On their way back, Steven and Yelena didn't encounter any unexpected trouble.
The biggest threat in this area had always been the Collapsal—everything else, whether it was wild beasts or something more dangerous, had either been hunted down by the guerrillas for food or scared off by the Collapsal presence.
After a smooth and uneventful journey, Steven finally returned to his little home in the snowfields.
However, he didn't have any plans to take Yelena to the village—after all, she wasn't familiar with the people there, and her identity as an Infected could easily lead to misunderstandings.
He did think about introducing her to Talulah and Alina at some point, though.
After all, an ice user meeting a fire user?
That just sounded fun.
But then again—there'd be plenty of opportunities for that later, so there was no need to rush.
Meanwhile, Yelena narrowed her eyes as she took in Steven's home—a plain and simple wooden cabin sitting alone in the snowy wilderness.
She had expected something… grander.
A large warehouse? A secret base?
At the very least, she thought he'd have some private villa.
But no—just a small wooden hut?
And yet, even with such basic conditions, his living situation was still better than most of the guerrillas.
Even she herself only had a simple little tent to sleep in.
"Well, since you're already here, might as well come in and sit for a bit."
Steven, on the other hand, didn't care at all about how "shabby" his place looked.
Big house, small house—who cares?
As a Minecraft player, what truly mattered was the sense of belonging—as long as it was his, then it was the best.
Besides—if he ever wanted a bigger house, he could just expand it.
It was literally that simple.
With that casual thought, Steven pushed open the door and invited Yelena inside.
His potatoes, which had been piled by the entrance before, had long since been put away and replanted—in their place were cactus.
Let's see someone try to steal those now.
As for his actual room, aside from his bed, the only things inside were a furnace, a brewing stand, and a couple of other workstations.
All of his valuables?
Carried right on his back.
Steven never worried about thieves.
What were they gonna steal? Air?
With his place being so empty, there wasn't even a need to clean up.
After pulling two chairs out of his inventory and setting them in the middle of the room, Steven casually started heating up some water.
In this freezing cold weather, a warm drink was always a comfort.
Of course—if he had tea leaves, that'd be even better.
Maybe he should install a Cooking Craft mod or something like Pam's HarvestCraft?
That way, his crop selection would expand, and his food options would become a lot more interesting.
As he stroked his chin, planning out his next steps, Yelena silently sat in the chair behind him, hugging the warm bottle he had given her.
The warmth from the bottle—
Hadn't faded at all.
Even after an hour had passed, it was just as warm as when she first got it.
She had no idea what Steven did to make it this way.
But that gentle, constant warmth—
She instinctively clutched the bottle tighter.
For someone like her, warmth had always been out of reach.
Because of her body's condition, she never truly felt warmth—even when directly burned by fire, she could only experience pain, not heat.
As for hot water bottles?
They would immediately turn into ice packs the moment they got close to her.
Even after Steven had treated her once, her condition had only slightly improved—she still struggled to feel warmth.
But now—
For the first time, she was holding warmth in her hands.
And that—
Was something she never thought she would experience.
But this simple little gadget that Steven had casually handed her—
It let her experience that rare sense of comfort once again.
And because of that, her gratitude toward the boy in front of her deepened even further.
Along with that gratitude, though—
Came an uncontrollable curiosity.
Where on earth was he getting all these strange and magical tools?
Not to mention—
How was he able to pull out so many supplies from his pockets?
There was no way modern technology could explain this.
If she had to force an explanation using Originium Arts, then the problem was—
Steven didn't have any Originium energy fluctuations on him at all.
"Why are you staring at me like that? Am I that weird? Or is my house the weird one?"
Steven walked back over, holding two bottles of hot water.
Right in front of Yelena, he casually sprinkled some white powder into one of them, shook it evenly, and then handed it to her.
"Can I just say—everything is weird?"
Yelena tilted her head as she watched his completely unguarded actions.
But in the end—
She simply took the cup with absolute trust, bringing it to her lips for a small sip.
The moment the warm liquid touched her tongue, a burst of sweetness wrapped around her taste buds.
Her eyes instinctively squinted in happiness, and only then did she glance toward Steven.
This guy…
He already remembered that she liked sweets?
"It's fine if you like sweet things," Steven said nonchalantly. "Just make sure to exercise more—at your weight, you could easily go over the limit."
It wasn't like he had made this drink specifically for her—he was just hosting a guest, and of course, he'd cater to her tastes.
"I won't get fat! Do you even know how much I move around every day? There's no way I'd gain weight, okay?!"
Yelena rolled her eyes at him.
Whatever good impression she had of him just now?
Gone.
If only he could just shut up sometimes, he'd be perfect.
"Actually, I was just curious… Have you always lived alone like this?"
Trying to steer the conversation away from a topic that no girl liked discussing, Yelena took another glance around the empty room before her gaze landed on—
His pink single bed.
…
Wait.
This guy always looked so calm and straightforward, but his bed…
Was this his taste?
Or was he secretly… into girly stuff?
"What else?" Steven replied. "Do you think I should have some big organization backing me, or that one person can't just live by themselves?"
Sitting down with his own cup of water, he sighed slightly.
This topic—
Was a bit of a sore spot for him.
For many years, he had been living like this all alone.
If he had any other choice, he wouldn't have picked such a solitary way of life.
But even so—
Compared to the terrible world that Talulah always described, he still had some gratitude for this place.
At the very least—
This world had given him a few friends that he could actually call his own.
And life—
Was no longer as dull and monotonous as before.
"It's not that," Yelena said after carefully choosing her words.
"It's just… how should I put it? With your cheerful personality, I thought your home would be… I dunno, a bit more lively than this."
"You're not wrong," Steven nodded, acknowledging her point.
"It's a little empty, yeah. If I have the time, I'd actually like to get a cat, a parrot, or maybe a dog—at least that way, it wouldn't feel so lifeless."
As he spoke, his thoughts drifted off—
Maybe he should head out to the snowfields and see if he could use some bones to tame a few wild wolves as his guard dogs?
"That's not what I meant—"
Yelena paused, then sighed.
"Forget it. There's no point asking these things anyway."
"Anyway… if you don't mind, would it be okay if I dropped by from time to time when I'm free?"
Yelena opened her mouth as if to say something—
But in the end, she swallowed her words.
Steven clearly hadn't caught on to the point she was trying to make.
Then again, there wasn't much point in asking anyway.
Might as well change the topic.
"Of course, you're always welcome," Steven said casually.
"As the saying goes—Isn't it a joy to have friends visit from afar?"
"Oh, right—since you mentioned it, I just remembered something.
"Perfect timing—I need your help with an experiment."
Steven patted his forehead, and as he glanced at the pair of rabbit ears on top of Yelena's head, something clicked in his mind.
He reached into that seemingly bottomless pocket of his and started rummaging around.
Before long, he pulled out exactly what he was looking for—
A long, cylindrical object—
A carrot.
Yelena could say with absolute certainty—
That was a carrot.
It smelled like a carrot.
It looked like a carrot.
And yet—
From the moment Steven took it out—
She couldn't take her eyes off it.
As a Cautus girl, liking carrots was just a natural trait of her race.
But never to this extent.
Right now—
Her entire mind was consumed by one thought:
How do I take that carrot from Steven and eat it?
It was so bad that she couldn't even think about anything else.
Even though she knew this reaction was wrong—
Even though she knew this wasn't normal—
She still couldn't control her body.
"Hmm… Looks like I don't even need to test it."
Steven muttered to himself, watching Yelena's reaction.
"Yeah, definitely shouldn't be taking this thing out randomly."
Seeing how strongly it affected her, he immediately put the carrot back into his bag.
His eye twitched slightly.
So this trait really carried over, huh?
That meant—
If he ever needed to deal with a cat-girl, dog-girl, bunny-girl, or even something like a sheep-girl or cow-girl—
Wouldn't he just be completely unstoppable?
Steven had always known that food could attract animals.
But he never expected—
That it would still work on people who only had partial animal traits.
And this was just from taking it out.
Steven still vividly remembered—
If he actually fed it to an animal…
Well, the results wouldn't be pretty.
Just imagining Yelena eating the carrot—
Her body glowing with hearts—
Snuggling up to him with sparkling eyes—
Steven instinctively rubbed his face, trying to wipe those thoughts away.
He was a gentleman, okay?
There was no way he'd resort to cheap tricks like this.
Absolutely not.
…
But then again—
This thing might be useful in other ways.
Steven's lips curled into a subtle smirk.
If he remembered correctly…
Wasn't Kal'tsit also technically a cat too?
<+>
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