"...You were too reckless."
Mu looked at Jiliang's face, written all over with worry. The reprimand on the tip of his tongue ultimately turned into a helpless sigh. Though he still scolded her, the loneliness of facing the abyss alone had lessened greatly with Jiliang's arrival. The feeling of being cared for, of someone chasing after him without regard for anything else, still warmed him even on this battlefield where death could come at any moment.
He tried to straighten up and look as relaxed as the effortlessly capable ace pilot he usually was, attempting to reassure the girl with his trademark smile. But the cold sweat continuously rolling down his forehead, along with the blood still seeping from his side despite the rudimentary bandaging, cruelly exposed his bravado.
"Mr. Mu, your wound...!"
Jiliang's gaze was instantly drawn to the vivid red stain, and her voice cracked with terror.
"It's nothing serious. More importantly, if you want to fire that thing, take off the safety first."
To distract her, and to give her some means of protecting herself in this dangerous place, Mu deliberately pointed at the gun in her hand in the teasing tone of someone teaching a rookie.
Only then did Jiliang hurriedly lower her head to look at her pistol. Sure enough, the safety was still on. She bit her lip in embarrassment, her fingers clumsy but striving to flick the safety off quickly. Seeing that, Mu's taut nerves relaxed slightly. Then his gaze sharpened again, like that of a hunting hawk, locking once more onto the depths of darkness where Rau Le Creuset's presence had vanished.
"Heh heh... Though it's a pity Xia Ya isn't here, perhaps this is for the best. The people who died here will be pleased as well. Because the child born