Silent Companionship and a Princess Carry

The footsteps were neither heavy nor light, yet they struck like drumbeats against Huo Wu's nearly numb heartstrings.

She jerked her head up and, through tear-blurred eyes, saw the person she least wanted to see at that moment—or perhaps, deep down, the person she had been hoping to see.

Zhang Bufan.

He still wore that lazy, carefree look, as if he were merely taking a Moonlit Stroll and had happened to pass by. Yet Huo Wu could clearly see that there was no mockery, no pity, and none of the teasing frivolity he had shown during the day in his gaze. There was only a... calm understanding.

"Why are you here?!" Huo Wu's voice was hoarse from crying and exhaustion, thick with a nasal tone, but she still forced herself to straighten her back, unwilling to show him any more of her dishevelment. She wanted to stand, but her legs felt as heavy as lead, and the emptiness of her Soul Power sent waves of dizziness through her.

Zhang Bufan did not answer. His gaze swept over the surrounding wreckage, the charred, smoking Training Ground, and her fists, scraped raw and bleeding from pounding the ground. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

He walked up to her and stopped. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he somehow produced a bottle of water and a clean white Bear Towel, casually tossing them over.

"There."

The water and towel landed precisely on the ground in front of Huo Wu.

"Venting with brute force alone is useless." His voice was calm and devoid of emotion. "Even if you exhaust yourself to death, you won't change any facts."

His words were like needles, instantly piercing Huo Wu's most sensitive and vulnerable nerves. Like an enraged Leopardess, she suddenly raised her head, her reddened eyes glaring fiercely at Zhang Bufan, though in her current bedraggled state, she possessed no intimidation whatsoever.

"I don't need you to meddle!" She stubbornly turned her head away, refusing to look at the water and Bear Towel on the ground, much less Zhang Bufan's face. "What happens to me has nothing to do with you! Did you come here to laugh at me?!"

She would rather have had him mock her arrogantly like he had during the day than face this calmness that seemed to see through everything. It made all her struggles and pain feel like a pointless farce.

Seeing her covered in thorns, putting on a fierce front while weak inside, Zhang Bufan suddenly gave a low laugh. It was soft, but it only made Huo Wu feel more humiliated and angry.

"What are you laughing at?!" she shouted fiercely, though her bravado was hollow.

"I'm laughing because you're adorably stupid." Zhang Bufan's smile faded, and he sighed. There was a trace of barely perceptible helplessness in that sigh. "Did you think I came all the way out to this Desolate Wilderness in the middle of the night instead of sleeping just to laugh at a Kitten who made herself filthy and cried her eyes out?"

He paused, stepped forward, and looked down at her. "My time is very valuable."

"Then why did you come?!" Huo Wu lifted her chin, unwilling to lose in presence, but the slight tremble in her voice betrayed her weakness.

Zhang Bufan did not answer immediately. Instead, he crouched down until they were eye level. His gaze was deep, as though it could see straight into her heart.

"I came," he said slowly, his voice lowering slightly, "to take away a disobedient Wounded Soldier who needs rest."

Before Huo Wu could react, Zhang Bufan suddenly extended his arms, slipping one behind her back and the other beneath her knees. With a slight exertion of strength—

"Ah!"

Huo Wu felt the world spin, and amid her cry of surprise, she found herself in a solid, warm embrace!

He... he had actually picked her up in a Princess Carry!

"You! What are you doing?! Put me down! Zhang Bufan!!" Huo Wu instantly bristled. Her pale cheeks flushed red from humiliation, anger, and the sudden intimate contact. She struggled desperately, flailing with both hands and feet as she tried to break free from his hold.

Yet her remaining strength was like an ant trying to shake a tree before Zhang Bufan. His arms were as steady as Iron Hoops; no matter how she twisted, she could not move him in the slightest.

"Don't move around." Zhang Bufan lowered his head to look at the girl in his arms, all claws and teeth yet powerless to escape. His tone was forceful and beyond question. "If you fall, I'm not responsible."

"Bastard! Shameless scoundrel! Let me go!" Huo Wu was both flustered and furious, and tears once again welled up disobediently in her eyes. Since growing up, when had she ever had such intimate contact with a man? And in such a... such a shameful position, no less!

"I'm taking you back to rest." Ignoring her angry curses, Zhang Bufan held her and turned toward the Barracks of Blazing Fire Academy. His steps were steady, as though he carried not a person but a feather. "If you want to become stronger, staying up all night and hurting yourself won't do it. Tomorrow, I'll teach you."

His tone was calm, yet his words exploded beside Huo Wu's ears like thunder.

Her struggling stopped at that instant.

She tilted her head back and stared blankly at the sharp line of his jaw so close to her, feeling the steady, powerful heartbeat from his chest and the reassuring warmth passing through his clothes. The words he had just spoken echoed through her mind like a spell.

"Tomorrow, I'll teach you."

He... was going to teach her?

This unfathomably powerful, eccentric man who made her angry and yet... impossible to ignore, had said he would teach her to become stronger?

An indescribably complex emotion quietly Entangled itself around her heart like Vines. There was doubt and uncertainty, but deep down, a faint spark of anticipation—one she herself was unwilling to acknowledge—seemed to have been silently kindled.

Without realizing it, she stopped struggling so hard.

Noticing the quiet person in his arms, the corners of Zhang Bufan's lips lifted almost imperceptibly. He adjusted his hold so she could lean against him more comfortably, then continued onward beneath the cold moonlight, carrying the little cat who had temporarily tucked away her claws toward the courtyard that represented a momentary peace.

Deep within the forest, only the clearing ravaged by Flame remained, along with the lingering scent of scorching in the air, silently telling the tale of everything that had just happened.