Chapter 243: Bai Luo? He's My Little Brother
On the sands of Kannazuka's shore, a girl sat perched upon a reef, her face resting on one hand.
"Boooring. So boring, so boring…"
Ksenia had been waiting here for days. Ever since she'd been pulled off her assignment in Watatsumi, her superiors hadn't told her when she could return.
They'd only ordered her to remain on this beach until someone arrived with new instructions.
To be fair, this was safer than her days undercover among the Watatsumi troops.
But the mind-numbing emptiness of the wilds? She was sick of it.
Swish—
A scarlet slit-pupil flickered above her head.
The next instant, Bai Luo landed silently behind her, a hand clapping down on her shoulder.
The cicin at her side stiffened, wings buzzing, ready to strike—but recognizing the newcomer, it relaxed at once.
"Mm? Bai Luo?"
Ksenia blinked in surprise. She'd heard his mission with the Resistance had wrapped up and that he'd left for other lands.
She hadn't expected to run into him here of all places.
"You're the contact?" Bai Luo asked knowingly, though his tone made it sound like he was guessing.
"Yeah. Headquarters assigned your big sister to this beach, told me to wait here until someone arrived with orders… Don't tell me—you're the one giving me commands now?"
She studied him in disbelief.
So the boy who'd only been an infiltrator for less than a year… had already outstripped her?
She'd been wandering the wilderness for years, and her military credit still hadn't caught up to his.
And now here he was—sitting on her head, so to speak.
It was enough to make a big sister proud… in a way.
"More or less," Bai Luo replied smoothly. "But it's not me assigning you tasks—it's the higher-ups."
He passed her the bundle of letters.
"Your mission is to deliver these to the Resistance camp. Then bring their replies back here. You'll have clearance from Kujou Encampment to pass through shogunate lines. Just keep an eye out for rogue Nobushi and Treasure Hoarders on the road."
On paper, it sounded like a tedious courier job.
In reality, it was one of the cushiest assignments imaginable.
As Bai Luo said, the shogunate already tolerated Fatui infiltration; slipping past their checkpoints would be child's play for Ksenia.
And once she showed up at the Resistance camp with intelligence in hand, they'd treat her as an ally, not an enemy.
Even better, travel time both ways counted as work hours.
She'd never be bored again, and she'd be stacking up both pay and credit with ease.
Plus, she could pocket some side income along the way—slaying Nobushi, shaking down Treasure Hoarders, even hassling a few stray Fatui squads if she felt like it.
What better deal could there be?
"And you?" Ksenia tilted her head, smiling faintly. "Coming with me to deliver letters?"
She was pleased with her assignment, but she hadn't forgotten her little brother standing before her.
Of course, if he agreed to tag along, she'd have to split the mission's rewards and credit with him.
And if he outperformed her on the job, she might even have to surrender more than half.
Maybe that was why she asked.
. . . .
Note: the story below happened some time prior Bai Luo joining the Resistance Camp under the name 'Battousai', it's when Bai Luo went to Liyue.
. . . .
Ksenia had been born unlucky.
An orphan raised in the House of the Hearth, she bore the enviable surname "Snezhevna," yet that never changed her reality.
Trained as a Fatui Cicin Mage, she was cast onto Inazuma's shores, stationed in the godforsaken Tenryou Forest, wandering aimlessly for years.
Those like her, marked for special roles, were expected to adapt to solitude—and to conquer it.
To cope, she'd even learned to chat with fireflies, just to keep herself from forgetting how to speak when she finally met another soul.
But humans are social creatures—who truly wants to be alone?
When loneliness becomes unbearable, it is also the moment one most desperately craves companionship.
And at that moment… Bai Luo appeared.
Hilichurl milk.
Rogue wave-men's leftover tea.
Half-drunk fire-water.
And a small, slightly tattered blanket that carried a faint, indescribable smell.
To others, these things were useless, perhaps even distasteful—Ksenia's odd quirks, nothing more.
But to her… they were her very best.
She laid everything she had before him, even willing to let the boy use the only shelter she called her own.
All she wanted was to savor, just briefly, the noise and warmth that had never belonged to her.
But she knew such warmth was never hers to keep.
A taste was all she allowed herself. Never more.
So the next morning, she didn't even say goodbye.
She slipped away under the pretense of work, afraid that if she lingered, she wouldn't be able to let go—afraid she'd cling to that boy, to that fleeting taste of life she'd never had.
Until her electro cicin whispered:
"The boy's already gone. You can come back now."
The brief warmth faded before it had even seeped into her soul.
And when it was gone, the loneliness inside her felt heavier than ever.
Paper that's been stained with ink can never return to pure white.
A heart that's glimpsed the light—how could it ever again embrace the dark?
. . .
The very next day, Ksenia requested a transfer.
Her superiors accepted immediately, posting her to the most dangerous undercover assignment available.
She was to take on the guise of a shrine maiden—one posted disturbingly close to the Divine Priestess of Watatsumi Island itself.
And the price for this suicidal duty? A single jar of jam.
Because back then, Bai Luo had left her a jar of sweet jam.
And she had seen just how much he enjoyed it.
It wasn't that the higher-ups were entirely heartless—after all, she had asked for this post, and everyone knew it was a mission one took on with death already in mind.
Normally, orphans like Ksenia would list the House of the Hearth as their "beneficiary." It was the only family they had.
But when the officer-in-charge checked her paperwork, he almost fell out of his chair.
The name she had written was: Bai Luo.
To sacrifice for the Tsaritsa—that was loyalty, gratitude for her upbringing.
But Bai Luo… perhaps he was nothing more than a fleeting warmth in the cold, an instant of companionship for a heart starved of it.
After confirming again and again that this Electro Cicin Mage hadn't made a clerical error, the officer carefully asked what her relation to Bai Luo was.
Ksenia's chest swelled with pride as she thrust it forward, answering boldly:
"He's my little brother!"
It was nothing more than a shield, really—a way of warning her fellow Fatui not to bully this foreign recruit who'd been swept into their ranks.
After all, she had once promised him: "Your big sister's got your back."
And when the higher-ups heard of it?
The single promised jar of jam became a whole crate.
The finest brand—far beyond what common folk could ever afford.
She was supposed to be thrown onto the front lines without training, yet they made an exception for her.
Before she could take her post, she was given time to learn the shrine maiden's ways properly.
On the night before she officially went undercover, she stood at her tent with her "hard-earned" jam in her arms.
She chased off the hilichurls that had claimed her tent after its traps were broken, then quietly buried the jars in the soil nearby.
'If you ever think of me again… let this be my parting gift to you.'
—Ksenia Snezhevna, the warm and hospitable daughter of Snezhnaya
. . . . .
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