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[Genshin Impact] Chapter 348: Corrupt Officials in Inazuma
🕑 Added 2024-11-29 06:30:01 +0000 UTC“Identity and purpose?”
Hearing the woman’s inquiry, Paimon’s small face scrunched up in distress.
She hadn’t expected these questions, and they hadn’t discussed how to answer them in advance.
“Uh, well, we’re here to... um...” Paimon stammered, trying to form a sentence, but her thoughts remained scattered.
“Hmm? What’s wrong? Please state your intentions so I can register you,” the woman said, fiddling with the ends of her short, neck-length hair as her gaze rested curiously on Paimon.
“We’re here for business—trading specialties and ores,” Lumine replied after a brief pause, thoughtfully stroking her pale chin.
This wasn’t a lie—her inventory did contain plenty of ores and specialty items from Mondstadt and Liyue, so it would hold up under inspection.
“Specialties and ores?” The woman asked again, raising an eyebrow. “Currently, only merchants from the International Trade Association are authorized to conduct such import-export business. Do you have the required permits?”
“Uh...” Lumine faltered, unsure of how to respond.
It was her first time hearing about this International Trade Association, let alone possessing one of their permits.
“Thoma, this lady here should recognize you. Why don’t you step in and explain things to her?” Nolan, standing behind Lumine and Paimon, whispered to Thoma.
He vaguely recalled from the game’s storyline that Thoma handled all the traveler’s paperwork upon their arrival in Inazuma.
“Heh, don’t worry, I’ve already prepared your landing permits,” Thoma said, smiling as he pulled a stack of documents from his Vision. He stepped forward and handed them to the woman.
“Miss, here are their landing documents,” Thoma said politely.
The woman with the short neck-length hair accepted the paperwork, quickly glanced over them, and nodded with a smile. “Everything seems to be in order. Welcome to Ritou.”
Her words brought a collective sigh of relief from the group.
Without proper landing permits, they would have been deemed illegal entrants, forced to retreat in disgrace—or worse, left with no choice but to hide and live as undocumented individuals. Getting caught would mean jail time.
Of course, Nolan knew they could avoid capture if they wanted to, but operating without official documents would always be inconvenient.
“Seriously, if you had these ready, why didn’t you just hand them over earlier?!” Paimon huffed, hands on her hips, glaring at Thoma.
“Haha, I just wanted to see how you’d handle it. Sorry, sorry!” Thoma replied sheepishly, scratching his head.
Both Nolan and Lumine gave him exasperated looks.
“Hmph! So, our next stop is this Kanjou Commission place, right?” Paimon crossed her arms and floated slightly higher, her posture changing to reflect her annoyance.
“Yes, please follow me,” Thoma said with a cheerful nod.
He found Paimon’s reactions endlessly amusing.
“Ugh, this feels like such a hassle. Why does Inazuma require so much paperwork just to enter? Mondstadt and Liyue weren’t like this at all! And the locations for all the procedures aren’t even in the same place—this is just making things difficult on purpose!” Lumine complained, walking alongside Nolan. Her delicate, fair-skinned face betrayed her fatigue.
It was clear that Lumine found these trivial matters bothersome.
“All these rules were established by the Kanjou Commission, one of Inazuma’s three major governing bodies. They primarily oversee trade and manage the nation’s wealth,” Thoma explained casually as he walked ahead, having overheard Lumine’s complaints.
“I see,” Lumine nodded in understanding.
Nolan chuckled and added, “You can just think of it as completing a commission. Haven’t we done plenty of tedious errands while taking on commissions?”
Like finding lost cats or working as temporary laborers for construction crews.
“Alright, fair enough. I’ll think of it as paying myself commission money,” Lumine replied, her tone slightly more resigned.
A gentle breeze lifted the hem of Lumine’s skirt, revealing the fair skin of her thighs between her white knee-high boots and her lantern-shaped shorts—an angle perfectly visible from Nolan’s viewpoint.
Noticing his subtle glance, Lumine’s cheeks flushed lightly. She pressed her hand against her skirt to smooth it down, then reached over and pinched Nolan’s thigh firmly.
Hmph, always thinking about strange things.
Rubbing the slightly sore spot on his leg, Nolan continued walking while naturally lifting his gaze toward Lumine. Seriously, what’s wrong with me admiring my own wife for a moment?
Sensing his silent defiance, Lumine, with an expressionless face, extended her soft, fair hand to Nolan’s waist and lightly pinched the skin there, as if threatening to twist it if he kept up his behavior.
Nolan opened his mouth as if to protest but ultimately surrendered, obediently shifting his gaze forward.
Just then, they arrived at a building similar in style to the checkpoint station they had just visited, but significantly larger in size.
Thoma, walking ahead, suddenly stopped, turned around, and said with a smile, “Alright, this is the Kanjou Commission. It looks like they’re still open, so we can proceed with your residency paperwork.”
“This time, we won’t need more documents, will we?” Paimon asked, spreading her hands in exasperation.
“Heh, no, not this time. Once you’ve completed the landing procedures, the residency paperwork just requires a fee,” Thoma replied with a chuckle, gesturing for everyone to follow him inside.
Following Thoma’s lead, they made their way through the Kanjou Commission and quickly found the official in charge of residency permits—a beautiful woman.
“Hello, are you here to process residency permits? You’ve already completed your landing procedures, correct?” the woman, whose name tag read Yuriko, asked with a smile.
“Yes, here are our landing documents. We’re here to process residency permits for the three of us,” Nolan replied, handing over the paperwork they had received at the checkpoint.
Yuriko accepted the documents, glanced over them briefly, and, upon confirming the official stamp, nodded. “Everything seems in order. I’ll handle your residency permits now. The processing fee is three million Mora.”
“Three million Mora?!” Paimon exclaimed, her eyes widening. “Isn’t that a bit much? Did you add an extra zero by mistake?”
“Our work is meticulous, and the fee is one million Mora per person. No mistakes,” Yuriko replied with a composed smile.
Even though Nolan remembered this happening in the storyline, he still felt a little stunned. His total savings only amounted to 5.15 million Mora, and losing over half of it on a single procedure felt excessive.
These Inazuma officials are way too corrupt. How many foreigners have they scammed using this excuse?
Fortunately, Thoma was quick to step in. Realizing that Nolan and his group wouldn’t be able to handle this smoothly, he spoke up promptly.
“Haha, Miss Yuriko, don’t I look familiar to you? These folks are my friends.”
(End of Chapter)
