You're Terrible at Cards, but Still Addicted / A Rong's Creative Work

"Tyr!" Bismarck raised her voice, expressing her dissatisfaction with her sister's stubborn refusal to admit her mistake.

Nero said nothing; Her Majesty the Emperor did not truly intend to punish Tirpitz. She blinked at Bismarck and said, "Tirpitz's mistake will be offset by your military achievements."

Bismarck immediately nodded in agreement. She didn't care about battle merits. As the most diligent ship girl in the naval base, she actually had more battle merits than she could use.

With the Tirpitz matter settled, Hokusai, who had been watching the situation closely from outside, finally walked in slowly.

She felt a little guilty. Although she wasn't a ship girl, she lived in the naval base but didn't come out to help when things got dangerous.

Seeing that Tirpitz had been let off lightly, she felt reassured, walked over, sat down, and began to eat in silence.

"Sister Hokusai!"

Hokusai held a relatively high place in the children's hearts; while at Chaldea, she would often draw beautiful pictures for them.

Of course, she wouldn't dare show any works that were unsuitable for children; Hokusai still had that much sense of propriety.

Yuxian looked at Hokusai, who remained silent and only responded to the children's greetings with gestures, and felt a little strange.

He asked, "Hokusai, you look like you've done something wrong. What have you done?"

"No, no!" Hokusai shook his head rapidly, like a rattle-drum.

Yuxian understood immediately; something had indeed happened.

Bismarck glared at him menacingly from afar, and as if sensing it, Hokusai immediately shrank back, lowering his head and focusing on his meal.

Just now, when Bismarck went back to find Northern Home, she happened to run into Hokusai and Northern Home discussing the plot of a script.

The two were caught red-handed; they had thought they were safe as long as they weren't in Northern Home and Bismarck's room.

But they forgot that the naval base had just experienced a major battle, Bismarck was searching everywhere for Northern Home to apologize to the admiral.

Unfortunately, the plot of the book happens to be related to Bismarck, which means it has completely run into trouble and can't deny it.

The notebook had naturally been confiscated and destroyed by Bismarck, but whenever he saw the way Bismarck stared at him, Hokusai couldn't help but feel afraid.

Having spent a long time with Northern Home, she was very clear about Bismarck's power, so of course she had to be careful and keep a low profile at this time.

Moreover, since it's a doujinshi, there are naturally other people on it, and they are not to be trifled with.

Hokusai didn't want that person to know about this. Bismarck already had Northern Home protecting him, and if another one came along, she couldn't handle it.

As for Yuxian, she didn't care. She had already seen him, so why would the Master run away on his own?

Chapter 10, Section 447: The Card Addiction is Still Strong

Dinner was delicious; Yat Sen's culinary skills are beyond question, making him the undisputed master chef of the naval base.

Since Nero and Hokusai were at the naval base, Yuxian and the others naturally didn't need to go back to the town to stay, as their Repulse had arranged empty rooms for them at the naval base.

The room is very large, it's a suite, very spacious, enough Yuxian a group to stay comfortably without feeling crowded at all, and there's also a large living room for relaxation.

In this remote place, land is the least valuable commodity, so the naval base was built as large as possible, as Nero is not one to appreciate simplicity.

It was still early at night, and the children suggested going out to play.

"It's so late, don't go out. It's dark outside and there's nothing to do." Yuxian was worried about them. They were newcomers and couldn't be too reckless, even though this was Nero's garrison.

The children were sulking and unhappy when a group of people came outside and asked them to play.

"Let's play Joker!" Laffey suggested, holding a large deck of cards.

Yuxian tidied up the living room and made room for them to play.

A group of children gathered together, making quite a scene.

"Losing without punishment is meaningless." Amethyst was a bit blindly confident in her skills and actually dared to propose a punishment.

Yuxian glanced at the group of children.

Yoho!

Yukikaze, Shigure, Sukhbatol, Laffey, and even Little Jeanne and Illya —they're all ridiculously lucky. Just how confident is Amethyst?

Drawing jokers is a game that relies heavily on luck, but there are also certain skills involved; it's not entirely based on luck.

"Then stick a note on your face. The loser will have a note stuck on their face and can't take it off until the game is over."

They quickly discussed and decided on a way to punish each other. Sticking paper strips on their faces was indeed a good idea. Yuxian winked to himself, already able to imagine which people's faces would be covered with paper strips.

"That's so childish, I don't want to play." Anna pouted, indicating that she had no interest in such a childish game.

She was about to leave when the others pulled her back, saying, "Come on, Anna, come play with us. It's still early to go to bed."

Anna thought about it and realized she had nothing else to do, so she sat down to kill some time.

The children quickly got into play.

"Don't peek, or I'll kill you!"

Anna, who had seemed uninterested just moments before, was now guarding her cards tightly, extremely nervous.

Yuxian knew at a glance that Anna had gotten the Joker.

Judging from how nervous she was, she's a very understanding person.

"Hahaha, Lord Sukhbatol has won!" Supply-chan laughed as she played all her cards, declaring her victory with a smug look on her face.

Following closely behind, Yukikaze Little Jeanne also finished playing their cards one after another, leaving only Anna and Jack on the field.

Now it's Jack's turn to draw a card.

Anna kept changing the cards in her hand, nervously watching Jack, her whole body tense.

Jack would extend his hand to Anna's left, Anna would turn her gaze to the left; if he extended it to the right, Anna would move to the right.

After a few rounds, Anna said impatiently, "Jack, hurry up, which one are you going to draw?"

Jack blinked, swiftly drew a card, and shrugged, "We won."

Anna looked at Jack in disbelief. "How do you know this one isn't?"

Jack smiled mysteriously, "Jack knows!"

Yuxian could see it clearly from the side. When Jack moved his hand, his eyes were always fixed on Anna's expression. This little guy usually seemed innocent, but his mind was actually very quick.

In the first game, Anna was completely defeated.

"Again! Again!"

Anna was very dissatisfied. She slapped the note on her face and urged everyone to move on to the next round.

Anna, who had just dismissed it as a childish game, was now completely engrossed in it.

The game resumed.

Yuxian watched with great interest and began to guess who had the Joker card this time.

This time it wasn't as easy to guess as last time; every child's expression looked normal.

However, normal often means abnormal, Yuxian probably guessed who had the joker.

Sure enough, when it was Illya's turn to draw a card, she took a card from Amethyst's hand, glanced at it, her expression changed, but she quickly returned to normal, casually gathered it in her hand, and then placed it in front of Anna.

"It's your turn," Illya said to Anna in a calm tone.

Anna, unsuspecting, casually drew a ticket.

She took the cards and was immediately dumbfounded. How did the Joker end up in her hand again?

Anna was devastated and kept praying that the next person would take the Joker from her hand.

But after several rounds, she had fewer and fewer cards in her hand, but the Joker remained firmly in her hand, as if it had taken root and wouldn't leave.

As expected, Anna lost again...

Time passed slowly, and the children had a great time. Most of them had notes on their faces, more or less, but Anna had the most.

There's almost no room left on her face to stick stickers; they're so thick they look like she's grown a white beard.

Yuxian glanced at the time and realized it was getting late, so he said, "Alright, it's time to sleep. Let's call it a day."

"No! Let's play one more round!" Anna immediately objected. She just couldn't believe she always lost and was determined to win back her losses.

Yuxian was helpless. Anna, who clearly didn't want to play the game the most at the beginning, was now cheating and refusing to end it.

"If there's a chance in the future, we'll stay here for a while, and you can play together every night. It's too late tonight, you should rest."

Yuxian shook his head. Anna was a terrible gambler, but she was addicted to it. If she continued playing, she would be the one who lost the most.

The children were very obedient; they all stood up and stopped.

Seeing that everyone had stopped playing, Anna reluctantly stood up.

She ripped all the paper strips off her face and said unwillingly, "I'm not very good at this game yet, but I'll definitely show you what I'm capable of next time."

"Alright, alright, go wash up and go to bed."

Yuxian didn't expose Anna's words; let her discover the cruel truth herself in a few days.

I believe Anna will find out why she lost the most in a few days.

A lot happened that day. Lying in bed, Yuxian slowly thought about it, but he couldn't fall asleep.

For someone like Nero, who has formed new bonds in a new world, leaving to return to Chaldea has become difficult.

He couldn't selfishly ask Nero to abandon the naval base and these ship girls to go back with him.

Such situations will definitely become more and more common in the future.

"Can I really find everyone?"

Yuxian couldn't help but doubt himself.

Chapter 11, Section 448: Hokusai's Creations

In the early morning, as I opened the curtains, a cool sea breeze blew in, carrying a faint salty and damp scent, instantly making Yuxian feel refreshed and relaxed.

On the distant dock, Essex had already gotten up early to release her bald eagles—what a beautiful scene.

Walking through the naval base, the ship girls appeared sporadically, and most of them didn't sleep in.

For breakfast, Yuxian had a favorite Chinese breakfast: soy milk, fried dough sticks, and steamed buns. It was a rare treat to have such an authentic Chinese breakfast, Yuxian ate a little more than usual.

After breakfast, the children ran off to play with their friends.

Yuxian Xian and Mash strolled leisurely around the naval base, enjoying this rare moment of peace.

Around noon, just before lunch, Quincy and the New Orleans sisters returned.

Quincy is back!

"Yo-ho! Our big star is back!"

The garrison staff greeted Quincy and congratulated her on her successful performance.

Quincy ran straight to the dining hall as soon as she entered the naval base. She had been impatient outside for a long time. New Orleans kept her under very strict control and she couldn't go anywhere. She was much more free and at ease at the naval base.

Upon arriving at the cafeteria, Quincy hurriedly began shouting, "Ping Hai, Ping Hai, I'm hungry!"

Ping Hai had just returned from washing vegetables when Quincy saw him as he passed by.

She blinked and placed the vegetables she had just cleaned, which she was about to take to the kitchen, in front of Quincy.

"Eat up, eat up."

Quincy saw the vegetables in front of him and, without saying a word, picked them up and started to stuff them into his mouth.

New Orleans rushed forward and slapped the vegetables out of her hand, angrily saying, "These are raw, you can't eat them!"

She turned and glared at Ping Hai, "Stop bullying Quincy, I'm really getting angry."

Ping Hai stuck out his tongue, took the vegetables from the table, and quickly left to go back to the kitchen.