Chapter 179: Then I Ask You, Then I Ask You
"A-Qi, why didn't we get a welcome party when Caelus and I joined the Express?"
Stelle, being pulled by March 7th, puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction, like a little raccoon suffering unfair treatment.
"Huh? Are you still half-asleep?"
March 7th, leading the charge, paused with her long white legs. Her small face, reflecting a flash of memory, gradually put on a "pain-mask," her expression fierce yet adorable. With hands on her hips and her delicate body leaning forward, she looked every bit like an angry girlfriend:
"Who mixed over a dozen drinks and unknown liquids into a 'bubble bomb' that splattered drinks all over half the party car?"
"And who caused this girl to miserably clean for half a day during her duty shift the next day?"
"Who caused us to be unable to secretly modify Sister Himeko's trailblazing menu?"
With each question, March 7th's body leaned forward a degree, and her momentum grew by a point.
Oppressed by her sharp eyes, clear as mirrors, Stelle cutely blinked, a blank look on her face, then retreated in alarm behind Caelus:
"I have amnesia! Who am I? Who are you?"
"Hey! Amnesia, huh? This girl will give you two 'haha' punches, let's see if you remember then!"
March 7th rolled up her sleeves and clenched her pink fists.
"Come on, A-Qi, I'll help you hold her down, give her a good beating… cough, you don't need to hit too hard."
Caelus wrapped an arm around the Stellaron spirit hiding behind him, clamping the gray-haired girl's delicate neck with his forearm and bicep, forming a classic headlock.
"Caelus-zai, I'll remember this grudge!"
"These three are always so energetic, no matter when."
Himeko smiled faintly, watching the three lively troublemakers. Remembering the information March 7th had inadvertently let slip, she put on a kindly, smiling expression.
A drop of cold sweat appeared on Dan Heng's forehead.
"March, you've messed up!"
"We're going to get caught again!"
Following everyone, they successively passed through the car door and corridor, arriving at a carriage.
The vast interior space was almost comparable to a football field, the floor as clean and tidy as a high-end hotel lobby, and most of the walls were made of specialized glass portholes.
On both sides near the portholes were designs resembling indoor gardens, adorned with potted plants of various sizes, exotic flowers, and strange flora next to the elegant seating.
"This carriage is so big."
As a Herrscher "stepping onto the Astral Express for the 'first time'," Bronya "naturally" expressed her amazement at the interior scenery.
"The interior of the Express utilizes a form of spatial folding and expansion technology," Himeko, as the navigator, explained to the "newcomer."
In fact, within the Galactic Cosmos, spatial folding was nothing new; from large-scale travel to small-scale storage, many civilizations had their own methods of spatial folding.
"Welcome, dear Nameless ones. Seeing your joyful faces, has something good happened? Could it be that the party hour is finally upon us?"
Behind the bar, the white-bodied, gold-rimmed, brown-black teardrop-shaped robot saw the crowd and immediately stopped tidying the wine cabinet, volunteering to speak in a voice that would make the Herrscher of Sentience's fists clench.
"Perhaps everyone needs a joke as an opening for the party? Listen to this: The Knights of Beauty were 'discriminated' against by 'Beauty'! The homophony of 'discrimination' and 'knight' is simply hilarious."
His eye twitching, Himeko replied politely with a forced smile.
"Welcome home." x2
Besides the robot named "Shut Up," there were also two brown-haired girls wearing high-end lace maid outfits, Herta Puppets.
One was wiping the bar counter with a clean cloth, while the other was trimming the plants on both sides. Upon seeing Stelle and Caelus, they elegantly lifted their maid skirts to greet them.
The maid outfits worn by these two puppets were more expensive than all of Stelle and Caelus's clothes combined, being a well-known cosmic brand, sponsored free of charge by a certain pink rich woman.
Not only maid outfits, but also other professional uniforms Stelle and Caelus needed. Sister Asta took full responsibility, with the only payment being some photos of the Herta Puppets for her.
"Fengta, come give me a massage." Caelus walked to a chair in front of the bar and sat down.
"What, you detestable master, ordering me around as soon as you get back?"
The Herta puppet trimming the plants looked displeased upon hearing this, but her body honestly came behind Caelus, extending her soft, distinctively jointed little hands, and began to gently massage.
"Lingta, come give me a hug!"
Stelle sat beside Caelus, opening her arms to the maid Herta puppet behind the bar.
The Herta Puppet wiping the bar obediently walked out, was embraced by Stelle, and frantically rubbed her soft white face.
Herta always kept her word; giving away the puppets included control and an automatic AI, with the exception that if a puppet were to be modified into a specific form, it would trigger a self-destruct program.
Furthermore, the puppets did not come with debugging programs or AI alteration services, so their AI personalities were fixed.
Caelus's Herta Puppet had a tsundere AI personality, a bit tough-mouthed, but even the most obstinate part became pliant when affectionate, and under owner's authority, she would obediently call him master.
Caelus was quite satisfied with this Herta's AI personality.
Don't you think it's wonderful when a proud Herta Puppet, with a look of disdain and mortification, lifts her skirt to show you her buttocks?
Compared to Caelus's, Stelle's puppet had a much calmer and more reserved AI personality, introverted, appearing quiet and obedient, but actually a bit cunning, very bold, and prone to playing clever tricks.
Given the personalities of the two Herta Puppets, Caelus named them Feng Herta and Ling Herta, abbreviated as Fengta and Lingta.
Stelle strongly agreed; the names Feng and Ling gave her an inexplicable excitement just by hearing them. So pleasant!
"You two, do you really need to be like this?"
March 7th couldn't help but retort: "In Belobog, you had the Shadow Servants taking care of you."
"Can Shadow Ninjas and Fengta, Lingta be the same? One is a masked shadow monster, the other is a beautiful girl."
"Exactly, exactly!"
On matters like this, Stelle and Caelus were always on the same side.
"Give me something to drink, Shut Up." Caelus looked at the robot behind the bar.
"Alright, please wait a moment, I am preparing 'Firewood, Rice, Oil, Salt' for you. Allow me to introduce it: this is a drink renowned on the Express for several Amber Eras. It has a rich diesel texture, combined with the fresh fragrance of rice and the crispness of sea salt, and its name is quite ingenious…"
"Stop, Shut Up."
Interrupting the robot's speech in time, Caelus, enjoying Fengta's massage, shrugged his shoulders and looked at Shut Up: "Then I ask you, then I ask you."
The double-barreled opening statement made the chattering Astral Express crew seem to sense something, and they all fell silent.
"Do you know which sea animal is the funniest?"
Caelus leaned against Fengta's chest, legs crossed, fingers tapping the table, asking with the demeanor of a boss.
"Sea animal… I don't know, please enlighten me."
Caelus slightly furrowed his brow and said with a tone of disappointment, "Shut Up, your skill is far from enough, it's a sea eel!"
"Because, sea eels (海鳗 - hǎi'mán) are 'quite' (还蛮 - hái mán) funny."
"Oh! I see, 'sea eel' and 'quite' are homophones! Hahahahaha~!"
Shut Up burst into laughter, while everyone else, including the Herta Puppets, felt an invisible cold wind sweep through.
"Then I ask you."
Caelus rested his arm on the bar, reaching out to pat it: "Which planet in the galaxy is most prone to distraction?"
"Please enlighten me."
While its single indicator light on the front flickered, Shut Up seemed to be thinking, but couldn't come up with an answer.
"It's Jarilo-VI…"
Shut Up's light flickered again, then suddenly lit up intensely, "I understand!"
"Number VI (六号 - liù hào) is a homophone for 'sneak away' (溜号 - liū hào)! You are truly a genius!"
Shut Up, with an incredibly respectful posture, handed the mixed drink to Caelus, perfectly embodying the essence of the "serving tea to the boss.jpg" meme.
Meanwhile, a faint chill seemed to spread across the floor and space in the Express, making everyone shiver.
Pom-Pom, walking down the stairs with its short little legs, stumbled.
"The taste is not bad." Taking the cup and having a sip, Caelus nodded, an expression of "this youngster is teachable" on his face.
"Hey, then I ask you again."
"Why do chocolate lovers like to go to Belobog's Everwinter Hill?"
"Everwinter Hill? Oh, I apologize, I don't know much about Belobog."
Welt's cane began to tremble, Himeko's cheek twitched uncontrollably, and Dan Heng tried to speak several times but couldn't interject into Caelus's rapid-fire questions and answers.
"'Alright,' then this question might be a bit too advanced for you. Think about it once you understand the full story of the Jarilo incident later."
Caelus tolerantly nodded past it: "The answer is, because it's covered everywhere in cocoa powder."
"Pfft!"
Stelle, the only one not bothered by the chill, had just snatched the drink from Caelus's hand and taken a sip when she immediately spat it out!
Everyone else shivered, as if dropping from a world of ice and snow into hell.
"Then I ask you again." Caelus adjusted his sitting posture:
"All the ice cream in the Express's refrigerator disappeared without reason, why does everyone think March 7th is the thief?"
"Please enlighten me!"
Shut Up sat obediently, like a frog in a well gazing at the moon.
"I know this one!"
Like a student who knows the answer when the teacher asks a question and the whole class is silent, Stelle immediately raised her hand to answer:
"The ice cream is gone. After eliminating you and me as suspects, only A-Qi is left."
"Why are you so self-righteous?"
"Also, it's good to be self-aware, but don't drag me into this!"
Even frozen by the low temperature brought by the cold joke, March 7th instinctively grumbled in her heart.
"NONONO!"
Caelus raised a finger and shook it:
"Then why is that?" Shut Up's tone was full of eagerness to learn.
"Because March 7th seems to steal!" Caelus lightly clapped his palm on the bar, giving the answer.
"'March 7th seems to steal' is a homophone for 'three matters, four faults,' truly making one burst into laughter!"
Shut Up raised both mechanical arms, looking at the gray-haired youth as an iris owl gazes upon the profundity of Caelus's countenance. A firefly lamp seemed to light up in its heart, and it exclaimed with immense emotion:
"What a superb, profound, and captivating joke!"
Shut Up deeply bowed its teardrop-shaped body, its tone firm as if swearing to undertake some great endeavor.
"Truly worthy of you! I will firmly store your humor and wisdom in the deepest corpus, to be passed down to generations of Nameless ones!"
"Crack!"
The hammer-like words shattered the ice block that had frozen March 7th. The thought that her name would be passed down to generations of juniors alongside Shut Up's cold jokes…
"No, not that!"
Little March let out a wail.
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