Chapter 33: The General’s Woman

The media frenzy reached a breaking point three days after the initial rumors surfaced. At first, headlines floated quietly beside standard corporate news and celebrity updates. Then, overnight, every news network splashed the same bold lettering across their digital screens:

[DOCTOR RAVIAH SOLOMON AND GENERAL RHYDER DRAKEHEIR - MORE THAN BUSINESS PARTNERS?]

An hour later, speculative follow-up stories saturated the internet. Journalists questioned why the Eastern Defense Commander spent so many evenings at Sol Haven.

Gossip columns quickly filled in the blanks, claiming Raviah had leveraged her medical influence to charm the General, with a few calling her his mysterious secret lover.

Raviah glanced at the flashing tablet on her desk. With a calm flick of her wrist, she locked the screen and laid it face down.

"Ridiculous," she muttered, adjusting her coat.

Her security consultant shifted beside her, struggling to hold back a smirk. He cleared his throat and gestured toward the device.

"Would you like us to issue a statement?" he asked.

"No," Raviah replied smoothly. She picked up her pen and reached for the stack of construction blueprints.

The consultant frowned, taking a step closer. "Not even a brief denial? The news is spreading fast across all major networks."

"Why would I waste time denying something so completely irrelevant?" She signed off on a shipment of structural steel without looking up.

"Because public perception matters, Doctor," he pressed. "The rumors are multiplying by the minute."

"Let them talk." Raviah flipped to another logistics report. "The world has less than five months before everything falls apart."

She turned her eyes toward the wall of monitoring screens displaying the estate’s reinforced perimeter and expanding agricultural greenhouses.

Her hidden spatial dimension was already packed with endless tons of grains, medical supplies, and weapons, but her physical fortress still required endless work.

"If people want to spend their final months discussing my love life," Raviah added dryly, "that is their choice."

The consultant bowed his head in defeat. "Understood, Doctor."

Gossip was the absolute least of her concerns.

The western greenhouse needed advanced air filtration units to shield the crops from toxic fallout, three livestock barns required independent solar generators, and the underground research lab demanded high-grade containment locks.

To make matters worse, the strange energy fluctuations beneath the eastern fields were intensifying again.

While Raviah remained completely unbothered, Rhyder Drakeheir found the widespread chaos thoroughly entertaining. That afternoon, two heavy armored military transports rolled past Sol Haven’s gate.

Rhyder strode into the central command building, his heavy boots echoing off the polished floors. He stopped in front of Raviah’s desk with a dark, amused glint in his eyes.

"You’ve become quite famous today," Rhyder said, his low voice carrying through the quiet room.

Raviah kept her gaze fixed on her tablet. "What now?"

He slid his personal phone across the smooth glass surface of the desk. The top headline blared in oversized font:

[THE GENERAL’S WOMAN?]

Raviah stared at the words for a long moment. Without a single change in her calm facial expression, she pushed the device right back into his hands.

"Congratulations," she said flatly.

Rhyder arched a single eyebrow, his lips curving upward. "Congratulations?"

"You have apparently acquired a girlfriend without spending a single second trying," she replied.

A rare, genuine smile broke across the General’s rigid features. He picked up the phone, turning it over in his grip.

"You don’t seem even slightly concerned," he noted, stepping closer.

"Should I be?" Raviah rested her chin on her hand, looking directly into his sharp eyes.

"Most people would panic if their name was tied to mine," he murmured.

"I am not most people."

Rhyder let out a low, approving chuckle. "No. You definitely are not."

He leaned back against the edge of her heavy wooden desk, crossing his arms over his chest. "Do you know they are officially calling you the General’s woman out there?"

"I can read," she answered simple.

"And you have no urge to issue a public denial?"

Raviah tapped her fingers against the edge of her tablet, returning her focus to the agricultural reports. "I have zero interest in explaining my personal life to complete strangers."

Rhyder leaned in slightly, his dark gaze locking onto hers. "So you truly don’t mind if the entire region believes we are together?"

Raviah finally paused, tilting her head as she met his steady gaze. "Does it bother you?"

His grin widened into something dangerous yet relaxed. "Not particularly."

"Then there is no problem," she stated, returning to her work.

Rhyder studied her in complete silence. There was something entirely absurd about her utter lack of panic.

Anyone else would be terrified of being targeted by military rivals or ruthless press, yet Raviah looked more frustrated by a late shipment of antibiotic raw materials than by being labeled his secret lover.

"You really aren’t bothered at all," he repeated, double checking her reaction.

"No."

"Not even a little bit?"

"No."

Rhyder laughed quietly, shaking his head. "You know, Raviah, sometimes I wonder if anything in this world is capable of embarrassing you."

"Running out of antibiotics would mortify me," she replied without missing a beat.

He chuckled deeply. "Of course it would."

Despite the calm banter inside the command center, the storm outside continued to grow wildly out of control. Photographs of Rhyder’s military convoy parked outside Sol Haven flooded social media platforms.

Someone even managed to capture a telephoto shot of the two walking through the high-tech green zones together.

Across the city, inside a lavish downtown apartment, Carmela Bane stared at her glowing phone screen with a pale face. She scrolled through article after article, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the glass.

She had deliberately leaked subtle rumors to cast suspicion on Raviah, hoping the military would investigate her for illegal hoarding. Instead, the story had backfired completely, making Raviah look untouchable. Worse yet, General Drakeheir hadn’t issued a single word of denial.

"This wasn’t how it was supposed to go," Carmela whispered frantically to herself, her eyes burning with jealousy.

Later that evening, dusk settled over Sol Haven as another military convoy rolled down the private road. Raviah stepped outside the heavily reinforced southern entrance to meet the General personally. A team of armed security guards took up positions along the perimeter fence.

Rhyder swung himself out of his armored SUV, his heavy coat catching the evening wind. He walked toward her, stepping into the warm floodlights illuminating the entrance.

Before they could exchange greetings, bright light suddenly flashed from beyond the treeline. A swarm of aggressive reporters had broken past the public boundary signs, pushing against the secondary barricades with heavy camera gear.

"Doctor Solomon!" a reporter screamed over the noise.

"General Drakeheir! Please confirm the rumors!" another shouted, waving a microphone.

"Are the two of you living together at Sol Haven?"

"General, is Doctor Solomon under direct military protection?"

Raviah’s face remained completely stoic as she turned her back on the chaos, preparing to walk inside the gates. She had no intention of giving the media a single reaction.

Rhyder, however, did not follow her lead. Instead of retreating into the security building, he took a long step forward.

He stopped right next to her, matching her stride and standing shoulder-to-shoulder in full view of the crowd. The media exploded. A barrage of blinding camera flashes illuminated the night sky, capturing every detail of the pair.

Rhyder calmly crossed his arms, his posture tall and imposing as he looked out at the flashing lights with cold indifference. Beside him, Raviah stood composed, staring straight ahead as if the screaming crowd didn’t exist at all.

The frame was stunningly clear. The most powerful military commander in the region stood side by side with the brilliant doctor, protecting her outside the fortress she had built.

By midnight, the photograph had gone viral on every news network across the country. Beneath the brilliant image of the power couple standing together in the dark, a single headline dominated the front page:

[THE GENERAL HAS CHOSEN HIS WOMAN.]