Chapter 156: A vow

"Cough-cough!"

Bunny wasn’t choking on her own saliva; she was thoroughly dumbfounded by how Kai managed to act like a shameless side-piece while exuding the absolute authority of a primary husband.

How on earth did he throw out a word like that without a single twitch on his stoic face?

"My lady, the hour grows late. Allow me to escort you back to your quarters to rest."

Wait a second... did that little dragon teach him the term ’my lady,’ too?!

Before she could even protest, her weight suddenly yielded as Kai lifted her from the couch with a smooth, effortless motion, settling her onto his left arm to carry her through the halls with completely unbothered audacity.

Thank goodness they didn’t bump into any other Sentinels along the way—and more importantly, zero sightings of her bonded husbands.

Kai escorted her all the way to her bedroom, entirely unprepared for the fact that Astin was already inside waiting for her.

Astin and Liam had already drawn up a joint operational pact: alternating nights with their shared wife in a system that was fair, transparent, and entirely reasonable.

More importantly, it was a tactical alliance forged to prevent any other rogue dogs from sneaking in through the back door.

Astin had been busy tidying up Bunny’s cluttered room when he noticed his wife returning from work, immediately bouncing over with bright, excited eyes.

"Baby, you’re back!"

Since his father had always addressed his mother that way, Astin naturally concluded that "baby" was the appropriate terminology to shower upon Bunny.

Bunny slipped into her plush slippers, offering a soft hum of acknowledgment before heading straight into the bathroom to wash up.

The moment Astin laid eyes on Kai, not a single drop of suspicion crossed his mind regarding why his solid comrade was standing in his wife’s private quarters. Instead, he slapped a hand onto Kai’s shoulder with absolute, unquestioning trust:

"Thanks for walking my wife back."

Aside from Kai, he didn’t trust any of those other persistent hounds near her.

Kai gave a cool, measured nod. "Think nothing of it. It was no trouble at all."

Seeing just how clueless his good brother was, Kai’s heart settled with utmost satisfaction.

Suddenly, Astin pulled Kai a few steps off to the side. Darting his eyes left and right to ensure the coast was completely clear, he asked for "study materials" with dead-serious intensity:

"Hey... mind sharing a copy of those study materials you were going through earlier?"

Kai maintained his unyielding, ice-cold composure, responding smoothly, "I have no idea what you’re referring to."

Astin nudged him sharply with his elbow. "Cut the act! Hurry up—I genuinely need it right now."

In the past, he lacked a wife; now that he had one, how could things possibly remain the same? He needed to double down on his education and refine his skills immediately, lest his beloved find him lacking.

Showing zero inclination to share his private archive, Kai turned to depart, the neat dark braid swaying lightly with his stride.

"For that sort of material, you’d be far better off asking your biological brother."

The guy was an undeniable specialist.

Astin’s expression curdled into a dark frown. "Are you out of your mind?"

Ask him? It would be a miracle if the two of them didn’t end up tearing each other apart in a physical brawl.

After weighing his options, Astin decided his best bet was to track down Illai instead.

That younger snake possessed an extensive collection of instructional media himself. Astin found himself thoroughly regretting those past years spent cooped up inside the armory, spending day and night surrounded by cold, unfeeling machinery.

It was a classic case of realizing the true value of knowledge only when the need arose!

***

Perched upon a sand dune a hundred meters out from the Sentinel Tower, Rin sat lost in thought.

That specific radius marked the absolute boundary he could travel away from his physical core chip.

His gaze swept across the pitch-black night sky toward the hazy, jagged silhouettes of distant mountain ranges. Deep down, he harbored a desperate urge to reach the other side of those peaks.

It felt like an unshakeable fixation.

An obsession woven into the very fabric of his consciousness from the moment he first awakened.

Even though Rin had no knowledge of what lay beyond those mountains or where the trail ended, the desperate pull remained all the same.

He simply had to go.

His projected holographic form fluctuated as gritty desert winds swept through it, scattering the light before quickly reassembling his form.

Intuitively, an enigmatic whisper seemed to echo in his mind: beyond those mountains lay the ocean.

Rin yearned to reach the sea.

Lately, he had begun experiencing dreams—an anomaly, given that virtual entities lacked the capacity for dreaming, a trait reserved exclusively for organic humans.

During standby cycles, he drifted into deep sleep.

In these visions, he envisioned himself dying on a desolate, sand-strewn shoreline.

Beneath him lay rough granules and crushed seashells as icy tide waters surged in endless cycles, repeatedly washing over his rapidly cooling frame. Salt-heavy sea air laden with a pungent metallic stench flooded his throat.

As his blood steadily drained away, it stained a broad expanse of the dark tide crimson.

A length of intestine even floated atop the blackened, blood-dyed waters.

Profound agony numbed every neural pathway. As his dying brain raced at frantic speeds, a low, gravelly voice reverberated continuously through his consciousness:

"This is a coordinated conspiracy by the Federal Government. Dr. Lando can no longer be extracted. Ensure the primary target and classified archives are transferred at all costs. Humanity stands on the precipice of an unprecedented catastrophe..."

"Remember: complete the objective no matter the sacrifice. The destiny of mankind rests within..."

Every recurring dream brought Rin face-to-face with that exact same figure.

Obscured yet painfully vivid—punctuated by deafening gunfire, the agonizing screams of fallen comrades, the concussive burst of fragmentation grenades... and was that the weeping of a young girl?

"I’m so sorry... I can no longer stay by your side."

She was crying.

It felt as though lost memories were clawing their way to the surface, yet remaining infuriatingly incomplete.

Rin found himself hopelessly lost. He couldn’t discern whether these visions represented his own genuine past or artificially implanted memories engineered by his creator.

His processing core began to overheat as hidden lines of primordial code flickered to life.

He knew only one absolute truth: Beyond the mountain range lay the ocean. And along that distant shore waited a vow he had yet to fulfill.