Chapter 5

Nuo Xia heard footsteps.

When he turned around, the slender figure was already almost pressed against his back. If he had turned a second later, their heads would have bumped into each other.

The person who appeared was a girl of about seventeen or eighteen, with a beautiful face and waist-length light blue hair. Her brows carried an unshakeable sorrow, and her azure eyes seemed to be shrouded in mist, looking distant and hazy.

A faint fragrance wafted into his nostrils, and Nuo Xia instinctively took two steps back. After creating some distance, he noticed that the girl was still standing in the same spot, silently staring at him without any intention of speaking.

He was a bit at a loss and decided to take the initiative to ask, "Is there something, Mia?"

"..."

The girl with the blue hair finally moved, lifting her head to gaze at Nuo Xia's eyes in a daze.

"...Xia."

After a long while, he finally heard her voice, as if in a dream: "I'm Xia, Xia Krongard from the New World."

Nuo Xia was taken aback, then quickly reacted, his face turning red.

There were so many people in the elite camp, and it was already a struggle for him to remember most of their names. The girl in front of him, though a contemporary, had never spoken to him before, and her vague impression made him mistake her for another blue-haired female marine.

"I'm sorry!"

He bowed slightly, apologizing sincerely—after all, they had been colleagues for almost a year, and calling someone by the wrong name was indeed very impolite and inexcusable.

"It's okay..."

The blue-haired girl continued to stare fixedly at Nuo Xia's eyes, "I might be angry if it were someone else, but if it's Nuo Xia..."

At this point, she extended her slender right hand, reaching towards Nuo Xia's face, and said in a soft, gentle tone, "Everything can be forgiven and understood..."

"Sorry."

Nuo Xia finally realized something was off. He took another half-step back, avoiding the girl's hand, and his expression turned serious. He even used a formal address:

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear earlier, so I'll ask again, Miss Xia, is there something you need from me?"

Xia blinked, looking at him with some confusion, as if trying to understand his words. After a few seconds, she seemed to wake up from a dream and smiled sweetly:

"I came to express my feelings to Nuo Xia. I've been holding back for so long, and if I keep it in any longer, I'm afraid I won't be able to bear the mental pain."

Her tone was light and lively, like a lark singing in the forest.

Nuo Xia was taken aback and didn't have time to respond. Xia tilted her head slightly and pointed to a distant building, asking softly, "Do you see that building?"

"Um..."

Nuo Xia was distracted by her and subconsciously looked in that direction, "Is that the dormitory building specifically for female soldiers?"

"Yes."

The blue-haired girl took out a monocular from somewhere in her skirt, "For the past year, every night, regardless of the weather, I've been watching Nuo Xia from the third-floor railing of that building."

When?

Nuo Xia felt a chill run down his spine. He looked at Xia with disbelief—was she a stalker? He had been coming to the training ground every night for several hours, and she had been watching him from a place he couldn't see for almost a year?

"From the first day I saw Nuo Xia, I liked you."

Xia caressed the monocular that had accompanied her for a year, her eyes misty like a lake at dawn, "First, I liked your appearance, then your sunny and cheerful personality, and later, seeing you strive for your dreams, sweating profusely, made me like and care for you even more."

"Do you know, Nuo Xia, how many nights..."

As she spoke, her right hand reached out again, wanting to wipe away the sweat on Nuo Xia's forehead, "I saw you so exhausted, and I wanted to rush down from the building to wipe your sweat and cheer you on, but it wasn't until today that I had the courage to take this step..."

Nuo Xia took another half-step back without making a sound.

He was starting to doubt his life, thinking he might have crossed into a Japanese school drama rather than a pirate world.

Otherwise, how could he be running laps and doing push-ups, and suddenly a girl who claimed to have liked him for a year would appear and make such a sudden confession?

"Miss Xia."

Nuo Xia decided he couldn't let her continue her dream-like monologue. He cleared his throat and interrupted the blue-haired girl's confession, "I must clarify something. Before tonight, we had almost no interaction, which is why I mistakenly called you by the wrong name..."

After carefully choosing his words, he continued, "In short, a confession is like the victory fanfare when we defeat pirates, not the charge signal before a boarding battle. Do you understand what I mean?"

Xia's hand, which was reaching out to wipe his sweat, froze.

In the dim light, she quietly looked at the determined and distant Nuo Xia, not speaking for a long time. When she finally spoke, it made Nuo Xia feel uneasy, and he couldn't help but look away:

"Okay."

"What?" Nuo Xia suspected she wasn't listening to him at all.

"I mean, if Nuo Xia understands it this way, then please consider my confession tonight as the charge signal."

Xia put away the monocular and smiled, "Nuo Xia was surprised by me, right? That's normal. Before a boarding battle, there's always a bombardment, right? A sudden blast, and without preparation, anyone would be startled and cover their ears."

"But now I've climbed the rope and jumped onto the ship. Next is close combat, and I'll do my best to win. Nuo Xia, be careful..."

Damn it, girl, you still don't understand my point!

Nuo Xia's forehead was covered in black lines. He had every reason to suspect that this colleague named Xia, while not a full-blown stalker, was at least a bit eccentric, with a brain that didn't work like a normal person's.

Who would dare accept a confession from someone like her?

He began to regret using the detector on Garp in the restaurant earlier. If he had a system's guide, he could at least figure out her background and find the most appropriate and effective way to refuse her.

But who could have predicted that in the middle of the night at the training ground, he would be put through such a scene?

"I'll be more specific. I reject your confession, Miss Xia."

He looked at the blue-haired girl who was still staring at him, racking his brain for a reason—what should he say now? Should he borrow a line from Huo Piaoqi and say that as a proud elite of the headquarters, he couldn't think of a home until the pirates were defeated?

"Although I'm sorry, I have high standards for my partner..."

Nuo Xia finally found a way to dodge, saying solemnly, "To be precise, appearance and figure are not important. I will never accept a partner whose strength is inferior to mine..."

As soon as he said this, he wanted to slap himself.

Indeed, he was too imaginative, able to come up with such a ridiculous excuse.

"Then I'm just right, aren't I?"

"Eh?" Nuo Xia was stunned.

"I've been quietly following Nuo Xia's every assessment."

Xia lifted her head and said in a cheerful, singing-like voice, "You always rank between 50th and 60th, right? As for me, since joining the camp, I've always been in the top ten in Zeff's evaluations."