"Hooray! Klee didn't get caught!"
"Wait, hold on, Klee... I think that was Honorary Knight just now."
Klee had bolted out of the confinent room. Due to her short stature, she only saw Nolan's torso and assud he was one of the Knights of Favonius assigned by Jean to guard the confinent room and prevent her from running off.
But Noelle had a clear look at him.
"Huh?"
Hearing Noelle's words, Klee imdiately skidded to a stop at the door. She turned back toward the confinent room and saw that it was indeed Nolan. Excited, she swung her little backpack as she ran back, her eyes sparkling.
"Wow! It really is Mr. Honorary Knight! Did you co to play with Klee?"
Nolan smiled warmly, reaching out to gently pat Klee on the head.
"That's right! I just got back from Inazuma and brought a little gift for you, Klee~."
Before Klee could reply, Nolan, with his hand still resting on her head, silently activated the "Spiritual Core" to add a new attribute to the "Wonderland" domain.
As the "Spiritual Core" emptied, the old attribute was replaced by a new one. Nolan glanced at the new attribute in "Wonderland."
[Wonderland: A small independent world without aging, sickness, or death, where anyone who enters experiences eternal joy. Current size: 131 square ters (expands with the levels of Nolan and Sucrose). Spiritual Core Attribute: Golden Treasury.]
The Spiritual Core Attribute had changed from the unimpressive "Eternal Springti" to "Golden Treasury."
The na alone suggested it was sothing extraordinary.
Nolan clicked on the Attribute to examine its specific effects:
[Spiritual Core Attribute - Golden Treasury: This Attribute only appears in spatial abilities, items, or constructs. Spaces with this Attribute can store rare treasures within them. Each stored treasure increases the space's size, with the degree of expansion determined by the value and rarity of the treasure. Certain ultra-rare treasures stored in the space may grant the space unique characteristics. These effects are only active while the treasures remain inside the space; removing them renders the effects void.]
Seeing the effects of the new attribute, Nolan was delighted. Visiting Klee for a bit of luck had indeed paid off.
He had acquired an attribute that could expand the "Wonderland" space, though it ca with the caveat that treasures needed to remain inside for the effects to work. Still, he was more than satisfied—no need to be overly greedy.
While Nolan's thoughts raced, Klee—unaware of what he was pondering—lit up at the ntion of a gift from Inazuma.
"Wow!" she exclaid, clapping her hands. "Klee wants the gift! What is it?"
"Hehe, before I give it to you, how about you and Noelle go back to the confinent room first? Let's not make things difficult for Noelle, okay?" Nolan said with a smile.
"Ah, but… Klee wanted to go blow up fish. Oh well, I can do that tomorrow! Mr. Honorary Knight's gift is much rarer!"
After a mont of hesitation, Klee decided against escaping the confinent room for now.
"Whew, thank you, Honorary Knight Sir," Noelle said with a sigh of relief. If she couldn't even keep an eye on a child, Jean would never promote her to a full-fledged Knight of Favonius.
Because of this small act of help, Noelle developed a slight sense of gratitude toward Nolan.
[Noelle Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 260 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.6 (110/600).]
"Hehe, it was nothing," Nolan said with a chuckle. He then followed Noelle and Klee back into the confinent room.
The "confinent room" was more like Klee's personal workshop, filled with her belongings—bomb schematics, fire-elent materials, and alchemy notes. It looked more like a research lab than a disciplinary space.
As Nolan sat down, Klee impatiently urged him, "Mr. Honorary Knight, hurry up and show the gift!"
"Alright, alright." Nolan laughed and nodded.
The gift he had prepared was a set of fireworks he'd obtained from Yoimiya's place. Lumine and Paimon had asked for them during their visit to Inazuma and stored them in the warehouse. They were perfect as a gift for Klee.
After all, Klee loved anything related to explosions.
Fireworks were technically explosives too, and they created beautiful displays in the night sky. Surely, Klee would love them.
She had helped him out a lot, so it was only right to give her sothing in return.
"Look, here's the gift I prepared for you."
Near the window, there was a table. Nolan walked over and traced a line in the air, opening a spatial rift.
Inside was the top-level warehouse of the "Wonderland." He reached in and began pulling out fireworks from the shelves, placing them on the table one by one.
"Wow, fireworks!"
Seeing the exciting and fun gift, Klee's eyes sparkled with joy. She had already made up her mind to set them off on the Knights' headquarters rooftop that very night.
"Honorary Knight Sir, how could you give Klee fireworks? What if she burns sothing again? Acting Grand Master Jean will scold you!" Noelle said with concern.
This ti, Klee was confined for going out to blow up fish again. She then tried grilling fish on the grass, accidentally burning a small patch of ground. Thankfully, with her ability to control fire elents, she managed to prevent the flas from spreading.
Still, despite avoiding disaster, she had to spend so ti in confinent to reflect on her actions.
Though, to Noelle, it didn't seem like Klee was reflecting at all—in fact, she looked more like she was preparing for her next "fish-blowing" escapade.
"That won't be an issue. After all, I'm the Honorary Knight. Even if Acting Grand Master Jean scolds , she wouldn't do it publicly—she'd save so face," Nolan said with a smile.
Of course, if she didn't save him face during the day, he had ways to make it awkward for her at night.
"Well then, you all enjoy yourselves. I have other things to take care of, so I'll be heading out now," Nolan said, ready to return to the "Wonderland" and test the effects of his new Spiritual Core attribute. He was curious about what qualified as a "treasure" to expand the space.
"Ah, Mr. Honorary Knight, you're leaving already? Won't you play with Klee?"
Hearing that he was leaving, Klee tilted her head in confusion.
"Uh… well, what does Little Klee want to play?"
Leaving right after borrowing so luck seed a bit insincere. Nolan decided to stay and play a bit, fearing that next ti he ca for luck, it might not work.
"Hooray! Let's play hide-and-seek! Klee will catch Mr. Honorary Knight and Sister Noelle!" Klee exclaid excitedly.
"Sure, but let's keep it to the first floor of the Knights' headquarters," Nolan replied with a light nod and a smile.
Noelle had no objections, as long as Klee wasn't dragging her off to blow up fish.
For the next half an hour, Nolan, Klee, and Noelle played hide-and-seek. Only then did Nolan excuse himself and enter the "Wonderland."
By now, the "Wonderland" had changed slightly—it had expanded from 131 square ters to 133 square ters.
An increase of about two square ters.
This was due to the various items already stored in the "Wonderland," so of which were considered treasures.
Unfortunately, none of the treasures were rare enough to grant the space unique characteristics.
Because Nolan was the owner of the space, he could use the Spiritual Core Attribute: Golden Treasury to identify which treasures had contributed to its growth.
First was an astrolabe that Mona used for her astrology research. It was apparently recognized as a decent treasure, contributing 10 square centiters of growth.
Next were the books in the library. In addition to Mona's absurdly expensive astrology tos, there were Lisa's collections on elental studies, as well as Sucrose's notes on bio-alchemy.
All their research materials were neatly organized and stored in the library.
These items were incredibly valuable to scholars in their respective fields, qualifying as treasures.
Altogether, the library's books had contributed 1.3 square ters of growth to the "Wonderland."
Additionally, there were items stored in the top-level warehouse that also contributed to the growth.
Among them were various materials Nolan, Lumine, and Fischl had gathered during their adventures.
After Lisa, Sucrose, and Jean started treating the "Wonderland" as their ho, they had stored so of their personal elental materials there as well. The most abundant item, of course, was Mora.
Previously, everyone had stored Mora in their personal inventory spaces. But now, with the "Wonderland," they didn't need to waste inventory space and had piled it all into the small treasury in the top-level warehouse.
Each person kept a record of how much Mora they had in the treasury and would simply take what they needed.
Since everyone trusted one another, there was no concern about anyone taking more than their share.
Nolan himself had 2.25 million Mora stored in the warehouse. Lumine had over 3 million, while Paimon had a few million as her allowance, most of which Ningguang had given her during their last visit.
Mona, however, had no Mora stored there. Currently, she was living under Nolan's financial support.
Recently, she had started contributing to the Steambird Gazette's astrology column as a side job, but she hadn't yet received her first month's paynt.
Lisa, on the other hand, had over 20 million Mora stored in the treasury. It was her ergency cash—her total wealth far exceeded this amount, but most of it was in the bank, earning interest.
Fischl, being a renowned investigator for the Mondstadt Adventurers' Guild, also had plenty of Mora. However, she only kept about 10 million here, with the rest also in the bank.
Acting Grand Master Jean surprisingly only had about 5 million Mora stored in the treasury. The rest was likely deposited in the bank.
In total, the "Wonderland" currently held roughly 50 million Mora, which contributed only 50 square centiters to its growth.
From this, it could be calculated that storing 1 million Mora in the "Wonderland" resulted in a growth of 1 square centiter.
10 million Mora would yield 10 square centiters, while 100 million Mora would only increase the space by 1 square ter.
"Wow, that's quite extre," Nolan thought. But upon reflection, it made sense. After all, the "Wonderland" was an idealized, eternal place—free from aging, sickness, or decay.
Every additional square ter was imnsely valuable. Even if it cost 1 billion Mora per square ter, it would still be worth it.
The issue, however, was that storing 100 million Mora in the "Wonderland" would take up more physical space than the 1 square ter of growth it provided.
Thus, using large amounts of Mora to expand the "Wonderland" was not a feasible solution—unless Zhongli could issue Mora with larger denominations.
For instance, a single Mora coin worth 100 million would be perfect. But even if that were possible, Nolan didn't have that much Mora on hand—it was just a passing thought.
In total, all the treasures stored so far had increased the "Wonderland" by 1.9 square ters.
An additional 10 square centiters ca from three-star or higher-quality materials, artifacts, and weapons, though there weren't many of these.
Items of lower quality didn't qualify as treasures and couldn't contribute to the growth of the "Wonderland."
It seed low-value collectibles had little to no impact, especially since the space they occupied might exceed the space they added.
Nolan estimated that only five-star-quality treasures would have a significant effect on the "Wonderland."
Such items, however, were the stuff of legends. So far, he had only encountered one: Eula's claymore, Song of Broken Pines.
But weapons were tools ant for regular use, not collectibles to be stored permanently in the "Wonderland."
Speaking of weapons, Raiden Shogun's blade, Musou Isshin, which she unsheathed from her chest, was likely of five-star quality—or higher. The weapon even contained the "Plane of Euthymia," a domain housing Raiden Ei herself.
If he could sohow convince her that the "Wonderland" could perfectly preserve the weapon and prevent any wear and tear, would she be willing to move into the space with Musou Isshin?
It would be a win-win scenario—she could achieve her vision of eternity, and he would gain a rare treasure to help the space grow.
It was an intriguing idea worth considering.
However, Raiden Ei and Raiden Shogun currently had no favorable opinion of him. Bringing up such a proposal now would be inappropriate.
What if her response was to cut him down and seize the "Wonderland"?
Even if the "Wonderland" was tied to his soul and couldn't be directly taken, she might turn him into a puppet under her control.
In short, this plan could only be pursued if Raiden Ei developed a considerable level of affection toward him first.
---
Inazuma, Kamisato Estate
After reviewing the changes in the "Wonderland" and setting his sights on collecting rare treasures, Nolan teleported back to the Kamisato Estate.
It was now late afternoon, and the sky was tinged with the colors of dusk.
By this ti, Lumine and the others should have reached the Kujou residence in Inazuma City. Nightfall would soon arrive, the perfect ti for action.
"How's it going? Have you figured out where the evidence of Kujou Takayuki's collusion with the Fatui might be?" Nolan asked Lumine.
"Yes, we've studied the layout of the Tenryou Commission buildings thoroughly. The most likely places to find evidence are Kujou Takayuki's residence and study," Lumine replied with a slight nod.
"Kujou Takayuki is a cunning old fox," Kamisato Ayaka added. "He may have hidden secret chambers in those areas, so we must remain vigilant."
"By the way, Nolan's stealth abilities are top-notch. Ayaka, why don't you join us for so fun?"
It seed that over the course of the afternoon, Lumine and Paimon had grown quite familiar with the lady of the Kamisato clan, casually referring to her as "Ayaka."
---
(End of Chapter)
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