120 Next Mission
The journey lasted for quite a lot of time.
They were heading towards the research institute that had been abandoned, but the location itself was indeed very far from City B. it would take at least two days of journey even if they were to use a car.
“Are we going to drive at night too?” Lotte asked.
Jake nodded. “Yes, we’ll take turns to keep watch. Oh right, can you drive now, Lotte?”
Lotte shook her head embarrassingly. It seemed that they would have to stop when it was Lotte’s turn to keep watch. There was no way that they wouldn’t let her watch because her wind element was indeed the most suitable to keep watch.
The others were fine because they had already received military training before. Naturally, this excluded Kate as she definitely couldn’t be the one who was guarding. Asking for a cat to take turn guarding sound extremely weird.
“It’s late. We’re still not going to stop at all?” Lotte asked as she looked around and stretched her two hands.
“That’ll be wasting time.” Jake glanced at his girlfriend. “You should sleep first. The others will be sleeping too.”
He got the first turn to guard and Lotte naturally wanted to accompany her boyfriend. Since she couldn’t drive, she would just help him to watch out the surrounding as the sky turned darker.
.....
“Maybe I can try driving?” Lotte asked curiously.
“No.” Jake shook his head rapidly. “If we crashed, I’m sure that the one Kyle kill will be me.”
Jake didn’t want to take the chance to teach his girlfriend how to drive with Kyle’s car during mission. If they wanted to, they could go on a personal mission in the future without the others.
At that time, Jake will only feel heartache that the car crashed but wouldn’t end up being beaten up so badly by his friend.
Kyle rolled his eyes. He was sitting at the back with Dylan. “We’re going to sleep first now. When it’s time, wake me up.”
“Sure, thing.”
“Little Kitty, how about if you sleep with me instead of Kyle? I don’t think it’ll be that comfortable to sleep in his arm and he had to keep you up.” Lotte looked at Kate and her eyes lit up.
Previously, there would always be an empty seat because there were only three people inside the car. But now that Lotte is here, Kate would have no other choice but to sleep in Kyle’s arm.
She was already feeling so conflicted because the space in car might not be enough for her to sleep on her own. Well, there was some space, but it was too narrow and Kate herself was worried that she would be squeezed by Dylan and Kyle should either one of the two moved.
“Meow?”
Hearing the offer from Lotte, Kate was stunned. That didn’t sound like a bad offer, but she didn’t know Lotte that much and naturally didn’t dare to trust her so easily. The only reason why she trusted Kyle from the beginning was because she knew that he was the owner of this little cat.
But she only met Lotte for the first time. Being a little cat and previously an ordinary person, Kate knew how vulnerable she was when she slept. This was why she had to be near someone she could fully trust.
Kyle arched his eyebrows. “I’m fine with holding her all the time. She didn’t need you.”
Lotte pouted. “I’m asking Little Kitty and not you, Kyle.”
“She’s my cat.”
Hearing Kyle’s words, Lotte was speechless. She felt that this man was surprisingly so possessive of his cat. No wonder that Jake told her that his best friend had changed a bit ever since he had a little cat. As it turned out, he did change and valued the little cat so much that she herself found it unbelievable.
After all, Lotte had already met with Kyle in the past and had never seen him acting like this before. The stark contrast was indeed too much.
“Still, don’t you need to respect her decision?” Lotte asked with a grin.
Kyle frowned. He looked at the little cat in his hand who tilted her head cutely to the side. It seemed that she was also considering what Lotte was asking and this made Kyle felt somewhat annoyed.
“Meow.”
After that short answer, Kate turned around and laid on top of Kyle’s arm. As for the matter of disturbing him to put his hand on this position for hours... Kate chose to ignore that and threw it to the back of her head.
She would rather trust Kyle rather than trusting a new person whom she didn’t know that much.
“Aww, if that’s your decision, alright.” Lotte sounded disappointed.
Jake laughed. “Little Kitty must have liked Kyle so much that she would choose him rather than you who can understand her.”
“Hey, this is my first time meeting with Little Kitty, alright? Though, I would want to pet her. I missed my cat.” Lotte sighed.
Kate snuggled closer to Kyle. She didn’t really want to be treated as a pet and being petted by others, alright? It was already bad enough that she had to live as a little cat for a long period of time and now she had to be petted by Lotte?
No.
Kate didn’t want to and chose to stick with Kyle tightly.
Kyle watched the little cat in his hand acting close to him and chuckled lightly. It seemed that he found her action to be rather cute in his opinion. Patting her head lightly, Kyle then leaned back slightly to sleep.
By the side, Dylan had long closed his eyes and slept. He probably didn’t want to bother with their little banter.
Time passed quietly.
Lotte and Jake knew very well that they shouldn’t speak that much when the others were sleeping. This was why they didn’t talk much. Besides, they had already talked quite a lot during countless video calls that they had with each other.
“I didn’t expect that you’re still going to stick with Kyle and do mission together,” Lotte commented in a low voice, so low that it could definitely be categorized as whisper.
Jake laughed lightly. “Where else do I even want to go if I’m not staying together with Kyle? Do you really expect me to roam around in this kind of world by myself?”
Lotte looked at her boyfriend and after considering the matter for several seconds, she decided that it would be impossible for Jake to do that. At the very least, she knew that he would definitely end up in some kind of weird situation without anyone watching him.
She sighed. “Being your girlfriend feels like being your caretaker.”
Jake was stunned. “Sweetheart, don’t hurt my heart like that.”
Lotte rolled her eyes and ignored him. She silently used her wind element and inspected the area. From the very moment she awakened her ability, she felt that her ability was really magical. Even things that were so far away could be ‘seen’ very clearly with this ability of hers.
This made her wonder whether she would be able to do even better things when she reached rank 4. Lotte anticipated it.
“There are several giant mutated animals at the front.” Lotte narrowed her eyes.
“Deal with them.”
“Easy.” Lotte smiled and there was a faint slashing sound from a distance. This was something that she could do even with the need to look at it directly.
Jake glanced at Lotte. “I feel that you’re even better than me.”
Lotte laughed but didn’t say much. Even though Jake said that, she believed that her boyfriend was better than her. His control over metal elements were superb and if he were to attack her, Lotte herself was not sure that she would be able to deal with it.
He could sense her attack coming as those at rank 4 were more sensitive to the movements of other elements. This caused her attempt to sneak attack useless.
They had sparred a few times before to familiarize with the other party’s element.
“It’s almost time to change shift. Wake Kyle up.”
“Ok.” Lotte turned to the back and moved her hand. A seed in her hand grew at speed visible to the naked eye and the vine nudged Kyle’s shoulder.
Jake’s lips twitched when he saw that. “I thought that wood element users are mostly those who can control the trees and wood. They can also make plants grow?”
“Technically yes.” Lotte grinned. “There are actually two types of wood element, one that focused more on control and the other one focused more on the growth. As it turns out, I’m more of the growth type, which is why seeds are the best weapon for me. I can also control the nearby plants, but it’s not as good as controlling from the seed.”
Kyle opened his eyes and glanced at the two of them. He carefully moved his body and glanced at the still sleeping Kate in his hand as his eyes turned slightly warm.
Lotte blinked her eyes.
Why did she suddenly feel as if she was being the third party here?
It was a strange feeling.