"I don't care, you cheated. Let's do it again!" Tsubaki said, unconvinced.
"See off the guests." Sebastian didn't pay attention to the other party and turned his back.
"I'm sorry, Miss Tsubaki, but you did lose; however, you are very strong." With an apologetic face, Kikyo helped Tsubaki up.
"I'll go by myself!" Tsubaki refused Kikyo's support, stood up on her own, and walked straight out of the gate. Then she sat at the gate of the house.
"Miss Tsubaki," Kikyo looked at her helplessly.
"I won't leave until I defeat him!" Tsubaki said firmly.
Kikyo was a little at a loss and cast her gaze toward Sebastian inside the room, who shook his head.
"Call me if you need anything!" Kikyo couldn't take it anymore, so she told Tsubaki and then walked into the house.
"How can there be such a monster..." Tsubaki sat outside the house, sighed helplessly, and cast her eyes into the distance. Then she was shocked by the sight before her. There were high-rise buildings made of steel and concrete, different from the houses in this era.
"What's that?!" Tsubaki exclaimed.
She had fainted before at the outskirts of the village, so she didn't know what it looked like. At first, she thought it was just an ordinary village. But now, she had discovered that changes had taken place here. This was beyond her understanding, but she didn't know that Sebastian had altered this place, turning it into his main base.
When evening fell, Ram quickly started preparing dinner, while Kaede and Kikyo also took the initiative to help. Soon, a table of sumptuous dishes was placed before them.
"Mr. Sebastian, this is thanks to you," Kikyo said with a smile, then picked up the biggest piece of meat on the plate and placed it into Sebastian's bowl.
"With Mr. Sebastian, our family has a lot of vitality!" Kaede also immediately offered Sebastian a piece of meat.
Originally, the two sisters depended on each other, and the family was a bit lonely, but after Sebastian and the others came to the house, their usual laughter increased. Sebastian looked at the two and smiled.
While they were enjoying their dinner, a loud grunt sounded outside the door. The source of the sound was likely Tsubaki. The irresistible aroma of delicious food wafted from the house, making her hungry after smelling it.
She hadn't eaten much all day and had exhausted her energy rushing here. When she arrived at Sebastian's house, she hadn't eaten anything, only drank some water, so her stomach growled.
"Stop growling!" Tsubaki rubbed her stomach, her face filled with embarrassment. For her, making stomach noises like this was detrimental to her image.
"Kikyo, call her over for dinner!" Sebastian shook his head.
"Tsubaki, come and eat with us!" Kikyo said to her.
"I'm not going to eat; I'm not hungry..." Before Tsubaki finished speaking, her stomach grunted again, as if in revenge.
Sitting on the ground, Tsubaki buried her head deeply in her knees, her voice vague. Her face turned red; such an embarrassing scene made her feel life was worse than death.
"This, there's a wild cat nearby, yes, the sound was made by a wild cat!" Tsubaki tried to cover up her embarrassment.
"Come and eat if you're hungry," Sebastian said simply.
"We won't leave you without food." Sebastian didn't even look up.
Tsubaki frowned. She felt that she had just been defeated after uttering nonsense, and now she couldn't even defeat the maid's opponent. It was too embarrassing to have dinner with them. Accepting this was difficult for her.
However, she was truly hungry. After all, Tsubaki was still a young girl; her body hadn't fully developed yet. She had run such a long distance, and her body was quite exhausted. She gritted her teeth, stood up, walked into the room, and silently picked up the meal Kikyo had prepared for her, starting to eat.
She intended to take only a bite to curb her unbearable hunger, but as the food entered her stomach, her appetite was stimulated. She ate even more uncontrollably, finishing all the rice in the bowl in an instant.
"Back to life..." Tsubaki hiccupped uncontrollably, which made her even more embarrassed. She knew her image had crumbled, but the people around her didn't seem to care, including Sebastian. The atmosphere grew awkward again.
"Tsubaki, do you want to stay at our house temporarily?" Kikyo asked tentatively.
She knew that since Tsubaki had said she wouldn't leave until she defeated Sebastian, she probably wouldn't leave before then. She might stay forever. But Kikyo couldn't bear to see her sleeping on the street, so she asked.
While asking, she also looked at Sebastian to see if he was willing to take her in, but his expression remained unchanged; he seemed indifferent.
"No, I'll just live outside," Tsubaki replied, putting down her chopsticks without any words of gratitude. She immediately walked outside, leaning against the wall, closing her eyes, and meditating. The scene of her fight with Ram just now kept replaying in her mind.
"How did she do it?" Tsubaki frowned, trying to figure out the secret of her opponent's attack, but she couldn't. "It would be good to see it again. I'll challenge her again tomorrow!"
The next day, Tsubaki was still defeated instantly by Ram.
"No, I must observe her movements!" Before she knew it, a week had passed, and winter was approaching quietly.
The entire village had been remodeled. Electricity had become a part of daily life, greatly easing the villagers' living conditions, so they no longer had to worry about enduring the winter.
After Sebastian addressed the village's situation, he turned his attention to the surrounding mountains and forests, which were sparsely populated and largely undeveloped. For Sebastian, they were a treasure trove of resources that could not be ignored.