[Inorin's Note: Hey everyone, quick apology for the quiet week here! Over the last few days, we've been working behind the scenes to officially launch our own dedicated reading site.
Moving forward, Elysian Reads (elysianreads[.]com) is going to be our primary hub for all novel releases. (P.S. Just swap the [.] with a regular dot . to open the link!) It's packed with some really neat custom features designed to make reading way more enjoyable.
That being said, Webnovel isn't getting left behind. I'll be dropping a mass release here shortly to clear out the missed chapters, and our regular updates will be right back on track. Thanks a ton for hanging in there with me!]
Chapter 125: Mello's Blush: This Isn't Caviar
Rozaliya's fantasy session was in full swing.
The Vodka Girls were, as always, performing with remarkable consistency.
"What on earth goes through you two's minds all day?" Rekka asked, a sigh already forming in his chest.
"Thinking about Captain," Rozaliya replied, as if it were the most obvious fact in the universe.
"Thinking about how to get all lovey-dovey with Captain in broad daylight," Liliya added with a perfectly synchronized nod.
"I've already answered that question." Rekka expressionlessly pushed their heads apart. "Stop fooling around and watch the performance."
"Captain's changing the subject."
"Captain's shy."
The twins then fell into a state of deep contemplation as they watched the mermaids' booming livestream. A sudden, sharp pang of professional jealousy struck them as they considered their own sparse viewership. The sisters were not willing to be so easily outdone.
Although they had claimed they would only ever sing for their family on the Express, their competitive spirit was now thoroughly ignited.
"Captain, please teach us!" they pleaded in unison.
"Are you sure?" Rekka raised a skeptical eyebrow. "My ideas can be a little... unorthodox. I might lead you both astray."
'Does the galactic audience really enjoy watching beautiful girls perform heart-wrenching tragedies and cry their eyes out these days?' he wondered silently.
"Captain, we believe in you!" Rozaliya declared, patting her chest for emphasis—though there wasn't much to pat, a fact that brought to mind a certain other cutting board. 'Senti, Fu Hua, please don't look. This is a bad review,' Rekka thought with an internal wince.
"Alright, fine," he relented. "I'll teach you."
Later that day, the twins wrapped up their own stream.
"Vodka Girls, today's performance was a success! ♦~"
The sisters formed a heart with their hands for the camera before ending the broadcast.
"Ah... I'm so tired," Rozaliya sighed, slumping onto a nearby couch.
"Yeah," Liliya agreed, handing her a bottle of water. "I didn't expect Captain to be so good at creating entertainment value. Rozaliya, have some water."
"Mhm..." Rozaliya took the bottle and gulped down several mouthfuls, a series of "glug-glug" sounds echoing from her throat.
Rekka's little intervention had caused their viewership to jump by an absurd 5000%. They had gone from a meager ten viewers to five hundred people online simultaneously.
"Five hundred people!" Rozaliya exclaimed, her eyes wide with disbelief as she scrolled through the chat replay on her phone. "I never would have dared to imagine it before! How did Captain do it? The bullet comments were scrolling so fast my eyes were getting blurry!"
"It's nothing," Rekka said with a shrug. "It's just about grasping audience psychology. You two have great stage presence; it was only a matter of time before you got popular. I just gave you a little push. The reason no one was watching last time was probably because you were just standing there singing, without any skits or gags..."
The two sisters, overjoyed, huddled together, giggling as they scrolled through their phones.
Meanwhile, the little mermaids were having a wonderful time playing with Stelle, but one of them soon broke away from the group.
"Um, well..."
Mello, the leader of the Pepeshi, floated over to Rekka's side, her expression a complicated mix of shyness and resolve. She hesitated, wringing her small hands.
"Is something wrong?" he asked gently.
"Do you... want something to eat?" she finally managed to ask, her voice barely a whisper.
"Ah, sure."
"Mhm... okay." The mermaid nodded, a faint blush dusting her cheeks, before she drifted toward the kitchen.
A moment later, she returned carrying a small, elegant plate. With a gentle wave of her hand, she used her energy to conjure a serving of food upon it—a substance that wouldn't make one feel full, but possessed a distinct texture.
"Um, please enjoy."
Mello placed a plate of shimmering, blue-purple food in front of Rekka. The dish consisted of perfectly round little spheres that looked suspiciously like...
Stelle, noticing this from across the room, looked at Rekka in shock. She pointed an accusatory finger at him, her face a perfect mask of betrayal that clearly screamed, 'I can't believe you're eating alone!'
"That—no," Mello stammered, her mouth twitching. "Those are tears."
"Oh, so they're tears," Stelle said, scratching her head. "I thought they were caviar..."
Tiny, silver specks of light swirled within the translucent spheres. Rekka reached out, picked one up, and placed it in his mouth. His tongue was first met with a pleasant coolness, which then gave way to a faint sweetness laced with a delicate tartness, reminiscent of the clean air after a fresh rain.
"Delicious," he commented with a genuine smile.
Mello's eyes lit up for a fraction of a second before she quickly composed herself, returning to her usual gentle and soft demeanor.
"That's good."
Stelle, not to be left out, pulled a pearl she had acquired from her pocket and bit down on it. It didn't budge.
"Strange... I can't bite through it?" she muttered, her brows furrowing in concentration. A challenge had been issued.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch—
Stelle exerted all her strength, pitting her teeth against the unyielding tear-pearl.
"What are you doing, picking a fight with a pearl?" March 7th asked, bewildered.
"It challenged me!" Stelle replied indistinctly, the pearl still clamped firmly between her teeth. A fierce, competitive fire burned in her golden eyes. "I must conquer it!"
"Stop biting, stop biting!" March 7th quickly leaned in, trying to intervene. "Do you even want your teeth anymore?!"
Stelle mumbled something incoherent, her cheeks bulging as she gnawed a few more times. Finally, with a sigh of defeat, she spat the pearl into her palm.
"That's not for eating; this is," Mello said, holding up a new, much larger pearl.
Stelle shuddered. The tear Mello had just condensed was as big as a human fist.
"...Can this even be eaten?" Sweat began to bead on Stelle's forehead. Unless you were a hippopotamus, there was no way you could fit that in your mouth.
However.
"Then bring it on!"
Stelle took the massive pearl, and before Mello could utter a word of caution, she stuffed the entire thing into her mouth.
A few strained moments later, Welt Yang made his appearance.
"I thought I'd only ever need this trick if a passenger managed to get a lightbulb stuck in their mouth," he said, his expression indescribable as he looked from Stelle, whose jaw was now completely numb, to the large pearl he now held in his hand.
"I was... just a bit away from succeeding," Stelle slurred, her voice leaking air because her mouth hadn't fully recovered its function.
"More like just a bit away from dislocating your jaw," March 7th retorted.
"With such a big one right in front of me, could I really admit defeat?"
"What kind of logic is that..." March rolled her eyes.
Welt placed the large pearl on the table. Mello floated to Stelle's side and reached out to gently poke her cheek. "Does it still hurt?"
"Not anymore, it's just a bit numb." Stelle moved her jaw, which made a light clicking sound. "Your tears are way too hard."
"Sorry," Mello said softly. "I didn't think you'd just... eat it. Have you never eaten an apple?"
"I have."
"Then you should know you can't eat an apple whole." Mello tilted her head, her tone full of sincere confusion. "How could you just stuff something that big directly into your mouth?"
Stelle was speechless for a moment.
"It's called the unyielding Trailblaze spirit!" she finally declared. "As a Trailblazer, you have to face difficulties head-on! How can you back down!"
Stelle worked her jaw, still muttering things like "I'll get it next time" under her breath.
"Next time? By the time there's a next time, your teeth will be gone," March sighed.
"My teeth are fine." Stelle bared her teeth to prove it, but she wisely took one of the small pearls and popped it into her mouth this time. "It's delicious! Sweet and a bit cool."
Stelle then held the large pearl up to her eyes, looking at the carriage lights through the translucent sphere. The light refracted into tiny silver rays, casting mottled shadows on her face.
"Heh heh! From now on, this is part of my collection!"
"A collection to commemorate what you couldn't swallow?" Dan Heng commented dryly, crossing his arms. "To remind yourself not to stuff things bigger than your fist into your mouth, right?"
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