Evening, Penguin Logistics dormitory.
Shirou pedaled his bicycle and quickly returned to the dorm within safe riding limits. Although it was a bit later than usual, it would not be too late.
"Shirou, you have been coming back late a lot recently. Could it be you were out there… By Laterano above, is this an enemy attack? …Huh? Oh, it is you, Shirou?"
Hearing the door open, Exusiai stopped playing her tower defense mobile game and looked over.
But when she saw Shirou standing at the door carrying a large bag of ingredients, a question mark practically appeared above her halo.
Her first reaction was that someone had come to smash up Penguin Logistics.
Then she calmed down a little, saw clearly who it was and relaxed.
"Lungmen profanity Shirou, did you get dumped? Why did you cut your hair like that?"
Just like Exusiai, Croissant also reacted strongly.
After all, Shirou's current hairstyle… was a bit avant-garde.
It felt completely out of place on him. No one knew what kind of stimulus made him get such a haircut.
On the other hand, Sora and Texas were not as dramatic as the other two, but their gazes toward Shirou were still full of curiosity.
"I originally said to the barber to cut it shorter. By the time I came back to my senses, it ended up like this."
Shirou felt that his head had received plenty of complaints. In his mind, he silently blacklisted that barbershop.
If one person says there is a problem, it is worth considering. If two people say so, you might start doubting yourself. If three people say there is a problem, then unless it was intentional sabotage, there really is a problem.
However, he alone would just not go there again. After all, he was the only one traumatized by it.
"Eh… was it the shop I recommended before?"
Hearing Shirou's words, Sora thought the barbershop she recommended had caused the issue.
"No. I went to a smaller shop. The owner there seems to always cut this kind of hairstyle, so they just habitually made it like this. We can talk later. I will go make dinner first."
Shirou gave a brief explanation, putting Sora at ease.
He knew Sora could be a bit sensitive at times. Even if it really had been the shop she recommended, he would have said it was another place.
After explaining, Shirou hurried into the kitchen with the bag. Soon, everyone in Penguin Logistics began hearing the sound of running water and rapid chopping.
"Do you believe him?"
Croissant turned to ask her teammates.
But even as she asked, she already had an answer in her heart.
She definitely believed him. Shirou did not look like someone who would lie.
"Even if I do not believe him, there is nothing I can do about it. It just feels a bit strange."
In response, Exusiai rolled her eyes.
The question had no real meaning. It was just hair. Why make it sound like some kind of team division crisis?
Was Penguin Logistics supposed to fall into a trust crisis just because one member got a haircut?
Even Perro would not watch that kind of script.
"There is nothing much to say about that. But Shirou's movements this month have indeed been quite strange."
Texas agreed with Exusiai, but Croissant's words did remind her of something.
Shirou was probably doing something outside, since he had been coming back late frequently. Although dinner had not turned into midnight snacks, it still made Texas feel that something was off.
After all, Shirou used to be very punctual.
Of course, it could also be that after working continuously for several months, Shirou wanted to slack off a little. Even she herself did that occasionally. And Shirou basically never took breaks. When they wanted to order fried food, he would just develop an even better recipe himself.
That had made them lazier, to the point that they did not even want to order takeout anymore. They just waited to be fed every day.
However, the probability of that assumption was low. At least Texas had not seen any negative emotions from Shirou in that regard.
"Mm, Shirou has been getting back right before evening recently."
Agreeing with Texas, Sora added her own observation.
Since she and Croissant had fewer delivery jobs, they usually returned early.
Before, they would chat with Shirou after coming back, help him organize things, or handle ingredients. But now if it was not past four o'clock, they would not even see him.
"Tsk tsk… that is a sign he has someone outside. Seriously, Shirou. With so many high-quality options here, he goes looking outside instead."
Listening to her teammates, Croissant showed a regretful expression.
In return, she received helpless looks from the other three and the room fell silent.
In the kitchen, Shirou had just stopped using water and knives, so he happened to hear that remark. Looking at the portioned beast meat in his hands, he felt that Croissant had probably been eating too well lately and had started to overthink. He moved about one-third of the portion into the other four servings.
"Let us rule out Croissant's answer first."
Back in the living room, Exusiai mercilessly rejected Croissant's theory.
Mainly because… it did not feel like that was the case.
Aside from coming back later, everything else about Shirou was quite normal.
If he were really in a passionate relationship, it would be impossible for there to be no contact at night, right?
Also, acknowledging Croissant's statement somehow felt like it would hurt their pride.
"So she directly rejected that idea!"
"Um… how about we just ask him?"
Seeing how intensely her teammates were discussing, Sora timidly raised her hand and suggested.
The person in question was just separated from them by a wall. Why were they discussing this here instead of asking him directly?
"Of course it is because this is more interesting."
Croissant shrugged.
"I just think there is no need. It does not have much impact anyway. Digging into other people's matters just out of curiosity is not really a good thing."
Although Texas had been the one to start the topic, she still understood boundaries.
Some things were fine to talk about privately. If brought out into the open, it would just make everyone awkward.
"I agree with that. But if I had to guess, he probably signed up for some kind of class?"
Exusiai immediately agreed with Texas and voiced her own speculation.
The timing matched up too. Going out in the morning and coming back in the afternoon, with teachers occasionally dragging out class time.
Her teachers in Laterano would do that so she assumed it might be the same in Lungmen.
That would explain a lot.
After all, over the past three months, Shirou had been absorbing knowledge like crazy. From children's books to materials about Oripathy, the gap was like someone who had just learned to bake a cake already trying to make a soufflé.
Yet Shirou actually managed to study it all, which made Exusiai quite impressed.
She admitted she could not do that. She would rather take her gun and go fight giant infected creatures.
Of course, Exusiai did not know that Shirou had found someone to tutor him.
But that did not stop her from raising Shirou's status within Penguin Logistics in her mind. After all, the variety of desserts he could make was increasing rapidly…just without apple pie.
"Exusiai's guess is quite likely."
Sora nodded in agreement.
"Agreed."
Texas also felt somewhat relieved. One of her teammates had finally said something sensible.
It was honestly rare.
Now she just hoped the other one could act a bit more normal too.
"That does make sense, but it feels a bit boring."
Croissant was also convinced. Life as a street vendor had been getting tougher lately, so she had been letting herself go a bit here to vent.
Anyway, Shirou had not heard them so it was safe.
"Not everything has to be about being interesting."
Sora could not help but comment.
"Ahem. This is Penguin Logistics. Entertainment comes first, got it?"
Croissant pointed at the portrait of the Emperor hanging on the wall.
It had suddenly appeared there one day. It was not put up by Shirou or any of them so it was very likely the boss had hung it himself.
Or it could have been Exusiai. Maybe she had put it up while checking the dorm. That kind of behavior suited her.
For some reason, Shirou did not mind it at all and they had long since gotten used to it.
After all, portraits like this could be seen in many Penguin Logistics locations. When they first encountered them, they were not nearly as calm as Shirou had been.
"Do not push everything onto 'entertainment first.' Come help me carry the dishes."
Shirou stuck his head out from the kitchen, staring at Croissant with an unfriendly expression.
"Got it, I am coming!"
Seeing Shirou with his delinquent-style haircut and a fierce look on his face, Croissant immediately followed her instincts, jumped up, and rushed into the kitchen to help carry the dishes to the table.
She was helping. She was definitely not scared.
The other three began dividing the dishes Croissant brought out. It was easy to tell which portion belonged to whom.
However, something seemed a bit different today. Only one portion had significantly more meat than usual, while the other four looked about the same.
"Shirou, why is there only one portion with extra meat?"
Exusiai shouted toward the kitchen.
"That one is for Texas."
Shirou walked out of the kitchen and hung his apron aside.
"Huh? Then what about mine?"
Croissant looked confused. She would die without meat.
"When I was portioning the meat just now, I happened to hear someone talking bad about me. What do you think happened?"
Shirou said with a smile.
"…Sorry."
Seeing his expression, Croissant immediately remembered what she had said earlier.
Normally, at this moment, she would have rushed over, hugged Shirou's leg, and begged him to spare her and give her more meat.
But… right now, Shirou looked genuinely scary.
Even scarier than Texas when she was not in a good mood.
When Texas got irritated, you could just give her some Pocky and it would be fine. But with Shirou like this, Croissant had no idea what to do.
So she decided to follow her first instinct and apologize directly!
"When you act like this, I actually feel a bit embarrassed. It feels kind of strange."
Seeing Croissant skip a whole series of usual steps and go straight to apologizing, Shirou did not quite know how to respond.
If you are scared, then do not jump out and cause trouble in the first place.
So Shirou picked out some meat from his own portion and gave it to Croissant. It was still less than before, but it could count as a punishment.
"Thank you, Lord Shirou, for your forgiveness. This humble one is deeply grateful."
Looking at the extra pieces of meat in her bowl, Croissant genuinely felt that Shirou was a really good person.
Though she would probably forget that soon enough.
"Sigh… Croissant, you should really learn your lesson. Do you not get tired of this every time?"
Texas, who used to clean up Croissant's messes before Shirou arrived, said with a sigh.
The two biggest troublemakers had become more and more unrestrained under Shirou's care.
"Tired? Has she ever been tired? She is always full of energy. I do not even know where it comes from. Could you share some of that with me? The apples being sold in Lungmen lately are not good and even the apple pies taste bad now."
Hearing Texas, Exusiai looked extremely frustrated.
The main issue was that her source of happiness apple pie had recently become bland. As an apple pie expert, she immediately realized the problem was the filling.
Every day, she relied on freshly baked apple pie to heal her tired heart after work.
And now, just like that, it was all gone.
She had only just finished paying off her etched ammunition expenses and was about to start enjoying life, only to run into this problem.
Thankfully, she could still rely on Shirou's daily meals and the occasional happy desserts. Otherwise, she would have already tried to pick up a job from the boss or take a few days off to go back to Laterano to recover.
"If you are jealous of my youthful energy, you should have said so earlier. I can understand."
Croissant did not dare tease Shirou now, but teasing Exusiai was still completely fair game.
After all, even if Exusiai got so angry that she chased her with a gun, it might not even break her shield.
"Hmph. I was even thinking of sharing some meat with you, and this is your attitude? Go eat grass!"
Exusiai's face instantly turned as red as her hair. She then viciously snatched a piece of meat from Croissant and put it into her own bowl.
Not only was she not sharing, she was taking Croissant's food instead.
"Sigh…"
Texas sighed again, lamenting the hardships of life.
Fortunately, Shirou was here to handle things now. Otherwise, she felt that one day she would end up taking a knife and dealing with those two herself.
Meanwhile, Shirou simply ate his meal while watching the two argue in front of him.
He was used to it by now. If Texas or Sora joined in, that might surprise him a little.
But as things stood?
It was perfect entertainment to go with his meal.
"Shirou, I have a bit too much meat here. Help me eat some."
Sora placed a few pieces of meat into Shirou's bowl. Her portion had clearly been larger today, but she already ate less than usual so giving him some was not a problem.
At worst, she could take some vegetables from him later to balance things out.
"Thanks."
Seeing Sora put meat into his bowl, Shirou felt genuinely touched.
It felt like a child he had been taking care of was finally growing up and starting to repay him.
In the next few days, he would have to think of a way to make more of Sora's favorite foods, desserts, drinks, everything.
If only Exusiai could learn from Sora, she would probably have achieved apple pie freedom long ago.