"This story happened when Robin and I were very young. We were victims of the Stellaron disaster. Mr. Gopher Wood of the Family, who would later become the Dreammaster of Penacony, saw that my sister and I had no one to rely on, so he adopted us."
"After that, Robin and I spent a relatively carefree period of time together. One day after dinner, my sister and I accidentally found a lonely Halovian bird in Mr. Gopher Wood's courtyard."
"The chick was still very young. It had not even grown all its feathers yet, and it could not sing. When we found it, it had fallen into the grass and was barely alive. It seemed to have been abandoned by its parents."
"We immediately decided to build it a nest. But after thinking it over, that winter was very cold, the wind in the courtyard was strong at night, and there were also many poisonous insects and wild animals roaming around..."
"Without a doubt, if we left the chick in the courtyard, there was no way it could make it to spring. So I suggested taking it back, putting it on the wooden stand in front of the window, and asking the adults to make a birdcage."
"We agreed that once it could spread its wings and fly through the sky on its own, we would return it to the sky. But unfortunately, we never imagined that the fate of this little bird had already been decided before then."
"What happened to it depended only on a single thought of ours."
"Now, I will give all of you the right to choose. Faced with this situation, how would you choose?"
"Would you follow our original plan and use soft cushions to build a nest for the little Halovian bird right where it was?"
"Or would you choose to build it a birdcage and carefully raise the bird in a warm house?"
"I look forward to your answer."
Sunday narrated this story to everyone in a calm voice and gave them two answers to choose from.
March sighed from the side. "Sigh... What the heck does this brainless guy mean by throwing a question like this at us?"
"Whatever," July said. "It's not like we can't just answer it. If we keep wasting time here, do you think he'll let us out?"
"Hmm..." Himeko nodded. "Given the current situation, it does look like he has no intention of imprisoning us. If it's just a question-and-answer game, there's no harm in playing along."
Stelle nodded as she listened to Himeko.
Indeed, if it was just a question-and-answer game...
She had no idea how to lose.
Even if all of us get convinced, it doesn't matter. We still have Nero. This kid isn't just great at beating people up, he's also great at talking back.
Because of everything she had seen in the past, no matter how she thought about it, Stelle could not imagine a situation where Nero would lose an argument or debate.
March nodded. "That's true... Hmm... If it were me, I'd probably choose to build the little Halovian bird a cage, right?"
"For example, if we left it where it was, it would definitely get hurt by wild animals... That would be too pitiful for the little bird."
"Then, back to the question itself," Himeko said. "Personally, I would choose to build the little Halovian bird a cage. There's no special reason. I just think every chick has the right to fly into the sky, but if it doesn't live until then, there's nothing to talk about."
"I still can't see what he's trying to do..." Firefly frowned. "But if we only look at the question itself... I'd probably choose to build the little Halovian bird a cage... Even if we want to return it to the sky, that's only possible if it can spread its wings and fly. If we leave it where it is... I'm afraid it will never have the chance to fly into the sky again."
Listening to everyone's answers, Stelle thought for a moment, then nodded.
Everyone seemed to have roughly the same idea: first make sure the little Halovian bird could survive normally, because the real purpose of making this choice was to save it.
It was a very normal way of thinking.
Then Stelle turned to Nero. "Nero, what do you think?"
"Me?" The child showed a moment of thought. Then, to everyone's shock, Nero raised a hand and wiped the corner of his mouth before saying, "I think we should find a skewer, start a fire, prepare this little thing, coat it with seasoning, then roast it and eat it. You know, roast squab is really tasty!"
"Huh?" Stelle froze in place, staring blankly at the boy in front of her like a little raccoon.
This was truly an unexpected, completely unexpected answer.
But hearing it from Nero's mouth also made perfect sense, because this child had always been like this. In a daze, she seemed to have already seen a little honey badger holding a Halovian bird and gnawing on it.
Everyone else was also extremely shocked by Nero's answer. Of course, the two knights showed no reaction. From just now, they seemed to have been thinking about something else.
"N... Nero..." July looked at Nero, her voice trembling slightly. "You actually chose to eat it directly?"
"Otherwise?" Nero spread his hands and said with a hint of rebelliousness, "Do I have to find the answer from the two choices Brother Sunday gave us? This kind of thing is subjective to begin with. How could there be a correct answer?"
After saying that, a smile appeared on the child's face. Nero smiled and continued speaking, imitating the way Jing Yuan usually assigned tasks to other people, "What I want to tell you is that you can just pick either answer to this question. It doesn't matter. A long time ago, I always advocated looking at the essence of a problem."
"Not to mention that the little Halovian bird inside is only an existence in Brother Sunday's memory. No matter what choice we make, reality won't change."
"This is a multiple-choice question, not some open-ended question where you can just say whatever you want. Both answers were provided by Brother Sunday."
"What does that tell us? It tells us that no matter which one we choose, and no matter which answer's words, views, and way of thinking we use to debate with him, he can use arguments he prepared long ago to refute us."
"So the answer doesn't matter. Who cares what happened to the pigeon in his memory? This past won't change because of our choice. The problem with Penacony is what urgently needs to be solved now, so just pick one and get out of here as soon as possible."
Listening to Nero's argument, Firefly blinked.
Among the Hunters, she had always thought she was already very straightforward in how she did things. She had not expected this child, who often played games with Silver Wolf, to be even more direct.
Stelle looked even more impressed. "As expected of Nero. You're always this decisive, going straight to the root of the problem."
———
"I'm telling you, this is what I call sticking to the issue at hand!" The streaming Xibery Duck could not help exclaiming when he saw this part of Nero's story. "What do you guys think? Does unwavering Nero count as version T0?"
[Dan-heart Eternal: Absolutely, streamer. With Nero's stats, even if his will wasn't firm, he'd still be T0.]
[I Use Pantene: I can only say that when it comes to having a clear goal, Nero has never let anyone down. I'm telling you, never wavering. That's too cool.]
[Pure Beauty Knight: This is Pure Beauty, my friends. Blinding language attacks cannot affect us in the slightest, because our goal is clear, like the Morning Star of the East; our emotions burn fiercely, like the blazing sun; our will is unwavering, unbreakable like tempered steel!]
[So Handsome I Get Beaten Up on the Street: A question that looks this damn impressive, if it were someone else, wouldn't they be confused for several days? But Nero won't. Nero will only make the person who asked the question end up black and blue.]
[Aha's Emanator: Isn't it supposed to be black here and blue there?]
[Boiling Tea with Snow: Could be. After all, Nero has always liked solving problems at the root.]
[Herta Fan Support Club: 6, so this is what you mean by solving problems at the root, huh? As long as you destroy the person who caused the problem, then there's no problem.]
[My Pee Is Yellow: Yes, I just like Nero when he's this direct and domineering. Every time Nero tells me to lie face-down on the bed and stick my bu*t up, I hesitate for a moment.]
[Glue Man: ? What do you mean?]
[My Pee Is Yellow: Because every time I hesitate, Nero solves the problem of me not listening by kicking my ** hard!]
[Glue Man: I'm telling you, that censoring word! Brother Yellow, you're unbeatable.]
[Belobog Savage: Hehe... I have to say, Brother Yellow still has his charm.]
[Nero's Sword: Bringing the whole thing to life, huh?]
[🎉 Shoutout to Pablo, N8tive and Ferocious_Beast for joining p@treon. Consider joining to keep the stories going. Thank you very much.🤗]