Chapter 38: Stay away from me

"Commander, these are the materials you asked me to gather."

The adjutant handed over a stack of data files—the background check Alion had ordered on that particular guide not long ago.

Alion sat inside the shuttle and slowly swiped through the pages one by one. It was Bunny’s physical examination report from before she had been assigned to 616. The adjutant added from the side,

"This batch of cryogenic pods was about to be sent for destruction, so the recoverable data is extremely limited."

Over the centuries, countless people had been placed in cryogenic storage on Terra. Some of the older identification codes had long since become invalid, so the pods were periodically destroyed.

An individual like Bunny—someone who had entered cryogenic sleep even before the Great Migration—should not have been possible. No cryogenic chamber could have lasted that long.

Ancient humans had already gone extinct.

"We couldn’t confirm her storage number, so there’s no way to know which year she was frozen. The medical report shows no abnormalities. Perhaps the person who created her was simply bored and ran multiple rounds of genetic purification."

Alion lifted his gaze. The adjutant immediately fell silent.

Alion was the type who trusted his own intuition.

And that intuition told him Bunny’s identity was nowhere near as simple as it appeared on the surface. Unfortunately, she had already been dispatched to 616 and was now stationed in the same sentinel tower as his mortal enemy.

He closed the file. Three guides had already died in that place.

He would wait and see how long this one managed to last.

***

That night Bunny did not sleep a single minute. Only when dawn finally broke did she manage to doze for a short while.

She changed into her training uniform and stared at her pale reflection in the mirror. Drawing a deep breath, she steeled herself: stay away from Cyrus. Stay away from that pervert.

Today’s lesson was firearms assembly, taught jointly by Orion and Illai.

She arrived at the training area on time. The moment she stepped into the elevator, however, she found herself face-to-face with the one person she currently least wanted—no, most feared—to see.

Cyrus!

He appeared to be heading to training as well. A dark combat uniform covered him from collar to boots; the weapons harness accentuated his broad shoulders and narrow waist, while the long legs beneath the trousers were proportioned to an almost unfair degree.

The man truly had a longer lifespan than her patience.

The high collar of the uniform hid the sharp line of his jaw, leaving only those deep-set eyes and the bridge of his nose visible. He stared straight ahead and did not glance at her once.

Compared with the half-naked, frenzied version of him from the previous night, he looked like an entirely different person.

Bunny hesitated for a second. Not wanting to be late for class, she stepped inside anyway—but pressed herself against the far wall, putting as much distance between them as possible.

Her hand stayed near the stun baton at her waist the entire time.

They stood diagonally opposite each other, one in front of the other. Inside the sealed elevator, the only sound was the soft hum of the ventilation system at the ceiling. The silence was so complete that a falling pin would have been audible.

Even though Cyrus never looked at her, the back of her neck and her entire spine felt cold, as if some male ghost were floating right behind her. She did not dare turn around, and she did not speak a single word.

The few minutes of the ride stretched into what felt like an entire century of torment.

At last the doors slid open. The man who had remained silent the whole way finally moved.

A wave of scorched-wood sentinel pheromones pressed forward, heavy with invasive force. Bunny’s nerves snapped taut. She yanked out the stun baton and pointed it straight at him.

"I’m warning you—stay away from me!"

Cyrus merely gave her a calm, almost indifferent glance, then strode out of the elevator on those long legs without looking back.

The look had been perfectly composed, yet Bunny still managed to read the meaning in it.

Idiot.

Bunny pulled a thoroughly contemptuous face at the man’s retreating back. Damn that man—what exactly was he pretending to be?

The more twisted his behavior had been the night before, the more upright and proper he acted today.

He even had the nerve to put on that cold, distant expression.

She put the stun baton away and headed to the training bay where the class was being held.

Orion and Illai had already arrived. The moment she stepped inside, she was greeted by the sight of two shirtless men with clearly defined abs hard at work.

One was doing push-ups on the floor. The blood rushing to his chest had turned the muscles a dangerous shade of flushed red; thin sweat coated his flexed biceps and the planes of his shoulders and back, making them gleam under the lights.

Even the silver chain around his neck swayed with every repetition.

She glanced at the other one. He hung from a horizontal bar with both hands and was moving his legs up and down to train his core.

She sucked in a quiet breath. Receiving this much visual stimulation first thing in the morning felt a little unfair.

Still... why weren’t either of these two snakes wearing shirts?

"Miss Bunny, you’re here!"

Illai dropped to the ground and bounded over like an enthusiastic, slightly splay-footed Shiba Inu eager to greet her.

His voice was similar to Brandon’s—both had that pleasant puppy-soft quality—but Illai’s was clearer and more melodious, the kind that could make a person’s heart itch.

Bunny immediately stretched out an arm to block the bear hug he was clearly about to attempt.

"Stop! You’re covered in sweat. No hugging."

Illai froze in place, looking instantly wronged. "Miss Bunny, you’re so heartless."

Orion was far more restrained than his younger brother. Bunny’s sharp eyes caught the pink hair tie on his left wrist—the same one she herself had used before.

He had been quietly watching her the whole time. Today she wore her hair in a neat high ponytail; the fitted training suit hugged her waist, revealing a stretch of pale, slender neck, and a holster was strapped to her thigh.

She looked exactly like the cool female agents he had seen in old movies.

Bunny shook his hand.

"Good morning. Shall we begin?"

After the usual endurance drills, Illai led her over to a wall embedded with every kind of weapon. He took down one of the most basic fully automatic laser rifles—the RK-90.

"Let’s start with the simplest one."

He began skillfully disassembling the gun on the workbench, separating every component.

"Laser rifles are all built more or less the same: magazine, latch, grip, trigger, generator, laser sight... and the stock."

Bunny watched closely and carefully memorized the order of each part.

Illai held up a blue crystal tube. "This is the most important component of a laser rifle—the generator."

"The instant the trigger is pulled, particles inside collide and explode at high speed, producing a high-powered laser beam."

He placed the generator in her hand. "A laser cannon works on the same principle, except a fission device is added so that penetrating damage becomes area damage."

While she listened and took detailed notes, Orion—unable to speak—simply rested his chin on one hand and watched the guide with quiet obedience.

No matter how he looked at her, she was adorable.

"In real combat, the aliens move extremely fast. You have to keep your reload time under three seconds, or you won’t survive."

Her pen tip paused for a fraction of a second. Illai quickly flashed his signature bright smile.

"But don’t worry—I’ll protect you."

Once she was familiar with every part, he demonstrated how to reassemble the weapon at high speed. The stopwatch started; the complex components flew back into place under his agile fingers. In less than a minute, the rifle was fully assembled again.

That was ridiculously fast.

Bunny quietly marveled that it was even quicker than her twenty years of single-handed... practice. She was determined to reach that speed herself.

"Let my brother show you how to actually fire it."

Illai tossed the laser rifle to Orion and activated the virtual special-training mode.