"Hmn," Kael smiled. "What’s my punishment?"

He asked this as if he were asking for a reward instead. It didn’t help that he had leaned in, and she could feel his body’s warmth against her shoulder.

When did he get so close? She wondered, a little puzzled and also a little frazzled.

The atmosphere was broken when they heard screams. No, squeals.

They then realized it was just Linlin and Gale squealing as they looked at them.

"..."

Ahem

Naia unconsciously teleported back to the camp, pretending to be the teacher and starting a discussion of what they had learned during the sparring session.

Meanwhile, Kael sat in the front row, eyes fixed on her. No matter where she went, he was looking at her. Sometimes, she’d even wonder if he was blinking at all.

Naia was 80% sure this guy was flirting with her, and she...wasn’t quite sure how to handle it!

He had always been aloof since they were children. She was the one closest to him, yes, but he was always very...restrained. Either that or he was consciously far away from her.

Naia was feeling a little dazed under his unwavering gaze. She had always imagined she’d be able to flirt relentlessly, but now that she had the chance to, she found herself freezing.

Shame! What a shame!

But she didn’t rush herself. She knew she was adaptable. Let him flirt like this for a bit, and she’d get used to it.

Anyway, the group rested for a bit, foraged a bit, and transplanted a few things for a bit. While this was ongoing, Naia stood by the river, wondering how she’d add a bit of it in her space.

"A river is too big for your space, but a wide stream should be fine."

A deep voice sounded next to her, standing on a spot that had absolutely been empty a second prior.

Naia didn’t even flinch as she turned to Kael, looking at his smiling face.

In their past life, he always had a dark expression on his face, like a snake ready to bite. Now, he was still a snake, but a smiling one.

This life seemed to be a bit kind to him?

...

Everyone helped with the stream creation, which would take a bit of effort because she wanted it to be running water. She wanted to mimic a real stream, complete with the rocks where water trickles like bells, and fish to stab with spears (because catching fish that way was most satisfying).

First of all, they had to get the big pipes and the big pumps. Naia and Uncle went to the City to buy the required items and then check on Granduncle by the way.

Meanwhile, the rest would handle the digging and laying out works. With Kael’s ability, he simply had to compress-decompress certain areas to make them easy to dig and displace.

They chose a path from a higher topography to a new pond, and they even got a little creative with the water path. As for where to end the water, they had existing ponds but were afraid that the life in each one would damage the others, so they decided to keep them separate. Anyway, there was nothing wrong with having more water sources.

After they got the pipes and the pumps, they spent another half day setting everything up, eventually creating a lovely rocky spring with freshwater fish going around.

They set up several open spaces abutting this stream to serve as camping areas and hangouts. Everyone had quite a bit of fun deciding where to locate these things, and each one even tacitly declared some ’territory’. That was to say, everyone had their own hang out areas by the stream.

Later that night, they had a campfire to celebrate a major addition to the Space. Naia took out some booze from her space, softening the atmosphere even more. People started dancing and singing around the campfire, and many of them would get very wasted in an hour or two.

Naia sat at the side, watching everything and listening to the laughter with warm eyes.

She felt someone approach and sit next to her. "What are you thinking?" he asked.

"It’ll be nice if the world stays like this," she told him. "I dread the day when we have to fight to keep breathing every day."

"It shouldn’t be the same in this life," he told her. "This time we’re a bit more prepared."

Naia nodded, but her frown did not disappear. Perhaps things would get better, but they definitely wouldn’t be ’good’. The enemy was too strong.

He seemed to have felt her insecurities and extended his hand to hold hers. His fingers rubbed the skin on her palm, flirting very naturally.

It made Naia look at him with a complex expression. Had he been like this back then, maybe they’d have been married by now.

"Sigh, if you had been like this before, I wouldn’t have had to confess 99 times—"

"Nineteen times," he said, correcting her.

"What?"

"You confessed to me nineteen times," he said, confident. "And have I never rejected you."

Her eyebrows rose, and the two stared at each other.

He remembered each one, memorized each of those moments. If she were to ask him what she wore in any one of those times she confessed, or how her hair was tied, he would be able to answer her correctly.

He also remembered what had triggered her confession, and he made sure to maintain the things he knew she liked about him.

In the first confession, they were very young, barely tweens, and she told him he was handsome and asked if he could be her boyfriend. At the time, an entire floor imploded, injuring people, and the matter was forgotten.

However, from then on, he always arranged his clothing, combed his hair, and took a bath every day despite it taking a huge amount of base points.

It was just that his perpetual sour face diminished his charms a lot, but fortunately, he had a good face.

On the fourth, he saved her life, and she told him she was willing to give herself to him. She almost got injured in turn.

That said, he trained even harder than ever after that day.

On the tenth, they were already adults. She saw him training and she openly marveled at his physique. He unconsciously disappeared from the room in response.

He made sure to wear fitted training attire since then, at least when they were teamed up together.

And the last one, in the nineteenth time she confessed, they had determined that humanity was really about to lose, and they could only fight to the death.

What did he do, then? He teleported out of the base to escape her.

It was understandable that she was very confused and didn’t trust him at all.

There was even a little bitterness in her words, and it pricked at his heart.

"You know that I was experimented on and it was difficult to control my power whenever my emotions go haywire," he said. "After years of training, I managed to control it well.

"However, after all these years, there still remains one trigger," he paused.

"And that is You, Naia."