Séline and Camille's return to Lyon went exactly the way the airlines wanted.
Smiles at the gate.
Waves for the cameras.
French flags in the background.
Statements about international cooperation and "safe extraction through global unity."
Airline executives beamed.
Governments shook hands.
The narrative machine purred.
Once the spotlight moved on, Dominic and the three Js slipped out of Washington and headed back underground.
By the time they reached Camp Stymphalian again, the air felt cleaner.
Simpler.
Real.
Phong had already prepared hot pot.
A huge iron pot at the center of camp.
Broth simmering.
Beef slices.
Mushrooms.
Carrots.
Hand-pulled noodles.
Fresh herbs Dominic had picked up, with basil and dill seeds tucked safely in his pack.
The whole camp gathered.
Lizardman emissaries nearby.
Troll representatives lounging in back.
Treants silent as ever.
It almost felt festive.
Halfway through dinner, Phong cleared his throat.
"I need to tell you something."
Dominic narrowed his eyes at once.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing," Phong said calmly. "Alex has a plan."
Everyone turned to her.
Alex didn't put on a show.
She just sat there, composed.
"I'm going to pretend to give Olen a chance."
The broth kept bubbling.
No one spoke for two seconds.
"Excuse me?" Joanne said.
"One dinner," Alex clarified. "One-on-one."
She raised a finger.
"Not a date."
Jake coughed.
"That's… optics."
"Yes," Alex said. "Optics."
She leaned back a little.
"I let him talk. I stay polite. Then I conclude we're incompatible."
"And?" Jack asked carefully.
"And the media gets closure. He can't keep spinning the story if I publicly show I considered it and said no."
Dominic slowly chewed a slice of beef.
"Pictures of you and him at dinner will flood every feed."
Then he looked at Phong.
"You jealous?"
All eyes shifted.
Phong calmly dipped a mushroom into the broth.
"No."
Dominic stared at him for a long moment.
"…You have surprisingly low possessiveness for a man."
Phong shrugged.
"When you lose everything once, you stop clinging out of fear."
He glanced at Alex.
"I know who's going to be there."
He didn't explain.
He didn't need to.
Dominic remembered.
Those early days.
When camp was just moletatoes and angry chillies.
Phong barely talking.
Alex showing up anyway.
Dominic checking in anyway.
None of them had left.
He nodded once.
"Fair."
Across from him, Alex's chopsticks tightened slightly.
She wasn't calm.
Not really.
The assassination attempt had flipped something inside her.
They all knew it.
And now that Emma had confirmed Olen's part in it, that fire burned hotter.
After dinner, Alex dragged Dominic and the three Js into the training field.
"Now?" Jake asked.
"Yes. Now."
Janet crossed her arms with the look of someone who had been waiting for this.
"Welcome to the team," she told the three Js.
They didn't understand until it started.
Alex summoned her rapier.
Then the mace head.
Then the shield.
Then a fourth construct flickered into being.
Rough.
Unsteady.
But real.
Joanne blinked.
"That's new."
Alex didn't answer.
She moved.
The first one-on-one was Jake.
It lasted less than a minute.
She pressured high, struck low, let the shield intercept, and used the mace to wreck his rhythm.
Tap to the throat.
"Dead."
Next.
Jack.
He tried to flank.
She split her attention cleanly, constructs turning with him.
He went down even faster.
Joanne tried control spells.
Alex shattered the channel with a telekinetic burst.
Then Dominic stepped in.
He lasted the longest.
Judgenaut durability was no joke.
But her attacks came from too many angles.
Soon he was stuck in a full defensive shell.
Mace to the knee.
Rapier at the collar.
Shield pin.
"Dead."
All of them ended up on the ground, staring at the sky.
Dominic wheezed.
"…You're angry."
Alex stood there, breathing evenly.
"Yes."
Janet clapped slowly.
"Now you get it."
---
The Bunny Captain watched in silence from the edge of camp.
Then he stepped forward.
"You fight single opponents well."
Alex turned to him.
"And?"
"You must fight many."
He pointed at Dominic and the three Js.
"All."
They stared at him.
"Simultaneously?" Joanne asked.
"Yes."
Alex didn't hesitate.
"Fine."
They surrounded her.
Four directions.
Different timing.
Different roles.
Dominic pressing the front.
Janet buffing and diving.
Jake and Jack flanking.
Joanne casting from range.
The first attempt failed.
Too much pressure.
Too many angles.
Her shield slipped out of place.
The rapier got trapped.
Tap to her shoulder.
"Dead," Dominic said gently.
She reset.
Second attempt.
She split the constructs earlier.
Forced more space.
But her concentration lagged.
Joanne clipped her flank.
"Dead."
Third.
Fourth.
Fifth.
Then something changed.
Alex stopped trying to end it quickly.
Stopped chasing finishing blows.
She shifted to controlling space instead.
The shield rotated on the fly.
The mace created interruptions.
The rapier only went for clean openings.
Her constructs moved like orbiting satellites.
By the end, Dominic dropped first.
Then Jack.
Then Jake.
Janet lasted the longest.
But in the end, Alex stood alone in the clearing.
Breathing hard.
Four constructs hovering around her.
Stable now.
The others lay scattered on the ground, staring up.
Dominic muttered at last,
"…I get it."
Jack added, "One in ten million rare."
Joanne wiped sweat from her brow.
"Worth it."
Janet smiled faintly.
"She's not even done growing."
The Bunny Captain inclined his head.
"You learn."
Alex didn't smile.
She dismissed the constructs one by one.
The bloodlust was still there.
But now it had shape.
Control.
Direction.
She walked back to Phong.
He sat on a log, watching quietly.
She sat beside him without a word.
He nudged her shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Yes."
She leaned into him.
He wrapped an arm around her.
He understood now.
This fight with Dominic's group was not about ego.
Not about proving anything.
It was a pressure valve.
Because if she walked into that dinner carrying all that unspent fury, she might actually kill Olen.
And murdering a billionaire heir in cold blood would paint a target on everyone she cared about.
Under the lime-oak tree, camp felt alive.
Prepared.
Disciplined.
A level 1 farmer and an A-class Mindblade sitting side by side.
On the surface, a polished young entrepreneur thought he was courting.
Down here, a lioness was sharpening her claws.
---
Two days later, the surface exploded.
Not politically.
Not militarily.
Romantically.
At least that was how the media framed it.
Olen's media team released a carefully staged article first.
Then photos.
Then "anonymous insider confirmations."
Headlines flooded every feed.
[A-Class Mindblade Alexandra Vogel Agrees to Private Dinner With Rising Star Olen. A New Power Couple?]
[From Rejection to Reconsideration? Sources Say "Chemistry Was Obvious."]
[Standards Recognize Standards.]
Selena saw it before Phong did.
She video-called immediately.
No greeting.
Just her face filling the screen.
"WHAT."
Vanessa appeared beside her, equally wide-eyed.
"You didn't tell us!"
Another ping.
Séline joined.
Then Camille.
All four women filled the screen, visibly alarmed.
Phong was sitting under the lime-oak when he answered.
He blinked at them calmly.
"Good morning."
"GOOD MORNING?" Selena nearly shouted. "You're trending."
Vanessa leaned toward the camera.
"There are edits already. Slow-motion edits."
Camille sighed softly in French.
"Mon dieu…"
Séline crossed her arms.
"We leave you for two weeks and you let media marry your girlfriend."
Phong couldn't help smiling a little.
"Relax."
They did not relax.
Selena's voice dropped.
"This is after the assassination attempt. After he targeted her. After he targeted you."
Vanessa added, "And you told us to stay away from camp because things might get worse."
Phong nodded.
"I did."
Selena fell silent for a moment.
She understood why.
After the attempt, he had told her and Vanessa not to come to camp for a while.
Selena had her research.
Her dream.
Her funding.
Academic ambition was expensive.
And sometimes that funding came from people you did not like.
She had stayed on the surface.
Not because she didn't care.
Because she refused to give up her work.
Phong had never blamed her.
He couldn't.
She had kept his secrets.
That was already more than enough.
Séline spoke next.
"We were not informed."
Camille nodded.
"Especially after everything."
They had only just gotten back to Lyon.
Two months stranded in New York.
Family time.
Recovery.
But the dungeon world was never far away.
Just yesterday they had sent a message in the group chat that French divers had secured a forward base on Floor One near a visible landmark.
La Montagne des Chèvres.
The Mountain of Goat Monsters.
From there, once they resumed diving, Camp Stymphalian would be easy to reach.
Everyone was reconnecting.
Everyone was regrouping.
And now this.
Dinner-date headlines.
Phong rotated the camera.
"Hold on."
He turned it toward the training field.
Dominic's team was currently enduring something between a battlefield drill and divine punishment.
Alex stood at the center.
Five psychic constructs circled her.
Two shields, moving on separate angles.
A floating bow, arrows forming from compressed psychic force.
A vajra, blunt and brutal.
And her rapier, as precise as ever.
She moved like controlled chaos.
Dominic lunged.
Shield intercepted.
Jake flanked.
Arrow forced him back.
Joanne tried spell pressure.
The vajra broke her casting rhythm.
Janet buffed and dived.
The rapier slipped through her guard.
Jack tried to disrupt the formation.
The second shield pivoted.
They were getting dismantled.
Selena stared.
"…She's turning into a Gundam with funnels."
Vanessa gasped.
"You did not just—"
Selena nodded with full seriousness.
"I blame you."
Vanessa, somewhere along the way, had clearly picked up a plastic addiction during her stay at camp.
Gunpla kits.
Modding.
Paint jobs.
She had once spent an entire afternoon explaining beam rifle detailing to Phong.
He still mildly regretted introducing her to it.
Now she was studying Alex's construct spacing like a mobile suit loadout.
"She needs rear coverage," Vanessa muttered automatically.
"She has it," Phong said.
Alex rotated.
All five constructs shifted in perfect orbit.
Dominic went down first.
Then Jack.
Jake tried to grapple and got flattened by the vajra.
Joanne surrendered out loud before being pinned.
Janet lasted longest.
But she went down too.
Alex stood breathing steadily.
The five constructs held firm.
Not even flickering.
Phong turned the camera back.
Silence on the call.
Then Selena narrowed her eyes.
"Explain."
So he did.
One dinner.
One controlled narrative.
Polite.
Public closure.
No date.
No romance.
Just optics.
Vanessa blinked slowly.
"So she's weaponizing PR."
"Yes."
Camille nodded thoughtfully.
"Clever."
Séline added, "Necessary."
Selena folded her arms.
"And you're fine with that."
"Yes."
All four of them stared at him.
Vanessa tilted her head.
"Are you human?"
"Last I checked."
Selena squinted.
"You're not jealous at all?"
"No."
Camille traded a look with Séline.
Then Séline finally said what Dominic had said two nights earlier.
"You have… extremely low possessiveness."
Vanessa nodded.
"Suspiciously low."
Selena leaned closer.
"If I were dating someone and the media plastered her with another person, I would at least throw something."
Phong shrugged.
"I know her."
"That's not the point."
"It is."
He rested his chin on one hand.
"When you lose everything once, you stop clinging out of fear."
The call quieted.
He went on, gentler now.
"She was there when I had nothing."
"Dominic too."
"Janet too."
"She doesn't need to prove anything."
Selena sighed.
"You're infuriatingly stable."
Vanessa added, "Or terrifyingly secure."
Camille smiled faintly.
"Perhaps both."
A loud crash sounded in the background.
Alex had just smashed Dominic into the dirt with the vajra.
She turned slightly, sensing the call.
Raised a brow.
Constructs still hovering.
Phong lifted the phone.
"She says hi."
Alex gave one casual wave before going right back to training.
Selena let out a long breath.
"Okay. Fine."
"But if he tries anything—"
"He won't," Phong said calmly.
"And if he does?"
Alex's voice came from behind him.
"He won't."
There was steel in it.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just final.
The four women traded glances.
At last Selena shook her head.
"Fine. But if this gets worse, we're flying in."
"Noted."
Vanessa added quietly, "And next time don't drop dinner-date news like a nuclear test."
"Noted."
The call slowly wound down.
The worry didn't disappear.
But it settled.
Because now they could see.
This was not a drifting couple.
Not insecurity.
Not misunderstanding.
It was strategy.
When the call ended, Phong sat back under the lime-oak.
Alex eventually walked over.
Five constructs dissolving into faint motes of light.
She wiped sweat from her brow.
"Did they panic?"
"Yes."
She smirked.
"Good."
He leaned a little closer.
"You really are turning into a Gundam."
She laughed softly.
"And you're still weirdly calm."
"I trust you."
She studied him for a moment.
Then leaned down and kissed his forehead.
"Good."
In the distance, Dominic groaned from the ground.
Janet muttered something about revenge.
The wind carried the faint scent of basil seeds waiting to be planted.
And somewhere on the surface, Olen probably thought he was gaining ground.
He had no idea the "dinner date" was just another battlefield.
And that the woman walking into it was training with five floating weapons for fun.