Firefly: Eh?
Seeing Miss Qingque's sudden, baffling remark, Firefly was completely lost.
However, before she could ask why or ponder the meaning of the sentence...
Jiang Qiao replied.
Jiang Qiao: Busy, just saw this. Hello. [Smiling_Face.JPG]
Seeing Jiang Qiao's message, Firefly instantly abandoned thinking about the previous question.
Firefly: Hello. Elysia nee-san already told me the specifics... Although it's strange and sudden, but... thank you for lending me your body.
Jiang Qiao was surprised by this message. He thought she would first be concerned about 'her own' body.
Jiang Qiao: Don't you want to swap bodies back?
Firefly: Ah... Do you want to swap back...?
Seeing Jiang Qiao's message, Firefly's heart tightened involuntarily, feeling reluctant.
Although this body felt somewhat strange, for her—who, as a Glamoth Iron Cavalry soldier before, hadn't even possessed the qualifications of being human—even if it was strange compared to her own body, it was still incredibly precious.
Not to mention, currently residing in the Elysian Realm, Firefly, manifesting as her own conscious form, found it difficult to experience the oddities of [Jiang Qiao]'s body.
As for her original body... due to its physical defects, she could only stay inside the tin can, unable to even dream. Honestly, regarding [Firefly], Firefly simply viewed it as 'her own body'.
While unwilling to part with it, that was solely because it was her body.
Jiang Qiao: ...You don't want to swap back?
Firefly: No, no... It's just, I've never experienced such a feeling before... Anyway, if possible, could you lend me this body for a while longer?
Firefly: Of course... if you're in a hurry to swap back... it's okay too.
Like a shy, bashful young girl, true to that 'first love' appearance, it was hard to imagine her true self was the formidable Glamoth Iron Cavalry.
Even the messages she sent felt weak and timid.
Of course, for Mr. Jiang Qiao, seeing this message made him feel somewhat complex.
After all, previous body swaps, unless involving specific individuals, usually involved the sentiment of 'wishing they could swap back quickly', but ultimately choosing to wait due to reluctance regarding the 'first time'.
Borrowing bodies was basically Jiang Qiao's subjective action.
But now with Firefly, the tables had turned—it was Firefly borrowing his body.
Jiang Qiao: Alright, since you like my body so much, you can borrow it for now.
What could he do? Miss Firefly was already like this.
Could he really force a swap back? Setting aside the process required, even if he did swap back, facing Miss Firefly's disappointed expression wouldn't feel right.
After all, he was very considerate of the original owner's feelings.
Jiang Qiao: But, lending me your body, aren't you worried I might do something strange?
Firefly: Uh... Strange things?
Miss Firefly was puzzled upon seeing this message. After all, as a Glamoth Iron Cavalry soldier, her understanding of such concepts wasn't strong yet.
However. Perhaps because she was currently using [Jiang Qiao], while thinking, she was somewhat influenced by the information stored within this body—especially since she had just experienced the great battle of 'Elysia's Wonderful House'. Although the main part of those memories went with Jiang Qiao, some residual data remained.
Coming into contact with this data, Miss Firefly instantly shifted from her original confusion to curiosity, then bewilderment, and then... her cheeks rapidly turned red.
So... strange things refer to this kind of thing?
Miss Firefly, her moral compass slightly recalibrated, successfully entered a state of shyness.
Feeling both bashful and strangely intrigued.
Simultaneously, some residual 'information' also filled her with curiosity and anticipation regarding such matters.
But overall, she still felt a little worried.
Firefly: Um... You haven't used my body to do anything strange, have you?
Jiang Qiao: How could I? Do I look like the type of person who would use another girl's body for strange things without permission?
Jiang Qiao: Don't worry~ Although this body is quite comfortable, I definitely won't do anything strange to her~
Firefly: Com... comfortable...?!!
Saying things like that doesn't make people feel reassured at all!
Could it be that strange things have already been done to my body?
Firefly, who initially wasn't worried about her body at all, started to feel anxious after this exchange.
Qingque: Don't believe this guy's nonsense!
Miss Qingque, the victim, stepped forward.
Qingque: If you hand your body over to this guy, you're gonna suffer big time!
Firefly: Eh...?
Qingque: I'm the victim, I have pictures as proof.
Qingque: [Image.JPG]
The picture showed a mountain of scrolls piled high on a desk.
Firefly: This... What's wrong with this?
Startled at first, Firefly looked at the baffling picture, somewhat confused.
Qingque: What's wrong... This is all that Jiang guy's doing!
Qingque: If it weren't for him, how could I have gone from the lowest-ranking diviner in the Divination Commission to the acting Grand Diviner!
As she said this, Acting Grand Diviner Qingque's hand gripping the document trembled with visible veins, her teeth clenched as if harboring a deep-seated grudge against someone.
Jiang Qiao: That's not my fault. I was just doing my job step by step.
Qingque: Step-by-step work?... Stop explaining! You workaholic dog!
Firefly: Uh... Sounds like it's not necessarily a bad thing.
Initially scared, Firefly looked at these messages, understood the difference between Acting Grand Diviner and Diviner, and reached this conclusion.
Mr. Jiang Qiao clearly did a good thing. Isn't this basically a promotion and a raise?
Qingque: Ha, not a bad thing! Thanks to this guy! My workload this month is more than my entire career as a diviner combined!
Qingque: Give me back my holidays! Give me back my Celestial Jade tiles! Workaholic dogs deserve a bad end!
Firefly was dazed, understanding yet not fully grasping.
So, it's just that work became busier than before?
She breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, in Firefly's view, this wasn't something worth worrying about at all.
In fact, for them, the former Glamoth Iron Cavalry, having nothing to do was actually the most terrifying thing. If a weapon lost its purpose, it became meaningless.
Besides, she used to work year-round without breaks, flying around the universe with her companions, hunting bugs.
Looking at it this way, the problem mentioned by the group member named Qingque seemed completely trivial.
After all, setting aside the fact that there was no real promotion ladder within the Glamoth Iron Cavalry—at most, the title of 'Captain'—
After becoming the last Glamoth Iron Cavalry, the concept of promotion ceased to exist.
Furthermore, since the manufacturer, the Glamoth Republic, had already collapsed, Miss Firefly was actually currently unemployed, a free agent.
She could decide what she wanted or didn't want to do herself.
Completely free from worries about being overworked.
Upon learning this situation, Miss Qingque in the group instantly entered a state of jealousy, envy, and hatred.
She wished she was the one who had swapped with Firefly.
Unfortunately, even if she could swap now, Qingque wouldn't dare swap randomly with others anymore.
After all, before, she was just a diviner. Even if she messed up work—and a diviner's job was mostly basic divination, reading documents, etc.—messing up was just messing up. At worst, she'd get criticized by the Grand Diviner or the officials above, maybe even lower her reputation enough to get kicked out of the Divination Commission.
But now...
Acting Grand Diviner was still Grand Diviner. Although Fu Xuan deliberately paid attention to and reviewed major matters, for most tasks, the latter trusted Qingque considerably after confirming she was capable during this period, choosing to let her handle things.
While this gave her great authority, it also meant that the documents and decisions she issued were all equivalent to the final verdict of the Divination Commission.
The Divination Commission was one of the Six Charioteers, equal in status to the Xianzhou General. Due to its special nature, the other five commissions were influenced by the reports and decisions issued by the Divination Commission in various matters.
From trivial everyday civilian affairs to the Xianzhou's navigation routes, the shadow of the Divination Commission was everywhere.
If anything went wrong, the entire Luofu would be affected.
This was also why Miss Qingque found slacking off so painful now.
In the past, as a diviner, she put 20% effort into work and the rest into finding ways to slack off.
Anyway, if the sky fell, the Grand Diviner herself would hold it up.
But now, she herself had become half the sky.
To avoid making mistakes, she put in 99% effort directly, with the remaining 0.1% squeezed out just for slacking off.
Undoubtedly.
Miss Qingque couldn't produce any other evidence to accuse Mr. Jiang Qiao of wrongdoing.
Helpless, to protect the newcomer, Miss Qingque could only pin her hopes on other victims.
Qingque: @Furina, quick, it's your turn! Hurry up and expose this bad guy's true colors!
Miss Qingque believed that other victims surely had more evidence of Jiang Qiao's crimes.
But Furina, who had just been enjoying the drama like eating melon seeds, was somewhat baffled.
Furina: Ah... Me? I don't have anything.
Although somewhat dissatisfied with Mr. Jiang Qiao's 'packaging' technique, Miss Furina was undoubtedly quite satisfied with his service.
Her other self was rescued, and Fontaine's prophecy was averted.
If she had to complain, maybe it was just being a little unhappy that he patted his butt and left after finishing the job.
After all, setting aside Focalors, even those two old things from the Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinal had secretly tasted 'Jiang Qiao'.
And she, the one who actually swapped, the first one to make contact, was kept in the dark the whole time, even getting sent to the Fortress of Meropide as a scapegoat.
It was really hard for Miss Furina not to be angry.
Of course, the main target of her anger was clearly Fairy Ely.
However, after the real Elysia ended up screwing bolts in prison due to a misunderstanding, Miss Furina's anger dissipated.
After all, what angered her was Fairy Ely abandoning her to play with Jiang Qiao, leaving her alone to screw bolts.
Since Elysia also did it, they were even.
In fact, besides embarrassment, Miss Furina felt a hint of secret satisfaction and smugness about it.
Hmph, so what if you're the original? Once you arrive in my Fontaine, Lord Hydro Archon's domain, don't you still have to obediently screw bolts in the Fortress of Meropide?
As for Qingque's work complaints, hilarious! Furina had absolutely no such worries.
After all, the Palais Mermonia had Neuvillette, the working dragon. Even Apep, tricked back from Sumeru, had now joined the ranks of working dragons, exchanging labor for a Gnosis.
There were also Focalors, Egeria, and the Dendro Archon.
Miss Furina had already fully entered the state of being a hands-off boss. Before, she did a little work; now, she just needed to eat small cakes, take strolls in the opera house, and chat in the group, and that was it. Because she hadn't lost her divine power, she didn't even need to worry about gaining weight from too many sweets.
Yay~
Miss Qingque was undoubtedly envious, jealous, and hateful of Furina's situation.
Damn it, we're both officials, why can you be a hands-off boss while I, Qingque, have to suffer the toil of paperwork!
That's right, it must be this Jiang Qiao guy's fault!
Thinking back to her previous happy life as a diviner in Central Starskiff Haven, Qingque unhesitatingly blamed this problem on the man surnamed Jiang.
Although Qingque still wanted to rally other victims to denounce Jiang Qiao...
Unfortunately, the other victims were mostly not in the group.
As for victim number one, Miss Elysia...
Although she saw Qingque's anti-Jiang Qiao call to arms and really wanted to respond...
Unfortunately, thinking about how embarrassing her own experiences were and how she'd be laughed at if she revealed them, Elysia wisely chose not to surface.
After all, the series of 'humiliations' resulting from losing to 'Elysia', and the even greater 'humiliations' incurred from seeking revenge... if she told the group members about these things...
Setting aside whether Bad Jiang Qiao would be denounced, her own image would definitely be completely ruined!
Helpless, Miss Elysia, unable to voice her grievances, could only endure and vent her anger on passing Chariot-Type Honkai Beasts.
According to the records of the accompanying Fire Moth members, this was already the 3,261st Chariot-Type Honkai Beast Miss Elysia had vanquished.
Truly deserving the title 'Chariot Slayer'.
With Miss Pink Fatty unwilling to step forward, Miss Qingque's 'Anti-Jiang Manifesto' undoubtedly fell into a very awkward situation.
Miss Qingque was filled with grief and indignation over this.
Qingque: Even if it's just me, I will fight to the end and completely expose your true colors!
With that, Miss Qingque finished her visiting hours... ahem, her break stolen from work, as another stack of scrolls landed.
Mr. Jiang Qiao successfully defended his image.
And Miss Firefly was completely reassured about the safety of her body in his hands.
There was nothing left to fear.