"What surprise?! We didn't prepare anything at all!" Theresa clutched her head in despair. "There's only one day left! How are we supposed to prepare a gift for you?!"
"So that's why you got up so early to chop wood. You were planning to leave." Karel wore a pained expression too, but his smug look quickly returned. "Luckily, I saw it coming, so I prepared your gift ages ago!"
"Wait here. I'll go get it for you!"
With that, Karel turned and ran toward his room.
Mikhail, who had not said a word until then, raised her hand as well and looked at Theresa somewhat sheepishly. "Um... I prepared a gift in advance too."
Then Mikhail headed toward her room as well.
"Ah, speaking of which, I have a gift for little Kaino too." The Priest rubbed his chin with one hand and smiled.
"Wah, waaah... So I'm the only one who didn't prepare anything?!" Theresa hugged her head and crouched down, looking miserable.
"Um... don't be too sad. Tania didn't prepare anything either?" Kaino looked at Theresa and pointed awkwardly at Tania, who was sitting in a chair and happily waving at him.
The child probably had not figured out what was going on yet.
"That just makes me even sadder!"
Theresa was practically about to cry.
"Here, here! Kaino, this is for you—a wooden sword I made myself!"
Karel ran out of his room holding a two-handed greatsword made of wood.
"Hehe, I don't know what those 'Kaslanas use dual guns' you always talk about means, but the priest said the Kaslana family is a family of knights, so you can't go wrong with a greatsword!"
"Ah, and mine too. I carved this Badge myself."
Mikhail came over as well and handed Kaino a Badge.
A greatsword was engraved on the Badge, with wing-like shapes spread out on either side of it.
Kaino's expression turned strange.
That was the Kaslana family crest—the form of Judgement of Shamash after it had been unsealed... Of course, Mikhail probably didn't know that. She had likely given him the Badge because that same symbol hung on the Orphanage wall, and she wanted him to always remember the Orphanage.
"Th-then I'll give you this, Kaino." Theresa stood up from the ground and painfully pulled a Cross Necklace from her pocket. "The Priest gave me this ornament before... Now it's yours."
"Alright, I'll take it."
Kaino accepted the gifts from the three of them, put the Cross Necklace around his neck, pinned the Badge to his clothes, then tossed the Wooden Sword into Imaginary Space.
"This is my gift to you." The priest smiled and took a box out from beneath the table. "You're already very strong, but when traveling, it's still better to have a weapon that suits your hand, isn't it? Open it and see."
Kaino opened the box curiously, and his face stiffened slightly.
Inside lay a pair of red-and-gold dual pistols—the exact same weapons Ziegfried had shown him many times when he was little.
A God Key? Judgement of Shamash.
Li Sushang
Watching yet another caravan leave without paying him any attention, Kaino silently sighed.
This was already the fifth one.
Using his spatial manipulation abilities to travel at full speed, Kaino had reached the desert before him in less than a day.
Since the Priest had said that the immortal's former residence had been burned down, Kaino had no intention of going there to investigate further in search of the immortal.
—Although the Priest looked exactly like someone else and made Kaino feel a faint sense of resistance, he had to admit that both the Priest and Schicksal's Archbishop were incredibly intelligent people.
If Theresa at the Orphanage had not been so clever, Kaino might have proposed that appearance determined a person's intelligence.
In any case, since the Priest had specifically mentioned that the immortal's former residence had been burned down and suggested searching for the immortal, Kaino decided to start from the desert where he had landed and search all of Shenzhou bit by bit.
...Then Kaino ran into a wall.
When he encountered the first caravan and tried to ask them about the Red Sparrow Immortal while hitching a ride, Kaino truly experienced just how painful a language barrier could be.
Fortunately, the power of the Herrscher of Reason gave Kaino unparalleled learning and imitation abilities. So, he kept stopping caravans in the desert and attempting friendly conversations to learn the Shenzhou Language. After they left, he followed their routes forward.
Finally, after three days and after angering the fourth caravan, the good news was that Kaino had finally gained a basic grasp of the Shenzhou Language—though his pronunciation was still somewhat off, it was indeed Shenzhou Language.
The bad news... the food Kaino had stored in Imaginary Space had run out. When he got too hungry, he could always return to the Orphanage to get more food...
But Kaino felt that if he did that, then in some sense, he would have lost—and lost badly.
So, holding onto a sliver of hope, Kaino waited for the fifth caravan.
Then he truly understood how reasonable the saying "without money, you can't take a single step" was.
Kaino clutched his head and crouched on the ground, suffering in tearless despair.
There was nothing he could do. As the young master of the Kaslana family, whenever he bought anything in Schicksal, he could simply swipe Ziegfried's card—he could even pay with his face. In that case, the retired Valkyries selling things would give him a few extras.
After arriving at the Orphanage, although Kaino often went out with the Priest to clear out zombies, Honkai Beasts, and certain people who had gone astray, he had never bought anything. The Priest handled the purchasing.
The oldest child, Theresa, also managed the Orphanage's account books. Kaino was only responsible for chopping wood and occasionally cleaning.
And then... the moon ripples...
"Haha, that's why you got locked in here?"
The brown-haired girl crouching on the ground burst into laughter, staring at Kaino, who was crouching across from her, and laughing nonstop.
"You sneaked onto a caravan because you had no money, then followed the Golden Sands Gang after they intercepted it and ended up squatting in this Black Prison... all just for a meal? Are all you Raiken people this strange?"
"Besides, you could have just sold this strange thing to the caravan, and they would have taken you along."
As she spoke, the girl poked the Nightlight Kaino had placed beside him.
"I didn't think of it. And eating... isn't shameful."
Using the Shenzhou Language he had learned from the caravans to communicate with her, Kaino raised his head and studied the girl across from him.
"I've finished talking, so how did you get locked in here, kid?"
The girl wore a white robe covered by a layer of yellow outerwear, with a purple cape draped behind her. She was certainly pretty, though faint bloodstains marked both her cheeks.
Her long brown hair was tied with a yellow ribbon into twin ponytails. Though the yellow garment covered almost her entire upper body, it alone exposed the girl's chest, which trembled constantly as she laughed.
It looked rather alluring.
Looking at the girl's face, which seemed about his age, and then at the front armor so mismatched with that age, Kaino once again felt sorry for his Big Auntie.
"Hey, where are you looking?"
Noticing Kaino's gaze, the girl frowned and subtly scooted back a little.
"Also, in Shenzhou Language, 'kid' is only used for males. The word for females should be 'girl.'"
"Then why did you deliberately expose that part... Still, thanks. I learned a new word."
Kaino nodded, then continued questioning her.
"So how did you get locked in here, girl? Also, my name is Kaino."
"Kai... no? You Raiken people all have such strange names. I'll just call you Raiken instead. Oh, right, my name is Li Sushang."
"As for my clothes, my master made them for me."
"Then you really do have a good master."
Kaino blinked, then smiled.
"Of course! My master treats me very well!"
The girl named Li Sushang nodded, then began telling him about her bizarre journey of getting captured. "As for me? My master told me to defeat Old Eagle, the leader of the Golden Sands Gang, as the target of my first Sword Trial. But Old Eagle has more than a hundred subordinates, so he might not agree to duel me..."
"Wait."
Interrupting Li Sushang, Kaino frowned and immediately took a large step back. "What kind of crooked path are you and your master on? Why are you going after Shenzhou officials?"
"Huh?"
Li Sushang froze for a moment before gradually understanding what Kaino meant. Then she looked at him with disbelief in her eyes.
"What exactly did you learn from those caravan people...? The Golden Sands Gang are bandits! The kind that burn, kill, loot, and commit every evil imaginable! Why would you think they were officials?"
This time, Kaino fell silent.
Those caravans had always been talking about the Golden Sands Gang. He had thought they were merchants who had illegally crossed the border and were afraid of being caught by the officials.
Who could blame him? There was not even a border line in this desert.
"Are bandits in your Shenzhou really this arrogant? Don't the officials do anything about them?"
After a while, Kaino turned his head away and slowly spoke.
"This desert is on the border of Shenzhou. How could they possibly manage it all?" Li Sushang sighed again. "But now I understand why you were captured... Say, you weren't waiting for them to give prisoners like us food, were you? We're prisoners."
"Keep going."
Kaino sighed, then raised his head to examine the ceiling of the Black Prison.
Naturally, Kaino did not know Shenzhou's regional customs, and Li Sushang had never been captured before. Her knowledge of the Golden Sands Gang was also limited to rumors. Thus, neither of them knew that even Golden Sands Gang prisoners were normally fed.
It was only because Li Sushang had fiercely provoked Old Eagle outside earlier that she not only got slapped twice herself, but also caused both of them to lose their meals.
"Well, I wanted to duel Old Eagle one-on-one... But since they outnumbered me, I wanted a chance to meet Old Eagle alone first, then challenge him to a duel."
At this point, Li Sushang's face clearly showed some pride. "Luckily, I'm clever. I quickly came up with a way to sneak into the prison and then meet Old Eagle one-on-one. In the end, this young lady succeeded, just as expected."
"Then why did you come back after getting slapped twice?"
"Uh... well..."
Hearing Kaino's question, Li Sushang's expression froze, and her eyes darted from side to side. "To make it look convincing, I not only handed over my Xuanyuan Sword, but also took the Qi-Suppressing Powder they gave me... I thought it would be useless against me, since I cultivate the extraordinary Tai Xu Sword Qi!"
"But it seems my Tai Xu Sword Qi hasn't reached a sufficient level yet... After I provoked Old Eagle, I tried to circulate my True Qi, but I couldn't. So he slapped me twice and locked me back in here."
Kaino narrowed his eyes slightly.
Get Something to Eat from the Kitchen
Tai Xu Sword Qi...
Extraordinary?
"Then you really are clever." Kaino nodded.
Leaving aside that so-called Tai Xu Sword Qi, anyone who gave her medicine could make her take it. Even the Kaslanas would feel inferior to that level of honesty.
Even Kiana was not that easy to trick.
"Ah, thanks for the complim—wait, Raiken, were you making fun of me?"
Li Sushang had just been about to nod when she suddenly realized something was wrong. Her eyes widened as she stared at Kaino.
"Oh? You caught on this time?"
"I'm not stupid... Wait, what do you mean, 'this time'? What exactly did you learn from those caravans?!"
Kaino shrugged and spoke as if casually. "I don't really understand your Shenzhou martial arts or this Qi-Suppressing Powder, but your so-called martial arts are all methods of using Honkai energy, right? Then what gave you the confidence to think your Tai Xu Sword Qi would be exempt?"
"I heard that Shenzhou has a Red Sparrow Immortal who is famous even where I come from. Since the Qi-Suppressing Powder targets the circulation of Honkai energy, then logically, even that Red Sparrow Immortal should not be exempt, right?"
"Wow, Raiken, don't talk nonsense when you don't understand anything. Let me explain it properly to you."
Li Sushang frowned and puffed out her cheeks, looking deeply dissatisfied.
"First, Tai Xu Sword Qi... Tai Xu Sword Qi differs from ordinary martial arts. It does not train the body's maximum capacity for True Qi. Instead, it leaves not a trace of True Qi within the body, because keeping True Qi in the body all the time carries the risk of going berserk."
"Tai Xu Sword Qi trains how quickly a person absorbs True Qi. When battle comes, practitioners of Tai Xu Sword Qi can absorb vast amounts of True Qi from the surrounding environment at any time and use it in combat. Qi-Suppressing Powder is medicine that prevents the True Qi stored in the body from being used, which is why I said it should have been useless against me."
"Oh, so True Qi is what you call Honkai energy."
"As for the Red Sparrow Immortal, hehe, the Tai Xu Sword Qi I cultivate is an immortal art personally passed down by her. So that Qi-Suppressing Powder definitely wouldn't work on her either!"
"Now you should understand why I said Tai Xu Sword Qi is extraordinary, right? You should also understand, to some extent, just how amazing the Red Sparrow Immortal is, right? Hehe!"
You explained it in such detail. How could I possibly not understand? I understand all too well.
It seemed the Priest had been absolutely right. Although he still did not know whether the Red Sparrow Immortal could help him return home, her cultivation method would be immensely beneficial to him!
Sure enough, suffering under the desert sun and wind for three days had been completely worth it.
"Since your Tai Xu Sword Qi is so impressive, then it really seems you simply haven't mastered it yet. The Qi-Suppressing Powder mainly targets the Honkai—oh, True Qi—inside the body, yet it still affected you."
Kaino nodded as he spoke, taking the opportunity to mock Li Sushang again.
"Ahahaha, that really is how it is."
Li Sushang laughed twice more, then lowered her head.
Before you continue