"You..." Elina was furious, thus making me grin even more.

My little prank worked out perfectly: I made her angry and then soothed her.

Well, perhaps just drew her attention elsewhere?

“This is not funny!” She hissed when I was about to start laughing.

"Whatever you say~!" I smirked, and quickly hid behind Albert to avoid being strangled. Just in case.

The two of them exchanged glances, and pretended nothing happened.

Afterwards it was time to discuss a more important matter.

"Should we even proceed with the quest at this point?" (E)

"I don't think there is a queue of volunteers waiting for us to abandon it." (A)

"Are you sure we even have enough strength to take on the goblins?"

"Too late to ask~! Would we even try if we were not sure? We were given some time extension to complete, but we won't even have time to rest if we continue." (E)

"Do we need much time? Cuddle that baby fox, and we are ready." I don't know if Albert's expression changed, but I surely know that my nails are much longer and sharper than they were when I was a human.

"Stop teasing her. Well, this little fox surely will be of use." Elina approached me, and then grabbed my waist.

"Why are you blushing, little fox~?" Then she dragged me to the bed.

Maybe she did it for the sake of revenge, but little does she know...

... that pranks are easier to pull this way.

---

[To pa-int - her face - with - a - coal~? To - fi-ll her clothes - with a - tooth-paste~? To we-t - her bed - near - the cro-uch~? Or ju-st to let her - sleep - a-lo-ne~?]

My brainstorming resulted in a nasty trick I did to Elina.

At the dawn.

"FUJI!" (E)

A wet, red monster with a cat-face shouted something.

[Of course - I - should - just - do that a-ll~!]

"FUUUJI!" (A)

[When you-'ve sta-rted, - don't ho-ld ba-ck~!]

They were so funny to tease, that I might get used to pulling pranks on them.

In the aftermath, I was forced to sit in seiza until they finish the breakfast.

[Were they expecting me to feel remorse?]

"FUJI!" (E,A)

[Guys, - you - must - ne-ver - forget - your - sa-lt~!]

“You little pain… Why?” Elina was still pouting at me.

“You are fun to watch.”

“How is this related to the pranks?” Albert was just sighing.

“You react much better when pranked.”

“Kyaaa!”

“You little bastard! Feel my wrath!” Elina, stop touching my ears!

“Don't you dare to forget about me!” (A)

“Kyuuua!” STOP PULLING MY CHEEKS!

---

The rest of the morning passed quietly. When it was closer to the noon, we headed out to try subjugating the goblins once again.

After I finally launched my fighters, I could be at ease, and finally had my detection range increased.

On our way we found a fresh body of a wyvern.

"Let's cut off whatever we can. It would sell nicely." (A)

In the middle of butchering, I heard a ding.

‘Ding’

‘You received 1x Arresting wires (Rare), 3 silver coins, 1 upgrade point’

---

Arresting wires – Allows the use of normal aircraft.

Rare: -10% chance of missing the wires on landing, -10% chance of crashing on landing.

---

The upgrade point I spent into the accuracy, and was quite happy that my combat capabilities have increased.

"What are you spacing out for?" (E)

"Why? Can't I just rest?"

"You can, but only if you hug me~!" Elina was gutting the wyvern, and was covered in blood from head to toes. When a smiling blood-covered monster charged at me, I had to run.

"NOOO!!!"

"YEEES!!!" (E)

Only Albert continued working, and sighing while we were fooling around.

Strangely enough, I found it funny playing and fooling around with the 'Rogues'. Up to the point, when I entrusted myself as Elina's hugtoy. But only after we washed ourselves in a lake.

I wonder, why there are so many unused lands and so few fields and villages. Almost everything is just a large plain without a single tree. It took us all the daytime to walk into a small grove.

While we were drying our clothes near a campfire, I asked Elina-sensei.

“Hey, Elina, why are there so few trees around the town?”

“When the first colonists arrived here, they started to cut down the trees for their fields and buildings. Soon they continued to cut down the forests to avoid monsters sneaking in. Then they continued to expand, to draw the monsters as far away as possible. That is why there are no forests around.” (E)

“At least that is what the legends say.” [Albert, I thank you very much.]

[Actually, that appears to be true. Aerial recon confirms that there are distinctive circle patterns around the town and the villages. First they cut down trees and made fields. Then they continued to expand around the settlements in a circular pattern. Then…] I went on and on about the possible theories.

I was only interrupted by a headpet.

"Mhm?"

"Just what you are thinking so hard about?" (E)

"Hm! None of your business!" I turned away from her, but still continued to enjoy the petting.

I was returned back to the reality only when the flight leader reported a large group of demon hounds to our north. They were heading in the direction of the town.

I decided to use this opportunity to study the pack's behavior when under aerial attack.

My fidgeting was quickly mistaken for the call of nature, so I hurried to do my version of 'picking some flowers'.

I loaded my torpedo bombers with payload, and sent them to bomb the hounds. Just a miniscule amount of rewards would already be a nice addition.

---

30 minutes later.

‘Ding’

‘You received 26 silver coins, 3 upgrade points, 1 weapon point, 1 B1M torpedo bombers group, 1 Type 99 Secondary gun’

After I invested into even better accuracy, I was somewhat rigged for combat.

---

---

“What are you thinking about, Fuji?” (E)

I made myself blush a little.

“Elina, you took my first kiss and now you are asking me that?” I said that with embarrassment.

"Oh, really~? 'I' took your first kiss~?" Elina immediately pinched my cheeks.

"You sure~?" She smiled menacingly, so I had to shake my head, to avoid my cheeks being played with.

“If you are so worried about it, why don't you kiss me as well?” Stop grinning, you idiot.

Fo-x-fi-re ti-me.

We continued chatting and fooling around.

Then, suddenly, Elina and Albert drew swords, and prepared for combat.

Soon I started to hear something approaching.

"Enemy inbound!" (A)