"We agreed, if I win hide-and-seek, you'll tell me the secret, every single detail!"
Nero stood with his hands on his hips, facing the four in front of him, his small face full of smug pride.
"Doesn't count, doesn't count! That round doesn't count!"
The little boy and little girl insisted that Nero's victory didn't count.
Among the three little kids, the one in the lead was wearing clothes that looked very warm, yet her legs were bare.
She wore a cotton hat, with yellow hair peeking out, two long ponytails tied behind her head. Her lamp-like orange-yellow eyes stared at Nero with a hint of annoyance.
Hook ground her teeth and said, "Doesn't count, you cheated!"
Nero refused to back down and stared back at Hook. "How did I cheat?"
Hook put her hands on her hips, righteous and indignant, as if listing a criminal's charges. "Who plays hide-and-seek by flying up to look for people!? No matter where we hid, you found us immediately! Isn't that cheating?"
But as soon as Hook said that, Nero's momentum surged even more. His tone grew firm, pressing step by step, completely confident and justified, "I flew up using my own ability! That's my own power! On what grounds do you say I cheated? This is something I can do myself.
"Besides, when we started playing hide-and-seek, you never said observing from a high place wasn't allowed, right? You never put any restrictions on that."
"When I was hiding, you could've observed from high places too! But you didn't do that at all."
"Just because you didn't think of it, does that mean I'm cheating because I did?"
"Y-you…"
The little kids clenched their teeth, hopping mad as they looked at Nero, yet unable to come up with any rebuttal.
Nero's behavior really did seem like deliberately bullying kids. After all, he could even argue Bronya into silence, using this level of logic and verbal skill against these little kids was complete overkill.
Yet from Nero, there was no sign that he was doing it on purpose or taking pleasure in it.
His serious gaze, his uncompromising tone, and that increasingly surging presence all seemed to prove one thing, he was genuinely arguing with these kids about whether what he did counted as cheating.
He firmly believed that since the other side hadn't set any restrictions on that method beforehand, then winning the game using it was perfectly reasonable and justified, completely unrelated to cheating or foul play.
Nero thought he had won fair and square, openly and honestly.
But the little kids, who had never experienced anything like this in hide-and-seek before, clearly didn't think so. Yet even with all three of them talking at once, they couldn't out-argue the guy in front of them.
For a moment, they were so angry that tears were welling up in their eyes.
Seeing this, March 7th, who was standing nearby, hurriedly said, "Alright, alright, why don't we just start over and play another round!"
As soon as she said this, March immediately caught Nero's attention.
Under the gaze of those gray eyes, March felt a little guilty and added, "Of course, Nero didn't cheat…"
Before she could finish, the three little kids also turned their gazes toward her.
Caught in the middle, March was torn both ways.
"Uh… well… that is to say… um…"
Only when you suddenly stand in the same position as Dan Heng do you truly understand how hard it is.
March panicked, completely unsure how to handle the situation in front of her.
Inside her heart, the beautiful girl screamed wildly, 'Help me! Almighty Teacher Dan Heng!'
But her plea clearly went unanswered. In the end, she could only rack her brain and think of a solution herself.
"Aha haha… anyway, that last round doesn't count as Nero cheating, but we still have plenty of time. How about we start over? This time, no flying up into the sky to look for people, okay?"
As she spoke, March looked toward Nero.
She was closer with Nero, so naturally she hoped he'd give her some face.
And no matter how you looked at it, making little kids cry and throw a fit over a game of hide-and-seek didn't feel right.
Nero glanced at March and nodded. "Sure!"
What he cared about wasn't whether the last round counted. He just cared that he hadn't cheated.
After that, Nero thought of something else.
Not long ago, the system told him that the Stellar Jade–giving event had already been arranged. He didn't know what it would be like.
But the system would definitely handle it properly.
On the other side, Hook and the other two members of the Moles also nodded after seeing Nero agree.
Hook said, "Hmph! In that case, let's do another round!"
March's luck was clearly good, because what the three Moles cared about was exactly the opposite of what Nero cared about.
Since Nero had used a method these kids had never seen before, they insisted that the results of the previous round didn't count.
The lucky girl, seeing both sides being so cooperative, let out a sigh of relief.
Then March said, "Alright, then let's start over. Hide-and-seek, but you're not allowed to fly into the sky to look for people."
"But it's agreed, okay? This time, the result will count. Whoever wins hide-and-seek gets the secret, every single detail!"
"Mm!" Hook responded first, then asked in confusion, "Actually, I wanted to ask earlier, 'every single detail'… what does that mean?"
"It means telling everything," March explained. "No hiding anything, and no lying to us."
Hook looked left and right at her companions, exchanged glances with them, then lifted her head and said firmly, her little face full of determination,
"Hmph! Hook isn't a surface-dweller. I'd never lie!"
"I'd never lie!" Julian put his hands on his hips and repeated it to cheer Hook on.
Hook closed her eyes like a little adult, nodded, and showed a satisfied expression.
This was approval for her little lackey.
"Deal~" March blinked at Hook. "Then let's play, eh?"
March suddenly froze. When she looked up, she realized that Stelle had somehow appeared beside her.
Stelle looked at March and smiled.
"Y-you… when did you get here?"
Stelle replied, "I've been here for a while."
"Uh… haha…" March laughed awkwardly.
"It's not that I wanted to play hide-and-seek. Listen, I can explain… at first, it was little Nero playing with them…"
"After I woke up, the doctor said Dan Heng had been taken away by Sampo. I went around looking but couldn't find him, and then I ran into Nero playing hide-and-seek with these kids."
"I asked Nero where Dan Heng was, and he said he didn't know either. And it just so happened that these kids, who overheard us, said they knew where Dan Heng was…"
After that, March helplessly spread her hands at Stelle.
"But they said that if we wanted to know, we had to join the Moles. And to join the Moles, we had to play games together. You have to win to prove your strength… now you get it, right?"
"We actually already won one round just now, but the reason we won was because Nero flew up and quickly found them from the sky."
"They think that was cheating, so the results of the last round don't count, and that's why we're getting ready to start another round…"
Hearing this, Stelle smiled encouragingly and nodded. "I understand. Good luck!"
With that, Stelle turned to leave, only to be grabbed by March.
"You're already here and you still want to leave? Stay and play hide-and-seek with me!"
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