Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 1 - 10

Synopsis:

--+--

The Marionette’s Cuddling Life in New Eridu

Synopsis:

I just woke up, and the walls are gone.

As the Fatui’s Seventh Harbinger, a genius puppeteer, and Pulonia’s rightful owner, I should be able to handle most accidents.

But this one is a little strange.

Columbina is in my bed. Her eyes are open. My memories have holes. A god named Aha has thrown us into New Eridu’s Hollows and added one rule: if we move more than five meters apart, we crash together.

Fine. Ethereals can be cut down and Hollows can be studied.

But why does Columbina keep saying she missed me?

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 1

--+--

Chapter 1: The Morning the Walls Went Missing

--+--

Coming back to herself didn’t happen in an instant, like flipping on a switch. It felt more like an old machine warming up in the dead of winter.

Sandrone’s head felt heavy and dull, as if someone had stuffed it full of soaked cotton. The world before her eyes blurred behind a layer of frosted glass, with only a few broken spots of light swaying through it. She blinked on instinct, trying to clear her sight.

A faint smell of maintenance fluid hung in the air, mixed with... some kind of cool, clean scent, like winter mint?

“...A dream?”

Sandrone murmured under her breath, her voice dry. She raised her right hand without thinking and pressed it to her aching temple.

At the same time, to prop up her heavy upper body, she braced her left hand at her side.

Her palm did not meet the smooth rub of bedsheets she expected.

Instead, her fingertips sank into something warm, soft, and springy.

This feeling... wasn’t right.

Sandrone’s brain froze for a second.

By reflex, her fingers curled and gave that softness a light squeeze.

“Mmm...”

A tiny, breathy sound, like a sigh drifting down from the clouds, slipped into Sandrone’s ear. It was sweet, lazy, and still thick with sleep.

That voice... why did it sound a little like Columbina?

“!!!”

The absurd thought had only just surfaced when Sandrone jolted as if shocked by electricity. Every hair on her back stood on end. She didn’t even have time to care about grace. She yanked her left hand back and scrambled toward the other side of the bed like a startled cat, stopping only when her hand touched the edge.

“Co... Columbina?!”

Sandrone clutched the collar of her clothes with one hand, her chest rising and falling. Her face, which was usually so cold, flushed bright red from shock and a sudden rush of shame.

Only then did the “presence” she’d disturbed begin to move.

Black hair with deep red tips spilled across the pillow like a waterfall, then slid as Columbina slowly pushed herself upright.

She seemed to be drifting somewhere between dream and waking. Her head dipped with each breath, like a sleepy white dove.

“Mm...”

She made a soft, meaningless sound, as if confused by the noise of morning.

“Y-y-you... why are you in my bed?!” Sandrone’s voice climbed a little from nerves. Her finger shook as she pointed at the other girl, while her mind turned into a bowl of paste. “Explain! Why are you in my bed?!”

At that moment, Columbina stopped swaying. Facing Sandrone, who looked almost like a little steam-powered princess about to overheat, she slowly lifted her head.

The eyes that were usually hidden beneath a lace blindfold, as if she were always asleep, opened without warning.

A pair of pale pink eyes, so clear they brought peace just by looking at them, held no trace of impurity. Deep within those pupils seemed to rest a cold full moon, glowing with a dreamlike, hollow light. One glance was enough to quiet the heart.

Time seemed to stretch out in that instant.

“You...” Sandrone’s mouth parted a little. The questions on the tip of her tongue jammed in her throat, replaced by pure shock. “Why are your... eyes open?”

Columbina didn’t answer.

She only watched Sandrone in silence, her gaze filled with a strange focus and softness, as if she were looking at a treasure she had lost and found again. As if she were checking whether the person before her was real.

That gaze was far too direct, and it made Sandrone feel cramped for no reason. She took a deep breath and forced her reason back into control, trying to cover up her loss of composure.

“...Tch.”

Sandrone turned her head aside and folded her arms, putting on her usual proud look. Still, her wandering eyes kept sneaking back toward those beautiful ones.

“If you’re awake, stop pretending to be mute. Also, didn’t you say you didn’t like looking at this false sky? Why are you opening your eyes now?”

She gave a cold snort and spread her right hand, her tone sharp. “Honestly, if you barely use those eyes anyway, then instead of wasting them, why not let me take them apart and—mmph?!”

Before she could finish, a wave of fragrance swept in.

Columbina closed the distance in an instant. Before Sandrone could react, a soft body crashed into her arms. Her center of balance vanished, and with a startled cry, she fell flat onto the bed beneath her.

Columbina followed her down, wrapping both arms tight around Sandrone’s waist. Her chin rested in the hollow of Sandrone’s neck, and her whole body clung to her like melting sugar, leaving no space between them.

“Co-Columbina! Wh-what are you doing?!”

Sandrone’s heartbeat, which had only just calmed, shot straight back into the red zone. Her whole body went stiff. Her hands hovered in the air like two cat paws with nowhere to go, wanting to push Columbina away but somehow not daring to use force.

“Has your brain shorted out?! Why are you hugging me so tight all of a sudden?! You’re crushing me! Let go!”

Even though she kept snapping and even bared two small pointed canines in her flustered anger, Sandrone didn’t actually throw the person in her arms away. Her body only stayed a little tense.

“I wanted to look at you more.”

Columbina’s voice was very soft, but clear. Her warm breath brushed against Sandrone’s sensitive ear, sending a numb shiver through her.

“Look... look at me?”

Sandrone felt her cheeks heat up so fast they could probably fry an egg.

“Hah? What kind of reason is that...? Look all you want. I’m right here, not running away! But can you get up first? I can’t breathe with you on top of me, idiot!”

She finally found a little strength and pressed both hands against Columbina’s lower stomach, trying to push this heavy piece of clingy candy off her. “Hurry up and let go! You’re so heavy!”

Columbina obediently released her arms, propped up her upper body, and slowly moved aside.

Sandrone finally escaped that suffocating hug and sat up in a sorry state.

Before she could straighten her messy collar, Columbina’s long, fair hands settled on her shoulders. Those dreamlike pink eyes stared right at Sandrone, calm and soft, yet somehow seeming to see through everything.

“Sandrone,” Columbina tilted her head and asked in a calm voice, “are you still going to say those harsh things to me next?”

Before Sandrone could react, Columbina narrowed her eyes a little, raised her hand, and brushed her fingertips over the top of Sandrone’s head, like she was soothing a bristling cat. “It’s all right. As long as it’s you saying them, I like hearing them.”

“Enough!”

Sandrone felt like she was being executed in public.

With a smack, she slapped Columbina’s hand away, angry from embarrassment. “What is wrong with you today? Did you take the wrong medicine? Or did you sleep yourself stupid?!”

As if trying to flee that overly doting mood, Sandrone quickly got off the bed and stood at its side, her back to Columbina. She slapped her burning cheeks hard with both hands.

After a short while, she finally calmed down and looked around out of habit. “Also, more important—where exactly is this place? Why are we...”

Sandrone’s voice cut off.

Because she finally saw their surroundings.

But behind her came Columbina’s quiet voice. She did not seem to have listened to Sandrone’s shocked question about the room at all. Instead, late and with great seriousness, she answered Sandrone’s earlier question about whether she had taken the wrong medicine.

“I missed you, Sandrone.”

Columbina’s quiet voice came from behind her. She had also stood up. Her bare feet made no sound against the ground, and her gaze still tied itself to Sandrone like an invisible thread.

“Co-lum-bi-na! Know when to stop!”

Sandrone spun around. Her usual elegance vanished, and she bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. “Is it fun to keep saying these... these ridiculous things?! Could you please use that rusty brain of yours and look at where we are right now?!”

Perhaps Sandrone’s high-pitched shout finally pulled Columbina back to some sense. At last, she moved her eyes away from that cute, angry face and looked around.

This place was strange.

The fine, ornate tables and chairs, the workbench covered in blueprints, the soft four-poster bed, and the table where several of them often held tea parties. Every piece of furniture gave off a familiar, comforting feeling.

But the walls were gone.

Not only the walls. The ceiling, the floor, the windows... everything that defined the space had vanished. In their place stretched pure, endless white void.

The furniture looked as if some strange power had cut it out and tossed it onto a blank sheet of paper.

“Heh...”

Columbina suddenly laughed. Her eyes curved into pretty crescents. “Sandrone, you’re so interesting.”

“Interesting? What part of this is interesting?” Sandrone walked to a familiar chair and sat down, her brows locked tight. “What are you talking about?”

“Other people are so poor they have only four bare walls,” Columbina said as her skirt swayed with her steps. She walked barefoot to Sandrone’s side and sat down. “But our room is the exact opposite. It has everything except the walls.”

“...”

Sandrone held her forehead with one hand, covering the helpless look in her eyes.

“Do you still not understand our situation? This clearly isn’t a real space! It’s either an illusion, or some unknown alternate space...” She paused, then suddenly caught on. “Wait! What do you mean, ‘our room’? Every piece of furniture here is my private property! None of it belongs to you!”

Columbina blinked with a perfectly natural look. “But at least that bed has been slept in by both you and me, Sandrone. So that makes it our... shared property?”

It hardened.

Sandrone’s fist, resting on her knee, hardened.

The corner of her mouth twitched, and a vein seemed to throb on her forehead. Just as she was about to pull out a wrench and give this female coworker a bit of physical “maintenance”—

“Ahahahahahaha—!!!”

A bright, infectious laugh rang out from every direction without warning.

The sound wasn’t harsh. Instead, it had the lively noise of a festival. Along with it came the squeak of rubbing balloons, the cheerful blare of party horns, and thunderous applause, as if thousands of hands were clapping at once. In an instant, the whole space seemed to turn into a giant circus.

Without the slightest hesitation, Columbina, who had looked lazy a moment ago, moved.

She stepped lightly in front of Sandrone.

With her back to Sandrone, her long black-and-red hair stirred without wind and began to glow. A faint halo rose in her pink eyes as she unfolded her trilune authority at full strength, trying to catch the anomaly in the space.

Yet there was nothing.

Only the happy tremor left in the air proved that the sound had not been a hallucination.

“Who’s there? Who’s playing tricks?”

Sandrone also leaped up at once, pressing her back to Columbina’s as she scanned the white void with sharp caution.

“What kind of skill is hiding in the shadows? You dragged us in here, but you don’t have the nerve to show yourself?!”

Her tongue was as sharp as ever, but unease rose inside her, hard to put into words.

No one answered.

“Damn it... where’s Pulonia?”

Sandrone searched on instinct for the giant puppet that was always at her side.

But there was only furniture here. The silent guardian was nowhere to be found.

She looked back at the slender figure behind her, and the sense that something was off grew stronger in her heart.

In her memory, ever since they had left the Fatui, Columbina’s condition had been poor. She had been like a frail little white dove. But now...

Wait. Frail?

The Doctor... segments... moon marrow...

A blurred fragment of memory flashed through Sandrone’s mind. It felt like remembering something important through a layer of fog.

“Tch...” Sandrone clutched her head in irritation. That faint unease in her mind made her restless. “What is going on...? I feel like I forgot something...”

Pop!

A crisp sound cut off her thoughts.

Amid a shower of colorful confetti and glitter, a bright red balloon painted with a silly smiling face appeared out of thin air in front of them.

Then came another pop.

The balloon burst.

A crack opened in the empty void. It spread fast, forming a half-transparent shape flowing with rainbow light... a door?

Dead silence.

Sandrone and Columbina looked at each other.

“Is that... an exit?” Sandrone frowned.

Before she could step forward and analyze it, Columbina had already begun walking toward the door.

“Hey! Wait!”

Sandrone reacted fast and grabbed Columbina by the wrist. “Are you insane? You don’t even know what’s on the other side, and you’re just going to walk in?!”

Columbina stopped.

She turned, and Sandrone’s anxious face reflected in her eyes.

“It’s all right,” she said softly. The peace in her words soothed Sandrone’s heart a little. “I can feel that this ‘being’ means us no harm... and besides, as long as you’re here, Sandrone, that’s enough.”

“—!”

A numb feeling ran through Sandrone’s wrist where she held Columbina, like a small shock of static.

She quickly let go, as if trying to hide something.

“Ahem...”

She turned her face away and cleared her throat hard, trying to cover the useless flush on her cheeks.

“You... what is wrong with you today? Why is everything coming out of your mouth so... so creepy...”

Silence held for two seconds.

Then Sandrone seemed to give up all resistance and let out a self-destructive sigh.

“Ah, forget it! Fine, fine! This is so annoying!”

She strode forward. This time, she took the lead and reached out, grabbing Columbina’s cool hand and holding it tight.

“Let’s go, then! At worst, we end up in some other damn place!”

Sandrone lifted her chin and pulled Columbina toward that strange, dazzling door.

“One of us is the Fatui’s Third Harbinger, and the other is the Seventh. What kind of grand scene haven’t we seen before? What’s there to be afraid of?”

Columbina looked at their joined hands, and the smile at the corner of her mouth finally bloomed in full.

“Mhm. Not afraid.”

Side by side, the two stepped through the unknown doorway.

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 2

--+--

Chapter 2: Aha, You Really Did It This Time!

--+--

The feeling under her feet changed from empty nothing to hard man-made floor tiles, followed by the sharp click of her heels striking the ground.

It was as if some unseen hand had turned down the color in her sight. The pure white void vanished in an instant, replaced by a dull, stifling mix of yellow and lead-gray.

The air smelled of old rust. Dry concrete dust stirred in the wind.

This place looked like an abandoned, half-open subway hub.

There was no roof overhead, only a few rows of station canopies that had held up better than the rest. A thick layer of dust coated their metal frames.

Bright but hazy daylight spilled down from above, lighting this dead, silent place.

The tracks themselves were still fairly even, but several subway cars had derailed. Some had tipped onto their sides. Others lay across the platforms. Huge claw marks gouged deep through their metal shells, almost down to the bone.

And in every corner of the platform grew clusters of giant black crystals, marked with strange dark patterns, like some twisted plant life that had sprouted from the ruins.

“Cough, cough…!”

Sandrone covered her mouth and nose in disgust, waving her other hand hard in front of her face. “This air quality…”

She lowered her head and swept her gaze over her spotless clothes. The rubies set into her black high collar and fitted bodice gave off a faint glow in the dim light. Her white thigh-high stockings and black skirt with gold lace trim were now skimming far too close to the dust-covered floor.

“…How long has this place been abandoned? There isn’t even a shadow of a living person around… What, are we supposed to survive in the wilderness now?”

Sandrone frowned and looked around.

This space made her feel uneasy. It wasn’t strong, but there was an unseen pressure here, trying to cling to her skin like moss.

“There’s a kind of… invasive energy in the air.” She made the judgment with sharp instinct, her voice dropping a little. “It’s not elemental power, and it isn’t a fluctuation from the Kuuvahki either… Shame I don’t have any equipment on hand. I can’t analyze it further.”

Sandrone let out an annoyed breath and turned by habit toward her companion.

Columbina stood quietly beside her, as if listening to some faint sound carried on the wind.

Her bare feet, however, were floating half an inch above the ground, as though an invisible film had cut her off from this filthy world. No matter how the dust swirled below, her graceful ankles and pale pink toes remained spotless, so fair they looked out of place against the gray ruins around them.

“What a handy ability,” Sandrone muttered.

Then, all of a sudden, there came a bright little pop, like the cork of a champagne bottle being pulled free. The sound rang out in the silence.

A faint burst of festival noise followed, along with a ridiculous honk from a party horn.

Colored paper and glitter fell from the sky as a gaudy piece of card stock appeared out of thin air, wobbling as it floated in front of the two of them, waiting to be taken.

Sandrone frowned and stepped forward, pinching it between her fingers.

[Joyous Troupe Tour Ticket: First Stop]

On the back, a line of crooked childish handwriting had been scrawled by hand:

[Dear audience members:]

[Welcome to the Cretan Hollow! Here we have old trains, angry… ████]

[Current Program: Lost Lambs of the Old Subway Station]

[Suggested Action: Walk! Walk! Until you find a living person who can serve hot coffee! Intelligent Constructs count too~]

[Special Gift: In light of your touching exchange in the void just now, Aha has decided to play matchmaker.]

[Lovers’ Safety Rope~]

[Instructions: In this dangerous world, getting too far apart will make you lonely! From now on, if the straight-line physical distance between you two exceeds five meters, it will trigger “Irresistible Absolute Attraction.” In simple terms, you’ll snap together like strong magnets. Please hold hands at all times and enjoy this sweet journey of perfect closeness~ ♥]

“…”

Sandrone read the last line with no expression.

Columbina tilted her head and murmured, “Aha?… A god I’ve never heard of.”

Riiiip.

The ticket turned into a cloud of paper scraps in Sandrone’s hand.

“That bastard!!!”

Sandrone ground her teeth. The white bow on her chest rose and fell sharply.

“What does ‘play matchmaker’ mean? What does ‘afraid of being lonely’ mean? And what ‘sweet journey’? Who wants to be tied to someone like conjoined twins?!”

“Five meters?” Columbina, on the other hand, seemed rather interested. She even tapped the ground lightly with the tip of her foot, clearly in a good mood.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head a little, as though sensing something.

“The local residents are still some distance away…” she murmured, her tone so soft she might have been talking about the weather. “Since we’re still safe for now…”

“…Sandrone~ Shall we test it?”

“Test what? What’s there to test about a stupid prank like this—hey!”

Before Sandrone could react, Columbina suddenly sprang backward.

Her movement was like a bird leaving its nest. Her light gauze dress fluttered as she widened the space between them in an instant.

One meter. Three meters. Four meters. Five meters…

The very moment Columbina’s heel crossed the five-meter line—

Bzzz!

A huge, brutal force appeared out of nowhere.

“Eh—!”

Sandrone didn’t even have time to adjust her stance. It felt as if an invisible rope had been tied around her waist, and her whole body flew forward out of her control.

At the same time, Columbina clearly hadn’t expected the force to be so strong either. Her slender body became a blur through the air, and the graceful landing she had planned turned into a complete loss of control.

Sandrone’s eyes widened as Columbina’s delicate face rushed closer in her sight. She could even see the slight curl of the other girl’s lashes.

There was no room to brake. Some strange power forced the distance between them down to zero.

“Wait, stop—mmph!”

Sandrone crashed straight into Columbina’s arms, as if she’d hit a soft mass of cotton. Then the force dragged them both down together in a tangled fall.

Thud!

Even with Columbina beneath her as a cushion, the impact still left Sandrone dizzy. The world spun, then stilled, leaving only a ringing in her ears.

She lay on top of Columbina, her cheek buried right in the soft hollow of the other girl’s neck. She could clearly smell that familiar cool scent, faint and clean, like winter mint.

From somewhere in the void, a laugh drifted over. It sounded bright, gleeful, and far too infectious.

“…It seems what they said was true.”

The girl beneath her let out a small laugh. A weak breath brushed Sandrone’s ear, sending a fine shiver through her.

Sandrone’s eyes flew open. She pushed herself up, only to realize how awful their position was.

She was straddling Columbina’s waist, her skirt spread like flower petals. In her panic, both of her hands had landed on Columbina’s chest, and even through the fabric, the feeling was impossible to ignore.

Columbina just lay there in silence. Her loose hair spilled across the floor tiles. At some point, her pale pink eyes had opened, and now they gazed up at the person above her, soft as water and looking far too innocent.

Worst of all, Columbina didn’t push her away. Instead, her arms slipped around Sandrone’s waist, and she gave her back a light pat, as if soothing a startled animal.

“Let… let go!”

Sandrone’s face turned bright red as she tried to get up, only to find that the damned “safety rope” was still in effect.

The instant her body left Columbina’s, that familiar tug appeared around her waist again, like an invisible hand dragging her right back.

“Mmph!”

She was pulled back onto Columbina before she could brace herself. Her forehead almost hit the other girl’s chin, and her cheek sank into Columbina’s neck again. The tip of her nose brushed against cool, smooth skin.

“Sandrone, your face is very red,” Columbina said, her voice still calm and flat. “Is it because you’re nervous?”

“It’s because I’m mad!” Sandrone’s cheeks turned even redder, the color reaching the tips of her ears. She clenched her teeth and pushed her upper body up again, though this time she didn’t blindly try to stand.

Seven seconds. Eight seconds…

Rustle, rustle…

Feeling the restless little hand at her waist, Sandrone stared down at the innocent-faced girl beneath her and snapped in shame and anger, “You—! When did you become so… so awful?! Let go already!”

“But I want to hold Sandrone.” Columbina met her gaze without a hint of guilt. Her tone stayed calm, though there was a faint trace of teasing in it.

Fourteen seconds. Fifteen seconds…

That reply was so direct it felt like punching cotton. All of Sandrone’s anger got stuck in her throat. She held herself up on her arms and felt dust grains clinging to the fabric under her palms.

“The ground is covered in dust! Doesn’t it bother you?!”

Columbina heard this and tilted her head slightly, as if she were giving the question real thought. Yet not a bit of disgust showed on her face. Instead, she tightened the arms around Sandrone’s waist and pulled the body trying to escape back toward her.

“It’s all right,” she said softly, with a trace of pleased laziness in her voice. “This position… doesn’t make me uncomfortable.”

“Who cares whether you’re comfortable?!”

Sandrone shot back like a ruffled cat, though her voice had clearly lost its rhythm. “I-I’m only saying… standing up and hugging is still hugging! There’s no need to do it in this position, right?!”

Twenty-two seconds. Twenty-three seconds…

The moment the words left her mouth, the air seemed to freeze.

Columbina blinked, but did not answer right away.

In that choking deadlock, Sandrone’s tense body suddenly paused. She took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and tested the pull by slowly pushing herself up.

At last, that rough force vanished.

“About thirty seconds…”

Sandrone clenched her teeth and stood up at once, without the slightest hesitation.

“This damned safety rope!”

Once steady, she looked down and saw that her white thigh-high stockings were already smeared with dust from the floor. Her carefully kept skirt looked even worse, and there was a suspicious black stain on it.

Sandrone finally snapped. “Aha, was it—!”

She slapped the dust from her skirt with force and ground out through her teeth, “Just you wait!!!”

Right then, a screeching scrape that set her teeth on edge came from the shadows around them.

Clearly, the “local residents” of this area had run out of patience and didn’t plan to keep watching. Several twisted figures slowly appeared, surrounding the old platform.

Sandrone’s hand froze in the middle of brushing off her skirt. The emotion called “embarrassed anger” was replaced in an instant by cold alertness.

Columbina, meanwhile, rose at an unhurried pace. Eyes closed, she lightly dusted off her skirt, seeming not to care about the approaching monsters.

They were several upright humanoid monsters, thin and tall, with long limbs. Most of their bodies were covered in matte black crystalline exoskeletons, and spikes jutted from their backs.

At the edges of their joints and torsos, exposed lines of glowing green energy flowed.

They had no faces. Instead, each one had a floating round luminous core, with deep black at the center and a faint pink halo around the edge. Its right arm extended into a sharp crystal blade the same color as its body.

Sandrone swept her gaze over them, and her frown deepened at once. She made no effort to hide the disgust in her voice. “Ugly. Uglier than the Wild Hunt of Nod-Krai.”

She complained, but her eyes stayed sharp as they moved across the monsters.

“That damned bastard should’ve at least sent Pulonia here too!”

The monsters seemed enraged by her voice. They let out a soundless howl, and several black shadows leaped at once, lunging from different directions.

“Columbina, we…” Sandrone gripped her hand by instinct.

“It’s all right, Sandrone.”

Columbina’s voice was soft and steady. She seemed to have noticed the flaw in Sandrone’s memory as well, but she did not point it out.

She merely stood there in silence. She didn’t even raise her hand.

The next second, countless dark blue threads shot out from the walls, the ground, and even the air around them.

Sharp threads crossed and wove through the air, piercing, wrapping, and binding the Ethereals that had pounced at them.

Crack.

With a light sound, all the threads tightened at once. The monsters had no time to cry out before they were cut apart with ease, breaking down and fading into the air.

“…” Sandrone stared at the scene, stunned for a moment. “You… got your power back?”

In her memory, Columbina should have been weak. Was there something wrong with her memory, or had she forgotten something important? A faint sense that something was off slipped through her heart.

“Mhm,” Columbina answered softly.

Sandrone stared at her calm face for a long while. There wasn’t even a trace of fatigue there. At last, she relaxed a little, and the worry in her heart slipped away.

She turned to look at the monsters as they vanished and muttered, “Where the hell did that Aha throw us?”

Before the two of them could keep exploring the area, another burst of noise sounded, followed by another rain of paper scraps.

The ticket Sandrone had torn apart before appeared again, whole and untouched. Only now, a few new lines had been added, the handwriting even more crooked than before and easy to tell had just been written.

[Whoopsie, my bad, my bad! I forgot about that big toy of yours with no self-awareness! Honestly, it’s such a huge lump, but it has no presence at all!]

[Additional Reward: Loyal Guardian—Pulonia]

[How to Redeem: After leaving this Hollow area, tear off the ticket stub to summon it. Honest deal for young and old alike~]

Sandrone pinched the ticket. Veins stood out on the back of her hand, as if she might rip it apart again in the next second.

In the end, she stopped herself and threw the ticket to the ground with a vicious flick.

Then she lifted her foot and planted her thin black heel right in the center of the ticket. With plenty of anger, she twisted her ankle and ground down hard, as if trying to grind the smiling face of that bastard called Aha into the concrete floor of the ruins.

Only after venting did she pull her foot back. She glanced at the “evidence” on the ground, now marked with a clear heel print, and gave a cold snort.

Columbina thought she would leave it there, but Sandrone stayed frozen in place for a moment longer. At last, as if she had given in to something, she bent down against her will and picked up the wrinkled ticket with two fingers, her face full of disgust.

She looked it over, took a clean white handkerchief from her pocket, and wiped the dust and heel mark from the ticket with a touch of temper.

Only after folding the ticket with care and putting it away did she notice Columbina watching her without a word. Sandrone froze a little.

“Ahem… Pulonia is Alain’s unfinished final work, after all.” Her stiff tone tried to cover that trace of awkwardness. “…Why did you open your eyes again?”

“Because I wanted to look at you.”

Columbina answered softly. Her voice still sounded airy and distant, and Sandrone’s stiff figure was reflected in those water-like eyes.

Sandrone opened her mouth with some exhaustion, about to say something to refute that painfully direct honesty.

But the strange mood was torn apart by a sudden burst of noise in the distance.

Bang!

The sounds of fierce fighting and gunshots came from the open area outside the platform. Then came a few broken, panicked shouts:

“Oh, crap, I forgot to reload!”

“Friend! Friend, hold on! Time out! Just a tiny time out! We can talk this through!”

Sandrone and Columbina looked at each other.

“…Go take a look?” Sandrone raised a brow.

Columbina took her hand with perfect ease. “Mhm. Let’s go take a look.”

--+--

T/N: Aha's more of a plot device. We alr know that zzz is in a completely diff universe compared to hi3, hi, and hsr.

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 3

--+--

Chapter 3: Hollow Encounter

--+--

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Dull, wild gunshots cracked one after another, mixed with the sharp hiss of blades cutting through the air. In a flash, the air filled with the harsh sting of gunpowder.

“They’re coming this way.”

Sandrone’s gaze sharpened. She grabbed Columbina, who had been staring at the black crystals by the roadside, and ducked into the shadow of a rusty train car that had tipped over beside the tracks.

The two of them crouched behind the car and peered through the corroded gaps, watching the two sorry figures fleeing toward them.

“Anby! Why are these Tyrfings chasing us like rabid dogs?!”

The one running behind was a tall red figure with silver hair standing on end. In his hands, two huge revolvers spat tongues of fire. As he fired blindly behind him to slow the pursuers, he shouted,

“If this keeps up, I’m gonna blow my ammo budget! Boss Nicole is gonna kill me!”

The one running ahead was a small girl with short silver-white hair and a massive tactical backpack on her shoulders. She swung the long blade in her hand and cut down several small monsters trying to flank them, her voice calm.

“Stop wasting words, Billy. Save your ammo and focus on shaking them off.”

A pack of Ethereals chased after them. They were the same kind that had attacked Sandrone and Columbina earlier.

“One is called Billy, and the other is Anby? And that is…”

Sandrone’s eyes locked on the tall red figure at once.

“…A metal mask? Yellow electronic eyes? And that metal torso… an alchemical puppet? Has this world’s alchemy truly reached this form?”

“Sandrone~”

Columbina’s light voice drifted over. “Should we wipe out the things behind them?”

Sandrone at once pressed down Columbina’s eager little hand. She lowered her voice, her tone stern.

“We don’t know what’s going on yet. Those two look like local armed forces, so don’t expose your power. We need guides, and more than that, we need information. If they decide we’re ‘monsters,’ we won’t be able to talk.”

She paused, her eyes returning to the battle as she studied the shifting situation. “If they can’t hold out, deal with some of the troublesome small fry from the shadows… and remember, do it clean. Don’t let them notice.”

“And! When they come over later, don’t talk too much. Got it?” Sandrone warned her again and again.

“Okay, Sandrone.” Columbina nodded like a good child. Her pink eyes curved, as if she found this game of hide-and-seek quite fun.

Seeing Columbina’s eyes open once more at some point, the tension in Sandrone’s heart eased a little.

Maybe this was the good thing about coming to a new world. At least she no longer had to speak to that lace blindfold.

Just then, the battlefield changed.

“Billy, Ether crystal!”

The girl named Anby leapt high into the air. Her long blade drew a fierce arc and struck the base of a massive Ether crystal above the tunnel with perfect aim.

“Got it!”

Billy reacted fast. He spun around mid-run, both guns blazing as his bullets struck the crack Anby had just carved open.

“Rumble—!”

A violent collapse followed.

The huge black-green crystal snapped at the base and crashed down with countless chunks of concrete. In an instant, it sealed off the path behind them and sent dust billowing into the air.

“Run! Behind the train car up ahead!” Anby sheathed her blade and lowered her body as she kept sprinting.

“You got it! That combo was perfect!” Billy whistled as he ran, glancing back now and then to see if any stragglers had slipped through.

Dust filled the air. For the moment, no Ethereals broke through the barrier.

“Haaah—”

When they reached the train car, Billy let out a small breath of relief and was just about to lean against it. “Man, that’s great! The Ether crystal was stable, so it didn’t explode. When we get back, I’m gonna ask General Chop to add two eggs to my—uh, Anby?”

Billy turned his head, only to find that Anby had not hidden behind the train car right away. She stood at the corner, one hand back on her sword hilt, her body tense as she stared into the depths of the shadow.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”

Billy jumped in fright. Sparks scraped under his feet as he came to an exaggerated stop. His guns snapped toward the back of the train car, his face serious. “Anby, what’s wrong? Ethereals?”

The air froze for half a second.

“Tap, tap…”

With the soft sound of high heels stepping on gravel, Sandrone walked out.

There was no panic on her face. One hand was raised open at her side to show she held no weapon, while the other held Columbina tight.

“—Eh?”

Billy lifted a brow. His fingers, which had been on the triggers, loosened a little, and surprise flashed in his eyes.

“That’s… uh, two super pretty ladies?!”

Anby said nothing. Her red eyes moved over them from head to toe: their delicate and elaborate clothes, their unprotected limbs, and that air about them that looked far too out of place in the ruins.

“You…” She frowned slightly. “You don’t have an ID signal. You’re not from the Hollow Investigative Association? …Raiders?”

“Uh, Anby, what kind of raider doesn’t even carry a weapon and dresses like she’s going to a dinner party?” Billy lowered his guns so they no longer pointed at the two of them, then stepped half in front of Anby while keeping some guard up.

“That’s enough, you two.”

Sandrone lowered her raised hand. Her voice carried a calm that left no room for argument. “Aren’t you going to hide? Or do you want to get chased all the way here again?”

After saying that, she gave them no time to answer. She simply took Columbina’s hand, turned, and returned to the deeper shadows behind the train car, where she sat down.

“Anby?” Billy stared at the way they had taken over the place like they owned it. He scratched his head in confusion and looked at his companion.

Anby stayed silent for a moment, then listened to the movement beyond the wall of crystal.

“…Safe for now. Let’s go. We’ll rest for a while.” She released her sword hilt.

“Great! We finally get a break!”

The two of them also slipped behind the train car.

It was a closed-off triangular space, enough to block the monsters’ line of sight for the moment.

Billy dropped to the ground and checked his guns with a pained look. “Oh, my old pals, the barrels are burning hot… If Boss finds out I burned through three magazines in one go, she’s gonna replace my motor oil with the cheapest gutter oil she can find…”

“That was necessary suppression fire.” Anby leaned against a pile of scrap metal, took a bottle of water from her backpack, and sipped it. Then her eyes shifted to the two people across from her.

Sandrone sat with grace on a fairly clean rock, while Columbina leaned on her shoulder, looking a little sleepy.

Billy’s gaze wandered through the dim space for a few seconds before it landed on the giant wind-up key on Sandrone’s back. He could not hold back. “Hey, uh… mechanical lady?”

He lifted a finger and gestured. “This might be rude, but I’m way too curious. That huge wind-up key on your back… is it some kind of new W-Engine?”

Sandrone’s hand paused as she adjusted her skirt.

“It’s just decoration.” Her face didn’t change as she gave a casual answer. “A personal hobby.”

“Mm… I like it too,” Columbina suddenly added in a soft voice. It was hard to tell if she was agreeing or teasing.

Sandrone’s back stiffened for a moment. Without changing her expression, she nudged the girl beside her with her elbow and hissed through her teeth in a voice so low it could barely be heard.

“Shut up!”

“Cool!” Billy gave her an approving thumbs-up, looking as if he had found a kindred spirit. “I love that retro style too!”

Beside him, Anby’s gaze lowered and landed on Columbina’s bare, unprotected feet. “The ground here is made up of mixed debris, including a large amount of sharp crystal shards and metal scraps. Moving like that gives you a high chance of foot injury.”

“Huh?” Sandrone did not react right away. She followed Anby’s gaze down…

Columbina gave her suspended ankles a small swing. The pale soles of her feet remained spotless, so white they almost shone in the dim ruins.

Columbina tilted her head. She didn’t seem to understand what Anby meant.

“Ah! This…” Sandrone finally realized. She had long since gotten used to it and had forgotten that for most people, going barefoot wasn’t normal.

Anby silently dug a roll of medical bandages out of the side pocket of her backpack and held it out.

“For you,” she said simply. “It’s a little rough, but it can protect your feet.”

Columbina’s pink eyes looked at the bandage in Anby’s hand, then lifted to look at Sandrone. She didn’t say anything.

“Thank you.” Sandrone reached out and took it, but she did not wrap Columbina’s feet right away. She only turned the bandage over in her hand.

It seemed much the same as the bandages in Teyvat.

“Don’t know how to wrap it?” Anby asked. There was no mockery in her tone, only a plain question. “Need help?”

“No!” Sandrone’s brows jumped at once, like a cat guarding its food. Her voice came out a little rushed. “I know how! I’ll do it!”

Sandrone shifted closer and gently placed Columbina’s lower leg across her own knee.

Her logic core began to search through the depths of her memory bank. Long ago, Alain had dumped a vast amount of human survival knowledge into her all at once, and it happened to include first aid and bandaging.

…Ah. Found it. Basic bandage wrapping.

She clumsily held Columbina’s ankle. Her fingertips brushed by accident over the soft arch of her foot.

“Mm…” Columbina instinctively pulled her foot back a little. Her relaxed arch tensed, and even her rounded toes curled in a shy little motion. “Sandrone, it tickles.”

“Bear with it.” Sandrone’s cheeks flushed. She scolded her in a low voice, but her hands grew much gentler.

Layer after layer of white bandage wrapped around the ankle and foot that looked like a work of art. Her movements were a bit stiff, but the structure of the wrap was neat and firm.

After tying the bandage, Sandrone lightly patted Columbina’s calf to show she was done, then turned to the other two.

“Thank you again.” She gave a polite nod, smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt, and then brought up a topic as if by chance.

“You two are trapped here too?”

Billy and Anby exchanged a glance. Billy scratched his head. “Uh, we… we sort of stumbled in by mistake. We didn’t bring a Bangboo or a Carrot, so now we can only sit here and stare. But our boss is outside. She’ll definitely find someone to rescue us!”

“Bangboo… Carrot…”

Sandrone quietly marked those two terms in her mind, though her face stayed calm. She kept asking, “You haven’t tried walking out on your own?”

“Sandrone, did you forget?” Columbina suddenly cut in, her voice soft. “The space here is unstable.”

Sandrone paused, then reacted at once and nodded along. “Yes… right… I forgot for a moment.”

“A living path can look like a dead end, and a dead end might lead straight to a worse dead end,” Anby said, her tone carrying a trace of helplessness toward this kind of place.

“Anby, thank you for that precious common sense…” Billy leaned his head back against the train car’s metal side, looking as if life had lost all meaning.

Then he lifted his head and looked at Sandrone with curiosity. “By the way, where are your Bangboo and Carrot? You two are dressed so… uh, fancy. There’s no way you came in empty-handed, right?”

Sandrone lowered her eyes, hiding the thoughts within them. “We… in a way, also ‘stumbled in,’ so we didn’t bring anything.”

“So we’re in the same boat!” Billy first sighed with regret, but in the next second, as if something had clicked, he perked up at once. His good-guy energy returned in full.

“No worries! When Boss’s rescue gets here, you can leave with us! It’s only two more people anyway!”

“Ahem… thank you very much.” Sandrone thanked him, though she looked a little unused to it.

“Oh, right. I’m Billy, and this is Anby.” Billy pointed at himself, then at the girl beside him.

“Sandrone.”

“Just call me Columbina.”

After the simple introductions, the mood eased a little.

“Speaking of which,” Sandrone asked as if making idle talk, “did something happen outside?”

“The Public Security’s surrounded—” Anby had just started to speak.

“Ahem! Uh!”

Billy coughed hard twice and waved his arms in an exaggerated way, cutting Anby off. His expression looked a little stiff. “There’s a municipal election going on lately, right? Haha! Public Security has more people out to keep order. Totally normal! This companion Hollow hasn’t existed for long either, so it’s safer to have more officers watching it! Right, Anby?”

He gave Anby frantic looks.

Sandrone lifted a brow.

‘Public Security? Surrounded? Looks like these two aren’t exactly ‘legal.’’

She had a rough idea now, but she did not expose them. She only nodded. “I see.”

“Can we leave with you?” Columbina suddenly asked, breaking the brief silence.

Sandrone looked at her in surprise, but did not interrupt.

“Of course. Didn’t I just say that?” Billy patted his chest. “When rescue comes, we’ll take you with us!”

“What I mean is…” Columbina tilted her head. Those pink eyes seemed able to see through people’s hearts. “Can we leave with you, avoid the Public Security officers outside, and slip away quietly?”

“Uh…”

Billy’s smile froze on his face. His expression turned serious, and he lowered his voice. “You two… you aren’t some rich young ladies who ran away from home, are you?!”

“Ran away from home?” Columbina tapped her chin with her index finger, as if she were thinking hard about the definition. “I suppose so? Right? Sandrone?”

“Why are you looking at me?” Sandrone felt a chill under her gaze, as if she had remembered something she did not want to remember. She snapped, “…It’s not like I wanted to come to this awful place.”

Billy and Anby exchanged a look. The two of them turned around at once and huddled together, whispering.

“Anby, did you hear that? Rich young ladies who ran away from home!”

“…I heard.”

“This is big business! If we get them out safely, then send them back to their family… or help them avoid being hunted down by their family, the commission fee is gonna be huge! Boss Nicole is definitely gonna praise us!”

“Sound logic. Can execute.”

On the other side, Sandrone leaned close to Columbina’s ear and asked through gritted teeth in a low voice, “What are you trying to do? Why do we need to go with these two suspicious people?”

“Do you have money, Sandrone?” Columbina asked softly.

“Hah? Of course I… I…”

Sandrone’s voice cut off.

As one of the Fatui Harbingers, she had never been troubled by money. All funding came straight from the Northland Bank.

But in this strange world, her Mora… probably couldn’t even buy a piece of scrap metal.

Not to mention, she did not seem to have even a single Mora on her right now.

“Fine.” Sandrone deflated like a punctured balloon and gave in. “But next time, discuss it with me before deciding!”

“Okay, Sandrone.”

At the same time, Anby and Billy had also finished their discussion.

Billy turned around and rubbed his hands together with strange excitement, even though he still held his guns. His eyes seemed to turn into two gold coins. “No problem! Absolutely no problem! We welcome you two young la—cough, ladies to visit our place! We’ll make sure to protect your safety and privacy!”

Just as the group reached an agreement, in every sense of the word—

“Tap-tap-tap—”

A burst of quick but light footsteps sounded.

“Yo, you all look pretty relaxed!”

A round, orange creature wearing a red scarf squeezed out from a crack in the ruins.

Sandrone, Anby, and Billy were startled at first. Then Anby was the first to react.

“A Bangboo wearing a scarf that speaks human language…”

“Oooh! Could you be—Phaethon?!” Billy shouted with excitement.

Sandrone’s gaze fell on the round, unknown creature.

So this was the Bangboo they had mentioned? A Bangboo called Phaethon?

She exchanged a look with Columbina, and both saw the same confusion in each other’s eyes.

They were relying on this little thing for rescue?

“I was on edge the whole way here,” a young girl’s voice came from the Bangboo named Phaethon. “But the strange thing is, the number of Ethereals on this route is terrifyingly low. It’s almost like someone cleared them out.”

It turned its round body and looked at Sandrone and Columbina. “And these two are…?”

“These are our rich—ah, no, two lost friends!” Billy rushed to answer, his voice filled with barely hidden joy.

He moved closer to Phaethon and lowered his voice, though he could not hide his eager, credit-seeking excitement.

“Manager! I think we may have stumbled into a hidden commission this time. The pay is gonna be huge!”

“Huh?” Phaethon froze for a moment, then let out a soft laugh, her tone full of teasing. “Not bad, Billy. Even now, you don’t forget to scout for clients…”

It then turned to face the two new friends and raised one small hand in a friendly wave.

“Hello there. I’m Phaethon. If you have a commission later, feel free to look us up on the Inter-Knot~”

“Hello.” Sandrone kept her manners and gave a small nod.

Phaethon nodded its round body, then turned back to the group. Its voice became crisp and direct.

“So, is everyone done chatting? Are we resting a little longer, or are you coming with me now?”

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 4

--+--

Chapter 4: Arriving at Sixth Street

--+--

Following Phaethon’s directions, the group raced through the maze-like ruins.

It didn’t take long for the so-called “exit” to appear before them.

It was a dead end.

A tall wall made of clustered Ether crystal stalagmites blocked the end of the tracks. There wasn’t a single gap in it. Only the strange light moving across its surface seemed to say, in silence, that this road went no farther.

“Phaethon! Which way do we run now?” Billy shouted as he sprinted, clear panic in his voice.

The Bangboo stretched out one short dark-gray arm and pointed straight ahead without pause. “Full speed ahead!”

“Full speed ahead! Got it! Wait… ahead?”

Billy’s voice shot up at once. He pointed at the thick crystal wall, disbelief filling his tone. “But that’s a wall! Are we supposed to smash through it? Is that what you mean? I don’t think I’ve got enough firepower for that right now…”

“Don’t worry. Do what my sister says,” a calm male voice came from inside the Bangboo.

“Understood.”

Anby didn’t question it. She didn’t waste a word. With a whoosh, she shot forward.

“Hey! Wait for me, Anby! I haven’t finished getting ready yet!”

Billy let out a strange cry, but his body was honest and chased after her at once.

Sandrone and Columbina looked at each other, hand in hand. They didn’t hesitate. They didn’t even have time to wonder why an unfamiliar man’s voice had come from the Bangboo before they broke into a run and followed close behind.

As the crystal wall rushed toward them, Billy couldn’t help hugging his head, wearing the face of a man ready to die. “We’re gonna hit it, we’re gonna hit it, we’re gonna hit it!”

Beside him, Columbina’s figure flickered. Her movement was smooth and natural as she reached out and wrapped an arm around Sandrone’s waist, lifting her off the ground as easily as if she were picking up a doll.

“Hold tight.”

The girl’s airy voice brushed past Sandrone’s ear, calm enough to make her feel safe.

“—?!”

Her body left the ground in an instant, and her vision blurred with the sudden rush of speed. The moment Columbina lifted her into a princess carry, Sandrone almost acted on instinct, wrapping her arms around Columbina’s neck. Her cheek sank against that chest, where a faint, quiet scent lingered.

Billy happened to look back to check on them and saw the whole thing.

“Wow…”

Even at a life-or-death moment where they were about to “hit a wall,” Billy couldn’t help making a comment. “Could this be… the legendary eloping-from-home plot?”

“Shut—”

Sandrone’s cheeks went hot at once. She had just opened her mouth to scold him, but it was too late.

Everything happened too fast. She had no time to break free, and no time to think about how close this position was, before she crashed into the hard wall together with Columbina.

Darkness swallowed her vision.

There was no violent impact like she had expected.

Instead, there came a strange feeling of weightlessness, like passing through a thick film of water. The world seemed to stretch and twist for one brief instant, and then—

Pop.

Like a bubble bursting.

The next second, light returned.

The stale air, thick with a faint rusty smell, was replaced by a fresh breeze.

“The pressure from the Ether is gone.”

Anby stopped and looked around with a calm gaze.

They were in a quiet corner on the edge of the city. Sunlight from noon spilled through the gaps between buildings. It was a little harsh, but it carried a warmth they hadn’t felt in a long time. From far away, they could just make out the noise of the city.

“We’re out… We finally made it out! Ahaha!”

Billy jumped in place with joy. Yes, he jumped. Then he slid both guns back into their holsters and struck a pose.

Columbina also set the person in her arms down with care.

Sandrone’s feet touched solid ground again. The feeling of standing on something real made her let out a small breath of relief.

With her face composed, she patted down nonexistent wrinkles in her skirt, then lifted a hand to smooth the loose strands of hair near her temples. She looked reserved and graceful, as if the scene just now, where she had been carried around like oversized luggage, had never happened.

Beep, beep!

Two short honks came from nearby.

A white five-door hatchback was parked in the shade not far away. Its lines were sharp and sturdy, and the most striking thing about it was the huge black rabbit-head logo on the rear window—the mark of the Cunning Hares.

The car window rolled down, revealing a head of signature pink hair and a pair of sunglasses that covered most of the driver’s face.

“The time and place are exactly what that Phaethon guy said…”

Nicole rested one hand on the steering wheel and called out to them. “Hey! You two! Get in! What are you standing around for? Waiting for Public Security to come give you an award?”

“Boss Nicole!”

Billy looked like he had found long-lost family. He cheered and rushed over, almost hugging the car door.

Nicole watched Billy and Anby climb into the car, then her gaze shifted to Sandrone and Columbina, who followed behind them.

“Hm?”

Her brows drew together behind her sunglasses. Her fingers tapped the steering wheel in a steady rhythm, and a hint of appraisal entered her voice. “And who are these two? Billy, I remember I came here to fish you guys out. I don’t remember starting a carpool service.”

“Shh—Boss Nicole!”

Billy reacted fast. He leaned in beside the driver’s seat and lowered his voice, speaking in a secretive tone only the two of them could hear.

“Big business! Boss, these are girls we picked up in the Hollow… possibly rich young ladies who ran away from home! If we don’t take them, Public Security might grab them next!”

“Rich young ladies!?”

Those words seemed to have some kind of magic. Nicole’s brows lifted, and her eyes lit up as she looked them over again through her sunglasses.

As a seasoned veteran who had spent years clawing her way around the streets of New Eridu, Nicole had a sharp eye.

The girl currently adjusting her collar did indeed wear fabric of fine quality. Her outfit was complex in design, but not tacky, and every move she made carried a strange kind of calm and care. It was the kind of presence that only came from a life spent in comfort.

As for the girl with black-to-red gradient hair… although the rough bandages wrapped around her feet looked a little out of place, that otherworldly air around her didn’t seem like something an ordinary person could have.

“Ahem.”

Nicole changed states in an instant. A warm smile bloomed on her face, and she leaned out the window to wave.

“Well, since you’re friends of Billy and Anby, that makes you friends of the Cunning Hares! Just call me Nicole! Don’t stand there. Get in! This area gets patrolled by Public Security all the time. We can talk on the road!”

Sandrone didn’t say much. She only gave a polite nod, took Columbina’s hand, and sat in the back of the fairly spacious car.

Vroom!

The engine gave a low growl. The car made a neat turn and drove toward the main road.

Sandrone turned her head and quietly studied this new world through the window.

The car was driving along the edge of Fourteenth Street. Around them stood several older high-rises. Their outer walls were covered in weather marks and all sorts of graffiti, giving them a worn, faded beauty.

After a wild burst of speed, during which Nicole seemed to run who knew how many traffic lights, and with Billy wailing all the while, the scenery around them grew barren. Only scattered abandoned factories and wild grass flashed past the window.

“Oh, right. What should I call you two?” Nicole asked as she drove with practiced ease, watching the two in the back through the rearview mirror.

“Sandrone.”

“Just call me Columbina.”

“Nice names! So, ladies, now that you’re out, where are you planning to go?”

Nicole asked in a casual tone, but there was a clever test hidden in it. “If going home isn’t convenient, the Cunning Hares can also offer temporary lodging. Fair prices, of course!”

“Where to…” Sandrone froze for a moment.

In this strange world, they truly had nowhere to go.

But then she suddenly remembered something.

Under that nasty joke about “exchanging for Pulonia,” there had seemed to be another line in much smaller print, a “newbie benefit” she had ignored before because she had been too furious.

It was the so-called “backstage” that the one calling himself Aha had arranged for them.

Sandrone took the slightly crumpled ticket from her pocket. By the light outside the car, she looked at the crooked little line written on the stub and read out the address.

“Sixth Street… 141… convenience store?”

“Sixth Street’s 141 Convenience Store? You know the owner?” Nicole sounded a bit surprised. Her fingers tapped the steering wheel. “Come to think of it, those three little Bangboo are famous for keeping their mouths shut. I still don’t know what their boss’s name is!”

“No. Across from 141 Convenience Store,” Sandrone said, putting away the ticket and correcting her.

“Across from it?” Nicole thought for a bit, then her face lit up with understanding. “Oh! That place! Yeah, I think no one’s been living there for a while. It’s in a good spot, right by the street entrance. I remember the rent being pretty high too! It’d be a waste to leave it empty and not open a shop there.”

“What’s the area like?” Sandrone asked, using the chance to gather more information about their place to stay.

“That block? Public security’s not bad there, and life’s convenient. There’s a coffee shop, a ramen place, and a… pretty good video store. I go there a lot myself!” Nicole spoke with the easy familiarity of someone who made herself at home anywhere.

“Then I’ll take you there.”

Columbina, meanwhile, looked like a child leaving home for an outing for the first time. Her cheek was almost pressed to the car window.

She watched the barren scenery fly past outside. Now and then, she lifted one slim finger and tapped the air through the glass at the huge abandoned billboards by the road. Her pink eyes were full of simple curiosity and interest.

There weren’t many cars on the road, and they happened to be in a straight lane, so even with Nicole driving fast, it wasn’t too thrilling.

Billy seemed to have done enough running in the Hollow. He was now sprawled in the passenger seat, hugging his beloved guns like a dried salted fish.

Anby sat on the other side of the back seat with her headphones on, her head nodding to the beat as she hummed some unknown tune under her breath.

For a while, the car was oddly quiet. Only the soft hiss of tires over the road filled the space.

After a stretch of silence, Sandrone took the lead and broke it. She needed more information.

“Miss Nicole, if I have commissions in the future, how should I contact you?”

“Ah!” The moment Nicole heard the word “commissions,” she snapped back to attention, her voice turning bright. “Since we’re all friends now, let’s add each other on Knock Knock! If you ever have a commission, contact the Cunning Hares anytime! Whether it’s finding cats, finding dogs, or… ahem. Anyway, we take anything!”

As she spoke, she freed one hand and knocked on the passenger seat. “Billy! Stop sleeping! Get up and work!”

“Huhm?” Billy shot upright, almost hitting the roof. “What happened? Boss Nicole, are we under attack?”

“Use your phone and add Miss Sandrone on Knock Knock!”

“Got it, Boss!”

Billy regained his energy at once and pulled his phone from his pocket. The screen lit up, showing a close-up wallpaper from his proud favorite, Starlight Knight.

“Phone? Knock Knock?”

Sandrone frowned a little and looked at the glowing rectangle in Billy’s hand.

A communication terminal of this world?

“Sorry,” she said without changing expression, giving a calm excuse. “I lost my phone in the Hollow.”

“Lost it?” Nicole blinked, but didn’t doubt her. “Yeah, in a mess like that, losing things is normal. Do you remember your Knock Knock ID? Billy can add you, and you can accept the request later.”

“…I don’t remember,” Sandrone replied, a bit stiff.

“Ah, these days you can’t take a step without a phone!” Nicole’s eyes moved, and she glanced through the rearview mirror at Sandrone’s clothes, which looked expensive no matter how you saw them.

“Billy, take out that new phone of mine that’s still unopened and give it to Miss Sandrone. Consider it a gesture of friendship.”

A long line catches big fish. Nicole was willing to make this small early investment.

Of course! More than anything, she trusted her gut.

And her gut told her these two were not simple.

“Boss, which new phone?”

“The one at the very back of the passenger-side glove compartment.”

Billy dug into the depths of the glove compartment and took out a white box, then handed it to the back seat.

Sandrone looked at the box but didn’t reach for it.

“Miss Sandrone?” Billy shook the box in confusion.

“…Uh, you… help me add Knock Knock,” Sandrone said after a pause, finding an excuse. “My hand is… a little numb.”

Billy didn’t quite understand, but he nodded with cheer. “Okay. Then I’ll open it?”

“Open it,” Sandrone said with a nod.

Billy moved fast. In a few motions, he tore open the packaging, turned it on, connected it to the network, and skillfully registered a new Knock Knock account.

“Done. I’ve added the Cunning Hares’ account. Here you go.”

Sandrone took the metal rectangle, still warm from his hands, and touched the smooth screen with her fingertips.

She had quietly watched Billy’s movements just now. Imitating his gestures, she tested it with a swipe.

The interface was easy to read, and the icons were clear… Hah. What’s this? It’s almost the same as a terminal from Snezhnaya.

Sandrone let out a silent breath of relief.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“No problem, no problem. We’re helping each other out!” Billy rubbed his head and gave her a thumbs-up with his other hand.

The barren scenery faded away. Soon, the car entered Sixth Street, full of the warmth of daily life.

Shops lined both sides of the road. Pedestrians walked at an easy pace, and now and then, a few round Bangboo could be seen helping carry goods.

Just as Nicole had said, this place was full of the feeling of everyday life.

At last, the car stopped beside a fairly neat-looking two-story building.

“We’re here! This side is 141 Convenience Store, and across from it is your destination…”

Nicole pulled the handbrake, undid her seat belt, and turned around. She pressed her hands together, her smile shining brighter than ever.

“So then… for this rescue operation plus travel fees, that’ll be fifty thousand Dennies! Of course, if paying right now isn’t convenient, the Cunning Hares also accepts tabs!”

The air inside the car froze for a moment.

Sandrone looked at Nicole’s bright smile, and her fingers tightened slightly over her knees.

She knew very well that she didn’t have a single coin on her right now.

There was an old saying in Liyue: “A single Mora can stump a hero.” So… this was what that felt like?

Sandrone slowly raised her hand. Her fingertips touched the ruby at her collar.

It was one of the few things Alain Guillotin had left behind.

She hated owing anyone anything, even money. No, now it should be said that she hated owing money most of all.

But in that instant, a faint trace of reluctance still flashed through her eyes.

Just as she was about to remove it, a cool little hand pressed over the back of hers.

Sandrone froze and turned to look.

There was no real expression on Columbina’s delicate face. Her pink eyes looked at Sandrone in silence, as if saying, “Leave it to me.”

Then she reached behind herself, her movement soft and mysterious.

When she drew her hand back again, a strange gemstone appeared in her palm. It was round like a pearl and gave off a faint silver glow.

“Use this to pay.”

Columbina held the gemstone out to Nicole, her voice calm and airy. “Is it enough?”

Nicole took it without thinking and weighed it in her hand.

…Well, it had some weight to it!

Curious, she lifted the ore and brought it closer for a look.

It was a gemstone she had never seen before. It felt cool to the touch, dense and solid. It didn’t shine on its own, yet it gave the illusion that a soft halo wrapped around it. It carried a hard-to-name sense of mystery, as if… moonlight had been sealed inside it.

Nicole rubbed her chin. A gleam passed through her eyes. “…Does this thing have a name?”

Columbina hesitated for a moment, then said the name softly. “…Moonfall Silver.”

“Moonfall Silver? Nice name!” Nicole praised.

She had never heard of it, but with her years of experience, she could tell this was no roadside stone or ordinary glass bead. It might even be something rare.

“No problem!”

Nicole didn’t waste any more time. After all, Phaethon was still waiting for her.

She carefully tucked the ore into the waist pouch close to her body, and the smile on her face became even more sincere.

“The Cunning Hares will always welcome repeat business from you two!”

“Goodbye, ladies!” Billy waved with great warmth.

“Goodbye,” Anby said with a nod.

Sandrone and Columbina got out of the car and watched the white hatchback drive away. Soon, it vanished around the corner of the street.

Sandrone drew back her gaze. She looked down at the so-called “phone” in her hand, then looked at Columbina beside her. Thinking back on everything that had happened in this short time, mixed feelings rose in her chest.

She took a deep breath and turned toward the two-story building across the street.

It looked fairly new. The outer walls were clean, with no clear signs of damage.

“Hah. Come on. Let’s go inside and talk.”

Sandrone stepped forward and tried turning the doorknob.

Click.

The door wasn’t locked. It opened at once.

Holding Columbina’s small hand, Sandrone walked inside.

--+--

After Nicole left Sixth Street, she didn’t go straight to find Phaethon. Instead, she drove out of the street and stopped in a quiet corner on the outskirts.

After making sure there was no one around, all three of them got out of the car.

Anby gripped the hilt of her blade and leaned against the car door, her red eyes scanning the area with care.

“Boss Nicole!”

Billy had been unusually quiet the whole ride, but now his energy had finally returned. He circled Nicole with excitement. “So? Those two young ladies! I did pretty well this time, right? Does that mean…”

As he spoke, he rubbed his hands together like a fly and looked at Nicole with hope.

“Hmm…”

Nicole sat on the hood and took out the piece of “Moonfall Silver” Columbina had given her. She held it up toward the sun and narrowed her eyes as she looked at it from every angle.

Under the sunlight, the ore still gave off that cool silver sheen. The strong light did nothing to cover it.

“Moonfall Silver… The name’s really not bad, but I’ve never heard of it in any catalog,” Nicole murmured to herself.

“Then isn’t that exactly the point?” Billy twisted with excitement. “Doesn’t that mean they’re not ordinary? They used something this rare to pay a car fare like it was nothing. They’re totally big clients!”

“Fine!”

Nicole suddenly closed her hand around the Moonfall Silver and tucked it back into the pouch at her waist with care. A satisfied curve rose at the corner of her mouth.

“Billy, I’ll count this as a merit for you. You’ll get a bonus later!”

Then she hopped down from the hood and looked left and right one last time, confirming that no one had followed them.

“All right! Let’s go. Safety check complete. Time to find Phaethon!”

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 5

--+--

Chapter 5: Newbie Gift Pack

--+--

Sandrone pushed open the unlocked door. To her surprise, the place didn’t smell dusty at all. Instead, it carried a dry scent, like the house had only just been renovated.

It was daytime, but with no windows open and no lights on, the room still looked dim.

The first floor had the typical layout of a shop converted into a home. There were no extra furnishings, which made the space feel almost too empty.

Sandrone planted her hands on her hips and looked around.

The walls were a clean off-white. The floor was paved with pale gray tiles that looked a little cold. Against one wall sat a long dark gray fabric sofa, covered by a thin dust sheet, sitting all alone in the wide-open room.

Aside from that, there was nothing.

“Clean enough, I guess,” she said. Her tone made it hard to tell if she was pleased or nitpicking.

Columbina had already drifted up the stairs in silence, light as a butterfly.

Not long after, the girl’s airy voice floated down from upstairs, clear and faintly echoing.

“Sandrone, come look.”

Sandrone let out a sigh so soft it was almost inaudible. She closed the front door and went up the stairs.

The wooden steps gave off small, solid thumps under her feet. When she reached the last step, she followed the light with her eyes and saw Columbina standing at the doorway of the room at the end of the hall.

It was a bedroom.

Noon sunlight poured through the bare glass window. In the center of the room sat a large bed, and its style clashed hard with the simple, modern design of the rest of the house.

Columbina stood at the bedroom door, her pink eyes wide with curiosity as she stared at the bed inside.

“This bed…” Columbina tilted her head, a trace of doubt in her airy voice. “It’s a little like our bed we had in Snezhnaya?”

Sandrone had only just reached the door. Without thinking too much, she glanced over the bed and followed the thought.

“It is a little like it.”

The moment the words left her mouth, she froze.

Wait.

Our bed?

“What do you mean, ‘our bed’? That was my bed! You just used to… used to come over without asking and curl up on it all the time!”

Columbina blinked. Her pink eyes looked innocent. “But, Sandrone, that bed was very comfortable. And you never chased me away.”

“That was…”

Hadn’t they had a talk like this not long ago?!

“…Forget it. I’m not wasting my breath on you!”

Sandrone crossed her arms and lifted her chin, trying to cover a strange guilty feeling with sheer force of presence.

“Go, go. In any case, go find your own bedroom. This room is mine. I’m not used to sharing a bed, so you can sleep next door or in some other room!”

Columbina didn’t move.

She only stood there in silence, her gaze passing over Sandrone’s shoulder and down the short hallway behind her, a hallway so short you could see the end at a glance.

“But, Sandrone.”

The girl’s voice was soft and light, like a feather brushing the heart. “This house only has one bedroom.”

“Huh?”

Sandrone froze for a second, then turned and strode out of the bedroom. She made a full round of the second floor.

The second floor was divided into a living area, with a separate bathroom, a storage room, an open kitchen corner, and one bedroom.

Only one.

She walked back to the bedroom door, stiff from head to toe.

“Only one bedroom?” Sandrone’s voice sounded dry.

“Mm.” Columbina nodded, as if it were only natural. “And only one bed.”

The two of them stared at each other at the doorway for two seconds.

Columbina suddenly leaned half a step closer. She tilted her head up, seeming a little confused.

“Sandrone, aren’t we living together?”

A cool, clear fragrance rushed over at once, forcing Sandrone to lift her head a little.

“Who’d want to live with you—! Uh, we… we are, of course, of course we’re living together!”

Looking into those pink eyes so close to her, eyes that reflected her own flustered face, she felt the heat in her cheeks rise at a rate that made no sense.

“Then this will be our home from now on,” Columbina said, tilting her head and giving the place a fatal definition.

“What do you mean, ‘our home’?!”

Sandrone’s voice shot up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. “We’re just coworkers! Uh, former coworkers… This is just a temporary base! A temporary place to stay! Don’t use that kind of… that kind of weird word to describe it!”

“Then isn’t that our home?” Columbina’s logic formed a perfect loop. Her tone was firm.

“You—!”

Sandrone opened her mouth, but a thousand words clogged her chest. In the end, they turned into a current of shame and anger that shot straight to the top of her head.

Did this dove truly not understand, or was she pretending not to?!

“That’s enough, Columbina!”

She stomped hard. Her heel struck the wooden floor with a sharp thud, as if that could vent the restless heat she had nowhere to put.

“Hmph! I don’t care anymore! Even if you sleep on the sofa, don’t think you can… Forget it! I don’t have time to argue about sleeping arrangements right now! I’m going to summon Pulonia!”

With that, she spun around, moving so fast that she stirred up a breeze.

Columbina watched Sandrone’s rather flustered back vanish down the stairs. She stood where she was, and the corner of her mouth curved up by the smallest amount.

“Oh… she’s shy.”

She murmured the words, then stepped after her with light feet, like a clingy cat.

Even after Sandrone went downstairs, she could still feel her cheeks burning.

So what if there’s only one bed? It’s not like we haven’t slept together before…

She took several deep breaths before she managed to force down the heat in her face.

Calm down, Sandrone. Calm down.

Sandrone breathed in a few more times and forced the tangled thoughts out of her head.

The most urgent matter was getting back her own military support.

She stood in the empty hall on the first floor and looked up, judging the ceiling height by eye. It should be enough to hold Pulonia’s huge frame.

“Good thing the ceiling is high enough. Otherwise that guy Pulonia would tear through the second floor.”

She took out the ticket Aha had given her, tore off the stub according to the instructions, and held it in her palm.

“…That’s it?”

The scrap of paper in her hand turned into countless points of light and scattered. But everything around her stayed quiet. Nothing happened.

The tall mechanical automaton she had expected didn’t appear.

Sandrone looked left and right. Her brows drew tighter and tighter. “Where’s Pulonia? That bastard wouldn’t lie to me, would he?”

Bang!

A deafening blast went off in the open space without warning, along with a burst of flashy colored smoke and glitter.

Sandrone’s shoulders jumped, and she took half a step back on instinct.

When the smoke cleared, a huge, gaudy gift box with an overblown bow had appeared out of thin air in the center of the living room.

The gift box was absurdly large. It was even taller than Sandrone.

“…”

Sandrone frowned hard and stared at the roughly two-meter-tall box with caution.

“Pulonia? Pulonia? Can you hear my orders?”

She called out to test it.

No sound of machinery answered her. The box only stood there in silence.

“…That bastard really loves making trouble!”

Sandrone complained as she reached for the lid at the top of the gift box.

And yet—

She couldn’t reach it.

The box’s height was hostile to her.

She looked around, but there was no suitable tool in sight.

In the end, she had to rise onto her toes and stretch her arm as far as she could, trying to hook the edge of the lid.

Because the movement was too large, the hem of her elegant dress swayed with her. She looked like a ragdoll cat trying with all its might to reach a cat treat.

“Pfft~”

A soft laugh came from behind her.

Sandrone froze at once.

She whipped her head around and saw Columbina leaning against the stair rail. The girl had covered her mouth, but her crescent-shaped eyes had already betrayed her.

“That’s enough, Columbina! What are you laughing at?!” Sandrone felt her blood pressure climb again and shouted in embarrassment. “Are you done watching the show? Come help me already! Whoever designed this thing must hate humans!”

Columbina hopped down from the stairs as if she weighed nothing, landing beside Sandrone like a feather.

“I’m here~”

With Columbina helping, the two of them each grabbed one side of the huge lid.

“One, two, three—open!”

At Sandrone’s command, they pulled at the same time.

With their combined strength, the giant lid finally lifted at one corner.

Strangely enough, the moment the lid broke away from the box, it went pop in midair and turned into a puff of smoke before vanishing.

The box still stood there, lidless and open at the top.

“What a pain. Why hasn’t the box disappeared?”

Sandrone complained as she jumped up, grabbed the edge of the gift box, and peered inside. “Pulonia? Are you in—”

The instant her face moved close to the inside of the box—

Boing!

A loud spring noise rang out.

A huge clown mask painted in bright colors shot out of the box like a cannonball. Its mouth stretched all the way to its ears, and it flew straight at Sandrone’s face.

“—?!”

Sandrone’s pupils shrank. Caught off guard, she stumbled backward from the sudden scare.

The intimate meeting with the floor she had expected never came.

Her back sank into softness and fragrance.

A pair of slender but strong arms caught her with perfect steadiness.

At some point, Columbina had appeared behind her. She wrapped her arms around Sandrone’s waist from behind and held her in her arms, stopping her from falling to the floor.

“Careful.”

The girl’s voice sounded by her ear, carrying a trace of comfort so faint it was almost hidden.

“…Hah.”

Sandrone leaned in Columbina’s arms. Her heart, no, her core, had nearly leapt out of her chest.

After several seconds of dead silence, her anger erupted like a volcano.

“That bastard! Animal! Cheap prank with no sense of beauty! Ill-mannered, rotten…”

A string of Snezhnayan curses that would never make it past censorship poured from the mouth of this elegant-looking girl.

Columbina, on the other hand, looked calm. She even seemed to find it a little fun.

She reached out and pulled a gaudy ticket from the mouth of the clown mask, which was still swaying in midair.

The moment the ticket came free—

Bang!

The huge scare box exploded, turning into countless scraps of colored paper, glitter, and ribbons that drifted all over the first-floor hall.

In the center of the mess, only a palm-sized little gift box tied with a delicate ribbon remained.

“How magical,” Columbina said as she watched the glitter fall. She caught one piece with her hand, her voice carrying pure wonder.

“What’s magical about it?! It’s just that bastard!”

Sandrone’s face grew even darker as she looked at the mess.

“We still have to clean up all this trash later!”

“All right! Stop holding my waist!” Sandrone straightened up out of Columbina’s arms and fixed her slightly messy bangs in a huff.

“Hurry up and see what nonsense is written on that thing.”

Columbina unfolded the ticket in her hand.

It still had that teasing layout, still used that infuriating cursive font, and the writing leaned this way and that, as if it had been written with some kind of color-changing ink.

--+--

[Joyous Troupe Logistics Apology Letter]

[To our dear VIP customer:]

[Oopsie, so sorry, so sorry! (>ω<)]

[I checked the tracking number just now and found that there was a tiny little error with the spatial coordinates of the delivery address~]

[It was located at the place where the second transport ticket was used~]

[And then, due to a teeny-tiny spatial disturbance during delivery, it sadly “came apart”!]

[Current status: torn limb from limb (crossed out) stored in separate locations (0/5)]

[Your “loyal guardian,” Pulonia, has currently been split into five parts and randomly scattered across every corner of the Cretan Hollow.]

[(That’s right! The same place you two just came out of!)]

[Special Mission: Puzzle Game!]

[Instructions: Five pieces in total! Head, torso, limbs… probably split that way?]

[Special Compensation: To express Aha’s tiny bit of regret, I have cast “invisibility that no one can see through” on these five parts. Valid for three days.]

[During these three days, no one except you two can find them~]

[So there’s no need to rush. Take your time. Treat it as a treasure hunt full of love!]

[If you don’t go look for them… they’ll probably get used as chew toys by the Ethereals in the Hollow, right?]

[—Your loyal and occasionally butterfingered Aha, with love ~♥]

--+--

After reading the last line, Columbina lifted her head and looked at Sandrone.

Sandrone’s face had gone as black as the bottom of a pot.

She snatched the ticket over and stared hard at that line, her knuckles turning white from how tightly she gripped it.

“What?! Five pieces?! That bastard took Pulonia… apart?! And left him in that Hollow?!”

That precise Pulonia, the one she had poured so much time and effort into tuning, had been broken into five pieces? And she had to go back to that damned place to find them?

“And I have to put him back together…” Sandrone ground her teeth. “Where in this awful place am I supposed to find the tools and parts to restore Pulonia?!”

Columbina lifted a hand and stroked the top of Sandrone’s head, as if soothing a cat with its fur standing on end.

Normally, Sandrone would have slapped that hand away by now. But at this moment, all of her attention was nailed to the ticket, and she noticed nothing else.

Columbina crouched, picked up the little gift box left on the floor, and opened it without hesitation.

Thankfully, nothing strange appeared this time. On the inside of the lid were four large words: “Newbie Benefits.”

“Sandrone, look.” Columbina handed her the box.

Sandrone took a deep breath and accepted it while trying to force down the urge to kill someone.

Inside the box were two brand-new cards: citizen IDs, which seemed to serve as identification in this world.

There was also a bank card. A sticky note on the back listed the password and one short line: “Spend it carefully. This is your food money for the week.”

“…”

Sandrone no longer had the strength to curse. With a dark face, she took out the citizen IDs and bank card.

Under the cards lay two sleek rectangular devices with black screens.

“These are… the things called phones.”

Sandrone picked up one of the phones and pressed the power button.

The moment the screen lit up, her whole body froze.

On the wallpaper was a picture of her and Columbina in that pure white void, sleeping face-to-face with their heads leaned together.

In the image, Columbina’s lashes were long as feathers. And she herself… had somehow slept with no guard up at all, even with the faintest relaxed curve at the corner of her mouth, a look she had never noticed on herself.

When was this picture taken?! Was that bastard watching even then?!

Heat burst up to her head with a boom. Sandrone’s cheeks reddened at a visible speed, and her fingers tightened around the phone until her knuckles turned pale.

She almost threw the phone on instinct, but what remained of her reason held her back by force. This was one of the only three communication tools they currently had.

“…A! Ha!” She squeezed the name out from between her teeth, her voice filled with a young girl’s wavering urge to kill.

Sandrone stared hard at the sleeping faces on the screen, her fingertips going white.

The next second, she slapped the phone screen down into her palm, as if doing so could crush both that image and a certain god of fun.

“Hah…”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Anger wouldn’t solve the problem.

When she opened her eyes again, most of the frenzy had faded.

“Take it. One for each of us.”

Sandrone handed the phone to Columbina. Her movement was brisk, and her tone had returned to its usual calm, though it still sounded a little stiff.

“Do you know how to use it?”

Columbina took the phone. Her gaze lingered for a moment on Sandrone’s tense profile and slightly red ear tips before she lowered her head.

She tried swiping the screen and found it rather easy to use.

“Mm, no problem~”

“Hmph. At least you’re somewhat useful.”

Sandrone picked up the other phone and tossed the empty box into the corner. It hit the wall with a soft thud.

“Back in Snezhnaya, you came to the lab and bothered me so many times. I guess it wasn’t a complete waste.”

She stopped looking at Columbina. Her fingers moved quickly over the screen, as if testing its functions.

“Are we going to look for Pulonia now?”

Columbina’s voice sounded. She lifted her head, her clear pink eyes turning toward Sandrone.

“…No.”

Sandrone’s fingers paused for half a second before she gave her answer.

“That bastard is awful, but since he said it’ll be fine for three days, we don’t need to rush.”

She walked to the sofa and lifted the dust sheet. Dust danced in the sunlight. She didn’t sit down right away. Instead, she ran her fingertip across the sofa’s fabric and continued sorting through her thoughts.

“Fifty thousand Dennies.” She glanced at the thin bank card, frowned slightly, then relaxed her brow. “That’ll only keep us alive here for a very short time.”

She thought back to the Bangboo that had guided them through the Hollow with exact precision.

“We need information. We need to understand this world’s currency, factions, common sense… and above all, the rules for entering and moving through Hollows.”

At last, she sat down and leaned back a little, setting the phone aside.

“But…”

Sandrone lifted her gaze and fixed it on Columbina, who stood in the shadows.

There was no shame or anger in her eyes now. This was the cool, measured look of Sandrone, the “Marionette,” studying and questioning.

“Columbina, before we learn about this world, there are some things we need to talk about first.”

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 6

--+--

Chapter 6: Old Memories and Moonfall Silver

--+--

“All right, Sandrone.”

Columbina answered with almost no pause, then drifted over and sat down beside Sandrone.

Sandrone was just about to speak when Columbina bent her legs and placed her bandaged feet on Sandrone’s neatly pressed thighs.

“Sandrone,” she said, tilting her head. Her voice carried a faint, matter-of-fact tone. “Can you undo them? They’ve been wrapped for too long. It feels uncomfortable.”

Sandrone froze at the sudden touch, then lowered her eyes to her own lap.

The bandages wound from Columbina’s ankles to the tops of her feet, neat and tight, leaving only a thin sliver of pale calf exposed at the edges.

She stayed silent for a few seconds. In the end, she still reached out and found the loose end of the bandage with her fingertips.

One layer.

Then another.

She moved slowly, with great care. Now and then, her fingers brushed the warm skin beneath the bandages.

As she worked, the bandages loosened ring by ring. Pale feet came into view, soft in the dim light.

At last, the final loop slipped from Columbina’s rounded ankle and came free, falling in a loose pile on the floor beside her.

The line of the ankle bone was clear and fine. The arch of her foot curved in a lovely, fragile line, and faint blue veins traced beneath the thin skin over the top of her foot.

They still rested on Sandrone’s knees, bare and unguarded.

“Sandrone,” Columbina said with a soft laugh. Her voice was very close. “Why do you look so serious?”

She paused, then looked at her with clear eyes. “Where does the last scene in your memory stop? The Moon-Prayer Night? Or the final battle with the Doctor?”

Sandrone didn’t answer right away. Her gaze drifted, as if she were searching through something.

Without thinking, her fingers followed the delicate curve of Columbina’s arch and stroked it.

The touch was cool at first, but the skin beneath was warm, smooth as jade.

A faint blush crept over the tips of Columbina’s ears in silence.

For a breath, she seemed to hold still. Yet she didn’t pull her foot away. Her toes only curled a little, then relaxed, pressing that sensitive skin closer into Sandrone’s palm.

“It’s…” Sandrone finally spoke, her voice a little tight. Her fingers, however, still hadn’t stopped that thoughtless, soothing motion. “My clear memories end on the Moon-Prayer Night…”

She lifted her eyes, her gaze heavy with thought. “After that, there are only broken fragments. Moon Marrow. Dottore. But… I don’t think you were there?”

“Sandrone?” Columbina called softly.

Sandrone didn’t answer at once.

That voice seemed to come through a layer of fog. She raised her head without thinking, her eyes still a bit unfocused as she stared blankly at Columbina, as if she had not yet pulled herself free from those shattered memories.

Following the young girl’s smiling pink eyes, her gaze moved down in a slow daze, until it landed on her own hand.

Her fingertips were tracing Columbina’s rounded ankle bone with almost intimate ease. The pads of her fingers were still rubbing over that soft, warm skin without her knowing it.

The movement was so practiced it felt as though she had done it a thousand times, carrying a shameful kind of reluctance to let go.

“…”

Somewhere in her mind, gears seemed to grind to a dead stop.

Both her hands froze at once.

The next second, as if she had been shocked, Sandrone snatched her hands back in a panic and leaned hard away, putting distance between them.

“If Sandrone likes it…”

Columbina tilted her head. Her voice was light and soft, with a natural hint of temptation. “You can keep going. I don’t mind.”

“Who—who likes it!?”

Sandrone felt her cheeks burn hot enough to smoke. The heat ran down her neck and all the way to her ears.

“Who wants to touch your feet!? You shameless dove!”

Flustered and angry, she reached out to push away the pair of feet on her knees. “Enough! Talk business! Get your feet down!”

She pushed once, but they didn’t move. Or perhaps she hadn’t used any real force.

Columbina only lowered her feet a little with the motion, the tips resting close against the outside of Sandrone’s thigh. She didn’t go any further, but she didn’t pull away either.

She curled up on the sofa, arms around her knees, chin resting on top of them. Her pink eyes looked deep in the dim light.

“It seems you really have forgotten many things, Sandrone.”

Columbina’s voice softened as she began to tell her all the things she had lost.

“After the Moon-Prayer Night ended, everyone gathered at the Phantom of the Sanctuary. Back in the Hyperborean era, it was the place where people spoke with the moon. I was supposed to take the road back to the moon that night.”

“But the Doctor… he used forged Moon Marrow to mislead the spell’s senses…”

Sandrone’s eyes went cold at once. “Dottore… What did that madman do this time?”

“The ‘false moon’ he created looked even more like the moon than the Frost Moon beyond the sky. That gate sent me to the location of the ‘false moon.’ In other words, to the Doctor.”

“He imprisoned me,” Columbina said in a calm tone, as if she were talking about something unimportant. “He took the Moon Marrow of the Eternal Moon and the Iridescent Moon. He wanted to seize the trilune authority for himself and complete his so-called ‘god-making’ experiment.”

Sandrone’s breath caught.

“To stop him…”

Columbina raised her head a little. “I entered the ‘Moon Gate,’ which was the moon’s reflection. It was a prison left behind by Nibelung, a cage outside Teyvat’s time, built to imprison the Three Moon Goddesses.”

“I went against the flow there, passed through the cracks in time, and returned to the past to leave clues for all of you. In the end, with the help of the Three Moon Goddesses, I left my divinity in the prison, turned my body into moonlight, and scattered it over Nod-Krai. I hid the authority of the Three Moons inside the Frost Moon…”

“Then, with your help, I was reborn in the future.”

“So much happened?” Sandrone murmured.

Columbina’s voice grew lighter and lighter.

At the end, it carried a trace of apology. “But you… to ensure the calculations of the ‘World Formula,’ you hid the computation core inside Pulonia. And you… were pierced through the chest by the Doctor…”

“Pierced through the chest? Me?” Sandrone raised a brow in confusion. For some reason, there wasn’t much worry in her tone.

“Mm.” Columbina nodded. “Arlecchino once told me you said to her, if a mission ever failed in the end, you hoped she would send both you and Pulonia’s core back to the Fontaine Research Institute.”

Sandrone nodded. She had indeed given those instructions.

“…And after that? Why did we end up here?”

“I don’t know.” Columbina’s gaze drifted faintly into the air, as if she were recalling a blank space. “At first, I was asleep in the Silvermoon Hall. When I woke up, I was already beside you, surrounded by that endless pure white.”

“I hadn’t been repaired at the time?” Sandrone frowned a little, finding it strange.

“Repaired? What do you mean repaired?” Columbina tilted her head. Pure confusion showed in her pink eyes.

“…Nothing.” Sandrone waved it off, skipping past a question she couldn’t make sense of herself. “So, that ‘Aha’ thing. You don’t know what it is at all?”

“I don’t.” Columbina answered at once.

Sandrone let out a near-silent sigh and turned to look out the window. The sunlight was bright, and the streets were unfamiliar. This was a brand-new world, yet also a complete unknown.

“Forget it,” she said, as if speaking to herself. “We’ll take it one step at a time…”

After a short silence, she spoke again, her tone carrying a trace of inquiry. “Then, right now… would you count as the complete ‘Goddess of the Three Moons’?”

“Not completely.”

Columbina shook her head. “I left the Eternal Moon’s Moon Marrow to Lauma, and I gave the Iridescent Moon’s Moon Marrow to Arlecchino. But I still retained some of the abilities.”

Sandrone had no interest in the exact ownership of those pieces of “Moon Marrow,” but learning that Columbina still retained some of her authority put her more at ease.

At the very least, in this strange world, even without Pulonia, their safety had some protection.

But the thought had only just settled when her mind took a sharp turn. She suddenly remembered a detail she had overlooked earlier.

She whipped her head around and stared hard at Columbina. “Wait. Since you have authority, and your power has recovered… back in that Hollow, did you already sense the spatial disorder?”

“Mm.” Columbina nodded. There was even a hint of admiration in her tone. “The spatial structure there was quite interesting, like a puzzle that had been broken apart.”

“You understood the logic behind that chaos?” Sandrone’s brows drew together.

“Yes.” Columbina’s voice was calm and gentle, as if this were the most ordinary thing in the world.

“It’s like putting a puzzle together while walking through a maze. It’s a little winding, but you can still see the exit.”

“In other words…” Sandrone’s voice sank. “You didn’t need that Bangboo to lead the way at all. You could’ve walked out on your own?”

“Yes.” Columbina gave a clear and sure answer without any hesitation.

The air seemed to freeze for three seconds.

“Then why didn’t you say so!?”

Columbina tilted her head slightly, her face full of innocence. “Sandrone, you didn’t ask.”

“I…”

“And, Sandrone.” Columbina raised one finger and placed it lightly against her lips. “When we ran into Billy and Anby, didn’t you tell me to ‘talk less’?”

“…”

The boomerang struck her with perfect aim.

Sandrone opened her mouth, but in the end, no words came out. She only raised a hand to her forehead in defeat.

So this was the so-called Goddess of the Three Moons?

Where had she learned this natural dark streak from?

“…Forget it.”

Sandrone let out a long sigh and decided to spare herself.

“What’s past is past. We won’t be returning to Teyvat anytime soon, so we should think about how to live in this world…”

She picked up the phone again and lit the screen.

Columbina leaned in, resting her chin lightly on Sandrone’s shoulder. “Should we ask that person named Nicole from earlier? She seems to know a lot.”

“Information, at its core, is a gap in knowledge. Many things that count as ‘common sense’ in this world would make us look very suspicious if we asked about them.”

Sandrone rejected the idea at once.

“From what I saw on the way here, almost everyone in this place has a phone. Their use of it and reliance on it aren’t any less than Sumeru’s Akasha Terminal. We’ll figure out the basic rules ourselves first. If we run into something we truly can’t understand… then we’ll think about it.”

Columbina said no more and nodded in silence.

--+--

While Sandrone and Columbina sorted through their situation indoors, dusk had already begun to fall over the far end of Sixth Street.

In the parking lot behind Random Play.

Nicole held up a tooth-shaped accessory with charred edges, her face full of the thrill of having struck gold.

“This is a small storage device. It belongs to Miguel Silver. I picked it up in the building before I fought my way out of Fourteenth Street! I looked into it before. That smelly old man always kept this data drive on him, so there has to be something important inside! I’m sure it has something to do with the safe’s password!”

Anby stood to the side and added in a blank tone, “However, it appears to have suffered some damage.”

“Oh, right!” Billy leaned in for a look. “The body of the drive is all burned! Can this thing still be read?”

Nicole looked at the siblings standing nearby with an expectant face.

“Phaethon! Can you think of something? Maybe use that complicated computer in your store?”

Wise took the burned data drive and examined it. “The HDD’s performance is mostly used to process Hollow data, but if it’s just exporting the contents of the drive…”

He looked at the girl beside him. “Belle, I might be able to use the Inter-Knot’s computing power to repair it.”

“Great! Then it’s settled!”

Nicole didn’t give them any chance to refuse. She clapped her hands together. “We’ll first try to investigate where the safe is inside the Hollow. Once we have a lead, we’ll come find you! Until I contact you for the recovery operation, you can handle your own business as usual! Oh, right—”

Her tone shifted, and a flattering smile appeared on her face. She rubbed her hands together.

“Phaethon, I have another important matter to discuss!”

Belle raised a brow, as if she had already seen through everything. “No discount on the commission fee.”

Billy muttered from the side, “Manager, you know her too well…”

“Hey!”

Nicole shot Billy a glare, then quickly put on that “sincere” face again. “Don’t reject me so fast! I’m not trying to mess with Phaethon’s official rates. Just like before, open a small Inter-Knot alt for me and let me take the discount price…”

Belle looked at her with suspicion. “What about Columbina and Sandrone?”

During their escape from the Hollow, Belle had heard their names through Eous, the Bangboo she controlled.

“Nicole, didn’t you just do a ‘big job’ with them? You rescued two young ladies who looked rich and noble at first glance. So why are you still coming here to cry poor?”

“Oh…” Nicole let out a heavy sigh, wearing a helpless look. “They did pay me. It’s just that thing… It’ll take some work to exchange it for Dennies. If I run into someone who doesn’t know its value, I might even lose money!”

Wise grew curious. “They didn’t pay with a check?”

Belle added with cool precision, “Looking at Nicole, definitely not. If it were a check, she’d have marched in here with her nose in the air to pay off her old tab.”

“Oh, stop teasing me! They didn’t give me a check. They gave me this—”

As Nicole spoke, she took a gem that gave off a faint silver glow from the waist pouch close to her body with great care.

“Look. This.”

Under the setting sun, the piece of Moonfall Silver lay quietly in Nicole’s palm. A hazy ring of moonlight seemed to surround it, out of place against the rough concrete of the parking lot.

Wise paused. “Hm? Is this… a gem? But its texture doesn’t really seem like a normal mineral.”

Belle leaned closer too, curiosity shining in her large eyes. “Yeah… It has such a pretty luster. And it feels like more than that. The feeling it gives off is… quiet and peaceful. It doesn’t have the restlessness of an Ether crystal at all.”

“This is what they paid for the ride.”

Nicole handed the Moonfall Silver to Belle. “I’ve never seen anything like it, but my years of wandering the streets tell me one thing—this stuff is definitely not simple! Speaking of which, you two are legendary Proxies. You’ve seen a lot. Have you ever seen anything like this in a Hollow?”

Belle took the Moonfall Silver, and she and Wise studied it closely.

It felt cold in the hand, like holding a beam of frozen moonlight.

Wise shook his head. “I haven’t seen it either. There’s no record of this kind of ore in the database.”

Belle also shook her head. “Me neither. It’s amazing…”

“Tsk, even you two haven’t seen it…” Nicole took the ore back in disappointment. “Fine. I’ll ask a friend at the HIA to appraise it later. I hope it’s worth something, or else I’ll have lost money on gas for this trip!”

Belle teased her with a soft laugh. “That’s rare, Nicole. With how much you love money, you actually accepted something with an unknown price as payment? Was it because those two pretty ladies were good-looking?”

“Don’t slander me!”

Nicole looked like someone had stepped on her tail. “I only love Dennies, okay!? Can good looks be eaten? …Though they were pretty good-looking.”

She cleared her throat, then raised one finger with a serious face. “The main reason was my instinct! My instinct told me those two aren’t simple! And this thing isn’t simple either! I trust my instinct!”

“Does this thing have a name?” Wise asked.

“They said it’s called… Moonfall Silver,” Nicole answered after thinking for a moment.

“Moonfall Silver…” Belle repeated softly, a touch of appreciation rising in her eyes. “That’s such a pretty name.”

The name itself seemed to carry a romantic air.

“So! Proxy! Dear manager!”

Nicole struck while the iron was hot, leaning forward and pressing her hands together. “Since I showed you such a rare treasure, about the commission fee! Please, really, give me the discount price! Pretty please? This is the request of my lifetime!”

As she spoke, she kept sending frantic looks at Anby behind her.

Anby received the signal and read out in a flat voice:

“Proxy, please give us a discount. Otherwise, Nicole won’t give me food. Cry here.”

The air went quiet for a second.

Nicole nearly lost her mind. “Don’t read the words in brackets out loud, Anby!”

Then she turned back with that familiar pitiful look. “We really need this discount! This little price difference is nothing but pocket change to Phaethon, right?”

Belle held her forehead in defeat and sighed. “I really can’t do anything with you people…”

“Thank you, Belle!”

Nicole’s face cleared up at once. She happily pulled Anby and Billy away, turning to leave before Belle could change her mind.

“Ah!” Nicole suddenly turned back to remind them. “Don’t forget about exporting the data! Contact me anytime if there’s news!”

“Thank you so much, Manager!!! See you, Manager!” Billy waved with a grateful face and followed Nicole out.

“See you, Manager.” Anby nodded slightly.

Wise and Belle watched the three members of the Cunning Hares leave in their usual noisy way, then exchanged a look.

“Moonfall Silver…” Wise repeated in a low voice. “Looks like Sixth Street has gained two interesting new neighbors.”

The setting sun sank fully below the horizon, and the lights of Sixth Street came on one by one.

--+--

Meanwhile, in the newly lit two-story building across from 141 Convenience Store…

Sandrone was studying the map app on her phone when she suddenly seemed to remember something. She turned to look at Columbina, who was spacing out beside her.

“Speaking of which, Columbina.”

“Mm?” Columbina came back to herself and blinked her pink eyes.

“Why do you carry Moonfall Silver with you?”

Sandrone couldn’t quite understand it.

She remembered that this kind of ore was quite common in Nod-Krai. You could even say it was everywhere among the Frostmoon Scions.

“Ah, that.”

Columbina lightly closed her fingers in the air. Like a magic trick, a piece of Moonfall Silver giving off a hazy silver glow appeared in her hand, and she toyed with it between her fingertips.

“Because every time Lumine came to the Silvermoon Hall to play with me, she always liked to take a few with her.”

Columbina recalled it with a faint smile in her voice. “She seems to really like collecting shiny things…”

“So before I knew it, I started picking some up too.”

“Some? How many is some?” Sandrone asked, curious.

Columbina tilted her head and thought for a moment, then gave a vague number.

“Mm… probably only a few thousand?”

“…You used the Frost Moon’s authority for this kind of thing?”

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 7

--+--

Chapter 7: Morning Roughhousing

--+--

Morning sunlight slipped through the gaps in the second-floor bedroom curtains, casting bright strips across the floor. Fine dust drifted in the air.

Sandrone woke inside a strange warmth.

Before her mind came fully awake, her body felt the weight first. Columbina had almost wrapped herself around her whole body.

The girl's arms circled her waist, her face lay buried in the hollow of Sandrone's neck, and one leg had crossed over Sandrone's in a bold, possessive sprawl. Her long, soft hair, black fading into red, covered half the pillow. A few strands had even tangled around Sandrone's fingers.

The pose was so intimate it was hard to breathe.

"...!"

Sandrone's eyes snapped open. Her pupils shrank at once, and her body moved faster than her brain. She lifted a hand, ready to shove this shameless dove away.

But when her palm touched that soft, warm shoulder, she stopped.

Columbina was sleeping deeply. Her long lashes cast quiet shadows beneath her eyes, and a few faint, pleased murmurs slipped from her lips. She looked utterly unguarded.

A faint scent, like winter-blooming mint, lingered around Sandrone's nose. This distance was far too close, and it stirred a nameless discomfort in her chest.

"...Tch."

After a few seconds of stiff silence, Sandrone still couldn't bring herself to disturb that peace. Her arm fell back onto the sheets without strength.

She stared at the ceiling in despair as her thoughts began to drift.

As the ultimate night owl who often stayed up until dawn, pulling several all-nighters in the lab was nothing new to her. Since when had she ever had a healthy routine like "early to bed, early to rise"?

Her memories returned in pieces.

Last night... had Columbina half-coaxed, half-dragged her into bed?

Fine, getting dragged into bed was one thing... but she'd actually fallen asleep without noticing? She hadn't even dreamed!

Sandrone struggled free from that clingy embrace. Only when her feet touched the cool wooden floor did she let out a breath.

In her sleep, Columbina curled up without knowing it and hugged the pillow Sandrone had left behind. Her cheek rubbed against the pillow as she sank back into deep sleep.

Sandrone looked at that unguarded face, then at the corner of the blanket that had slipped a little because of her movement. She let out a sigh so soft it could barely be heard.

Why did it feel like she was sighing more and more these days?

All at once, a strange sense of despair rose in her heart.

Was every morning from now on... going to be like this?

She covered her face, close to breaking down. Her neat, orderly life alone was slipping farther and farther away.

But life still had to go on.

Sandrone stepped barefoot across the cool floor and left the bedroom with careful steps. After washing up, she picked up her phone, went downstairs in silence, and pushed open the front door.

Sixth Street was already coming to life in the morning.

White steam rose from the breakfast shop at the corner. Round Bangboo rolled across the pavement on tiny wheels. A few early students rushed past with bread between their teeth.

There was a hard-to-name ease in the air. A calm order, relaxed but steady.

Sandrone walked at a slow pace and couldn't help thinking of last night.

Night had just fallen then, and the streetlamps had just come on. She and Columbina had walked down this same street side by side and bought some daily goods.

General Chop from the ramen shop had stood at the door, greeting customers who had just gotten off work. The two of them squeezed into the narrow counter seats and ate two bowls of signature ramen.

The noodles, cooked in that high-pressure broth, had been rich and springy. They'd carried a warmth she had never tasted before.

Around her were the owner's loud calls, the loose chatter of diners, and the crisp clink of bowls and chopsticks.

Even then, she'd felt that the people here had a strange kind of "life" in them.

Judging from the information online, this was a world that had lived through Hollow disasters, a world that could almost be called "post-apocalyptic." Yet the people here had a drive and brightness that felt oddly full.

It didn't have Snezhnaya's constant cold tension and pressure. Instead, it had ease, leisure, and even a noisy, everyday warmth.

Ignoring the Dennies vanishing from her wallet at terrifying speed, this feeling wasn't bad at all.

Too bad there was no ignoring it.

At that thought, Sandrone sighed yet again.

She stared at the pitiful number in her bank account on her phone. Never before had she missed that always-smiling colleague of hers, the "Regrator" who held the vaults of the Northland Bank in his hands, so much.

Looked like breakfast would have to be a random sandwich from the convenience store.

After all, she had no source of income for now. Better save where she could.

With the sandwiches she'd bought from the convenience store in hand, Sandrone turned and went back to the two-story house.

She went upstairs with light steps and pushed open the bedroom door.

The quiet inside and the waking noise of the street beyond the window seemed to be split into two worlds by that door.

Columbina was still deep asleep. Even her posture hadn't changed.

Sunlight had already climbed onto the foot of the bed, coating her smooth ankles in pale gold.

Sandrone walked closer and looked at the girl's unguarded sleeping face. Her lashes were long and thick, casting small fan-shaped shadows beneath her eyes.

"Wake up!" She reached out and poked Columbina's soft cheek. "The sun's already shining on your butt!"

Clear birdsong came from outside the window. The morning light was gentle.

Watching Columbina sleep as if thunder couldn't wake her, Sandrone felt a sudden urge to play a prank.

Her gaze drifted, then settled on the rounded curve outlined beneath the thin blanket.

That's for torturing me yesterday...

She raised her hand toward the raised curve beneath the blanket.

"Smack!"

A crisp sound rang out.

The feel of it was... better than expected. Soft, yet springy.

"Mm..."

Columbina's eyes flew open. She rubbed them in a daze, then slowly propped herself up. One strap of her nightdress slid off her shoulder, and she didn't notice.

She stared blankly for two seconds. Her pink eyes came into focus, as if she had finally remembered what had just happened, and her gaze fixed on Sandrone.

"Catch!"

Sandrone's heart jumped. Quick-eyed and quicker-handed, she threw the sandwich and boxed milk she'd bought over, then turned and ran.

Columbina lifted a hand and caught breakfast with ease. She set it on the bedside table. In the next second, her figure shot out like a streak of white lightning.

"Sandrone—"

Columbina's voice came from behind her, soft and sweet, yet it made Sandrone run even faster.

She rushed down the stairs in a panic.

Just as she stepped into the first-floor living room, a figure flipped down from the outside of the stair railing. A gauze skirt spread like wings, and Columbina landed right in front of her.

"Mmph—!"

Sandrone couldn't stop in time. Columbina caught her head-on in a full embrace, and the two of them fell onto the sofa together.

Columbina rolled over and pinned her firmly beneath her, both hands braced beside Sandrone's ears. She lowered her head and looked down at her, long hair falling like a curtain.

"Sandrone," that airy voice sounded beside her ear, carrying a trace of morning husk and a faint smile, "you've been bad."

"D-don't talk to me in that tone!"

Sandrone's face turned red as a ripe apple. She pressed both hands against Columbina's shoulders. "I was just... just waking you up! My brain glitched for a second! I didn't mean it!"

Her brain had short-circuited just now. It had to have. Otherwise, how could she have done something like that?

Sandrone groaned inside. It had to be this world's strange social mood rubbing off on her!

"Sandrone needs punishment."

Columbina lowered her head and gave the pale collarbone a light bite.

The force was slight. Rather than a bite, it felt more like some kind of mark.

Sandrone went stiff all over.

As an alchemical puppet, this level of "punishment" was nothing to her body. But the shock to her mind far outweighed any physical feeling.

"...Are you a dog?!"

Sandrone shoved the girl off her in a fluster and shouted, "Fine! Hurry up and eat breakfast! We still have serious business later!"

She tried to use volume to cover her panic.

After a round of messy roughhousing, the two finally called a truce and each fixed their rumpled hair and clothes.

The living room grew quiet again. Only the faint sounds of the street came in from outside.

They sat back down on the sofa and ate the slightly cold sandwiches in silence. Only after swallowing the last bite did Sandrone clear her throat and put on a serious face.

"All right, enough messing around. Now let's discuss today's plan."

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 8

--+--

Chapter 8: The Value of Moonfall Silver

--+--

Sandrone and Columbina had gone over Pulonia’s recovery plan in detail last night.

In the end, Sandrone rejected the idea of having Columbina lead the way straight into Cretan Hollow.

There was only one reason.

Efficiency.

Columbina’s way of finding a path was, at its core, finding order within chaos. In her own words, it was like “solving a jigsaw puzzle while walking through a maze.”

That meant she needed time to test, check, and compare the warped space in front of her with the “right” path she sensed.

Give her enough time to learn the deeper logic of Hollows, and this “human-shaped, self-moving Bangboo” would no doubt become one of New Eridu’s top Proxies.

But right now, they had less than three days.

They had to recover five hidden parts from randomly scattered coordinate points inside a Hollow that changed by the moment. They didn’t have room for that slow, careful “puzzle game” approach.

What they needed now was speed and precision.

Sandrone tapped a finger against the armrest of the sofa and made her decision. “We need a local guide who knows Hollow structure inside and out. Someone who can recover the parts fast, and also let you observe how the ‘professionals’ of this world work.”

She took out her phone and lit up the screen.

On Knock Knock, her contact count was: 2.

One was marked “Columbina.” The other was “Cunning Hares - Nicole.”

Sandrone opened her chat with Nicole, and her fingers danced across the screen.

[Sandrone: Good morning, Miss Nicole. Could you recommend a reliable Proxy? We need to enter yesterday’s Hollow again and recover several important lost items.]

The reply came almost at once.

[Nicole: Morning, darling! Just call me Nicole~ The Proxies on the Inter-Knot are a mixed bag. Most of them are half-baked scammers. But don’t worry, anyone I recommend is the real deal!]

[Nicole: Go to the Random Play video store on Sixth Street! Look for the owner there. Mention my name and say you’re looking for “Phaethon”!]

Sandrone raised an eyebrow.

That close?

The Random Play video store on Sixth Street?

She had some impression of it. It was right next to the ramen shop from last night.

She’d meant to go in and look around at the time, but Columbina’s soul had been hooked by the smell of ramen, and no amount of pulling could move her.

[Sandrone: Phaethon? The Bangboo from yesterday?]

[Nicole: That’s right! You saw what they could do in the Hollow, didn’t you? They’re legends among Proxies! Totally reliable!]

Sandrone thought back to yesterday in the Hollow. That Bangboo had guided everyone through twist after turn, brushing past dead ends and Ethereals several times before bringing them to the exit without a scratch.

That kind of total control over the route was flawless.

[Nicole: Oh, right. I’m near Sixth Street right now. Want me to take you there?]

[Sandrone: Thank you, but no need. It’s not far. We can go by ourselves.]

Just as she was about to end the conversation, Sandrone’s finger paused over the screen for a moment.

She hesitated.

It was a little hard to ask, but to sort out their current financial state, and to confirm the buying power of “Moonfall Silver” in this world, she had to ask.

She weighed her words and didn’t ask “how much is it worth” outright. Instead, she sent a more tactful message.

[Sandrone: One more thing. About yesterday’s fare, that piece of “Moonfall Silver”... how was the price?]

This time, the “typing...” indicator at the top of the chat box flashed for a long while.

It lasted a full half minute, as if the person on the other end was locked in some fierce inner struggle.

At last, a message popped up. Every word carried a thin, hollow air of someone trying far too hard to cover something up.

[Nicole: Ah! That thing... it was fine! Pretty much just enough for gas and labor! That’s all! No need to make up the difference! I’ve got something urgent to handle over here! Talk later!]

Right after that, Nicole’s profile icon turned gray at lightning speed. She went offline so fast it was as if she feared Sandrone might keep digging into the matter.

Sandrone looked at the gray icon, lost in thought, then put away her phone.

“‘Just enough’...” She repeated the words with faint interest. “It seems that piece of Moonfall Silver is worth far more than fifty thousand dennies.”

Nicole’s evasive reaction only proved how precious it was.

In that case, their financial crisis seemed to have found an unexpected way out.

“Let’s go.” Sandrone stood and patted down her skirt. “We’ll talk about the Moonfall Silver later. First, we go to that video store.”

Sandrone took Columbina’s hand and pushed the door open.

What Sandrone didn’t know was that only a few hours earlier, deep in the night, a “financial earthquake” had struck the Cunning Hares’ base, one that would go down in Nicole Demara’s personal business history.

--+--

Time turned back to late last night.

In the bedroom on the second floor of the Cunning Hares’ base, Nicole wore a thin nightgown and a hydrating face mask. She was just about to enjoy the rare beauty sleep she could get at the end of a long day.

Then the phone on her bedside table buzzed.

“Who’s calling in the middle of the night—”

Nicole grabbed the phone in a huff. The moment she pressed answer, a completely unhinged scream exploded from the receiver.

“Nicole!!! It’s me!!!”

The shout from the other end blasted Nicole’s eardrums numb. She almost threw the phone away.

It was one of her senior appraiser friends from the Hollow Investigative Association.

This highly educated woman, who usually spoke in a soft voice and carried herself with grace, now sounded like she’d just downed a whole liter of adrenaline. Her voice shook so hard it almost lost its shape.

“That stone you gave me during the day! Where did you get it?! Tell me! Tell me now!!”

Nicole’s hand jerked from fright, and the face mask slid straight down to her chin.

“D-Did you take the wrong medicine or something? Didn’t I tell you already? A client used it to pay the fare! What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

“Pay the fare?! They used this to pay a fare?! Are you kidding me?!”

The other woman’s voice shot up by eight whole pitches. Just from the sound alone, Nicole could almost see her face twisted with disbelief.

“So how much is it worth?” Nicole had a faint sense that something was off.

“This isn’t about money anymore!”

The woman’s voice burned with the kind of frenzy people had when they saw a miracle. Even through the receiver, Nicole could feel the excitement spraying spit everywhere.

“Nicole, do you have any idea how absurd this thing’s physical properties are? Extremely high Ether inertia! Energy transmission efficiency close to superconductivity! And chemical toughness close to gold! This isn’t a mineral that could form in nature! This is a miracle! A nuclear bomb for academia!”

She grew so excited that her words started tripping over themselves.

“With this single sample alone, I could publish dozens—no! Hundreds of papers! I could even get tenure outright!!”

“Stop, stop, stop! I don’t understand papers or professors!”

Nicole yanked off the mask. Her sharp business sense made her heart pound. “Just tell me one thing. Is this thing... worth money?”

“Worth money? This is priceless—”

The woman slammed the brakes on her words and drew in a deep breath, trying to bring a little reason back into her voice. She still trembled.

“Listen, Nicole. If any company could analyze this material, or even mass-produce it, the seats in the TOPS Alliance would have to be reshuffled. But before that... as a research sample...”

The other end of the line fell into a short silence. Only heavy breathing came through.

After a long while, the woman seemed to make up her mind and forced a number out through her teeth.

“Five hundred thousand dennies.”

“This... This is all the liquid cash I can move from my personal account right now! I’m begging you, leave the sample with me! This is the request of my life!!!”

“H-How much?!”

Nicole held the phone, frozen stiff on the bed. Her mind went blank in an instant.

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 9

--+--

Chapter 9: Nicole Shows Off

--+--

Five hundred thousand Dennies?

The number echoed again and again in Nicole’s head. How many zeroes was that?

It felt like… enough to pay off every tab she’d ever run up in one go. There might even be some left over!

The person on the other end of the call heard Nicole go silent and thought she felt the offer was too low. Panic hit her at once.

She thought of the paper she could write, one that might shake the whole field of materials science. She thought of the very top of the academic world waving at her, and steeled herself.

“Seven hundred and fifty thousand Dennies! Nicole! That’s really my limit! I can write an IOU! I’ll use my future research funds as collateral! I really can’t go any higher!!”

There was even a trace of tears in her voice.

“…”

Nicole felt dizzy. Even breathing became hard.

Seven hundred and fifty thousand Dennies?

All for a stone the size of her palm?

Heh… hehe… I must be dreaming. This is some absurd, beautiful dream I’m having after my debts finally drove me mad… Yeah, that has to be it…

“Deal!!!”

Nicole used the last bit of strength in her body to shout that one word into her phone. Then the phone slipped from her palm, and she fell backward, landing hard in the soft pile of blankets.

She stared at the cheap ceiling light above her and laughed without a sound.

The next second, a scream burst through the floorboards of the Cunning Hares’ office.

“Anby—! Billy—! Wake up!! We’re rich—!!!”

--+--

Back to the present.

Sixth Street, Random Play.

Bang!

The shop door was shoved open with raw force. The old wind chime behind it rang in a wild clatter, sharp and loud in the quiet store.

“Ehn-nah!!!”

The Bangboo tidying the shelves, 18, jolted so hard that the tapes in its hands almost fell to the floor.

“Belle—! Wise—!”

Nicole burst into the shop like a whirlwind. She swept her gaze around, saw there were no customers, and charged straight toward the back room.

“Belle—!”

With another bang, the back room door was also flung open.

It swung inward hard, the gust brushing past Belle’s nose before it slammed into the wall with a crash. Belle shrank back in fright.

She patted her chest and took two steps back, still shaken. “Nicole! You scared me to death!”

Wise rose from the sofa with half a glass of water still in his hand, his brow faintly furrowed. “Nicole, what happened? Why are you in such a rush?”

Nicole had two huge dark circles under her eyes, like smoky makeup after three straight all-nighters.

Yet in sharp contrast, her eyes shone with excitement so bright it looked ready to spill over.

“What’s with those dark circles?” Belle asked with some curiosity. “Did you stay up all night?”

“Big business! Belle! Wise!”

Nicole slammed the door shut, her eyes bright enough to be scary. “Big business!”

She grabbed Belle’s hands and stared at her with burning eyes.

“I brought you a super—super huge client!”

Wise walked to the side and filled his cup with water. He let out a sigh, his tone full of the helplessness of someone who’d heard this all before.

“Nicole, are you sure it’s a ‘huge client’ and not ‘huge trouble’?”

“I swear on the good name Nicole Demara has built over years of surviving in New Eridu! This time is different!”

Nicole waved her arms in excitement, speaking so fast she sounded like a repeating crossbow.

“They’re two… no, not two people, two mountains! Walking mountains of Dennies! Real treasure troves! Once you take their commission, my tiny little tab won’t even matter. I’ll pay it all back with interest in minutes! You’ll even have to pay me a referral fee!”

“For you to get this excited, and even bring up ‘paying off your tab’ yourself? This client must be something special.”

Belle pulled Nicole back to sit on the sofa with her, a teasing smile in her voice. “So who is it? Do we know them?”

“Of course you do! Sandrone and Columbina, the two you ran into yesterday in the Cretan Hollow!”

“Ah, them!” Belle looked as if it had clicked, then raised a brow. “Did they leave something in the Hollow?”

Nicole blinked. Her head was so full of Dennies that she didn’t catch on at first.

“…I think they did say something needed to be recovered… but that’s not the point!”

Nicole planted both hands on Belle’s shoulders. “The point is their pay!”

“The pay?” Wise sat back down on the sofa with his glass. “Are they offering a huge commission fee? Or is the job tricky enough that they need Phaethon?”

Nicole shook her head. “Do you remember the ‘Moonfall Silver’ I showed you yesterday?”

“That pretty gem?” Wise nodded. “I remember.”

“I had a friend in the HIA appraise it.”

Nicole put on a mysterious look. “Guess how much it was worth.”

Belle looked at Nicole’s excited face and guessed a bit high.

“A hundred thousand Dennies?”

“Nope~ more.”

Wise paused. “Two hundred thousand? Uh, three hundred thousand?”

“Nope~ more.” Nicole crossed her arms and leaned back a little, wearing a look that said, Go on, keep guessing.

Belle swallowed. “Don’t tell me… five hundred thousand?”

“Still more~”

Belle and Wise looked at each other in shock.

“Nicole~ just tell us already. How much was it?” Belle grabbed Nicole’s arm and shook it gently.

“Heh heh~” Nicole puffed out her chest. “Seven hundred and fifty thousand! She bought that piece of Moonfall Silver for seven hundred and fifty thousand Dennies!”

“How much!?” Belle was stunned.

“That… that price is kind of absurd…” Wise raised a hand and wiped away sweat that wasn’t there.

Nicole’s face looked smug enough to light up the room.

Then she launched into a vivid account of what had happened last night.

Jingle, jingle~

The wind chime at the entrance rang again, crisp and pleasant, cutting off their discussion.

Nicole seemed to flip some inner switch. She straightened at once, fixed her slightly messy collar, and changed the fevered look on her face into the polished smile of a professional odd-job agency boss.

“That has to be them!”

She lowered her voice as she said it to Wise and Belle.

Then she took a deep breath like an actor about to step onstage, turned, and pushed open the back room door. The curve of her smile was flawless.

In the shop, Sandrone and Columbina had already walked in.

The morning sun lit only a small patch near the door. The deeper into the store one looked, the dimmer the light became.

On the shelves, video tapes and discs from all kinds of eras were stacked in neat rows. A faint smell of old cardboard and electronic parts hung in the air.

The store was so quiet that they could hear their own breathing.

Rather than a video store still open for business, it felt more like a forgotten little museum of moving images.

“Is anyone here?” Sandrone asked, her voice clear in the empty shop.

Her gaze landed on the round Bangboo behind the counter.

“Ehn-nah~”

The round Bangboo behind the counter stood on a stool and raised one little gray paw in greeting.

That Bangboo model… and that orange scarf around its neck…

Sandrone frowned a little.

Its look was far too similar to the Bangboo that had led the way in the Hollow yesterday.

And they just kept it at the shop counter as a clerk?

Was it the same one? No, the number on the scarf was different…

As she thought, there was a sudden bang. The door marked [Staff Only] was yanked open.

“Welcome to Random Play—!”

Nicole’s voice arrived before she did.

She strode out in one quick step, wearing a smile so bright it was almost too much. Her voice was sweet enough to drip.

“Miss Sandrone, Miss Columbina, good morning! You got here fast!”

“Nicole? You’re here too?”

Sandrone looked in surprise at the pink-haired woman who had rushed out from inside.

“Oh, as your reliable referrer, of course I had to be here in person~”

Nicole beamed with warmth and, without waiting for anyone to object, gently pushed Belle and Wise, who had just stepped out behind her, in front of Sandrone and Columbina.

Her movements were so smooth that it looked like she was showing off some one-of-a-kind treasure.

“Allow me to introduce them properly! These two are New Eridu’s legendary Proxies—Phaethon!”

--+--

Marionette’s Cuddling Life - 10

--+--

Chapter 10: The Legendary Proxy “Phaethon”!

--+--

“Don’t let their age fool you. These two are the real deal. Yesterday, in the Hollow, they were the ones guiding the Bangboo from a distance.”

Belle got pushed to the front and looked a bit lost for a moment.

Nicole’s eager stare landed right on her back, sharp enough to make her skin crawl.

“Hello, you two!” Belle raised a hand and gave a small wave. “We met yesterday.”

Sandrone’s gaze slid past Nicole, who was still trying her best to set the mood, and finally settled on Belle. She gave a light nod.

“Hello. Let me introduce us again. I’m Sandrone, and this is Columbina. Thank you for guiding us yesterday.”

“No problem, no problem.” Belle waved it off. “Just call me Belle.”

“Wise.” Wise kept a warm, polite smile and dipped his head. “Pleasure to meet you.”

Sandrone paused for a brief moment, her eyes fixed on Belle and Wise.

“We’d like to commission the two of you to take us back into yesterday’s Hollow and retrieve a few things.”

Belle lightly slapped away Nicole’s hand, which had been resting on her shoulder the whole time, then pointed toward the inner room.

“This isn’t the best place to talk. Let’s go inside and discuss the details. We can add each other on Knock Knock while we’re at it.”

Everyone moved into the back-room studio.

The door cut off the old, quiet stillness of the video store outside.

Inside, the hum of computer fans filled the room without pause.

Was that… a wall of TVs?

A whole wall of old CRT televisions had been stacked together, their bulky casings pressed close, their screens glowing with a soft light. It had a strange kind of beauty.

In front of the TV wall sat a modern computer that looked completely out of place beside it. Its indicator lights blinked in a slow, steady rhythm.

Sandrone put away her phone, folded her arms, and studied the room in silence.

Columbina, however, had no such restraint.

The girl’s attention had been fully caught by the TV wall.

She tilted her head, her pink eyes reflecting the neat rows of screens as if she had found some curious new toy.

She reached out, her long, fine fingers moving toward one of the screens—

Before her fingertip could touch it—

“Don’t touch things.”

Sandrone moved fast and caught that restless hand in her palm with practiced ease.

Then she pulled Columbina back to her side in the same motion.

Columbina lowered her head and looked at the hand holding hers. She didn’t resist. Instead, she leaned against Sandrone’s arm and lightly traced a finger across Sandrone’s palm, as if in reply.

Sandrone ignored that small movement in her hand without so much as a change in expression. She looked up at the siblings, who had already taken their seats at the control console, and got straight to the point.

“One of my… some important pieces of equipment had a logistics accident in the Hollow yesterday. It was split into five parts and scattered across different areas of the Cretan Hollow.”

She paused, her gaze passing over Belle and Wise.

“And because of a certain ‘encryption method,’ ordinary people can’t recover these components. Only we can.”

Wise frowned a little. His fingers tapped the table without him noticing.

“Do you have anything more exact? This Hollow isn’t large, but it’s newly formed. The terrain inside is complex, Ether concentration shifts often, and the spatial structure changes in local areas every few hours. Five scattered points, but no exact coordinates…”

He shook his head.

“That’s not retrieval. That’s looking for a needle in the ocean. Tasks like this take a long time. A week at the shortest. At the longest—”

“No.”

Columbina, who had been leaning quietly beside Sandrone, spoke up all of a sudden.

“I can sense their direction.”

Sandrone picked up from there and added at the right time:

“But only the direction. She can’t confirm the exact distance. And with the Hollow’s distorted space, we’ll need to keep testing routes and checking the direction as we go. More importantly, this sense of hers… has a time limit.”

She paused.

“Less than three days. So we need a Proxy with enough skill to use your Hollow data analysis, combine it with her senses, and help us plan the most efficient route.”

Belle propped up her chin and gave a soft hiss through her teeth.

The other conditions weren’t much of a problem. The issue was that they had less than three days.

Belle didn’t answer right away.

Her gaze moved back and forth between Sandrone and Columbina, then finally landed on their still-joined hands.

“With directional guidance…” she said slowly, “then it’s not a pure needle-in-the-ocean search. Three days is tight, though. How’s your Ether aptitude?”

“Very high. You don’t need to worry about that.” Sandrone nodded. “Each trip can last through three to four rounds of the recommended safe activity time inside the Hollow.”

Belle’s eyes lit up when she heard that, and she looked at Wise.

“Wise, I think we can take it.”

Wise stayed silent for a few seconds, then nodded in the end.

Sandrone’s calm gaze passed over the brother and sister.

She thought back to the bits and pieces she had browsed on the Inter-Knot last night.

“Phaethon.” A legendary Proxy. An urban legend on the Inter-Knot. Since their debut, they had never failed a job.

She had thought that someone standing at the top of a gray-market chain like this would be more… hidden.

There would be code words. Layers of introductions. Maybe an exchange of encrypted keys on some plain street corner, followed by a trip to a basement or some place like that.

And the result?

They ran a video store with barely any customers, worked with an agent like Nicole who talked big every other sentence, and their studio wasn’t even fully cleaned up. Sandrone could see a jacket tossed over the corner of the sofa, still waiting to be folded.

Was this what people meant by hiding in plain sight?

Or was the underground scene in this world more… casual than she had thought?

She pulled her thoughts back.

Since they had agreed to take the job, it was time to discuss the fee.

Sandrone was just about to speak when she caught movement from the corner of her eye.

Nicole was standing behind Wise and Belle, her face full of wild signals.

She kept sending them urgent looks while hiding one hand at her side, rubbing her thumb and index finger together fast. The gesture was universal, and its meaning couldn’t be clearer.

“Raise the price! Raise the price!” she mouthed without making a sound. “Quote high!”

Belle caught Nicole’s look from the corner of her eye and saw that she looked ready to name the price herself. A faint, complicated hesitation crossed Belle’s face.

She opened her mouth, as if weighing how to state the price and what number to give.

Sandrone didn’t want to waste time.

She lightly squeezed Columbina’s fingers.

Columbina understood at once. With her other hand, she reached into her pocket and took out a gem that gave off a faint silver glow, like moonlight frozen into stone.

Moonfall Silver.

She placed the gem on the table.

It made a tiny, clear clink.

“We don’t have much cash on hand.”

Sandrone’s voice stayed even. “One piece of Moonfall Silver as the advance payment for this commission. After the job is complete, two more as the final payment.”

She looked over Belle and Wise’s faces.

“How does that sound?”

The air froze.

Wise’s brow gave the smallest twitch.

He and Belle looked at each other.

How much had Nicole sold one for last night again? Seven hundred fifty thousand Dennies?

Then three would be—

More than two million?

Belle glanced at Nicole and saw the Cunning Hares’ boss, who always had “make money” on the tip of her tongue, clutching her chest as if she were about to stop breathing.

The look on her face was too complex to describe. It was as if she were being crushed all at once by the envy of “why wasn’t it me,” the shock of “three rocks are worth more than everything I own,” and the deep, stabbing pain of “I only charged them for the ride.”

Belle moved fast. She grabbed Nicole, who looked seconds away from a heart attack, and pulled her behind her.

At the same time, she clamped a hand over Nicole’s mouth before she could scream. Then Belle put on a proper, professional smile and nodded to Sandrone.

“Deal.”

--+--