Elder brother's garrison

"?" Barbarossa frowned, her cold red eyes staring strangely at Deep Sea Hindenburg, as if wondering why Deep Sea Hindenburg would stay so obediently by the side of the person who hurt her.

"It was a fight!" Hindenburg from the Deep Sea cheerfully explained for Little White, grinning broadly as she laughed heartily at Barbarossa, "They were willing to fight me! Then we went all out, and then, I lost! Hahahaha!"

"..." Barbarossa remained silent and looked at Little White.

"That's about it." Xiaobai pursed her lips and explained to Barbarossa, "When you fight... fists and feet don't discriminate, so some injuries are inevitable... but don't worry, Deep Sea Hindenburg is definitely not in any danger!"

After listening to Little White's words, Barbarossa thought for a while, walked up to Deep Sea Hindenburg, and raised her hand to wipe the oil stains off Deep Sea Hindenburg's face.

Seeing the fair skin return to Hindenburg's dark face, Barbarossa finally put his hand down.

"...Are you happy?" Barbarossa asked Hindenburg in a low voice.

“Happy! Ah…not happy either…” Hindenburg nodded first, then seemed to remember something and lowered his head dejectedly.

"how?"

"The Admiral promised me, I promised Super-Big and her I'd play with her, but I lost, so she can't play with me anymore," Deepsea Hindenburg said dejectedly, but then snuggled even closer to Little White, her face beaming with joy. "But she said she can keep telling me stories!"

"..." Barbarossa nodded, looking at Little White, the coldness in her eyes mostly dissipating.

“Miss Barbarossa, your relationship with Deepsea Hindenburg... seems quite good?” Little White asked Barbarossa.

“Normal,” Barbarossa said calmly, pointing to the Deep Sea Hindenburg. “I will tell Frederick about what happened to her today.”

"Hmm..." Xiaobai nodded.

Xiao Bai herself is completely aboveboard, so she's not afraid that this matter will reach Frederick the Great's ears.

Seeing that Xiaobai had no complaints, Barbarossa's attitude softened somewhat.

Barbarossa silently poked Deepsea Hindenburg's forehead with her finger, causing Deepsea Hindenburg to close its eyes and shrink its head. Then she spoke to Little White, saying quite calmly, "Take her to my house for a visit."

"Huh? Is that okay?"

"Hmm." Barbarossa turned around and walked slowly in one direction. "I'll lead the way."

Xiaobai and Chaoda exchanged a glance, both seeing the surprise in each other's eyes.

In this city, Barbarossa is, in a sense, Frederick the Great's messenger. Therefore, Xiaobai and Chaoda previously thought that this character was almost certainly unattainable. Even if they recruited all the Deep Sea Deans in the city and poached every possible ally from Frederick the Great's inner circle, Barbarossa would remain as a permanent NPC by Frederick the Great's side, preventing him from becoming a lone commander and preserving his dignity.

Xiaobai really thinks so.

The conversation between Shiro and Barbarossa after Shiro left Kamikaze's house last time made her fully realize this point.

So, Xiaobai doesn't actually expect anything to happen between him and Barbarossa.

but……

Now Barbarossa is actually inviting me to her house?

Huh?

Could it be that……

Barbarossa is not an unromanceable character, but a hidden one. The key to her romance lies with Hindenburg in the Deep Sea.

Did you unlock a hidden side quest yourself?

Xiao Bai pondered for a moment, then looked up at the Deep Sea Hindenburg beside him.

Hindenburg of the Deep Sea is grinning, giving himself an expectant and innocent smile, his teeth white as snow.

"……"noob.

Suddenly, for a fleeting moment...

Xiao Bai found Hindenburg's smile unexpectedly adorable.

Chapter 2024 Square Two

Barbarossa's territory borders the Deep Sea Hindenburg and is not far from where Little White is now. Barbarossa led Little White and the other two into her territory in silence until they stopped in front of a small three-story building.

"We've arrived." Barbarossa gave a soft murmur to the crowd, then walked to the door on the first floor and gently pushed it open.

Barbarossa chose a place similar in size to Kamikaze's, but Kamikaze didn't seem to have the habit of decorating his place. Shiro looked into the house from the door and found that the interior was similar to other dilapidated buildings. Although the interior was clean, the cracks on the walls were real and there was no trace of artificial repair.

"Come in." Barbarossa called to Little White from the doorway, then stepped inside.

"Welcome to visit!" Deep Sea Hindenburg jumped up and down excitedly, ignoring his injuries.

"Deep Sea Hindenburg, did you often visit Barbarossa's house before?" Little White asked curiously, hearing Deep Sea Hindenburg's excited voice.

"Yes! Many times!"

"Sigh...it seems Miss Barbarossa and you have a pretty good relationship." Xiaobai sighed.

The relationships between the Deans of the Deep Sea are generally cold and semi-hostile on the high seas. Even if they have no grudges or hatred towards each other, they usually never see each other again. Under such conditions of the race's environment, it is no exaggeration to say that the Deep Sea Hindenburg and Barbarossa can still visit each other's homes from time to time.

“Really?” Deep Sea Hindenburg herself didn’t react much. After hearing Little White’s words, she shook her panda face, which was covered in black and white. “...Well...but Barbarossa doesn’t like me coming to her house.”

"Ah? Is there still such a thing?"

“I always break her things.”

“……那你成天去她家搞破坏她都不揍你，你们俩简直是真爱了。”小白对着深海兴登堡苦笑了一声。

“True love? True love!” Deep Sea Hindenburg murmured, her eyes lighting up. She clearly didn’t understand Xiaobai’s words, but she loved the phrase. “We are true love! True… cough cough…”

Hindenburg, unable to catch his breath, bent over and coughed.

"Alright, alright, true love, Deepsea Hindenburg, you're still injured... Don't speak so loudly, let's go inside first." White patted Deepsea Hindenburg's back, and together with Super Yamato, helped Deepsea Hindenburg into Barbarossa's hut.

The cottage in Barbarossa is very spacious with almost no furniture.

"Put her here." Barbarossa took out a straw mat from somewhere in her ship's equipment space and spread it on the floor.

After Xiaobai and Chaoda placed the Deepsea Hindenburg on the mat, Barbarossa stepped forward and expressionlessly pulled out several quick repair devices from the ship's equipment space.

"Huh? Miss Barbarossa, what are these...?" Xiaobai was somewhat surprised when he saw the rapid repair device in Barbarossa's hand.

"Friedrich gave it to me before," Barbarossa said casually, then handed the rapid repair device to Little White, "How do I use this?"

"Uh... just peel off the sticker and put it on your head." Xiaobai pointed to the quick-repair device in Barbarossa's hand and said, then asked curiously, "Miss Barbarossa, are you going to use your quick-repair device to treat Hindenburg's injuries?"

"Ah."

“Um… actually, Hindenburg is out of danger. If we let her recover on her own, she can slowly recover her health. Miss Barbarossa, the effectiveness of these rapid repair devices you have is limited. Even if you use them all, it won't be able to directly heal Hindenburg's injuries. Why don't you keep them for yourself just in case…” Xiaobai advised Barbarossa.

“I don’t need it.” Barbarossa shook her head calmly. Following the method that Little White had just taught her, she peeled off the stickers of the quick repair device one by one and put them on Deep Sea Hindenburg’s head.

The rapid repair device emitted a faint glow on Deepsea Hindenburg's forehead, and Deepsea Hindenburg's injuries were slowly healing at a visible speed. However, just a few seconds into the healing process, there was a snap, and the rapid repair devices attached to Deepsea Hindenburg's head broke in two and fell to the ground, stopping the treatment.

"How is it?" Barbarossa asked Hindenburg of the Deep Sea.

"So comfortable!" Hindenburg, sitting on the mat, tentatively beckoned with his hand, then grinned at Barbarossa with a satisfied grin. "My body feels so much lighter now!"

"What about the ship's equipment capabilities?"

"Hmm...not yet, I can't feel the ship's equipment at all." Hindenburg shook his head, stretching nonchalantly. "But my body doesn't hurt anymore!"

Barbarossa silently picked up the quick-repair device from the ground.

"What you brought is amazing," Barbarossa said to Little White, holding the fragments of the rapid repair device.

"It's alright, it's alright..." Xiaobai scratched his head and then said to Barbarossa, "The injuries on the Deep Sea Hindenburg's body have almost healed, but the damage to her ship equipment is very serious. To put it more vividly, the Deep Sea Hindenburg is currently in a state of complete loss of power and needs a period of self-recovery... So she probably can't be used as a fighting force in the city for a while."

"Yes." Barbarossa nodded.

"Um... Miss Barbarossa, I'm so sorry..." Little White apologized to Barbarossa.

“No need to apologize.” Barbarossa shook her head, stood up with the shards in her hands, and said to Little White, “I’m going to throw out the trash. You stay here and tell her stories.”

"Huh? Oh...oh, okay..." Xiaobai nodded.

"Wow! Tell a story! Yay!" Deepsea Hindenburg excitedly waved his arms on the mat. "Tell a story! Tell a story! I want to hear the sequel to last time!"

"Okay, where were we last time?"

"A crooked smile!"

"Hmm... picking up where we left off... facing these deep-sea creatures who had humiliated him for three years, and who finally learned his identity today, kneeling and trembling on the sea surface, the Deep Sea Yamato, having regained his identity, curled his lips into a wicked smile..."

Xiao Bai began to tell Hindenburg about it.

Barbarossa wasn't really into stories about pretentious dragon kings. She listened to Xiaobai tell the story for a short while, then quietly got up, carrying her hands full of fragments of the quick repair device, and went into a cubicle in the building. After a while, Barbarossa came out, the fragments of the quick repair device gone, replaced by a small blue iron box.

Barbarossa silently walked to the floor, some distance away from Little White and Deep Sea Hindenburg.

As Little White told Hindenburg a story, his gaze was also drawn to the small square box in Barbarossa's hand, and he became curious.

Barbarossa opened the small box, took out a stack of cards, and began to look at and play with them one by one.

—It turns out this is a card box.

Xiao Bai suddenly realized.

Barbarossa played by herself, fiddling with the cards in her hand, seemingly absorbed in her own world, as if Little White and Deepsea Hindenburg didn't exist in her home.

Sleep is always the best way to recover, and even the Dean of the Deep Sea is no exception. Even though the Deep Sea Hindenburg is still full of energy, as long as the ship equipment in her body has not fully recovered, her body will still be very prone to fatigue and exhaustion.

Relying on his experience with movies, TV shows, and novels accumulated in human society, Xiaobai told Deepsea Hindenburg a story for over an hour straight. Although Xiaobai's stories were still full of twists and turns and very interesting, the long-term, extensive reading of text inevitably put some strain on his mind. Finally, Xiaobai made Deepsea Hindenburg drowsy. Deepsea Hindenburg forced himself to stay awake, blinked a few times, and then couldn't help but lie down on the mat. He kept his head bobbing like a chicken pecking at rice for a little while before falling into a deep sleep.

"Phew. Just barely missed a chapter again." Xiaobai nodded in satisfaction, quite pleased with the progress of her storytelling.

Xiaobai turned to look at Barbarossa, stood up and walked to Barbarossa's side, smiling as she said, "Miss Barbarossa."

Barbarossa, who was engrossed in her own world, paused. She glanced back at Little White, then looked at Hindenburg in the deep sea.

“She just finished listening to the story and fell asleep contentedly,” Little White explained to Barbarossa.

“…Thank you for your hard work.” Barbarossa glanced silently at Hindenburg in the Deep Sea and nodded to Little White.

"It's alright, I'm quite happy to have such a loyal listener," Xiaobai replied with a smile, then continued, "More importantly, Miss Barbarossa, are those playing cards in your hand?"

"……card?"

"It's a card printed with various patterns."

"...That should be it."

"Can I take a look?" Xiaobai asked.

Barbarossa stared at Little White in silence for a while.

Barbarossa first glanced at the cards in his hand, then at Hindenburg, who was sleeping sprawled out not far away. He seemed to have made a decision for a while before silently handing the card box to Little White.

"Thank you." Xiaobai took the card box from Barbarossa, picked up a card from the box, and glanced at it.

The card is made of a material similar to plastic. The background of the card is almost pure white. There are two square equilateral rhombuses printed in the center of the front. There are also two inverted symbols printed on the two opposite corners of the card. The colors of the symbols are quite bright. They are not any fonts that Xiaobai has ever seen before, but the strokes are quite simple. Based on preliminary observation, they should be symbols used for counting.

Xiao Bai stared at the cards for a while, then couldn't help but be surprised.

This card... looks familiar to Xiaobai.

Not only did Xiaobai look familiar, but Xiaobai's mother and father also looked familiar, and Xiaobai's aunts and uncles who gathered together every year during the Spring Festival looked even more familiar.

And it's the kind that's as well-cooked as can be.

"what?"

"This is... the two of diamonds?"

Chapter 2025 The Ever-Victorious Novice

"Two of Diamonds?" Barbarossa heard Little White's words, looked up and muttered along with Little White, "What's that?"

"Uh... the two of diamonds is... what's on the card." Xiaobai said, holding up the card he had picked up, and thoughtfully rummaged through the card box.

really.

In Barbarossa's card box, besides the two of diamonds, there were also the two of spades, the two of hearts, the two of clubs... Although the styles were different from what Xiaobai had seen in human society, the general style was not much different from playing cards.

"Miss Barbarossa, where did you find this playing card?" Little White asked Barbarossa with a strange look on his face.

“…Found it in the city,” Barbarossa replied, his gaze fixed on Little White’s face. “…Do you recognize this?”

"Uh...we call this playing cards."

"Poker cards?"

"Hmm...a lot of people play this." Little White held the cards, turning them over and over, muttering to himself. Then he sighed and handed the card box back to Barbarossa.

Judging from this design, playing cards in human society... most likely originated from ancient humans.

"Miss Barbarossa, how do you usually play this card game?" Xiaobai asked Barbarossa.

“Look,” Barbarossa said.