"Hm?"
The butterfly tilted its head.
"Why stop me?"
"You stopped me last time."
Xiao Xiao smiled as he explained the reason behind his conclusion.
"The flower last time was one I liked."
The butterfly said this as though it were obvious.
If someone tried to pick a flower it liked, of course it would stop them.
Xiao Xiao understood.
"You don't like this flower?"
"Not that much."
The butterfly corrected the human.
It simply didn't like this flower enough to go to the trouble of protecting it.
"Oh."
Xiao Xiao nodded in understanding.
What a creature of clear-cut preferences.
The Hundred Illusions Butterfly probably liked flowers in general.
But how much it liked each one determined how far it was willing to go for them.
"Okay."
Xiao Xiao smiled at the Hundred Illusions Butterfly.
"I'm off."
"Goodbye."
Watching the human turn and leave as briskly as he had last time, the butterfly blinked.
It realized...
It liked this way of interacting with the human.
They saw each other and said hello.
They chatted casually for a few words, then said goodbye and went on their way.
They were so at ease with each other, as if they had been close friends for a long time.
Well.
That was how it felt.
After all, it wasn't quite sure what humans meant by "friend."
It just felt that their interactions were a lot like those between human friends it had seen.
The butterfly suddenly remembered that last time, the human had told his friend that it was his friend.
Although he had later explained that he'd only said that for convenience...
But...
Could it be...
That this human really did think of it as a friend?
The butterfly didn't know.
But for now, it