Chapter 62: 62. Lunch and Shadows

Celestia’s Garden occupied the top three floors of the Zenith Tower in District Seven, a feat of architectural engineering that allowed diners to enjoy their meals while suspended 200 meters above Nexus Prime’s glittering streets.

Yuki stood in the lobby, acutely aware that her recently-purchased outfit—a simple but elegant dress that had cost more than her previous month’s rent—still somehow marked her as out of place among District Seven’s usual clientele.

“Yuki! Over here!”

Odessa waved enthusiastically from a table near the floor-to-ceiling windows, her silver hair catching the afternoon light like spun metal. She had dressed down by her standards, just a tasteful blue dress and minimal jewelry, but still managed to look like she belonged in a fashion magazine.

“You made it!” Odessa beamed, gesturing to the chair across from her. “And you look amazing! Is that new? It must be new. The cut is very flattering. Did you go to that boutique I mentioned in my text? No wait, I didn’t mention a boutique, I should have mentioned a boutique—”

“Odessa,” Yuki interrupted gently, smiling despite herself. “Breathe.”

Odessa laughed, the sound genuine and unself-conscious. “Right. Sorry. I get excited. Alfred says I need to work on my ’indoor voice’ and ’appropriate conversation pacing.’ But where’s the fun in that?”

A waiter then appeared, presenting menus bound in what looked like actual leather. Yuki opened hers and immediately understood why Odessa had insisted on paying—the appetizers started at prices that would have fed Yuki for a week in her pre-dragon life.

“Get whatever you want,” Odessa said, waving dismissively at the menu. “The truffle risotto is amazing, and they do this thing with seared tuna that’s basically art on a plate. Oh, and the desserts, you have to save room for dessert. The chocolate soufflé is life-changing.”

Odessa odered with the ease of someone who had eaten here dozens of times, while yuki ordered with the careful deliberation of someone still adjusting to having money.

The waiter departed, and they settled into the comfortable rhythm of two people who’d survived something intense together and were now trying to remember how normal social interaction worked.

“So,” Odessa said, leaning forward with her chin propped on her hands. “Tell me everything. What’s it like having a dragon who can turn into a gorgeous man? Because I have so many questions, most of which are probably inappropriate, but I’m going to ask anyway!”

Yuki felt heat rise to her cheeks. “It’s… complicated. Owen is—” She paused, searching for words that wouldn’t reveal too much. “He’s his own person. Dragon. Whatever. The transformation is just another form, like how some beast-folk can shift between human and animal aspects.”

“Uh-huh.” Odessa’s violet eyes sparkled with mischief. “And you’re living together in that tiny apartment you mentioned. Very platonically, I’m sure.”

“Odessa!”

“What? I’m just saying, if I had a dragon who looked like that living in my apartment, platonic would not be the adjective I’d use.” She grinned. “But okay, I’ll stop teasing. For now. Tell me about what happened in the Shadowgrave”

Yuki relaxed slightly, grateful for the change of subject. She gave Odessa an edited version of events, the cultists, the hollow men, the First Seat’s transformation and self-detonation. She left out Dominus, the Dragon King’s egg, and anything that touched on the revelations about Owen ’s true nature.

Some secrets were too dangerous to share, even with friends.

Their food arrived in courses, each dish a small work of art that tasted even better than it looked. They ate and talked, the conversation flowing easily between dungeon stories, hunter gossip, and the mundane details of post-dungeon life.

“You know what’s weird?” Odessa said, setting down her fork after finishing her risotto. “Coming back to normal life after something like that. I mean, we fought cultists trying to summon some nonsense from a fantasy flick about gods. We watched people die. We nearly died ourselves. And then we just… go back to regular life? Have lunch at expensive restaurants? It feels surreal—This hunter life of ours.”

“It does,” Yuki agreed quietly. “Like there should be some kind of transition. Some way to process it all before jumping back into normalcy.”

Odessa was quiet for a moment, her usual playfulness dimming. “My parents died when I was twelve.”

The shift in tone was so abrupt that Yuki almost didn’t process the words. Then their meaning hit, and she looked up to find Odessa staring out the window at the city below.

“I’m sorry,” Yuki said, the words feeling inadequate but necessary. “I didn’t know.”

“Not many people care to ask how. The Wayne family is good at keeping private things private.” Odessa’s smile was sad and distant. “It was an F-rank thug. Can you believe that? My parents might now have been awakened hunters, but they were successful, wealthy and connected. And yet they were killed by an F-rank nobody who wanted their jewelry.”

She turned her gaze back to Yuki, and there was something raw in her violet eyes.

“We were leaving the opera. I was wearing this ridiculous pink dress that I had begged my mother to buy me. My father was telling a joke about the tenor’s vibrato. And then this guy just… appeared. Demanded their valuables. My father tried to de-escalate, offered his wallet, his watch, everything. But the guy was high on something, paranoid, twitchy.”

Odessa’s hands had the clenched into fists on the table, her knuckles white.

“He had a gun. Not even a magical weapon—just a regular gun he had probably stolen. Shot my father first. Then my mother when she tried to help him. I just stood there, frozen, watching them bleed out on the sidewalk while this F-rank piece of trash ran away with my mother’s pearl necklace.”

“Odessa…” Yuki reached across the table, covering one of Odessa’s fists with her hand.

“The irony is that they caught him three days later. The necklace had a tracking charm my father had apparently installed because he wanted to keep track of mom’s whereabouts for safety reasons. The fool tried to pawn it, got arrested, confessed everything.” Odessa’s laugh was bitter. “Fifteen years in prison for killing two people. Out in eight with good behavior, probably.”

She took a shaky breath, visibly pulling herself together. “Sorry. That got dark. I don’t usually—it’s just, when you asked about transitioning back to normal life after traumatic events, I was thinking about how I never really transitioned back. I just kept moving forward because stopping meant feeling it all, and I wasn’t ready for that.”

“Is that why you chose to continue as a hunter after you awakened?” Yuki asked gently.

“Partially. Also because I inherited one of my father’s prized poessions the azure Sky-Dragon egg. No point in having that and not becoming a tamer” Odessa managed a more genuine smile. “But yeah, there’s definitely a component of ’if I’m strong enough, fast enough, skilled enough, maybe I can prevent what happened to my parents from happening to others.’ Classic hero complex, right?”

“Not complex,” Yuki said firmly. “Just… human. there’s nothing wrong with that.”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment as the weight of shared understanding passed between them. Two women who had both lost people, who had both chosen to keep fighting despite the pain.

“Okay, enough heavy stuff,” Odessa declared, straightening in her chair with. “Let’s talk about something fun. Like how we’re totally going to team up for the next Dungeons from now on, Because I’ve decided we work well together, and also I want to hang out with your hot dragon more, and also—”

“There’s the Odessa I know,” Yuki teased, grateful for the return to levity.

They finished their meal with lighter conversation, splitting a chocolate soufflé that was indeed life-changing, and slowly making their way toward the exit as the afternoon stretched toward evening.

Outside Celestia’s Garden, the District Seven streets gleamed with the polish of excessive wealth. Luxury vehicles glided past, their engines whisper-quiet. Well-dressed pedestrians strolled between high-end boutiques. The contrast with Yuki’s usual neighborhood was stark enough to feel like a different city entirely.

“We should do this again,” Odessa said, pulling Yuki into an unexpected hug. “Like, regularly. I don’t have many friends who actually get me. Most people in my social circle are just—”

Then a car pulled up to the curb with an aggressive speed, it’s tires squealing slightly as it stopped.

The vehicle was expensive but not ostentatious—a black sedan with tinted windows.

The rear door opened, and Vonn stepped out.

Yuki felt her body tense instinctively, old patterns of fear and submission trying to reassert themselves.

But the fear didn’t come.

She waited for it, that familiar cold dread, the shrinking feeling, the urge to apologize for existing. But all she felt was… annoyance.

Like running into an unpleasant acquaintance rather than facing down a source of trauma.

Vonn looked different than she remembered. Or maybe she was just seeing him clearly for the first time. He was objectively handsome—B-rank hunters usually were, their bodies optimized by the system’s enhancements. But there was something weak in his eyes, something petty and small that all his muscles and good looks couldn’t hide.

“Yuki,” he said, his tone attempting to be casual but landing somewhere between forced and threatening. “Fancy meeting you here. District Seven. Must be nice, having money to burn after that story dungeon clear.”

“Vonn.” Yuki’s voice was flat, unimpressed. “What do you want?”

He blinked, clearly thrown by her lack of reaction. The old Yuki would have stammered, apologized, tried to de-escalate. This Yuki just stared at him with the same expression she would use for a mildly annoying insect.

“I wanted to talk,” Vonn said, recovering slightly. “About better opportunitie for you. The Dark Reapers are always looking for talented hunters, and now that you’ve proven yourself in a Story Dungeon—”

“Not interested.”

“—and of course, there’s the matter of your dragon,” Vonn continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “That’s quite an asset you’ve acquired. The guild would be very interested in—”

“No.”

Vonn’s jaw clenched as anger flashed across his features. “You’re not thinking clearly, Yuki. The Dark Reapers can offer you protection, resources, connections. All we’d need in exchange is—”

“Owen is not for sale, trade, or negotiation,” Yuki interrupted, her voice hardening. “And I don’t need protection from people like you.”

Behind Vonn, still in the driver’s seat of the sedan, Rogers Trump watched the exchange.

“People like me?” Vonn’s anger was rising now, the mask of civility slipping. “I’m offering you a lifeline here! Do you have any idea how dangerous the hunter world is for someone at your level? You got lucky in one dungeon, but that luck won’t last. You need—”

“I don’t need anything from you,” Yuki said coldly. “I didn’t need you when we were married, despite what you spent years trying to convince me. And I definitely don’t need you now.”

Vonn’s hand moved instinctively, and his sword materialized from his inventory, a B-grade blade with fire enchantments running along its length. He didn’t point it at Yuki exactly, just held it in a way that made the threat implicit.

“Maybe you’re not understanding me clearly,” he said, his voice dropping to something dangerous. “The Dark Reapers aren’t asking. We’re telling. You’re going to—”

At this moment, two things happened simultaneously.

Yuki’s hand moved to her waist, and Veridra’s katana appeared in her grip, pulled from her inventory.

And behind Yuki, Odessa’s hands moved in the complex gestures of a summoning, and her Azure Sky-Dragon materialized in the air above them, its crystalline scales catching the late afternoon light as it coiled protectively around both women.

Vonn’s eyes went wide. He took an involuntary step backward, his sword suddenly looking inadequate compared to the azure sky-dragon.

“I think,” Odessa said pleasantly, her usual cheerfulness taking on a sharp edge, “that you should get back in your car and leave. Before my Azure Sky-Dragon decides that you look like a chew toy.”

The Azure Sky Dragon growled, a sound so grinding that it made several nearby pedestrians stop and stare.

Vonn looked at Yuki, at Odessa, at the dragon, at his own sword. The calculation was obvious, he was strong, but not strong enough to take on both of them plus a dragon in the middle of District Seven with witnesses everywhere.

“This isn’t over,” he said, trying to salvage some dignity as he backed toward the car.

“Yeah, it is,” Yuki replied. “And if you come near me again, I won’t be this polite.”

Vonn climbed back into the sedan, slamming the door with unnecessary force.

Rogers Trump, still in the driver’s seat, caught Yuki’s eye through the window. His expression was readable, the gaze of a Predator.

“The little bunny,” Rogers said to Vonn, his voice carrying through the partially open window, “has grown into a tigress. I guess we’ll go with the usual approach.”

Then the sedan pulled away from the curb and disappeared into traffic.

Yuki stood trembling slightly, not from fear, but from adrenaline. She had just faced down her ex-husband without flinching. Had threatened him and made him back down.

“Holy shit,” Odessa breathed, dismissing her dragon. “That was amazing. You were amazing. Who was that asshole?”

“My ex-husband,” Yuki said, sheathing Veridra’s katana. “And a problem I thought I had left behind.”

“Well, he’s definitely going to come back with something worse,” Odessa observed. “Guys like that always do. They can’t handle being embarrassed.”

“I know.” Yuki looked in the direction the sedan had gone, her expression hardening. “Let him try. I’m not the person I was when he knew me.”

Inside the departing sedan, Rogers Trump drove in silence while Vonn fumed in the passenger seat.

Rogers finally said. “That Wayne girl complicates things, can’t touch Yuki without risking the Wayne family’s retaliation.”

“So what do you suggest?” Vonn spat.

Rogers smiled with an expression that was cold and calculating. “Well, nobody will know if we do it quietly, and take what Eckstein wants without ever giving her a chance to fight back.”

Then Rogers turned onto the highway, already formulating plans that would make the ’quiet’ approach seem even more brutal than a direct confrontation.

“We’ll get that dragon,” he said with certainty. “One way or the other.”

Behind them, unaware of the plotting, Yuki and Odessa continued their hangout While the shadow of what was coming had already begun to be cast over them.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep