her soul only expressed confusion.
"Of course. Ah, you should know about it already, but I'm blind. We can't go very fast" I once again said a shameless comment. After saying that I would protect her, I informed her that he would probably be the one protecting me. Tehe.
"You are?" I could feel her astonishment.
"Of course. I have been blind for 2 years now, and I have been faithfully by your side around 5 or 6 times per week, so I thought you knew about it. I'm sorry for assuming it". Another dramatic bow.
Now the guys around were looking at the Shogun a bit suspiciously. Nobody in Inazuma didn't knew that the 'Slapping Baby' was blind, and the Shogun had seen me fall over the table in that room at least 3 times, how come she didn't know about it?
If Yae's dear friend could sweat, he would be swimming now.
"Let's go" she said, deciding that staying here would only bring disasters.
"Of course" I followed her with a quick pace.
"Weren't you blind?" she asked, maybe surprised about my quick pace.
"Yes, but I can use Elemental Sight, and it doesn't use my eyes" I lied like the vile scoundrel a lot of people think I am.
"Elemental Sight uses the eyes" she frowned at me.
"It has to do with the reason I'm in the shrine. I can't see the elemental power, it's more like a 'feel'. I call it Elemental Sight because is what people know. I apologize for not making it clear enough" another dramatic bow.
"It's okay, I will go faster then" she said and started walking faster. She was just walking, so I was able to follow her just fine.
As we walked through the town, I could feel her amazement.
"Something wrong?" I asked her.
"It's just that the town is different than what I remembered it to be" she said with a pondering feeling to her.
"Well, I don't know when was the last time you visited the town, but probably all the people that you knew are dead". Smooth.
"I can see that" she replied, and I could feel her sadness.
"But their children are probably around here. Maybe you know about their families" I thought for a while and started pointing at the oldest businesses around.
"There is the Naganohara family, they make fireworks" I pointed at the empty house. "They are probably out because they like to do some exercise in the morning".
"Hmm, I know about them. Their ancestor was the one who invented the fireworks" she told me, making me surprised. Was Yoimiya's ancestor that great? I will tell her next time.
"Over there is the Sakura's Garden. They are, as you can probably see, a flower shop" I pointed at another business.
"I knew their ancestor, she chose that name because there was a legend she liked. The Sakura is supposed to be the origin of Inazuma, so all flowers came from the Sakura tree. She hoped that by choosing that name, she could eventually have all flowers in her garden" she had a nostalgic look.
"That's a good dream. Over there is...."
And like that, we slowly travelled through the whole city. I pointed all old businesses at her, and she knew some, others were relatively new. But she told me about those she knew about, and I was able to see the faintest bit of happiness in her soul when she spoke about these fond memories.
Seeing her distracted, I made a turn she didn't realize, as she was lost in her memories. We started just taking a stroll, speaking about the people she knew, what I knew about some famous names in her time, and about a bit of everything.
Nobody disturbed us, in fact, I could see people hiding when they saw us, the God of Eternity itself was too scary for people here.
I also bought a few things here and there using the moments the Shogun was lost in thought, they would come in handy later.
"Ouch!" I collided with an advertisement sign. Yae's dear friend was too lost in her thoughts to guide me and looked at my red face with surprise.
"I apologize for my distracted state. Are you okay?" she offered her hand to me, and I sensed what she was trying to do. She was trying to intensify the electro energy in her hand so I could see it more clearly.
Isn't she quite cute?
Of course, it was useless, I couldn't see that, but I raised my hand near the area I expected her hand to be, and she propped me up.
"Please don't apologize your Eternal Excellency. I am at fault, and we got a bit distracted. We should focus on our task, it's important after all" I said with a small smile, waiting for the person inside the shop to come out.
I knew the layout of the city, that's how I was able to point them to the businesses that had no people inside. And guess what business is this?".
"What are you doing to....my...poster" Chiori came out of the shop with a serious expression, but froze seeing God.
"Excuse us Miss Chiori, I was leaving for the Shrine for a mission, and collided with the poster. Please, let me apologize and reimburse you for all damages I may have caused" I took a step forward so the Shogun could only see my back and threw Chiori a mocking smile.
'I said that the Shogun would come, and here she is' is what I tried to tell her with my smile.
"D-Don't worry. I-It's all right" and she ran away.
Hehe, the indomitable Chiori, who prides herself on her pursuit of her dream, is now retreating with her tail under her legs. I will remind her of this every single week.
But I needed to take the Shogun now to the Shrine.
"Let us depart, you Excellency" I respectfully said to the waiting Shogun.
Arlecchino coming halfway through the arc.
As I said, she is in the harem, but I wrote all that before she came out so I will try to correct those chapters in case I missed or misunderstood something