The Rescued Girl 3

"Is that so..."

Xia Ya responded, his gaze discreetly sweeping from her immobilized left foot to the various places on her body covered in bandages.

It seemed that aside from the fracture, the rest were only superficial wounds.

In a battle fierce enough to melt steel into molten flow, sustaining only injuries of this degree was a miracle in itself.

Of course, he would never say something so lacking in empathy at a time like this.

The room fell into a brief silence.

Only the forgotten faucet by the washbasin continued to run noisily, and the unceasing sound of water somehow made the space feel even quieter.

"Um..."

In the end, Mayu was the one to break the silence.

She seemed to have gathered a great deal of courage before finally focusing her gaze on Xia Ya's face.

"You're... the pilot who saved me in that MS, right?"

She asked, her voice rising slightly at the end with uncertainty.

Xia Ya did not miss the faint, almost imperceptible unease hidden deep in her eyes as she looked at him, beneath the gratitude and curiosity.

"...Yeah."

There was a brief pause in Xia Ya's reply.

Meeting her gaze, he nodded calmly.

That affirmation seemed to make her unease even more obvious.

Her lips moved a few times, as though she wanted to say something, but she swallowed the words back down.

"I-I'm sorry! Um... I just didn't expect... the person who came would be someone like you, big brother..."

She finally said it, her voice filled with unconcealable panic and apology.

She seemed to think that her surprise had offended him. Her cheeks flushed again, and she hurriedly looked away.

Xia Ya had expected that reaction.

In the imagination of ordinary civilians, MS pilots were usually seasoned adult soldiers with wills