I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

Gu Yan squatted under the eaves and continued petting the cat, appearing focused and serene on the surface.

But a thin layer of sweat had already formed on his back, because Yuzuru had also begun to look at him with that subtle gaze.

About half an hour later, all the markings on the deployment map were checked.

Lin Jinyu put the electronic pen on the table and looked up at Yuzuru.

"The business is over."

Let's have a meal together.

After a pause, her gaze finally fell on Gu Yan without any attempt to conceal it, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, carrying a meaningful look that only she knew.

"If Lady Chiyomiya doesn't mind, please bring this deputy along as well."

"I was really grateful for his help on the defensive line last time, and I didn't even have a chance to thank him in person."

Sunlight filtered through the maple leaves and fell onto the stone table, dappled light and shadow dancing gently on Yuzuru's eyelashes.

She looked at Lin Jinyu, and Lin Jinyu looked at her too.

The eyes of the two S-class superhumans met in mid-air. There were no sparks, no hostility, only an extremely subtle understanding, as if they were saying, "I know you know" and "You know I know too."

"Of course I don't mind."

Yuzuru stood up, hung his pheasant sword at his waist, and the dark red runes on the scabbard gleamed in the sunlight.

"I know a really good shop, right in the old town of Kyoto."

"Mr. Gu, let's go together."

The restaurant is located in a quiet alley in Kyoto's old town.

Yuzuru had booked a private room in advance. When he opened the wooden window, he could see the old maple tree in the courtyard, where the sunlight had dyed the maple leaves a translucent golden-red.

On the table is the most authentic kaiseki cuisine of Kyoto, with exquisite sashimi and pickles served in small ceramic dishes, and a pot of warm sake beside it.

Yuzuru sat by the window, with Gu Yan next to her and Lin Jinyu opposite them.

Each of the three people had dishes in front of them, but no one touched their chopsticks first.

Lin Jinyu was the first to break the silence.

She picked up the sake pot, leaned over, and poured Yuzuru a cup, her movements as natural as if she were entertaining a guest at home.

"Lady Chiyomiya, thank you for taking care of my old friend these past few days."

"His health wasn't very good before, which caused you a lot of trouble."

Yuzuru accepted the wine glass with both hands, bowed slightly in thanks, his posture elegant and composed, but his fingertips paused briefly on the rim of the glass.

"You're too kind, Senior Sister Lin."

"Mr. Gu has helped me a lot, so it's not a trouble at all."

She addressed Gu Yan as "Mr. Gu," not "my deputy."

Lin Jinyu put down the wine pot, picked up her chopsticks, and placed a piece of grilled eel on the plate in front of Gu Yan.

"Eat more, you're too thin."

"Is the food in Japan not to your liking? I remember you used to love braised pork from Japan."

Yuzuru also picked up the serving chopsticks and placed a piece of tuna belly into Gu Yan's other dish.

"Mr. Gu said last time that this sashimi was very fresh and that it's the restaurant's signature dish."

Gu Yan looked down at the two plates in front of her, with a piece of grilled eel and a piece of tuna belly placed side by side.

He grabbed a piece with each hand and stuffed it into his mouth at the same time, puffing out his cheeks as he tried to maintain a smile.

Lin Jinyu's lips curled slightly as she watched him chew.

Then she turned her gaze to Yuzuru.

"Lady Chiyomiya, I've heard that your Chiyomiya family has a spiritual spring that's very helpful for restoring mental strength."

"Has he been soaking in the bath a lot these past few days?"

Yuzuru put down his chopsticks and gently circled his fingertips around the rim of the teacup.

"I go every day."

Lin Jinyu nodded, picked up her teacup, and took a sip.

"No wonder he recovered so quickly."

"Back in the Great Xia Dynasty, he was the one who helped me regulate my powers whenever they went berserk."

"He used that Mirror Flower Imperial Seal with exceptional gentleness, as if someone were gently touching his head."

She paused, her gaze passing over the rim of the cup and landing on Yuzuru's face.

"You've probably experienced it too."

Yuzuru's eyelashes drooped slightly.

She had certainly experienced it; in the spiritual spring, in the secret realm, in her room, every time she was touched, she could feel that gentle and precise spiritual energy flowing into the depths of her meridians.

But that's between her and Gu Yan.

She put down her teacup and looked up again.

"Mr. Gu's mental strength is indeed very special."

"That day on the front line, he controlled several S-class calamities by himself using the Mirror Flower Seal. I was standing behind him and could see it very clearly."

Gu Yan was picking up her teacup to take a sip of water to calm her nerves when she heard those words and almost choked.

Yuzuru Hanyu never mentions what happened on the front line that day in public. Her mentioning it now is clearly a response to Lin Chin-yu's earlier comment, "You should have experienced it too."

Lin Jinyu put down her chopsticks and leaned back in her chair.

The golden pupils lingered on Yuzuru's face for a moment, then the corners of his mouth curved slightly.

"Lady Chiyomiya, I'm a little tired."

"Does the Chiyomiya family have any spare rooms? I'd like to stay the night."

Yuzuru picked up his teacup and took a sip.

"Senior Sister Lin is a distinguished guest, I should book you the best suite at the hotel next door."

Lin Jinyu tilted her head, her long golden hair slipping down her shoulder.

"No need to spend money."

"I'll sleep in the living room."

Yuzuru put down his teacup.

"The Chiyo-miya family's living room has no door, so there's a draft at night."

Lin Jinyu said she is a fire-type ability user and is not afraid of the cold.

Yuzuru said that as the chief priestess, she couldn't let guests sleep in the living room.

Lin Jinyu said she wasn't a guest, but rather a senior colleague.

Yuzuru said that his senior sister was also a guest.

Two S-class superhumans stared at each other across a kaiseki table, the air thick with a subtle tension in the stillness.

Suddenly, a sharp alarm sounded outside the window.

It wasn't coming from the loudspeakers on the restaurant wall; it was from all the public address systems on the street, the entire city, blasting at once.

The hanging television screen in the corner of the restaurant lit up automatically, showing not an aerial view, but a snowfield completely shrouded in dark red lightning.

The rift wasn't in Kyoto, nor in the land of cherry blossoms, but further north.

The third line of defense of the Russian Federation.

"This is Russian Federation state television."

The female anchor's voice was hoarse and restrained, and she spoke very quickly. The background sounds were continuous explosions and a low-frequency rumble, as if the earth itself was screaming.

"The northern section of the third line of defense has been breached."

"To reiterate, the northern defensive line was breached after holding out for a full seventy-two hours."

"Black Tide deployed at least two hundred S-class Calamities in this offensive, including three new giant units that had never been recorded before, codenamed Titan."

"A Titan-class object is over 100 meters tall, and its outer shell can absorb all known energy attacks."

"The runic shells from the heavy artillery barrage didn't even leave a crack on them."

"To prevent the fourth line of defense from being breached directly, the Moscow Supreme Command has ordered the use of tactical nuclear weapons."

The giant calamity codenamed "Titan" appeared in the scene.

It slowly emerged from the crack, each step leaving a footprint several meters deep.

The moment the foot landed, soldiers and light armored vehicles within a radius of hundreds of meters were thrown into the air, and when they fell back down, they were no longer intact.

Its outer shell is a dark substance somewhere between a biological carapace and metal, absorbing all the light around it, making the entire battlefield darker than night.