"So this is an isekai?"
A lively girlish voice rang out in the air. In everyone's line of sight, a white-haired girl looked at this verdant, primitive-looking land, her face filled with surprise and wonder—undoubtedly, this was Kiana Kaslana.
With soft, gentle words, Seele Vollerei also chimed in with deep agreement: "There are so many things I've never seen before. It looks just like a fairy tale."
"Well, it is a different world, after all." Bronya Zaychik appeared extremely calm, but her small, curious eyes clearly indicated that Miss Bronya's mood was not as tranquil as it seemed on the surface.
Looking at the girls who looked like country bumpkins visiting the big city upon arriving in this other world, Jiang Qiao couldn't help but smile wryly.
Needless to say, this was due to Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's invitation to attend Sumeru's Sabzeruz Festival.
For the sake of the festivities, and also to satisfy Kiana and the others' longing and curiosity about other worlds, Jiang Qiao figured that if he was going, he might as well take everyone along.
And so it was.
Everyone from the current civilization, except for a few who couldn't make it, were brought along by Jiang Qiao.
To be honest, the 'group tickets' from the chat group's point shop, which had always seemed rather useless, proved to be quite convenient. Otherwise, even for Jiang Qiao, who had accumulated a considerable amount of points due to having little use for them, buying individual tickets would have been a bit troublesome.
After all, he was different from most people in the chat group; he rarely took the initiative to accept tasks through the chat group's mission function to earn points.
This was, of course, partly because the chat group points were of limited use to Jiang Qiao. The so-called point items were more like 'toys' to him. While Jiang Qiao didn't refuse to acquire such things, well... when he himself was often treated as a 'toy' by those around him, where would he find the time to play with actual toys?
As for situations where chat group friends genuinely needed help...
Considering the circumstances of the chat group members... there were hardly any major incidents requiring his intervention.
Director Hu Tao of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, who was also in Teyvat—what major disasters could Liyue possibly have? Azhdaha didn't need his help. As for dealing with the Overlord of the Vortex, that could be a bit of fun, but it was entirely the Traveler's show.
It wasn't impossible to get involved, but if Jiang Qiao himself were to step in, he'd definitely just flick his hand and instantly obliterate that sea serpent. That certainly couldn't be done. Because that sea creature was actually a trial left for Liyue by a certain old timer (Zhongli), to prove Liyue could break free from its reliance on gods.
This was both to reassure himself and to reassure the Adepti.
The sea serpent was a wild mob left for their own people. Tartaglia... Jiang Qiao didn't mind hammering another Fatui Harbinger. Tartaglia wasn't exactly a good person anyway, but this guy was, in the end, just an actor arranged by the Tsaritsa and the old timer. He was already such a clown; there was clearly no need for Jiang Qiao to go out of his way to spin him like a top.
The result was that Director Hu's side was mostly peaceful. Was he really supposed to help her promote Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's services?
Miss Furina, who was in the same world, wouldn't even dare take on that job. She had already received many strange looks from Neuvillette for just helping Wangsheng Funeral Parlor establish a branch in Fontaine.
Furina's situation needed even less explanation—Mr. Jiang Qiao had already thoroughly wrecked Fontaine's main storyline.
From the great "Thunder Teacher" (Raiden Shogun) to Focalors, after resolving Fontaine's prophecy, Mr. Jiang Qiao had even, once and for all, dismantled the Hydro Archon's seat, elevated Mr. Neuvillette to a full-fledged Dragon, and simultaneously poached the Dendro Dragon King from next door. Add to that the existing Archons...
Miss Furina, having completed her convergence, was a genuine Hydro Archon.
And Miss Egeria, who had won her revival match, was a little water dragon originally modeled after the Hydro Dragon King, a top-tier existence even among Archons.
Coupled with the relocated Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, even if the latter two weren't in their prime, the combination of a complete Hydro Archon and a complete Hydro Dragon was enough to make even the Heavenly Principles at their peak lose their appetite, not to mention she was currently too preoccupied to care about the internal affairs of the world.
If not for a certain someone doing something even more outrageous than dismantling an Archon's seat, something utterly intolerable, she wouldn't have squeezed out the power to warn him.
Teyvat was temporarily calm, not to mention.
As for yunyun's world in KonoSuba... The only thing Jiang Qiao could probably do was team up with yunyun—what was that? Playing house? While it didn't really matter, most of the time he didn't have that much spare time. By the time he did, Miss Hu Tao had already gone over to play with yunyun.
And Firefly and Miss Qingque—work alone was already making their scalps tingle. Where would they find time to do other things? They would, however, warmly welcome a certain very idle fellow, who was the reason they weren't idle, to cover their shifts.
The only one who seemed to have issues was Kyoko.
However... Kyoko's side seemed completely normal too.
Jiang Qiao guessed she was probably quite far from the start of the story, possibly even in the original timeline. Without the threat of turning into a witch herself, she was in a completely carefree state. She even frequently mooched meals off yunyun and Furina thanks to the chat group. It was said that 90% of the chat group points Kyoko obtained were spent on mooching meals.
"It hasn't been long since the last time I came here, but Sumeru seems to have changed a lot," he said, looking at the chat logs in the group and then at the girls reveling in the wonders of the other world, able to perceive the changes in this land.
"Well, Sumeru has become much closer to Fontaine, after all." Furina was quite composed. After Focalors' return, she had become much more mature... or rather, this was actually Furina's true nature.
Whether as Furina, who had ruled for five hundred years, or as Focalors, who had just ascended the throne five hundred years ago, they, being one and the same person, were, as Focalors demonstrated, incredibly calm and wise.
After Focalors disappeared, Furina still exhibited this trait, but because she lost the part representing divine power, she completely lacked confidence and became like a fragile narcissus.
"After René returned to the Akademiya, Fontaine's technological progress has been immense. You haven't been there. When you see it, you'll know. Fontaine under Neuvillette's governance will have changed even more than Sumeru."
"And Sumeru... after all, Nahida is the God of Grass and Trees. To avoid occupying natural living spaces as much as possible, Sumeru's development is actually quite slow." She looked at the towering giant tree as she spoke.
"However, it seems that precisely because of this, Sumeru's biotechnology has become particularly advanced."
Through a wide field of vision, one could see many technological products presented in the form of 'life.' The natural affinity with elemental life gave the people of this land a unique advantage in how to utilize and modify elemental life and plants.
As for Fontaine—needless to say, just as most people imagined, it had taken the path of machinery.
"Are these also Sumeru's achievements?" Jiang Qiao spotted the troops in green, undergoing extremely rigorous training under a certain jackal-headed young man—Cyno.
"It seems they adopted Fontaine's suggestion. Sumeru changed its military system and established..."
"It's the Forest Rangers."
A soft voice answered. In view was a somewhat mature woman sitting on a tree branch—Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. She dangled her fair feet, looking exceptionally alluring.
"Egeria suggested it, so I advised Nahida to give it a try."
"It seems the results are exceptionally good now, hmm?" With a light leap, she landed on the ground. Ignoring the somewhat exaggerated sway of her ample chest with that bold movement, this first Dendro Archon looked incredibly pure and enticing.
She looked at the troops led by Cyno with particular satisfaction.
To be honest—Sumeru's loose military strength was actually a problem she had sown.
Because she advocated peace, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata hadn't given much thought to such matters.
Even if there was a real fight, she had her own Aranara retainers... However, this decision, made without much thought, resulted in Sumeru having almost no official military force. It wasn't until later, after she was gone, that the Akademiya realized this wouldn't do, so they hired a bunch of mercenaries from the desert to make do.
But the combat effectiveness of mercenaries was predictable... Although there were indeed outstanding ones, the seeds of trouble sown by Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's lack of consideration led to Sumeru's populace having almost the weakest military strength among the seven nations.
Fortunately, after establishing diplomatic relations with Fontaine, Fontaine, which possessed an established navy, saw Sumeru's bizarre situation. After discussions with Egeria and the others, they suggested helping Sumeru pull together such a force.
This was also a painful lesson for Greater Lord Rukkhadevata. If she hadn't gone to Fontaine, she wouldn't even have noticed this.
"Is this alright?"
Facing Furina's gaze, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, standing under the tree, smiled. "Don't worry, the people of Sumeru can't see me."
"After all, the star of this Sabzeruz Festival is Buer (Nahida)."
Honestly, although she had invited Jiang Qiao to attend the Sabzeruz Festival—after all, it was one of Sumeru's few presentable important festivals—she hadn't originally planned to come along. The Sabzeruz Festival celebrated the Dendro Archon. I
f you, the original Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, showed up, what would Little Nahida celebrate? Everyone would probably see Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and immediately go—"Aah, Greater Lord, we adore you!" There cannot be two suns in the sky; Sumeru has only one Dendro Archon! And that is Greater Lord Rukkhadevata!
Without a pile of achievements to back her up, even though she had governed Sumeru for a while and had many admirers, it was extremely naive for Nahida to try and compete with Greater Lord Rukkhadevata in popularity.
In this situation, even if she truly didn't mind, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, considering her junior, couldn't do that.
But...
After all, he rarely came. As the first Dendro Archon, she should at least fulfill her duties as a host, right? Besides, it had been a long time, and she also quite wanted to see Nahida... If she hid a little better and wasn't discovered, it should be fine, right?
However…
Just as Jiang Qiao had said—Sumeru had changed a lot after some time.
Miss Greater Lord Rukkhadevata looked at him and couldn't help but subconsciously gulp.
He looks even more 'fragrant' than before...
I really want to take a bite...