Chen Yu was startled.
He gazed blankly ahead at the demon girl before him, her eyes filled with anticipation and trepidation. He immediately swept her into his embrace.
"Wow~"
Witnessing this scene unfold.
Sona, much like a girl watching an idol drama, gasped and licked her lips with eager eyes, an involuntary maternal smile spreading across her face.
The demon girl, held tightly, froze, her mind a complete blank.
"Barbara, you are my angel!" After holding her for a long moment, Chen Yu gripped her shoulders, his excitement overflowing from his eyes.
The demon girl stared at Chen Yu for a long time, then pushed him away.
"What are you doing?!"
After shoving Chen Yu, she stumbled back several steps, her lips tightly pressed, a blush on her cheeks.
"I'm grateful to you!" Chen Yu exclaimed, eyes wide, shaking the bracelet in his left hand excitedly. "You gave me this, I have to express my gratitude, right?"
Amazing!
Chen Yu could never have dreamed that the demon girl would offer him such compensation.
Truly a great demon king.
The former overlord of a dozen cities and ruler of several kingdoms, her generosity was astounding!
"Ah?"
Feeling Chen Yu's excitement, the demon girl couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
Was it that serious?!
Although what she gave was not bad for Chen Yu at this stage, it shouldn't warrant this level of excitement. Though she didn't understand, she could tell Chen Yu was very satisfied with the compensation.
This meant she didn't have to fulfill the bet.
A good outcome.
"Alright, alright, look at you, acting like you've never seen the world. You are my subordinate, Barbara the great demon king, you should be steady, understand?" The demon girl, hands behind her back, walked forward and lightly patted Chen Yu's shoulders. "Stick with me, and I'll have plenty of good treasures for you in the future. It's just a few crafting blueprints, nothing to get so worked up about."
"Crafting blueprints?"
Chen Yu was stunned upon hearing this, then saw the bracelet glow.
A pile of blueprints appeared before him.
"These are blueprints!"
"Haha, are you seeing things? How could I possibly have equipment blueprints?" The demon girl whispered with a smile, reaching out to pick up the blueprints. "Look, aren't these..."
Before she could finish, the demon girl suddenly froze.
She stared intently at the blueprints in her hand for a long time, then rubbed her eyes fiercely in disbelief.
"This?"
Her lips moved for a while, but she couldn't utter a word.
Sona slowly approached.
Stretching her neck to take a peek, she exclaimed in shock.
"Barbara, you actually have blueprints for equipment of this caliber? Then why didn't you use them for your Demon King's Castle back then? Did you look down on the Holy See?"
"Impossible!"
The demon girl glared and retorted, bending down to pick up all the blueprints from the ground.
Blueprints!
Blueprints!
Blueprints!
They were all blueprints!
"Truly a great demon king, I am impressed!" Chen Yu gave a thumbs-up and took the blueprints from the demon girl's hand.
"Heh~"
The demon girl looked reluctantly at the blueprints in Chen Yu's hands, her eyes filled with suspicion and a forced smile.
"I told you, stick with me, and you won't be disappointed."
"I believe you!" Chen Yu declared earnestly, pounding his chest three times. "From now on, I will follow your lead completely, you are my elder brother, and I am your eager subordinate."
"The bet~"
"What bet? What bet are you talking about? I don't know, brother, did we make a bet about something?"
"No!"
"Brother, fresh cheese, please have a taste." Chen Yu conjured a piece of golden cheese with a flip of his hand, then produced a bottle of fruit preserves. "Cave Assorted Preserves, please accept them."
"What about me, Chen Yu?" Sona whispered.
"Everyone gets some!"
Chen Yu waved his hand grandly.
Clang.
More than a dozen glass bottles appeared in the side yard of the camp, along with several blocks of cheese contained in glass jars.
"For you two, enjoy."
Leaving the preserves and cheese, Chen Yu excitedly headed towards the main courtyard of the camp with the blueprints. Sona watched Chen Yu's retreating back and took a bite of cheese from a glass jar.
Upon tasting the cheese, Sona couldn't help but raise her eyebrows.
"Wow~"
"This is delicious."
Sona couldn't resist taking more bites, and with one jar of cheese not enough, she ate several more in quick succession. Half a jar of cheese was gone in less than half a minute.
Then, she noticed Barbara constantly frowning and muttering to herself.
"Hey, what are you muttering about?" Sona nudged the demon girl with her shoulder and offered another piece of cheese. "Try this, Chen Yu's cheese is really incredibly delicious. We've never eaten anything he made before, so his grilled meat should be delicious too."
However——
The demon girl paid no attention to the cheese before her, continuing her own mumbling.
"It shouldn't be, how is that possible?"
"Hey, wake up." Sona reached out and pushed her. The demon girl snapped back and glared. "Sona, you saw it, right? I just gave Chen Yu crafting blueprints."
"I saw."
Sona nodded noncommittally.
"Two sets, in fact. I was quite surprised you had blueprints but didn't use them. Back then, your Demon King's Castle was very powerful, with even the weakest being at the Gold tier. But you had many cities with Bronze and Silver tiers, you could have made them for them."
"I didn't!"
To her surprise, the demon girl glared.
"If I had blueprints, why wouldn't I have learned to make them? Like you said, my cities had so many Silver, Bronze, and Iron tiers without equipment. Would I not have learned or provided them with armaments? What I gave Chen Yu were crafting schematics, not blueprints at all."
"Are you seeing things?"
Sona asked with a face full of suspicion, shrugging.
"Perhaps when you obtained these blueprints before, you subconsciously thought they were crafting schematics and didn't pay much attention."
"Would I make such a low-level mistake?" the demon girl retorted. Sona spread her hands. "Maybe not for others, but it's quite possible for you."
"..."
Suddenly, the demon girl fell silent, then let out a deep sigh.
"Sona, believe me, I really wasn't seeing things this time. I can be very sure that what I gave Chen Yu were two sets of crafting schematics, definitely not blueprints."
"Ah?"
"I don't know why, but they suddenly turned into blueprints."
"This?!" Sona blinked in confusion. "Can such a thing happen? Crafting schematics turning into blueprints? Frankly, I've never seen anything like it."
"It's my first time too."
"I was wondering why you were willing to give such valuable blueprints to Chen Yu. I even suspected you had feelings for him at the time."
"Peh!"
The demon girl said with a look of disdain.
"How could I possibly give him blueprints? You know how important blueprints are to the underground world. Oh, I'm truly baffled as to how they could become blueprints. Could it be..."
"Shush!"
Before Barbara could finish, Sona raised a finger and shook her head with a serious expression, then offered the cheese again.
"Try it, it's really good~"
"Really?" The demon girl took the cheese. The moment it entered her mouth, her eyes widened, and she rushed to the jar, hugging the entire container.
Sona watched this scene silently, her peripheral vision focused on Chen Yu's direction.
A hint of unfathomable depth clouded her eyes.