Pela's name really is very long. Even if Stelle only heard it once, she couldn't remember it, let alone these little kids.
Pela herself knew this very well, so she said to the children, "... Everyone can just call me Pela."
So the children shouted in unison, "Pe sis!"
At the same time, Stelle and Nero also shouted along with the children, "Pe sis!"
Pela immediately reacted. She raised her head, her gaze landing on Stelle, and said in a slightly serious tone, "…Could certain adults please not casually imitate children!"
Only then did Pela notice Nero standing next to Stelle, and she added, "…Uh… those under eighteen also shouldn't imitate even younger kids!"
March half-lidded her eyes and glanced at Nero.
Come to think of it, Nero didn't seem to have ever called her "sister."
But that wasn't a big deal, he hadn't called Stelle "sister" or Dan Heng "brother" either.
He always seemed to call Dan Heng "Teacher Dan Heng"…
After lecturing the two troublemakers, Stelle and Nero, Pela continued introducing the Everwinter Monument behind her to the children.
"Alright, kids, please look, this is the Everwinter Monument. It was erected to commemorate the great Architects.
"The Architects were followers of the Aeon Qlipoth. When they encountered crisis, they built high walls and founded Belobog, preserving the spark of human civilization."
"Even today, they continue to manage this city."
"The main body of the Everwinter Monument is composed of two parts…"
Pela began explaining things to the children. This style of explanation made Nero think of his own study tour to the astronomy museum.
From his personal experience, he felt this kind of approach was very hard to keep children's attention, because there were so many fresh and interesting things around them drawing their focus.
So Nero went to find Dan Heng. He felt that Dan Heng would be more likely to understand what he wanted to say.
This was how Nero put it, "Teacher Dan Heng, I feel that if it were explained the way Mr. Xiyan tells the story of the Cloud Quintet, it would be more interesting. But since this is a relatively serious topic, there's really no way to do that."
Hearing Nero's words, Dan Heng, who had been deep in thought with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them and instinctively glanced at Nero.
He didn't see any scheming on the boy's face. Instead, it felt as if a cold wind had slipped into his clothes and pressed against his back.
Dan Heng shrugged and said nothing.
At times like this, it was best to just play dumb…
After that, the group listened for a while longer as Pela explained Belobog's history to the children, then they left.
March walked at the front, leading everyone toward the Neverwinter Workshop.
"The Neverwinter Workshop is here, eh? Didn't Gepard say there would be a performance here?"
Standing in front of the Neverwinter Workshop, March looked quite puzzled.
"His exact words were, 'there are occasionally performances.' You filtered out the two most important words," Dan Heng said.
March looked at Dan Heng and blinked.
Dan Heng looked back at March, expressionless.
"Darn it, I was really interested!" March clenched her fists, feeling a bit unwilling.
Nero spread his hands. "Mysticism can't save the unlucky, and spending money can't change fate…"
Stelle followed up, "So if our luck's bad and we didn't catch a performance, there's nothing we can do. Not catching it just means not catching it."
"The three of you ganging up to complain about me, is that fun?" March stomped her foot, a little annoyed.
But the beautiful girl's attention was quickly diverted. She noticed that in front of the Neverwinter Workshop, there was a heater placed outside, a thick, ring-shaped device about half a meter long, glowing with a red light.
"By the way, look over there. I wanted to complain about this earlier, this city is so weird. Why are they piling heaters outside the buildings?
"Normally, heating equipment should be installed indoors, right?"
Nero shook the Flamespawn in his hand. "Not a big problem. Once the deal with the company is settled, heating equipment will be portable in the future."
Of course, he hadn't forgotten about doing business. He just couldn't go contacting Herta and the company so casually.
But regarding this matter, Nero already had an idea.
He wasn't good at this sort of thing, but someone else was.
"How is that the point?" March rolled her eyes at Nero.
"Maybe they want to use this thing to fend off the cold wave?" Stelle offered her guess.
"…If you put it that way, these Architects were pretty naive," March said, hands on her hips, looking at Stelle. She felt that Stelle's comment was overflowing with things to complain about and didn't even know where to start.
After all…
The disaster brought by the Stellaron was something a tiny heater could never hope to deal with.
Just as the Trailblazing Squad was chatting idly in front of the Neverwinter Workshop, a slightly startled chuckle suddenly came from behind them.
Turning around, they saw a very eye-catching woman.
The woman's blonde hair was draped down her back, with a lock at her forehead and the tips of her hair dyed blue. She had a good figure, and her clothing carried a strong metal rock style.
"Hah, you can really talk for this long in front of a broken heater?"
"Wow! Such a cool big sister!" March praised.
Stelle blinked. "Broken?"
"Yeah!" Serval nodded. "Just touch it and you'll know. It's ice-cold. I was just about to fix it.
"Ah… I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Serval, and I'm the owner of this Neverwinter Workshop.
"If you've got any broken equipment, you can come find me, but I don't guarantee I'll be interested in fixing it."
Listening to Serval, Stelle crossed her arms and thought to herself, that last sentence basically said nothing at all.
March said, "No, no, I was just a bit curious about this heater…"
"A heater… curious?" Serval looked at March in confusion.
"Isn't this just an ordinary geomarrow heater? They're everywhere in the Administrative District."
Nero stepped forward and said to Serval, "We're aliens. It's our first time seeing this thing."
"Aliens?"
The term coming from Nero made Serval pause. Her mind stalled for a moment. After a brief thought, a look of realization appeared on her face.
"Oh, I get it! I heard from a Silvermane Guard with a loose mouth that a few outsiders met with Cocolia, so that must be you guys, right?"
As she spoke, Serval's eyes grew eager.
This was her first time seeing aliens, and her interest in the Trailblazing Squad was skyrocketing.
"Well, this really is a rare visit! Come on, come on, heater or whatever, big sis will chat with you properly about it!"
And just like that, the Trailblazing Squad was ushered into the Neverwinter Workshop.
Inside the workshop were some bookshelves, workbenches, and a front counter. Various mechanical creations were in motion. The interior layout, décor, and lighting all gave off a retro, old-photograph vibe, as if just standing there, you could smell the passage of time.
"What you saw outside is Belobog's most common geomarrow heater. Don't let its plain appearance fool you, it's people's lifeline."
"With winds and snow this fierce outside, without reliable heating methods, all of Belobog would have turned into a dead city long ago."
Inside the workshop, Serval explained the purpose of the heaters to everyone.
After thinking for a moment, Nero placed the Flamespawn in his hand onto the table in front of Serval, preparing to give her a bit of alien shock.
Seeing the red, bird-shaped creature tossed onto the table, Serval froze.
She recognized this thing at a glance…
But why was this boy, about the same age as her own younger sister, suddenly putting it on the table?
And besides, this thing was a Fragmentum creature.
Did her little brother help him bring it in?
Looking at the Flamespawn on the table, Serval frowned slightly, her expression tinged with nervousness as she kept thinking about the situation and what Nero might be planning.
However, before she could arrive at a clear answer, she heard Nero say, "Speaking of heaters, what do you think of this heater of mine?"
"Huh?"
Serval stood there dumbfounded, her gaze shifting back and forth between Nero and the Flamespawn, before finally settling on Nero's face.
She pointed at the Flamespawn, doubting her own ears.
"A heater?
"This thing?"
[T/N: I have started doing another fanfic— "Frieren: A Journey of the Demon King". It is a quite relaxing and humorous read, give it a go. Have a great read~]