Chapter 688: Chapter 688 A Gift
The room erupted in clanging and banging, with five consecutive sounds of heavy collisions before it finally quieted down.
I felt the rcury Lamp in my embrace make a small arch with its soft little body, straining to poke her tiny head out from underneath, “Stupid human! What’s with the sudden hug?”
Her voice was filled with seven parts anger and three parts happiness; it seed my subconscious action had indeed successfully garnered a considerable amount of favor. Had it been before when I hugged her without permission, this little lass would’ve already struck with her steel teeth through my carotid artery.
“Hiss—you guys really go for it, huh,” I said a bit awkwardly, loosening my arms from under the soft little body. As I lifted my hand, I imdiately felt a sharp pain in my back. Although not injured, the corners of the Rose Maidens’ boxes were truly hard enough; if it were an average person receiving such blows, they’d probably be in their final monts of care by now, “Especially you, Cui Xingshi! Who aims for the tailbone with their boxes?! Don’t pretend to be dumb, I’ve long since labeled your boxes!”
“Anyway, rcury Lamp said you can’t be smashed to death!”
The doll girl with the red and green heterochromia eyes abandoned her disguise and stated confidently after pushing away her box.
The instigator imdiately burrowed under the covers, “I’m sleeping!”
I suddenly felt that I might have been too strict with my training. Just look at the usual chairwoman now; how has she turned into such a troubleso little mischief-maker?
Waving off the bunch of doll girls causing trouble in the middle of the night and setting their boxes, doubling as charging docks, neatly against the wall, I looked around at the small circle of heads seriously. rcury Lamp was still burrowed in my bedding, only her upper face peering out arrogantly at .
“Spit it out. What’s the matter? Middle of the night and none of you girls are asleep, even Zhenhong is joining in the excitent. There must be sothing up, right?”
Sure enough, as my words ended, the circle of small heads turned away or hung their heads low in an embarrassed manner, with rcury Lamp tunneling further under the covers to indicate she was already asleep.
“Cough cough, actually… it’s sothing concerning Sister rcury Lamp, but she’s too embarrassed to say it.”
After a long while, with everyone remaining silent, Cui Xingshi, the only conscientiously good one among the Rose Maidens, finally decided to speak out. The troubled doll girl glanced at the large lump under the blankets, “She has sothing for you.”
“Hm?” I blinked in confusion, reaching out to pull rcury Lamp from under the covers, when suddenly there was a “snap” next to our ears. I continued unaffected, dragging her out by the hand she was biting—this technique was definitely learned from Dingdang!
Seeing the usually mature, even queenly, rcury Lamp so out of character unabashedly acting impulsively tonight, I finally caught a clue: Little Light seed exceptionally lively tonight, and her mood was incredibly buoyant. Leading her sisters in mischief wasn’t enough, she was even unusually trying to act cutesy with (though her approach was quite unique)—this was definitely not her typical brash persona. Based on our past interactions, there could only be one reason for rcury Lamp’s abnormal behavior: She was extrely nervous and excited, resulting in a bit of uncontrolled behavior.
Right, yet another victory for the nanny daddy.
“You got sothing for , kiddo?”
I gently shook her, watching rcury Lamp sway back and forth in the air with the movent. Amidst the stunned expressions of the other Rose Maidens watching their domineering sister act cute, I asked with a chuckle.
This girl, she no longer seed even aware of what she was doing. With the training… cough, education progressing, had she beco more and more childlike?
“Snort!” the doll girl finally realized she couldn’t speak like this and let go of my hand, then turned her head away ostentatiously, “Hmph, just found sothing interesting while shopping and bought it… to broaden your horizons! You’re always buying gifts, today we’re even!”
Alright then, she’s switched to tsundere mode. rcury Lamp, how exactly are you planning to… hold on a sec?! A gift?!
The internal exclamation had only reached halfway before I fully grasped the aning of rcury Lamp’s words. So this stand-offish doll was actually giving a gift today?
The realization hit , plunging into profound shock, before I reached out and pinched Cui Xingshi’s chubby cheeks, twisting firmly.
“Ow! That hurts!” the little doll imdiately cried out.
“Alright, I’m not dreaming, are you actually giving a gift, young lady?” With an expression of pleasant surprise, I ignored Cui Xingshi’s punches and kicks, which weren’t much different from a massage. While holding on to rcury Lamp’s arm, I lifted her up to my eyes like one would a child, feeling nothing but surprise and joy—Ah, daughters do grow up and beco sensible.
“Put down! Put down! You big dummy! Idiot! Moron!”
The silver-haired Gothic girl, who always fiercely resisted being lifted up, imdiately started to twist and shout her protests. Her half-missing little tiger teeth glead coldly in the moonlight, but to be honest, these protests posed no threat at all, aside from making soone think, “Wow, this girl is so cute.”
At that mont, Zhenhong and the others were dumbstruck. As a generation that had thrived under the shadow of rcury Lamp, when had these little dolls ever seen rcury Lamp reveal such a side of herself? Although they had already witnessed rcury Lamp’s drastic changes over the past few days, the truly unbelievable actions always seed to happen when she was with a certain Leader.
The father and daughter joyfully (or was it?) played around for a bit, and I finally put the doll girl down, eagerly looking into her purple-red eyes: “What’s the good thing, let have a look?”
rcury Lamp was clearly a bit embarrassed, but after the distraction of our tussle, the little one just glared at , hopped onto the ground with a thud, and started rummaging through her large box, which had recently been transford into a multi-functional mobile sea-view room by a bunch of “daddies and mommies”—it even had a newly installed space storage system.
“This is it! Accept it with twelve thousand fold gratitude and with all due respect!”
Lifting a square box wrapped in wrapping paper, the doll girl declared proudly.
Despite her tone being less than polite, I still accepted the package, filled with excitent and anticipation. The square box was wrapped in colorful cellophane, which was bright but adorned with a crooked ribbon knot that was clearly tied by a pair of clumsy little hands. The Rose Maiden’s hands were too small, making it not only difficult for her to write, but even wrapping packages seed to be a challenge.
I took great pains to untie the knot that rcury Lamp had tied without damaging the wrapping. Quietly, I looked inside the box to find… another box.
Okay, I get it, let’s repeat that heartfelt mont once more.
After struggling again to untie the slightly smaller box, I beca despondent at the sight of the third package.
Alright, to not disappoint those bright eyes watching , I kept at it.
The fourth box, infuriating beyond belief, ca into view.
“Hmph, keep unpacking, it’s at the very inside!” After I had unpacked who knows how many boxes, and rcury Lamp saw that I stopped what I was doing, she imdiately gave an unimpressed look and snorted coldly, “If I hadn’t wrapped it so many tis, it wouldn’t look nice since the thing is so small!”
I thought about it quietly and then decided to tell her the truth: “This is the last box, you see—it’s empty.”
rcury Lamp: “…”
“Young lady, actually… you forgot to put sothing inside.”
I looked up at the ceiling with tears in my eyes, wordlessly.
“Eh~?! Impossible! You must have made a mistake, you stupid oaf, you’ve broken it!”
Little Light was stunned for a mont, her face turning red as she suddenly burst out in a panic. Then she plopped down onto the bed and frantically started searching through the ss of wrapping paper and boxes, “No… no… still no! You dim-witted human! Where on earth did you hide it!”
Before I could explain, suddenly, Chu i’s voice piped up: “It’s in the box! You really did forget to put it in!”
Looking in the direction of the sound, indeed, Chu i had sohow made her way to rcury Lamp’s box and pulled out the specific little thing that should have been inside the package.
“Damn it! After mustering up so much courage… Stupid humans! Hurry up and lose your mory, I need to repackage this whole thing!”
Give a more reliable suggestion, you dummy!
I had never seen rcury Lamp so flustered before, and I suddenly felt a severe sense of being overwheld by cuteness, but now was definitely not the ti to be fixated on this subject: rcury Lamp was in danger, teasing her had to be done with care, and going too far with the Rose Maidens could trigger an arterial attack.
“Let’s see what this is.”
Despite the little doll’s desperate attempts to block since evening, I took the gift from the obedient Chu i, which was supposed to be wrapped up securely but had, in fact, been clumsily left out by its clumsy owner.
It turned out to be a small… compass?
I looked at the thing in my hand, about the size of a pocket watch, perplexed. This delicate copper gadget looked just like a compass, with a brass spring cover and a crystal case underneath. The cover was engraved with intricate patterns, forming several symbols that indicated it was an alchemical product. However, when I took a closer look at the needle under the crystal shell, I suddenly realized it was pointing toward the northwest…
After flipping it over a few tis, the accursed thing was still resolutely pointing northwest.
“Ha ha, you thought this was a compass?”
rcury Lamp’s smug laughter rang out. It seed she was utterly amused that I, the leader of a highly advanced civilization, had been fooled by a little alchemical trinket. Then the little thing ran two steps on the bed and ca to my other side, “Now look!”
I looked down, and the “compass” had changed direction, now pointing toward the northeast: the position of rcury Lamp.
rcury Lamp bounced around on the bed, and my odd alchemy compass in hand followed her every move, changing directions all over the place, until I had to stop the Rose Maiden, who had beco a little too enthusiastic, “Alright, alright! If you keep hopping like that, I’m going to be the one throwing up, not the needle!”
This was a historic mont. From now on, this marvelous little thing in my hand was officially nad “Point-You Needle,” applicable only to rcury Lamp.
“Where did you scavenge this from?”
I asked curiously, twirling the little gadget in my hand, the needle steadfastly pointing in rcury Lamp’s direction.
“An alchemist, he was setting up a stall at the night market,” rcury Lamp replied, climbing onto her designated seat on my arm, “He had bad luck written all over his face, but who knew he’d have such a good find?”
“What did he research this thing for?”
I casually asked while fiddling with the little gift from rcury Lamp.
“That alchemist claid to be a ‘Magic School’ inventor, specializing in using alchemy to create novel chanical devices. He invented this thing to find treasures, but there was a problem that always troubled the inventor: for the compass to work, you must first find the treasure and then ‘record’ the coordinates of it on the compass, and this record is a one-ti thing…”
I think I understand why that guy, despite being a highly educated individual, ended up so down on his luck that he had to set up street stalls in Shadow City.
“Actually, we bought a lot of things,” Cui Xingshi said spiritedly, running back to her box and starting to take things out, ready to turn tonight into a treasure appraisal fair. Soon, my bed was piled high with all sorts of peculiar alchemical gadgets thanks to the concerted effort of a group of Rose Maidens.
“A solar energy light that needs illumination to shine, an alarm clock that requires the user to press a button to make a sound, a water-saving laundry tub that can clean clothes without water—though it requires two liters of precious Magic Water to start, a magical ‘Satiety’ potion that makes you imdiately feel full after eating but as a side effect causes severe diarrhea and vomiting five minutes later, a magic accumulator that can charge ordinary glass to turn it into Magic Energy Crystals – at the sa ti consuming the energy of two Magic Energy Crystals, and the most intriguing of all, an alchemy platform that can print text. Here’s how it works: you place a blank sheet of paper on the left side of the platform, then you write with a one-kilogram Secret Silver Pen on the right side, and the platform will automatically transfer the text to the white paper on the left…”
Zhenhong introduced each of the odd and unique items on my bed without changing her expression.
“That alchemist is a talent.”
I nodded profusely, my brow damp with sweat.
“Indeed, a talent, it’s said that he used different nas to drain the treasuries of three kingdoms in a row, and it wasn’t until he started on the fourth that he was discovered. From that day, that alchemist was known as the Destructive Divine Artifact.”
Zhenhong said half, and then Golden Canary took up the tale, “But the alchemist wasn’t executed, he is now a strategic weapon. The king who captured this alchemist announced to the entire continent that if anyone dared invade his kingdom, he would send the ‘Deceiving Alchemist’ to their realm. It’s said the king also promised he wouldn’t use the alchemist first unless he was invaded…”
Well, to ss things up to this point, Naless Alchemist XXX classmate, you also count as a winner in life.
Under the moonlight, looking at this pile of inventions that could very well carry the tears and blood of entire kingdoms, I silently reflected for a long while. Such an oddity had the courage to live; why should I, rely shouldering the modest burden of saving the world, be frustrated here, right?
Just then, rcury Lamp tapped on the head. Successful in giving her gift, the little doll had regained her usual cool and haughty deanor, but when she spoke, there seed to be a hint of nervousness in her voice, “Hey, stupid human, you haven’t thanked yet!”
I imdiately understood: a certain tsundere chairman was looking for praise and evaluation.
“Thank you.”
With a very solemn tone, I took the “Treasure Finder” back into my Personal Space while carrying rcury Lamp from my shoulder to face her, and said earnestly.
“Ah! Stop being so serious all of a sudden, it’s so cheesy!”
“Cough cough, it’s rare for to be serious,” I coughed awkwardly, held the tiny doll-girl in front of my chest, and roughly ruffled her head, “I really like the gift, okay?”
“Tsundere, just a dummy who thinks soone is actually looking forward to his opinion!” rcury Lamp shook her head to avoid my big hand and said haughtily.
“Alright, alright, I’m the dummy, but can the non-dummy you explain why this Compass recorded your information?” I suddenly thought of sothing and asked casually: the Compass rcury Lamp gave had a one-ti function to record “Treasure Points,” but she used it to record her own information instead. What did that an? To never throw herself away?
“It was just a test when I bought it,” muttered rcury Lamp, turning her head away. Then she zipped into a corner and plunged into her portable seascape box, “I’m going to sleep! No rolling in bed! No annoying things, got it?”
“Yes, yes, yes—”
Like dealing with a mischievous daughter, I answered perfunctorily, only to receive a huff of reprimand: “Dummy! You only need to say ‘yes’ once!”
With a “bang,” the box was shut forcefully, leaving and a bunch of Rose Maidens staring at each other.
“You really are a strange fellow.”
After a long silence, Zhenhong left just that much of an evaluation.
“And kind of a pervert,” said Cui Xingshi, hand on hip, the other pointing at my nose, leaning in to add seriously, “But not a bad human.”
Being evaluated so bizarrely for no reason, I was sowhat confused, but fortunately, the remaining dolls were of the well-behaved sort. Cang Xingshi, Golden Canary, and Chu i bid good night properly and then took their treasures and returned to their boxes to sleep, leaving alone in the dark with a goofy smile on my face, quietly chuckling to myself.
The gift, rcury Lamp’s gift—although that silly girl used an even sillier thod to deal with her nervousness tonight, I had truly received her sentint.
In various senses, my… educational plan, a great success. (.)
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