Chapter 455: Indeed, Very Easy to Bully
After receiving Alina's answer, Talulah immediately seemed to stiffen with renewed confidence.
Steven said nothing. Instead, he simply reached into his inventory and took out a jar filled with brightly colored candies, handing it to Talulah.
"What's this supposed to mean?" Talulah scoffed. "The one who likes candy is that big white rabbit. I'm not into childish snacks like this. Shouldn't you at least guess my preferences before giving a gift?"
Even as she said that, she reached out and took the jar from her boyfriend's hands, hugging it to her chest like a priceless treasure—completely contradicting her words.
"I know you don't really like candy," Steven replied. "And this isn't just candy anyway. Besides, you're going undercover—what good would regular sweets do? Emergency rations?"
He grew unusually serious as he took the jar back from her hands and pointed at the colorful candies inside.
"The gray ones give you eight minutes of invisibility—clothes included."
"The pink ones rapidly heal injuries. As long as you're not killed instantly, stuffing these into your mouth will get you back into fighting shape."
"The blue ones boost your mobility. Whether it's escaping, tracking, or combat, everything becomes easier."
"As for the white candies, they're a simplified version of the milk I fed you before. Very effective at removing negative status effects."
He explained each candy's effect one by one.
This was something Steven had developed earlier while researching milk candy—boiling various potions together with syrup, then solidifying them into portable sweets that retained their effects.
After all, potions were bulky and inconvenient to carry around. Not everyone had a near–infinite-capacity inventory like his.
The fact that these candies still retained potion effects also proved something important to him: many items from Minecraft could be reprocessed under this world's rules into entirely new forms. It might not be hugely useful to him personally, but it certainly made developing new things more interesting.
By the time Steven finished explaining, Talulah looked even happier, her gaze toward the jar growing almost feverish.
She didn't worry in the slightest that Steven might be lying to her. If anything, he almost never lied to her at all.
And precisely because of that, she understood just how precious the jar of candies in her hands truly was.
Any single effect among the candies Steven had described would already be priceless beyond measure. And yet he'd handed over an entire jar—at least thirty or forty pieces by the looks of it. That alone was proof of just how much he cared about her.
He kept saying things like not interfering with her choices, but wasn't he clearly worried she might get hurt?
Talulah gave a small snort, though the smile curling at the corner of her lips was filled with unmistakable happiness.
"This gift… is acceptable, I guess. Come here."
She crooked a finger at Steven, her expression looking exactly like a mischievous girl about to pull a prank—almost devilish.
"Huh? What for?"
Steven didn't quite understand why she'd want to mess with him after receiving a gift, but really—who was he? Never once worrying about tripping up here, he strode right over, lowered his head, and looked at her silver-gray eyes with mild confusion.
Talulah didn't answer. Instead, she quickly rose onto her tiptoes and left a mark on his cheek before wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling him down toward her.
"How about coming to my room tonight?"
She whispered the words into his ear in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, then immediately let go and retreated. Waving cheerfully at Alina, she dashed off toward her own room.
"I've got a lot to prepare in advance—go ahead and chat without me!"
After leaving those words behind, only Alina—still smiling gently—and Steven, who was slow to react, remained.
"Let me guess," Alina said as she walked up to him, waving a small hand in front of his eyes to pull his wandering thoughts back. Then she took his hands in hers and asked with a smile, "She whispered something to you just now, didn't she?"
"She asked whether I'd go to her room tonight," Steven replied honestly, having finally come back to himself as he turned to face the little deer girl. "Want to come too?"
As expected, the gentle little deer promptly pinched his hand hard.
No matter how soft her temperament was, hearing something like that still made her want to hit this infuriating guy at least once.
But soon, as if she'd found a more effective way to retaliate, Alina copied what Talulah had done earlier. She leaned in and left a light kiss on Steven's other cheek, then lowered her head, her face flushed red.
"In your dreams. I don't just go along with everything you say, you know. Do you really think I'm that easy to bully?"
She lightly tapped his chest with her fist, secretly watching as Steven froze once again. The smile at the corner of her lips simply wouldn't fade.
It seemed that every time he got kissed, this supposedly invincible, all-capable man would shut down for a moment. Was that his one and only weakness?
This time, he recovered almost instantly—perhaps thanks to having been "cc'ed" twice in a row and gaining some resistance. Without hesitation, he pulled the adorable girl into his arms and kissed her, answering in a low "Well… yeah," as he did so.
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/collection/55713?view=condensed
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/152281351?collection=55713
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