"But Christa and Daz..." Eren tried to persuade them.
"I know. We'll send a search and rescue team first thing tomorrow morning," a female instructor said.
"Chen Si has already gone to save them," Mikasa said, clenching her fists.
"What?" The female instructor froze.
"He's the cadet with the best scores so far," the male instructor beside her whispered.
"Damn it. All I can do is notify the rescue team and get them here as soon as possible." Unwilling to lose someone as talented as Chen Si, the female instructor relented.
The blizzard grew fiercer, strong enough to blow an ordinary child off their feet.
Chen Si kept running through the forest. The temperature was so low that his electrical energy was steadily draining just to keep him warm. Damn it, where are they?
Chen Si glanced back at the firelight from camp, calculating the routes they might have taken.
Chen Si kept searching. I was careless. How am I supposed to find anyone in this forest alone? At the thought that Historia might die in the blizzard, he gritted his teeth and activated what little electrical energy he had left. Arcs of electricity coiled around his feet.
His speed suddenly increased. After running for about ten minutes, Chen Si was panting for breath, but at last he could faintly make out a weak flicker of firelight.
"Daz, are you still awake? Hang in there." Chen Si heard Christa's faint voice calling out.
Chen Si hurried toward Christa.
"Christa!" Chen Si ran up to her, gasping for air.
"Ch-Chen Si..." Christa stared at him in surprise.
"Why did you come back? Weren't you in the first group to leave?" Christa asked in confusion.
"You idiot. If I hadn't come, were you just going to die out here?" Chen Si scolded her angrily.
"I... I wasn't," Christa said stubbornly.
"Christa, why do you care so little about your own life? Stop living for other people. No one gets to dictate what you think," Chen Si said.
Tears glimmered in Christa's eyes, and frost had begun to form on her hair. Chen Si hurriedly hoisted her onto his back and headed back, dragging Daz along.
The blizzard grew heavier until it completely obscured his vision. The electrical energy keeping him warm was steadily running out. He couldn't hold on much longer.
Damn it, am I some fucking saint? What the hell does it matter to me whether Daz lives or dies? I'm not going to be the first transmigrator to die in a natural disaster, am I? Chen Si screamed inwardly, utterly unwilling to accept this.
"We're not going to make it back, are we...? I'm sorry. I dragged you into this." Tears kept spilling from Christa's eyes, quickly freezing into tiny ice crystals. Her face was growing stiff, and the blood throughout her body was beginning to freeze.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure you get back alive and in one piece. Christa, do you remember? I told you that you're precious to me. I'd be heartbroken if you died." Chen Si gave a bitter smile as he kept channeling what little electrical energy remained in his body into Christa.
Chen Si spotted an abandoned wooden cabin on the distant mountainside. Feeling his body temperature steadily drop, he struggled up toward it with Christa on his back.
Suddenly, a series of rumbles came from the mountaintop. Damn it, an avalanche. How can I be this unlucky? Chen Si's body had already begun to stiffen, and Christa had passed out on his back.
In the final second before the snow engulfed them, Chen Si poured almost every bit of electrical energy he could muster into Christa's body at once.
"Live on, Christa! Carry my hopes with you!" Chen Si shouted with the last of his strength.
Christa's eyelashes fluttered once, and then the two of them were completely buried beneath the snow...
Chen Si wondered whether he was an idiot. He had never imagined that he would one day die for a woman. Suddenly, he remembered something he had told his roommate in his previous life:
"Old He, being a lovesick idiot will only get you killed over a woman."
Chen Si had no idea why he had done this. Whatever the case, he was a transmigrator. It was like a human dying to save an NPC.
But if someone lived an entire life without changing anything, wasn't that far too tragic?
Amid waves of regret and sorrow, a faint, accepting smile curved Chen Si's lips, and his heart stopped beating completely.
A few minutes later, color steadily returned to Christa's face beside him. The electrical energy inside her kept repairing her dead cells, working to raise her body temperature.
A short while later, Christa opened her eyes.
"Chen Si! Chen Si!" Christa scrambled up as though she had gone mad and frantically dug through the snow. Her hands turned raw and red, and huge tears kept falling onto the snow, each frozen crystal glittering with striking clarity in the moonlight.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Chen Si, don't die! Please." Christa's tears poured down like water from a valve she couldn't shut, bursting through a broken dam.
As Christa dug with all her might, one of Chen Si's feet emerged. She pulled him out and strained to lift him onto her back, nearly collapsing under his weight.
Christa carried Chen Si toward the nearby cabin, his words running through her mind.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure you get back alive and in one piece. Christa, do you remember? I told you that you're precious to me. I'd be heartbroken if you died."
"Live on, Christa! Carry my hopes with you!"
Before long, Chen Si opened his eyes.
"Hey, beautiful, taking advantage of me while I'm unconscious isn't very nice, is it?" Chen Si said with a cheeky grin.
"Thank goodness!" Christa threw herself into his arms and sobbed loudly. "Chen Si, thank goodness you didn't die. If you had, I wouldn't have known how to go on living."
Chen Si held Christa tightly and patted her back. An arc of electricity entered her body, helping raise her temperature.
The next day, Mikasa arrived with a group of instructors to search for them. Apparently, the enraged Mikasa had knocked down two instructors, and Eren and Armin had only stopped her from going out alone to rescue them in the middle of the night by threatening to die...
Mikasa was the first to reach the cabin and saw Chen Si and Historia holding each other. Her murderous glare frightened Chen Si awake on the spot...