A Hunter and a Bad Woman in Terra

"What's wrong? You look a little lonely~"

"...No."

"Really? Your ears are drooping~"

"..."

"Mm-hm~"

Exusiai watched Texas, who was clearly putting up a stubborn front, with a wicked grin. Her eyes shifted, but she said nothing more.

After leaving the Lungmen Guard Department, Maria did not linger outside for long. She merely wandered around the area before heading toward Hoshiguma's home.

Since Maria had nowhere to stay for the time being, Hoshiguma generously cleared out a room in her house and told Maria she could stay as long as she liked.

Maria was somewhat amazed by her personality.

Trusting others so easily... wouldn't that cause problems?

Still, Maria did not say or ask anything about it.

Since Hoshiguma had chosen to trust her, all she could do was not betray that trust.

Pushing open the door and entering the living room, Maria immediately saw Hoshiguma fervently sparring with a punching bag.

She wore a thin shirt and long pants, without any protective gear, launching attack after attack at the sandbag before her with complete concentration.

Beads of sweat slid across the lines of her fair skin, accentuating her muscular yet beautiful physique.

Every swing of her slender legs revealed a graceful curve.

She was training seriously.

But Maria found it rather curious.

"What... are you doing?"

"Ah... you're back."

Hearing Maria's voice, Hoshiguma froze for a moment before turning around and smiling at her.

"I suppose... this counts as rehabilitation training."

"Rehabilitation training?"

"Yeah... I got a little hurt in the last battle. I don't think it's a big deal, but my companions felt I couldn't keep working at such an intense pace, so they gave me a week off to recover. Still, I think that even while recovering, I can't relax my standards for myself."

Hoshiguma smiled, her tone lighthearted.

Maria nodded, only half understanding.

After watching Hoshiguma continue punching with all her strength for a while, she stepped forward in silence...

"What is it?"

"Your exertion... could actually be optimized a little more."

Maria spoke softly.

Maria had nothing with which to repay Hoshiguma's kindness.

And since Hoshiguma was so interested in becoming stronger, Maria did not mind teaching her a thing or two.

She was still confident in that regard.

Slowly, she pressed her body against Hoshiguma's scorching back.

Her cool, slender fingers lightly slid from Hoshiguma's shoulder all the way down to her palm, gently taking hold of it.

The strange sensation made Hoshiguma's body tense up involuntarily.

Even someone as thick-nerved as her could not help blushing at that moment.

"Wait, Maria, this posture..."

"Shh—"

She breathed softly beside Hoshiguma's ear. Only after confirming that she had quieted down did Maria silently guide her with her own body.

"Throwing a punch isn't just about swinging your fist. Your wrist needs to rotate..."

"A straight punch is the fastest kind of punch, but its purpose does not necessarily have to be attacking... it can conceal the movements of your feet."

"Like this..."

Maria spoke softly, utterly unconcerned that their bodies were already pressed tightly together.

The moment Hoshiguma's heated body, fresh from exercise, touched Maria's cool skin, it seemed to shrink back on instinct.

Especially when Maria had spoken just now, her breath had brushed all across Hoshiguma's face...

A strange, intoxicating fragrance rushed straight into her mind.

The intimate motions made her heart race... though many people saw her as a good brother, perhaps precisely because of that, she rarely had intimate physical contact with anyone... the closest thing was using her fists to make contact with someone's face during a fight.

And this, with arm against arm and body against body like Maria was doing, was a first for her.

Her surging blood made her thoughts grow hazy.

She could only follow Maria's guidance in a daze.

Only after quite some time did she realize that Maria had already moved away from her.

"Mm... that's about it. Those last few punches were good."

Maria nodded silently, while Hoshiguma looked a little embarrassed.

"What's wrong?" Maria tilted her head in confusion, while Hoshiguma gave an awkward laugh and hurriedly waved her hands.

"Nothing... I'm going to take a cold shower and calm down. Go ahead and eat something and rest first."

With that, she did not wait for Maria's response. She turned and rushed into the bathroom, immediately turning on the cold water.

The sharp sensation instantly made her skin contract, cooling her head.

Only then did she feel a little better.

"Seriously..."

She braced both hands against the tiled wall, lowering her head with a bitter smile.

"What even is this..."

Maria did not have to wait long. Hoshiguma soon emerged from the bathroom after cleaning up.

She wiped her hair with a towel as she curiously approached Maria, who was quietly reading.

"So? Did the job thing go smoothly?"

"I suppose it was a success."

Maria nodded and closed her book.

"I went to the place you told me about and found a strange penguin. He agreed to let me join Penguin Logistics, and I completed my first job this morning..."

"A strange penguin... Emperor? Yeah, he'd definitely like someone with your personality."

After drying her hair, Hoshiguma poured each of them a glass of water, then sat down on the sofa and smiled at Maria.

"Before long, you should be able to fully adapt to the pace of life here... though it seems you don't intend to stay long."

"That's right... Once I've saved up enough travel money, I'll leave immediately..."

Maria had no intention of staying anywhere. Her only thought was to kill all the Great Beasts in this world as quickly as possible, then solve this world's Beastification problem.

Speaking of which...

Maria raised her head and looked at Hoshiguma before her.

"There's something I'd like to ask you about..."

Different Schemes

Today was another ordinary day.

At least, it was for Penguin Logistics.

Because they had suddenly landed a huge order yesterday, Emperor generously gave the contributors a paid vacation.

But the break had come too suddenly. The girls had no plans, so they could not be bothered to go out and simply lounged around their rooms, spending their day as usual.

Exusiai maintained her guns while listening to music through her headphones.

Croissant happily scrolled through her phone with a smile, checking out whatever interesting new things had appeared recently.

Texas sat quietly on the sofa, reading a book.

Although everyone was sitting on the sofa, no one seemed inclined to talk. The silent atmosphere did not make them feel distant from one another; rather, this kind of life suited their rhythm even better.

But... that was as far as it went.

"Knock, knock, knock..."

There came a knock at the door.

"Miss Exusiai, Miss Croissant, Miss Texas, are you in?"

It was the voice of a Penguin Logistics employee.

Though the main force of Penguin Logistics consisted of the few of them, there were certainly more people than just them working throughout Lungmen.

There were other employees around here as well.

They did not interact much, but they occasionally visited one another.

Upon hearing the voice, all three people in the room looked over at once.

Texas had no intention of getting up, and Exusiai did not want to get off the sofa either.

She reached out with her foot and hooked Croissant around the waist, putting on a pitiful expression.

"I get it already... Exusiai, you're way too lazy."

With a helpless shake of her head, Croissant, who was closest to the door, stood up to open it.

Before long, she returned with a puzzled look on her face.

"What is it, Croissant? Did you buy something weird again?"

Exusiai scooted over with a grin.

The members of the team had spent quite a bit of time together, so they understood each other's lifestyles to some extent.

Croissant was a genius at making money, but she also spent money freely.

So when Exusiai saw her strange expression, her first thought was that Croissant had splurged on some bizarre item again.

But Croissant merely rolled her eyes at Exusiai.

"Of course not. I don't have a habit of wasting money. Those are all necessities that improve my quality of life."

"Mm-hm~"

"It's a letter~ Someone wrote us a letter."

"A letter?"

Both Exusiai and Texas looked puzzled.

After staring at one another for a while, they realized that no one in the room seemed to have a habit of writing letters.

"Was it delivered to the wrong place?"

"No, it was addressed right here."

Croissant shook her head.

"The person who delivered it looked pretty confused too... come to think of it, delivering letters is part of our business too, right? A letter carrier delivering a letter to letter carriers... that sounds a little strange."