Chapter 96: Sayla’s Gift

Chapter 96: Sayla's Gift

"Huh—Birthday?"

The moment Revil and his group disappeared from the hangar, the others immediately gathered around, surrounding Eli from all sides.

"Birthday? Lieutenant's birthday is coming up? Tomorrow… that's Christmas, isn't it?"

"Why didn't you say anything!"

A flood of voices instantly drowned out Eli.

As mentioned before, the atmosphere aboard White Base was incredibly warm, almost like a big family.

Moreover, Eli had never been the type to put on airs. He was well-liked among the crew members of White Base.

Hearing that his birthday was approaching, everyone naturally wanted to celebrate it.

Even on the frontlines, there were still ways to hold a celebration.

"Wait, wait, wait!"

At that moment, Christina shouted from within the crowd, bringing everything to a halt.

If White Base was a family, then Christina—despite not having been aboard for long—had undoubtedly already taken on the role of a matriarch.

As soon as she spoke, everyone stopped making noise and looked at her.

With all eyes on her, Christina cleared her throat lightly.

"Eli-san, do you want to celebrate your birthday?"

Under normal circumstances, Christina, as a woman, would have handled this in a more sentimental way—perhaps by planning a surprise without telling the person involved.

But as mentioned earlier, they were on the frontlines. Whatever they did had to be based on Eli's wishes.

"No… I used to celebrate with my parents, but now…"

Eli raised both hands and spread them in front of him, forcing a faint smile as he answered.

The hangar fell silent.

In the next instant, as if they had all suddenly realized they had something urgent to do, everyone swiftly and silently left the hangar.

No one continued to tease him because everyone knew Lieutenant Eli's background.

Only Christina, Amuro, and Sayla remained.

"I'll leave it to you, Miss Sayla."

Amuro placed a solemn hand on Sayla's shoulder before pushing her toward Eli.

Then, grabbing Christina's wrist, he practically vanished from the hangar in the next moment.

"Eh? Wait—"

Caught off guard, Sayla was suddenly pushed forward, flailing in the zero-gravity environment of the hangar, her eyes locking onto Eli's face as she floated closer.

Eli's expression softened considerably, no longer showing the forced smile from earlier.

He reached out, intending to steady Sayla by the wrist.

But Amuro must have pushed a bit too hard!

Sayla flailed and tumbled straight into Eli's arms.

The momentum lifted Eli off the hangar floor as well, and the two of them slowly spun together in midair, locked in an embrace.

Their gazes remained fixed on each other.

"Are you sad?"

There was a trace of sorrow in Sayla's eyes.

Mentioning birthdays made her realize that, even though the man before her was older than her, he was still only nineteen, about to turn twenty.

In peaceful times, he would still be in college.

"I'm not sad."

"Liar."

Sayla made no move to leave Eli's embrace. Instead, she crossed her arms behind his neck and pressed her upper body against his chest.

"I can feel it—your heart is grieving."

Even through two layers of fabric, she just knew.

Sayla rested her ear against Eli's chest, listening to his heartbeat.

Eli remained silent, lowering his head to look at the golden strands of Sayla's hair.

The feeling of having his emotions laid bare by the person in front of him… he didn't dislike it.

Eli placed his hands on Sayla's waist, pulling her firmly into his embrace.

A surge of emotion nearly shattered the veneer of maturity he had maintained all this time—the facade that told himself he didn't belong in this universe.

In the end, those emotions condensed into tears, slipping uncontrollably from his eyes.

"…Sorry, I didn't mean to…"

Eli loosened his hold, raising a hand to wipe his tears.

But suddenly, a force pressed against the back of his neck, pushing his head downward.

Soft warmth met his lips.

Eli's eyes widened slightly as he saw Sayla, eyes closed, her lashes trembling as she kissed him.

Forget it… all that talk about not belonging to this world—he had long since become deeply entangled in it.

Eli closed his eyes, holding Sayla even tighter as he returned the kiss.

"…It's beautiful."

In the shadows of the corridor, Christina wiped away a tear.

She watched as the two of them floated in the vast, open hangar, locked in an embrace, slowly spinning.

Right in front of the EZ-SR Gundam, they shared their kiss.

To Christina, someone who adored machines, this was the most romantic sight she could imagine.

Squatting beside her, Amuro also peeked out to look at Eli.

Seeing how Eli, who had once seemed like an outsider, was now letting go of something and embracing something new…

Amuro felt genuinely happy for him.

Then, he glanced at Christina, noticing the faint redness in her eyes.

His gaze subtly drifted to her lips.

—

No one knew what was discussed between Revil and Dozle.

The only thing that became public was a photograph—one showing Dozle in full Zeon military uniform, seated before General Revil, glaring angrily at him.

That photograph was rushed to press the same day, appearing on the front page of every newspaper.

In other words, the entire Earth Sphere knew that Dozle had been captured by the Federation!

For the Federation soldiers stationed at Solomon Fortress, this was monumental news.

However, Eli had no room to participate in the discussions.

Because, after nearly three hours of talks with Dozle, General Revil summoned him to the captain's office.

When Eli received the message, he had been spending time with Sayla in the observation area.

So he arrived at the captain's office with a bewildered expression.

If it was about the battle report, he had already provided a full debriefing to General Tianem. There was no need for Revil to question him further.

More importantly, when Eli entered the office, he found that only Revil was there.

In other words, this was going to be a private conversation between just the two of them.

Upon realizing this, Eli immediately understood.

"Lieutenant, you've really given me a tough problem here. The Federation Council is already considering using Dozle as a bargaining chip to negotiate peace with Zeon."

As soon as Eli took his seat at Revil's invitation, the general spoke.