I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

A strange scream suddenly came from the side, and Kinoshita Mai's body trembled violently from fright.

Startled by the noise, she quickly turned her head in surprise, following the sound—

Kinoshita Mai: (Д)

Ju Qingden: (°ー°〃)

The two, displaying drastically different expressions, stared at each other in the deathly silence...

……

……

How much time has passed?

10 seconds? 20 seconds? Feeling extremely embarrassed, Qingdeng even lost his sense of time.

Kinoshita Mai seemed to have lost consciousness, her red lips slightly parted, staring blankly at Aoto.

Looking at Kinoshita Mai, whose soul seemed to have left her body, Aoto felt a deep understanding.

Put yourself in his shoes—if someone saw him making a strange face while meowing at a stray cat on the street…

Yes, the body may not die, but the heart can.

After a long time, Kinoshita Mai finally seemed to come back to life, her eyes slowly opening wide.

Then... a crimson color, like fresh blood, spread rapidly from the child's cheeks to her ears.

Faintly, Qingdeng could almost see wisps of white "steam," like something being cooked, rising from the top of the child's head...

The girl, now transformed into a "Steam Princess," moved her lips and fidgeted nervously.

She opened her mouth towards Qingdeng, as if she wanted to say something to him.

But as soon as her red lips parted, a look of fear and timidity appeared between her brows, and she hesitated to utter a single word to Qingdeng.

Seeing Kinoshita Mai's shy, timid, and hesitant demeanor, Aoto awkwardly scratched his temples before slowly walking towards the "Steam Princess."

"Um... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hide and peek... I just happened to be passing by..."

To ease Kinoshita Mai's nervousness and shyness, Aoto tried to use a gentle tone of voice.

Kinoshita Mai raised her gaze, glanced at Aoto who had walked up to her, and then, as if she dared not look at Aoto, quickly lowered her head as if she wanted to bury it in her chest.

"...I...remember you..."

Hearing that Kinoshita Mai seemed to be speaking, Aoto quickly focused all his attention.

Kinoshita Mai's voice was as soft as a mosquito's buzz when they first met the other day. Even though she was standing right in front of her, it was difficult to hear what she was saying unless one was paying close attention.

"You are... the customer who came to our store the other day, right...?"

“Yes.” Qing Deng nodded quickly. “I just visited your Senjiya the day before yesterday and received help from Mr. Kiryu.”

Kinoshita Mai tilted her head slightly upwards.

Qingdeng felt a tense and embarrassed gaze.

"You...did you see the whole thing...that I was playing with that cat...?"

—You call what you just did playing with the cat? That cat completely ignored you; it was just you harassing that big orange cat.

Aoto took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to retort, and while pondering how to politely answer Kinoshita Mai's question, he stammered:

"Well... I didn't actually see much. I only saw you beckoning to that big orange cat and making it come over."

If you were to tell this child that you witnessed the entire process of how she "talked" to that big orange dog... Qingdeng felt that the child's reaction might be more than just "steaming"...

Therefore, Qing Deng decided to tell a white lie.

However—even though Qing Deng had lied to appease the "Steam Princess," the girl still lowered her head even further out of shyness…

At that moment, an even denser cloud of "steam" began to rise from above Kinoshita Mai's head...

Mai Kinoshita is only 1.5 meters tall.

Qingdeng is a full 1.75 meters tall.

Because of the height difference between the two, after Kinoshita Mai buried her head so low that her chin was almost touching Kinoshita Mai's collarbone, Aoto, who was standing in front of her, could only see her hair and not her face.

However, although he couldn't see Kinoshita Mai's face, Aoto could see her two small ears.

Just now, Kinoshita Mai's earlobes were only red, but now, her entire ear has turned a beautiful pink.

Even the ears are so red... Qingdeng can hardly imagine what color the child's face has turned now.

Aoto felt that if he didn't say or do something quickly, Kinoshita Mai's cheeks might get even hotter...

"...Don't worry." Qing Deng breathed a sigh of relief. "I won't tell anyone what I just saw."

Qing Deng has never been a big mouth.

Revealing other people's secrets to the public—this is something Qing Deng dislikes and will never do.

Moreover, even if he wanted to tell someone about Kinoshita Mai's silly behavior just now, he had no one to talk to, since he and Kinoshita Mai didn't have any friends in common.

Kinoshita Mai did not react to Aoto's words.

She just kept blushing and hanging her head.

Qing Deng wondered if Kinoshita Mai hadn't heard what he had just said, and was about to repeat himself when—

"……Thanks……"

A soft voice, so faint it seemed it might disappear at any moment, drifted gently into Qingdeng's ears.

Kinoshita Mai, who had been pressing her chin tightly against her collarbone, finally slowly raised her head.

Kinoshita Mai's cheeks were still so red that it seemed as if blood might seep out at any moment.

Her lips remained tightly pressed together.

However, there was a slight, shy curve at the corner of her mouth.

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Chapter 42 Kinoshita Mai's Friends

After promising Kinoshita Mai that she would never tell anyone about her embarrassing behavior, the child's appearance finally began to return to normal.

The blush on her cheeks faded slightly.

There was no longer any "steam" coming out of their heads.

Since Aoto and Kinoshita Mai happened to be going the same way and both wanted to leave this path, the two naturally walked side by side.

The atmosphere between the two was...uncomfortable beyond anything seen before.

Still reeling from the "meow meow meow" incident, and having only met Qing Deng once, Kinoshita Mai clutched the large cloth bag in her arms, its contents unknown. Her shoulders were hunched, her head drooped, her lips were tightly pressed together, and her cheeks were still flushed, her nervousness and embarrassment clearly visible.

Kinoshita Mai remained silent, and Aoto didn't know what to say to her either.

Qingdeng is terrible at interacting with girls.

In my previous life, due to various reasons such as my upbringing and personality, I didn't even have a single female friend, let alone a girlfriend.

My experience with women is practically nonexistent.

However, although he has no female friends, he has a lot of male friends whose arms and waists are all incredibly thick and whose biceps are all incredibly large.

Because he had never made any female friends or had any sisters or other relatives, Qing Deng was extremely bad at getting along with women.

I had absolutely no idea what to talk to them about, or what they liked to talk about.

Furthermore, Hara Tachibana Aoto's memories contained absolutely no knowledge or recollection of anything related to "topics that girls of this era liked to talk about"...

If they just kept talking to this child, the atmosphere would be so awkward it would be suffocating... Not wanting the atmosphere to stay awkward like this, Qing Deng glanced at Kinoshita Mai out of the corner of his eye while racking his brains for a suitable topic.

I glanced at Kinoshita Mai out of the corner of my eye for a while, but the topic didn't come up and my thoughts drifted elsewhere.

—Upon closer inspection…this girl is indeed very cute…

I was in a rush at the Senjiya the day before yesterday, so I didn't have time to take a good look at the girl's appearance.

Only after a closer look did I realize that the child's appearance was indeed outstanding.

Her smooth black hair was styled into the most popular hairstyle for women of this era: the Shimada bun.

She was wearing a kimono with bright red as the main color and white as the embellishment. For no reason, I always felt that this kind of red clothing suited her very well.

Eyebrows, nose, mouth, eyes... all the lines on her face were so beautiful and delicate.

However, compared to her cute face, her skin and breasts are obviously more eye-catching.

She had perfectly fair and soft skin, so fair that it seemed as if even if you threw a rough piece of sandpaper at her face, it would slide off her smooth skin.

She was so young, at most 15 or 6 years old, but her development was surprisingly good.

Kimono is a type of clothing that can make D look like C, C look like B, B look like A, and A look like a cross-dresser.

Despite wearing clothes that made the child appear too small, the chest area still looked quite full.

Kinoshita Mai has slender arms and legs; if you didn't see it with your own eyes, it would be hard to imagine that someone with such a delicate figure could have such a magnificent chest.

As Qing Deng was still silently admiring and praising Kinoshita Mai's beauty, suddenly—he heard Kinoshita Mai's unique, soft voice, like the hum of a mosquito, coming from beside him again.

The first to break the suffocating silence was surprisingly the shy Kinoshita Mai:

"Um... I'm sorry... You've been to our store before, but I don't know your name..."

Ah...right...the day before yesterday at the Thousand Things Shop, I think I only introduced myself to Mr. Kiryu...

After silently cursing himself for being careless, Qingdeng cleared his throat:

"Sorry, I think I've been forgetting to tell you my name."

"My name is Tachibana Aoto, and I am currently serving as a public servant in Hokuban-sho-sada-cho."

"Ju Qingdeng?"