Although it is a bit shabby, this heroic spirit is super strong

"Harem?"

Looking at Celeste's pure and beautiful eyes, a sense of guilt surged into Xiao's heart.

"I just said that I wanted to take Celeste as my follower and heroic spirit, right? And what on earth were you thinking, teaching such a pure child those things?"

"I'm going to be corrupted by you, Brother Xiao, anyway."

Rose gave a playful smile.

"It seems you don't intend to reflect on your actions."

"If you want to punish me, punish Rose. Why should I do the same..."

Lucy complained, standing in front of a group of termites that were about to attack Rose and Crystal.

"I've already told you all, you're a team. You share life and death, so of course you should be punished together. After all, your teammates' lives are tied to your own on the battlefield."

Xiao said this shamelessly while eating the potato chips that Sera handed to him.

"Don't you hate preaching?"

Crystal threw another grenade and complained to Akatsuki.

When she realized that it was the last grenade she had, she shouted desperately to Lucy and Rose.

"I just hate others preaching to me. Have I ever said I hate preaching to myself?"

"You are such a person."

Lucy was speechless at Xiao's words.

"After all, I am a despicable person."

"Tsk, you actually use this as a shield at a time like this."

"Brother Xiao, Sister Crystal and I are out of ammunition and mental strength, and our magic recovery potions are all gone. Can we call it a day?"

Rose accidentally screamed because of the sneak attack and almost collapsed to the ground.

"Alas, there's really nothing I can do about you."

Seeing that they were indeed at their limit, Xiao used magic to pull them to the platform.

"Xiao, you bastard actually made us fight bugs all day long."

Crystal collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath.

"After all, I'm a man of my word. Also, you don't have the energy to disturb my sleep tonight, do you?"

Xiao couldn't help but yawn when he said this. He hadn't had a good rest for several days.

"But isn't Brother Xiao supposed to be on guard tonight? You can't let us..."

"Ah. Tsk!"

"Brother Xiao, are you talking about the night raid by Sister Rose and the others when I disturbed your sleep?"

Celeste ate potato chips in small bites and said something that seemed a little inconsistent with her cute actions.

"Eh? Where did you learn that from, Celeste?"

"Ok?"

Looking at the cute and silly appearance of the silver-haired girl, a strange thought popped up in Xiao's mind.

[Will this child develop in the same way as her sister? ]

Although Xiao knew that the owner of the tombstone, Evelyn, was Celeste's sister, this idea made him feel very confused.

"Brother Xiao, are you okay?"

Rose, noticing something strange about Akatsuki, asked uneasily.

"It's nothing. You should worry about yourself more than me."

Xiao tapped Rose's head.

Chapter 62: Failed Strategy

"Ouch! Shouldn't you give me a kiss or something as a reward at a time like this?"

"No."

[It's a bit exaggerated for a girl who appears cold on the outside but warm on the inside to take the initiative.]

Xiao recalled the Rose who was still a little afraid of him at that time, and couldn't help but sigh.

“Why are there so many bugs here?”

Watching Xiao bandaging her wound, Crystal felt very strange.

They have been in the pure white maze for three days, and basically all they have encountered are insect-type monsters.

According to the ecological structure of the Pure White Maze that she had previously researched, the number of insect monsters should not be that many.

Today's termites are also very strange.

It's as if something is constantly producing them.

"I don't know either. I can only explore deeper."

"Ah. Do we have to keep clearing out monsters like this? I feel like I'll never reach the depths."

Lucy let out a small cry from the sting of the disinfectant.

"Don't worry, I won't deliberately provoke these insects tomorrow. It should be a lot easier."

"Clam?!"

"Okay, it's your turn, Rose."

"U-Um, could you please be a little gentler, Xiao-nii? I'm afraid of pain."

Rose put on a pitiful look and pleaded with tears in her eyes.

"No, how can we not give the mastermind some special rewards?"

Xiao gave a wicked smile and took out the disinfectant specially prepared for Rose.

"Oh! I was wrong. Oops!"

*

"Huh, today is finally over."

Crystal lay exhausted in the tent and spoke to Lucy and Rose beside her.

"Well, the only consolation is having dinner made by Brother Xiao himself."

"That guy, his cooking is so delicious, why doesn't he take charge of the meals?"

Lucy was very dissatisfied because Xiao usually left the task of cooking to others.

"Ah, that guy must be too much trouble."

"Indeed, that sounds a lot like what Xiao-nii-san was thinking."

"Have you ever been trained like this by Akatsuki before?"

Crystal was a little curious, as it didn't seem like this was the first time the two of them had experienced something so unreasonable.

"Well, the first time I was thrown into a cave full of orcs. My sister and I had to kill all the monsters in there before we could get out."

"He also said something like, even if she was raped by those Orcs, he wouldn't help her. That bastard."

Lucy was very annoyed when she thought of Xiao's expression at that time.

"That guy..."

"But Brother Xiao actually gave us a lot of help in secret. Otherwise, my sister and I would never have been able to complete Brother Xiao's mission at that time."

Rose recalled some things that happened at that time and smiled helplessly.

"That guy did something so outrageous... I thought he was just an overprotective type."

"Brother Xiao, in a sense, you are also an overprotective guy."

Rose smiled bitterly.

"Hey, Lucy, why...ah, she's already asleep."

Crystal looked at Lucy's steady breathing beside her and smiled slightly.

"Sister is still the same...but I think I'm feeling a little dizzy too."

Rose felt a little strange, as it was obvious that they were too tired to fall asleep.

"Well, anyway, there's Akatsuki to keep watch. Otherwise, just rest like this."

"Hmm, I feel like tomorrow will be very hard too..."

*

"Hey, you guys..."

Outside the tent, Xiao sighed as she looked at the spices she had just thrown into the campfire.

Because he was worried that several people would stay in bed tomorrow, he used some sleeping pills that he didn't usually use.

"Brother Xiao, woo, hug me..."

Celeste rubbed his eyes and came out of his tent in a daze.

"Celestia, can't you sleep?"

"If Xiao-nii holds me, Sera will sleep well, woo~woo."

As she said that, she snuggled into Xiao's arms.

"Alas, this girl is also..."

Xiao helplessly covered Celeste with the blanket beside him.

Watching Celeste rubbing against him dazedly, Xiao felt that he inexplicably missed this feeling.

"Okay, what if Crystal and the others see me like this? How am I going to explain it?"

Xiao smiled bitterly and opened the system panel.

Through these large numbers of insect-like monsters, he also gained an extremely large amount of experience points.

"How should we distribute it to them now?"

It was like playing a strange development game, and Xiao was a little confused.

"Do we still need to go to Earl Wyatt's territory after this?"

Akatsuki originally wanted to explore the dungeons in the Earl's territory, and the new Ouroboros area was to gain experience points to strengthen Lucy and the others.

The organization called the Teno Holy Grail Knights that they encountered in the imperial capital made Akatsuki feel a little uneasy.

Even though he might not have anything to do with them in the future, Xiao still wanted to make some preparations to prevent any problems.

Another reason was that Xiao wanted to try to see if he could summon the dragon girl named Yuwen Jielin through the system interface.

Now Xiao has gained the expected experience points, but he can't think of where to go next except to Earl Wyatt.

"Well, let's ask them later if there's anywhere they want to go."

*

"Xiao, didn't you say today would be a little easier, you bastard?!"

After receiving Xiao's instructions, Crystal waved his staff with some difficulty, preparing to use large-scale magic to wipe out the monsters in front of him.

But the result was very regrettable.

Even though a large number of insect-like monsters were reduced to ashes by the flames, more monsters soon appeared from nowhere to fill their places.

"Even if you say so, I didn't expect this situation."

Akatsuki swung his sword, slashing at the insects that were approaching Crystal and Rose.

Celeste on the side also joined the battle.

Perhaps it was a racial talent, but she seemed very adaptable to combat.