Fenrir's Solution

"I found the solution." Nathan smiled. 

The person that actually approached the camp was none other than Selena. He didn't know how Selena ended up here, but it was clear that her condition wasn't too good. 

There was a huge bag under her eyes, her face looked tired and pale. Her posture was already a mess. She was even more tired than Raivan and the others.

The vampire still maintained her calm, but it was clear that she was concerned about Selena's condition. 

"Well, well…" Nathan squinted his eyes. "To what do I owe the pleasure of the two ladies? For you to go all the way to meet me, are you perhaps trying to surrender?"

Selena bit her lips. She never thought Nathan's condition was this good. "No. I'm just making sure that you're alright. Since I've confirmed it, it's time for me to go."

Selena forcefully spun her body to turn around, only to do it a bit too fast. Even though she just wanted to escape, her legs gave out. She tripped to the side, using her hand to barely avoid falling. 

"Oi! Are you alright?" Nathan walked to her and tried to support her.

"I'm fine…" Selena bit her lips, her stomach growling.

The vampire furrowed her eyebrows, unable to bear watching this anymore. She tapped Selena's forehead.

"What are you—" Selena wanted to say something, but her head dropped as if she had lost consciousness.

"What are you doing?" This action startled Nathan, thinking that a familiar couldn't do anything to harm their summoner.

"I'm protecting her. If this continues, her body will collapse, and she will be in an even more dangerous predicament." The vampire politely bowed to Nathan while saying, "I know that it's not my place to say this, but I hope that you would reconsider the competition.

"Selena had been pushing herself too much because of the competition. She didn't get much time to sleep in the past three days. During the first night, we were ambushed by a lot of aliens, so we had to keep running. During the second night, we were not in the terrain suitable for sleeping. We tried to find one, but it was too dark, and one careless move would enrage the aliens near the area. She didn't even eat much." 

Nathan waved down. "You can tell me the details later. For now, help me move her."

They carried Selena to Nathan's bed. After that, the vampire, Risa, began recounting all their experiences.

"I know that this is shameless, but I implore you to cancel the bet. She is extremely stubborn. To be honest, I couldn't care less about the competition between you. Unlike the competition, it's better for her to get a good score since she has to prove her ability to her family."

"Do you think she will accept it if I cancel it after this? She will think that I'm pitying her and might become more uncontrollable. It's fortunate enough that she is just exhausted, not sick."

"This…" Risa didn't have any solution. Nathan was right. Selena would just get angry and she couldn't imagine what she would do after that. 

"The only way to solve this is to have her admit defeat herself. Then again, there might not be a need to do it."

"What? If she continues pushing herself like this…"

"I know. I'm just telling you that there is a solution that can make her not give up but also not put herself too far." 

Risa was dumbfounded. She couldn't think of any solution that could change Selena's mind. Of course she didn't have one. Nathan had just discovered it an hour ago.

"But I need your help to do that. What do you think?"

Nathan explained his plans in detail. She never thought such a thing was possible, but Risa knew that she had no choice but to accept this condition.

"Can you see in the dark or something and get some firewood?"

"Since you two are strong, I think I can leave her side for a bit, so yes, I can find them."

"Good. Grab me a bunch of firewood as quickly as possible. It's already dark, and I don't want to work overnight."

"Alright."

As soon as Risa left, Fenrir couldn't help but ask, "So what we need to do is improve her condition, huh? How are we supposed to do that?" 

"It's simple. Just make a warm bed." Nathan smirked. "We will have to make the trench slightly deeper. After that, we'll burn the firewood until it is reduced to charcoal before burying it with dry gravel. The one I told you about before.

"I didn't do it because it was unnecessary, but since we would have two people sleeping here, we had to turn both trenches into beds."

Fenrir looked at him weirdly. "I thought you would try to take advantage of the situation and sleep together."

"No shit. Even if I wanted to do that, it would be foolish of me. Her family would hunt me down, and you'll be dead the next day." Nathan shrugged. 

"Heh?"

"Besides, if I do something like that, I'll become a loner for real. She is probably the only person I can consider a friend in this academy."

Fenrir couldn't deny that claim. August had talked to him multiple times, but no one had approached Nathan as sincere as Selena. 

"Well, I don't know if this warm bed will work. If it looks like something is burning, wake me up, will you?" Nathan winked playfully. "We need her at her peak if you want to kill that juvenile class alien."

"I know." Fenrir looked at Nathan's sincere expression before deciding, "I think I know the term I can give for all that Ena. In exchange for giving me 160 Ena, I will become your wingmen for 7 days. How's that?"

Nathan froze as though it took a moment for him to process what Fenrir had just said. He turned his head like a robot and replied with a question. "Can I call you my bro?"