Chapter 599: Not La Sirena Tonight
Chapter 599: Not La Sirena Tonight
The tactical simulation at ten was a distraction I welcomed.
Olympus Rising’s simulation suite occupied the entire fourth floor. Holographic projectors. Adaptive terrain generators. The kind of equipment that cost more than most people’s lifetime earnings. Commander Reyes ran the session with military efficiency, putting me through scenarios designed to test decision-making under pressure.
I performed adequately. Not brilliantly. Not poorly. The same careful performance I’d maintained throughout every assessment. Good enough to justify my ranking. Not good enough to raise questions.
The media training at two was torture.
A woman named Victoria spent three hours teaching me how to smile for cameras. How to deliver soundbites that meant nothing. How to deflect questions without appearing evasive. The kind of corporate grooming that turned people into products.
"You have natural charisma," she said toward the end. "Raw but genuine. The camera loves faces like yours."
"Thanks."
"That wasn’t a compliment. It was an observation of marketable assets." She studied me the way a butcher studies cattle. "Guild Master Cabana has invested significant resources in your placement. She expects returns on that investment."
"Everyone keeps telling me that."
"Because everyone keeps hoping you’ll listen."
I didn’t.
By six o’clock I was back in my room with Maki curled on the pillow and the pendant pulsing cold against my chest. Natalia had been quiet all day. No messages. No voice notes. Just the constant rhythm of the pendant monitoring my emotional state across three hundred miles of ocean.
The silence was worse than anger.
Angry Natalia was predictable. She yelled. She threw ice. She made threats involving anatomical freezing that were probably physically impossible. But quiet Natalia meant she was planning. Organizing. Building a case that she would present with devastating precision when I returned.
I showered and changed into something appropriate for dinner with a girl who’d been raised to expect expensive things. Dark slacks. A fitted shirt that emphasized shoulders the System had been building since I manifested. Nothing too formal. Nothing too casual. The kind of outfit that said I belonged in nice restaurants without looking like I was trying too hard.
Maki watched me dress with the lazy interest of a creature who’d seen civilizations rise and fall.
"The crimson one is going to be trouble."
"I know."
"You’re going anyway."
"I know."
"The purple one is going to freeze your testicles."
"I know, Maki."
"Just making sure you’re aware of the consequences." She stretched luxuriously across the pillow. "I’ll stay here. Monitor the situation. Alert you if anyone tries to assassinate you while you’re making poor romantic decisions."
"Appreciate it."
"Bring me fish."
"I’ll try."
"Don’t try. Succeed. Premium grade. The kind with the little bones still in it." Her twin tails curled around her body as she settled deeper into the pillow. "Go. Make your mistakes. I’ll be here to judge you when you return."
I left the room with the pendant pulsing cold and Maki’s judgment lingering in the air.
Reyna had chosen a restaurant in the Veridian Hills district. Not La Luna Rossa this time. Something smaller. More intimate. A place called Estrella that occupied the second floor of a building that probably cost more than entire neighborhoods back home.
She was waiting at the bar when I arrived. Wearing a dress the color of her hair. Crimson silk that clung to curves I was trying not to notice while absolutely noticing every single one. The dress left her shoulders bare and her back exposed in a way that made my mouth go dry.
"You clean up well."
"You clean up better."
"I know." She smiled with the kind of confidence that came from growing up beautiful and knowing exactly what that beauty could do. "Our table’s ready. Private room in the back. No cameras. No recordings. No corporate handlers hovering three feet away with clipboards."
"Veronica approved this?"
"Veronica doesn’t get to approve my dinner arrangements." The smile turned sharper. More genuine. "Tonight I’m not La Sirena. I’m not Olympus Rising’s investment. I’m just Reyna Cabana having dinner with someone interesting."
"Someone interesting who has five girlfriends and a soul-bonded pendant that monitors his heart rate."
"Six, technically."
"What?"
"Six girlfriends. As of last night." She took my hand and led me toward the private room in the back. Her fingers were warm. Slightly calloused. Real in a way that expensive dresses couldn’t disguise. "That’s what we’re going to discuss. Among other things."
The private room was smaller than I expected. Intimate in a way that felt deliberate. A table for two positioned near floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the glittering sprawl of the city below, all those lights bleeding into each other like scattered diamonds on black velvet. Candles flickered against the walls, casting shadows that danced and swayed with each subtle movement we made. The kind of setting designed for romance and expensive conversations and the sort of confessions that changed everything.
Someone had put thought into this. The lighting was low enough to feel secret but bright enough to read expressions. The chairs were angled toward each other rather than across, forcing proximity. A bottle of wine already breathing on the table. Two glasses. A small arrangement of flowers that probably cost more than my monthly allowance used to be.
Reyna had planned this. Every detail.
We sat across from each other. Close enough that I could smell her perfume. Something floral with darker undertones, jasmine maybe, or night-blooming something, layered over notes that reminded me of smoke and summer heat. The kind of scent that lingered on pillows and memories and the inside of borrowed jackets. The kind of scent that made you lean closer without meaning to.
Her eyes caught the candlelight and held it. Green shot through with gold. Watching me the way a predator watches something it hasn’t decided whether to hunt or keep.
"You promised to explain everything," she said once the server had taken our orders and disappeared. "The pendant. The lightning absorption. The euphoria thing that happens when I kiss you."
"I did."
"Start talking."
Where to even begin.
"The pendant is a piece of someone else’s Aspect. Natalia Kuzmina. She’s back at the Academy. We have a soul bond that lets her feel my emotions across any distance. When the pendant gets cold, it means she’s aware of something happening. When it gets extremely cold, it means she’s unhappy about what I’m feeling."
"And right now?"
I touched the metal through my shirt. Still cold. Not freezing yet. Natalia was watching but hadn’t reached critical levels.
"She knows I’m here. She knows who I’m with. She’s keeping score."
Reyna processed this with the analytical efficiency of someone trained to assess threats. "The lightning absorption?"
"Harder to explain."
"Try."