Paraiso {Yae Miko x MALE!OC x Signora}

Chapter 8

Their ship docked at Snezhnaya's harbor where a new recruit was waiting for them. Ruichiro stepped out of the ship as the recruit approached him.

"Lord Ichiro! Upon receiving a notice of your arrival, the Tsaritsa has requested that you meet with her immediately." The recruit said as Ruichiro internally smirked.

Ruichiro gave him a big grin. "Sure! I'll head over there right now!" He said before skipping ahead, leaving a dumbfounded recruit behind.

The recruit turned around when he heard his superior chuckle behind him as he quickly spun around to face him.

"Lord Dottore!" He exclaimed in shock. "Lord Dottore, was that really Lord Ichiro? I mean, the others made him look so..." The recruit trailed off.

"Scary? Terrifying?" Dottore asked as he laughed. "Well, yeah." the recruit said making Dottore laugh again.

"That's because that's not Lord Ichiro." Dottore explained. "That's his twin brother, Muichiro. A complete opposite of Lord Ichiro. Another way to tell them apart is from their eyes. Lord Ichiro has purple and red eyes while Lord Ruichiro has blue eyes and usually has a messy hair." He explained.

"Twin brother? I never knew he had a twin brother." The recruit said. "Well, that secret is usually kept under wraps inside the palace. Lord Ruichiro hardly goes out the palace and usually just stays indoors. Weirdly enough, I haven't actually seen Lord Ichiro and Ruichiro together. Probably why Muichiro just stays indoors." Dottore said as he muttered the last part.

As Ruichiro entered the palace, recruits and higher ups recognized him as the twin and smiled and lightly bowed at him before returning to their work.

As Ruichiro closed door to their chambers behind him, he sat on the bed.

"Can I have my body back now, please?" Ichiro asked.

Ruichiro sighed. "Fine, but you have to let me control it more often. That was fun." He said before switching control of the body as its appearance changed to Ichiro's.

"What are you going to do now?" Ruichiro asked.

"Well, we'll have to sort some things out." Ichiro said as he approached the throne room.

The guard immediately recognized Ichiro. "Oh, my lord! The Tsaritsa's currently in a meeting-" The guard tried to stop him but was ignored as Ichiro pushed the door open to reveal the Tsaritsa and Pierro.

"My lord- ah, Your Majesty, I-" The guard tried to explain but was cut off by the Tsaritsa.

"It's quite alright. Leave us be for now." She said as the guard nodded and closed the door on his way out.

"Leave us be for now, Pierro. We have things to discuss." Ichiro said as he glared at the Tsaritsa, not taking his eyes off of her. Pierro looked at the Tsaritsa for confirmation as she nodded. Pierro walked out, leaving the Tsaritsa and Ichiro alone.

"You knew, didn't you?" Ichiro asked her. "You knew you and the other Archons were going to destroy Khaenri'ah and you knew my nation was going to be destroyed in the process, didn't you?"

"I did." The Tsaritsa calmly answered him. "Was that why you sent me on a mission?"

"Yes." The Tsaritsa didn't falter on her answers as she continued to remain calm.

"Why did you send me on that mission? If I was with my nation that day, I would have been able to protect them!" Ichiro shouted as Ruichiro remained silent.

"If you were there, you would have defended Khaenri'ah as well and you would have rebelled against Celestia unprepared and we would have lost you." The Tsaritsa broke her calm facade as she tried to reason with Ichiro.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that you would have sided with us in destroying Khaenri'ah." She told him as she stared him down. Ichiro looked away.

The Tsaritsa sighed and leaned back on her throne. "How long have you known? How long did the others know that they were going to destroy Khaenri'ah?" Ichiro asked in a whisper.

"From what I know, the others knew about a month ago. The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles was the one who informed me of the mission." She explained.

"And you? How long have you known?" Ichiro asked as the Tsaritsa remained silent for a few moments before answerong. "... Three months." She whispered.

Ichiro took a deep breath as he clenched his fists, trying to contain his anger.

After a few moments of silence, the Tsaritsa spoke up again. "Take a break." She said. "I don't need a break."

"You don't, but take it anyway." She told him.

"You've been working hard for the past hundred years and have even helped me in taking the role of an Archon. Take a step back. Work behind the scenes for now and take it easy." She told him in a tone that left him no room to decline.

Despite being much younger than him, the Tsaritsa had always acted like this with him and had always taken care of him and Ruichiro.

"Who will fill in on my absence?" He asked. The Tsaritsa thought for a moment.

"Well, Dottore had been very diligent these past few month and had climbed through the ranks despite joining less than a year ago and he seems to be very knowledgeable in Alchemy. You can hand the Delusion project to him." She told him.

"Leave him all your notes and experiments for him to handle and I'll promote him as a Harbinger. I know you don't enjoy gatherings so you don't have to attend his promotion party in full but you do have to at least show up, even if it's just briefly, to congratulate and welcome him in the ranks." She explained as Ichiro nodded.

"That seems bearable." Ruichiro commented after staying quiet the whole entire time.

Their meeting soon ended as they had come to an agreement. Though he was technically still a Harbinger, Ichiro was now changed into a tactician and was responsible in planning major missions to achieve their goal and is demanded by the Tsaritsa to work behind the scenes for now.

As Ichiro closed the door of the throne room behind him, he saw Pierro leaning on a wall, waiting for him.

"You okay? You looked pretty distraught when you barged in the throne room earlier." Pierro said as he approached Ichiro.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But good news though, your recruit a few months ago, Dottore, is getting promoted to be a Harbinger." Ichiro told him.

"Really, well he is an active kid. I'm honestly not that surprised." Pierro said. "But seriously, you looked pretty upset earlier. What happened?" He asked as they walked together through the corridors.

"It's nothing, really. But I am going to be less active in the next few years. I've been downgraded to a tactician behind the scenes." Ichiro explained as he pushed open the doors of the palace, leading them both outside, towards the gates.

"What? Why?" He asked. "Well, a lot of things happened and Her Majesty thought that I needed to take some time off. Besides, I was planning to travel around Teyvat a bit." Ichiro explained. While it wasn't a complete lie that Ichiro did want to travel around a bit, but the real reason of this was to sort some things out before laying low.

"Mm, well, good luck on your journeys." Pierro said as they reached the gates. "Yeah. Take care, my friend." Ichiro said as he patted Pierro's shoulder and left.

Ichiro smiled as he turned around and left, knowing that Pierro was touched to be called his friend. Pierro was known to be a mischievous Harbinger that caused havoc on enemies which led to members being extremely cautious and distant with Pierro.

Ichiro knew that this was the best parting gift he could ever give him.

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A/N: I'M SO SORRY I FORGOT TO POST YESTERDAY! I got so caught up with school that I completely forgot about this.

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