Nighttime, Lungmen streets.
Shirou could be seen walking down the streets wearing a simple black shirt and pants, occasionally turning around to check whether the other members of Penguin Logistics were still following behind him.
The so-called "usual place" the boss mentioned was literally a restaurant called "Old Place."
The food was not as astonishing as the meals their boss had treated them to before, but it was still considered very good.
As for why it became Penguin Logistics' favorite restaurant...
"...Sigh. I should have expected this."
Watching the four drunken idiots behind him causing chaos, Shirou felt utterly exhausted.
Naturally, nobody could drive after drinking.
Since the dorms were nearby, they also had not arranged for anyone to pick them up.
Originally, Shirou thought letting everyone walk back while getting some fresh air would help sober them up a little...
Now it seemed he had thought far too highly of humanity.
Under the current circumstances, what should have been a little over ten minutes of walking had already dragged on for more than half an hour, and they were only halfway back.
Once they returned to the dorms, he would still need to figure out how to make everyone wash up...
At the very least, brushing teeth and washing faces before sleeping was Shirou's absolute minimum standard.
However, judging by everyone's current state, whether they could even make it back to the dorms was already questionable.
Texas was actually manageable.
She was simply quieter than usual, and her thoughts were clearly elsewhere. Every so often she would blank out and suddenly stop walking.
Compared to the others, she was relatively easy to handle.
Sora was not difficult either.
She simply followed Texas around. If Texas walked, she walked. If Texas stopped, she stopped too.
The real problems were the other two...
Shirou felt like he had complained about this countless times already, but he still had to mention it again.
Exusiai was extremely hyperactive.
She basically sprinted around nonstop on the streets like an uncontrollable child, noisy beyond belief.
Because of that, Shirou deliberately chose a route with very few people. There were neither pedestrians nor cars on this road, so as long as she stayed within his field of vision, there would not be any major problems.
As for why he did not simply grab her and drag her along?
Because Croissant was even more troublesome.
It seemed like her street vendor instincts had awakened. Every time she saw something, she wanted to take it back and sell it at a stall.
To check the "quality" of the objects, she would even knock on them a few times with her right hand.
As someone capable of swinging a massive hammer one-handed, Croissant's arm strength was naturally terrifying.
At the very beginning, before Shirou reacted in time, a metal trash can on the roadside had already been smashed inward with a dent.
When she prepared to continue attacking other objects, Shirou hurriedly stepped in to stop her.
Otherwise, with her salary, she would probably end up broke again after paying compensation damages.
Watching the four of them, Shirou felt the energy and spirit he had just recovered from the feast rapidly draining away again.
In fact, it felt like his exhaustion had gone even further into the negatives.
Sigh. Mentally exhausting.
Still, this was his own choice.
Even if he had to do it in tears, he still had to safely escort everyone back to the dorms.
There actually were other methods he could use.
For example, he could project some restraints to tie up the two biggest troublemakers and drag them back directly.
However, that would look rather ugly.
Although the two themselves probably would not care, Shirou still did not want to embarrass them.
Of course, if they provoked him first, he would still take action.
After walking, stopping, and walking again for quite some time, Shirou noticed a red-and-white figure in the distance.
Strictly speaking, it was someone he knew.
After all, being forced to accompany someone while eating food so spicy it made one question life itself was definitely memorable.
"Hm? Shirou? What a coincidence!"
Shirou noticed her, and Nian naturally noticed him as well.
After all, the streets at night were extremely quiet, so even the slightest noise stood out clearly.
"Nian. What are you doing here?"
Looking at the way she greeted him, Shirou felt something was slightly strange...
For some reason, her gaze felt a little dangerous.
Probably just his imagination.
Although something felt off, Shirou still greeted her properly.
His impression of Nian was actually fairly good.
After all, she was the only person since he arrived here who managed to see through the nature of his Origin.
Her personality was not bad either.
The only problem was her obsession with spicy food...
That topic was difficult to describe.
In any case, Shirou had been traumatized by it already.
"Well, I stayed at the restaurant too late tonight and got kicked out."
In response to Shirou's question, Nian pointed toward the direction she had walked from and laughed a few times.
There really was a hotpot restaurant over there.
And under the stimulation of a certain someone, the restaurant's spicy seasoning had undergone a breakthrough improvement, instantly becoming one of Lungmen's most famous spicy food locations.
Every day, countless people went there to challenge it.
However, many gave up on the authentic version halfway through because the spice level was unbearable, adding large amounts of broth to dilute the heat.
Of course, there were also people stubborn enough to finish it.
But those people usually ended up being sent to the hospital afterward.
To avoid wasting medical resources, the restaurant had no choice but to cancel the challenge entirely and only served it to longtime regular customers now.
The whole situation had caused quite a stir back then.
Even the members of Penguin Logistics had talked about wanting to challenge it themselves, but before they could find the time, the challenge disappeared.
Honestly, it was fortunate the challenge was gone.
That way, he no longer had to face such terrifying food again.
And among those "regular customers" were Nian...
And himself.
After all, the spicy seasoning had been created by him.
Once Nian learned he could cook, she asked him to give it a try, and he accidentally ended up creating an utterly horrifying monstrosity.
And at the time, Nian had even said it was only half as spicy as her standard.
It was genuinely difficult to imagine what kind of food this woman usually ate.
A spice level strong enough to send people to the hospital was only "halfway there"?
Ever since then, Shirou had rejected every hotpot invitation from her.
He was afraid he would end up creating another dark culinary weapon.
Food was supposed to make people happy and satisfied.
Not send them to the hospital.
"I see. So are you heading back now?"
Thanks to the friendship they had built over time, combined with Shirou's exhaustion, even though he felt something was strange, he did not think too deeply about it.
After all, he did not sense much hostility from her.
That tiny bit of malice was probably just because she wanted to invite him out for hotpot again someday.
Quite the nasty sense of humor.
"That is correct, but I happened to run into a tiny little problem."
After hearing Shirou's words, Nian revealed a somewhat resentful and awkward expression.
"What problem?"
Shirou tilted his head in confusion, wondering why she was making that kind of face.
"Well... today was pretty chaotic, right? My place got pierced through by several arrows. The hole is fairly large and wind keeps leaking through it, so before it gets repaired, I wanted to find a hotel to sleep in."
Nian spoke while maintaining a rather subtle expression.
"Unfortunately, today is Remembrance day, so most hotels are fully booked. I could only stay at the hotpot restaurant until closing time, and now I can only find some late-night snack shop to sit in instead."
"..."
After hearing her explanation, Shirou's expression gradually became awkward.
Earlier today, during one of the operations, he really had used a bit too much force in order to deal with the enemies efficiently.
Those damages were not something he needed to compensate for personally. The Guard Department would cover them since it fell within the scope of collateral damage during an emergency operation.
He just never expected it to hit Nian's residence.
That was awkward.
And judging by her expression, she already knew exactly who fired those arrows.
"Cough cough... I see."
With an awkward yet polite smile, Shirou's brain rapidly began thinking about how to handle the current situation.
At the same time, he turned his head to check on the others, trying to buy himself some thinking time.
"Exactly! It was terrible! I was sleeping at the time, and suddenly several arrows blasted straight through the wall and flew inside! I was absolutely terrified!"
Nian spoke with an exaggerated expression.
At this point, after hearing her say so much, Shirou could not bear to leave her wandering the streets alone at night.
Although public security in the city was fairly good, he knew the Guard Department had been overwhelmed these past few days. There would definitely be gaps in their control over public safety.
Besides, everyone knew that staying up late was a great enemy to women, and Shirou felt he could not shoulder the crime of making a woman spend the night without sleep.
Left with no choice, Shirou could only say:
"My dorm should still have an empty roo—"
"Great! Then I will be in your care!"
Before he could even finish speaking, Nian immediately agreed.
That was right.
She did it on purpose.
Whether it was waiting around here specifically for Shirou or deliberately forcing him into letting her come over so she could nag him, all of it was intentional.
Of course, the part about her wall being damaged by Shirou was true.
However, it was nowhere near uninhabitable, and she herself was not particularly picky about sleeping arrangements anyway.
She was simply interested in Shirou's Originium Arts.
Or rather, that strange ability of his.
Thinking about it made her annoyed again.
Last time, she sensed someone blow up an exceptionally good weapon, only to discover that person was actually Shirou.
This guy had even complained about himself together with her.
If she had not gotten curious and followed him after seeing those arrows today, she probably would have remained in the dark even longer.
She did not really have any grand thoughts regarding Shirou's abilities.
She was simply curious.
Though now there was also a tiny bit of resentment mixed in.
The resentment of a craftsman.
Any blacksmith who saw weapons appear while completely skipping the forging process would feel those weapons lacked a soul.
Yet Shirou himself only treated them as tools for combat, using them in the most reckless way imaginable.
Any craftsman would feel heartache seeing such treatment.
A fine sword exploding just like that...
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
She had to find a way to make him hand over an even spicier hotpot base next time.
And then force him to eat it himself.
"...Fine. But only for tonight."
Seeing Nian eagerly agree before he even finished speaking, even someone as dense as Shirou realized he had been tricked.
Still, this really was his own fault.
Since he got baited into it, he could only swallow the result in tears.
However, he still reminded Nian beforehand.
At the end of the day, she was an outsider. There was no way she could stay in the dorms for too long.
Otherwise, everyone else would definitely start feeling uncomfortable living there.
If it were not already so late, and if he himself were not utterly exhausted, he probably would have brought her to stay at the Fuyuki Shop instead.
But it was too late now, and he simply did not have the energy anymore.
Letting her stay one night was enough.
"Of course, of course! By the way, are those four drunk? Need me to help?"
Hearing Shirou's words, Nian nodded in agreement.
She never planned to stay long anyway.
She just wanted an opportunity to chat with him. Coincidentally, since her place had been damaged by him, she could use that excuse to quickly learn the things she wanted to know.
Besides, if there was a chance to stay somewhere comfortable, there was no reason to refuse.
"Then I will leave it to you... please be careful."
At this point, Shirou had accepted fate and accepted her kindness.
With someone helping restrain the two biggest troublemakers, the journey back became much faster.
Especially the Croissant problem.
Originally, Shirou planned to handle her himself, but Nian directly suppressed the troublemaking Croissant with ease, looking completely relaxed while doing it.
Judging from her appearance, she should belong to the draconic races as well...
In that case, having this kind of strength was pretty normal.
After all, everyone in Terra was basically superhuman.
"Whew... I need to hurry downstairs."
After returning to the dorms, Shirou first escorted the four girls upstairs and back to their rooms.
As for washing up and brushing teeth...
That could only be skipped for tonight.
Right now, he needed to hurry back downstairs to attend to the guest staying over tonight.
"Yo! This place is pretty tidy. Did you organize everything yourself?"
Sitting on the sofa, Nian saw Shirou rushing downstairs while panting heavily and casually started a conversation.
"I did organize it myself... there is an empty room here, so you can sleep there. I usually keep it cleaned up. It is already late, so you should sleep ."
Seeing Nian still sitting obediently on the sofa, Shirou first let out a sigh of relief before opening the door to a room that the others normally never entered.
The layout downstairs was similar to the upstairs.
One room had been converted into a changing room, another was where Shirou himself stayed, while the remaining two empty rooms were occasionally cleaned and maintained by him whenever he had spare time.
Originally, he figured they would be used someday if Yith or the Boss came over.
Unexpectedly, the first guest to use one ended up being Nian.
"Alright then! Sorry for the trouble!"
Nian did not act politely at all.
This had been one of her goals from the beginning.
After placing her belongings inside the room, she walked back out and found the living room completely empty.
Rather than touching other people's things carelessly, Nian simply wandered around and observed the environment.
Although she had already looked around while sitting on the sofa earlier, only after walking around freely did she realize that whoever arranged this place clearly considered the needs of a multi-person living environment.
Most things were prepared in sets of five.
Each person also had their own small personal space filled with individual belongings.
As for the other four owners...
There was no need to guess.
They obviously belonged to the four girls from earlier.
Who would have thought?
Shirou normally looked like a gentleman, but privately he was actually living together with four girls?
Hm...
Rather than "living together," this place felt more like their shared common area.
Though honestly, there was not much difference.
"Hmm... pretty ordinary?"
After taking a full look around, the word "ordinary" was Nian's very first impression of the place.
Not that ordinary was bad.
She had simply expected to discover something more interesting...
But there was nothing.
As a result, her troublemaker spirit instantly lost most of its enthusiasm, and she obediently returned to the empty room to stay there.
Once morning came...
That would be when she truly started dealing with Shirou.