Regarding the incident to the hideout, we concluded that the goblins are responsible for it.

I already knew that from the start but they concluded this on their own.

"Uwah... What should I do now?"

"If they're taken by goblins then there's nothing we can do about it."

"But they're very important to me…"

Trish simply sighed with his answer.

Trish and I may be thinking the same thing. What the goblins took were just those random items after all. I don't see any worth in them.

As for what we're doing currently, or rather, what Chris is doing currently, he's searching around the hideout, looking to see if there's any left that the goblins didn't take.

Me, Trish and Leo are sitting in one corner of the room, watching him.

He was pretty upset when we did that first and said that we should help him and so we did. But a little later on, we found it pointless and just sat here for the moment until Chris stopped searching.

By the way, Leo is sitting on my lap in my request.

He's pretty warm so I decided to hug him to gather more warmth from him.

"Big sister is really cold, huh?"

"Yup. So keep hugging me from now on."

"Okay!"

Ho ho~ as expected of my mini warmer.

I noticed that Trish had been looking at us for a while now.

"What's wrong?"

"… since when did you two became so close like that?"

"Yesterday…?"

Is that something so surprising?

They were busy bantering so I guess they didn't notice Leo's conversion to being my cute and small human warmer.

Hmm? This could be a chance, right?

Should I go and ask her 'that'?

Putting on a smile, I asked Trish a proposal that she could never ignore.

"Want to hug too?"

"Wha—of course, n… fine."

With a flustered face, Trish had finally given in to the hugs.

Rather than me, she's the one that hugged me from behind.

That was easier than I thought. Maybe I could get an opportunity to pull in Chris as well?

It's just a shame that this piece of cloth is getting in the way. I'd like to hug someone wearing nothing at all. I feel that that would be amazing.

"Wow… Snow, you're really cold."

"Yeah."

"That must be why you like hugs."

A few moments later, Chris is finally tired of searching around and finally paid attention to us.

He was pretty confused when he looked at us.

"Want to hug as well?"

I tried inviting him but he hesitantly refused.

•••

While sitting on my lap, Chris spoke of his plans.

"Why don't we go and kill those goblins ourselves!?"

"That's a horrible idea."

I definitely think so.

If he did that, then it wouldn't surprise me if he gets killed by a single goblin.

I hit his head to convey my objection as well.

"Ow… But even still… they're just goblins, aren't they?"

"Are you serious, Chris? Aren't you forgetting the fact that they're attacking our village at night? Some were even injured just the other day."

"Of course I'm not thinking of taking on all of them. Just the one that stole my trophies."

I heard Trish click her tongue from his reply.

"Well, the goblin must have already gone back to wherever they're staying at. You'll still be taking them all on."

"But still, my trophies—"

"Chris! They're not that important, alright!? They're all just pieces of junk! Don't even think about getting them back!"

Trish became rather furious suddenly and I felt Chris jolt from shock.

Even Leo is shocked to see Trish suddenly getting angry.

Although I couldn't understand how Chris would care so much about those items, I also couldn't understand what made Trish become that angry so suddenly.

No, I actually have a clue as to what the reason might be but I'm not too sure if I'm correct. It is something that I've observed from Sun and Night.

Whatever the reason may be, because of Trish's sudden outburst, the air around us had turned heavy.

I should say something, shouldn't I?

"She's right. It's dangerous. You'll get killed."

I've stated my opinion on the matter.

I feel like Chris would actually do what he said. For that, I should warn him as well.

If he died, it wouldn't feel right to me after all.

"You too, Snow?"

"Yup. Me too."

He seemed like a little upset so I consoled him like what Leo did before.

Gently rubbing his head, that is. It's something that Sun often do to me and it makes me calmer.

"Ugh! Alright, fine!"

It seems that it's rather effective on him too.

I'm glad to hear he's given up on the idea. Don't want him to die after all.

Soon after that, we went to Trish's house. At least, me and Trish went to her house.

The two parted ways without telling us when we're heading back.

Trish didn't comment anything about it. She's still pretty angry, huh.

Shortly after, without saying anything to each other, we reached a certain house made of wood in the outskirts of the village.

It looks to be larger than the house that was given to us as well.

When we entered, I noticed the more abundant number of things that this house has. A bunch more things that we have and a bunch more things that we don't have.

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A larger and longer table, more chairs, more windows, a large metal bowl that seemed to be called a wok, more spoons, more storage spaces, and some other things.

There's also a female human that's currently preparing something on the table.

No, actually I think we have that.

"My, back so soon?"

The larger human, about the size of Night, asked Trish when we entered the house.

"Yeah… I brought a friend. Can we play in the bedroom?"

"A friend?"

Hearing that, her gaze fell on me. She looked at me with appraising eyes and it seemed she concluded on something.

"Are you with the visitors from yesterday?"

"Yes."

"That's why I couldn't recognize you!"

The female human exclaimed and hit her palms together in a cheerful manner.

"Sorry, I'm Trish's mother, Reya. Despite the current situation that our village is in, I hope you enjoy your stay here."

This female human seems to be a nice

Like Trish, she has brown hair and brown eyes, although her hair is longer than Trish. Just at the shoulder blades.

She gives off the same aura as Sun. A motherly aura, I'd say.

Since she introduced herself, I should introduce myself as well.

"I'm Snow. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too! But, why are you wearing a cloth over your body? Are you cold?"

"No… my skin is sensitive to sunlight. Can't go outside without this or else it'll start to hurt."

"Is that so? I couldn't imagine a life with such handicap. If there's a way, I hope you'll find a cure for your condition."

I feel kind of bad for hearing her sympathetic words. I basically just made up that whole thing after all.

Well, it does make for an easy excuse as to why my skin is pale so I might as well make it my usual story whenever someone asks.

"Well then, I shouldn't keep you two. Go and have fun."

With that, we headed off to the bedroom.

As expected, the bedroom is more spacious than ours. There are even two beds inside here, albeit they're smaller than ours.

And other than two beds, there's a large wooden thing called a closet with two doors and a large standing mirror held by a wooden frame.

"Make yourself at home, Snow."

Trish said to me with a smile. Though I feel that her smile is a little bit stiff.

I decided to remove the cloth since there's barely any sunlight coming in from the windows. As long as I avoid the parts where the sun shines on, it should be okay.

As she said, I made myself comfortable in one of the bed.

Like the one we have, it's bouncy and comfortable feeling. It does smell like Trish. Just a little bit.

The beds also have this smaller square beds on them.

It seems they're called pillows. It's meant to make sleeping a lot more comfortable.

I'd like to have one of these back in the house.

"Um… listen Snow…"

While I was inspecting this pillow thing, Trish suddenly spoke.

"Hm?"

"… about before..."

"?"

Won't she get to the point? She's awfully fidgety.

Her lips made a straight line and she's holding on to the hem of her clothes quite tightly. Her eyes are awfully wet as well.

"I'm sorry about before…"

She said that in such a quiet voice that I could barely make it out.

And she's apologizing to me? What for?

So I asked.

"Why are you apologizing?"

I even tilted my head while asking that.

Looks like she's surprised to hear what I just said. Did I miss something?

"Ah… I mean, the time when I got angry, I'm sure I scared you. I don't usually act like that…"

Oh, that's why.

"I'm not really scared. I was just shocked. "

"?"

"And I think I understand a little as to why you got angry."

"…"

"From what I can tell, you just want Chris to be safe. Wishing for someone to be safe, especially if that person is important to you is only natural, I think."

That's how Night acted at the time when those rough looking humans attacked us before and that's also why Sun was worried when I was gone in the morning.

Since I'm a vampire, I couldn't easily die but for little humans like Chris, they wouldn't stand a chance against a goblin. That much is obvious.

I'd say, she's simply stating the obvious truth of the matter in regards to the unreasonableness of Chris' idea.

"… that's not really the reason..."

Unexpectedly, or expectedly, Trish denied what I thought.

I guess I was wrong? Is it not because she didn't want to keep him safe? I thought I've grasped how humans think in situations like this but apparently not.

Although I did say that I might be wrong so I'm not really upset about it.

Surely enough, there's a deeper reason behind it.

I'd like to observe a bit.

"... But I guess it's half the truth."

After saying that, Trish formed a stiff smile and although stiff, it does seem that she's in a better mood than before.

That's good.

But more importantly than that…

"What's the other half?"

When I asked, Trish looked away and I could smell the familiar scent of human blushing.

"Not telling."

"Why?"

"It's a secret."

I guess I'll have to figure it out myself…

"A-anyway, that's not important! Let's do something fun!"

In a fluster, Trish changed the subject to something we originally should have been talking about.

She never mentioned what we were doing in the bedroom. Surely, it isn't sleeping and it's definitely not because she wanted me to bite her, right? So I wonder what kind of human activity she had planned for us to do?

"I know I saw it before but seeing your pale skin clearly, it really does remind me of [snow]."

She mentioned 'snow' but I don't think she's referring to me.

"There's a ton of clothes that my mom bought that I never found the opportunity to try. But I'm sure it'll look good on you so please try wearing them~!"

Oh! Clothes!

What she showed me behind the closet doors are an assortment of different kinds of clothes with different kinds of designs and colors.

The clothes that Sun has is like these ones, just bigger.

These ones here seem to be just right about the size of Trish.

At first, I didn't understand the reason as to why humans would make designs such as this on clothes where its main purpose is keeping someone warm and covering their body but I think I can understand a little as to why that is.

Looking at these clothes sort of excites me in a way. They're all different and I'm interested in how they feel if I wear them. It's something like that.

Trish took them out and she placed it flat on the bed. There are five clothes with a design like Sun's other clothes.

Actually, from what Sun told me, these are called dresses.

Something meant to impress? I guess there's that reason.

"Pick one that you like and let's have you wear them."

Trish is rather cheerful this time. I guess wearing clothes is just fun for her, for whatever reason.

Since she let me pick what I want to wear, I picked the one with a white color.

It's just like what Sun has. It's a dress with a frilly design at the waist down and gives off a wavy look.

Like the one-piece dress that I'm wearing it's sleeveless and backless as well.

Other than the bottom part, it's not that warm to wear but I don't think that's the point.

"So you want to wear this? It'll definitely look great on you!"

With that, Trish helped wear the dress.

When she helped me remove my clothes, she was shocked and flustered to know that I'm not wearing 'panties' as she would call it. Not like I know what it is anyway.

So for the moment, she let me borrow hers.

She said that I should ask my mother to go and make one for me or it'll be dangerous for me in many ways.

I didn't get what she said but I did keep it in mind.

These panties are supposed to go in the crotch area where the vagina is located.

With the purpose of covering the vagina, it's made with a kind of cloth that feels comfortable.

After the troubles regarding the panties are done, we finally put on the dress on me.

The part where we put the dress on me didn't really need any help from Trish but since don't know how the locking mechanism of this dress works, she helped me there.

After that's done, I looked in front of the large mirror in the room.

Since I'm a head taller than Trish, I thought that the dress wouldn't fit me right but that didn't seem to be the case. It fit me perfectly.

"Wow! You really do look pretty and cute! I can't believe you lived in a forest your whole life. You must have come from a [rich] family, right?"

With her use of an unfamiliar word, I simply tilted my head.

Taking that as an answer, Trish concluded on something and carried on.

"Hmm… your face is really cute and I think your hair will be beautiful if you fixed it up... Yeah, if you fixed your hair, you'll look just like a [nobleman's] daughter! Or even a [princess]!"

Again, what?

Please don't use strange words.

Although what she said on the hair part is true. I did wash in a pond earlier today, I didn't tend to my hair that thoroughly so it still has bits of dirt on them and it looked all over the place. I only focused on removing the blood from my body after all.

"So maybe that's why he…"

"What's wrong?"

For a while now, Trish is making a sad expression while looking at me in the mirror and I think Trish murmured something but it was quite enough that I couldn't understand it.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just thinking how popular you'll be with the boys with a look like that."

"? Okay."

I didn't quite understand what she meant by that but I guess it's something great.

After that, Trish had fun dressing me up in different kinds of clothes.

And among the five of them, I really like the first one.

Trish seemed to agree on that too.

For now, since Trish's mother came into the room to give us some apple slices as snacks, we took a break.

To what object she put the apple slices in, it seems to be called a plate. A wooden plate specifically.

We sat on the bed and placed the plate of apple slices between us.

We simply sat there, eating apples in silence.

And then Trish suddenly spoke to break the silence.

"You were really pretty in every single one of them, huh?"

I just nodded in reply and silence took over once again.

Every dress that I tried she told me I was pretty and cute.

It was a compliment but somehow, a part of me told me that it didn't really sound like one. Because every time she says it, she'll make a sad expression soon after.

It wasn't obvious, of course. But she's clearly hiding it with her cheerfulness on complimenting me.

It was as if she's only saying that to ingrain it on her mind.

But there could also be the chance that it isn't really the case. Maybe the fact that she got angry at the time is still causing her some stuff.

And I'd like to believe in the latter so I decided not to ask about it.

I mean, she did look like she had fun. And as for me, I found it fun as well to try out new things like this.

I would also like to do this again sometime.

Once we were done on the apples, Trish placed the plate aside, moved closer to me and leaned on my shoulder.

As I thought, that earlier matter must be troubling her still.

In cases like this, the rubbing-the-head thing has been proven to be effective so I did it on her but she seemed dissatisfied by it.

Did I do it wrong, perhaps?

"Hm… hey, Snow. Hug me from behind."

Oh? Even better.

So I did.

After positioning myself behind her, I wrapped my arms around her waist.

The warm bodies of humans make for a cozy bed partner. In fact, I want to sleep now.

"Hey Snow."

Before that thought could develop any further, Trish suddenly asked for my attention.

"Do you think that he'll forgive me? I did say some mean things after all."

Well, I don't know.

This is the first time I encountered something like this.

I could think about it for a bit but I don't think I'll arrive into anything close to a conclusion since I'll just be forming guesses.

Considering my options on what to reply to this, I went with the safest option that wouldn't give me any responsibilities on whatever happens.

"Maybe he will."

Trish didn't seem to like that reply.

Sorry. I don't really know.