Whoever speaks first loses

The Fairy Sister shuddered almost imperceptibly. After listening to Moumou's words, her body, which had previously huddled up behind Huanluo, began to slowly and silently distance itself from Huanluo. The trusting little look she had previously given Huanluo turned into stunned disbelief in an instant. Her flushed cheeks, teased by Moumou, turned ashen of their own accord. It seemed that the "Absolute Nutritious, Economical, and Practical Cold Night Grass Soup" cooked by Chef Huanluo that day had successfully left an indelible, bad impression in the Fairy Sister's heart.

"If you want to eat, I can make it anytime." Huanluo maintained her calm and righteous expression, patting her chest to reassure the Fairy Sister. Seeing the Fairy Sister's increasingly ashen complexion, Moumou kindly decided not to share the fact that "Actually, if normal ingredients are given to Huanluo, the food she cooks is completely edible; this is from personal experience and I'm definitely not lying" with the Fairy Sister. Such a major life matter as dining should be experienced by the Fairy Sister herself.

"Um, cooking or whatever is better left to... left to..." The Fairy Sister stuttered and stammered behind Huanluo for a long time, as if she were trying to utter something unspeakable. Her little eyes kept glancing toward Moumou, but she stammered for ages without managing to call out Moumou's name. In the end, with no other choice and unwilling to reject Huanluo to her face, the Fairy Sister had no choice but to walk timidly toward Moumou with flushed cheeks. She gently tugged at Moumou's sleeve, her watery cat-like eyes blinking as she looked at Moumou: "Leave it to you, okay?"

Ba-dum, ba-dum. Looking into the Fairy Sister's big, tear-filled eyes, Moumou could not help but swallow hard. The alarm bell of her integrity rang out deafeningly in her heart. Moumou hurriedly guarded her rapidly dwindling reason, which was being stolen away by the Fairy Sister's beauty, and stammered out an excuse: "You literally just said a moment ago that you wouldn't eat the food I make."

"...Please." The Fairy Sister pressed close to Moumou, unrelenting. That face, which looked as though it might burst into tears at any second, placed an immense amount of pressure on Moumou. She had no choice but to force herself to look away and avoid the Fairy Sister's cat-like eyes. But unfortunately, even without looking into the Fairy Sister's eyes, Moumou could not resist the waves of exotic fragrance emanating from the Fairy Sister and that cautious plea that crept directly into her ears.

That fresh fragrance, as if it could melt into the forest, was entirely one with the Fairy Sister, showing no trace of artificial additives. It was as if the Fairy Sister was naturally born with such a fresh and refreshing scent that brought comfort to anyone who smelled it. Nor was that cautious plea like any of the various sweet, sincere, or rogue pleas Moumou had heard in the past. Although the speaker's tone carried a tiny bit of caution, it was completely overshadowed by the ethereal fairy grace naturally possessed by her voice. Rather than a plea, it sounded more like an imperative sentence, directly followed by a string of affirmative exclamation marks that made it completely impossible to refuse.

"...Then, let's make an exchange." Realizing that her unreliable reason was on the verge of collapse, Moumou immediately compromised with a helpless sigh: "Tell me your name, and I'll make tonight's dinner. How about that?"

"Name." A fleeting look of hesitation crossed the Fairy Sister's face. But looking at Moumou's firm and determined expression, and thinking of her own stomach growling with hunger, the Fairy Sister pursed her lips, bit down on her teeth, and whispered exceptionally quietly right into Moumou's ear: "Xi."

"What? Your name is Xi?" Moumou froze, completely failing to understand why this Fairy Sister clad entirely in leaves had chosen a name related to flowing water. Shouldn't a Fairy Sister like this—who could tell at a glance that she had never stepped out of this forest and probably never would in the future—be named something like Forest, Woods, Timber, or Green? Were the Fairy Sister's parents members of the legendary "Association of Yearning for Places One Has Never Reached"?

"My name is Moumou, and that person over there is Huanluo." Regardless of the reason, upon hearing Xi's name, Moumou politely and somewhat formally introduced herself and Huanluo: "We are humans from Ikassia. I am a mage, and Huanluo is a warrior. We came to this forest specifically to search for the Night Ghosts."

"Ikassia." Hearing this place name, Xi looked at Huanluo and Moumou with a puzzled expression: "Wasn't this place already occupied by the demon beast army? Could it be that you two were also sent by Ikassia to look for reinforcements?"

"The Night Ghosts are quite well-informed, aren't they?" Seeing Xi blurt out matters concerning Ikassia so quickly, Moumou silently crossed out the line from a book she had read somewhere stating that "the Night Ghosts live long in the forest and do not communicate with humans." At the same time, she acutely noticed the most noteworthy word in Xi's sentence: "Does the word 'also' mean that before us, someone else also came here to find the Night Ghosts and asked for help?"

"Yes." Xi's answer was surprisingly frank, beyond what Moumou and Huanluo had anticipated. She generously and without concealment said to Huanluo and Moumou: "Not long ago, a group of humans did indeed come into the forest and find us. But for various reasons, the Night Ghosts did not dispatch troops to rescue Ikassia. Not long after that, I heard that Ikassia had fallen."

Moumou felt a bit ashamed that Xi's adjective for every time period was "not long ago," but upon realizing that this seemingly harmless Fairy Sister was already three hundred years old, Moumou could understand why a month or two felt like just a short while ago to Xi.

However, was this the time to leisurely mock the Fairy Sister's age? Moumou grabbed Xi's shoulders excitedly, her eyes glowing as she hurriedly asked: "What happened to that group of people now? No, wait—do you remember what their composition was like? Was it a combination of a dozen or so human males plus one human female? Is that female human doing okay now? Were any of them injured or sick? Did they leave the forest?"

"Judging by your appearance, it doesn't seem like you came specifically to look for the Night Ghosts. Instead, it looks like you came specifically to look for this group of humans." Xi tilted her head, looking strangely at Moumou: "I thought the two of you were also humans sent by the White Tower Country to seek reinforcements. Aren't you?"

"..." Hesitating slightly, Moumou temporarily didn't know whether she should spill all the details of her situation. Her communication with Xi was currently limited to a very superficial level. Although she had learned some basic information about Xi, she knew nothing about the Night Ghost race, let us alone what status Xi held among the Night Ghosts. Similarly, Xi only knew some basic information about Huanluo and herself, and was still unclear about the true identities and purposes of Moumou and Huanluo here.

Whoever laid all their cards on the table first would seize the initiative.