Elder brother's garrison

"Huh?! Aren't those the two from yesterday..." The female Kitchen Goddess waved in surprise in the direction of Xiaobai and Changchun, "Hey—what are you doing there?"

The sudden familiar gesture from the female hearth goddess startled the ship girls in the courtyard. They all turned their heads and followed the direction the female hearth goddess was looking to see Xiaobai and the other two at the very end of the group.

"Miss Vestal!" Shiro, who was struggling to shake off the ship girls' advances, felt a huge relief and stood on tiptoe, waving her arms at Vestal. "It's me! It's me!"

"Eh—" The female kitchen god pulled on the doorknob, drawing out the sound. She first showed a strange expression, but quickly pursed her lips, then waved to Xiaobai and Changchun, saying, "You two come in first!"

"Thank you, Lady Vessel!" Upon hearing this, Xiaobai and Changchun quickly bowed with smiles to the stunned ship girls around them, and then ran to the front of the line under everyone's gaze and entered the house of Lady Vessel.

Although cutting in line is a shameful act.

But if it was a queue-jumping act personally invited by the Goddess of the Hearth... the ship girls present dared not say anything.

Under the watchful eyes of the ship girls in the courtyard, after Xiaobai and Changchun entered the room, the Vesta Goddess closed the door behind her.

The courtyard returned to its quiet atmosphere.

Then, a few seconds passed.

"This...this is the first time in twenty years that I've cut in line!"

"Those two destroyer girls just now actually know Sister Vestal??"

Were they acquaintances before?

"Who are the people the female stove goddess knows? Are they as powerful as her?"

"I was wondering how an ordinary destroyer could have so much experience in defeating deep-sea battleships... So it turns out they're acquaintances of Sister Vestal... That makes sense."

"Could it be...could they be friends? Wow...then when we questioned those two little girls, weren't we......"

"I'll teach you to be sarcastic! I'll teach you to be sarcastic!"

"I...I didn't, I didn't...Waaah, I don't know..."

"Oh no... What if we angered the goddess of the hearth? What if she stops giving us ship repair equipment in the future...?"

"..."

In the courtyard, the ship girls' helpless cries and regretful murmurs rose up instantly, creating a noisy and chaotic scene.

But at the very back of the group, the ship girl who had just been speaking eloquently beside Xiaobai was staring wide-eyed at the closed door of the Vestal Goddess's room, frozen in place for a long time.

The ship girl recalled her conversation with Shiro just now, and her mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts and emotions.

But in the end, it all boils down to two sentences.

Holy crap.

—Did I just have a magical encounter?

Chapter 1678 Critically Ill Patients

Xiao Bai and Chang Chun finally followed the female Kitchen Goddess into her home.

After entering the house of the female Stove Goddess, Xiaobai did not immediately speak to her. Instead, while he was still in the entryway, he looked around the house.

The house of the Kitchen Goddess is actually quite large.

Behind the door of the goddess of the hearth was a short corridor. There was a shoe rack and a few pairs of slippers at the entrance. The white tiles on the corridor floor were spotless and so clean that they reflected light and cast shadows. Xiaobai stood at the entrance and looked towards the end of the corridor. She could see the living room at a glance. Several girls were sitting in the living room. Judging from their aura, they seemed to be ship girls who had come to seek treatment for their ship equipment.

Ok?

Wait a minute, why does the atmosphere of the ship girls in the living room feel a bit strange?

As Xiaobai stared blankly at the ship girls in the living room of Vestal's house, preparing to use the Admiral's Network to get a good feel for it, Vestal, who was walking at the front, seemed to sense Xiaobai's subconsciously opened Admiral's Network and stopped, turning around to look at Xiaobai with a knowing look on her face.

Xiao Bai quickly put away the Admiral's Network and smiled apologetically at the Goddess of the Hearth.

So there are other ship girls in Vestal's house...

"Um... Miss Vestal, is it alright if we just come in like this?" Xiaobai said awkwardly to the Vestal. "There seem to be a lot of ship girls queuing up outside..."

"Ah... those? It's alright, it's alright." The goddess of the hearth waved her hand. "I don't charge for repairing ship girls' equipment, so I don't care about first come, first served. Of course, I can see whoever I want first—and you two didn't come here to repair your ship equipment, did you?"

At this point, the female Stove Goddess took a step closer to Xiaobai and Changchun, sniffing gently at their necks.

The warm breath exhaled from the goddess of the hearth hit Xiaobai's neck, feeling like strands of hair brushing against his skin, creating a ticklish sensation.

"Hmm...it's a healthy aura." The goddess of the hearth smiled at Xiaobai and Changchun, stepped back to her original position, put her hands on her hips, and said to Xiaobai and Changchun, "It seems that your ship equipment is in very good condition!"

"..." Xiaobai touched his neck where the goddess's breath had just touched him, and smiled at her. "Um... so you can heal ship girls' equipment, Miss Goddess..."

"I prefer to call it repair rather than treatment," the goddess of the hearth said to Little White with a smile.

"What an amazing ability..."

"Really? Others say the same thing." The female hearth goddess nodded, then looked at Little White curiously. "By the way, where did you find me? I don't remember telling you where I live."

"Uh... well..." Xiaobai smiled awkwardly upon hearing this. She was too embarrassed to tell Vestal directly that she had tricked the security guard at the Ship Equipment Research Center into revealing her home address. She could only scratch her cheek and shift her gaze to the ship girls in the living room, trying to change the subject. "Uh... speaking of which, Miss Vestal, are you very busy right now? If you are... how about waiting until you finish what you're doing..."

"Hmm... I'm actually fine..." The Vess followed Xiaobai's gaze to her living room. When she saw the ship girls in the living room, she waved to Xiaobai, "Two of the three ship girls in the living room are guests whose ship equipment cannot be repaired quickly in a short time. Let them stay in the living room. When I am repairing the ship equipment of the other ship girls, I will go to their side to deal with them from time to time."

"Oh...and the other one?"

"Also..." The goddess of the hearth looked troubled. She seemed unsure how to bring it up, so she beckoned to Little White, "Anyway, you two come back to the living room with me first."

"Oh, oh!" Xiaobai and Changchun quickly followed the female stove god.

The female Kitchen Goddess led Little White towards the living room.

"Speaking of which, Miss Stove Goddess, your house is really big."

"It's huge, isn't it? This was the cheapest apartment I could find in all of Kyoto back then."

"Hmm... I don't think the location is particularly remote, and the house is quite spacious inside. Is the price very cheap?"

“I’m not really sure either. Anyway, about ten years ago, when I was looking for a place to live, I heard from others that this courtyard was haunted at night, and no one dared to live there. Over time, the rent became very cheap, so I came to live here.”

"Wow... no wonder there's only the Kitchen Goddess in the yard, does your house have anyone here...?"

"So, humans really do like to scare themselves—but from this point of view, I'm the one who benefits."

"...Is the ghost story real or fake?"

"Of course it's fake. The so-called haunting is just that there are a few rat holes under the ground. At night, when the rats are looking for food, they like to scurry around and make some strange noises under the ground. I discovered it on the second night I stayed here."

"...That's it."

"We've arrived at the living room, come in," the female Kitchen Goddess said to Little White as she entered the living room.

Xiao Bai followed the female Kitchen Goddess into the living room and took the opportunity to observe the situation inside.

The amount of furniture in the Vestal Goddess's house is comparable to that of the Yubari family. The Vestal Goddess's living room only has two sofas, a coffee table, and other necessities such as curtains and an electric kettle. There isn't even a television, which is a home background music generator.

The three ship girls were sitting on the sofa waiting for the goddess of the hearth. Two of them looked weak, with pale faces and poor complexion. Even sitting on the sofa, they gave the impression that they might collapse at any moment.

Xiaobai lingered curiously on the faces of the two ship girls for a moment.

The extent of damage to a ship girl's equipment usually does not affect her physical health. Just like the row of ship girls outside the door whose equipment is damaged and waiting for repair, although their equipment has various sizes of damage, even if their equipment is badly damaged, their bodies are still healthy and rosy.

These two are...

Suppressing her curiosity, Xiaobai shifted her gaze to another ship girl.

The third ship girl seemed to be in much better condition, with a rosy complexion and a peaceful aura. She was just as active as the ship girls outside the door. However, with the goddess of the hearth nearby, it was inconvenient for Xiaobai to release his admiral aura again to sense the ship girl's injuries.

"Sister Vestal Goddess! You're back!" The third ship girl rushed over as soon as she saw Vestal Goddess walk back into the living room, showing her a fawning expression. When her gaze shifted to Xiaobai and Changchun, she also gave them a faint smile. "Hello, my two sisters, are you here for a medical checkup too?"

"Uh... Sister, do you know us?" Seeing that this girl was so familiar with him, Xiaobai was a little curious about whether she knew him, so he asked her.

"All ship girls are one family. Even if we didn't know each other before, we do know each other today, don't we?"

"Ah...that's true." Xiaobai smiled.

"Ignore her." The Vesta ignored the ship girl who approached her and walked straight to the two ship girls sitting on the sofa. She said to Xiaobai, "Just pick a spot on the sofa in the room. It's not very big, so please bear with it."

"Oh... okay." Xiaobai and Changchun glanced curiously at the ship girl beside them.

Even though the ship girl was ignored by the goddess of the hearth, she didn't show any anger at all. Instead, she stood there with a smile, displaying a gentle expression that suggested she could take any beating or scolding.

This ship girl... is she the assistant of the goddess of the hearth?

Xiaobai moved her lips, but ultimately didn't speak. She took Changchun's hand and walked to the sofa that was closer to the female hearth goddess and the other two ship girls, and sat down. Then she stared curiously at the two ship girls on the sofa whose complexions were obviously abnormal for a while.

"Miss Hearth Goddess, they..."

"You want to ask about their condition, right?" Before Xiaobai could finish speaking, the female Kitchen Goddess asked Xiaobai as if she understood his question.

"Hmm..." Xiaobai nodded, "I've never seen a ship girl whose injuries affect her main body before..."

"It's normal that you haven't seen it before." Upon hearing this, the female Kitchen Goddess gave Xiaobai a praising smile for some reason.

"?" Xiaobai asked, puzzled.

"It's almost time. You two release your ship equipment again." The Vesta didn't continue explaining to Xiaobai. She spoke to the two ship girls in front of her.

The two ship girls on the sofa nodded weakly. They raised their hands and waved, and with a crackling sound of sparks flying, they summoned two ship suits, charred black by flames, to their front.

—Those were truly two shipboards in extremely dire condition.

The once pristine white ship rigging was now broken into two lumps of black steel of unknown origin. The marks of burning and shattering on the steel were clearly visible. Even as they summoned the damaged ship rigging, the two lumps in their hands continued to emit obvious sparks in all directions, making creaking and squeaking noises.

"It's so serious..." Changchun, who was next to Xiaobai, covered her mouth and looked at their ship equipment in surprise.

"Yes...it's serious." The goddess of the hearth sighed, raised her hand, and summoned a small wrench in a flash of white light. She held the wrench close to the ship girls' rigging and gently twisted it in several pinchable spots. A hazy white light flickered, and the two almost inhuman rigging pieces slightly dispersed, and the sparks from the shattering rigging also decreased.

Little White, who had been watching the female stove goddess intently, had a slight flicker in his eyes the moment she pulled out a wrench.

The wrench that the goddess of the hearth pulled out was not an ordinary human tool, but a type of ship equipment.

That should be part of the Vesta ship's equipment.

Furthermore, judging from the fact that when the Vestal fiddled with the ship rigging in front of the two ship girls on the sofa, and the ship rigging of those two ship girls showed a slight tendency to revert to its original form, it seems that the Vestal does indeed possess the power to repair the ship rigging of other ship girls!

"Alright, just fix this one at a time. Don't let the sparks burn my sofa. You two can go back for now." The goddess of the hearth put away the wrench and said to the ship girl on the sofa.

The ship girl on the sofa caught her breath, bowed her head somewhat humbly to the goddess of the hearth in gratitude, and then retracted her ship equipment.

The crackling sounds disappeared from the living room.

The female stove goddess breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at Xiaobai and Changchun sitting to the side.

“Generally speaking, a ship girl’s ship equipment is like an invincible defensive shield. Before this shield collapses, no matter what damage she suffers, the ship girl’s health will not be affected in any way,” the Goddess of the Hearth said to Xiaobai. “So you’re curious why, even though all the ship girls outside the yard look healthy, only these two ship girls seem to be in a strange state, right?”

"Hmm." Xiaobai nodded. "Are they any different?"

Just now.

Xiao Bai noticed that the two ship girls sitting on the sofa showed a subtle expression of guilt and shame when she asked that question.

"Sigh." The goddess of the hearth sighed. "Of course it's different. After all, as long as it's a normal battle for ship girls, their bodies won't suffer any damage... The reason for this phenomenon is simply because they concealed their heavily damaged state from their mercenary groups and forced themselves into battle, causing their ship equipment to suffer more severe damage than a normal heavily damaged state."

"In other words, a major offensive."

Chapter 1679 I'm in!

The goddess of the hearth spoke in a calm and ordinary voice, as if she were recounting something very ordinary.

But the two ship girls sitting on the sofa immediately lowered their heads with a guilty look upon hearing the words of the Vestal Goddess, unable to even look the Vestal Goddess in the eye.

“Heavy damage attack…” Xiaobai murmured the words of the female hearth goddess, gazing at the two ship girls on the sofa, a hint of understanding flashing in his eyes.

This answer didn't surprise Xiaobai.

Rather, when Xiaobai saw the ship equipment of these two ship girls, he already had a pretty good idea of ​​what was going on.

"These two older sisters' injuries... so they were from the heavily damaged Attack." Changchun covered her mouth, looking at the two ship girls with some heartache.

“Yes… but those two are different from ordinary heavily damaged attack ships.” The Vesta said to Xiaobai and Changchun while rubbing her shoulders, “Actually, many ship girls don’t know that there is a special connection between their ship equipment and their bodies. Although the heavily damaged protection state is on the surface a state that protects the ship girl’s body, it is also a means of protecting the ship equipment.”

"Protective ship equipment?"

"You must be wondering, what can be protected when a ship girl's equipment is so badly damaged, right?" The Vestal held up a finger to Shiro. "Actually, that's a misconception."

"Uh..." Little White shrank back, cautiously staring at the goddess of the hearth's fingers. "What misconception is this?"

"The fact that a ship girl's rigging is heavily damaged doesn't actually mean that the rigging won't continue to break down." Vestal moved her fingers and explained to Shiro, "To give an example... it's like a kind of self-reaction of the rigging, such as the heavily damaged protection state. This is a protective state that is triggered when the rigging itself feels that if it continues to be damaged, it might break down. This protection state not only protects the ship girl's own life, but also frantically signals to its master that it's time for her to repair the rigging."

"Ah... I see..." Xiaobai nodded.

"Therefore, the risk of advancing with heavily damaged equipment is enormous, and it is extremely unwise." The Vesta turned her head and glanced at the two ship girls sitting on the sofa with their heads down, not daring to speak. "Ship girls who continue to advance with heavily damaged equipment not only lose their last means of protection, but their fragile bodies are also easily damaged by the Abyssal Fleet. It may even cause even greater and irreparable damage to their already endangered equipment."

"Irreversible damage, could it be..."

“It’s those two.” The Vesta pointed to the two ship girls on the sofa. “They are the ship girls who attacked while heavily damaged, were attacked by the enemy on the harsh battlefield, and then their ship equipment was further damaged.”

"..." Xiaobai stared at the ship girl on the sofa with a complicated expression. "So... what are the consequences?"