Khan couldn't understand what had just happened. He could get that Liiza needed to leave and warn everyone quickly, but her last words left him speechless.
'Why would she say that?' Khan wondered as he played the time spent with her in his mind.
Khan felt quite sure that he didn't make Liiza angry. He had always been honest, and he wasn't treating her like a powerless girl either. The events with Zalpa had even made their relationship take a step forward since they were sharing each other's burdens now.
Still, Liiza's sudden reaction made Khan feel that something was off. She was usually easy to understand since she never held back from showing her true intentions. Yet, the last interaction had featured the exact opposite of what Khan had learnt to see in his girlfriend.
The confusion caused worries, and the worries led to paranoia. Khan had recently gone through multiple difficult moments, and Liiza had become one of the few things he could appreciate wholeheartedly. She was a trustworthy beacon in his life who helped him go on even if his beliefs had fallen apart.
Liiza's last line sorted the effects that it described. Khan couldn't help but consider his relationship with her, and he even ended up comparing the Niqols to the only other girl who had come close to become his girlfriend.
Two weeks of a relationship didn't sound like a long time when Khan thought about it. However, they had arrived while he was lost in the emptiness caused by Istrone's events. Moreover, they had been intense and wonderful in fields that went way beyond simple lust.
Khan couldn't deny the intense attraction the two had experienced since they first lay their eyes on each other. Yet, those days together had proven how their mana wasn't wrong. They had a similar mindset and situation. The differences between their species didn't even manage to create unsolvable misunderstandings.
It was evident that their relationship could work. Khan and Liiza were still at the beginning of their romance, but they could feel how they never stopped getting closer to each other. Their feelings never stopped intensifying as they discovered new aspects of their partner. They also grew used to their gestures and behavior at a surprising pace.
Martha and Liiza were so different that Khan struggled to understand how he could like both of them.
Martha was a gentle friend who didn't care about Khan's background. She liked to fight, to prevail over her peers, and she didn't mind helping Khan whenever he couldn't understand some aspects of the Global Army.
Khan and Martha shared a similar position in the army, but that only created a natural alliance since they were on the opposite side of the wealthy recruits. Their background wasn't the reason why their relationship had slowly evolved.
Martha was mature, and she felt naturally attracted by Khan's driven character. She also liked the side of him that made her laugh. The same went for his shamelessness toward some aspects of their life in the Global Army.
She had initially tried to suppress her feelings due to the packed schedule caused by the training camp, but Onia had made her hesitation crumble. Martha had felt slightly shy about that, but she had finally decided to give her romantic life a chance.
Liiza was almost her opposite. She and Khan simply couldn't be friends. Their attraction was instinctive, and a power that they couldn't control drove it. Their minds had decided that they were good for each other, and that had been enough to make everything else happen.
Liiza's status as a Niqols made her self-restraint quite loose. She didn't hesitate to kiss him as soon as she confirmed her attraction. She often initiated their intimate sessions, and her confidence was something that Khan admired about her character.
Moreover, Liiza could feel his pain in ways that humans who didn't endure the same experiences struggled to do. She could look into his mind by studying his gaze and staring at his expressions. Her perception was almost magical and probably came from her deep understanding of mana.
'What should I even consider about us?' Khan sighed as he softly bumped the back of his head to the cold, rocky surface behind him. 'I like her, and she likes me. Isn't this the whole point of a relationship?'
The differences between their species didn't matter in Khan's mind. He could barely force himself to see humans and Niqols as separate creatures. He couldn't find issues when he struggled to understand what everyone saw as problematic.
His confused state eventually led to a conclusion that left him both sad and warm. Khan slowly accepted that Liiza would have probably captured the entirety of his mind even if Martha were awake. He couldn't even describe the reasons behind his deduction. There was something between the Niqols and him that went beyond thoughts and words.
The evolution of his relationship with Martha had been natural and smooth, but he could describe it clearly. Khan could see every tiny step that they had taken together to reach their apex in Onia.
Instead, everything felt unclear and unavoidable with Liiza. She existed, so Khan felt attracted by her. His eyes wanted to remain on her as long as she was in their range.
Khan could guess that his feelings came from his young age. He didn't lie to himself when he considered his inexperience in relationships and potentially naïve emotions.
However, Khan couldn't find a proper reason to disrespect his emotions. They might come from his young and naïve mind, but so what? They still existed, and he could feel them growing stronger with each passing day.
'Niqols' love is stronger than humans,' Khan repeated Zalpa's words in his mind. 'I wonder if we should all learn to love like the Niqols. Isn't this what Lieutenant Dyester tried to teach to me? Shouldn't I avoid having regrets?'
The mental conversation felt too one-sided at some point and made Khan suppress his worries to go back to his training. The third day of his third week on Nitis passed quickly, and he returned to the camp the following afternoon to fill his stomach and see if the professors had gone back to work.
The recruits welcomed him back to the camp with open arms. They even took that chance to study his riding position again, and Khan didn't mind repeating his explanations while adding a few descriptions of his test.
One of the professors had yet to return to work, but Khan could attend two lessons before the arrival of the night. His companions tried to drag him outside of the camp at that point, but his thoughts about Liiza made it impossible for him to accept that offer.
Khan ate again before going inside his room and taking care of his training with the Divine Reaper. He even tested whether the mental barrier helped with the exercises related to mana, but the results ended up being quite obvious. His ability to cut away his emotions improved his results, but he was still far away from creating the membrane of sharp energy described in the martial art.
His training with the Divine Reaper ended around midnight. Khan had the chance to sleep and flew to the mountains after he woke up, but Snow notified him about its arrival before he could even consider remaining inside the camp.
The Aduns didn't come to the camp due to Khan's orders. It had simply sensed his longing toward Liiza, and it had connected that feeling to the flat area among the mountains.
Khan didn't need to make up his mind anymore at that point. He exited his room, jumped on Snow, and let the eagle fly him to the mountain chain with its most reckless flight yet. Snow allowed him to experience surges of adrenaline that even the battles couldn't provide. Still, everything went silent when the duo approached the flat area and noticed a dark figure wrapped in a white blanket sitting in the corner of the rocky wall.
Liiza opened her eyes and unfolded the blanket when she saw Khan landing at the edges of the flat area. She appeared sleepy, but her expression quickly grew aloof after staring at her boyfriend for a few seconds.
Khan could see that something was bothering her. She used the blanket to create a spot next to her where he could sit. She wanted to talk instead of diving into intimate actions.
Khan didn't let that scene scare him away. He actually felt glad that he was finally about to obtain his answers. He didn't want to experience that day of doubts and worries ever again.
"Can you tell me what's wrong now?" Khan asked once he sat cross-legged on the blanket and fixed his eyes on Liiza.
"Did you think about what I said?" Liiza went straight to the point without showing any reaction in her expression.
"I didn't manage to think about anything else," Khan honestly revealed without moving his eyes from hers. "I thought and thought, considered every day spent together. My mind even compared you to the girl I told you about."
"What did you discover?" Liiza asked, but her voice seemed to tremble near the end of her line.
Khan ignored that detail and decided to go along with her questions. "What's there to discover? You already know how I feel. I can't understand what's changed."
"You put yourself at risk to help my species," Liiza replied. "That happened."
"I can't see the differences between humans and Niqols," Khan explained while shrugging his shoulders. "I don't want the relationships of our species to improve on the blood of children. I just don't."
"You didn't decide that because of me, right?" Liiza continued.
"I had the chance to warn the Niqols with you," Khan sighed as his expression darkened. "I still need to follow orders and wait to help if that's what my superiors want, but I didn't want to keep you in the dark over something so important. I don't care if the army ends up losing benefits over my actions."
"Khan, isn't that treason?" Liiza asked as her voice gained a pleading tone.
"Isn't the opposite genocide?" Khan replied without showing any hesitation in his face.
A tremor ran through Liiza, but she suppressed it and remained still. Her eyes moved toward the ground before returning on Khan.
"Niqols don't feel like humans, Khan," Liiza whispered.
"I know," Khan scoffed. "Zalpa has been clear about that. Still, I'm not completely human, am I?"
"Khan," Liiza exclaimed in her previous begging tone while her cold face broke to reveal her hesitation. "You have just put yourself at high risk to help my species. My superiors are already trying to confirm what you said. You might have saved thousands of lives."
"Well," Khan cleared his throat at that sudden praise, "I was only trying to do the righ-."
Khan didn't have the chance to finish his line since Liiza slowly bent toward him until her forehead touched his. Khan soon felt her crawling on his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"What is it?" Khan whispered as the sensation caused by Liiza's cold body filled his mind.
She was standing on her knees while on his lap. Liiza clung to his hair and forced his head to tilt upward to look at her face. Her forehead was still on him, and her half-closed eyes seemed lost in the sensations that his warmth caused.
"I want to be clear," Liiza gave voice to faint words that caused cold puffs to land on his lips. "I will turn you into a block of ice if you betray my feelings."
Khan's eyes lit up, but the nature of the situation didn't allow him to think straight. He simply nodded, and Liiza's head moved together with his face.
"What is happening?" Khan eventually asked after Liiza has remained in that position for a few minutes.
"Shut up," Liiza pleaded in a sweet voice. "It's my first time. I want to be sure."
Khan wanted to speak again, but Liiza's lips suddenly fell on his mouth, and the two remained entangled in a passionate kiss that quickly made them lie on the ground.
Liiza appeared more passionate than usual. Her hand quickly went inside Khan's robe and uncovered his torso. Khan couldn't help but do the same, and the two soon remained naked while lying on each other.
Liiza showed a faint hesitation as her hand slid down Khan's torso, but a hateful thought suddenly filled his mind and made him stop her gesture. Liiza left his lips and revealed a confused expression. Some sadness even appeared in her eyes when she saw the conflict in her boyfriend's face.
"I thought you also wanted it," Liiza whispered in a voice so sad that Khan's heart almost shattered when he heard those words.
"I don't have condoms," Khan quickly explained himself as a tinge of shame appeared on his face.
He didn't have the time to search for them inside the camp, and he didn't trust anyone enough to talk about the issue. George could know something, but Khan didn't want to risk anything yet.
"Oh," Liiza exclaimed in surprise.
The Niqols turned and twisted her body to reach her tracksuit on the ground. She browsed through its insides until she took out a small oval disk that contained something that looked like a condom.
"I had to go through dad's old stuff to find it," Liiza revealed in a shy voice. "It has even been hard to keep it hidden during these days."
"Days?" Khan asked as warmth spread inside his mind.
"I knew it was going to happen soon and that you couldn't move freely in the camp," Liiza said while showing a timid smile that broadened as soon as she saw her boyfriend abandoning his last brim of self-restraint and rising to make their lips meet again.
