“Do you think I don’t dare to hit you?!” Yin Zhen shouted in anger, glaring at Nathan.
“That’s enough!” Selena shouted, standing between them.
Nathan remained seated on the bed, staring at Yin Zhen with a serious face.
How did this happen? The mood had completely changed from several minutes ago.
…
A few minutes ago.
Selena was resting her head on his shoulder. She didn’t say it, but the message she wanted to convey was clear.
“You are strong and talented. I know that fact, so you don’t have to worry. There will come a day where you’ll be able to save your father… No, we’ll save your father. And I know that day will come soon.”
“En.” Selena nodded. “I thought you were going to shamelessly say ‘our’ father.”
“I don’t want to be killed yet. Seeing how much he sacrificed for you, I can’t imagine what will happen to me if I steal his daughter,” said Nathan jokingly.
Selena smiled, almost chuckling. “I’ll definitely repay you in the future.”
“Ahem. What are you trying to say? We are both helping each other, because that’s how a relationship is supposed to go. So there’s no need to repay me. However, it will be different if you’re talking about marriage.” Nathan teased Selena.
Selena said, “You probably need my familiars’ approval first. Risa and Sasha are probably on your side, but Yin Zhen is angry at you.”
“That’s probably true, considering I have made a lot of mistakes on this mission.”
“They can’t even be considered a mistake.” Selena shook her head.
“Well, how about calling him here?”
Selena looked at him for a moment before deciding to trust him.
However, the mood swung almost instantly. The moment Yin Zhen appeared, he was standing in front of Nathan with his arms crossed. He was glaring at Nathan as if there were a lot of things piling up in his heart.
“To think that you still dare to show your face around once you have done an absolutely terrible job the whole time,” said Yin Zhen in a condescending tone.
“But it wasn’t even a mistake.” Selena tried to persuade him. “We didn’t know anything about the hidden aliens ambushing us.”
“The original mission was to confirm the existence of the alien, but he made a mistake by suggesting to move toward the alien. In that moment, the mission had changed from confirming its existence to understanding what the alien was capable of.
“If the mission didn’t change, we wouldn’t be in that kind of danger.”
“That’s…” Selena wanted to take responsibility as well. She had been suspicious of the last person, so this was her fault. If only Nathan had some suspicions about the other juvenile class mutant, he would have approached the mission in a different way.
But before she could reply, Nathan nodded. “That was indeed my mistake. And it endangered the whole group. I have no excuses.”
“You…” Selena bit her lips in frustration. A lot of people, including her, would usually give explanations to clear their name from that accusation. In fact, she would probably throw a few excuses.
However, Nathan’s mindset was always on survival. If he didn’t acknowledge this mistake, he might truly make a mistake so big that he couldn’t escape death in the future.
Selena often wished Nathan could actually place the blame on someone else instead of himself.
Yin Zhen took a step forward and said, “Because of you, both of you fell from the dragon’s back. It would be the end if she didn’t have a trump card!”
“You are absolutely correct.” Nathan nodded. Even if he managed to summon Nidhogg, the latter would be severely injured as the aliens from the ground jumped onto him.
“No one would think there would be flying aliens still hiding in the mature class alien.” Selena tried to make an excuse for Nathan.
“Are you seriously not going to say anything? Are you going to hide behind a woman?” Yin Zhen clenched his hands into fists.
Nathan simply shook his head. “No. I have indeed made too many mistakes. If things haven’t gone that well, we might not be here. However, I need you to follow my instructions for the next battle as well.”
“You…” Yin Zhen was gnashing his teeth. “Do you think I don’t dare to hit you?”
“That’s enough.” Selena stood between them.
“Get away. If he doesn’t understand his responsibility, he will keep making the same mistake.”
“I said that’s enough!” Selena bit her lips. “I have made more mistakes than him, but he has never blamed me. He even used that mistake to our advantage.
“If you think you haven’t made a single mistake, then you can hit him! We all make mistakes. It’s not the mistake that we should talk about; it’s about what we should do to not make the same mistake again.” Selena turned around and continued, “You, too, Nathan. Why are you just acknowledging mistakes you’re unaware of?”
Nathan shook his head. He raised both hands, clenching them as if he were hiding something in those hands. “There is a rock inside one of my hands, and the other is empty. Which hand has a rock in it?”
“There is no rock!” Selena was frustrated. This was a big matter, so she didn’t want him to joke about it.
Nathan simply said, “Exactly. Why do you say there’s no rock? It’s because you know there’s no rock. That information will change the course of everything. What if you don’t know I don’t have a rock? You will probably choose a hand, right?”
Selena couldn’t deny it.
“It was my mistake that I didn’t know this information. I might have been too complacent after a series of successes that I ended up underestimating the situation.” Nathan stood up and raised his head, looking Yin Zhen in the eyes. “That’s precisely the reason I need you to obey my instruction. It’s so that we can complete the mission without any more mistakes.
I don’t need your acknowledgement, I only need you to follow my plan this time.”
“What if—” Before Yin Zhen could even finish, Nathan simply said, “Do whatever you want.”