When we arrived at the front of the hideout, Chris pulled the cloth aside and gestured us to enter.

Like what Trish had said before, this place is pretty shabby. It didn't look very organized.

Items were placed in an indiscernible pattern. Table-like objects where made using rotting wood planks and on top of them are a bunch of human items that I couldn't even identify what their purpose is, no less their names.

Cloths of all sizes were at the top of the hideout, acting as another shade aside from the canopy of leaves of the tall trees.

There are also stones arranged in a circular shape and inside the circle is an arrangement of dry wood, making a cone shape.

As I thought, it's pretty interesting.

I'd say this place would be pretty comfortable to stay in. The cloth that covered the whole hideout from the outside would be a useful thing to stop any pesky goblins trying to kill you at night and the campfire in the middle would give warmth to everyone here in the cold night.

The cloth up top would block the shiny night sky so if it were up to me, I'd remove those.

Chris then turned to me and snorted.

"Pretty great, right?"

"Mm. Pretty cozy in here."

"R-right. Come here for a sec Snow."

He then pulled me towards one of those table-like things and presented me the item on top of it.

"Do you know what this is?"

The item in question is a crude round metallic thing with a few dents and scratches on the surface.

So I simply replied, "No."

Chris rubbed his nose with a rather proud and snorted.

"This here is a treasured piece that I've acquired from one of the goblins that I slew. By myself."

"You mean the goblin that you found dead outside the forest." Trish retorted.

"Shut up."

I could smell a faint scent of goblin on the metal thing so what he, or rather Trish said might be true.

But still, I don't know what this is.

"What's this?" I asked Chris.

I leaned in closer to the metal thing to take a close look.

"Like I said, a treasured piece."

"More like a piece of junk."

"Shut up."

Ignoring the two, I examined the piece a bit closer.

The way it's bent and how the metal was cut reminded me of something.

Can't this be a piece of armor? That could be a possibility.

But why would he be so interested in this piece of armor?

And so I asked.

"Doesn't it fascinates you to know that something like this has a history to them?"

Is what he answered.

"I think you're the only one here who is interested in this sort of thing," Trish said.

"Hey, don't just assume that. I'm sure Snow is interested in those things too."

"Not really."

"Hahahahaha! Snow thinks it's just a piece of junk too!"

"Shut up!"

These two banter a lot. Do they hate each other or something?

Just like Leo had been doing, I decided to inspect the weird things that Chris has put on display.

All of them are just pieces of something. The things ranged from clothes, armor, bloody clothes, bloody armor, splinters of wood, bent coins and there's even a rusty sword.

Chris mentioned how he got them and the story behind them while Trish points at the actual anti-climactic side of the story.

It got to the point that I'm more interested in the difference in the story that the two told me than the actual item.

Although for Leo, it seems he found wonder in all of these random items.

This whole thing took quite a while so we decided to rest here for a bit before going back to the village.

There's still no nearby dangerous creatures so I think it's fine.

"This place is pretty cool, right Snow? Not only is it a place to hang out in but it's also my personal [trophy] room." Chris asked me.

"Trophy room?"

Before Chris could even answer, Trish answered first.

"It's a room where he dumps his junk in."

"... This is why I don't want to invite you here."

"I don't even want to in the first place. I'd rather just continue playing stones, [axes] and [parchment]."

"Then why did you enter in the first place!?"

"I have this uneasy feeling that you would do something to Snow when I'm not around..."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"W-what the heck!? I won't do anything!"

And here I thought that they're already tired of talking...

Ignoring the two until they calm down, I beckoned Leo to me.

When he saw me calling him, he stopped whatever he was doing and sat beside me.

Of course, my reason for calling him was to feel his warmth.

I stood up, sat and hugged him from behind. For a small child like him, his body temperature is slightly higher than Night's or Sun's. It feels comfy.

Leo didn't seem to mind my sudden action as well.

Perfect.

"... Were you lonely?"

Suddenly, he asked.

"Lonely?"

"When you were alone in the forest."

"Ah... I don't really feel lonely."

From that time, I don't know if I feel lonely or not. It was definitely more exciting to be with Sun and Night but I don't exactly know if I feel less lonely.

I never really felt anything different after all so maybe I was never really feeling lonely from the start.

"Hmm... For me, if big brother and Trish weren't around, I'll be lonely."

"..."

"I would still have grandfather and daddy but... It wouldn't be the same."

It wouldn't be the same...

If ever that happens to me, I'm sure I would feel the same as him.

I then changed the subject to something that has been on my mind for quite a while.

"Those two, are always arguing?"

"Yeah..."

"Oh."

"Big sister, you're really cold."

"I guess. I feel cold when I don't get hugs."

"Then I'll hug you every time! So you won't feel cold anymore!"

"Hoo~ good idea."

I finally have a substitute warmer for when Sun and Night are not around!

Maybe I could convince those two to be my warmers as well...

•••

After their usual banter, Chris lead us back towards the village. We took the same route as before and left the forest with no problems.

As for what we're going to do now, Trish had invited us over to her house.

It was originally only me who she invited but the two pestered her for them to come as well. Thus it ended in this.

Especially Chris. She pestered her non-stop until she gave in.

I'd say his goal on doing that is just to annoy her.

These two must really dislike each other. I wonder why they're even together like this.

We also returned back to the place where we found these three. Trish said that it's a plaza when I asked.

When we arrived there, surprisingly, we saw a panicking Sun holding onto a fairly large box, looking around the place.

Eventually, her eyes turned to our direction and she immediately sprinted towards us.

"Snow! Where did you go!?"

And she runs quite fast that it even surprised me.

Due to her suddenly hugging me and lifting me off the ground, the cloth that I was using to cover up skin almost fell off.

I can't have those three see me be completely fine under the sun when the cloth is removed so I immediately corrected it's position and held on to it.

Hey, is she alright?

"We... Went to Chris's hide—."

"S-snow, that place a secret, shh!" Hushed Chris, cutting me off mid-sentence.

Sun noticed Chris's not-so-silent shush at me and she finally loosened her grip on me, somewhat.

"You went with your new friends, is that right?"

It looks like Sun has calmed down now.

I simply nodded in response.

"My! My little Snow made some new friends!"

She again embraced me tightly.

It was quite warm so I didn't mind.

Since I'm close to Sun's ears, I decided to inquire her about her leaving me all alone earlier.

"Mmmm... Why did you leave me alone earlier...?"

I said it quietly enough that the three wouldn't be able to hear it.

I felt Sun's body jerking slightly.

"You see, I got a little bit excited and asked Roosevelt to make some snacks for you all but then I found out that you all weren't in the plaza so I panicked a little."

What's there to be excited about me getting friends?

Leaving Sun's odd trigger for excitement, Night made snacks?

We had snacks back when we were traveling but they were all just a mixture of berries that we found in some bushes in the forest.

Now that they're capable of utilizing their human cooking skills, I'm sure they made something more delicious than that. Even better if they added some of their blood in it.

Sun noticed me react to snacks which made her grin from ear to ear.

Although I'm sure she misinterpreted that as me being excited about the snacks.

She beckoned the three under the shade of a tree in the plaza.

She then finally put me down and took out a wide cloth and laid it on the ground and placed the box in the middle of it.

After that's set up, she sat down in one spot of the cloth and I sat down next to her.

"You guys should sit down as well. No need to be shy~."

With Sun's invitation, the three reluctantly sat down as well.

Then, Sun opened the box. It was needless to say that I'm expecting something amazing.

What Sun had brought with her is...

Fried potatoes.

...

It does smell more appetizing though and it isn't as burned as the ones we, or should I say, they had before.

It's cut in sections, resulting in a bite-sized circle shaped form.

"I used some of the rock salt that we have in these. Please try it."

The three are more or less have a 'wow' expression on their faces and each took a piece.

Sun also fed me one which I ate with reluctance.

"Salted fried potatoes! It's been a while since I had one of these!"

Chris exclaimed as he shoved another one inside his mouth.

"So good!"

Trish said with a satisfied expression on her face.

"!" For Leo, his face has the word 'tasty' plastered on his face.

"I'm glad you liked it."

Human taste is weird.

For me, I don't really see the goodness in this. Though I had to admit that this is certainly snack worthy. On its own at least.

There's just something missing.

Thinking that I took out the water container that I have hidden on me and took a sip from it.

The slightly sweet and sour taste of a bird's blood made the potato inside my mouth ten times more delicious.

The salt in the potato didn't mix that well with the taste of the bird blood but I like it nonetheless.

Sun looked uneasy when she saw me drinking blood while chewing fried potatoes but that only lasted for a short while.

Her face soon flushed red as she inched closer to me.

This is bad. For me to simply drink blood in front of her, I didn't think she would get affected by it.

I don't even understand why she's like that. The same goes for Night as well.

It must have had to do with when I poured my own blood into them to keep them alive.

It's needless to say that a blushing human close by is making me hunger for blood. Even more so when Sun and night were the ones who are blushing.

And Sun especially, I've been wanting to taste her blood for a long time now.

I have to somehow distract myself so I could put these dangerous thoughts aside for the moment.

And thankfully, Leo had done me a great save.

Although it wasn't the kind of save that I am expecting. Rather, it might even make things worse.

"Big sister, what's that red thing?"

Leo pointed towards the water container where I store blood in. I didn't notice that some of the blood was on the brim of the container, and there was some on my lips as well.

Due to Leo mentioning it, the other two stopped eating for a moment and looked this way.

Quickly, I wiped away the blood from my lips and the brim of the container before they could see.

This might bed... if I don't have something prepared in a time like this.

"It's medicine for my sun-sensitive skin."

Even though I said that I prepared something, I actually only just thought of it at the moment.

It seems they believed it as they resumed eating.

Even Sun was a little bit surprised to hear what I said.

"Are you actually sensitive to sunlight?"

She whispered to me.

Did she actually believe that?

"No. It's made up."

"Is that so?"

Sun paused for a second as if thinking about something then her eyes lit up.

"Ah...! I get it! It must be the reason that you said to them to explain why your skin is so pale. Right? That's so clever of you Snow~!"

I somehow managed to get a rub in the head and a compliment from Sun.

Perfect.

And it looks like Sun's somewhat back to normal.

More perfect.

I hid the water container then and there to prevent Sun from getting blushy again and endured eating the salty potatoes without and added tasty blood.

I should ask them what they feel when they see me drinking blood.

We eventually finished the snack had brought and we helped clean up.

It wasn't much so it was done pretty quickly.

After all, that's done, Sun asked me;

"Snow, are you still going to play or do you want to go back together?"

It is afternoon right now and I wanted to sleep but I don't what to back out something that I agreed with.

I looked back towards Trish to know if it's okay or not.

"It's okay, snow. Let's do it some other time when it's just us girls."

"Hey, how come we're not included?"

Trish leaned in closer to Chris and whispered something in his ear.

"F-fine..."

It looks like she had more or less convinced him.

With that, I head back to the house with Sun.

And nothing of note had happened along the way.

At least at the start.