Shirou felt not a shred of pity for Bread Man, reaching out directly to push the other man's head away.
"I object! Shirou is way too biased toward Sora!"
Exusiai pointed at Shirou, accusing him of his preferential treatment.
During this trip out, Shirou's care for Sora had simply been a little too attentive! He gave his coat to Sora, his scarf to Sora, and spoke to Sora so gently. She, Exusiai, refused to accept this!
Right now, Exusiai looked exactly like an unloved child throwing a tantrum.
"Exusiai, could you think about how you usually behave?"
Shirou delivered a karate chop to the top of Exusiai's head as he spoke.
Normally, Croissant and Exusiai could be called the Chaos Duo, or perhaps the Trouble Duo. A portion of Shirou's troubles were created by the two of them.
They dressed scantily when they were over at his place, and always loved playing pranks and making trouble. If not for Texas and Sora stepping in to stop them, Shirou estimated he would have to follow behind these two every day to clean up their messes.
To put it simply, just considering that Texas and Sora wouldn't stir up trouble and would instead help Shirou, Shirou naturally treated the two of them a bit better.
Texas's custom Pocky was already in the middle of being researched.
As for Sora, Shirou had noticed that she seemed to care quite a bit about calories, so he was currently researching low-calorie desserts.
Bread Man and fluorescent lamp?
As for these two, Shirou would thank his lucky stars if they didn't cause him any trouble.
"Texas!"
The chop-recipient Exusiai turned her head to seek help from her good friend.
What she got instead was Texas casting her gaze aside.
"Texas, aah aah aah!"
Seeing that her pleas for help fell on deaf ears, Exusiai let out a mournful cry.
"Wait, I'll return it to you when we get back. This is a very important item to you, right? It wouldn't do if it got stained or lost."
Watching Shirou chase away Exusiai and Croissant from the side, Sora walked up, tugged gently on the hem of Shirou's coat, and spoke in a soft voice.
After wrapping herself in this scarf, Sora felt much warmer, but thinking that this seemed to be something very important to Shirou, she didn't dare just hold onto it like this, worried she might accidentally stain or lose it.
"Just return it to me when we get back to Lungmen."
Seeing that Sora's complexion had improved quite a bit, Shirou guessed that the Holy Shroud was playing a slight cold-proofing role, so he told Sora to keep wearing it, and incidentally helped Sora tuck the fluttering part of the Holy Shroud inside her coat.
As for Sora's worries about losing or staining it, Shirou didn't care at all; he believed Sora would take good care of it.
"Mmh... I'll return it to you when we get back."
A faint blush flushed Sora's face, though Shirou didn't pay it too much mind, simply treating it as the normal reaction of Sora's body temperature returning to normal.
It was just that the other three people nearby didn't think so.
Shirou took the soup pot from Croissant's hands. After all, Faust and Mephisto only recognized him, and earlier when they were distributing soup to the villagers, everyone from Penguin Logistics had also worked diligently; now they were only responsible for supervising Shirou's interactions with the people of the Reunion Movement.
When Sora returned to the three of them, she saw Exusiai and Croissant wearing ??? expressions on their faces.
"Aiyaya, I really didn't expect to see an expression like that on Sora."
Exusiai patted Sora's back with a ??? expression as she spoke.
"Totally, totally! Sora, you look really cute right now!"
Croissant only hated that she hadn't brought her phone or camera out with her; otherwise, a photo of Sora's flushed face right now could definitely sell for a good price.
Though even if she managed to snap a picture, Croissant wouldn't actually go sell it—at most, she would tuck it away as a prop she could take out later to tease Sora.
"Keep it up."
Texas said as she bit down on a Pocky stick.
"No! You guys listen to my explanation!"
Seeing the trio's appearance, Sora waved her hands in a fluster, wanting to explain something.
"I get it, I get it, you don't need to explain much."
Watching Sora's desire to explain, an auntie-like smile appeared on Croissant's face.
Ah, watching Sora wearing a thick coat and someone else's borrowed scarf, her face red as she anxiously tried to explain something, Croissant felt like her ship had sailed.
"That's right, fly safe, little Sora! We are your sturdiest backing!"
Exusiai at the side had the exact same thought; the sugar she hadn't replenished in over a day was now fully restocked.
As for Texas, she didn't have many thoughts, but just watching the few of them interact like this, she felt immensely satisfied.
"Hey! If you guys don't catch up, I'm going by myself."
Shirou ahead turned his head and saw that the people who had insisted on following him earlier were still standing in the same spot, so he shouted loudly.
"Ah! That won't do, we're coming right now!"
Exusiai and Croissant each grabbed one of Sora's hands and ran toward Shirou's direction, while Texas took out another Pocky stick to bite on and followed after them.
Bounties are open!
Someone said that the serialization platform doesn't have everyone subscribing to chapters, asking me to open a separate chapter to explain the bounties.
So I'm opening a special chapter for it right now.JPG
Bounties are here!
Monthly votes 300+1
Tips 10000+1
Gold treasure chest +16
Silver treasure chest +5
Blades 150+1
Recommended votes 25,000+1
Counting from the release! Settled by Friday night at 23:59!
Recommended votes count too!
You can use what's in your hands to buy the author's life.jpg
Also, my older brother will probably come home this weekend to sleep in my room and freeload off the air conditioning, so these next few days I'll pre-release 4000+ characters and squeeze out three days of buffer chapters for Fri, Sat, and Sun to avoid not being able to write then. I plan to slowly pay off the bounties starting next week.
If my older brother comes back on Fri, Sat, and Sun, I won't be idle either; I'll properly research reference materials and arrange the subsequent plot.JPG
I ask my reader lords to please forgive me!
(?o?o)??
71 Alina
Arriving at the campsite of the Reunion Movement, Shirou paid a little attention to the environment here.
Many people were bustling back and forth, and Shirou could see Originium crystals on the exposed faces and hands of a portion of them. Despite having become infected, there were still smiles, more or less, on their faces.
Additionally, there were some armed personnel wearing slightly thick equipment, though one could tell that this equipment had been used for a very long time; many pieces of gear, from Shirou's perspective, had long since lost their protective function.
"You are... the messengers staying at Dalia's house? Is there something you need?"
Someone nearby noticed Shirou's group and stepped forward to ask.
He recognized the villagers and his own people; besides, the clothes worn by Shirou and the four from Penguin Logistics clearly looked like they were from out of town.
He still remembered Alina mentioning in the morning that messengers had come to the village, telling them to bring a bit more meat later for Dalia to treat the other party with.
He hadn't expected the other party to actually show up carrying a pot?
Glancing sideways at the leftover meat broth inside the pot—though it had already grown cold due to the weather—he still caught the aroma of the soup, making him swallow his saliva involuntarily.
"I'm here to find Faust and Mephisto."
Shirou lifted the large soup pot in his hand, indicating his purpose.
"Oh, looking for them? I'll help you call them out."
The other person didn't harbor any suspicions toward Shirou, seeing as they were people Alina knew. However, he still had Shirou wait right where he was while he went inside to call the two of them out.
Though there wasn't anything in the camp worth fretted over, letting outsiders wander in freely still wouldn't do; rules couldn't be broken.
"Then I'll trouble you."
Shirou carried the pot and waited for the other person to bring the two of them over.
The Penguin Logistics crew behind him lined up, standing right at Shirou's back.
Looking back with a glance, Shirou always felt that these few were making a mountain out of a molehill. Was there any need to go this far?
He wasn't going to run away, what were they worried about? Don't tell him they were worried he'd get kidnapped?
"I'm telling you guys, don't be like this. It won't be good if you scare people later."
Thinking about it, Shirou felt it was still necessary to remind the few of them, at least so they wouldn't scare the children.
The four people behind him looked at each other, then stepped back a single step.
"Is this fine?"
Exusiai said.
"...Alrighty then."
Watching the resolute looks on the four faces, Shirou couldn't bring himself to say anything more.
After all, even Texas and Sora were joining in on it; in this situation, there was nothing he could do about the four of them either.
Anyway, they were just watching from behind, so the problem shouldn't be big.
Thinking up to here, Shirou let the few of them do as they pleased.
As long as nothing like what happened this morning occurred, it would be fine.
Very quickly, Shirou saw Faust coming over, accompanied by Mephisto, who was holding a cane.
"Is something the matter?"
Faust looked at Shirou holding the soup pot in front of him and asked.
"The meat I gave to Mrs. Dalia this morning, I made into meat broth. We gave some to the villagers and had some left over, so I brought it for the two of you. Remember to heat it up first."
Shirou handed the soup in his hand to Faust. Faust took it, looking a bit strained—after all, his height was still rather short.
"Just like that?"
Holding the soup pot, Faust narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at Shirou before him.
"Just like that. Say hello to Alina for me."
Shirou prepared to hand the remaining candies over to Mephisto at the side.
"Mmh... you can say hello yourself."
As soon as Faust finished speaking, Shirou first froze for a moment, and then saw Alina walking over toward this side.
"I didn't expect we'd meet again so soon, Shirou. What did you think about the question I asked you this morning?"
Alina said with a light smile. Unlike the invitation from the morning, this time it was mostly just banter.
After all, the four people standing behind Shirou weren't pushovers.
Hearing Alina's words, the four of them indeed prepared to make a move to take Shirou away.
"Wait, wait, wait, she was just joking, right?"
Shirou hurriedly turned around to stop the few of them, while simultaneously turning his head to seek help from Alina, the instigator and mischief-maker.
"Mmh... fifty-fifty?"
Alina extended her right index finger, gently pressed it against her cheek, and said after pretending to think for a moment.
"Gk... Shirou, hurry up and finish what you have to say! Once you're done, we're going back!"
Before you continue