Grayson’s mind raced, and the world seemed to slow down.

One moment, he was at Neville’s side, their hands still intertwined.

Next, his combat experience kicked in, and he ran fast towards the cleaning robot.

A malfunction? No—The energy signature is wrong. That’s not a simple system failure.

The cleaning robot had stopped moving. Its chassis started vibrating violently with warning lights flashing red-red-red in a pattern.

If that thing explodes, the force might not crack the tunnel’s reinforced barrier.

But it might.

If it did—

Millions of liters of water with a catastrophic pressure differential would flood in seconds. The emergency bulkheads might seal in time, might trap them in an air pocket long enough for rescue—

Or they might not.

Around him, civilians had started to notice something was wrong.

Parents grabbed children, pulling them toward the exits with urgency. Staff members hurriedly shouted evacuation protocols, their voices cracking with barely controlled panic.

The crowd started to thicken as had happened at the entrance before.

Bodies pressed against bodies.

Someone screamed.

Children were crying somewhere in the chaos.

I’m not going to make it in time.

Grayson made his decision.

His free hand rose to his ear, activating the nearly invisible device hidden there.

"Noir."

As soon as he uttered those words with his cold, authoritative voice, a hidden black dragon tattoo behind his right calf began to move.

They flowed like liquid shadow, dripping down his legs, pooling on the floor, expanding outward with impossible speed.

—3

And then Noir’s full body materialized.

The Black Dragon mecha that formed as a result of the darkness was massive—fifteen meters of black-scaled armor and devastating firepower compressed into an elegant dragon form.

AH!

An SSS-class free-form mecha made of nano bots. The kind of highly-secretive weapon that only generals and members of the imperial family had clearance to possess.

The kind of weapon that should have been surrendered when Grayson resigned from his position.

—2

He might need to deal with the political fallout later after using it in public. But right now, the only thing that mattered was containing the explosion.

RUN!

Noir moved with its body curling around the sparking robot. With its wings enclosed, its form resembled that of a ball.

—BOOOOOM!!

The thunderous boom seemed to shake the world.

CRACK!

The whole building rumbled, the barrier shook, spilling a little of the water inside the tunnel.

RUMBLE!

But Noir held on.

SPARK!

The mecha’s reinforced scales absorbed the blast, channeling the destructive energy inward where it could be safely dispersed. A ripple of light ran along the mecha’s body—blue, then white, then fading to nothing.

CHIKCHIK!

The cleaning robot was gone, leaving pieces of it that were on fire.

But everyone in the tunnel was still alive.

For a moment, there was silence.

The kind of quiet when the brain hasn’t quite caught up, still processing what happened.

SPISHSHSH!

Then the sprinklers and emergency air filtration activated, putting out the remaining fire and smoke.

Water poured down from the ceiling and within seconds—

Everyone in the tunnel was drenched.

Grayson didn’t care about any of that. There was only one person he cared about in this place.

He retracted Noir, and it moved fast as it returned to the back of his calf, as if nothing happened.

Where is—

He found Neville standing close to the tunnel barrier, soaking wet, water dripping from his hair and plastering his clothes to his body.

Those ocean-blue eyes were wide, focused on something.

It seemed that he was still in shock.

"Neville." Grayson’s voice came out sharper than he intended. He forced himself to soften it. "Are you hurt?"

But then the water from his hair started dripping down his glasses.

Grayson dragged a hand through his wet hair, slicking it back from his face when the water started dripping into his eyes. He had no choice but to put away the glasses and wipe his eyes.

Then mid wipe Neville suddenly reached up and covered his eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

He could feel Neville flinching, then suddenly wiped his face, his eyes. Then, he forcibly took his glasses and put them back on his face.

"I don’t need it though."

Through the wet glasses, Grayson could see Neville pursing his lips, wide-eyed as he forced a smile and firmly said, "You need it."

Grayson wondered why, but it wasn’t that important.

So instead, he asked, "Are you injured anywhere?"

Neville blinked and froze a little as he got back to the topic.

He hurriedly said, "I—no. I’m fine. I’m okay."

"Are you sure? That blast could have—" Grayson tried to reach out of his shoulders, but Neville stepped back a little.

"I’m fine, Grayson." Neville flashed a small, shaky smile, preventing Grayson from checking him thoroughly.

That smile made Grayson frown with concern, but Neville already said that he was fine. He couldn’t go against it; he was helpless about it when Neville was like this.

Like when Neville planned and decided to do everything alone regarding the corruption in the company.

A helpless chuckle escaped from Grayson as he reached out, brushing wet hair from Neville’s forehead before he could stop himself.

What are you doing? His rational mind scolded. You are in public.

His hand didn’t listen until his logical side seemed to get smacked, his rational mind awakened, and said, what’s wrong with touching your boyfriend?

Right, we’re in an official relationship now. Grayson’s smile got brighter just by the thought of it. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

His hand traced down the side of Neville’s face, checking for injuries that clearly weren’t there.

It lingered there for a long time until someone approached them.

"Sir?"

A young woman in a soaked uniform, a staff member of Azure Depths Aquarium. Her expression still had traces of horror and awe.

"Sir, I’m—we’re going to need a statement. The authorities are on their way, but someone reported seeing a mecha, an unauthorized military-grade—"

"I’ll go." Grayson withdrew his hand from Neville’s face with great reluctance. "Give him a blanket. Lead me to the one charge of this facility’s security."

The staff member scrambled to obey. Within moments, a thermal blanket was draped over Neville’s shoulders.

After confirming that he was comfortable, Grayson calmly followed toward a cluster of officials who looked like they were about to have a collective aneurysm.

When Grayson glanced back for a moment, Neville still stood where he had left him.

He became even more attractive when dripping wet.

Grayson shook his head a little and seriously listened to the official.

Focus.