Chapter 176: 176. Lily Walked on My Back While I Planned to Ruin Theo’s Entire Family.

Rex thought about this. He thought about Aurelia as a variable in the landscape of the next few weeks and placed her on the map accordingly: known but unconfirmed, potential threat, Nightwing household, connected to Theo.

“And what about you?” Rex asked. “Where do you fit into this?”

Iris was quiet for a second longer than usual, and then she made a sound that was not quite a laugh but was close.

She said, “I think arranged marriages are institutional violence dressed up as family tradition.”

“I think Theo will get through this and be better for it, even if it takes longer than I’d like.”

She pushed away from the wall. “I also think you are a lot more complicated than you seem, Rex Rexilion, and that the problems are going to affect many people in this city before they get better.”

She looked at him with that special kind of focus for one more second, and then she nodded once, like someone who had just finished a deal.

“Don’t be careless,” she told Rex.

The weight behind it wasn’t a warning meant to intimidate; rather, it resembled the advice of someone who had witnessed the consequences of carelessness.

She exited the alley in the same direction she had come, and the air behind her remained still and silent, betraying no signs of her departure. One moment she was there, and the next she was gone, leaving the space feeling altered in her absence.

For a moment, Rex and Lily stood in the alley.

“That happens sometimes,” Lily said, in the tone of someone who had grown up knowing Iris and had reached a certain peace with the knife appearances.

“I noticed,” Rex said.

…

Rex’s room at the Silver Rest was quiet when they arrived, and Lily had come with him without asking and without being invited, which was something she did when she was in the state she was currently in, which was the state of someone who needed proximity more than they needed solitude.

He didn’t mind it at all.

He sat on the bed and let her stay in the room. After a moment, she sat next to him, appearing as someone who had decided that sitting beside him was necessary and was doing so without complicating the situation.

“You’re going tomorrow for how long?” she asked.

“Only for three days,” he said.

She was quiet. Then she said, “Come back safe for me, okay?”

There was nothing dramatic about it. Because it was so simple, it had a lot of weight.

“Of course.” Rex said, “I will.”

She leaned against his shoulder differently than usual, lacking the warmth of maximum desire, instead bearing the simple weight of someone tired and present. Rex let her be there because removing the presence would have been a particular kind of unkindness that served nothing.

After a while she said quietly, “Would you like me to do something for you?”

Rex looked at the ceiling. “Like what?”

“Mara showed me this thing she does.” Lily said, “For when someone is carrying too much and walking on their back.”

Rex stared at her. “Walking on my back…? Like a massage?”

“Mm-hmm. It’s supposed to take all the stress out of your spine,” she said, sounding very serious about things that she thought were useful. “She does it for her husband when the inn has been a long day.”

Rex thought about the picture. “You are going to step on my back.”

“Only if you want it,” she said, with the poise of someone giving something useful and ready for any answer. “I won’t force you.”

He lay down on his stomach. “Go ahead. I’ll take that offer because I need it right now while processing what just happened to Theo.

Lily nodded, and then she started to step on his back gently. “I-I’m not heavy, am I?”

“Well, you are. But not the fat kind of heavy.”

“G-Good… I’m going to move gently.”

Rex already felt that Lily was not very heavy on his back. She was careful and deliberate about where she put her feet, moving slowly along his spine with the focus she gave to things she wanted to do right.

Rex lay with his face turned to the side and thought about Theo. ’That guy… it seems like he’s kind of a loser too if his sweetheart got taken away just because of a confession.’

’I bet he would crash out if he knew that I already fucked her.’

He thought about what Iris had said: that Diana had told him, that Theo had gone to Helena, and that Morwenna would hear about it within forty-eight hours.

He thought about the look on Theo’s face in the market, which had been the look of someone who had understood something and had decided what it meant for his future.

Theo was a reincarnator. He had a system, a class, a set of capabilities that he had been developing with the focused intent of someone who knew they were in a world with rules different from the one they had come from.

He had, until approximately this morning, been operating with the assumption that Diana Von Starlight was a fixed point in his future, the kind of given that most reincarnators in his position built their early game strategy around.

Rex had taken away that fixed point. Rex didn’t have a specific plan; he pursued Diana in the same manner as he did everything else, but the outcome unfolded more quickly than he anticipated, as Diana was a person, not a fixed point, and individuals possess their own inherent momentum.

Theo was now running a different version of his future, but he hadn’t had time to build it yet, leaving him feeling uncertain about how to navigate the changes that were unfolding around him.

Rex thought this was an amazing chance, as someone who had just gotten very useful information from an unexpected source would.

He thought about “The Nightwing household” while Lily carefully moved along the lower part of his back.

“Iris, Aurelia, Elaris, and Morwenna are the women in that family, regardless of any others nearby.”

’The people Theo would rely on. The people he loves.’

’The people’s loss would cost him exactly what he currently believes I’ve taken from him.’

The calculation wasn’t done out of spite. Rex always assessed resources the same way: he would look at the landscape, see what was available, and figure out the best way to use it.

Lily got off his back and sat down next to him with her legs crossed. “Do you feel any better?”

Rex rolled over and looked up at the ceiling. The tension in his spine had moved to a more manageable place.

“Yeah, it’s better, alright,” he said. “You’re good at it, Lily.”

She smiled, but not the big smile. It was the smile of someone who had found a small way to help when they weren’t sure of their place.

Rex looked at her and thought about what Lustia had said about partners who were in genuine alignment and about the specific quality of Lily’s loyalty, which was neither blind nor manufactured but was simply what it was, which was hers.

“It’s time to hit the hay,” he said.

“I know,” she said, but she didn’t leave.

And, of course, he didn’t tell her to leave.

Both ended up sleeping together in the same bed while cuddling.

…

The morning of the assessment came with the particular quality of significant mornings, which was that it did not feel different from any other morning until the moment you remembered what day it was.

Rex was up at four-thirty, dressed and ready before five, and downstairs eating a breakfast that Mara had started early because she had learned his patterns and had calibrated her schedule accordingly.

The field pack he had assembled the previous evening was compact and heavy in the specific way of things that contained more capability per kilogram than they appeared to, because Rex packed the way he did everything else, which was with a clear operational picture and without anything extraneous.

At half past five, the groups met at the Academy’s east gate. This was the time set by Elizabeth, and approximately two-thirds of the class viewed it as a suggestion, while one-third considered it a strict requirement.

Rex was in the third group.

Two minutes after him, Talyra showed up with the energy of someone who had slept well and was in the good mood that comes from facing hard days with a healthy attitude.

Her pack was big and well-organized, and there were two extra fletching pouches tied to the outside in a way that was a little over the top but still useful.

“Good morning, Rexxy~!” Talyra waved at him.

“Damn, you pack out a lot!” Rex was surprised.

“Hehehe~! I’m just too excited and ready for this assessment! And it’s probably going to be more enjoyable than anything that this academy’s assessment has to offer!”

Aisella arrived exactly on time, carrying a pack that suggested she had carefully considered the usefulness of each item in relation to its weight. She looked at Rex, did her usual passive diagnostic, and seemed pleased with what she found.

“Morning, you two. I can already tell that both of you are ready for this by a lot, huh?” Aisella smiled.

“Yep.” Both of them agreed.

At five fifty-five, Elizabeth gave the last briefing.

“You’ve reviewed the island profiles,” Elizabeth stated, swiftly scanning the assembled groups with the urgency of someone who had already completed the task and was eager to move on. “You know what you need to do to pass.”

“You have your transit vessels and field kits.”

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