A Sudden Confession

Noah heard footsteps.

When he turned around, that slender figure was already nearly pressed against his back; if he had turned around a second later, their heads likely would have bumped into each other.

Appearing before him was a young girl of about seventeen or eighteen, with a beautiful face and long, pale blue hair reaching her waist. There was an inescapable air of melancholy between her brows, and her azure eyes seemed shrouded in mist, hazy and indistinct.

A faint, subtle fragrance drifted into his nostrils. Noah consciously took two steps back. After putting some distance between them, he noticed the girl still standing in place, watching him silently, with no intention of speaking for a long time.

He was a bit confused, so he took the initiative to ask, "Is something the matter, Mia?"

"..."

The blue-haired girl finally moved. She looked up, staring blankly into Noah's eyes.

"...Shiya."

After a long while, he heard her voice, sounding like a dream-talker: "I am Shiya, Clangard Shiya from the New World."

Noah was stunned, then immediately realized his mistake, his face flushing red.

With so many people in the Headquarters Elite Camp, it was already a struggle to remember most of their names. Although the girl before him was in his same cohort, they had never spoken before, and his impression of her was vague, leading him to mistake her for another blue-haired female marine.

"I'm sorry!"

He bowed slightly, apologizing with a sincere attitude—after all, having been colleagues for nearly a year, getting someone's name wrong was truly rude and inexcusable no matter how you looked at it.

"It's okay..."

The blue-haired girl continued to stare fixedly into Noah's eyes. "I might be angry with others, but if it's Noah..."

As she said this, she actually reached out her slender right hand toward Noah's face, murmuring in a soft, gentle tone: "Everything can be forgiven and understood..."

"Excuse me."

Noah finally realized something was wrong. He took another half-step back, avoiding the girl's hand, his expression suddenly turning serious as he used a formal tone:

"Perhaps I wasn't clear enough just now, so let me ask again. Miss Shiya, is there something you need from me?"

Shiya blinked, looking at him with some confusion, as if pondering the meaning of his words. Several seconds later, as if waking from a dream, she revealed a sweet smile:

"I, of course, came to express my feelings to Noah. I've held it in for so long; if I keep it bottled up any longer, I'm afraid I won't be able to endure the mental anguish."

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

Noah was stunned. Before he could respond, Shiya tilted her head slightly and pointed toward a building in the distance, asking softly: "Do you see that building?"

"Yeah..."

Noah's train of thought was successfully led away by her, and he subconsciously glanced in that direction. "Is that the dormitory building specifically for female soldiers at Headquarters?"

"That's right."

The blue-haired girl took a monocular telescope out from somewhere in her short skirt. "For the past year, three hundred nights, rain or shine, I have been on the third-floor railing of that building every day, watching Noah on the training ground."

Since when?

Noah felt a chill run down his spine. He looked at the Shiya before him in disbelief—is this girl a stalker? He insisted on coming here to train for several hours every night, and she had actually been silently observing him from a place he couldn't see for nearly a year?

"From the first day I saw Noah, I fell in love with you."

Shiya stroked the telescope that had accompanied her for a year, her eyes as hazy as a lake covered in morning mist. "First, I liked your looks, then I fell for your sunny and cheerful personality. Later, seeing you working so hard for your dreams, drenched in sweat, I liked you even more and felt so much heartache for you."

"Do you know, Noah? I don't know how many nights..."

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

Noah moved back another half-step, keeping his composure.

He was starting to doubt reality, wondering if he hadn't transmigrated into the world of One Piece, but rather into some cheesy Japanese school drama airing at eight o'clock on a Friday night.

Otherwise, why would a stalker who claimed to have loved him for a whole year suddenly appear and make such an abrupt confession while he was just running laps and doing push-ups?

"Miss Shiya."

Noah decided he couldn't let her continue this daydreaming. He coughed lightly, forcibly interrupting the blue-haired girl's confession. "I must clarify one thing: before tonight, we had almost no interaction. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been so rude as to forget your name..."

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

Shiya's hand, reaching out to wipe his sweat, froze.

Under the dim light, she looked at the firm and distant Noah, saying nothing for a long time. Only after staring until the latter felt a bit creeped out and couldn't help but look away did she smile softly:

"Okay."

"What?" Noah suspected she hadn't been listening to him at all.

"I mean, since that's how Noah understands it, then please treat my confession tonight as the charge signal."

Shiya put away her telescope and smiled slightly. "Noah was startled by me, right? That's normal, too. There's always shelling before a boarding battle, right? Boom, suddenly firing the cannons—if you're unprepared, anyone would be startled enough to cover their ears."

"But I've already climbed the ropes and jumped onto the ship. What follows is close-quarters combat at very close range. I will work hard to achieve victory, so Noah should be careful..."

Damn it, you still don't understand what I mean, girl!

Noah's forehead was covered in black lines. He had every reason to suspect that this colleague named Shiya, even if not quite a yandere stalker, was at least somewhat unhinged, possessing a train of thought completely incompatible with a normal person like him.

Who would dare accept a confession from someone like this!

He began to regret using the detector on Garp in the cafeteria earlier. Otherwise, if he had the system's walkthrough hints, he might have been able to see through her background and find the most appropriate and effective reason and method to reject her.

But who could have possibly predicted that in the middle of the night, at the training grounds, he would end up in a scene like this?

"Let me be clear, Miss Shiya, I reject your confession."

He looked at the blue-haired girl who kept staring at him, racking his brain for a reason—what should he say now? Should he pull a Huo Piaoji and claim that as a proud elite of the Headquarters, he could not consider a home while pirates remained undefeated?

"Although I am sorry, I am just that kind of person; I have rather high standards for a partner..."

Noah finally managed to find a flimsy excuse to brush her off, saying solemnly, "To be precise, looks and figure don't matter at all. I would never accept a significant other whose strength is inferior to my own..."

The moment the words left his mouth, he wanted to slap himself.

He really was too imaginative, capable of making up such utter nonsense.

"Then isn't that perfect for me?"

"Eh?" Noah froze.

"I have been silently keeping track of every one of your assessments, Noah."

Shiya lifted her head, speaking in a voice as cheerful and light as a humming melody, "You've always been between fiftieth and sixtieth place, right? As for me, ever since I joined the camp, my evaluations from Instructor Zephyr have never once fallen out of the top ten."

The contract status has been updated. I only realized after seeing the tips from Wolf King and "Serious yet Cowardly," so this newbie thanks you all! Starting the two-chapter daily updates now~