Flowers carpeted the Kanjou Commission's stone paving, their qingxin fragrance drifting through the entire courtyard.
"This..."
Hiiragi Shinsuke stared at the qingxin covering the ground, utterly dumbfounded.
Inazuma and Liyue were so far apart that a round trip by ship would take at least a month.
Moreover, qingxin were extremely difficult to gather. Any reasonable person could tell that his demand was a deliberate attempt to make things difficult for her.
He simply did not want Ellin to leave Ritou.
When Ellin had left the Kanjou Commission headquarters earlier, he had assumed she had seen through his intentions, thrown out a few threats to save face, and stormed off in frustration.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that Ellin would actually bring back three hundred qingxin. There was even sap lingering on their severed stems, making it clear they had only just been picked.
"This... how is this possible?!"
Hiiragi Shinsuke stared at Ellin in astonishment. He knew full well that qingxin did not grow anywhere in Inazuma.
In other words, the girl before him had genuinely traveled from Inazuma to Liyue and back within half an hour, gathering three hundred qingxin along the way.
His gaze flickered, shaken by Ellin's abilities.
But he had imposed this condition precisely because he did not want Ellin to leave Ritou.
The reason he wanted to keep her there was that he did not want her disrupting the Fatui's plans.
Ellin's ability to travel between two nations and gather three hundred qingxin in half an hour only demonstrated her formidable strength all the more.
And the stronger Ellin proved to be, the greater the likelihood that she would successfully disrupt the Fatui's plans-and the more determined Hiiragi Shinsuke became not to let her leave Ritou.
"Well?"
"What are you thinking about,