Excerpt

Tatsuya went deep into thought for awhile while the pilots landed the ship on the edge of the hole. He then relayed further instructions to the others. "Let's do this fast. The eggs may hatch anytime and we don't know when the parent would come back."

Naoko was about to ask to go out again when Tadashi came over while talking to Tatsuya, "Tatsuya-san, maybe you should go out and see if there are anything you'd want to retrieve for analysis or research? There's a lot down there after all."

"You're right." Tatsuya then turned to Naoko to inform her, "I'll be leaving this time then, Igarashi-san." 

Naoko could only nod in response. Just as she started wondering about what she could do to make up for the lost opportunity, she felt a large and warm hand being plopped onto her head. Her eyes widened a little in surprise and she looked up to meet a pair of friendly black eyes.

"Anything could happen anytime down there. We need your brilliant mind here in this ship to make the calls in case something does happen. We'll explore more together another time, okay?"

A weird fluttering sensation spread in her chest.

"Tadashi-kun! Let's go, Tatsuya-kun said to do this fast." Aimi reminded him. 

Tadashi laughed helplessly while scratching his head. "That's true. I wouldn't want to anger him." 

Naoko stared at Tadashi walked away with Aimi with her usual poker face. Only she knew how empty and cold the top of head suddenly felt. She then absentmindedly patted her chest and she chewed on her bottom lip with a frown on her face. Just before Tadashi disappeared around the corner, she blurted out, "Next time!"

Tadashi stopped in his tracks abruptly and looked back at Naoko, forcing Aimi to a stop as well since she had been pulling him along by his arm. He grinned and nodded before walking off by himself, no longer dragging his feet.

Aimi stared at Naoko meaningfully for a short while before running after Tadashi.

Everyone, besides Naoko and Eiichi who stayed behind, worked quickly. 

Not only did they stock up on plenty of red gemstones and even more black and blue gemstones, they had also managed to scavenge some meat off the half-alive creatures caught from the pond under Tatsuya's directions.

They managed to return before the Devourer did and quickly took off with their loot.

Thanks to their very successful looting of the Devourer's nest, they were able to have a celebratory feast for dinner. If their harvest for the yellow gemstones tomorrow turned out equally well, they would be ready to embark on their journey for the uncharted territory much sooner than they had planned.

Over dinner, Naoko was reminded about how bad she was at socialising.

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