On the one hand she had grown used to this kind of weather, and on the other hand her body seemed to adapt very quickly, so she did not feel too much cold; at most she just felt a bit chilly.
It was still within an acceptable range.
"How terrifying."
Exusiai at her side said this, while simultaneously stretching out a wicked little hand, reaching toward the back inside Shirou's clothes. It was extremely warm inside, making even Exusiai, who was wearing a coat, feel warm.
Shirou suddenly felt a chill on his back, turned around, and saw Exusiai's little antic.
"Get out!"
Swatting Exusiai's hand away, Shirou pulled his coat tighter, leaving no chance for Exusiai to launch another raid.
"Hey hey! Shirou, don't be like this; warmth should be shared with everyone!"
Having lost the warmth, Exusiai hurriedly pulled her hands back into her coat and teased Shirou.
She had suddenly remembered that whenever it was cold in the past, she would always shove her icy hands against the backs of Croissant or Texas to chill them. What she hadn't expected, however, was that Shirou's body temperature under this kind of weather would still be so very warm.
This made her rather reluctant to let go.
"What what? Shirou-brand hand warmer? I want to use it too!"
Croissant also came over to join the fun, attempting to reach her hand inside Shirou's clothes as well.
Faced with the harassment of the two young women, Shirou could only quicken his pace and head forward to where Texas and Sora were.
Seeing Shirou escape to Texas's side, Exusiai and Croissant could only abandon their harassment of him.
Shirou, who had escaped to the front, first let out a sigh of relief, and then noticed the gazes of the two people beside him.
"Mm..."
Texas also stared at Shirou's clothes, seemingly feeling like she wanted to experience it too.
Sora at the side was doing all right; after all, she was wrapped in two large, thick coats, but she was still a bit curious.
"At least not outside."
Shirou sighed, choosing to give up struggling, but still set a final line of defense for himself.
"You're the one who said that, Shirou, oh."
Sora said with a giggle.
"Yes, yes, yes."
Shirou helplessly responded; he felt that everyone in Penguin Logistics seemed to be getting more and more mischievous by the day.
The villagers who occasionally passed by did not seem very surprised by the arrival of the group; at most, they just found it somewhat amusing to see a big guy being flirted with by two women.
The group quickly arrived at the recipient's doorstep, with Sora responsible for communicating with the other party, while Shirou stood to the side, mainly because the items were in the backpack he was currently carrying.
The recipient was a slightly elderly Ursus woman who looked quite kindly.
The sender seemed to be the woman's grandson, but Shirou didn't really need to understand these things. A courier only needed to deliver the goods; he didn't need to know too much about other people's family matters.
"You guys should be staying here for the night, right? Have you found a place to stay?"
The woman received the letter and the parcel, appearing quite happy.
Seeing that the weather outside seemed somewhat harsh, she estimated that the group would probably stay here for the night, so she asked.
"Mm, do you have any recommended places to stay? Or maybe a windproof place where we can pitch a tent."
Filtering what he was allowed to say, Sora inquired a bit about whether there was any place to stay around here.
With houses available, they would definitely live in a house; sleeping in a tent would probably still be rather cold.
"Mm... There aren't really any places to stay as lodgings, but I do have an empty room here. Do you need it?"
The woman said.
She didn't have any malicious intent; it was simply a pure invitation, especially since they had delivered a letter for her.
"I need to discuss this with everyone."
Sora didn't agree directly, nor did she refuse, instead pulling Shirou toward the direction of the other three.
On this land, those who know, know.
After discussing the recent conversation with the others, all three of them felt there was no problem.
"As long as we're careful, there shouldn't be any problems. I see a spot over there where we can park; Exusiai and I will go move the cars over first, you guys keep a lookout."
Texas's evaluation was that although there was a certain amount of risk, even if trouble arose on their side, they had the means to deal with it.
Publication Remarks
Emmm... Usually I communicate with everyone in the chapter comments, so I'll just write these publication remarks simply.
This book is finally going to be published tomorrow.jpg
I heard that after publication is when reader retention starts dropping; I hope you all will be merciful with your bookmarks, and it would be best if you also turned on auto-subscription.jpg
That this book can achieve its current results is entirely due to the chapter comments and votes from everyone supporting me? (^?^*)
As for explosive updates, it will depend on whether I can manage to squeeze them out these past two days, but considering that I didn't take a single day off throughout the entire 31 days of August, updating 4,000+ words every day without even qualifying for full attendance, please spare me.jpg
The general style of this book will probably lean toward being more cheerful, since it's Penguin Logistics after all.
I'm personally not very good at writing angst.jpg
Please everyone remember to support and subscribe more in the beginning!
At least make my early-stage stats look a bit better.jpg
63 Social Death (Seeking Initial Subscriptions.JPG)
Inside the room, Shirou, Sora, and Croissant were tidying up.
"Sorry about this; this used to be my daughter's room, and it hasn't been used for a long time."
The older woman said with an apologetic look.
"Not at all, just being able to borrow the room from you is already great."
Shirou wiped his hands and put the rag he was holding into a bucket.
They only needed to clean the floor; the bed and cabinets wouldn't be used. They would make makeshift beds on the floor and sleep in sleeping bags.
Shirou mainly did the cleaning, while Sora and Croissant checked to see if there were any suspicious spots. Of course, it wasn't a blatant inspection, but rather wiping around everywhere with cleaning rags.
After Exusiai and Texas parked the cars nearby, they also carried up the sleeping bags and some daily necessities, and then joined the ranks of inspectors.
Shirou didn't really understand this aspect, so he could only leave it to everyone in Penguin Logistics to check.
He only needed to focus on tidying up a clean environment for everyone to sleep in.
"Oh oh... As expected of Shirou."
After checking and confirming that there weren't any major problems, the others turned around and Exusiai saw that Shirou had already laid out even the sleeping bags, with all four sleeping bags neatly arranged on the ground.
"Shirou, your sleeping bag?"
Sharp-eyed Texas spotted the sleeping bag in Shirou's hand, and seeing that he didn't seem to have any intention of putting it down, she spoke up to ask.
"I'll sleep outside. Someone needs to be on the outside, right?"
Shirou pointed to the closed room door and said.
By all accounts and reason, he ought to sleep outside.
Squeezing into a room with four girls and all that—it sounded very wonderful, but he didn't need it right now.
And so he casually found an excuse that he was going to sleep outside.
"Hm? Are you being shy, Shirou? No need to be shy, we're good teammates after all!"
Croissant stepped forward, hooked her arm around Shirou's neck, and teased him.
They didn't mind Shirou being in the room; they still knew what kind of person Shirou was.
"Don't worry, the room is very big."
Texas said.
"That's right, that's right, how cold is it outside?"
Exusiai came up and performed a perfect combo skill with Croissant, hooking around Shirou's neck from left and right.
"N. O. T. !"
Shirou squatted down, dodging the pincer grip of Exusiai and Croissant, and then quickly dashed out of the room carrying his sleeping bag.
"Do you guys really want Shirou to sleep in the room? Teasing him like that—who wouldn't run away after that?"
Sora lightly poked her own forehead, contemplating the baffling behavior of her teammates.
"Fifty-fifty, I guess. Don't you think Shirou acting shy is pretty amusing? Besides, he probably doesn't even think of us as girls anymore, right? He doesn't even look when we dress so scantily in the dorms normally."
Exusiai said with a grin; this was the only time she could tease Shirou, as the usual Shirou always maintained a certain sense of distance.
"Mm... Exi, do you think it's possible that Shirou knows we dress very scantily, which is why he doesn't look at us?"
Croissant thought about Shirou's usual demeanor and said.
From a pure-hearted boy who would blush the very first time he saw them wearing slightly revealing clothes, to later on when he would directly avert his gaze and busy himself with his own matters the moment he noticed something was amiss.
Rather than saying he was used to it, it was more like Shirou was fighting back in his own way.
Hearing Croissant's words, Exusiai's expression froze.
"Mm, indeed. Shirou is still quite considerate of us. Back when he wanted to run long distances with us, he felt it wasn't proper, so he went to discuss it with Texas."
Sora thought of the time when Shirou discussed the new job with Texas, and it was only after she chatted with Shirou later that he agreed to take the job.
Hearing these things, Exusiai's complexion gradually turned somewhat ominous.
"It's just that you're too dense, Exusiai."
Texas delivered the final blow, letting Exusiai lie down peacefully into her sleeping bag.
She had always thought that Shirou was already completely desensitized to them, which was why she dared to tease him like this. Right now, she only felt a bit of social death.
Lestrange above, could she please go back in time and shoot herself to death with a firearm?
"That's why I'm saying, Exusiai..."
Looking at the peacefully-expressionless Exusiai, Sora sighed, not knowing what to say about her teammate.
When acting mischievous she had a great time being mischievous, but when suffering social death she started feeling awkwardly like she wanted to claw at the floor with her toes.
"I can't hear it, I can't hear it."
In order to escape reality, Exusiai pulled out an eye mask, put it on, and then burrowed into her sleeping bag, curling up into a ball and covering her ears.
Their sleeping bags were the kind that could be zipped up individually or zipped together with the person next to them; they could be used for sleeping alone or with multiple people.
The only problem was the round fluorescent lamp on Exusiai's head, which meant that anyone sleeping with her needed an eye mask, otherwise there was a chance they would be blinded awake halfway through the night.
Seeing Exusiai's reality-evading appearance, the others also found it somewhat amusing. After all, the one suffering social death wasn't them; they still usually paid a bit of attention to boundaries.
Tidying up slightly, placing their weapons within arm's reach, the few of them likewise huddled into their sleeping bags together.
Dinner had been settled in the car, so they weren't all that hungry right now, but if Shirou were willing to whip up some food, they would still be willing to leave their warm sleeping bags.
As for Shirou, after greeting the older woman, he placed his sleeping bag in the living room and then walked out the front door.
"It's vastly different from Lungmen."
Only now did Shirou have the leisure to observe this village.
The village was not large, and even without using Reinforcement Magic to enhance his vision, he could clearly see the fence at the edge of the village.
It must have been late at night, as the village lights weren't nearly as bright as when they had first arrived. Compared to Lungmen, which remained brightly lit even at night, this kind of scenery instead carried a trace of tranquil stillness.
After thinking for a moment, Shirou found a spot to sit down in front of the door.
Perhaps because this place didn't have an abundance of lights like Lungmen did, the stars in the sky were exceptionally bright.
This actually reminded Shirou of the times he used to sit outside his own house gazing at the stars.
Originally he had wanted to sit on the roof of the car, but then he remembered that Texas probably had the anti-theft mode enabled, and tampering with it casually might cause Texas's side to trigger an alert.
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