Honkai Star Rail: I must live a peaceful life

"Thank you for agreeing to cooperate with a scheming individual like myself." Patzi made an exaggerated gentleman's bow with his hand on his chest, then smiled again. "I commend your magnanimity."

"I merely made a rational decision," Ralph replied coldly, his expression unchanging. "Since you bear no ill will toward me, there's no need to waste the effort."

"Hahaha, what rare mercy indeed." Patzi laughed oddly, unbothered by Ralph's dismissiveness, and brought up another matter instead. "You carry the scent of conspiracy about you. Did they tell you anything before? Surely as allies, you wouldn't refuse to share intelligence of this level?"

"Conspiracy? I met her before, but we didn't talk much." Ralph gave Patzi a cold glance.

Hearing this response, Patzi felt a surge of joy in his heart. But before he could sarcastically question "Given that Conspiracy's sensory range far exceeds both of ours and must have detected my presence long ago, how could they not have mentioned me to you?", Ralph cut him off.

A thin blade of blazing white light suddenly appeared at Patzi's chest, just one step away from cleaving him in two.

"She did warn me that if I saw you, I shouldn't listen to anything you say and just try to cut you down. Even if I couldn't kill you immediately, I should treat everything you say as meaningless noise and continue with whatever I had planned to do." Ralph looked up, pure white holy script of light and fire slowly flowing across his limbs.

He tilted his head, his tone serious: "How about I kill you right now?"

"Surely you jest." Patzi made a gesture of wiping cold sweat through his mask, as if begging for mercy and negotiation. "We're kindred spirits, there's really no need for this, truly no need, besides..."

"I have some confidence in my immortality." Patzi shrugged, then maintaining this pose, walked forward a step while avoiding contact between his hands and the blade of light before him.

Patzi passed through the light blade with ease, as if moving through mist, without even a single tear in his black robe.

If only his upper body hadn't suddenly slid smoothly to one side for a short distance.

How hilarious - he had been cleanly sliced through like a hot knife through butter.

"Ahem, would you mind averting your gaze? Such direct staring makes even me feel embarrassed." Patzi coughed awkwardly twice, turned his head away shyly, then grabbed his lower half as if pulling up pants and scurried away in a flash.

Seeing himself out of danger, Patzi almost laughed out loud in triumph. This is my escape route, damn it!

Ralph remained where he was without pursuing, only slightly furrowing his brow. "So it was as she predicted?"

He recalled his reason for coming - had Lies specifically arranged for him to meet this person?

Regarding the identity of Sinners, he was still quite ignorant, as everyone he'd met seemed to possess far more knowledge than him.

However, regarding the choice of whether to trust Lies or trust Conspiracy, Ralph had no intention of changing his decision.

After all, besides being Violence incarnate, he was still a proper priest. At least Conspiracy could be considered a good person, while this Lies he just met...

Heh, one of the fundamental laws of the Holy See was to treat all non-benevolent non-human species as mortal enemies.

He prepared to leave, but suddenly remembered something and looked back at Kolo who stood frozen in place.

There was still one unfinished matter here, perhaps?

The atmosphere instantly froze. The old man, suddenly faced with a life-threatening situation, was like a student who woke up during an exam to find the proctor already collecting papers - in his panic, he only managed to write his name and randomly guess all the multiple choice questions as he shouted: "I have a daughter!"

Ralph then left directly without looking back.

After a long while, the old man tremblingly raised his hand to touch his neck, and only after confirming he was indeed still alive did he let out a long sigh of relief and collapse weakly to the ground, muttering in lingering fear: "My head is still attached..."

He recalled his excuse, his expression suddenly becoming distant before showing signs of trouble and difficulty.

After all, to this day...

He still hadn't found a suitable reason to see her.

The light that no longer maintained its youthful effect naturally shifted with the passage of time, crawling from the center to one corner. This biggest local snake in the grass no longer carried the dignity and bearing of a person in power, but rather like a face-saving ordinary old man, was troubled about how to face children he hadn't contacted in a long time.

In the distance, on his way home, the silver-haired priest lowered his head and began to contemplate the intentions of the person who had planned everything.

The friend he met this morning was called Tom, right? An obvious pseudonym, which meant this friend's real name must be quite well-known, and thus qualified to appear as a piece on Conspiracy's chessboard.

Although Ralph bore the evil virtue of Violence, this didn't mean he was purely a brute. If he wasn't a clever person, he wouldn't have been excommunicated for the crime of being a faultless heretic.

Moreover, Tom's destination was Madam Corona's Pastry Shop.

This was another reason why Ralph had spared Kolo earlier, since in his homeland's naming customs, Corona meant "Kolo's daughter."

A father should have the right to bid farewell to his children. And since the target wasn't someone who absolutely had to die, Ralph, who was in a hurry, naturally wouldn't kill him directly.

After all, the city was large enough - looking around, did he need to worry about not finding people to kill?

"You shall remove the weeds from the field, for they will compete with the beneficial grain for nutrients in the earth." Ralph recited the Saint's admonition in a low voice, his heart no longer wavering. "I am right."

"I am right." Milo said with a smile. During this waiting period, having nothing better to do, he reviewed some theoretical issues and remembered design disagreements from childhood with a certain silver-haired friend. Now looking back on those problems from a higher perspective, he was naturally the correct one.

But he couldn't say this directly to that person anymore - after all, she was such a genius, she would definitely force some explanation, leading to another prolonged debate that would have to be shelved.

Because if two people mutually refused to yield, arguing would definitely hurt their relationship. They couldn't just fight it out to determine a winner, right? Normal energy attacks would be directly nullified by their abilities, and using abilities would just turn into a tug-of-war over energy control, leaving them staring at each other. As for close combat without abilities...

Not to mention how undignified it would be for two fragile spellcasters to brawl in close quarters, the whole thing just wasn't appropriate.

End of Chapter