Archive of Our Own

A few weeks had passed since the launch of Snap’s gallery, along with the fall of the Ravenlock family and the ending of Dina and her Exaltist cult; things had been relatively quiet… Or the definition ‘quiet’ may vary to others.

From what Rina had told Wise on the Victoria Housekeeping part, much attention was paid to Lycaon, who was embarrassed by his new modeling reputation. The masters and mistresses they served often requested his autographed signature and to have pretend-date sessions with him.

And for Hugo? According to Vivian, he extended Snap’s gallery to be part of his collection for his own private gallery for others to view. The light violet-haired young woman repeatedly apologized that she couldn’t devote her time to making more merchandise for her ‘Lord Phaethon.’

It was another rare networking opportunity and social gathering the Mockingbirds found themselves in to extend their intel sources for their next heists. However, she seemed to faint on the spot when Belle sweetly told her that she wanted to see her artwork when it was done. Well… If only the younger Phaethon knew the effect she had on the younger Mockingbird member.

Snap also came over one day to show Eous and Wise the interview of his gallery after a week of garnering a huge crowd. There was interview coverage for the gallery. Hugo and Lycaon were also invited together with Bangboo to sit down with the interviewer.

The cover shot was bold—Snap’s proud self gleaming under the spotlight, with Astra at the side clapping proudly. Meanwhile, on Bangboo’s side, Hugo and Lycaon stood either side like two rival deities sharing one reluctant prophet.

Wise, who was drinking his smoothie, read this nearly drop from a twitch of his hand. He was fortunate enough to decline to join the interview when Evelyn invited him due to his nature as the legendary Proxy Phaethon to keep things low for him.

But still, the headline of ‘The Muse Between Wolves and Mockingbirds: Snap’s Controversial Triad Shoot Rocks the Art Scene!’ was instead… Eye-catching, to say the least.

“Triad?” Wise groaned into his cup, setting it down, then picked Eous up into his arms so that his kid could read the first interviewer question:

Q1: ‘What started as a casual gallery exhibit became a symbolic masterpiece of longing, protection, and tension—captured in high-definition intimacy. Could we know how you were recommended to be Snap’s gallery models?’

Lycaon: ‘I simply fulfilled a request as a butler under Victoria Housekeeping. I did not anticipate becoming… A subject of interest. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant experience. I enjoyed myself with my partner in this shoot.’ [Note: At this point in the interview, he politely declined to comment further, and we handed the mic to Mr. Lighter.]

‘Lighter’: [chuckling smoothly] ‘And I was drawn in by the idea of artistry—what better opportunity than to immortalize our darling [redacted model name] many expressions? Of course, the camera had to capture every flutter of his lashes, every innocent smile, every little twitch when I stood too close…’

[Note: Mr. Lycaon then proceeded to smack Mr. Lighter’s back with his tail, claiming that there was a fly on his back. And the two nearly broke out into an argument before Mr. Snap calms them down.]

“Oh, for the love of—!” Wise facepalmed, and it was only the first question that they had already started to bicker again! Hugo might have omitted his real name to give his alias, borrowing from a particular champion in the Sons of Calydon faction, but the silver-haired man knew it was him.

“Ehn-nah! (Mister Lycaon and Mister Hugo are very popular!)” Eous commented with a happy expression.

The older Phaethon shook his head resignedly, giving a few pats to Bangboo’s head. “I’m sure they do with their own line of fans waiting for them, Eous.”

“Ehn-ne! (Continue with the second question!)” Snap perched proudly beside them and pointed to a bold quote box with the caption.

Q2: Speaking of twitches…. There was a rather… ‘Heated’ moment midway through the shoot when both of you attempted to fix the model’s jacket simultaneously—Mr. Lycaon on the front and Mr. Lighter from behind. Was that a planned part of the pose or just excellent improvisation?

‘Lighter’: The poor dear was being swallowed by fabric. I thought I’d help highlight the natural charms of his neck and collarbones.

Lycaon: His attire was disheveled. It is my responsibility to ensure he is properly presented.

Q3: I see. Do you have any additional comments, Mr. Snap?

Snap: ‘I just want everyone to know how proud I am of them! The shoot was fantastic!’

“Thanks, Snap,” Wise chuckled despite his earlier discomfort, but deep down, he knew the interviewer was pushing all the buttons to hope they could get something of a scandal between those two men.

Eous clapped excitedly. “Ehn-nehh! (Wise’s so amazing!)”

Snap flipped through the magazine, its eyes scanning the text to announce. “Eh-nah! (This is the last question!)”

Q3: ‘Speaking of the unique dynamic between you three, it’s clear there’s something deeper at play beyond just the professional collaboration. Many fans have pointed out the raw emotion captured in the quiet moments between Mr. Lycaon, Mr. Lighter, and the model. How would you describe that?’

‘Lighter’: ‘Oh, the connection was real. There’s a lot of compatibility between [redacted model name] and I, some things just… It can’t be faked. The closeness, protectiveness, and even the tension were naturally there.’

Lycaon: ‘I’m sure it’s clear to those who truly understand. Some bonds can’t be described with words alone. No acting is required. Just… The truth that he deserved the most for an esteemed person himself.’

Note: At this point, Mr. Snap was visibly pleased with the response, though both models appeared strangely subdued. The atmosphere shifted, a rare moment of calm between them.

Wise blinked, staring at the words before him.

No acting is required...

Just the truth.

He glanced down at Eous, watching the magazine with rapt attention, then over at Snap, eagerly waiting for his reaction.

“Ehn-nehh! (Aren’t they just perfect together?)” Snap chirped, almost oblivious to whatever stirred in the silver-haired human’s thoughts.

The older Paethon could feel his heart racing in his chest. Truth… The thought echoed in his mind. Was this really just part of the shoot? It was…. Wasn’t it?

Q4: ‘On that note, there’s been a lot of talk about the emotional depth you brought to your expressions. Some have suggested that your feelings for the model were more than professional. What’s your take on that?’

‘Lighter’: ‘Well, what can I say? Sometimes, art does require a bit of… Soul and heart. Without those, it is nothing but mere fanciful whims of those who chose to put no effort into their craft.’

Lycaon: “My feelings have always been clear for [redacted model name]. But what’s important is the well-being of the model, above all. This is about trust, not manipulation.’

Note: The atmosphere grew slightly tense here, with a brief, almost imperceptible exchange between Mr. Lycaon and Mr. Lighter before both returned their focus to the interview. Mr. Snap noted that the two models seemed unusually aware of the words they chose to convey in this question.

Wise felt his breath catch. He hadn’t realized he was gripping the edge of the magazine so tightly until Eous gave a concerned little squeak, patting his arm. The silver-haired Proxy forced himself to ease his hold, offering a small, strained smile to reassure his Bangboo.

“They’re… Just playing it up for the audience,” Wise muttered under his breath, but the words felt hollow even to his ears.

Because deep down, he remembered that he had felt it.

The way Hugo’s gaze lingered too long. And Lycaon’s touch, even if brief, always carried the weight of something unspoken, desperate, real.

Not just a show. Not just art.

Truth, just like what they said.

Snap seemed blissfully unaware of the existential crisis two feet away, flipping the magazine closed with a satisfied clap. “Ehn-nehh! (Snap’s going to make more exhibitions! Maybe one with Wise next!)”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Wise coughed quickly, lifting Eous onto the counter to distract himself. “I think one shoot was more than enough experience for me in my lifetime.”

But even as he spoke, a traitorous part of him imagined it—standing under the same spotlight, trapped between Hugo’s magnetic pull and Lycaon’s steady devotion.

Would he be able to keep pretending he didn’t see it? Did he want to?

He glanced back down at the page again, finding the words that lingered with him.

Q5: ‘So, after such a successful collaboration, are there any plans for future projects together? Perhaps an extended series or even a follow-up exhibition?’

‘Lighter’: ‘Absolutely! As long as the model’s willing to keep inspiring us. There’s always more art to be made, especially with someone like him… But don’t get any ideas too soon. We’re just getting started with our next plan.’

Lycaon: ‘There’s no need to rush. Whatever comes next, it will come in its own time. What matters is ensuring we all grow from this.’

Wise couldn’t help but shake his head, a soft chuckle escaping his lips. It felt almost too much to handle, too overwhelming. The layers of meaning—what had started as a simple modeling job had somehow turned into something... More.

He glanced over at Snap, who had been reading through the rest of the magazine with fervor, and then turned to Eous, still holding him gently in his lap. “You two make it all sound so simple, don’t you?”

Eous clapped his hands, delighted. “Ehn-nahh! (Because Wise’s amazing!)”

The older Phaethon ran a hand through his hair, his gaze flickering toward the magazine. The interview may have just been words on paper, but the truth behind them felt too real to ignore. Whether it was intended or not, those feelings—their feelings—weren’t something he could just brush off.

-x-

Another week had passed. Fortunately or unfortunately, Wise hadn’t seen Lycaon or Hugo recently. Rina and Vivian informed him that more work seemed to add to their plate, and he would need to remove their shift as video promoters for a while.

So one afternoon, while Wise was checking through the terminal of the store’s current available rental movie tapes, a familiar dark purple-haired, bespectacled young schoolgirl stepped in. She walked up to where he was urgently. “I need your help, Proxy.”

Thankfully, today was slow, and no customer was now with him and Bangboo 18. Wise simply smiled politely and approached her calmly; after all, she was under Lycaon’s charge briefly and aided the wolf butler in saving her from the fake Mockingbird group. “Sure, Lilac. What can I help you? And do you want some water while you’re—!”

Lilac grabbed the end of his jacket and urgently shook her head so the older man grew concerned for her. “No, I-I’m sorry… I can’t wait any longer, Proxy. I must do this before the chance slips away.”

“Lilac?” The silver-haired man prodded with a growing worried expression. He needed to call Lycaon soon to inform him about his charge—

“It’s about Mr. Lycaon and Mr. Lighter. I think something is going on with them, Proxy,” The young bespectacled girl finally announced the root of the problem plaguing her poor heart.

And, the air in the store turned still, just like Bangboo 18 became frozen stiff, and its ears stood upright at the news. Wise’s mouth dropped open, and a fly entered at the opportunity before he finally spoke. “Wha—geh henk! Lighter?!”

“I mean, Vivian’s friend, Mr. Lighter!” Lilac clarified to him.

“Oh, okay...” The silver-haired man nodded in quiet understanding. It was Hugo that Lilac talked about. Then, in less than a second, his green eyes grew wide open to do a double take. “Wait, what?!!”

-x-

Apparently, after Wise called Vivian, who answered less than a second with her all-too-eagerness to serve her idol’s needs, he learned that Hugo had recently been called up by the mayor for some tasks to work with Lycaon on this.

On Lilac’s part, she accidentally spotted the two men hanging out often together, which led her brain to connect interesting dots that show some ‘relationship’ blossoming between them.

“And look here, Proxy!” Lilac showed her postcard collection, posters, washi tapes, calendars, and cushions she purchased in Snap’s gallery of picturesque date scenes. “Do you see the way they looked at each other?!”

Wise blinked at the impressive, borderline obsessive collection sprawled across his shop counter like an evidence board in a detective drama. Each item Lilac displayed had Hugo and Lycaon in some candid, artistic pose—drinking tea, back-to-back in matching suits, Lycaon fixing Hugo’s tie with that intense butler glare of his, and Hugo smirking back with a rose between his teeth like some opera villain on vacation.

The older Phaethon noticed one thing in common with all the merchandise: the ones with him being censored due to his request were all omitted. Maybe it was, fortunately, easier not to get the flame from the other crazed fangirls who didn’t want him inside their fantasies.

“I—Uh… Yeah, the two are definitely ‘looking’ at each other,” Wise managed slowly, and he looked away at the one photo where Hugo dipped him in the middle of Lumina Square, smiling sheepishly. “Still, I’m pretty sure it’s not how you think, Lilac.”

Lilac puffed up like a cat who had been told their favorite idol was canceled. “But Proxy! You don’t understand! All the signs are there!”

The bespectacled schoolgirl whipped out a notebook with tabs and sticky notes, flipping to a page titled: “Operation: Wolf + Vampire = 100% CANON!”

Wise let out a soft, strangled noise somewhere between a gasp and a wheeze as Lilac rattled off from her bullet points:

• “They bicker but still work together, like an old married couple!”
• “They have chemistry, like when Mr. Lycaon growled while shielding Mr. Lighter, ‘I will not allow this criminal to harm you again.’”
• “Mr. Lighter called him ‘My dear lapdog’ once!! I HEARD IT!!”
• “Mr. Lycaon never called ME ‘Miss Lilac’ after that!! He was DISTRACTED!! By LOVE!!”

Wise took a few huge deep breaths he desperately needed after taking a pause before he decided to take another plunge to read a fantasized-filled notebook. “… Okay, let’s all calm down.”

But, Bangboo 18 was still paralyzed, and the older Phaethon considered putting it into sleep mode for today after this shocking news. And, obviously, Lilac was not.

“Mr. Vlad is definitely a dangerous bad boy, but he’s the kind who needs someone like Mr. Lycaon—disciplined and proper but also secretly a huge romantic! It’s a classic opposites-attract story! Like in Phantom Bloom: Garden of Knives, volume 4!”

“… The what…?” Wise muttered, and one of his eyes twitched. Was this another young woman’s romance book Belle introduced to Caesar? Or another fanfiction that Lilac had conjured up to give Vivian for her reading hobbies?

The bespectacled schoolgirl slammed both her hands on the counter. “So, you ‘have’ to help me, Proxy! We need to gather these materials—evidence that Mr. Lycaon is having an affair outside his duty and hiding it for public reasons!”

“Materials huh? So, I guess she is making another comic series again,” The silver-haired man simply smiled as that word didn’t miss his ears. He heaved a breath, taking the role of the mature mentor, and the young girl needed to speak. “Lilac, I understand you’re worried about Lycaon’s welfare. But—!”

“I think that modeling partner of his is cheating on him!” Lilac interrupted him again with another unexpected declaration.

This time, it was Wise’s turn to have his mind frozen like his HDD screen when Fairy loaded too much of the processor to run different simulations of achieving the best AI assistant in the world. Wait… What? Who?? Him??? When did he cheat on Lycaon if they were only friends?!

Lilac simply went on, taking the silence from the older Proxy as consent. “I had heard from Vivian that Miss Astra’s personal photographer had suddenly picked this interloper in when the shoot was a date about Mr. Lycaon and Mr. Lighter. Snap said it was its student’s suggestion, but shouldn’t a master decide the theme instead? Still… If it weren’t for that student, Snap’s gallery wouldn’t be that successful….”

“… I definitely can’t tell Lilac the truth,” The older Phaethon swore internally to himself; the last thing he needed was his store to get roasted by rabid fangirls for ruining their pairing. He lifted a hand to rub his chin with a thoughtful expression. “And you didn’t ask Snap to clarify the model’s identity and their relationship?”

At the question, Lilac’s shoulders slouched in disappointment when she remembered. “I did, but Snap won’t tell me much about that model. It said it looked plain, too stiff, and nothing unusual stood about them. Snap said if it were to describe them, it would be your typical ‘self-insert’ character for the audience to insert into their roles.”

Wise wasn’t sure if he appreciated Snap saving his life by keeping him more anonymous or if those backhanded compliments questioned his outward appearance. He had never felt such a potent mixture of secondhand embarrassment and existential crisis.

Here, the silver-haired man—legendary Proxy Phaethon and perpetual chaos-magnet—was being told by a very emotionally invested schoolgirl in her serious tone that not only Lycaon and Hugo were potentially in a secret torrid affair but that Wise had been replaced in the romantic narrative by some ‘plain, self-insert’ character whose only notable quality was ‘being generic enough to be projected upon or removed from existence.’

Trying not to visibly break down, Wise rested his forehead on the counter, half-muffled. “I am so going to start using makeup. And a wig. Maybe grow a beard and move to a new city….”

“And another thing, Proxy,” Lilac thoughtfully tapped her pen against her temple. “Mr. Lycaon’s been… Different lately.”

Wise lifted his head at that statement. “Different?”

“He’s been busier than usual. My father never gives him any more work than he needs to. And I did think it was because of his other clients… But he’s been coming in for duty late and sometimes won’t even be in for days. And Mr. Lighter, too. Vivian said sometimes he and Mr. Lycaon need to meet up with the mayor to report something.” The young schoolgirl lowered her voice, confused and concerned at the same time.

Lilac continued with a little laugh. “It’s funny, right? Like they’re hiding from my dad about the mayor’s work when it might be nothing at all.”

Bangboo 18 then looked at his human owner, who only returned with a thoughtful expression to recall if there was anything meaningful from the mayor. But nothing came into the silver-haired man’s mind at all.

The bespectacled schoolgirl shook her head quickly, laughing off her own nerves. “I’m probably just imagining things! I read too many thrillers, you know?”

But the older Phaethon couldn’t help how a sliver of unease prickled at the back of his neck. Lycaon rarely hid anything from Lilac unless it was something serious.

Still, Wise smiled at her to put her at ease. “Yeah… Maybe you’re just overthinking it.”

Lilac nodded and smiled at the older man gratefully at his words. She began pacing back and forth, gripping her beloved notebook with wild fervor. “So! Here’s what I propose! You and I—undercover. We stake out the next joint task mission Mr. Lycaon and Mr. Lighter are on together and catch everything suspicious! Dates. Secret glances. ‘Shirtless sparring.’ Whatever they’re hiding!”

Wise’s eyes twitched again at the insanity spewed from her mouth. “Lilac, this sounds… Incredibly illegal and not what a companion of justice does. And I’m sure the NEPS would not be proud of you for doing so.”

“But it’s for love,” The schoolgirl insisted, pure and unrepentant.

“—Which does not make it less illegal.”

Bangboo 18 finally rebooted with a loud mechanical chirp and then blinked its lenses in an almost judgmental way at Wise. “Ehn-nah. (Wise, you look like you aged five years in ten minutes.)”

“I feel like I did,” The older Phaethon muttered.

Lilac clutched his sleeve again. “Please, Proxy. You’re the only one I can trust. If this mystery third party really is swooping in between them—they are making both being unfaithful to each other—it could hurt them both. And I owe Mr. Lycaon my safety.”

Wise moved his head up from the counter to look at her. That... Actually, it did hit a chord in him. While the situation was exaggerated to absurdity, her concern for Lycaon was genuine. Even if it was extremely misguided.

Still, the idea of spying on Lycaon and Hugo together again sounded like a recipe for heartburn, emotional damage, and possibly arson—Well, that shouldn’t bother him, really. Whether the two older men got together, he was only their Proxy to remain neutral and maintain a good relationship when they worked.

Eventually, he let out a resigned sigh and conceded. “Okay, fine. I’ll accompany you as your Proxy to spy on Lycaon and... ‘Mr. Lighter.’ And if there’s nothing between them, you must respect their private lives and relationships. Whoever they are in love with, it’s up to them to decide, alright? If there is, we’ll give them our blessings.”

Lilac’s eyes sparkled like someone just granted her three wishes and a lifetime supply of limited-edition art materials for her comics. “You mean it?! Really?! Thank you, Proxy!!”

She threw her arms around Wise’s neck, knocking a puff of air out of his lungs. There must be something within women like Belle who possessed unnaturally physical strength to overwhelm him. Or, he should start asking the agents about the best physical training workout instead of getting made fun of.

“Y-Yeah,” Wise coughed with a wheeze, patting her back awkwardly. “Sure. Great. Looking forward to our investigation results….”

As he said that, Bangboo 18 made a concerned beeping noise, as though it detected his owner’s mental health deteriorating rapidly within seconds.

-x-

Two days later, the plan began—if one could call Lilac’s flurry of colorful, pink-highlighted theme charts and ten pages worth of Lycaon’s and Hugo’s schedule. And the older Phaethon didn’t want to question what the bespectacled girl offered to Vivian to sell out her big brother figure like this.

Hence, Wise crouched behind a wall of an abandoned building in a Hollow at one of the alleys in Lumina Square, where Lycaon and Hugo were supposed to be. According to Lilac, the two men were assigned to do a simple data gathering to update the carrot data of this particular Hollow. But in her eyes, the mayor was using this mission as an excuse to set up his attendant to rekindle old love for his old friend-slash-frenemy-rivals.

After making a few tweaks to Eous’s circuit, the older Phaethon turned to Lilac. “Let me get this straight, your plan now is to watch over them handling the mission. At the same time… You want me to give some ‘push’ to them to get some record of your research materials—”

“Evidence,” Lilac adjusted her glasses with an overly stern expression to correct him.

The silver-haired man resigned with a sigh; he adjusted the collar and sleeves of his jacket and shirt, peering around the edge of the wall like an exhausted, underpaid detective. He did not sign up for this undercover work. “Right, ‘evidence.’ And when we collect this ‘evidence,’ what exactly are you planning to do with it? Frame it and gift it to Lycaon with a bow?”

“Actually, yes! That’s part of Plan C,” Lilac whispered with alarming sincerity, placing a hand on her chest with pride. “Plan A is to collect enough data to prove their secret love. Plan B is to illustrate and print a doujin—tastefully, of course,—and Plan C is to mail it anonymously with a heartfelt message encouraging them to be true to their feelings!”

Wise blinked his eyes slowly and acknowledged. “I’m sorry that I have been an idiot for asking.”

Eous’s ears twitched slightly, and he turned to look up at Wise. “Ehn-neh? (Wise, is it okay to do this? Are you worried about them hating you?)”

The older Phaethon gave a small smile and patted his child’s head. “It’ll be fine, Eous. I will talk to them to explain once everything is over.”

Suddenly, Lilac yanked at his sleeve again. “There! They’re coming!”

Wise peered through the gap in the broken wall just in time to spot Lycaon striding down the alley with his usual composed, ever-dignified gait. Beside him, Hugo strolled with that careless grace of his, one hand in his pocket, the other spinning a miniature dagger by the circular hole.

The two older men didn’t appear to be doing anything romantic—just talking. But Lilac already had her pen scribbling. “Note: Mr. Lighter leaned in—possibly whispering. Mr. Lycaon did not recoil. Intimacy level: 7.3.”

“That’s just talking,” Wise hissed. “That’s what people do on missions.”

“But look at their body language! Parallel stance. Synchronized walking. They’re in tune, Proxy!”

The older Phaethon groaned into his raised hand. “You’re tuned into another frequency, Lilac.”

Still, he had to admit—Lycaon was being oddly quiet. Hugo seemed to be talking more, his voice low but animated, his gestures casual, even… Irritated? Lycaon responded only with small nods or the occasional hum, no sign of being bothered by the blond-haired’s irritation.

“Lycaon…,” Hugo began with a low growl, his usual smirk visibly twitching from all the pent-up frustration. “We’ve been going this area in circles for 30 minutes before reaching the first terminal. Is that carrot data of yours even reliable?”

The phantom thief stopped walking, and the dagger between his fingers stopped moving. “You ‘do’ realize the objective from your ‘beloved’ master is to collect and update the carrot data, not audition for a gentleman’s stroll in the garden.”

Lycaon paused mid-step and turned his head, the slow movement oddly ominous in its calm. “Efficiency does not necessitate recklessness. Unlike you, I prefer ensuring our path is secure and predictable.”

“Oh, please.” The blond-haired man snorted with a smirk. “What’s so unpredictable about a Hollow with Ethereals and its first wave been dealt by yours truly?”

The wolf butler merely narrowed his lone red eye with a displeased expression. “Need I remind you whose fault it was that we got our attention?”

“Your carrot data, perhaps,” Hugo drawled, then grinned like a satisfied cat. “Unlike your precious Mayflower master, if our dearest Proxy is here, he would have already calibrated the best and most efficient route at the tip of his fingers within a second. Having second thoughts on switching to a new master, lapdog?”

Wise’s spine straightened instinctively at the unexpected compliment, and his cheek flushed lightly. And Lilac jolted from her spot, her pencil halting mid-scratch. “Wait, wait—did Mr. Lighter just—?! Did Mr. Lighter just say something romantic about the self-insert?!”

“There’s nothing romantic about it,” The silver-haired Proxy whispered back, though his ears were already red. “That’s just a professional acknowledgment from an agent to his Proxy.”

Lilac narrowed her eyes, adjusting her glasses with deadly precision. “That was not just professional. That was wistful. And slightly bitter. Classic signs of unresolved yearning! Proxy, don’t try to gaslight me. This interloper has taken dastardly measures to poison their minds and ignore their true feelings.”

The older Phaethon quietly lowered his head against the wall again and whispered to Eous, “I’m being gaslit by a sixteen-year-old fangirl.”

“Ehn-na?” Eous only tilted his head in confusion, blessed his pure soul to be ignorant of this problematic delusion.

The two men in the alley, unaware they had an audience, continued walking in tense silence. Hugo had resumed flipping his dagger, but it seemed more like an angry tic, not his usual showy play. Lycaon kept his gaze forward, lips pressed into a grim line.

“Look,” Hugo said finally, his voice dropping. “You may still be playing knight for your little Mayflower lapdog, but I won’t pretend I don’t notice. You keep looking behind you like he’s about to show up.”

“I do not,” Lycaon replied curtly. “Master Proxy has informed us that he will not be available today to assist in this mission. However, I do admit if he is here, his esteemed expertise will make things easier to navigate in this Hollow.”

The phantom thief lifted a hand to his chin to rub thoughtfully. “True… Vivian complained about it earlier today but only saw the other Proxy today. Strangely, his schedule today was supposed to be working in the store for the whole day. I wonder if something came up….”

Wise barely held in the nervous cough bubbling up in his throat, ducking lower behind the crumbling wall. “Something did come up, alright. It’s called unauthorized surveillance by a self-proclaimed love detective.”

Meanwhile, Lilac’s face was practically glowing as she jotted rapid notes. “‘Keeps looking for subtext between their heated exchange of the other true feelings to them!’ Oh, Proxy, it’s even worse—better—than I thought. They’re both pining for each other without even realizing it.”

Wise pinched the bridge of his nose again, willing his dignity not to drain any further into the cracked pavement, and muttered to himself. “At this point, even raiding into Hartman’s study sounds less stressful than this.”

Back in the alley, Hugo suddenly threw his dagger at a rusted pipe nearby with a sharp clink, startling Lycaon—Lilac and Wise—and then turned, baring his teeth in a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“You really are pathetic sometimes, you know that, Lycaon? Acting like he’s your sun and you’re just orbiting around him, waiting for scraps of attention.” His voice softened a razor’s edge under the silk. “Tell me. When he does look at you, really look at you… Do you even know what to do with it?”

Lycaon’s red eye flickered dangerously. His voice, when he spoke, was almost inaudible. “I would willingly give my life to see that gaze directed at me.”

The words hung heavy in the air—stunning Wise so badly he almost fell over and caused Lilac to let out a high-pitched gasp that she had to slap a hand over her mouth to stifle.

Eous quietly beeped in sympathy, its tiny mechanical voice whispering to Wise, “Ehn-neh… (Wise, did you just get a love confession… Secondhand?)”

“Um—Yes—No—I don’t know…?!” Wise simply stared, entirely and utterly blindsided. He screamed internally. “And now he’s saying it—just out here! To Hu—I mean ‘Lighter,’ of all people!”

Meanwhile, Hugo clicked his tongue, looking vaguely disgusted. “Tch. Disgustingly noble as always. You know... If you’ll keep worshiping someone like that, don’t be surprised when he finds it suffocating.”

“I doubt yours is any better than mine with your half-hearted public display of affection to Master Proxy,” The wolf Thiren rebutted with a low snarl escaping his muzzle.

“You’re just jealous our dear Proxy is closer to me than he is to you,” Hugo returned with a smug comeback.

The hallway practically sparked with tension now—Lycaon and Hugo staring each other down like they were seconds away from another full-blown, ethics-violating fistfight… Or a dramatic love confession that would melt the walls like what Lilac wanted. Wise genuinely couldn’t tell anymore.

From behind the crumbling wall, Wise slowly turned to the said schoolgirl. “You do realize this is getting way too serious for your doujin, right?”

“Exactly!” Lilac whispered with wild, fervent joy in her eyes. “This is perfect! I didn’t expect real angst! They’re not just dancing around each other but bleeding for each other! I’m going to need an entire new volume for this arc…”

Wise briefly wondered if this was karma. All the things he’d done in his questionable past—was this cosmic punishment? Forced to witness his two emotional disasters of colleagues trying to out-suffer each other over him while a teenage girl narrated the entire mess with more emotional investment than the New Eridu’s PR team?

Peeking out of the wall, the older Phaethon noticed the two older men began to move again. Once there were no signs of them, Wise stepped out and looked at the carrot data in his phone. “Looks like they managed to find the first terminal to get started—”

“Proxy!” Lilac grabbed both of his shoulders, her eyes now burning with whatever determination that fueled her goal from the exchange she witnessed. “This isn’t just a secret romance. It’s a tragedy in the making! We have to stop it!”

The silver-haired older man blinked, mouth slightly agape. “Stop… What? What tragedy?”

“Yes!” Lilac declared, shaking him with surprising strength for someone under five feet tall and younger than him. “They’re so in love but also so bad at it! Mr. Lycaon is bottling up centuries’ worth of pain and self-worth issues, and Mr. Lighter’s projecting his guilt and emotional damage into posturing! This is textbook miscommunication and repression—classic star-crossed lovers!”

Wise felt another headache blooming behind his eyes. “Lilac, they just accused each other of being emotionally stunted while dragging me—I mean, this ‘Master Proxy’ into their passive-aggressive poetic monologues.”

“Exactly!” The schoolgirl whispered, and Wise swore there was a fire lit up literally in her eyes. “Which means they’re the obstacle! Mr. Lycaon and Mr. Lighter are in love with each other, but that interloper is the wedge that keeps them apart!”

Should the silver-haired Proxy try to argue against her logic?

Lilac pulled away and lifted a thumb to bite her nail. “And this tragedy needs a rewrite! I ‘refused’ to let this story end with one of them sacrificing themselves and the other breaking down in tears, whispering that self-insert name when it should have been one of them as the world burns….!”

Wise squinted at her. “That…. That’s awfully specific.”

She whipped her head towards the older man, and the schoolgirl pointed her index finger. “Trust me! If we want my doujin material—I mean! Our evidence needs to be solid; here’s what we will do.”

-x-

Arriving at the first terminal at an abandoned level, Lycaon and Hugo approached a rusted maintenance console flickering dimly with residual power. Hugo leaned against the terminal’s frame with the kind of casual arrogance he could manage while Lycaon knelt in front of the panel with composed precision, his gloved fingers brushing dust away from the input pad.

“Give me a moment,” Lycaon murmured, already switching on the terminal with practiced movements. His eye scanned the deteriorating code and rerouted lines of data.

Hugo clicked his tongue in irritation. “How long is this going to take?”

“As long as necessary for accuracy,” The wolf Thiren replied coolly. “Unless you’d prefer to trigger another ghost protocol like last time.”

“Why not?” Hugo drawled, placing a hand on his chest theatrically. “One little firewall override, and you make it sound like I summoned an apocalypse.”

Lycaon then threw a side glare at the other man. “It locked down three levels and nearly activated the sprinkler system.”

“Which you used as an excuse to coat your jacket in water and make our dear Proxy fuss over you. Admit it.” The phantom thief shot him a knowing look.

The wolf butler paused in his code entry and turned his head away slightly. “That is a baseless accusation.”

“Apparently, your tail is much more honest than your mouth when our Proxy praised you. Perhaps your own argument needs more improvement, Lycaon.” Hugo raised an eyebrow at him.

Further down the corridor, out of their sight, Wise turned to where Eous, standing by a small arcade-like terminal fitting for the Bangboo, waiting for his instructions. Lilac, standing near the two, announced. “Alright, let’s initiate our first plan, locking-two-people-in-a-room-without-exit-until-one-of-them-make-loves-to-the-other-to-the-oblivion begins!”

“That’s… Quite a mouthful,” The older Phaethon answered sheepishly, and he gave a nod to Eous.

Eous then moved his small arms to maneuver the controller. The older Phaethon turned towards the terminal before him to press a few buttons before pressing the red button.

BAM! KLAK!

The entrance behind Hugo and Lycaon, where they came from, slid with a resounding thud to seal their sole exit. The phantom thief narrowed his eyes and hissed at the wolf Thiren. “What did you do, lapdog?”

“That’s strange. The terminal showed no issue after retrieving the first data set,” Lycaon rose from the ground and looked towards the sealed entrance. He added flatly, brushing the dust from his knees as he stood. His eye shifted warily, narrowing as he studied the sealed gate. “I don’t recall triggering any security protocol.”

“Well, it’s a bug or someone’s idea of a joke. You are sure this isn’t one of your master’s trust exercises for his precious pet again?” Hugo stepped up to the panel to tap the screen with his hand.

The wolf butler replied coldly. “I would have been informed if it were. Unless this is another of your games, Hugo.”

“You think I’d lock myself in with you, lapdog? That’s your dream, not mine.” Hugo gave him a dry look.

Now that the two targets were trapped together in a ‘room’ successfully, Lilac raised her hand with her index finger pointing at their terminal and commanded like a queen giving her decree. “Okay, Proxy! We can move on to phase two and send the prompts in the terminal to get those two closer! Use your experience as an adult to show those two lost souls the ways of love.”

“Adult charm…? I’m not a dating sim AI.” Wise pinched the bridge of his nose. Even if he was a dating sim AI, he’d be the worst AI ever, with his experiences solely on virtual characters rather than actual people.

Eous chirped encouragingly and gestured the terminal to proceed with his plan. So, with a mental white flag waving above his head, Wise pressed a few keys on the secondary console, sending a scripted prompt flashing onto the rusted maintenance screen Lycaon was using:

[Warning: Oxygen level fluctuation detected. Maintaining physical proximity by holding hands with the nearest ally is recommended to conserve body heat and optimize respiration efficiency.]

Lycaon’s gaze narrowed at the instruction while Hugo raised one eyebrow at the screen. “Oi, Lycaon. What did your precious mayor say about this location’s terminal again?”

The wolf Thiren’s jaw flexed, the faintest sign of annoyance slipping through his professional facade. “He assured me these terminals were isolated from external interference. And that this level had no atmospheric instability.”

Hugo clicked his tongue mockingly. “Then either your mayor lied, or you’re lying to me. Which one do you think will make our Proxy cry harder?”

Lycaon ignored the provocation with admirable restraint, though his tail—the traitor—gave an irritated flick behind him. “The warning is false. I detect no oxygen fluctuation.”

“Then you won’t mind a little precautionary cuddling, will you?” The phantom thief’s smirk turned positively wolfish, taking a deliberate half-step closer until their feet nearly touched.

The wolf butler stood firm, his visible left red eye narrowed dangerously. “If you value your hands intact, I suggest you remain where you are.”

“If you insist so, lapdog,” And with a flick of his briefcase, it transformed into a scythe in the blond-haired man’s grip, twirling lightly before pointing at it. “I could put some use into destroying this to release my steam.”

Lycaon moved a hand out and glared at the phantom thief warningly. “Any acts of vandalism or destruction of property in New Eridu is not allowed. Even if it is questionably broken, I will report to the mayor if you attempt to do so.”

“Tch,” Hugo clicked his tongue in vexed anger and turned his head away.

Further down the hallway, Wise was hunched behind the secondary console, hiding like a man awaiting divine judgment. He could feel Lilac’s expectant gaze burning into him as she whispered urgently into his ear. “Phase two complete! And now, phase three: accidental touching for escalating chemistry!”

“I feel like I’m committing a crime,” Wise muttered, but his fingers still moved.

He executed the following queued command:

[Security scan initiated. Synchronization protocol active. Physical contact is required to embrace one another. Minimum duration: 15 seconds.]

This time, both Lycaon and Hugo visibly froze at the same time. A low, deadly silence settled between them. Even Eous, peeking from behind Wise’s leg, chirped nervously. “Eh-nah...?”

Hugo recovered first with an eerie calmness left his lips. “Well, well, it seems like the mayor is quite a liar indeed, isn’t he? I can’t believe someone so foolishly dedicated to serving him cannot know exactly what his mind is thinking.”

The way Lycaon’s left eye twitched was almost imperceptible, but his voice could barely hide the growing anger in them. “The mayor does not stoop himself low to such nonsensical charade.”

His large, gloved, claw-like hands twitched slightly as if envisioning the most efficient way to dismantle the broken terminal without leaving any forensic traces.

Unperturbed by the lash, Hugo lazily adjusted his cuffs, his voice dripping with false sympathy. “Now, now, little Lycaon, remember. You’re not allowed to vandalize or destroy any property in New Eridu. You wouldn’t want your master to have a disobedient dog, would you?

Obviously, it was on purpose that the blond-haired man quoted Lycaon’s warning word by word with a smug face. The wolf Thiren’s fingers flexed again, dangerously close to snapping and plunging his hand into this thief’s chest again, without the fake blood bags to redo his dying act. His red eye burned a hole through Hugo, who only looked more entertained with every passing second.

Behind the safety of the secondary console, Wise wiped the sweat beading on his forehead with a shaky sleeve.

“They’re going to kill each other,” He whispered to Eous, who beeped a tiny, terrified agreement of ‘Ehn-nah.’

Meanwhile, Lilac was vibrating with excitement and squealed, her eyes glittering. “This is absolutely peak fiction! They’re one step away from a lovers’ quarrel leading to passionate reconciliation!”

“More like a homicide,” Wise muttered under his breath.

Back at the maintenance console, Hugo took another leisurely step forward, close enough that the fabric of his coat brushed the front of Lycaon’s tailored jacket.

“Come now,” The phantom thief said mockingly, “Fifteen seconds of physical contact isn’t so bad. You’ve withstood worse, haven’t you? Like the humiliation of losing to me during that rooftop chase, or that time our dear Proxy bandaged your hand, and you wagged your tail like a lovesick mutt—”

[Physical contact verification complete. Please remove your clothing with your bodies bare naked together in an embrace for the next 30 minutes.]

A silence followed instantly after the new system message appeared on the screen. Hugo’s and Lycaon’s faces weren’t emotional as they read that last sentence. It was like someone dousing cold water on them to stop their meaningless, petty arguments and reconcile for the greater good.

It did work, as the two men now had only one thought to form a temporary truce: “Let’s destroy this terminal for good.”

From where he was, Wise could feel and see death before his eyes right now. Both the thief and the butler were beyond pissed when the final instruction was pushed out automatically after the timer went out.

He turned to Lilac and whispered through gritted teeth. “Lilac…. Are you sure you want to do this before they try to destroy not just any property but a property belonging to the mayor?”

“Well, how else will they kiss and make out for the evidence?” Lilac blinked at him innocently. “Or better, fight it out and then kiss dramatically like in Volume 3 of Forbidden Phantom Archives: Silken Chains?”

Wise covered his face. “Please stop referencing real-life situations from your library collection.”

“Proxy, they’re the classics!” The young girl hissed, deadly serious.

“Ehn-nah! Nah! (Wise, Ethereals are coming into the room!)” Eous’s panicked voice interrupted their argument with a now worried expression.

“What?” Wise took out his phone and looked at his carrot data. Unfortunately, due to the mechanism of the room, it had called forth a group of Ethereal monsters hiding near the terminal to surround them.

Meanwhile, back in the locked terminal room, consecutive loud, monstrous, growling noises came from the shadows in the corner of the room. The corrupted creatures emerged from the dim, rattling vents and dragged themselves from the broken subflooring. They were malformed and partially translucent, limbs spindly and flickering with unstable energy. Their shrieks echoed in the room like static claws scraping metal.

Lycaon was the first to move to turn towards his left. His combat prosthetic legs charged up and dashed forward in a blur of motion to give a powerful kick. “Incoming. Stay behind me.”

“As if,” Hugo muttered, already spinning his briefcase in his hold to transform into his large scythe, the blade catching glimmers of light from the flickering overheads. “I don’t need you to order me, lapdog.”

The two men stood shoulder to shoulder—back-to-back now as the Ethereals began circling, testing the perimeter of their presence like vultures drawn to dying light.

From the other side of the sealed wall, Wise’s stomach dropped as he watched the signature spikes on his carrot data monitor. “No, no, no. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

He needed to get Lycaon and Hugo safely, so he turned sharply to Lilac. “Lilac, we need to undo the lockdown! Now!”

“But—but the emotional tension was peaking—!” Lilac tried to argue, only to meet Wise’s glare that could probably peel wallpaper off a wall.

“I said now, Lilac!”

“I-I’m on it!” She squeaked, turning toward the backup controls.

“Eous, help her bypass the lockdown manually—redirect power from the auxiliary node,” Wise instructed quickly, switching to the master control module to try a forced override.

Back in the terminal room, Lycaon lunged forward, cleaving through the creature with a single, clean arc of frost emitted from his prosthetic legs. The corrupted being shrieked and fragmented into black dust, its shards vanishing mid-air. But two more replaced it instantly, hissing with hunger.

“Don’t slow me down, lapdog,” Hugo scoffed with a gleeful grin on his face as his scythe sliced off another Ethereal’s body, then switched his position to charge and fire an icy energy-charged beam to the monster coming from his left.

Lycaon didn’t bother retorting this time. Instead, he spun mid-air, bringing his heel down hard onto another approaching Ethereal’s core, cracking it opened like brittle porcelain. “Keep them off the terminal. If they corrupt the data lines, extraction becomes impossible.”

“Tell me something I don’t know!” Hugo snarled, sweeping his blade in a wide arc as he ducked beneath a swipe. “This is what I get for listening to your outdated principles.”

“I believe the word you’re looking for is competency,” The wolf Thiren shot back, cold and composed, but his breathing was getting heavier. One of the Ethereals screeched louder than the rest—a larger one crawling along the ceiling, its gaping jaw oozing Etheric static that made the console spark dangerously.

Outside, Wise was typing faster than he thought possible, sweat beading along his brow. “Almost there. Just 30 more seconds—!”

“30?!” Lilac shrieked in horror. “This’ll turn into Tragedy Route Zeta: Lover’s Last Stand! I wasn’t ready to start drawing blood arcs yet!”

“Not helping!!” Wise yelled, voice cracking under the stress of trying to keep two people he knew dearly safe. “Redirect all your energy to keep the backup power going!”

Eous beeped loudly. “Ehn-nah! (Wise! Terminal power rerouted! We got five percent more power!)”

Back in the thick of battle, Lycaon’s furry tail fluttered like a cloak of ash as he dodged a blow, but one of the Ethereals got in close and slashed across his side. Sparks burst from his mechanical legs—he stumbled back slightly but caught himself with one arm, eyes glowing faintly red with combat adrenaline.

“Don’t get sloppy on me now, lapdog!” Hugo noticed the blood on his furry arm, his tone sharper than usual. “If you bleed out, who am I supposed to argue with? The walls?”

Lycaon grimaced, tearing his sleeve to apply pressure, not meeting the other man’s eyes. “Don’t concern yourself. I’ve sustained worse.”

“I am concerned, unfortunately,” Hugo snapped. “Because if you die here, I get blamed for it, and Wise will never speak to me again. It is not exactly a winning narrative I’d like to have with him.”

The wolf butler raised a brow but didn’t reply, turning thoughtful at mentioning his beloved Proxy’s name. He turned his attention back to the enemies, scanning for the most significant threat. Still, something flickered behind his gaze, almost imperceptibly soft for a moment.

From the outer panel, Wise saw the unlock sequence hit 90%. “Just ten more seconds!”

But the larger Ethereal was already charging a pulse—its body beginning to glow with volatile instability.

“Lycaon!” Hugo shouted, lunging forward before the butler could even brace himself.

The explosion ripped through the air in an Etheric detonation. Dust and static drowned the space.

“Lycaon!” Wise shouted from outside the wall.

The dust settled—Hugo stood protectively over Lycaon, his coat scorched at the edges, his scythe sheathed back into the metal briefcase as if to shield them from the blast.

The wolf Thiren stared up at him in disbelief. “Why…?”

“Because I’ve already told you. If you die here, Wise will never speak to me,” Hugo growled, his voice cracking with something raw, something real. “I’ve already shaken him badly once with my fake death to protect him. He should not be making that face ever again.”

And Lycaon, wounded, breathless, looked up at him with something just as broken flickering in his eyes. “Then stop… Acting like you are always about to throw your life selfishly for him.”

BEEP—KLIK!

The door finally hissed open behind them. Hugo let out a tired sigh and rose, shrugging his shoulders. “Don’t we still have two more terminals to finish? Let’s get this over with.”

Lycaon didn’t rise right away. He sat there, catching his breath, crimson staining the pale fabric of his torn shirt sleeve as faint sparks jumped from the internal plating in his prosthetic limb. His gaze lingered on Hugo longer than necessary—silent, unreadable. Then, in a quiet, grudging voice: “You protected me.”

Hugo, already halfway to the door, paused. “Don’t read too much into it, lapdog. Just evening out the debt from earlier.”

His back was turned, but his grip on the scythe handle tightened. “Besides, you’re not allowed to die until I’ve beaten you in an argument.”

“You’ve yet to win one,” Lycaon muttered, finally staggering.

Outside, Wise watched the two older men leave from the entrance they came in and let out a shaky sigh. Fortunately, there weren’t any grave injuries on either of them, but it was still nerve-wracking to sit and watch from the console.

“Ehn-neh ehn-nah nau. (They will be fine, Wise. They are powerful agents!)” Eous chirped warmly to console his human owner as he approached him.

Wise gave a small smile to the Bangboo, reaching down to ruffle the top of its head. “Yeah. I know they are. Still… It doesn’t mean I like watching them nearly torn apart because of some half-baked shipping scheme.”

Lilac had the decency to look sheepish, hands gripping the ends of her school uniform sleeves. “In my defense, the trope worked in Forbidden Phantom Archives: Crimson Bondage Edition.”

“I’m confiscating your reading privileges,” Wise muttered, straightening up as the secured door opened. He took out his phone and observed the signals of their two targets heading toward their second destination, tapping a few buttons on the screen. “I’ve calculated the shortest route we could get to there without spotting—Hm?”

The bespectacled schoolgirl approached the older man. “What’s wrong?”

“No… It’s just… Some Hollow Raiders just arrived at the Hollow from the same entrance we came from.” Wise answered analytically as his green eyes focused on the blinking group of dots on the screen.

Lilac leaned over his shoulder, squinting at the screen. “Wait, wait—Hollow Raiders? Like the gang that pretended to be the Mockingbird syndicate and tricked me into…?”

The older Phaethon placed his phone aside and narrowed his eyes. “I can’t tell. They aren’t anywhere near this sector yet. And fortunately, they seemed to be heading in another direction.”

Wise’s brows furrowed. He could already feel that gnawing tension settling in again. It wasn’t just the Hollow Raiders’ sudden appearance but the timing. Too perfect. Right after the lockdown. Right after the data retrieval had started. “Either we’re unlucky… Or someone’s feeding them our movements.”

Lilac’s eyes widened, her hands clenching tightly. “A mole? Oh, that’s so cliché! Wait—unless it’s a double bluff! Or, or maybe a quadruple-layer mislead to throw us off the scent of the real traitor—!”

“Lilac,” Wise’s green eyes glowered at her warningly. “Please do not start reciting the next quote from your book that inspired your fantasies.”

She bit her lip but gave a guilty grin. “Fine, fine, I’ll behave.”

“Let’s move,” The older Phaethon picked Eous up to his arms. “We’ll cut through service Ducts 3 and 4. If we sneak above Level 9’s abandoned facility, we should arrive before the two or the raiders to continue with your plan.”

“Got it!” Lilac nodded and jogged to keep up. “But just saying… if they do end up kissing after this, I was technically right.”

“Lilac!”

“Technically!”

-x-

Back with the older pair, Lycaon limped but maintained an efficient pace, his hand now wrapped tightly with cloth scavenged from the edge of a utility drape. Hugo walked beside him, coat still smoldering faintly, though he said nothing. The silence between them buzzed louder than the flickering lights above.

“Your prosthetic’s failing,” Hugo finally muttered. “You’ll drag us down if you don’t stop to recalibrate.”

“I’m aware,” Lycaon answered stiffly.

“So do it.”

The wolf Thiren grunted. “I will. At the next terminal.”

Hugo stopped walking and scowled. “Don’t be stupid, Lycaon. You already bled out half your dignity before me—what’s recalibrating in a hallway?”

Lycaon turned, narrowing his eyes. “And to give you a chance to gloat while I’m exposed and vulnerable?”

Hugo gave him a slow smirk. “Please. I already did my good deed of the day. Watching you stumble around like a broken wind-up toy isn’t as fun as you think.”

Then, unexpectedly, the thief’s voice softened—just a little. “… You don’t have to keep proving yourself every second, you know.”

Lycaon blinked. The words hit with more force than Hugo probably intended. He looked away. “It’s not about proving anything.”

“Then what is it?”

“I…” Lycaon’s voice caught for just a moment. He looked toward the far end of the hallway, where shadows curled at the corners. “I don’t know. Maybe I still haven’t forgiven myself for what I did for not confiding with you about what Jack said to keep you restrained and controlled from your own hatred.”

The memory flickered between them like the static of that night when their mentor, Jack, only called in Lycaon to talk before passing away.

Hugo was quiet when the particular memory hit him again like the wound unstitched itself to sting him. Then, with a heavy breath, he offered with an emotionless tone: “Well, I am never going to forgive you either, so we’re even.”

“Comforting,” Lycaon muttered dryly.

“I’m here to help.”

They started walking again, the silence less hostile—if still heavy. Unbeknownst to them, at the sides in the upper level, Lilac held out her phone in video recording mode, wearing a rather creepy excited grin as this particular ‘romantic’ scene unfolded before her eyes. “The reluctant rivals forced to work together… The tragic unspoken past… The emotional bruising layered with unresolved sexual tension—IT’S ALL COMING TOGETHER!”

“Ehn-neh, ehn-nah… (Miss Lilac, I do not think this is proper reconnaissance protocol...)” Eous beeped worriedly, his little robotic arms trying to push her phone down.

The schoolgirl looked offended at the Bangboo’s attempt to stop her. “I am doing fieldwork! I’m documenting the emotional battlefield! This is data collection for future reconciliation routes!”

Down below, Hugo paused. His pointy ears twitched slightly—he looked up sharply. “Did you hear that?”

Lycaon tilted his head, gaze narrowing, and his furry ears picked up the same noise. “I thought I heard squealing.”

They both looked up to where Lilac and Eous were behind the wall. The former gasped quietly. “Oh no, Abort! Return to the Proxy’s side for Plan B!”

Hugo’s fingers twitched at the shuffling footsteps of the two mysterious observers, but they only turned their tails to flee from them, clicking his tongue. “Cowards.”

“Stop trying to pick a fight with every single thing that moves,” The wolf Thiren said with a side glare at his comrade.

“Correction,” Hugo said, tone smug as they started walking again, “I only pick fights with things that look suspicious or interested in my dear Proxy.”

Lycaon didn’t respond at first. He didn’t need to—his sigh was heavy enough to carry a thousand ‘not this again.’ But after a few more paces, he added flatly, “Wise isn’t a possession to be fought over.”

“I never said he was,” Hugo replied confidently. “But you can’t pretend you’re not just as territorial when Vivian tries to take his hand for marriage. Did I mention how priceless your face was when ‘you,’ of all people, tells Wise to accompany Vivian as her partner to the banquet? Maybe green would’ve been a better color for you.”

The wolf butler glowered. “Territorial and possessive aren’t the same, Hugo.”

“Tell that to your claws the night you nearly tore my throat for hugging him.” The blond-haired man reminded with a smirk.

“You do not know how to keep your hands to yourself. And stop touching Master Proxy indecently in the public.”

Hugo shrugged, grinning to boast his pride. “He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, I think he has a kink for public make-outs, unlike some traditional old fossil here.”

Lycaon’s eye twitched. “You’re insufferable.”

“I try my best,” The arrogant phantom thief replied with mock cheer, twirling his briefcase behind his back as though he hadn’t triggered his companion’s entire moral collapse. “Besides, don’t pretend like you haven’t imagined doing far worse with him in the shadows of a ballroom. What was that look you gave him when he smiled at you during the Mayor’s speech?”

The wolf Thiren’s ears twitched violently. “That was a look of appreciation.”

“For his ass, maybe. You can pretend to admire how beautiful his face was, but I know you’ve been looking at his hips and ass all day when Wise arrived.” Hugo replied unrepentant.

Meanwhile, Lilac dropped her phone in complete shock from an upper duct distance away. “Oh my god, they’re emotionally healing on screen! This is more powerful than a serialized drama arc!”

Eous squeaked in panic and quickly caught the phone in midair before it hit the floor. “Ehn-nah! Ehn-nah! (Miss Lilac, you must stay hidden, or we’ll be discovered again!)”

“What are you doing?” Wise’s hushed voice but clearly annoyed voice from behind her. The older Phaethon was crouched beside the duct entry, arms crossed and brow twitching. “Come on, we must move to the second terminal now.”

Lilac gulped. “W-Wise! I swear this is purely for documentation purposes! I was going to use this to optimize their compatibility scores!”

“Lilac,” The older Phaethon warned in a dangerously calm tone. “You’re lucky we’re short on time, or I’d feed your compatibility scores to the nearest disposal drone.”

Behind him, Eous beeped twice in a warning. “Ehn-nah! (Raiders at ten percent proximity!)”

“We’re out of time. Let’s move. The Hollow Raiders are about to hit the outer ventilation wing.” Wise grabbed hold of her hand to pull him with her.

The bespectacled schoolgirl scrambled after him, whispering, “Okay, but hear me out—what if we lure them into a trap and then they have to fake a kiss to hide—!”

“Lilac.”

“Sorry!”

-x-

Back on the lower level, Lycaon sat on the ground while holding one of his prosthetic legs, which finally sparked a full recalibration warning. He hissed under his breath from the wound on his arm as he adjusted the screws and inspected the components.

While tapping on the data terminal, Hugo turned behind the electric sparks from the other prosthetic limbs and rolled his eyes. “I told you; you’re already slowing me down when you’re still the same old idiot who keeps pushing when your body can’t take it.”

The wolf Thiren grunted as he secured the left prosthetic leg back before taking out the right to do the same repair. “It’ll take ninety seconds to realign. Watch the corridor while my legs recalibrate.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Hugo returned to the data terminal. As he scanned the interface and began bypassing the encryption, the terminal’s dull glow lit the curve of his jaw and the faint furrow between his brows. His fingers moved with practiced ease, but his voice was hushed.

“…You know,” The blond-haired man said without looking back, “When Jack was dying… he didn’t just call you in because he thought you could handle it better.”

Lycaon didn’t answer immediately. The soft whir of his prosthetics echoed under the noise of the recalibration sequence.

“He trusted you more than me. That’s why he gave you the keys to my chains.” Hugo continued, his voice thin, like something fragile behind his usual sarcasm.

The wolf Thiren’s hand paused over a flickering wire before he muttered, “It wasn’t about trust. He feared what you’d do if you knew the full truth.”

“Because I’m the Ravenlock bastard child? Or that I’m too broken to walk the path he wanted?” Hugo chuckled bitterly. “Surprise. Both were right.”

“Maybe,” Lycaon said, adjusting a dial. “But he still saw hope in you. Even when you didn’t, you could still walk into the light even when you would be too far gone.”

The thief went silent, eyes on the screen, but his hand had stopped moving. Then, barely audible: “… Did you?”

Lycaon’s gaze lifted. For the first time since that night, Hugo wasn’t taunting. He wasn’t posturing. He was just… Asking. Like someone who wasn’t sure he deserved an answer.

“I did,” Lycaon said finally. “And I still do.”

A quiet click echoed through the corridor as the second terminal confirmed the data upload. Hugo leaned back slightly, gaze hooded but no longer guarded. “… Wise makes you honest. That’s terrifying.”

“He makes you sentimental,” Lycaon returned dryly.

The phantom thief snorted amusedly. “It looks like our dear little Proxy had his little fingers wrapped around us.”

Lycaon’s lips curled faintly, not quite a smile, but close. “He does indeed. And he has little to no knowledge of how much his presence meant to us.”

Back on the upper levels, Lilac’s voice rang out in the quiet passage.

“Wait, wait—did you hear that?” Her eyes widened, a sudden realization hitting her. “The person who made them change… It’s you?”

She glanced at Wise, her fingers still clutched to the edge of her phone, the edges of her mind still processing the words. Meanwhile, Wise wasn’t faring any better, his mind racing at those admissions. For a moment, he just stared at where Hugo and Lycaon were, his heart knocking against his ribs like it wanted to escape his chest.

‘He makes you honest.’

‘He makes you sentimental.’

The older Phaethon hadn’t expected to say out loud—especially not like this, raw and unfiltered, without any of the bickering they usually wore like armor.

“I…,” Wise tried to find something to say, but no words came.

Lilac’s glasses slid slightly down her nose as she leaned forward, her expression earnest. “Proxy… No… Don’t tell me you never notice…?”

“I don’t know, I—-“

“Frankly speaking, you’re my first to do such intimate activities with, my dear manager.”

When Wise heard the unexpected confession from the older man, his green eyes grew big with shock yet doubt at the same time. He shifted his head to look at Hugo, smiling instead fondly at him. But the older Phaethon found himself lost in words to manage a mumble. “But… Lycaon said you’re always surrounded by people in social gatherings.”

“Hmph, I see that Oaf fails his job as an attendant to falsified stories of others,” Hugo scoffed with a slight tilt. “Those ‘gatherings’ he mentioned are mostly just business ventures as a collector, formal meetings, and other necessities. I don’t engage in anything personal regarding my interactions with others.

“I might charm a room,” The blond-haired man continued, his gaze fixed on the pedestrian light that still hadn’t turned green, “But it’s only with a mask on the stage I walked onto. You, however… I will not need my mask as the phantom thief Mockingbird nor the collector to stand here with you.”

Wise’s green eyes grew bigger each time he fully understood the words, and both older men confessed.

“You are not mistaken. I do not see the appeal in casual intimacy. I was… Young and foolish. Trying to prove something, perhaps.” He looked down into his untouched cup, his voice quieter as he admitted. “In truth, I’ve never met someone I truly wished to share a future with. Until…”

The pause was deafening when the wolf butler trailed off. Wise blinked his eyes, and his lips parted slightly, but the words caught in his throat. The faint clink of ceramic—Lycaon taking a sip of his coffee, filled the void instead.

“...Until?” Wise repeated.

Lycaon didn’t look at him immediately; instead, he watched the wind stir the hanging vines and the dappled sunlight shift across the table. He turned back to him with a rare, warm smile. “It’s nothing. Nevertheless, it is an honor, regardless of whether someone like you will be my partner for this shoot, Master Wise. I’m under your guidance to learn the utmost suitable composition for Master Snap’s gallery.”

The silver-haired Proxy didn’t believe it at first, or maybe he ignored the signs. These two individuals had their own baggage of problems and grudged against each other in the past. Wise was someone who just got winded up in their lives.

He thought he was just a passerby—a temporary light in their storm. Someone who offered a hand and never expected anything more than to help them both walk forward. But now…

Now Wise stood on the precipice of realizing he had long since stopped being an observer. His hands tightened around the rim of the wall’s opening, the cool concrete grounding him while his thoughts spun wild. Hugo and Lycaon were different yet somehow circling around the same truth: they were changing, not because of duty or rivalry, but because of him.

Wise, a struggling Proxy still figuring out his place in the aftermath of their revolutions and betrayals. He still flinched at the praise and patched up others faster than ever. His heart had been broken, reshaped, and unknowingly stitched into two opposing lives that refused to let go.

“I didn’t know,” The silver-haired man finally whispered, barely audible above the hum of the vents.

Lilac was still staring at the older man, silent for once. Her usual sparkle dimmed under the weight of sincerity. “But you do now.”

“But… I don’t know what to do with it.”

“Well, I originally planned to scare the interloper away if they were some spineless delusional people who think they could insert themselves into Mr. Lycaon or Mr. Lighter’s lives as they please.” Lilac stood up from her spot, her hand moved to push her glasses up and continued with a blunt, unwavering tone. “But… When I lost my way, you worked with Mr. Lycaon to save me from the fake Mockingbird group. And I saw how Mr. Lycaon trusts you so much. Even Vivian says Mr. Lighter seems much closer to you than he is to her.”

The bespectacled schoolgirl exhaled, then squared her shoulders. “So yes, maybe I judged too quickly. But they didn’t just fall for anyone from the photos in Snap’s gallery. They fell for you, Proxy.”

Wise looked down at his hands, calloused that were often used to patch up wounds that belonged to his agents. All this time, he’d been walking forward with the idea that he was only helping them as their Proxy to accomplish their work… But he never once imagined that he had become the very reason they kept going. The realization settled heavily in his chest, a weight that wasn’t suffocating but grounding.

The Proxy was the catalyst that had somehow intertwined their lives, not as a mere observer but as a pivotal force that had altered their paths. The thought struck him like a revelation, and he couldn’t help but wonder: How did I end up here?

His mind raced through the moments—Lycaon’s quiet protectiveness, Hugo’s unspoken gestures, the way both of them had shifted in ways that had nothing to do with the mission or the outside world. It had always been about him; now, that truth felt like a gift and a burden.

The air was different now—thicker, heavier, as though all the unsaid words and feelings hanging between the three had condensed into something tangible. Lilac broke the silence again, softer but still firm. “You don’t have to decide anything right away. But if you do nothing, you’re still making a choice. Besides… I don’t think you need to look too far for the answers when it’s already right before you.”

Wise’s breath caught. Those words hit a part of him he hadn’t dared acknowledge. Was he ready to confront this? To accept that real, terrifying, messy love might be staring him in the face from two different angles, each shadowed with pain and sacrifice?

He swallowed hard. “I don’t even know if I deserve something like that.”

Lilac crossed her arms, her tone sharp like a whip. “That’s not your decision to make, Proxy. It’s theirs. You just have to stop running from the answer.”

Eous suddenly jolted up from his spot, his circular green eyes on the LED screen spinning briefly. And it squinted with both his bunny ears standing upright, and he panicked. “Ehn-nah! Nah! (Wise, the Hollow Raiders from before are approaching the second terminal. We need to move now!)”

The older Phaethon immediately switched back to his Proxy mode, his body reacting faster than his heart could catch up, taking out his phone to fiddle. “The nearest fissure in the Hollow now… In five minutes!”

Lilac looked between Eous and Wise, swallowing her saliva down her throat. “How close are they?”

“This fissure should lead us to the third terminal. We could hide there until Lycaon and Hugo arrive to take the data before we complete it,” Wise beckoned the younger girl to follow him. Come on, let’s go.”

The tension that had built in the silence between heartbeats now shifted into urgent movement. Wise shoved the emotion to the back of his mind—there wasn’t time to process it all now. Later, maybe. If they made it through this.

Lilac kept pace behind him, a little breathless but determined. “How much more do we have to go?!’

“In…,” The silver-haired Proxy said through the map interface on his screen. “Now!”

The eerie glowing purple bubbly-like portal appeared in front of them. The three jumped into it just as before, and then it vanished into thin air.

The portal swallowed them in a blink, and for a brief moment, all Wise could hear was the sound of rushing wind—no gravity, no light, just the sensation of falling sideways through a space that wasn’t entirely real. Then came the jolt.

They landed hard, skidding onto the concrete floor in another building area. The air was heavier here, but fortunately, the Etheric energy levels were still within an average person’s Ether aptitude. However—

“Well, what do we have here?”

A nasty booming voice was muffled by the thick metal helmets, which obscured the muscular man’s head standing before them. Wise shot his head up to look at not one or two but at least a dozen of the Hollow Raiders.

“How did they…?” While Wise pondered, his green eyes caught the familiar purple glowy-like portal distances behind the leader of the Hollow Raider. He didn’t account for the possibility that they might also have leaped at a fissure at their previous location.

Lilac whispered, moving closer to where he was, her face growing pale. “Proxy, we’re surrounded.”

Eous flattened his ears, huddling protectively behind Wise’s leg as the Hollow Raiders fanned out, encircling them with the slow confidence of predators who knew their helpless, unskilled prey had nowhere to run.

The leader stepped forward—massive, the reinforced plating on his arms crackling faintly with static, as he solely focused on Wise. “It looks like that Mayflower’s lapdog isn’t here, huh? I remember you, ‘little princess.’”

Both Wise’s and Lilac’s faces immediately colored with recognition. The former immediately stood forward to shield the younger girl behind him, while the latter clutched onto the older man’s arms as she called out, “I thought you had already gone to jail!!”

The Hollow Raider let out a low, mocking laugh, a metallic tinge echoing beneath the speaker in his helmet. “You really think the city has held onto folks like us for a long time, girlie? Someone real high up wanted us out.”

He cracked his knuckles, the electric hum of his gauntlet intensifying. “And we were real eager to come find you again.”

Lilac shrank back instinctively, but Wise’s arm remained firm and steady in front of her—his stance deceptively relaxed, though his eyes flicked around the room with precise calculation. He could see now—two exits, both blocked.

Ether interference wasn’t high, but their foes were still heavily armed. The one who’d spoken was one of the Hollow Raiders’ former sub-commanders—Codename K if Wise recalled correctly—the same man who had tricked Lilac under the guise of protecting her as a ‘Mockingbird Apprentice.’ He wasn’t just back; he wanted revenge.

“You’re making a mistake,” Wise warned lowly, his voice shifting into a controlled timbre. “This place is monitored by the mayor. Any action you take—”

“—Will be buried before it makes the evening broadcast,” Codename K interrupted with a sneer. “We’ve cleaned up nice since you last saw us. Got ourselves a new sponsor, even. And you? You’re still playing the hero of justice to dead ideals with your twig of a bodyguard, girlie.”

A sharp twitch flickered at the edge of the Proxy’s mouth. He didn’t flinch, but his mind raced. “New sponsor? Someone powerful enough to break them out… Hartman?!”

Even as the Ravenlock family fell completely from grace, their extremist and relentless tendencies to get what they desired would always be there. Eous buzzed nervously behind his human owner, and Wise ordered in a hushed voice so that his kid could hear. “Eous, run as fast as you can to find them. I will buy you some time to protect Lilac.”

The Bangboo’s green circular eyes grew big in shock, his ears standing upright. “Eh-neh?!”

“Unfortunately, I can’t make it out faster than you do. That’s what you get when Belle often complains about me staying in the room too often,” The older Phaethon smiled sheepishly and encouraged him. “I know you can do it, Eous. You’re the Bangboo of the legendary Proxy, Phaethon.”

“… Eh-nah!” Eous acknowledged with a now determined expression. Wise would never stop being proud of his kid possessing the same bravery when he needed to step into Hollow to find his former owner.

Lilac grabbed hold of the older man’s sleeve. “But we can’t fight them and won’t be able to hold them for long, Proxy. What if… What if they take you too?”

The silver-haired man’s gaze softened briefly at her words; for a moment in his eyes, the image of his younger sister appeared from Lilac’s face. It might be his brotherly instinct that was kicking in that he wasn’t afraid. A tiny ghost of a smile flickered across his face. “I’m not going to let them hurt you again. That’s a promise that I will keep for you and Lycaon.”

“And Hugo,” Wise added lastly into his mind as a mantra for both older men to give him strength and courage.

Grabbing hold of the cassette player on the back of his jacket, Wise activated the device—and an extremely sharp piercing screech played through the air, disrupting the Hollow Raiders’ approach for just a second to scream in pain.

“Go!” Wise barked the command, pushing Eous forward with a light shove. The Bangboo didn’t hesitate this time—he bolted through the disoriented line of enemies like a flash of light, weaving between their legs and vanishing toward the exit in a blur of motion.

Codename K snarled and raised his arm to aim. “You little—!”

But he didn’t finish.

Wise was already moving, his body a blur as he closed the gap and slammed his shoulder into the Raider’s midsection, driving the larger man back several steps with the momentum of his sprint. His hand holding Lilac’s pulled her along as they sprinted for the exit.

There was no way two untrained people could make it out this easily. Still, he needed to try how far his legs could carry him. Finding a safe place to hide until help came was all that mattered now. Wise dragged Lilac down a side corridor, his heart pounding wildly, his ears straining for the sound of thundering pursuits.

His body ached from the tackle, but the adrenaline numbed most of it. They ducked into a narrow access emergency fire escape route of the building. The musty scent of ozone and damp wiring clung to the walls, and Wise slammed the rusted door shut behind them.

The older Phaethon braced it with his shoulder, holding his breath. Muffled footsteps stomped past the corridor, Codename K barking orders as the rest of the Raiders thundered down the wrong hallway.

“…You think they’ll find us?” Lilac whispered, pressed against the wall, her face pale beneath her glasses.

“They might. But let’s hope Eous finds Lycaon and Hu—Lighter first.” Wise’s voice was quieter now, breathless but resolute.

The bespectacled schoolgirl looked at him wide-eyed. “You were really going to fight all of them alone back there, weren’t you?”

He didn’t answer directly. Instead, he slid down the wall to sit, exhaling slowly. His hands trembled, whether from fear or exertion, he couldn’t tell. “Not exactly, no. I’d be getting beaten up before I can even land a proper punch.”

 “I’m... I’m sorry I dragged you into this…” Lilac looked down, biting her lip.

Wise’s green eyes widened slightly, and he shook his head softly. “You didn’t. We made a deal to get your research materials on your next doujin, didn’t we? Besides, you gave me something I didn’t realize I needed.”

The young girl tilted her head, confused by his statement. “What’s that?”

“Clarity of my own feelings.”

The silence between them stretched for a moment, heavy with things unspoken. The weight of truths revealed—Hugo, Lycaon, the feelings he’d tried to avoid—now tangled with the very real threat bearing down on them. And yet, in this cramped, dimly lit maintenance tunnel, Wise felt strange stillness.

He didn’t know what would happen when they got out—‘if’ they got out—but one thing was clear: he couldn’t keep living like a ghost, drifting between other people’s choices. Hugo and Lycaon had already begun changing for him. Maybe it was time he chose what he wanted to.

Wise’s phone blinked on the screen, and there was an incoming signal. He tapped it with shaking fingers. It was a message from Eous syncing to his device. “I found them. Those two are on their way! But Hollow’s reacting strangely; the fissures are getting unstable! It’s hard to calculate when the next will be appearing.”

Wise cursed under his breath. That meant they were running out of time to meet the two men. If enough Etheric fissures collapsed at once, they could be sealed in for good.

“Send them my coordinates,” Wise said quickly into the voice message recorder. “I don’t know how far you guys are now, but another fissure is coming in less than 15 minutes. I have synced the coordinates to you, Eous. Please hurry!”

“Eh-nah!”

The message ended there. Wise stood slowly, limbs groaning in protest, and looked back at Lilac. “Help’s coming. But we must move again before they start checking the maintenance routes.”

Lilac nodded firmly. “Then let’s go. I can still run.”

A faint smile tugged at his lips. “That’s the spirit.”

They descended the stairs to the ground level, the only light coming from the eerie corrupted black rocks emitting green lights. Once they reached the first level, the silver-haired Proxy grabbed hold of the door handle and turned to Lilac. “On three, we’ll sprint again back to the entrance. Let’s pray Lycaon and Hugo are there waiting for us.”

Lilac gave a shaky nod, bracing herself. Wise counted down under his breath. “Three… Two… One—!”

He flung the door open with a burst of force. The hallway beyond was darker, lit only by the corrupted Ether rocks lining the path, casting sickly green glows and long, twisted shadows across the floor. For a split second, everything was still.

Then came the sound of footsteps again—close. Too close. “Found them!!”

Wise didn’t hesitate to grab Lilac’s hand again, and they bolted.

The echo of pursuit started up almost immediately behind them. Someone had doubled back. The Hollow Raiders weren’t fools—they’d started checking alternate routes. The sharp bark of Codename K’s voice boomed through the corridor. “I want them alive! Move, move—!”

Wise pulled Lilac into a sharp turn, nearly slipping on the grime-slicked floor, and skidded through a doorway into an auxiliary storage chamber half-submerged in shadow. When he tried to reach for the emergency panel on the wall, the young girl’s hand was forcibly yanked away from him, followed by her cry. “Ouch—Help—!”

“Lilac—Guh!”

A powerful fist met the older Phaethon’s face, sending him flying across the room with the force of the blow. He crashed into a stack of metal crates, the sharp edge of one cutting across his arm. Blood seeped into his sleeve, but he barely noticed the pain, too focused on Lilac’s terrified cry.

“Lilac!” Wise scrambled to his feet, but his vision swam from the hit. His body felt like it was moving through molasses, sluggish and heavy. He stumbled, trying to push through the fog in his head.

Behind him, the Hollow Raider who had struck him stood tall, a menacing grin hidden behind the dark visor of his helmet, and grabbed the silver-haired Proxy up by his neck in a chokehold. “You’re a fool if you think you can outrun us again, ‘little princess.’ You’ve been a thorn in our side long enough.”

Another two minions grabbed Lilac by the arm and yanked her toward them, twisting her wrist painfully. She gasped in pain, her face pale, her glasses slipping down her nose as she fought against his grip. “I-It hurts...! Let go of me...! Proxy!!”

The sound of her struggling only heightened the knot in Wise’s chest. His heart pounded in his ears, but it was hard to focus with the world still spinning. Focus, Wise. You’re not out yet. Don’t freeze. He clenched his fists, pushing back against the overwhelming sense of helplessness.

“Let her go,” He spat, barely above a growl. His body still wasn’t responding correctly, yet a deep anger sparked inside him, giving him the strength to stand up mentally against someone bigger than him.

The Raider laughed, tightening his grip on Lilac’s arm. “What are you going to do? We both know you’re not in a position to make demands, brat.”

Wise’s eyes narrowed, his hands still shaking but more controlled now. He couldn’t afford to back down. Not for Lilac or anyone. Not when it felt like the weight of every decision was pressing down on him. “And you guys called yourself ‘Mockingbird’?! The real Mockingbird I know wouldn’t stoop themselves so low to attack others cowardly!”

“What did you say?!” The Raider holding Wise froze for a fraction of a second. His grip tightened reflexively, but there was hesitation—just a flicker—in how his fingers clenched. Wise didn’t miss it. He drove the words in deeper, a blade hidden in defiance.

“You’re just empty-headed loudmouth wannabes,” Wise hissed through gritted teeth. “Not Mockingbirds. Just cheap thugs hiding behind dead names.”

The Raider snarled, slamming Wise against the crates again hard enough that metal screeched against metal. Pain burst across Wise’s ribs, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.

“Proxy!” Lilac whimpered where she struggled in the Raiders’ grip, her wide eyes locked onto Wise’s battered form. But even through her fear, she realized it too—he wasn’t fighting with fists. He was fighting with faith.

Wise coughed, blood staining his lip, and met the Raider’s helmeted gaze with a burning, unyielding glare. “The Mockingbird may steal from the rich and give to the poor, but they aren’t selfish and cruel like you! They targeted those who are truly rotten to the core to bring the justice they deserved; you guys are taking advantage of an innocent, naive young girl who is trying to find a place in her world. You people are nothing to what Mockingbird stood for!!”

Even if the actions were morally gray to society, the older Phaethon wouldn’t let anyone tarnish the foundation upon which Lycaon and Hugo had built the syndicate. The other Hollow Raider holding Lilac shifted uncomfortably. Even Codename K, storming into the room behind them, barked sharply: “Enough games. We’re taking them back. Now.”

The silver-haired Proxy’s mind raced. He had bought seconds—but they needed more. Where were Lycaon and Hugo? Was it already too late for Eous?

The Ether rocks pulsed erratically around them, the unstable energy vibrating through the floor like the heartbeat of a dying beast. The fissure was close. Wise could feel it behind him.

The silver-haired Proxy sucked in a shallow breath, gathering every last scrap of energy he had left. Just a little more. Hold out a little longer.

Then—

THWACK!

Two legs, one normal in black dress pants and the other combat prosthetic leg extended out from the fissure to give a powerful kick to bulky Hollow Raider, holding Wise onto his back to knock him off balance. Just before Wise expected himself to hit the ground, two arms caught him by his abdomen and pulled him up.

The strength was unmistakable—Lycaon and Hugo were finally here. The familiar warmth and solid grip of their arms steadied Wise as the phantom thief greeted him with a charming smile. “Apologies for the long wait, my dear Wise. I only hope we are not late to rescue our princess.”

“Hu... Hugo....” Wise gasped quietly, still reeling from the impact of the shock from the arrival of his two saviors.

“You’re safe now, Master Wise. Your instruction to Master Eous had been an excellent work to have him guide us here.” Lycaon grabbed Wise’s arm with a firm, comforting grip. “Please leave Miss Lilac to me; as her attendant, I will ensure no harm will be brought to her.”

“Ehn-nah! (Wise!!)” A familiar Bangboo cried out to his silver-haired owner and leaped onto his shoulder to hug him.

Wise winced as he turned to where his child was. “Eous, I’m okay. Really. You’re such a good boy. You’ve done a fantastic job to bring Lycaon and Hugo here.”

While the older Phaethon was now busy trying to comfort his kid, he did not notice Hugo’s and Lycaon’s frosty gaze when they examined his body from head to toe on the injuries he obtained. The phantom thief first let go and turned to the front, swinging his briefcase to transform into a scythe. “Go and save your lady, Lycaon. Those fools and I have some unfinished business you’ve previously interfered with unnecessarily.”

Normally, Lycaon would argue and object to the other man physically if he had to, knowing his temperament to dish out his own punishment with malefactors. Instead, the wolf Thiren simply heaved out a breath emotionlessly.

Lycaon said that the combat prosthetic legs were charged with steam releasing from the sides. “Keep them alive, at the very least. The mayor will use them as evidence to put a tighter leash on the mastermind.”

Hugo nodded in acknowledgment, his lips curling into a sharp smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Don’t take too long. I might get bored and decide to execute my judgment.”

With a flash of movement, he swung his scythe down with a terrifying grace, cleaving the air as if the very essence of the room had parted for him. He wasn’t here to play games or toy with his prey.

Lycaon didn’t wait, his prosthetic limbs whirring to life with a mechanical hum. He turned swiftly, focusing entirely on Lilac and the remaining Raiders in the room. With a growl, he lunged forward, his legs pumping in a blur of motion as he reached the girl’s captors in seconds.

Wise, still dazed, watched as Lycaon effortlessly dispatched the first Raider with a swift blow to the throat. The second met his steel-tipped prosthetic with a sickening crunch, falling unconscious before he even realized the wolf had moved. Lycaon was a force of nature—calm, controlled, and lethal.

Meanwhile, Hugo’s mismatched eyes, alight with excitement, were already moving toward the remaining Raiders, his scythe flickering with deadly precision as it cut through the air. Each strike was a measured stroke, sparing nothing but leaving his foes alive—at least for now. He didn’t need to kill them; he needed them to be a message.

Wise could only watch with Eous as they worked in unison, their synergy as familiar as a dance. Lycaon handled the physical confrontation, and Hugo took the mental toll, his calm demeanor unsettling the few Raiders still standing. They weren’t used to someone like him.

“What the hell is this?!” Codename K exclaimed in horror and disbelief, watching his men getting dispatched easily by the lean and slim blond-haired man.

He thought he could hear one of the Raiders muttered in recognition, “Isn’t that—? No, it can’t be—!”

“Well, what do we have here?” Hugo announced in a sing-song voice. “When I heard rumors about Mockingbird opening up a recruitment of new members... Curious was an understatement to how I felt about it.”

Codename K’s eyes widened as realization struck, his stance faltering momentarily. The air felt heavier now as if the weight of the situation was crushing in from all sides.

“You... N-N-No, you can’t be... You’re the real—!” Codename K snapped, his voice sharp with fear and fury. His hands hovered near his weapon, but it was clear from his hesitation that he didn’t know what to do next.

Hugo, the phantom thief Mockingbird syndicate leader’s smile widened, though it was tinged with something colder. “Correction. ‘You’ are the ‘Mockingbird,’ while I’m your executioner.”

-x-

Sometime later, the NEPS arrived upon Lycaon’s call from the moment they stepped out of the Hollow with Lilac, Codename K, and his men. Though in regards to Codename K and the men who hurt Wise and held him down, their faces were barely recognizable from the horrifying cuts and kicks that Hugo dealt with each of them personally.

The wolf butler answered each officer’s question with the perfect response to complete the testimony on behalf of Wise and Lilac. Once the questioning was over, Lycaon gave a courteous bow to take his leave to return to where they were—

“Welcome back, thank you for the hard work, Lycaon~”

The sight before Lycaon was... Infuriating.

Wise, still pale and bruised, was perched gingerly on Hugo’s lap, his injured arm carefully outstretched to Lilac for her dabbed antiseptic onto the scraped skin with careful but determined hands. Eous chirped occasionally, nuzzling against Wise’s chest as if trying to offer his own form of comfort.

Meanwhile, Hugo had one arm lazily wrapped around Wise’s waist, his entire posture radiating smug satisfaction—as if he were the rightful protector. Lycaon’s fists clenched at his sides, resisting the anger of pulling the silver-haired man to him before his treatment was done.

“You’re back, Lycaon,” Wise noticed his presence, his voice soft but genuinely relieved. Though still clouded with pain and fatigue, his green eyes brightened a little at the wolf’s presence. “How did it go? Did the NEPS say anything?”

The wolf Thiren gave a slight nod and answered. “Yes, Master Wise. Those Hollow Raiders would be taken in for further questioning. And, if there’s any evidence, the NEPS will add this incident into additional crime Hartman has committed.”

As Wise nodded absentmindedly, Hugo merely scoffed indifferently, casually twirling a loose lock of the younger man’s silver hair around his finger. “A pitiful last ditch attempt by the last head of the Ravenlock family to cling onto his power.”

Yet in those words, the silver-haired Proxy noticed no malice in them. Hugo had fully moved on and severed ties to the Ravenlock family despite being a bastard child of the previous head.

One last plaster pasted onto the fingers, Lilac stood up from her seat, moving a few feet away before bowing her body to the three men, her voice trembling in guilt. “I’m really sorry for everything... For dragging you into this. If it weren’t for me, none of this would have happened. You all could have gotten seriously hurt.”

Despite the throbbing ache in his body, Wise got off from Hugo’s lap to approach her and shook his head assuringly. “Lilac, don’t say that. You didn’t drag us into anything. We chose to help you. And we’d do it again.”

His sincere and firm words made Lilac’s eyes well up with unshed tears. Before she could reply, Hugo sighed as he stood to head to where the silver-haired man was. “There you go again, dear manager. Always so selfless, so painfully kind. One day, someone will snatch you away because of it?”

Even when the phantom thief’s voice was teasing, his mismatched eyes, half-lidded with an intensity he couldn’t hide, burned into Wise’s back.

The younger Proxy, flushed from the closeness—and the worry that Lycaon might misinterpret it—awkwardly tried to shift away from Hugo, but the phantom thief’s arm put around his shoulder, holding him there like a smug cat who had caught his prey.

Lycaon’s eye twitched, an uncharacteristic sharpness flashing in his gaze. Nevertheless, he held back with a sign and approached Lilac. “I’m glad you’re safe. That is all that matters, Miss Lilac. However, pardon me for my curiosity; may I know why you have followed us throughout the Hollow?”

“Should I know when we were found out?” Wise gave a sheepish grin at the wolf butler, who was now showing a knowing expression to both him and the schoolgirl.

Lycaon dusted his clothes lightly and answered, “It was right after the first terminal when the room that sealed Hugo and me slid open. The slight wind blew your faint scent towards me. But… It was reckless for the two of you to tail us, so we chose a safer route to avoid Ethereals while accomplishing the task.”

Lilac’s cheeks flushed as she realized she had been caught, underestimating the powerful senses of a beast Thiren. She bit her lip, guilt, and embarrassment coloring her face. “W-Well—we just wanted to, actually….”

-x-

After recounting the story from a few days back, Lilac approached Wise to rope him in to stalk both Lycaon and Hugo, thinking they were in love with each other, so that she could use them as her materials to draw a comic for them.

The older Phaethon also admitted reluctantly he had been the one tampering with the first terminal to trap them under the bespectacled schoolgirl’s request to have the said two men do rather intimate activities as part of her plan to gather more materials.

It only led Lycaon to turn his head away in disbelief and a speechless expression. Hugo’s eyes were shut, and his smile twitched from anger and disgust.

The wolf Thiren pinched the spot between his left eye and the covered right eye, a rare crack in his ever-calm façade and summarized in a dangerously polite tone. “You mean to tell me… You endangered yourselves by tampering with mission-critical equipment and shadowed us through the Hollow... Because you wished to—”

He paused, looking at Lilac, searching for a word that wouldn’t completely shred what little dignity remained, “Document an imagined romantic escapade between... ‘Mr. Lighter’ and myself?”

Lilac nodded meekly, her face burning red. Wise, for his part, couldn’t even meet Lycaon’s gaze, staring intently at the floor like it might open up and swallow him whole.

Hugo finally opened his mismatched eyes, a low groan escaping him as he dragged a hand through his hair in visible exasperation. “Out of all the ridiculous rumors to fester, it had to be that one. And, you, my dearest manager….”

The phantom thief drawled his honeyed venom onto Wise’s skin, “You went along with this absurdity? You, who I trusted to have at least an ounce of common sense?”

“I—I didn’t want her to go alone! She would’ve gotten herself hurt if she tried to follow you two without backup!” Wise flinched and defended hastily, waving his arms a little before wincing at the motion, reopening a bruise. “I just… Got dragged deeper than I expected…”

Hugo pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a long, exhausted sigh. Meanwhile, Lycaon’s eye twitched again—a rare sight for anyone who knew how composed he usually was.

“Deeper you say? Then…”

Hugo grabbed one of Wise’s arms to pull him close; the other tipped his chin upwards so their eyes met. He smirked at the adorable, confused, and slightly fearful expression coloring on the younger man’s face. “Allow me to pull back into the surface of the reality, Wise.”

Then, the phantom thief kissed Wise deeply on the lips. Wise’s eyes widened in shock, his entire body freezing as Hugo’s mouth claimed his. The kiss wasn’t gentle; it was demanding, possessive—an explicit and public declaration of who held Wise’s heart in his grasp, whether the silver-haired man had yet realized it.

For a few heartbeats, Wise forgot how to breathe, forgot where he was. All he knew was the heat of Hugo’s lips, the scent of him—cologne, metal, and something sweeter buried underneath—and the overwhelming feeling of being wanted by the thief so fiercely it terrified him.

By the time Hugo pulled back, it left Wise gasping softly, his cheeks flushed scarlet, and his balance precarious. The phantom thief’s hand lingered on his cheek, thumb brushing teasingly along his jawline.

“There. Now, no one can mistake where your allegiance lies, my dear manager,” Hugo said with a low chuckle, his voice dripping with smug satisfaction. Wise could only stammer incoherently, utterly overwhelmed. He wasn’t sure whether to shove Hugo away, punch him, or—worse—lean in for another kiss.

The area was silent except for the soft hiss of Lycaon’s prosthetic legs shifting subtly.

When Wise finally dared to glance toward the wolf butler, he wished he hadn’t.

Lycaon’s expression was utterly unreadable—too calm, too composed as if he had locked away every raw emotion behind a polite mask.

“I see,” Lycaon said quietly, almost clinically, as he approached where Wise was. “Please allow me to confess the truth of this misunderstanding, Master Wise.”

It was the wolf Thiren. Next, his muzzle opened slightly for his tongue to lick against the older Phaethon’s lips. Wise parted it opened out of surprise, only for the said tongue to enter his mouth and sweep against his own, slow and deliberate, savoring the gasp that tore from Wise’s throat.

Compared to Hugo’s kiss—wild, sharp, demanding—Lycaon’s was devastatingly deep and tender, a caress more than a conquest. His gloved hand gently cradled the back of Wise’s head, preventing him from pulling away even if he wanted to. It was less a claim and more a confession: unspoken but unmistakable.

Wise trembled, utterly lost between the two men, feeling his heart thundering painfully against his ribcage. His hands instinctively clutched at Lycaon’s coat, seeking grounding in the overwhelming storm crashing through him.

When Lycaon finally, reluctantly, drew back, he rested his forehead lightly against Wise’s, his breath warm against the other’s flushed skin. Wise stood there, frozen, torn between the burning imprint of Hugo’s kiss and the lingering, consuming warmth Lycaon left behind.

The tension between the three was so thick it could have been sliced with Hugo’s scythe.

Lilac, silently witnessing the unfolding chaos with progressively widening eyes, finally made a strangled noise and stumbled a few steps back, pressing both hands over her mouth to muffle.

“And there you have it, Miss Lilac,” Hugo answered whatever burning question she had in mind with a gentlemanly, charming smile. “The only person with our hearts wrapped in his little finger would be this lovely gentleman here. If you’ll excuse us, we’re overdue for a private tender moment.”

Not even waiting for a reply or a reaction, Hugo and Lycaon pulled Wise along to walk away, leaving behind Lilac, who blinked at the three men in stunned silence.

Trailing a few short hops behind, Eous gave a delayed flurry of beeps and mechanical stutters. “Neh-nah! Nah-ehn! (Wait! What? Hold up!)”

The older Phaethon whipped his head back to the two men holding both his arms on his left and right and hissed at them. “H-Hey, is this even a good idea to do this before her?!”

“I don’t see why not,” Hugo answered with an easygoing smile, and his mismatched eyes glinted at him. “Unless you prefer a grand performance to reveal for all to see.”

“That’s not the point—!”

“Please be assured that Miss Lilac will not spill the secrets of our relationship to the others,” Lycaon answered coolly. “She believes she’s the one orchestrating a fictional drama, but in truth, we’re simply living one far more intricate.”

“Ehn-eh? (Real? No. Really?)” Eous’s little ears twitched. The Bangboo bounced forward and rotated around, focusing on Wise’s face, scanning the deep red flush on his cheeks. “Ehn-eh, nahhh. (Wise is really embarrassed.)”

The silver-haired man groaned, his entire face now bright red. “This isn’t a drama! This is my life, and I’d really like it if it stopped spiraling into whatever this is!”

“Your life, yes,” Hugo emphasized smoothly, leaning closer to whisper near his ear, “But remember, my dear manager... You invited us into it, and we don’t intend to make our exit.”

Wise tried to squirm away, only to bump right into Lycaon, whose hold was firm but gentle. “Please be still, Master Wise. You’re still injured. Allow us to escort you somewhere quiet so you can rest—unless, of course,”

The wolf Thiren’s voice lowered subtly, and his muzzle pressed into the younger human, “You’d rather be left alone with one of us rather than both?”

“I’d rather be left alone in general!” The silver-haired man snapped and freed himself from the two. However, he instantly regretted the outburst when Hugo and Lycaon exchanged a look—one of those rare, terrifying, silent understandings that only happened when both men shared the same wicked wavelength.

“Understood,” Lycaon declared lightly with a small smile. “We shall both accompany you.”

Wise opened his mouth to protest, but Hugo leaned in on the other side and whispered, “You kissed us back, Wise. Remember that~ And we take it as your answer to our confessions.”

That successfully shut him up. His mouth flapped uselessly as he tried to muster some defense, but nothing came out. Instead, he covered his burning face with both hands and let out a long, pained groan.

Eous tilted his head with a confused beep. “Ehn-na… (Wise?)”

The older Phaethon groaned again, dragging his hands down his face in defeat as both Lycaon and Hugo loomed at either side, smug and graceful, respectively—like two devils from entirely different brands of hell. “Unbelievable.... I must have hit my head somewhere elsewhere….”

Hugo leaned in. “Oh, you most certainly did. Right into the arms of two very patient suitors.”

“And dedicated,” Lycaon added without missing a beat.

Wise shot them both a weak glare. “I don’t remember agreeing to any of this.”

“You didn’t need to,” Hugo said breezily. “You kissed it into the contract. Twice, in fact.”

The wolf butler nodded solemnly. “An unspoken agreement, but binding all the same. As with all sacred pacts of the heart.”

Wise opened his mouth, then closed it again. Then, I opened it again. Then, he covered it with his hands and screamed into them.

“Fine,” The silver-haired man muttered, cheeks scarlet. It wasn’t as if he wanted to argue his own heart to deny his actions. “You both win. Whatever this is, this… Ridiculous triangle-shaped mess of affection; you’re both insane. So I will be the bigger person and just—accept it. Temporarily. Until I pass out and forget this ever happened.”

There was a pause. A breath of stillness. Then—

The blond-haired man beamed. “Well, you heard him, lapdog. He’s ours now.”

Lycaon’s ears flicked, his tail giving a pleased flick behind him. “We shall cherish this honor with utmost seriousness.”

“I was being sarcastic!” Wise yelped.

But it was too late. One thief and one butler each took a side, gently ushering their flustered manager toward the exit with all the reverence of an escort to royalty—and all the smugness of men who had just won the strangest romantic competition known to man.

-x-

“Wise, since you’re taking a day off today, why don’t you take Eous to play in Lumina Square?! You’re also meeting up with Lycaon and Hugo to vet through on those fake Mockingbirds, so give them regards too!” Belle’s last words to him before she shoved her brother out of the store before he started to overwork while injured.

Now sitting at Lumina Square, Wise sighed quietly as he watched Eous already wander off to play with his friends, leaving him alone. He looked at his phone and then put it away to look towards the sky. “There’s still another 30 minutes before they arrive...”

Now that he was more lucid after yesterday’s events, it was still surreal to him that he was going out with both Lycaon and Hugo. Surprisingly, the two didn’t try to kill each other but cooperated in this.

…A miracle, honestly.

Wise exhaled, his breath drifting upward like a cloud of disbelief. He leaned back on the bench, arms folded loosely, fingers twitching with an unspoken restlessness. The noise of Lumina Square swirled around him—chatter, laughter, the faint jingle of vendors in the distance—but his mind was caught entirely elsewhere.

How had it come to this?

One moment, he was dragged into a farce of a romantic conspiracy comic by Lilac, and the next—bam, he was locked in a double-confession showdown with two of the most overwhelming men he’d ever met. And the worst part? He had kissed them back. Maybe not consciously. Maybe not intentionally. But he had.

The older Phaethon buried his face in his hands again. “Gods. I’m the love interest in a reverse harem manga.”

“Manager!” A familiar young girl’s voice called out to him.

Wise turned his head to see Lilac waving at him as she hurried over to his side. “Good morning, manager. What brings you here today?”

“Oh hey, Lilac, good morning,” The silver-haired Proxy gave a small polite smile to greet her. “I’m supposed to meet up with Lycaon and... ‘Lighter’ to discuss yesterday’s testimony to see if the NEPS needs anything else from us.”

Lilac gave a thoughtful look and nodded with a relieved smile. “I see. But how are you feeling now?”

“Much better than before,” Wise answered with a wider grin; he noticed a book holding in the young schoolgirl’s hand. “Speaking of yesterday, how did your work turn out?”

The bespectacled schoolgirl laughed sheepishly and admitted. “I had to redo the whole storyboard to start a new series. I shouldn’t be basing on my delusions to make a story if it negatively affects the involved parties’ reputation.”

The older silver-haired man blinked in mild surprise, then chuckled under his breath. “That’s... incredibly mature of you, actually. Thanks, Lilac. I know it got a bit out of hand—”

Lilac smiled bashfully, hugging the new draft to her chest. “So, thanks to you, I have been enlightened by the power of polyamory shipping from your love triangle relationship to be used for my new story!”

“... What?” Wise said flatly.

She then gave her book to Wise and placed it on his lap. “This is a new sequel of my Lies and Hue stories called ‘Dusk.’ In this series, Aki is a store clerk who gets tangled up in serial murder cases in which Lie and Hue face each other. Lie fell in love with Aki’s tender personality, which empathizes with his past. While Hue worships the ground, Aki walks in the light because his pure heart treats him like himself rather than someone he was labeled as.”

The older man stared down at the book in his lap like it might burst into flames.

“... You’re kidding,” he said slowly, eyes darting across the handwritten cover and the little chibi drawings of three figures—one suspiciously resembling him and two others looking a lot like Lycaon and Hugo in overly dramatized versions of their outfits.

“I’m not!” Lilac beamed with pride, her cheeks flushing with enthusiasm. “You inspired me, manager. I realized—what’s more romantic than choosing between two soulmates? Choosing both of them!”

She clasped her hands and twirled on the spot once with a dreamy sigh. “Letting both love you... And you love them back in different ways—that’s so beautiful, don’t you think?”

“... That sounds like a hellish nightmare.” Wise’s right eye twitched as it blinked. “Do you really want your protagonist juggling two unpredictable men while avoiding getting murdered?”

“Exactly!” Lilac sparkled. “It’s tragic, intimate, messy! Realistic love isn’t pure; it’s layered with complication in its beauty! But don’t worry—there are still many fluffy moments between the emotional breakdowns. Oh, oh! This time, I made sure no one died in the first chapter. Let me know your review of the draft before I share it with Vivian next week!”

Once the girl waved her hand off and walked away, the older Phaethon turned towards the book, breathing in a mantra, as he opened one of the pages to read the first scene he saw:

Aki took a step back, pressing a hand to his fluttering heart as Lie’s bloodied glove hovered inches from his cheek.

“Why do you look at me like that?” He asked, voice barely above a breath.

Lie’s gaze lingered, steady and unreadable, as he leaned close to press his head onto the younger man’s tenderly.

 “Because,” He replied with composed gentleness, “you regard me not as a weapon, but as a man still capable of kindness… and I find myself wishing to become him, if only in your eyes.”

Wise froze, staring at the page like it had physically slapped him. His hand moved to close the book, but instead, it opened to another page:

Aki jolted as Hue grabbed his wrist—not rough, but firm enough to halt him. The thief’s mismatched eyes gleamed beneath the moonlight, wild and burning.

“Why do you keep running from me?” Hue’s voice was low, fraying at the edges. “You say I scare you, but I never once lied about my feelings.”

Aki’s breath caught. “It’s not that I’m scared of you. I’m scared of what you’ll do to protect me.”

Hue laughed, soft and bitter, like a secret he hated himself for keeping. “That’s what love is, isn’t it? Doing the wrong thing for the right person.”

He stepped closer, his thumb brushing over the scar on Aki’s palm. “You didn’t flinch when you saw what I was. You touched me like I was human. And now that I’ve had that light... I can’t return to the dark without taking you to my side.”

“Oh? Not too shabby from a flight of fancy imagination she has,” A smooth, flamboyant voice spoke in Wise’s right ear as they read the book’s contents opened in Wise’s hands.

“Miss Lilac’s father is proud of his daughter’s talents. I have been informed that once she graduates, she will be enrolled in a specialized arts school to further hone her skills.” Another familiar, polite, rough voice in Wise’s ears hummed thoughtfully with a pleased noise at the content made by one of his charges.

Wise nearly jumped out of his seat, turning to see that Hugo and Lycaon had arrived at some point to sit on the bench with him. His heart thundered as he hugged the book to his chest like a shield. “You two! How long have you been sitting there?!”

“Long enough to appreciate the melodrama excerpt,” Hugo replied with a smirk, twirling a strand of his hair between his fingers. “Although I must say, I’m a bit flattered. ‘Hue’ sounds delightfully intense.”

Lycaon gave a polite nod beside him, eyes cool but amused. “It is impressive how accurately Miss Lilac captured the essence of our personalities through thinly veiled allegory. I can only assume ‘Lie’ is meant to be me.”

The older Phaethon groaned loudly as if the weight of the world—or at least two romantic disasters—had decided to sit directly on his shoulders. “Can we not analyze fanfiction of our love triangle written by a teenager?”

“But she did capture your inner turmoil quite vividly,” Hugo drawled, picking up the book to flip through the pages again. “‘You didn’t flinch when you saw what I was.’ That’s good writing, don’t you think?”

“I flinched the entire time!” Wise snapped, trying to snatch the book back from him.

Lycaon tilted his head, taking the book from the thief to read over the page. “The prose is emotional and textured. I believe Miss Lilac’s portrayal of devotion is genuine. Fictional, yes, but rooted in real affection.”

“That’s not helping,” The older Phaethon mumbled as he covered his face again. “I’ve become an inspiration. For romance drama. Starring me--Gods help me, Vivian will read this. And she’ll quote it.”

“She’ll probably make merchandise,” Hugo added helpfully with a delightful smile. “A set of small dolls consisting of ‘Lie, Hue, and Aki,’ perhaps with magnetic hands so you can pose them hugging. Or fighting over Aki.”

Lycaon gave a slow, thoughtful nod. “Miss Lilac has mentioned launching a new sideline story of this new series. This might be a profitable venture if her story performs well.”

“Just kill me,” Wise muttered into his hands. “Leave nothing of me behind.”

Hugo chuckled lowly, tilting his head as he leaned in. “If it helps, my dear Wise, you make a charming protagonist.”

Lycaon followed, brushing a hand briefly over Wise’s back in reassurance. “And a courageous one. I imagine it’s no simple task balancing two suitors with radically opposing philosophies—and personalities.”

Wise looked at them both, eyes narrowed. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“That would be correct,” They both said in eerie unison. The older Phaethon groaned again and slumped in defeat against the bench.

“But you know...,” Hugo purred sweetly into the younger man’s ears. “Instead of mulling over how those fictional characters are wooing their protagonists so much. Don’t you think there should be something else you should be focusing on?”

Wise turned his head warily. “Like what?”

Lycaon answered smoothly, standing and brushing off his coat with gentlemanly precision. “We have a reservation in fifteen minutes. At your favorite café, no less. I have also requested to be allowed to use their kitchen to brew the tea you love, Master Wise.”

“Wait, what?” The Proxy blinked his eyes, more confused than ever.

Hugo rose with a flourish, offering a dramatic bow and extending one hand toward him. “Come now, dear Wise. You didn’t think we’d confess our love and not take you on a proper first date, right?”

The wolf butler offered his other hand, more subtle but no less sincere than ever. “It would be discourteous to delay the start of something we’ve agreed upon. You deserve to be courted with the intention of a lifetime, intimate personal relationship to care and cherish who you are.”

Wise stared at both hands—one gloved and outstretched with smugness, the other firm and grounded, a silent promise of support. He could already feel the headache forming somewhere between his temples and his heart.

“…You two are impossible,” The older Phaethon muttered, cheeks faintly red as he took both their hands.

“There is nothing impossible for the Mockingbird to claim the treasure they wanted.” Hugo teased with a wink, pulling him up gently.

“And you chose us,” Lycaon added quietly but undeniably warmly.

Wise didn’t say anything at first. He looked down at their joined hands—the three of them tangled in something strange, uncertain, and undeniably real. His heart beat a little louder.

“…Yeah,” The silver-haired admitted with a slight warm smile. “I guess I did.”

They walked off together—Wise in the middle, hands in theirs, trying not to trip over his tangled feelings.

If this was the beginning of their story, he’d just have to survive the rest of the volume—one ridiculous, heartfelt chapter at a time.

And maybe, just maybe... He was looking forward to it.