Chapter 167| Two Girls, Each With a Piece of the Truth

Chapter 167: Chapter 167| Two Girls, Each With a Piece of the Truth

He took it. She hauled him up in one clean pull and let go before he could say anything.

"Same time next Saturday," Nyx said, picking up her bag. "And get some sleep. You look terrible."

She left. The door swung shut behind her.

Zane stood in the middle of the empty floor with his ribs aching and his head spinning, and thought: she’s not going to wait a week.

His communicator buzzed against his thigh.

He pulled it out.

Maren: Morning. Are you awake? I hope you got some rest last night. I didn’t hear you come in.

He read it twice.

It was a plain, kind message. No edge in it anywhere. She’d lain awake listening for him, and she’d asked about it like it was nothing, and somehow that made it worse than any accusation would have.

He typed back

Zane: Barely. Went to bed late.

Maren: Okay. Breakfast?

He looked at the cracked mat under his boots, at the place where he’d been standing when he found the seam. At the heavy, tired feeling in his chest that didn’t have a name yet.

Zane replied : Yeah. Give me ten minutes.

Then he picked up his bag and went out into the corridor, where the morning light was long and gold and entirely indifferent to whatever he’d done with his night.

_ _

Zane got to the cafeteria entrance with two minutes to spare.

Nil was already there, leaning against the doorframe with a paper bag in each hand. Maren stood beside her, and Zane forgot what he’d been about to say.

Maren was in a pale yellow sundress that fell loose to her knees. Her hair was down, with no tie and no training braid. The morning light caught the ends of it, and she looked like someone who had no plan to hit anything today.

’Wow,’ he thought. ’Sundresses on female heroes hit differently.’

『 System Note: The host’s mouth is slightly open. 』

He shut it.

"Morning," Maren said. Her eyes went over his face. "You really didn’t sleep."

"I told you. Barely."

"Mm." She let it go, which was worse.

"Okay, before anyone sits," Nil said, pushing off the doorframe and holding up both bags. "Change of plan. We’re not dining in."

Zane blinked. "We’re not?"

"The cafeteria is loud, the eggs are sad, and I’m tired of looking at the same walls." She tipped her head toward the east courtyard. "There’s a field past the practical complex. Nobody goes there. We’re having a picnic."

Maren stared at her. "A picnic."

"A small one," Nil said, holding up her fingers an inch apart.

Maren folded her arms. "You, who texted me one word three times yesterday, planned a picnic."

"Multitasking." Nil shrugged, completely unbothered. "Come on."

She started walking. Maren turned to Zane, one eyebrow raised.

"That’s something new," she said.

"Yeah," Zane said. "It is."

He fell into step behind them and tried very hard to look like a man with nothing on his conscience.

_ _

The field turned out to be real. It was a patch of long green grass behind the practical complex, with a lone tree and a view of the training towers.

Nil spread a blanket under the tree like she’d done it a hundred times. Out came sandwiches, sliced fruit, and a flask of something that smelled like cinnamon.

"You made this?" Maren asked, taking a sandwich.

"I assembled it."

"There’s a note taped to the bread," Maren said. She peeled it off and read it. "’Do not eat until Maren says yes.’"

"That was for Zane," Nil said smoothly. "He eats like a raccoon."

Zane paused mid-bite. "I do not."

"You stole Dex’s fries yesterday," Maren said, still reading. "Dex told me."

"That’s slander."

"That’s a witness," Nil said.

Zane took a sandwich and bit into it. It was good, annoyingly good. Maren laughed at something Nil said, a real laugh with her head tipped back, and he caught himself watching her instead of eating.

Nil caught him too.

She said nothing. She just reached over to tuck a stray leaf out of the blanket, and as her hand passed his knee she murmured, barely audible, "Breathe."

Zane choked on a grape.

"You okay?" Maren asked, thumping his back.

"Fine. Wrong pipe."

"Slow down. It’s not a race."

"I know," Zane wheezed. "It’s definitely not."

『 Current: 37% (Acquaintance tier) 』

『 System Note: The host is being observed by a professional. 』

’I noticed,’ he thought.

_ _

Maren stood and stretched. The sundress lifted a little at the hem, and Zane found something deeply fascinating in the tree.

"I’m going to find a tap," she said. "That flask is nearly empty. Don’t eat my fruit."

"We won’t," Nil said.

Maren paused mid-step and gave her a flat look. "You will."

"We’ll try," Nil said, already reaching for a strawberry.

Maren shook her head, smiling, and walked off toward the complex, her hair swaying behind her.

The second she was out of earshot, Nil’s smile settled into something quieter. She picked at the blanket’s edge and didn’t look at him.

"I’ve been quiet," she said. "Maren told you."

"She mentioned it."

"I wasn’t ignoring her." Nil turned a grape over in her fingers. "I was thinking about how to sit across from the two of you after last night without it being weird."

Zane rubbed the back of his neck. "It’s a bit weird."

"It’s a lot weird." She almost laughed. "That’s why there’s a sandwich."

Zane looked at her. For the first time since the door clicked shut last night, she looked like she was working to hold her face steady.

"Nil, about last night..."

"Don’t." She said it softly, not sharply. "Not here. I’m not going to tell her. Not yet." She finally met his eyes. "But I’m not going to pretend it didn’t happen, either. I just wanted one morning where it was easy. Where all three of us could eat something and not be strange."

His throat went tight. "That’s why the picnic."

"That’s why the picnic." She shrugged, and her mouth tilted. "Also I wanted to see Maren in that dress. Can you blame me?"

"No."

"Good. Eat your sandwich."

He did.

’Nil being serious,’ he thought. ’I didn’t know she had that setting.’

Across the blanket she was already back to smirking at the tree, like the last minute hadn’t happened.

_ _

Maren came back with the flask full and her cheeks pink from the walk. She dropped onto the blanket between them and tucked her legs under her.

"What did I miss?"

"Nothing," Nil said, much too quickly.

"Nothing," Zane agreed, even quicker.

Maren looked from one to the other. Slowly, the corner of her mouth went up.

"You’re both lying," she said.

Zane’s heart stopped.

"Badly," Maren added, pouring tea into the cup. "Nil, you owe me a gossip story. You always do."

"I’ll pay it later."

"Fine." Maren sipped, then glanced sideways at Zane and lowered her voice. "Hey. You know you can tell me things, right? Not just training stuff. Anything."

She wasn’t teasing. Her eyes were steady and warm, and the guilt landed like a stone in his stomach.

"I know," he said.

"Okay." She held his gaze a second longer, then nodded and reached for a strawberry. "Just checking."

Nil, across the blanket, studied the tree with enormous concentration.

Zane’s communicator buzzed against his thigh. He pulled it out under the edge of the blanket and read it.

Nyx: Six days.

No greeting, no emoji. Just that.

"She’s a different species on her own," Zane muttered.

"Who?" Maren asked, glancing up from her tea.

"Nobody. Training schedule." He turned the communicator face down on the blanket.

Maren studied him a second, then let it go. Nil, across the blanket, bit into a strawberry and said nothing, which was somehow louder.

Under the tree, the cinnamon tea steamed, the sun climbed, and two girls who each had a piece of the truth sat on either side of him, smiling.

He put the communicator away and thought: ’I have a week to figure out how to survive this.’

『 System Note: The host should eat something. His colour is not good. 』

He ate the strawberry Maren handed him, and it tasted like nothing at all.