Honkai: Strijder

On the way back to his temporary abode, Sigurd didn't miss the chance to pick up some more useful things such as numerous dead tree branches and a few rocks with sharp edges.

After arriving at the bridge, Sigurd put down the bag of bread in his hand to the side, he then tear off a small piece of clothing from his rags, using out the sharpened edge of the rock to get some sawdust from the dead branch, sigurd then wrap the cloth around the dead branch, using the cloth to twist and rotate the wood, drilling it into another dead tree branches that are filled with the sawdust and tried to start a fire to warm himself up.

For some reason, Sigurd can clearly identify which dead tree branches are easy to burn, he can also clearly know which angle and force that he would need so he can make the spark of fire appear faster.

Not long after that, just ast the sky above him darkened, Sigurd finally was able to start the bonfire up.

The flame dissipated a lot of cold aura around the bridge, Sigurd scrubbed the metal cup that he found on the way back with a piece of his clothing, he then filled the cup with clean snowballs, and put it above the bonfire to make a cup of boiled water.

'While the water would certainly be polluted with lots of dangerous bacteria, it's still better than nothing.' With that thought in his mind, the young man braced himself up and drank the hot water.

With the hot cup filled to the brim with boiled water in his right hand, while slowly chewing the toasted black bread in his left hand, wrapped in nothing but a tattered piece of clothing, and finally, being engulfed with the warmth brought by the flames from the bonfire, for some reason, Sigurd never felt more alive than this moment.

While slowly digesting the food in his hand, Sigurd's mind, who is now not constantly thinking of finding food, starts to notice something that he had ignored previously.

"The language I just used to talk to that man is obviously not Danish, and yet, I can understand and speak it so fluently..."

While chewing the black bread, Sigurd continued to ponder about all the weird phenomena that had happened to him.

Although the language that he speaks is not Danish, for some reason, the words that come out of his mouth were as familiar and as normal to him, it's as if he had spoken the said language ever since he was nothing but a baby.

"Sure enough, the chance of me being transported into another person's body is higher than being reincarnated, the language that I know of is something that can only happen if i got it from this body memory, i guess it's something that is packaged alongside this body."

"Then this supernatural cognition and understanding ability is my boon in this new world? Can be something worse i guess"

Sigurd closed his eyes and pondered, thinking hard on how to best use this new ability of his to live, rather than just simply surviving.

In any case, thanks to this ability that he got, Sigurd was able to earn his first piece of bread and felt the breath of life in this cold world.

Because of that, even if it's something as gross as shit manipulation, as long as it's something that can help him survive, he would always be grateful for it.

Shua! Shua!

Just as Sigurd was drinking the boiled water with a happy smile on his face, the sound of feet stepping on the snow outside of the bridge reached his ear.

'This sound, it's a human footsteps, too light for an adult, is it a kid?'

Thanks to his supernatural understanding and cognition ability, Sigurd was able to immediately distinguish the other person's species and physique.

He then turned his head, and what he saw confirmed his speculation.

In the snowy night, a thin and petite figure staggered slowly into the bridge hole.

"Bonfire— it's really a bonfire— Finally! I almost froze to death!!"

The thin figure squealed and yelled such words, and suddenly changed from a shivering pitiful little figure to a full-bodied figure, the young kid immediately rushed to the place where Sigurd are and immediately put her hands closer into the bonfire warmed her hands with the flames, and a dirty face like a kitten appeared. A very happy smile.

"Thank you for letting me borrow your fire! Eh ? You still have something to eat? Can you— umm—"

Gurgle

An unexpected sound came from the stomach of the girl, making her blush and cover her stomach in embarrassment, but the girl kept looking at the bread in his hand with a little drool flowing from the corner of her mouth.

'The clothes she wore are a bit dirty, but they still look elegant. From the look of it, she's rich, and yet she was a runaway? Nevermind, for now, it's better for me to try to have a good relationship with her, maybe it can be used in the future. '

With ten percent of his decision made because of caring for the little girl and ninety percent of the rest were made by calculating the benefit that he would get from the future by befriending her, Sigurd handed over a piece of untouched bread that was just warmed up.

Then it's gone in the blink of an eye.

Yes, it's a literal blink of an eye, the warm black bread that was almost as thick as his thin arm was gone in a literal blink of an eye.

It's such a sudden thing that the young man took around 2 seconds to process the lack of food in his hand, when he did so, Sigurd whipped his head in the direction of the little white haired girl.

Using both of his still very healthy eyes, Sigurd saw the girl round and bulging cheeks expanded and extracted, her mouth clearly chewing the food that she just received. A pair of big round eyes were looking at Sigurd without blinking at this moment, shining brightly under the reflection of the flickering fire.

"..."

It's super cute.

But her actions were breaking all sorts of logic.

Sigurd looked at the bread in the paper bag that was around twice his arm, and then at the smallmouth of the girl, his mind was full of question marks, wondering how in the world did the mouth that is only a quarter of the bread size can fit the whole thing in one go.

That thought only lasted for a moment, and then he lost interest.

Gobbling up the bread at such speed means that the possibility of the girl from being a rather wealthy family is greatly reduced, Sigurd take a look at her clothing once more and guessed that most of them were something that the girl picked up from some trash can, in summary, there is nothing that can be gained from trying to befriend the girl.

Sigurd gathered the remaining black bread into the paper bag, since he would be eating the last three as his lunch tomorrow. At the same time, he also ignored the little girl's eager eyes that started to dim when she realized he wouldn't be sharing the rest.

Most people would certainly claim that he is a heartless bastard should they see this scene, but it can't be helped, he prefers to be the bad guy and see tomorrow's light rather than be the hero and die overnight.

After mulling over her words in her mind, the little girl looked at the figure of Sigurd pitifully and said.

"Umm… can you..."

Without listening to the girl word, Sigurd pulled the dirty quilt and placed it on top of his body, and interrupted the little girl without turning his head:

"This side is my position. This side is more sheltered from the wind, and since i come here first, and also give you water and food, It should belong to me, The rest of the place is up to you. You can just lean against the fire if you are feeling cold."

"Oh…." Hearing his words, the little girl nodded her head and sat down obediently, just like how a very well behaved kid would do.

Yes, she is a very well-behaved girl, that is if you ignore the whispers that come out of her mouth.

"Stingy–"

"Food hoarder—"

"Hmph– a stingy person would have no friend—"

Sigurd just rolled his eyes and tilted his head toward the entrance of the bridge hole.

"If you keep mumbling around, do it outside, you chittering around here kept me awake"

"Why! It's not like you own this hole, there is no trace of it in the bridge hole."

Sigurd then picked up a wooden branch, and originally wanted to write his name on the ground, but suddenly remembered that despite having the knowledge on how to speak this place's language, he just realized that this new body didn't have the writing skill of this country packaged alongside.

"Pfft!"

The little girl seemed to see his embarrassment, she covered her mouth and snickered not so silently.

"Give me back the bread I gave you."

"Huh? Are you a devil?"

The little girl looked at Sigurd like how a man would look at an idiot, how can she give the bread back after eating it all? Spit it out?

Feeling cheeky, the little girl made a vomiting sound while clutching her stomach while looking at Sigurd's face at the corner of her eyes, she kept repeating the motion until Sigurd had enough of it.

"What the hell—forget it, I'm tired, I'm going to sleep, I'll get up in the middle of the night to add more firewood to keep the bonfire burning, you do you."

As soon as he lay down, Sigurd's consciousness became blurred as his fatigue started to take over, after days full of doing nothing but walking all over the place and looking for food, as soon as he lay down, his biological instinct drove him to use sleep to speed up his recovery.

Not long after that, Sigurd fell asleep.

"He fell asleep already?"

Seeing the sleeping figure of Sigurd, the little girl muttered to herself in surprise, with a curious look on her face, the girl silently leaned closer to the world traveler's face to take a good look at his face clearly.

"His hair is white, just like mine."

"Why did he live under the bridge? Is this guy's father missing too? I wonder if he has a mother?"

Then the little girl fell silent, she turned her head and looked at the paper bag with bread next to him, and gulped, with a trembling hand, the little girl slowly reached out her hand.

...

"Hey! Wake up!"

In the middle of the night, Sigurd was forcibly woken up by the white haired loli, and then a biting chill instantly awakened his dazed mind.

"Is the fire out?"

There was darkness in front of Sigurd's eyes, he rubbed the space between his brows with a headache, and then confirmed—yes, it's the bonfire is out.

Since his vision couldn't break through the darkness, what Sigurd didn't see was that there was a pile of wood and sticks randomly piled on top of the burning fire.

Apparently, that was the main reason the fire went out, but he didn't know about that, and the girl liked to keep it that way.

Unfortunately, due to his enhanced mind, Sigurd can know instantly that the petite figure beside him is the true culprit.

"I— I just want to add more firewood for you..."

With guild on her face, the little girl mumbled those words awkwardly, and quietly put down the woods that she was still holding in her hand into the ground.

Sigurd, who had a splitting headache, didn't care about the little girl who stand near him with a guilty look on her face,. He just blindly groped his hand to the ground, searching for the location of the bonfire using his memory, when he found it, Sigurd scrunched his face and said.

"Move far away, I'll do it myself, you just sit and don't cause more trouble."

"... Okay."

However, the night is really too dark, no known technology can make up for the vision problems caused by perennial malnutrition in this young body.

With the disadvantage of being unable to see, in the end, Sigurd finally failed to rekindle the fire, the only thing he can do is crouching next to the ashes, his body is shivering from the cold.

"Hey! Are you okay? Your body is trembling all over?"

Seeing his state, the little girl called out with a tone full of worry.

"You—You can see your surroundings clearly?"

"Of course! Can't you do the same ?"

"I— I can't, right now, I'm like a blind man, I see jack s–I can't see anything."

Sigurd's body shivered even further, and suddenly, his body fell to the side.

"Hey!"

The little girl dashed right to him and caught him before his body could hit the floor, she then found out that Sigurd's body was feeling terribly cold.

"Are you okay? No, you're not going to die, are you?"

"Don't know...maybe..."

"Wait, the bread! Yes, yes, you still have the bread! Eat more and you will be fine. That's how I was when i'm sick. Hey! don't fall asleep!"

Maybe it's because the accumulated fatigue is too much, maybe it's because of enduring the cold wind and freezing temperature just to find a few pieces of bread and wood, which puts too much burden on his body. In short, Sigurd's consciousness disappeared suddenly again.

"Hey! Wake up!!!"