Infiltrating the imperial palace turned out to be unexpectedly simpler than imagined.
During their brief days of labor, Igola and the others, aside from physically surveying Nabistin's terrain, had discovered a crucial fact: all workers were operated on autopilot by Gospel.
Even if some workers weren't subterranean dwellers but patricians of the Nabistin Plain Purple Banners living in the surface city, they were still 'Gospel employees.' Their service was pure technique, devoid of a shred of emotion.
One could boldly deduce that the servants in the imperial palace should likewise be completely automated. While there were possibilities steeped in traditional dregs—such as "human service is more prestigious," "serving the royal family cannot be delegated to autopilot," or "cherishing the opportunity to be a dog for the Isu"—this crude plan was a gamble to begin with. Faced with such uncertainties, they could only bet that the Isu royal family was not quite so feudalistic.
Evidently, Annan had won her bet. At the Court Banquet hosted by the royal family, all the serving staff were 'Gospel employees'; the Isu royal family truly had embraced modernization completely. However, imperial palace servants were not recruited as part-timers from the subterranean city; these were full-time jobs reserved entirely for local Plain Purple Banners of Nabistin. People like Yaxiu and his companions could only sweep Nabistin's streets; they weren't qualified to wipe the imperial palace floors.
Yet here lay a loophole: all 'Gospel employees' had their specific assignments arranged through Gospel, and the imperial palace did not interfere with personnel scheduling.
This was a glaring loophole practically tailored for the Purple Moth to slip through—after all, just over a month ago, Annan had been the head of an agency specializing in blaspheming Gospel!
The actual operation was extraordinarily complex. As far as Yaxiu could understand it, Annan had simply swapped their shifts with the palace servants: the palace servants were sweeping the streets in their place, while they attended the Court Banquet in place of the palace servants!
When Annan had draped an arm over his shoulder, boasting in a smug tone about how brilliantly and deftly she had pulled off this critical step, Yaxiu had suddenly had a strange thought—
Right now Annan could swap their jobs, but if this 'Gospel employee' system expanded further into a 'Gospel life' system, wouldn't Annan be able to swap their very lives?
Of course, Yaxiu bore no grudge against Annan; when she came seeking praise, he had even high-fived her. Besides, Yaxiu's thought was mere idle speculation. After all, even the 'Gospel employee' system was currently limited to Nabistin, having yet to let citizens nationwide enjoy the pleasure of 'automated labor,' much less any further 'Gospel life.'
He was merely frightened by the lurking possibilities.
As for how the members of Funeral disengaged from the 'Gospel employee' state, that was actually much simpler.
That was because 'Gospel employees' were not on autopilot the entire time; after all, unforeseen incidents that even Gospel could not handle were bound to arise. For example, at Berdette Happy World, if a worker was asked by a child where the restroom was, they could answer instantly. But if a child asked, "How do I find the path into Big Sister's heart?" or "Can you push my swing?", Gospel would not overstep its bounds. Instead, it switched the employee's status to manual service, leaving the worker to deal with it personally.
Annan spent a few Gospel points to trick Gospel into believing they had encountered extremely difficult guests. Consequently, the work statuses of Funeral's members were locked into manual service, naturally allowing them to retain their self-awareness the entire time.
With some simple makeup and disguises, Yaxiu and his group entered the imperial palace openly and legitimately, easier and safer than any infiltration they had ever attempted. There was no elven clan leader bringing Red Hats to beat them to a pulp, nor a blue-haired rich lady bringing Bluebeards to force them into hard labor. It went so smoothly it felt like walking into a neighboring residential community.
Swapping jobs, switching states... Though exploiting these two loopholes cost Annan different prices, the core premise was the same: follow Gospel's rules, utilize Gospel's rules, satisfy Gospel's rules.
"Deceiving Gospel isn't actually hard," Annan had once whispered to Yaxiu, sharing her trade secret. "It's a lot like you: as long as you satisfy its needs, it'll lie back compliantly and let us fool around with it."
At the time, Yaxiu hadn't been able to tell whether Annan was insulting him, flirting, or being serious.
Although Annan had perfected every detail of the plan as much as possible, a flaw was inevitable once they put it into action—
They couldn't leave.
More precisely, they couldn't desert their posts. During work hours, they had to faithfully perform their duties as servants.
According to the original plan, immediately after infiltrating the imperial palace, they were supposed to breach the princess's boudoir and strive to return to the inn before dinner to celebrate. Yet up until now, they remained stuck in the banquet hall, providing manual service to the guests.
The reason was simple: Gospel did not permit its employees to slack off. Even though Gospel allowed them to switch back to manual service, that hardly meant it had actually restored their freedom. Even a normal boss dropped by the office from time to time to check whether your workload was saturated; how could Gospel, which monitored the entire nation, simply stand by and watch employees directly under its jurisdiction leave their posts?
When Annan and the others opted for express part-time labor via Ark Plaza, they had entered a contractual relationship with Gospel. Even for part-time work, there was a detailed employment contract. Under the binding effect of the contract, they could not engage in anything unrelated to their jobs.
Here, a brief explanation of what the contract's "inability" entailed was necessary: it wasn't an indirect coercion through psychological suggestion, electric shocks, intimidation, or the like; it was exceptionally direct. It felt precisely like when you were holding in your urine—the moment you realized that moving any further would make you wet yourself, you would instantly clench your sphincters, not daring to move and physically unable to move.
Whenever Yaxiu tried to slack off, neural signals throughout his entire body would fire off warnings, physiologically halting any further action until he returned to his post.
Because this belonged to the profound domain of flesh and blood that only the ascetic faction delved into, Igola, Harvey, Annan, and the others were utterly helpless against it.
Still, as a precaution, Annan had assigned them very cushy posts. So long as one was reasonably sharp, one could blend in just like a normal employee—such as Yaxiu's role as a "cake attendant." After all, at an occasion like this, who would actually eat cake?!
Thus, when Qinna dragged Yaxiu into a private washroom, he was still thoroughly perplexed. "Just how did you recognize me? Even if my movements were a bit sluggish, there's no way you'd immediately deduce it was me, right?"
Yaxiu wasn't acting cute; he genuinely possessed absolute confidence.
Leaving aside how the Distortion Mask could distort any method of investigation, he also had the Silver Blessing, Observer's Countenance, which lowered his presence, and the Golden Blessing, Listener's Sorrow, which subdued hostility. On top of that, the Secret-Keeping Authority allowed him to blend into any identity as naturally as breathing...
To put it simply, attempting to identify Yaxiu required passing four checks:
Are you using a sorcery spirit miracle?
If yes, the result is falsified by the Distortion Mask. If no, on to the next question.
Is your attention focused?
If not, Observer's Countenance makes you overlook Yaxiu. If yes, next question.
Are you paying attention out of hostility or goodwill?
If hostile, Listener's Sorrow causes your hostility to dissipate. If without hostility and only goodwill, next question.
Do his current actions mismatch his identity?
If they match, Secret-Keeping Authority makes you believe he is genuine. Only if they mismatch can you harbor even the slightest shred of suspicion toward him.
Honestly, when it came to stealth and disguise, Yaxiu felt he was practically impregnable; no one could possibly breach his four layers of defense. Never mind a mere palace servant—even if he donned the Empress's new clothes, everyone would merely think, "The new Empress's features look remarkably human!"
The sole flaw was that in the eyes of outsiders, Yaxiu was wearing a mask at all times. Yet Annan had thoughtfully assigned him the post of cake attendant, giving the mask a perfectly legitimate reason to exist.
Qinna locked the washroom door, opened her Book of Gospel, tapped it a few times, and said languidly, "Violet Iris."
"Huh?"
"Violet Iris. Top notes of lemon, middle notes of violet, base notes of cedar—intertwined with Annan's own natural scent." Qinna cast him a sidelong glance. "You're drenched in Annan's perfume. I caught the scent the moment I walked up."
"B-but it could have been Banjie or Igola or the others—"
"Though you might not notice, Banjie has his own body scent. After all, he's an Echoer who made it onto the Weaving rankings fifty years ago purely on the strength of his beauty." Qinna checked the mirror and smoothed her attire. "As for the rest... Annan isn't on close enough terms with them for her perfume to rub off on them, is she? By the way, top and middle notes are one thing, but to get the base notes clinging to you, that requires over ten hours of prolonged, intimate contact."
Yaxiu turned pale and hurried to explain, "I haven't actually—"
"'Haven't yet'?" Emphasizing the words, Qinna chuckled. "I'm not blaming you, so why explain yourself to me? Still, 'haven't yet' is quite the choice of words. I can pretty much guess how the two of you have spent the past few days."
Yaxiu said sheepishly, "I was just worried you'd misunderstand..."
"Why fear that I'll misunderstand? Because I'm Annan's mother? Or..." Qinna took a step forward, backing Yaxiu against the wall in an instant. "...are you worried about your image in my heart?"
The elf's breath washed over his face. Yaxiu felt his whole body stiffen, unable to tell whether it was the contract binding him or pure nervousness. He wanted to slip away, but right now he was a servant and Qinna was a guest—if she wished, she could drag him into any room under the pretext of 'service.' On top of that, Qinna had completely blocked his retreat.
"Right now is different from the time in the Sennheiser Building, and different from Berdette Manor." The elf's voice slithered into his ears like tentacles. "There's only you and me here. No one else. And I just set up a sound-dampening barrier, which means whatever happens, not a soul will ever know."
"So..."
Yaxiu's heart pounded uncontrollably. He watched helplessly as Qinna rested her right hand gently against his neck, leaning in to whisper in his ear:
"Tell me your plan."
Chapter 489