“Cough-cough!”
Katy suddenly yanked her hand out of Gray’s palm and stepped back two steps, trying to cover her panic with the volume of her voice.
“Why is Mr. Gray appearing in my living room? By the way, it’s not good to break into a girl’s house casually, you know? You’ll be caught by the Sheriff as a pervert.”
Before Gray could explain, the bedroom door opened, and Mrs. Farley, who had taken Katy in, walked out with a smile.
“Oh, has the little girl finally returned?”
She glanced at Katy, then shifted her gaze to Gray on the sofa, a kind smile appearing on her face that said ‘the pig has finally come for her cabbage’:
“Katy, don’t blame this young man. He was guarding the door in the middle of the night. I saw him outside in the cold wind looking quite pitiful, so I let him in.”
The old lady pointed to the bright, clean living room and the yard:
“And this young man is truly a diligent worker. Not only did he fix the leaky roof, but he also mopped the floor and even pulled all the weeds in the yard. Such a good man is hard to find even with a Mana Lamp these days!”
Katy nodded somewhat awkwardly.
How could she not understand the hidden meaning in the old woman’s words?
But for now, she could only play dumb.
“Mr. Gray looks very tired. Was yesterday’s mission difficult?”
Looking at the bits of dust on the corner of his clothes, Katy tilted her head.
Her tone carried a few hints of genuine concern.
After all, this guy had stayed up all night just to wait for her.
Gray scratched his chin and turned his gaze away unnaturally:
“It was average. Not exactly difficult.”
The girl rolled her eyes in her heart.
That probably meant it was very hard.
In front of a girl, it’s ‘just slightly dirty clothes,’ but if it were in front of his brothers, he would probably change his face immediately and say, ‘I almost died doing that mission yesterday.’
“Speaking of which, Miss Katy, where did you go last night? Both I and Mrs. Farley were very worried about you.”
“I…”
Katy’s eyes drifted for a moment, then she puffed out her chest with righteous indignation:
“I went to the forest for special training! For the upcoming first mission of our Black Crow Squad, as the Captain, I naturally have to lead by example!”
This was a lie, but she couldn’t exactly say she went to spy on how his former teammates were throwing a wild party.
“Oh? Diligence is a good thing, but it’s not good if you get injured.”
Gray nodded, but then he felt he was worrying too much.
With this new Priest’s level of strength that could move mountains and transcend the world, the low-level Magic Monsters in the forest probably wouldn’t last a single punch against her.
How could she get hurt?
“Thank you for your concern, Mr. Gray, but Katy isn’t injured.”
“Young man, so your name is Gray? Stay for a meal, since you’re already here!”
The old lady enthusiastically pulled Gray to stay for breakfast, her mouth never stopping as she praised how well-behaved and cute Katy was.
Gray nodded in agreement from the side, and the two reached a high level of consensus on the matter that “Katy is indeed an Angel.”
Meanwhile, Katy, who was being praised by this old and young pair until her face flushed and her toes curled into the floor, finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“That… Granny Farley, we have urgent business so we’ll be going now! We’ll talk about the food when we get back!”
She grabbed Gray’s wrist and rushed out of the house like she was escaping, leaving the old lady’s loving gaze behind her.
“Miss Katy, where are we going?”
It wasn’t until they turned the corner that Katy realized she was still tightly holding Gray’s sleeve.
The warmth from his palm made her let go immediately as if she had been burned.
To hide her embarrassment, the girl cleared her throat and put on the majestic posture of a Captain:
“Ahem, as the Captain of the Black Crow Squad, I am now issuing the first order—buy uniforms!”
“Uniforms?”
Gray was stunned for a moment.
“That’s right! As a team destined to become the stars of tomorrow, the Black Crow Squad must have uniform and cool-looking outfits. That’s the only way to be eye-catching enough!”
Katy waved her small fists, her eyes sparkling with the light of making money.
“But…”
Gray hesitated slightly, “In the Labyrinth, practicality should be more important than being eye-catching, right? After all, no one can see us except for Magic Monsters.”
Katy tilted her head and looked at him with a look of pity:
“Mr. Gray, have you never watched ‘Dungeon Live-Streaming’?”
Gray shook his head honestly.
“…Fine.”
The girl sighed and facepalmed, then patiently explained to this Warrior who hadn’t kept up with the times what Dungeon Live-Streaming was.
“When I was signing the contract at the Association yesterday, I saw a clause like this: for teams registered properly now, the Association will provide one free Alchemy Streaming Drone—that’s the little round ball that follows people around while flying.”
“It can broadcast the images of us in the Labyrinth in real-time onto something called a ‘Mana-Screen’ for others to watch. Excellent teams can even use this to get sponsorships and even make money from advertisements!”
To be honest, when Katy first crossed over, she was also surprised that the technology tree of the humans in this world was skewed.
While most people were still using cold weapons to hack at monsters, the entertainment industry was unusually developed, even giving birth to Dungeon Live-Streaming.
In comparison, the entertainment activities of the Demon Race were either fighting to the death or throwing big rocks into lakes from high places to hear the splash.
It was so primitive it made one want to cry.
Looking at Gray’s dazed expression, Katy became even more certain that this guy probably hadn’t been to the Association hall much over the past year—the big screens there showed various team streams every day.
“Well, Miss Katy.”
Gray scratched his head, his expression a bit awkward:
“Now that you mention it, I remember. When I went to the Association hall half a year ago, Lily did seem to have given me a small robot, but I thought it was some kind of surveillance device or a useless toy…”
“And then?”
Katy had a bad premonition.
“And then… my financial situation was quite bad back then…”
Gray’s voice grew smaller and smaller, his eyes shifting:
“Because I was wiped out several times in The 13th Dungeon and lost all my equipment, I didn’t even have money to buy a blade… so I sold it to the black market for money.”
Katy swallowed hard and silently turned her head away, not pressing further.
The culprit who caused Gray to be so destitute that he had to sell his Dungeon Live-Streaming robot… was actually me!
To hide the guilt in her heart, the girl decided to quickly change the subject.
“Mr. Gray, your hand is shaking?”
She suddenly jogged in front of Gray, turned around with her hands behind her back, and added a hint of cunning to her smile:
“Could it be… because it’s your first time on a date with a girl, so you’re very nervous?”
At this moment, the two of them happened to walk into the central square of the Shopping District.
People were coming and going, and many couples were walking through the streets arm in arm.
Hearing the word “date,” Gray’s face turned red.
He subconsciously turned his head, avoiding the girl’s blue eyes that seemed to see through one’s heart, neither refuting nor admitting it.
“…Eh?”
The smirk on Katy’s face froze.
Denying it with a red face or pretending to be a big shot and boasting about being a pro at love were the results she had expected, but what did this silence mean?
No way, Gray, you thick-browed and big-eyed guy, you clearly look like a blockhead who only has the Labyrinth in his mind.
Have you actually been on a date with other girls before?!
Just then, above Gray’s head, a huge Mana-Screen suddenly lit up, and the stirring music attracted the attention of all the passersby—it was the broadcast of an A-rank squad currently conquering a floor.
“Ah! This is it! Miss Katy, look, this is the Dungeon Live-Streaming you were talking about…”
Gray felt like he had found a savior and quickly pointed at the screen, but the moment he saw the image clearly, he regretted it:
“—Wait, don’t look!”
“Don’t try to change the subject!”
Katy looked over in his direction huffily, and then her expression also froze.
In the center of the screen, a pink-haired girl with a brilliant smile was blowing a kiss to the camera, causing a burst of cheers in the square.
Katy was all too familiar with this face.
After all, she had just spied on this woman’s group exercise with a bunch of muscular men last night.
Katy withdrew her gaze and stared dead at Gray’s face.
The young man was currently looking at the screen with a complex expression.
Facing the Gray who had betrayed her expectations, she narrowed her eyes, her tone becoming dangerous:
“…So she’s an ex-girlfriend, Mr. Gray?”
“No! Of course not!”
Gray quickly waved his hands in defense:
“It’s really just that the screen suddenly lit up and I instinctively looked! She and I were just former teammates. There’s absolutely nothing else between us!”
“Then…”
Katy stepped closer, looking up, her blue eyes shimmering with a scrutinizing light:
“Have you also never been on a date with big sister Lobelia?”
Gray opened his mouth.
He really wanted to say “No” outright, but the images in his memory of being forcibly dragged to go shopping by Lobelia and attending banquets on behalf of the Sword of Dawn Squad left him speechless for a moment.
Did that count as a date?
In the eyes of the promiscuous Lobelia, it might have just been a pastime, but to the pure Miss Katy…
The silence was deafening.
“Haaa—?!”
The little person inside Katy’s heart was fuming.
Don’t be silent at a critical time like this, you bastard 😡! Give me a proper denial!
This guy’s first time on a date with a girl wasn’t with me? Are you kidding me!
I haven’t even been on a date with a beautiful girl in my combined two lives, so what right do you, a mere small-fry Warrior, have to be more of a normie than me! ðŸ˜
Unforgivable 👊😡!!
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