Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 343 Always Together
As soon as Manjushri stepped out of the bathhouse, he saw several Palicoes gathered together, struggling to lift a huge red Daruma doll, preparing to carry it to the center of the village. On top of the doll stood a Meralu wearing a straw hat, standing steadily on the swaying doll with her arms crossed, looking quite like a master.

"Excuse me... do you need any help?"

Seeing that these Ailus seemed to be having a hard time carrying the load, Manjushri subconsciously asked.

"Thank you very much, but I don't need it, meow!"

Wearing a straw hat, Melalu smiled coolly, her lower body swaying to the rhythm of a roly-poly toy, but her upper body remained as steady as if it were equipped with a stabilizer.

"Don't worry, meow. Nyanjiro has excellent balance and can easily handle logistics between the village and the hunting camp. This Daruma doll is no problem for him, meow!"

Ellu, who was carrying the roly-poly toy below, chimed in to add her own comment.

Manjushri glanced at the Ailu who had spoken, thinking to himself, "I asked if you needed help lifting the roly-poly toy. That Melalu is standing so steadily, I'm not worried at all..."

However, since they had said so, it was highly likely that they really didn't need help. Manjushri didn't think too much about it and prepared to walk around the giant roly-poly toy to the venue below.

Before she could even get close, the struggling Ellu tripped and fell to the side as they descended the steps, causing the roly-poly toy to sway violently.

The violent shaking finally broke Nyanjiro's steady standing posture. Its body staggered, and in order to maintain its balance, under the influence of muscle memory, it subconsciously ran in the opposite direction of the roly-poly toy's swaying, thus re-establishing a dynamic balance.

As for the result, right under Manjushri's nose, this roly-poly toy rolled down the steps and crashed into the crowd.

"Get out of the way, meow meow meow!"

Seeing this scene, Manjushri finally understood why those few Ailu had said that Nyanjiro had excellent balance.

To be able to run on this roly-poly toy that keeps rolling downwards, and even influence its direction so it doesn't run over a crowd of people, that's truly a master.

Manjushri tried to catch up with him for a couple of steps, but after running a few steps without catching up, he slowed down again.

Although the Daruma doll looked big, it could be lifted by a few Palicoes, so it must not be very heavy. In addition, with Nyanjiro on the doll shouting and warning people around to get out of the way, she was not too worried that anyone would get hurt.

"Huh? Why did it stop?"

Suddenly, Manjushri's eyes flickered, and he noticed that the momentum of the tumbler rolling down the mountain was abruptly stopped.

Which passing hunter made the move? That's pretty good; he has the potential to stop a dragon's charge.

……

Lin Lin slightly trembled his arms, thus dissipating the impact of the roly-poly toy rolling down. He then took a step back and opened his arms to catch Melaru, who was caught off guard and fell down due to the sudden stop of the roly-poly toy.

The black cat in his arms stared at Lin Lin with its big eyes for a moment, then spoke, somewhat awkwardly:

"Thank you, meow..."

"You are welcome."

"Um, can I put this downstairs, meow?"

"Oh, oh, of course..."

Lin Lin put the black cat down, but a few memories involuntarily welled up in his heart.

This Melaloo was both familiar and unfamiliar to him. It was familiar because when he played the game, in the old era when it was not possible to enter a tent at any time, he would always rely on this black cat to send the collected items back to the item box after his backpack was full. It was unfamiliar because in this world, this was the first time Lin Lin had seen it in person.

"Ahem, um, hunter, could you do me a favor, meow?"

Meowjiro's voice pulled Lin Lin back to reality. He looked down and saw that Melaluru was speaking somewhat hesitantly:

"Well... this Daruma doll was supposed to be moved to that pond over there, but it had an accident just now, meow..."

Nyanjiro's confidence was rather weak, after all, a hunter had just asked if he needed help, and he had confidently said no, and then this accident happened...

Lin Lin was unaware of this little incident; he simply stepped forward and picked up the large roly-poly toy.

It has to be said that this thing is not actually that heavy, but it is too big. It is difficult to find a suitable point of leverage. To hold it steady, you have to use at least two to three times the force of its own weight.

Fortunately, it was only a bit of effort for Lin Lin. After carrying the giant roly-poly toy into the pool, Lin Lin clapped his hands, nodded to the thanking Nyanjiro, and returned to Yoko.

Ye Zi handed Lin Lin a bowl of fried noodles, her eyes smiling.
"Here you go. When you went to pick up the roly-poly toy, the original one fell on the ground, so I bought you a new one."

Lin Lin took the fried noodles, coughed lightly, and explained, "We can't just watch that big roly-poly toy roll around everywhere, can we? It would be terrible if it hurt someone."

After leaving the clinic, the two began to wander around the village, eating a little bit of this and a little bit of that. They had just returned to the center of the village and were about to finish with a bowl of fried noodles when the scene just now happened.

"Hehe, I didn't say you shouldn't have gone to pick him up, Brother Lin..."

The two continued their aimless wandering and unknowingly arrived at the goldfish scooping stall again. Remembering that they had said they would come and try it, but had only been eating since leaving the clinic, Yoko suggested that they have a goldfish scooping competition.

Lin Lin readily agreed, and the two of them each bought ten paper nets, squatted by the pool, and began to play intently.

Manjushri took a few steps closer and blended into the crowd of onlookers, remaining completely inconspicuous.

Her eyesight was good, and she had just noticed that the hunter who had stopped the roly-poly toy seemed to be the man who had captured Sayoko's heart. So she quietly approached him, wanting to observe the progress of their relationship.

They're even having a goldfish scooping contest! This must be a date, right?

It seems like things are progressing well. Last time, this girl was being coy and hiding her feelings, but it feels like it won't be long before they get together.

From what she's gotten to know Lin Lin, he seems like a pretty good guy. He's talented and skilled at being a hunter, and he's a good match for our Xiaoyezi...

The above thoughts only appeared in Manjushri's mind when she first came over to watch, but after carefully observing the two's actions, her thoughts had changed to:

"Damn it, how can these two be so bad?! They haven't caught a single one yet. Those little goldfish are too fast to catch, and there's that huge, broken arowana right next to them! Even if you stacked ten paper nets together, you couldn't catch it!"

'Purely talented, poet of Meiyi Pavilion!'

Just as Manjushri was getting redder and redder, a man's voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Miss Manjushri is also interested in this game?"

Manjushri turned around, and the person who spoke was wearing Ice Fang Dragon armor and looked somewhat familiar.

Who is this again?

Oh right, it seems like Sayoko and Lin Lin's katana-wielding teammates are...

Wenshu glanced back at Lin Lin, who was still focused on catching goldfish, and Ye Zi, who was pretending to be focused on catching goldfish but was actually secretly watching Lin Lin. He quickly pulled Bref back two steps and moved away from the two of them.

Please don't disturb their time together!

"Huh?" Bref's cheeks flushed, his eyes wide with confusion. Wasn't this a little strange? How did it jump straight to holding hands?
Once they had created enough distance between themselves and Lin Lin, Wen Shu released his grip and then looked at Bref with some curiosity:

"are you alone?"

"what?"

Bref, whose wrist had just been grabbed, was still somewhat dazed. It wasn't until Manjushri repeated the sentence that his gaze regained focus:
"Ah, yes, I don't know where Lin Linye and the other one have gone. I've looked all over and can't find them."

Wenshu immediately felt a warning bell ring in his mind: Buhou, this kid really wants to break up Xiaoyezi's world with her!

No, I can't let him have that thought!

Manjushri activated his extraordinary wisdom and instantly came up with a solution:
"Hey, I'm alone too, how about we go shopping together?"

Brave: Huh? Huh!
Is there such a good thing? !
……

Ziyuan sat on the steps, watching the singing and dancing crowd, and sighed sadly.

Beside her, Dates sat in the same pose and sighed as well.

Ziyuan glanced at her sideways, "Why are you sighing?"

Dates rolled her eyes. "Then why are you sighing, meow?"

Ziyuan pouted. "I'm just lamenting for myself."

Dates scratched his ear. "I'm just lamenting my own situation."

Shion gritted her teeth: "Could you please stop mimicking my speech?"

The date palm retorted, not to be outdone: "Who copied your voice, meow?"

Aster:

"Then let me ask you! What are you sighing about? Let me ask you something."

Dates:

"I'm lamenting that I've become a lonely old woman, meow! Boss said he'd accompany Yoko to the festival, Ooku ran off to patrol the territory, and Jumpy isn't interested in any of this, he just wants to stay home and sleep in! I can only watch them sing and dance here..."

The date palm gave off an expression that said, "Happiness belongs to them, I have nothing," then paused and asked in return:

"Then what are you sighing about, meow?"

Ziyuan sighed again, somewhat dejected, and said:

"Me too... This celebration looks so lively. I originally wanted to stroll around with Master, but Master said he had to go accompany Master's husband and told me to play by myself. I was thinking of asking Sister Yezi to go with me, but I couldn't even find her..."

Shion thought for a moment but decided not to voice the criticism that she "valued romance over friendship," since she had only become a "friend" by helping Yoko win over her "love interest."

Dates and Aster exchanged a glance, only then realizing they were in the same boat. A sense of kinship welled up within them, and they said in unison:
"Then how about..."

"Shall we go shopping together?"

The man and the cat hit it off immediately, and instead of staying on the cold steps, they enthusiastically joined the jubilant crowd.

However, once they started browsing, what attracted their attention was not the various game facilities or food stalls, but rather the couples walking together.

"Date, have you noticed that a lot of the people visiting the festival are couples?"

"What's so strange about that, meow? I heard there's a fireworks display at the end of the festival, meow, it's a really romantic spot for couples to go on a date, meow!"

Ziyuan casually bought two skewers of grilled fish and handed Yezao a skewer that was specially seasoned with catnip spice:
"But isn't this too many? Look at all these couples, even the little kids are childhood sweethearts playing together..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ziyuan saw two familiar figures walking together. The girl kept comforting the other, saying things like, "It's okay, catching a gunpowder goldfish is already amazing," and "This is just a conspiracy by the merchants, deliberately using such easily damaged paper nets," and so on.

Well, we were just talking about that, and here comes another couple...

Hmm, if I go up now and say hello, and tell them I want to play with my senior brothers, what kind of expression will Sister Yezi have?
It sounds a little exciting... No, no, I'll die...

Ziyuan quickly shook her head, trying to banish the thought from her mind.

She looked down at the dates. "This place doesn't seem very interesting. Let's go check out over there. I'm quite confident in my shooting skills; I should be able to bring back some decent prizes."

Because of her height, Yezao's view was blocked, so she didn't see the men and women walking in front of her, and naturally, it didn't bother her.

However, when the person and the cat arrived near the shooting game, Shion noticed a group of familiar faces once again.

"How's it going? Am I awesome?"

The voice sounded so familiar; it was definitely my teacher. But what's with that arrogant, pleading tone? Has my master been switched?

"Hmph, isn't this just normal performance? If even a top-tier marksman can't hit anything in this kind of simple game, then there's no point in having a marksman class."

"you!"

You could tell Ms. Rachel was a little annoyed, but "I'll let it go since you're injured!"

After a moment, Rachel added:
"The crossbows in these shooting games are all specially adjusted for bullet trajectory. The one I just used was like that. The trajectory was off to the left, and I was able to adjust it back after one test shot. I'm obviously pretty good, okay? You just tried it too, and you didn't hit it once!"

"I'm a swordsman, not an archer. So what if I miss... Fine, fine, you're amazing!"

"Hmph, that's more like it!"

Shion: ...

I suddenly feel so full, I can't even eat the grilled fish in my hand anymore...

"Let's go, let's look around some other places, and then we'll go dancing."

Date palm looked bewildered. It looked up at Asparagus and couldn't help but wonder if the girl's head had gotten wet while soaking in the hot spring. How could she be so strange?
Didn't you just say you wanted to try shooting? Didn't you say you were a marksman and confident you'd win a prize?

Despite Yeza's disapproving gaze, Shion eventually played two rounds of shooting games with Yeza before returning to the center of the village and dancing to the rhythm of the drums.

A moment later, seeing another couple dancing enthusiastically not far ahead, Ziyuan paused, almost losing her rhythm.

There are still more!

(End of this chapter)