"Crack..."
From time to time, the sound of branches snapping could be heard from the campfire.
Outside a tent some distance from the fire, Fang Li and Youyou sat together.
An indescribably tense atmosphere flowed between them.
"Meow..."
The lazy Dounosuke was nestled in Youyou's arms. Even though she was holding him tightly, he still slept soundly.
Youyou held Dounosuke like that, sitting beside Fang Li in a perfectly proper posture, staring straight ahead.
Looking at Youyou like this, Fang Li found it rather amusing.
"Aren't you a little too nervous?"
The tense atmosphere between them was basically all coming from Youyou.
"S-Sorry..." Even Youyou's speech had become somewhat stammering as she said, terribly embarrassed, "I-I don't have any experience talking alone with someone of the opposite sex..."
You couldn't really blame Youyou for that.
Even talking to strangers was an extremely difficult thing for her.
Talking alone with someone of the opposite sex was even more out of the question.
If Fang Li had not already become somewhat familiar to her, she might have run away by now.
After all, back in Axel, she had often been called "the strange Great Mage who frequently rescued adventuring parties on the brink of danger in the wilderness, only to flee before they could thank her." Otherwise, she would not still be unable to make even a single friend.
Still...
"Isn't that a good thing?" Fang Li said almost without thinking. "I feel like, if you weren't like this, some bad guy might trick you away."
"E-Even Mr. Fang Li says the same thing as Megumin!" Youyou hurriedly said. "That won't happen. Even if someone suddenly told me, 'We're friends,' I absolutely wouldn't go with them... probably... right...?"
"That doesn't reassure me at all." Fang Li laughed helplessly. "Now I don't even