Arknights, Suika's Messenger Journey

Chapter 38: The Human Heart Is Hard to Predict

Hoshiguma let out a long breath, then nodded at Suika.

"It's fine as long as you're okay. Head back first! I'll bring you something tasty tonight."

Suika spread her fingers and pointed at the doorway not far away.

"The guy inside said I can't leave the Guard Department until they've made a decision!"

"What?!"

Then again, that made sense. Until the outcome was decided, Suika was still an important subject of concern.

"Then come sit in our office. There are people coming and going out here—what if you get bumped into..." Chen pointed toward the nearby office, then went inside with Hoshiguma and Suika.

"By the way, Suika, do you know how to write your name?" Once they sat down, Hoshiguma handed Suika a newspaper to keep her from getting bored.

Seeing Suika engrossedly reading the newspaper, Chen became a little curious whether she could really write her own name.

"Of course."

"I can write Ibuki Suika in both Great Yan and Eastern Country script!"

With that, Suika took the pen and paper Chen handed her and wrote: (Ibuki Suika).

"Ah, this is the Suika?" Chen said in surprise after taking the paper.

"Yeah, it's always been this Suika... Wait, don't tell me you guys..."

Thinking of something, Suika looked at Chen. Chen pulled over a document envelope, and just as expected, it read—Ibuki Cuixiang.

She had expected this already.

After all, in her previous life, people occasionally wrote her name as Cuixiang, a name that carried an unmistakably rustic Eastern flavor.

"How do you pronounce your Eastern Country name?" Chen asked curiously.

"It's pronounced Ibuki Suika. You can also just call me Suika. It means Suika..."

As Suika explained the pronunciation to Chen, the distracted Hoshiguma looked up.

"Watermelon? Why are you talking about that? It's still winter."

"Huh?"

Chen looked utterly baffled. Wasn't she discussing Suika's name with little Suika? What was Hoshiguma talking about?

Why did it feel like none of them were on the same wavelength?

"Oh, Hoshiguma means suika. That pronunciation means watermelon in Eastern Country language. Eastern Country people hearing my name for the first time easily mistake it for Ibuki Watermelon!"

As she spoke, Suika habitually touched the Ibuki Gourd at her waist, then took it off and set it on the table.

With that motion, everyone's eyes turned toward her.

"Want some?" Suika asked weakly as she felt the gazes around her.

Chen immediately leaned back. She remembered Suika's bizarre Arts. This was work hours—if the Major Crimes Unit started drinking in the office, everyone would probably lose their jobs.

"Don't worry, I didn't pick up the Ibuki Gourd or open the cap, so it doesn't count as pressuring you to drink."

"I was just asking out of habit."

Seeing Chen's reaction, Suika froze for a moment, then sprawled across the desk and burst into laughter.

"Good. Don't pull that thing out in a police station. It's terrifying."

Chen patted her chest. Honestly, she'd really been scared just now.

While they chatted, the atmosphere in the room next door was extremely tense.

First, the man who had brought Suika inside wore a terrible expression.

After all, he was a grown man, and a captain famed for his martial prowess at that, yet he had been defeated by a little girl in one move. If word got back to the army, he would lose all face.

Second, he had originally been assigned to protect the officials inside, yet things had ended like this. He had definitely failed in his duty. It was only because the leading official stopped him that he hadn't gone after that brat.

"Send a copy of the recording from just now to Governor Wei and ask for his opinion."

"Captain Li, notify the people here and have them send us a few meals."

After saying that, the leader lowered his head and continued reading the dossier in his hands.

If Suika were here, she would discover that it recorded everything she had done from entering Lungmen up until recently in painstaking detail. Even her revenge for Old Madam Wang was included. Though the report used the words "suspected of," it still showed that Great Yan's intelligence-gathering ability was far stronger than she had imagined.

At that moment, the leader was reading the report on Old Madam Wang's first attack by those thugs. Pointing at the thugs' eventual fates, he said,

"If this is true, then this little one named Suika may possess an Originium Art particularly suited for assassination and concealment."

"Couldn't it just be the Guard Department covering for the child? These two officers in the records seem to have a good relationship with her, and one of them is even her temporary guardian."

The person beside him raised an objection.

"No. Look at when this happened—it was the second day after she arrived in Lungmen."

"Even if Officer Hoshiguma had close ties with her and provided cover, Officer Chen has no family ties with her whatsoever. Why would she help a murder suspect?"

The leader pointed at the date in the intelligence report.

"You're right, sir. I overlooked that." The man cupped his fists and bowed to the leader.

As for why Officer Chen wouldn't shield Suika, everyone present naturally knew Chen Hui-chieh's identity.

Knowing her background, none of them dared make careless accusations before obtaining solid evidence that Chen Hui-chieh had protected Suika.

After all, she truly carried the bloodline of the imperial family. If Wei Yenwu hadn't kept her by his side, she would at least have held the rank of a county princess.

If they spoke recklessly here and word got out, their careers might be over.

Wei Yenwu also received the analysis and recording sent from the Guard Department.

He looked up at Madam Wen Yue beside him.

"Is there a place in the Eastern Country called Mount Oe?"

"Mount Oe? I've never heard of it. But the Northern and Southern Courts of the Eastern Country haven't standardized the names of many places, and there are countless mountains. If it was originally some inconspicuous little mountain with that name, it would be perfectly normal not to have heard of it."

Madam Wen Yue thought for a while before replying.

Wei Yenwu nodded.

"Take a look and tell me how this little one should be handled."

Wei Yenwu pushed the documents and recording toward Madam Wen Yue.

Madam Wen Yue didn't refuse. She carefully read through the intelligence in her hands, then watched the recording of Suika confronting that captain.

"This little girl's ability is quite interesting."

"If she really can conjure food and it's real, then she's a strategic-level asset."

"Wherever she is, no one could possibly go hungry."

"Are you really willing to leave the decision of how to handle her to me?"

With a smile, Wen Yue handed the documents back to Wei Yenwu.

Chapter 39: An Unpredictable Outcome

After taking the documents, Wei Yenwu wrote down a line of remarks. Wen Yue's eyes widened when she saw it.

Meanwhile, Suika had no idea that her fate had already been decided. She found a corner in the office, picked up a book titled Criminal Investigation, hugged the Ibuki Gourd, and flipped through the pages while occasionally taking a swig from the gourd.

The people around her wanted to say something, but stopped themselves. Considering how an "enthusiastic" officer who had tried to stop her drinking had been casually forced to drink himself unconscious, they ultimately chose to ignore it.

Hoshiguma was helpless about it too. She had been about to speak up, but before she could say anything, Suika cunningly picked up the gourd and stared at her with narrowed eyes, as if saying, Say one word, and I'll make you drink. In the end, Hoshiguma could only choose to sacrifice others rather than herself.

That afternoon, after enjoying a good meal in the Guard Department cafeteria, Hoshiguma could only follow Jiu's suggestion and take Suika to an empty office upstairs so she wouldn't knock out more colleagues with alcohol.

"You can play in here. If you're tired, sleep on the couch. I brought you a blanket too. You can read any of the books here, but don't tear them up, okay?"

"Don't worry. I'm not sick—why would I tear books?" After saying that, Suika went inside, found a place to sit, and began thinking about what had happened that day.

Thinking back on the afternoon's events, she found them increasingly strange.

If they wanted her to hand over her belongings, they should have said so at the entrance.

In that situation, she definitely wouldn't have been able to refuse.

But that man had deliberately chosen not to say it. He had insisted on sending Hoshiguma away first, then only brought it up after they had entered the room.

It looked as though he had been deliberately trying to make trouble for her.

And the man at the door had looked hostile from the very beginning. Now that she thought about it, he had been intentionally picking a fight, trying to provoke a conflict.

The more she recalled what happened afterward, the more certain Suika became.

If they had truly been worried that her chains and gourd might harm those people, they should have been on guard when she sat before them.

After all, she had subdued their guard right in front of them.

Even if she had used a bit of cleverness, it still proved that she wasn't weak.

Yet those people had worn expressions like, Just as expected.

That meant they had expected from the start that their man couldn't beat her.

Their initial surprise hadn't been because they hadn't expected her to attack at the Guard Department, in such an important setting. They had been surprised because she defeated him so quickly.

Combined with how they never mentioned the matter again afterward...

At that thought, Suika snorted. As expected, they were all schemers. They had arranged everything for her perfectly.

She had even been pleased at first that she'd defeated him in one move. Now that she thought about it, things really might not have been as simple as she imagined.

Still, there was always a road ahead when the cart reached the mountain. Since she couldn't outthink people who spent every day wallowing in schemes and conspiracies, she'd just take things one step at a time.

Through her experiences over this period, Suika had become much bolder than when she had first arrived and acted with excessive caution.

She now knew very well that she wasn't weak.

At least against ordinary people, her abilities held an absolutely crushing advantage.

Wei Yenwu couldn't possibly make her pay with her life for a few traitors or thugs.

So compared to Hoshiguma, she was actually much more relaxed.

The next morning.

Hoshiguma's expression turned extremely ugly after receiving Jiu's handling decision regarding Suika.

Jiu patted her shoulder.

"Don't overthink it. At least Governor Wei gave you some time, didn't he?"

After Chen and Swire read the decision beside them, they also sighed.

"This isn't necessarily bad. Isn't there still half a year? And there's such a large sum of money as a reward too. Hoshiguma, don't keep such a gloomy face. It's scary." Swire tried to comfort her.

The words "must leave by the deadline" written in the report felt especially glaring to Hoshiguma.

Although Suika had been granted a full six months, along with five hundred thousand Lungmen Dollars as the reward for catching the spy...

Hoshiguma still felt awful.

"Come on. It's time to tell the kid."

"I think Suika's pretty strong. She'll definitely accept it faster than you."

Chen patted her partner's shoulder before speaking.

The group came to the room where Suika was resting. When they opened the door, they saw Suika standing atop the desk, holding the gourd horizontally against her chest in one hand while raising the other to shield her eyes.

"How many floors must a sack of rice carry? A sack of rice must carry two floors... Shinra Tensei!"

Just as she shouted with great vigor, the door opened with a click. Hoshiguma and the others stood outside, staring at her in dumbfounded silence.

"Zzz!" In an instant, Suika felt her face burn and steam rise from her head. She probably looked like a steam princess now.

Hoshiguma, who had been worrying over Suika's situation, didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the absurd sight.

"Ahem. You didn't hear anything, right?!"

Suika jumped off the desk and raised her Ibuki Gourd at the three people entering the room, threatening them through gritted teeth.

"No, no, no, we absolutely didn't hear anything about carrying rice upstairs, right, Chen..." Swire's body shook as she looked on the verge of being unable to hold back her laughter.