"But you didn't give birth to me?"
The purple-haired insect girl understood the concept of mother and child, but however she looked him over, she couldn't see any feminine features on Zhang Xiu. His hair was just long.
"What I mean is... never mind. I still don't know your name. I'm Zhang Xiu, and this is Stelle."
"I'm Celine. Anyway, hurry and come with me."
Celine reached out and grabbed Zhang Xiu by the collar, dragging him deeper inside as delight spread across his face.
Celine, huh? What a coincidence.
Some counterparts had different names. Of course, Zhang Xiu wouldn't treat her as the Celine in his memories just because of her name. That wouldn't be fair to either of them; he had only been joking earlier.
Seeing this, Stelle and the other girl silently exchanged a look before following them.
Celine ran so fast that she accidentally snapped several trees and plowed through a few bushes, knocking the insects out of the branches and grass.
"Sorry, sorry! Coming through!"
"Do they live in symbiosis with you? Then what do you eat? And why are you carrying a spear made of bone?"
"They're everyone's children! The Bone Spear belonged to our ancestors!"
"...What on earth are you talking about?"
Just as Zhang Xiu was puzzling over what Celine meant, she smashed straight through a rock and arrived before an ocean.
The instant they reached it, the feelers on her head began trembling, sending out waves of sound. Without stopping, she took Zhang Xiu straight into the sea.
When the seawater rose over his face, Zhang Xiu discovered that he could breathe underwater. He wasn't sure whether it was Celine's influence or a special ability he possessed as one of the Denizens of Abundance.
Watching the half-insect, half-fish creatures swim past,