Kraft

"Miss Frieren, we can't stay here!"

Frieren looked at Fern in puzzlement, her tone calm. "Why?"

Fern recalled the male elf's bare upper body and the grunts he had made while doing squats, and gritted her teeth in physical discomfort.

"Because there's a hentai in there."

Dugu Qing nodded in wholehearted agreement.

The cabin was spacious enough, but if all four of them squeezed inside, it would be far too cramped.

Everyone's body odor was different, and it would disturb the room's magnetic field.

Dugu Qing absolutely could not stand squeezing into a rundown cabin with four other people.

Their clothes would be piled together in disarray, the smells of their shoes mingling. When things quieted down, he would be able to hear someone else's heartbeat...

That would be awful.

"I never thought I'd be called a hentai!"

Kraft opened the door, a necklace bearing the Goddess of Creation's emblem hanging around his neck.

"All right, let's go, then! We'll find somewhere else."

Dugu Qing stepped forward, patted Fern on the head, and took Frieren's hand as he left.

Dugu Qing really does understand me.

Looking at Dugu Qing's tall figure from behind, Fern's lips curved into a faint, lovely smile, and she hurried after him.

"Wait! Are you elves? I never thought I'd meet two elves. What a rarity!"

Elves were born without an understanding of love and had been slaughtered on a massive scale by demons, so their numbers were few.

Kraft had wandered the world for hundreds of years without seeing a single elf, yet today he had met two at once.

One had gently fluttering white hair, a lively yet gentle bearing, a charming and adorable face, and a lovely figure.

The other had exquisite features and unparalleled beauty, ethereal as a celestial being and pure and flawless.

What incredible luck! I should grab a hot pot and some fine wine and drink for three days and three nights!

Kraft warmly invited Dugu Qing and Frieren into the cabin and treated them to excellent wine and food.

Fern and Stark were merely along for the ride.

"I haven't met another of my kind in three hundred years. I thought the elves had gone extinct."

After eating their fill, Kraft sighed with emotion.

Frieren held her hands by the blazing stove as the chill slowly left her body.

"They really are rare."

Dugu Qing looked around the cabin and saw that there wasn't much room. It was fine for one person, but there was no way it could house five.

He opened Frieren's suitcase, took out a shovel, and headed outside.

He cleared away the snow and began digging downward.

Under Dugu Qing's mighty Overlord's Power, the frozen earth cracked apart and went flying.

In no time, a cellar two meters wide and six meters deep appeared.

Dugu Qing still wasn't satisfied. He dug a room on each of the cellar's eastern, northern, and western sides, each three meters wide and five meters long.

With just a few furnishings, it could become a safe, cozy home where one could sleep without a care.

"Dugu Qing, you're amazing."

Fern jumped down into the cellar. Seeing the three spacious rooms, she beamed, her heart bursting with joy.

Wonderful! Three rooms: one for a study, one for Dugu Qing's bedroom, and one for mine.

It's practically a different kind of living together. Heart!

"People can live in the cabin too! Why did you have to dig a hole?"

Stark hung his head, unable to understand.

Kraft patted Stark on the shoulder and spoke meaningfully.

"Kid, watch closely. He's after a high-quality life, not just staying alive. So, do you understand?"

Stark shook his head, still confused.

Frieren had originally wanted to stay in the cabin, but now, looking at the spacious cellar and its private rooms, she felt her heart stir and stepped down into it as well.

Dugu Qing, Fern, and Frieren stood together.

Stark looked at the beautiful girl on either side of Dugu Qing, his eyes red with jealousy.

"I get it, I get it! Dugu Qing's defying the heavens! Living with two beautiful girls! What a beast!"

The wind howled furiously across the land, and the blizzard raged on.

Only Kraft heard Stark's words.

Kraft looked at Dugu Qing and smiled with satisfaction.

Good! The Demon King has nearly wiped out the elves, and now a sensible young fellow has finally appeared.

This is wonderful. Dugu Qing, was it? The future of the elves is in your hands.

I hope you keep it up, fear no hardship, bravely take on the challenge, and win over Fern and Frieren.

Make the elves great again! MAGA!

"Frieren, do you have any wood in your suitcase?"

"No!"

Dugu Qing shook his head in disappointment and flew into the sky, where he spotted two large trees a few miles away.

He chopped through the trees' trunks with a strike of his palm, then carried them back to the cabin.

Kraft looked at Dugu Qing, understood what he had in mind, and took a saw from his own suitcase.

Dugu Qing sawed up the trees, made three thick, soundproof wooden doors, and secured them with screws.

Snow was still falling heavily from the sky, and there was no telling how many days and nights it would last.

Dugu Qing used the remaining wood to make a hatch and placed it over the cellar entrance, blocking out the cold, wind, and snow.

The hatch came down.

Inside the cellar, Frieren felt the temperature rise sharply.

She took a tent out of her suitcase, spread a blanket on the floor, used an air mattress as a bed, and laid out a quilt.

Fern also put up the dozens or so food posters she had collected along the way. Where they weren't enough to cover the walls, she tore pages from Frieren's shabby Grimoires.

Soon, the entire cellar had a fresh new look. The dust was gone, and it felt like home.

Dugu Qing found a basin and used fire magic to create a flame. The cellar grew warmer still, as if spring had arrived.

"Let's go to sleep!"

Dugu Qing waved, walked into his room, and shut the door.

Carrying her suitcase, Frieren also entered the bedroom on the eastern side.

"Frieren..."

Fern looked at the extra person, Frieren. The grand plan for living together that she had envisioned suffered a devastating blow in an instant; she couldn't put more than half of it into action.

The group settled in. Stark and Kraft lived in the cabin, while Dugu Qing, Frieren, and Fern lived in the cellar.

When they were thirsty, they gathered snow and boiled it for water. When they were hungry, they went hunting and grilled their food.

Life was exceptionally pleasant, and before they knew it, several months had passed.

The snow finally stopped, and the sun, which had been absent for months, shone brightly in the sky once more.

Dugu Qing came out of the cellar and lay on the roof, lazily basking in the sun.

Kraft looked at Dugu Qing behind him and let out a long breath.

During the months they had spent together, he had seen Fern's care and concern for Dugu Qing more than once.

Unfortunately, Dugu Qing was like a blind and deaf man, utterly oblivious, with no sign of catching on.

It truly made him worry about the future of the elves!

Thinking as someone who had been through it before, Kraft flew onto the cabin roof and put an arm around Dugu Qing.

"Dugu Qing, what's going on? You're a handsome fellow, so why are you so dense?"

Hearing this, Dugu Qing had several strange question marks appear on his face.

Dense? What does he mean?