Amran stared at Kenji with the exact sa expression of deep concern. If any outside observer watched this interaction from afar, they would praise the incredibly good relationship between the two boys.
They looked like a pair of loyal friends surviving the harsh environnt of a brutal academy together.
But Ayla was not just watching from the sky. She was also listening.
She was actively picking up the internal thoughts of the two boys.
Her mood had improved considerably a few monts ago when she heard Kenji’s internal thoughts about her, specifically his ntal image of her cute, bulged cheeks while eating raw monster brains.
But her brows taphorically furrowed when she turned her perception toward the human boy sitting next to the bed.
Amran’s actual internal thoughts were completely hostile. Beneath his ek exterior and his trembling glasses, his mind was filled with a calculating anger and a deep selfishness.
Amran was incredibly satisfied with Kenji being in this broken state. Ever since Kenji stepped in to defend him behind the training grounds, his own life had beco infinitely easier because all the senior bullies had automatically shifted their targets to Kenji.
To Amran, Kenji was the perfect shield.
The senior students in this academy always targeted the worst and most pathetic student among the first years, and with a soul rating of a perfect zero, Kenji was undeniably the worst of them all.
If Kenji remained in this dical bed or left with an auxiliary scout team, Amran knew that the bullies would eventually notice his own low soul rating again.
He would beco the primary target for extortion and beatings once more.
He did not care about Kenji’s stitched shoulder or his punctured lungs. He only cared about keeping his human shield functional and close by.
Ayla perched firmly on a thick tree branch right outside the glass window, her dark blue feathers ruffling as she listened to the dark data streams of the boy’s mind.
Her primitive mind began considering the fastest way to kill this audacious human.
She could easily use her new shadow blink trait to slide through the glass and dissolve his throat with her corrosive fluid before he could even blink.
That was when she saw Amran move his hands forward to support Kenji, helping him sit up on the thin mattress.
During this process, Amran’s fingers accidentally brushed against Kenji’s bare, stitched shoulder.
Ayla beca intensely jealous. The simple sight of another person touching her designated mate triggered a volatile reaction inside her head.
Amran instantly froze in his tracks. A sudden, bone-chilling cold breeze swept over the back of his neck, making every single hair on his arms stand up.
It felt exactly like the heavy, suffocating gaze of an ancient apex predator locking onto his flesh from the dark.
Amran gasped for air, his heart skipping a beat, but the terrifying sensation disappeared in a re fraction of a second, leaving him sweating and confused in the warm room.
Ayla stabilized her aura, her golden eyes narrowing as she watched Kenji wince from the physical contact.
She wondered why Kenji was willingly suffering this intense physical pain. In her logic, she found his behavior highly inefficient.
"Isn’t it better if he just unalived himself right now?" Ayla thought. "If he dies, he can easily regress back to the start of the day without any of these painful injuries."
She seriously debated whether she should just fly through the window, kill him herself, and force a clean tiline reset to save him the trouble of healing.
But Ayla stopped her muscles from moving.
She knew that a perfect partnership required both parties to have an actual conversation without one side single-handedly making big decisions.
She wanted to know Kenji’s actual reason for choosing this painful path.
Ayla decided she would officially et Kenji face-to-face before returning to her hunting grounds in the forest. She needed to hear his opinion, of course.
It was strictly an operational eting to gather tactical data.
It was definitely not because her internal temperature was rising or because she was experiencing a strange sensation of heat while watching his shirtless, muscular upper body from the branch.
Ayla wasn’t horny at all!
"I will go to the main office now," Amran said, his voice finally returning to normal after the sudden chill left his body. "I will register your na for the auxiliary scout team since you are insisting so much."
Kenji nodded weakly, resting his back against the wooden fra. "Thanks."
"Alright," Amran muttered. Although he was internally fuming and cursing Kenji for being an ungrateful idiot who wanted to ruin a perfect hiding spot, he did not dare to say his thoughts out loud.
He also did not dare to register his own na for the hunt. He had no intention of stepping a single foot into that dark forest.
Amran picked up the official parchnt and quickly walked out of the dical room, closing the heavy wooden door behind him. The hallway grew quiet as his footsteps faded into the distance.
The mont his human presence completely disappeared from the area, the shadow near Kenji’s bedside table began to twist violently.
The dark blue falcon outside the window vanished into thin air. A split second later, a mass of liquid ink erupted from the floorboards right next to the mattress.
The black substance expanded upward, rapidly transforming from a fluid puddle into a solid, beautiful human shape.
The midnight-black fluid hardened into smooth skin, and long silver hair cascaded down her shoulders as she finalized her human form.
Before Kenji’s fighting instincts could even register the spatial shift, Ayla launched herself forward onto the bed.
She wrapped her slender arms and legs tightly around his torso, curling like a dedicated koala around his bruised body.
"Surprise," Ayla said softly, placing her head directly between his neck and his uninjured shoulder.
Kenji let out a sharp, involuntary gasp as her sudden weight pressed against his fra, but his body did not reject her presence.
The familiar, clean scent of her skin instantly filled his senses, completely washing away the stale sll of blood and dicine that had filled the room.
He could feel the cool, soothing temperature of her skin against his feverish skin, a sensation that imdiately began to dull the sharp throbbing in his cracked ribs.
She was completely naked, making him gulp.
"You ca," Kenji murmured, his rough voice softening as he carefully wrapped his uninjured arm around her back, anchoring her small form against his chest.
Ayla did not move her head from his neck. She inhaled his distinct scent deeply, her heart vibrating with an intense, quiet satisfaction that she refused to translate into words.
"Mmm..." Ayla muttered, "you are surely in the best condition."
Kenji let out a low, amused chuckle, his chest vibrating against her cheek.
"Why didn’t you try to find ?" Ayla asked, suddenly curious to know if he would ever want to see her.
Though she gathered that he would from his internal thoughts, it was better to hear it through his mouth.
He tightened his grip on her slightly. "I knew you would find anyway."
Ayla remained silent for a long mont, her golden pupils shimring in the dim light of the room.
"Good answer..." She finally smiled, raising her head to look at him.
"Oh..." Kenji mouthed.
"Then...?" Ayla raised a brow.
"Then?" Kenji asked in confusion.
"Where is my welcoming gift?"
Kenji fell silent. "I..." He was a bit at a loss, because he didn’t have anything to give her.
"Who told you that you don’t have anything to give ..." Ayla read his mind. "There is actually sothing I want from you."
Her hands slipped inside his pants.
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