The selection of people for this trip to Sumeru was very different from the previous two trips. Apart from Yucheng remaining the Chief Envoy, neither Miko nor Kuki Shinobu would serve as Deputy Envoy of the diplomatic mission again.
Kuki Shinobu's reason was simple. She had chosen to go to Liyue because she could pick up the Law Degree she had left sitting there for years and enjoy a publicly funded vacation along the way. Why not?
She had, after all, studied in Liyue for years and counted as something of a Liyue expert. On top of that, Inazuma had only recently lifted the Sakoku Decree, and Yucheng's other three secretaries had been so busy they could barely think straight, with no time to spare. Kuki Shinobu, his part-time secretary, had been the best choice.
Kuki Shinobu was still the same Kuki Shinobu as ever, a free spirit who disliked restrictions, even though working part-time as Yucheng's secretary gave her not only an exalted status but also considerable power.
But Kuki Shinobu remained completely unmoved, much to her mother's and older sister's frustration. If the Kuki Clan could establish a connection with the Regent, a meteoric rise would clearly be within reach, yet the words "part-time" in Kuki Shinobu's job title stuck in her mother's and sister's throats.
Especially after they heard that the legendary Regent apparently had a habit of getting involved with women close to him. Otherwise, there was no explaining why all four of his secretaries were beautiful women in the prime of their youth. Sara even shared the Regent's surname. How could Kuki Shinobu's mother not get excited?
However, when Kuki Shinobu's mother learned that her daughter had run off again to serve as second-in-command of that so-called Arataki Gang, she nearly ground her teeth to