A Gift

However, he knew that Dessidobia would never dislike anything given by Kosma, so he didn't comment much on the hair clip.

Aren't you going to buy it?

Kosma seemed hesitant to look Lin in the eye, pursing his lips as if afraid of accidentally letting the words slip out.

"Speak up, speak up." Lin grabbed his face and rubbed it up and down, letting out a strange laugh. "How will anyone know what you're thinking if you don't speak?"

Meanwhile, Kosma was thinking...

This person is not Lin; he is someone else in disguise. The real Lin is definitely more composed and would not speak unless absolutely necessary.

Of course, they wouldn't do something as childish as buying a gift.

The reason he contacted me was... yes, he must have wanted to establish a friendly relationship with me. If he then says he doesn't want to return Lin, I must firmly insist that he return Lin.

I can't speak... I can't speak... no matter what he does...

"If you don't say anything, I'm going to buy this and give it to Dessidobia."

"No."

Lin Chong had no choice but to speak when Kosma grinned wickedly, his beautiful face, so indeterminate in gender, was filled with mischievous pleasure.

"This is too...ordinary." Kosma's eyes darted around, as if he had nowhere to look. "But I can't find anything better..."

"Oh..."

So that's how it is. He actually realized the problem himself, probably because he felt that these hair clips were everywhere and nothing new, so there would be no surprise if he gave them away.

Even the cutest things will seem ugly if you see them too often.

"Could you..."

"No~ No~" Lin directly rejected Kosma's idea. He held up a finger in front of Kosma's eyes, "Remember, this is 'you' choosing a gift for her, not me!"

"But she won't know unless you tell her."

"... Hehe." Lin shook his head with a wry smile.

Just because you don't tell me doesn't mean I don't know.

"Kosma, back when I was still in my own world, I also gave gifts to others. It was to a girl who seemed carefree but was actually very thoughtful. But the gift was actually chosen by her best friend, and I was the one who delivered it."

"The gift was exactly what she wanted, and she was very happy when she received it, but she immediately knew that the gift couldn't have been chosen by me."

"Because I couldn't find a gift that suited her taste."

Lin put his hand on Kosma's shoulder and pointed to the hair clip in his hand. "Do you understand? She didn't want something 'special,' she just wanted something from 'you.'"

"What's wrong? If you want to fight, I saw a boxing machine over there just now. You can go and exchange your superior boxing techniques with your compatriots, the ones that make humans crawl on the ground."

Prometheus walked up to Lin, who was choosing the last item, at a distance of five meters, and stared at him with a strange look.

"... If you have something to say, don't stay so far away."

"Getting too close to you will make me pregnant."

"When did I come up with this kind of setting?" Lin put down the small jar containing green crumbs and picked up a ball of similar color from the side, complaining. "And you're an android, right? Machine-Dolls can get pregnant? What era are we living in that we're still using this trope?"

What are you buying?

Prometheus scanned the goods on the shelf and found that they were all for cats.

Wasn't he buying gifts for other people? Why did he need to buy a cat? Her memory bank indicated that no one at headquarters kept cats.

"The catnip isn't a gift, but something Lin will need in the future."

"...?"

For Lin?

Lin knew her logic was flawed as soon as he saw Prometheus crash. He smiled and explained, "Lin is going to have a cat in the future, so I bought catnip for him in advance. That way, the kitten will be more well-behaved."

"If you're raising a cat, why not buy cat food?" She only saw Lin picking and choosing in the catnip section.

"Because that cat doesn't eat cat food, well, no, given her appetite and lazy nature, she'd probably eat cat food anyway, since cat food is for human consumption..."

"Bang!"

A fist whizzed past Lin's smiling profile, and cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.

In standard Mandarin, the words "he," "it," and "she" have distinct pronunciations, clearly indicating that Lin has already exposed his lewd intentions.

"Oh dear, Miss Prometheus, please calm down, I was just joking. Who would want to inhale catnip?" Lin Fei stuffed the ball of catnip into the shopping cart, put on his worthless smile, and rubbed his hands together. "May I ask what you need from me? No problem, feel free to ask."

Prometheus gave him a cold look before withdrawing her fist. After most of her body was replaced with Soul Steel, her strength was no less than that of a Titan, and she could contend with Chariot-class Honkai Beast. Considering that this was Lin's body, she kept her strength to herself.

However, after withdrawing her fist, she unusually turned off her vocalization system and stared straight at Lin, making him feel a chill run down his spine.

"Hehe..." he chuckled dryly.

"What does Lin... like?"

"Huh?" Lin didn't understand at first, but after seeing Prometheus's murderous gaze, he realized, "Oh! Wait a minute, let me check his memories!"

"Completed within three seconds."

Are you awake?

Lin racked her brains to calm Prometheus down, but then she asked what Lin liked...

"Really..."

"..."

Lin nodded confidently. "As expected, Lin likes girls."

What is that?

On her way back, Dessidobia stared curiously at a creature that was barely human and only had faint breathing. She asked Prometheus, who was standing to the side with a blank expression, "What is this thing?"

"This is a new species," Prometheus replied coldly, "A scumbag."

"... Huh?"

"A hybrid of scum and perverts."

"..."

Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Gift

"Do you choose to believe him?"

Kevin handed a small, delicate bell to Elysia was standing on a stool and tiptoeing to set up the venue.

Contrary to her previous worries, she happily decorated the venue as usual, as if she no longer cared about Lin's matter and only wanted to have a good time at the upcoming banquet.

"Hmm..." Elysia hung the bell a little above the door frame, then nodded her thin lips. "But we have no other choice but to believe him, do we?"

"..." That makes sense.

Kevin was unable to do most things due to his physical condition, so he stood there helplessly watching a group of people decorate the small venue beautifully.

They didn't use the ballroom; Lin said that venue was too big and unnecessary, so they used Vill-V's Spiral Workshop instead.

"There are still some troublesome guys on the list..." Kevin looked around. Vill-V was directing the Armed Puppet to pile up some miscellaneous items elsewhere. She was also the kind of person who couldn't sit still. "We don't know when or in what form the next Honkai will occur. Is it really appropriate to play around like this now?"

"Kevin, you need to take a break every now and then. Look, Lin has already learned it. How can you keep trying to imitate the old Lin?"

"He is not Lin."

"Oh dear, you're becoming more and more like Mei. Does that make you happier?"

"But..."

"No buts, just like when you first arrived at the Moth of Fire."

Kevin felt somewhat helpless; the thought of the people he would be attending the banquet gave him a headache.

"Captain Eri, your adjutant Lin has successfully completed the mission!"

"Okay, Team Member Lin, you did a great job. Please return to the team!"

Kosma watched the two clowns pretending to salute and stand at attention speechlessly, and he began to wonder if Lin had been infected by Elysia and that's why she was like this.

"Kosma, what games did you bet on?" Dessidobia approached with a grin, asking the silent Kosma curiously.

Lin and Dessidobia picked out almost all the gifts for everyone during this shopping trip, but Dessidobia noticed that Kosma was secretly paying for something at the cashier next door. Since he was acting so mysteriously, she naturally had to ask him about it.

"Forehead..."

Kosma's face stiffened. He was about to turn to Lin and talk to them to change the subject when he discovered that Lin had already gone in with Elysia.

He felt bitter inside; when it came to changing the subject, he couldn't even match Kevin, let alone a language master like Elysia.

But I'll have to give the gift sooner or later, and since there's no one else here, I might as well...

With that thought in mind, Kosma gritted his teeth and made up his mind to take the hair clip, which didn't even have any packaging, out of his pocket.

"This is a gift for you."

His words are usually concise, but this time it was more that he didn't know what to say.

His childhood sweetheart, with whom he had grown up, was willing to join the Firemoth with him. However, after joining the Firemoth, he rarely met with her, focusing instead on learning from Kevin and carrying out missions, which made him feel somewhat guilty.

His outstretched hand trembled, and he dared not look Dessidobia in the eye. This might not have mattered to anyone else, but Dessidobia was truly...

"Oh~ hair clip, that's really Kosma's style."

However, Dessidobia simply smiled and accepted the hair clip. After carefully examining the cute little bear hair clip in her hand, she pinned it to her forehead in a very conspicuous position.

"Um...actually..." Kosma's eyes darted around, "You don't actually need to wear it..."

"Huh? Aren't hair clips meant to be worn?"

"Ah, um... that's true."

Dessidobia couldn't help but laugh at Kosma's appearance. She then took something out of her back and handed it to Kosma.

"Here you go, as a return gift."

Kosma stared blankly at the beautifully wrapped gift box in his hand. Dessidobia, who loved giving gifts, certainly didn't skimp on details like him. The gift box in her hand, which matched his hair color, was clearly carefully wrapped.

But he remembered that none of the gifts he bought this time were wrapped yet...

"I have one too?"

"Nonsense, do you think you'd buy yourself a gift?" Dessidobia laughed at him, annoyed.

Kosma unpacked the package in his hand; inside was a harmonica.

"This harmonica has pear wood struts. Because the processing was not perfect, the struts were prone to swelling, so it was discontinued many years ago. But I think the pattern on it suits you very well."

Kosma's fingers traced the harmonica, the texture and feel traveling from his fingertips to his heart.

"...Thanks?"

"Just that one sentence? Say a few more."

"Eh? No..." Kosma scratched his face sheepishly, a shy smile appearing on his still childlike face. "I'm very happy... but I can't actually play it, and my sense of pitch is terrible. I just really like it. Receiving such a valuable gift has left me a little overwhelmed."

Many people know that Kosma loves the harmonica. He often hides in his room and plays those funny notes. However, as he says, he knows nothing about playing. Many people just laugh it off when they hear him, thinking that he will give up soon.

Only Dessidobia, his childhood friend who had been friends with him before he joined the Firemoth, knew that he had liked the harmonica for a long time, but he rarely played it back then and didn't have his own harmonica.

Dessidobia herself is quite skilled at playing the harmonica, and her playing has been praised by many who have heard her.

"Looks like I'll have to practice seriously from now on." Kosma held the harmonica with obvious delight.

Dessidobia smiled and said, "Hmph, you didn't practice earlier, and now you're only just realizing it?"

"Gulp... You can laugh now, but you'll be crying when I surpass you."

"Haha, okay then, we'll find someone to evaluate you. Don't cry like you did when you first joined the team..."

The two joked around without any barriers, as if they had returned to their childhood.

"By the way, Kosma, why did you think of buying me a gift? You never used to remember me." As she said this, Dessidobia puffed out her cheeks and said in a cute and angry way, "It's so sad."

Kosma's smile froze, and he waved his hand with feigned composure. "Ah... I just grabbed it on a whim, and only realized I hadn't put it back when I got to the cashier. I didn't specifically buy it for you."

"Oh? Really?"