Hachimi Caught Airi's Eye!

Over the following days, everyone met the other members and gradually grew familiar with one another.

Most importantly, Hachimi—Cipher, who had been out wandering for a long time—returned to Okhema!

It happened while Pardo was selling the honey brew Theresa and the others had made. A little cutie appeared beside Pardo, looking at the adorable catgirl with curiosity and delight.

She pursed her lips into an adorable cat-mouth expression, hugged Pardo's tail, and gave it a rub. By the time Pardo yelped "Meow!" and whirled around with her fur standing on end—

Cipher had vanished in a flash, clutching the three boxes of honey brew Pardo had prepared for delivery!

When Pardo turned back to look, she was stunned. The three large boxes of honey brew she had neatly stacked had vanished without a trace!

"Huh? Where's my honey brew? My huge boxes of honey brew are gone!"

"It's over! It's over! I don't want to pay for it!"

"No, no! I have to find Theresa and explain what happened!"

Panicked little Pardo knew that Theresa was the most capable person around, so the catgirl hurried away from the shipping area, rushed into the honey brew estate, found Theresa, and explained everything.

"That's what happened, Theresa! I only turned around for a second, and those three boxes of honey brew disappeared, meow!"

"You have to help me! Otherwise I'll have to pay for them!"

"I did the math: one bottle of honey brew costs a thousand Liheng Coins, and one box has twelve bottles, which makes twelve thousand Liheng Coins. Three missing boxes mean I have to pay thirty-six thousand Liheng Coins! Even if you sold me, I couldn't afford it!"

Pardo clung pitifully to Theresa's arm and cried out.

"That's serious. Who in Okhema doesn't know Pardo is our