Chapter 290: Chapter 290: You’re Very Good, No Need to Compare

It had been a chaotic and wild night.

As the alcohol wore off, Zoe Pierce found she didn’t want to recall what she had done last night at all.

But Aaron Xavier had clearly gotten a taste for it.

"Zoe, how about we have another drink today?"

On the second day of their break, Aaron Xavier couldn’t help but sidle up to Zoe Pierce and ask.

Zoe Pierce looked up, feeling a headache coming on.

A pile of alcohol bottles, some well-known and others obscure, stood on the table like a miniature skyline.

Aaron Xavier had gone out around noon, and when he returned, these bottles had appeared on the table.

Meeting his beaming eyes, anyone could guess what he was planning.

She said irritably, "No more drinking."

Yesterday was just about building up the courage to pay back the promised reward, but today, she clearly had no such intentions.

In fact, because they had gone too wild yesterday, she still felt a little lethargic.

Aaron Xavier studied Zoe Pierce’s expression. Once he confirmed she was firm and wouldn’t be swayed, he slumped onto the table in defeat.

The maternal instinct she’d felt yesterday was completely extinguished in last night’s wild abandon.

Now, no matter how pitifully Aaron Xavier acted, Zoe Pierce wouldn’t feel her heart soften.

Seeing him like this, Zoe Pierce changed the subject. "Miles said we have a mission coming up, right?"

Now that they were in The Military, promotions in rank depended on completing missions, unlike back at the academy.

Zoe Pierce and her team were a special case. Everyone knew their capabilities, but then the whole kidnapping incident happened.

With the current crackdown, the Terrorist Organization definitely wouldn’t show its face.

So, the missions planned for Zoe Pierce and her team had to continue. In fact, to make them prove themselves, the assignments they were given were even more difficult than those for other squads.

Taking advantage of this crackdown, Miles had already gotten word that the squad was about to be assigned to the center of the latest Xenobeast Tide.

Aaron Xavier, of course, knew. "It’s a long one, and the location is pretty isolated. Once we get busy, we probably won’t be back until the New Year."

This would become the new normal.

Nathan Lockwood’s data analysis was ongoing. Xenobeast Tides had been breaking out more and more frequently, and so had The Military’s manpower investment.

The other squads wouldn’t be assigned to such a central location.

Aaron Xavier had already looked up the general information on the Intelligent Brain. "That place fell too quickly. There’s hardly anyone left."

The small planets on the frontier were all like this. But no matter how deserted, humanity couldn’t just hand over a planet like that.

Give up this one, give up that one, and the end result would be the surrounding Frontier Stars becoming a paradise for Xenobeasts.

That was definitely not what the authorities wanted.

Zoe Pierce looked at Aaron Xavier. "Is it the same for The Empire?"

Aaron Xavier laughed. "Of course. The Xenobeasts don’t care if you’re from The Empire or The Federation."

That’s why the two sides had to join forces.

"We’re in for some hard times then." Aaron Xavier thought it would be fine for him, but if the mission really did last until the New Year, it would be torture for Miles.

Being out in the elements, battling Xenobeasts every day... no one would want that.

Unless the mission was completed before the New Year and they could come back for a while, Miles and Zoe Pierce would be spending most of their time on assignment.

Right under the watchful eyes of the rest of them.

Zoe Pierce stretched lazily. "Being busy is better than having nothing to do."

While the training days at The Military were fulfilling enough, for Zoe Pierce, who was used to life on the outside, something was still missing.

She wanted to pilot the Mecha that Chase Shaw had given her, to use her spiritual power to slay Xenobeasts. On the Capital Star, all of this felt like scratching an itch through a boot.

Aaron Xavier sometimes felt that Zoe Pierce was more career-driven than he was.

"Zoe," he called out softly. Zoe Pierce turned her head.

She saw him clear his throat, looking a little sneaky as he sat beside her.

Zoe Pierce blinked.

Aaron Xavier lowered his voice. "Last night... was I okay?"

He knew that even when Zoe Pierce drank, she didn’t forget.

Then he followed up with, "Compared to Chase and the others?"

They had only exchanged a few words about serious matters before Aaron Xavier had successfully gone off-topic again.

"I wasn’t too bad, was I?"

His Alpha pride was acting up.

Yesterday, he had practically used every trick in the book to please Zoe Pierce.

There wasn’t a single place on her body he hadn’t kissed.

He hadn’t even spared her toes. Surely that had earned him some points with Zoe Pierce.

Zoe Pierce’s face flushed with a mixture of shame and annoyance. She started to get up, but Aaron Xavier quickly grabbed both her hands. "Zoe, I’m just asking."

Don’t be fooled by his calm demeanor; Aaron Xavier wasn’t that confident.

’Losing to the others in other aspects was one thing, but after he’d tried so hard to please her in every way, surely he held a slightly different place in her heart, right?’

Zoe Pierce looked into his brown eyes and was surprised to see a hint of nervousness in his gaze.

He genuinely cared about the answer.

He wasn’t just teasing her.

The sudden realization left a complicated feeling in Zoe Pierce’s heart.

For her, whether it was Chase Shaw, Nathan Lockwood, Aaron Xavier, or Miles Sherman, they were all different.

Their personalities were different, their appearances were different, and even though they all liked her, the ways they were good to her were also different.

She could see each of them as individuals and wouldn’t compare them to one another.

Because that would be unfair to every single one of them.

’These feelings aren’t something that can be compared.’

Pressing her lips together, Zoe Pierce lowered her gaze. "I’ve never done what we did yesterday with anyone else, Aaron Xavier. If you ask again, I’ll get genuinely angry."

"You were great. You don’t need to compare yourself to anyone."

While Aaron Xavier was still stunned, Zoe Pierce had already pulled her hands free and swept all the bottles from the table into her Space Button.

Leaving these things with Aaron Xavier would only lead to trouble.

By the time Aaron Xavier snapped out of it, Zoe Pierce had already gathered her things and gone upstairs.

Looking at the empty living room, Aaron Xavier let out a soft laugh.

But the smile on his lips stretched as wide as it could go.

Even though all the different kinds of alcohol he had specifically bought were gone from the table, it didn’t dampen his mood in the slightest.

’See? All it takes is one sentence from her to utterly captivate a man.’

He headed upstairs, calling out as he went, "Zoe..."

*

The five-day break passed quickly. Aaron Xavier spent four of those days with Zoe Pierce before she chased him back home on the last day.

The next time they saw each other was directly at The Military headquarters.

Chase Shaw and the others could all see that Aaron Xavier was in a visibly good mood.

Everyone knew the reason why, but they couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.

But looking at Zoe Pierce, you couldn’t tell a thing.

It was as if she had just spent a perfectly normal day off.

Quentin Ford and Justin Lewis were both being monitored by The Military, but there was nothing unusual to report.

Nathan Lockwood also checked Zoe Pierce’s physical data. Everything was normal, and her pheromones were suppressed to a reasonable level.

Her gland, having been temporarily marked, showed no signs of going into heat no matter how you looked at it.

Just as Miles Sherman had predicted, after only a week of training since their return, Instructor Joyce summoned them to her office.