#piofiore

When He Left, Only a Shell of Her Remained

From: "Chapter 2: Missing (Dante Falzone, 1 febbraio 1926)"

When He Left, Only a Shell of Her Remained - Chapter 1 - AliceIngenue - ピオフィオーレの晩鐘 | Piofiore no Banshou (Visual Novels) [Archive of Our Own]

We already had a search party coordinated before we left. There were six men posted discreetly around the southern port, five-man teams assigned to Falce, Arca, Creta, and Strano—one per district—and ten spies infiltrating Veleno. Another ten were to scan the woods once the morning fog cleared. So, once I was alone in that room with Nicola, I asked what he wished to discuss in private.  

“I think there was something going on in Lili’s head that they didn’t know about,” Nicola said. He paused—I knew he was carefully considering his next words. “I couldn’t help but think... The reason Lili’s mood improved might have been that she was planning to leave,” he said. 

“You don’t mean—”

“It’s just a hunch, but I think we should consider the possibility,” Nicola said. 

Nicola managed the search party outside with Leo while I waited for new information in the telephone room. At that point, my suspicions were primarily directed at Yang. Even knowing that Lili was no longer the Key Maiden, it wouldn’t be out of character, as the Lao-Shu have been abducting women to sell overseas. It was also possible that she was abducted by a lone actor completely unrelated to the Burlone Mafia. In that case, she would be much harder to find. 

Just then, I saw Yang sauntering down the path to the church, as if the mere thought of him were enough to summon him. “Buongiorno, Falzone,” Yang said with his insufferable smirk.

“Yang, what business do you have here?” I asked. There had been no meetings since the Visconti disbanded, and Yang was certainly not a believer.

“I see you’re as to the point as always, so I’ll cut to the chase too. A little birdie told me that you’ve sent some of your men into my base. As leader of the Lao-Shu, that immediately caught my interest. I couldn’t imagine what would be so important that you’d send perfectly capable men to their deaths,” Yang said. He took a dramatic pause, clearly savoring my irritation.  “So the little princess escaped her tower, and now her faithful knight is running after her,” Yang said. 

“You took her to the Lao-Shu,” I said. Some nerve this man had, abducting Lili, then waltzing into Arca to announce it once there was sufficient chaos for his amusement.   

“You wound me, Falzone. First you send spies instead of speaking with me, and now you paint me as the villain,” Yang said, although his smirk only widened. 

“So, you didn’t take her,” I said. 

“No, I did not,” Yang said.

“Then, if you did not take her, you wouldn’t mind if I sent some soldiers to check if she got lost in Veleno or if one of your rats took her by mistake,” I said. I had no time to be polite with him. 

But Yang didn’t show the slightest sign of cooperation, only asking, “Falzone, do you really think I’d allow such a blatant raid?” 

It took every last bit of restraint not to draw my gun then and there. Instead, I took a deep breath. “Yang, consider this your warning: if you took Signorina Adornato, I will find out, and I will see to it that both you and your rats regret it.”

What would you think of a person who manipulates someone into becoming a critical thinker?

The Second-Worst Route To Isekai

Excerpt from Chapter 3: "Helping Orlok Help His Excellency?"

The Second-Worst Route to Isekai - Chapter 1 - AliceIngenue - ピオフィオーレの晩鐘 | Piofiore no Banshou (Visual Novels) [Archive of Our Own]

“I’m sorry if it feels weird, but I want to talk freely with you,” I said. “... I don’t completely trust Yang.” If we stay with Yang, we’ll trigger Nicola’s death and Bad DanteTM. 

“His Excellency told me that I needed to work with the Lao-Shu to protect you from the Falzone…” Orlok said. 

Protection my ass. It’ll make Dante go mad, then kidnap us. “But something doesn’t add up, right?” I said. I swear, it’s almost like he was taken by a body snatcher in that route.

“But His Excellency…” Orlok said. He shifted awkwardly on the bed, wearing a subtle frown, his cheeks puffed. 

“Yes, but you still feel like something’s wrong,” I said. Orlok nodded. I need to tread lightly because this fucker is brainwashed. “That’s why I need to get your understanding of some things… to make sure we’re not misinterpreting His Excellency, of course. We want to help His Excellency as best as we can, right?”

✅ - Cunning

✅ - foxy liar (lies as easily as he breathes)

✅ - has a hidden agenda

✅ - full of layers like an onion

✅ - love and touch starved :((

Also I love how both Akechi and Nokto have red eyes, while Nicola and Harry shared the same bluish green eyes. I was attracted to Harry bcuz he reminded me of Nicola (although Nicola's more ruthless lol). Both keep a distance from MC initially but begin to open up little by little until they become the most genuine and devoted lovers in the end. Harry is much more wholesome and Nicola (esp the sequel) became so endearing to MC💚

I bought All Under Heaven DLC for Crusader Kings III during the Steam summer sale. That DLC adds more Asian countries to the game, for example China and Japan. I was thinking about starting a new game and got some inspiration to it from another game.

Some time ago my wife played an otome game: Piofiore. That game had interesting characters in it and one of them that made an impression to me was this one Chinese fellow: Yang. He was sort of a dangerous Chinese mafia boss who was very violent and somewhat unpredictable in his actions. Based on that, I though maybe I could start CK3 with a similar character.

The characters in CK3 require first name and last name, so I used "Yang" as the first name and "Lao-Shu" as the last name. I understood Yang doesn't really have a last name in Piofiore so I took his organisation's name for that. I wasn't able to make him look very much like the real Yang, but I gave him a long red hair and tried to give him his signature smirk/smile.

Anyway, I started with "Intrigue lifestyle" and gave him these traits (3 personality traits is the norm, so I took those I think are most significant for Yang):

Impatient

Sadistic

Arbitrary

In addition to those, I gave him the blademaster aspiration (because he uses a "sword-spear" weapon in Piofiore).

Also, I gave him the "Comely" trait, because I thought he is kind of handsome in the original game.

For the stats, I gave enough to make him usable, but not too much to still get achievements. So he was quite average as the end result.

This is how my Yang looked like when I started the game.

The game started from year 867 which is the earliest year the game can be started. Based on the DLC, China had a very interesting type of government, where one man is the "Son of Heaven" and is directly above all emperors and below the God (or Heaven). When the game started, China was going through an age of Tension. Choices for the current Son of Heaven were to try to start an era of Advancement or Expansion or fall into Division.

My character (Lao-Shu Yang of Rat Clan) started as a mere adventurer without any land or titles. He only had 2 followers in his party and his adventuring goal was "Freebooter" (a sort of a criminal).

By using his intrigue skills and very ruthless means to get rid of obstacles, I found this gameplay as Yang very fun and enjoyable! I don't normally play like that so it was also very refreshing.

Yang had 20 concubines, maybe 3 or 4 wives, and almost a dozen lovers. So I think that is kind of "canon" with the Yang from Piofiore. One funny detail about his personality in the game was when he was traveling in the mountains and his wife fell down to her death. Yang wasn't very concerned about it and just continued along and took a new wife. Later they were traveling mountains again, and his new wife fell down to her death. Yang said "The second time is even funnier!" and just continued his travels and took a new wife. I think that must be a lot like his original counterpart from Piofiore.

I never thought I could reach anywhere from the humble adventurer life with Yang, but eventually I was able to make it all the way to the top. Eventually Yang was able to claim the "Hegemony of China" title and he became the new Son of Heaven.

Yang was able to claim the Hegemony of China title at the age of 78. When I started he was 19 years old.

There was even a plague that was named after Yang at one point. I'm not sure who killed more people, Yang or his plague.

Yang had many children and grandchildren. This is his family tree at some point, but even after this he got many more before he died.

Old age eventually got him. He got these traits: fragile bones, clouded eyes, faltering heart and infirm. Almost all of those were at max level too. A Pet Cat gave him many more years and boosted his health a lot! A sudden heart attack was the one that killed him in the end.

Yang died at the age of 90 which is a huge achievement in the game. "Only the good die young, all the evil seem to live forever" (Iron Maiden, Only the Good Die Young).

(These are my personal (!) opinions, if you felt differently or disagree w/ me, that's fine!!)