For the second time in her life-the second-Suzie found herself standing at the edge of total uncertainty.
The first time had been years ago, when the Boss took her away.
Back then, Suzie's terrifying gift for numbers had been discovered. She was turned into a living trump card on casino floors-an innocent, cute girl on the surface, a cold-blooded calculator underneath. Anyone arrogant enough to sit across from her with enough chips would be stripped clean before they even realized what had happened.
It was tedious work.
The small dramas of gamblers, the shallow greed, the predictable patterns-none of it stimulated her mind. Long ago, Suzie had learned that true geniuses survived by hiding their brilliance. She thought drifting quietly through life wouldn't be so bad.
Until the day she met her current Boss.
That night, the Boss arrived with ten million dollars in cash.
And the wager... was her.
Suzie's employer had been supremely confident. She had never lost. In his eyes, that ten million was already his.
What he failed to understand was simple:
Winning was easy for Suzie.
But losing-that was just as easy.
That was the first time Suzie felt true fear about her future. Ignorance. Aimlessness. Panic.
And yet, she made her choice.
Looking back now, she knew that for her first real gamble, she had chosen correctly.
But now... the same feeling returned.
Stronger.
This Valentine's Day operation had been planned down to the molecular level. Surveillance. Signal relays. Redundant countermeasures. Fail-safes stacked on top of fail-safes. Suzie didn't plan-she dominated probability.
Jokes about "selling Mai off" had always been just that. Jokes. They would never cross that line.
But now, everything was out of her control.
Or worse-outside her control entirely.
Suzie realized something was wrong after speaking with Zero. Luminous's failure already defied projections, but that alone wasn't enough to shake her. She had intended to mock Zero, brief Mai, and see if Mai could coax information from Morin.
Instead-
All contact with Mai failed.
That alone was alarming.
Every piece of equipment Mai carried was cutting-edge. Military-grade encryption. Anti-jamming systems. Shielding against electromagnetic interference. Suzie had even checked with observatory contacts-no solar flares, no sunspots, no cosmic anomalies.
She had prepared for improbabilities.
So in her mind, only three explanations existed:
One: Mai chose not to respond.
Two: Every communication device had been destroyed instantly.
Three: Morin possessed a method to completely suppress all signals.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
Her final contingency failed too.
The moment she lost contact, Suzie deployed her last measure: a fully armed mercenary team disguised as police officers to "check the room."
No matter what they found, they should have at least sent something back.
Instead-
They vanished.
No signal. No trace. Nothing.
As if they had fallen straight into the Mariana Trench.
Impossible.
Suzie paced back and forth, her mind racing, grinding through options that collapsed one after another.
"There's no need to be so restless."
Suzie screamed.
"BOSS?!"
"I know you're happy to see me," the Boss said calmly, frowning. "But there's no need to act like I rose from the dead. Even in private, try to retain some dignity."
"This isn't the time!" Suzie wailed. "We don't know what's happening to Legs! She could be tied up and beaten half to death!"
"...That might be an exaggeration," the Boss said, one eye twitching.
"Do you know what's going on or not?!" Suzie demanded.
"Not exactly," the Boss replied, casually opening a bottle of red wine. "More precisely-I can't get within a hundred meters of her. Any method. Any control. Once it enters that zone, I lose authority over it."
He poured two glasses.
"Have you heard of a Nibelungen? If someone is strong enough, they become a god within it. That area may be shrouded by one."
"A Nibelungen... so Morin is a Dragon King?" Suzie asked sharply. "Which Lord?"
"No," the Boss shook his head. "He might be one... but not entirely. And he's not any Lord we know."
Suzie froze.
"That level of authority," the Boss said softly, "is terrifying. I've never seen any Dragon King with such dominance."
"...Then why are you saying we can relax?" Suzie asked.
The Boss smiled faintly.
"Because to a being like that, Legs has no value beyond her looks and body."
Suzie swallowed.
"Your words," the Boss shrugged. "Not mine. Our plans can pause. Especially the ones involving Luminous."
Suzie stared at him, devastated-like an employee who'd worked for years only to hear the project was being scrapped at payout time.
"If I weren't outmatched," she muttered, "I'd hit you with a brick."
"Think of it this way," the Boss said gently. "The money plans still work."
"Those aren't plans," Suzie roared. "They're background processes wasting disk space!"
The Boss laughed, took a sip, and vanished.
His last words lingered:
"Your taste is still awful. Buy better wine next time."
Suzie collapsed onto the bed like a dead fish.
Plans didn't matter.
The only thing that mattered was that Mai was safe.
And the Boss never spoke without certainty.
Meanwhile-
The woman Suzie had nearly gone insane over was lying in bed.
Curled beneath the covers, only her head and arms visible.
"Are you sure you want to continue?" Morin asked calmly. "You understand you're playing with fire. Given your habit of lying-or not answering-that's dangerous."
"If it's you," Mai winked, "I can accept it."
Two pieces of lingerie hung on the sofa beside him.
"...One last question," Morin smiled. "Your turn."
"What are you?" Mai asked quietly. "Hybrid? True dragon? Dragon King?"
"Have you heard the phrase," Morin said softly, "'Descendants of the Flame and Yellow Emperors-Children of the Dragon'?"
"...So you're a hybrid?"
"No," Morin replied. "And no."
"I'm an Eastern Dragon."
Mai froze.
"Eastern... dragon?"
She snapped back almost immediately. "That's nonsense. Eastern dragons came from migrated Norse Dragon Kings. The King of Bronze and Fire-Gongsun Shu-"
"History books?" Morin interrupted mildly. "How do you know they're true? Have you seen it yourself?"
"...You sound ridiculous," Mai muttered.
"History can be rewritten," Morin said. "Especially when something disappears from reality."
He extended his hand.
"I prefer proof."
Golden light erupted.
Pressure flooded Mai's chest.
Scales-golden, radiant, suffocating-manifested. Their presence crushed her spirit far more than any Golden Pupils ever had.
"How... is this possible..."
"Black belongs to one dragon-Nidhogg," Morin said calmly. "Gold belongs to one as well. A legend of the East. Absent from Norse myth because history was altered."
His Golden Pupils ignited.
Mai activated hers instinctively-yet she could only submit.
In her daze, she saw it.
A five-clawed golden dragon, soaring through the heavens.
When the light faded, Morin stood close enough that she could hear his breath.
Both barely clothed.
The solemnity dissolved into heat.
"I don't force anyone," Morin smiled softly. "Mutual consent matters. You have something important to do."
He leaned in.
"But first... I'll collect a little interest."
"Calling Legs... calling Legs..."
Suzie lay on the bed, weakly repeating the call.
"Hello?! Chip, you there?!"
"DAMN IT, you're alive!" Suzie shouted. "What happened?! Don't tell me it's over already-no way a super hunk lasts only an hour!"
"Halftime break my ass," Mai snapped. "...He collected a little interest."
Suzie typed furiously. "So what happened?!"
"We played Truth or Dare," Mai said quietly. "Chip... have you ever seen a golden dragon?"
"...A golden dragon?" Suzie froze. "In games? Sure. In reality? Never."
"...What if I just did?"
Suzie's fingers stopped moving.