Night fell.
By the campfire, Russell rested his head against the back of the Red-eyed Rat King as it gnawed on a bone, chatting with Eric, Catherine, the four Knight Retainers, and Charles, who had returned after leaving.
"...A husband gently welcomed his wife as she went into labor and said to her, 'It's all because of me that you're suffering so much. I'm truly sorry...'"
The campfire crackled as Charles smugly showed off his joke. "But his wife said, 'Don't worry about it, it's not your fault.' Hahaha! Get it? It wasn't his fault—it was someone else's fault! Hahaha!"
"Haha!" Knight Retainer Jack got it immediately.
Then Tom and the others joined in the laughter, loudly praising Charles for his talent.
"Vulgar!" Knight Captain Eric commented in a muffled voice. Then he turned away, though the corners of his mouth could not stop curling upward.
Red veins showed on Catherine's pale face as she said reproachfully, "I don't understand."
Only Russell, with a foxtail grass stem he had plucked from somewhere between his lips, did not join in the joke.
Still, Charles shamelessly asked, "My lord, what did you think of that joke?"
"It was all right. A little more refined than those previous dirty jokes," Russell replied perfunctorily.
"It seems my lord wasn't satisfied with that one. I'll keep thinking about it and strive to come up with a joke that makes you laugh out loud." Charles then continued using crude, suggestive jokes to tease Catherine.
Through Wolf Head Cavern, Russell could see the stars filling the sky.
They shone just as brilliantly as the night sky he had admired on the snowfield. Unfortunately, Russell could not identify a single constellation. Clearly, the planet Dragon Sleep Continent did not lie beneath the same starfield as Earth.
They might