Lilianna’s smile didn’t waver. A rude little secretary was not going to make her flinch.

"Oh, just for the record, I wasn’t suggesting anything intense!"

She let a laugh carry the words, airy and unconcerned. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"I just figured—This is your first time meeting everyone properly. It’d be a great way to break the ice. Show everyone what you’re made of."

Show everyone what you’re made of, hung in the air like a challenge flag.

The ambient chatter had noticeably quieted down after she said that.

Pete leaned back, watching next to Chronos.

Chronos tilted his head and let one eye peek open.

Helena stood with her arms crossed, her expression unreadable.

Colonel Vane, who seemed to have melted into the wall, had materialized next to Helena.

Lilianna pressed forward.

"Tell you what—I’ll make it easy. You pick the game. Whatever you’re best at. I’ll adjust to your level."

She spread her hands in a gesture of magnanimous generosity.

"Don’t be shy. We’re all friends here."

Everyone understood what this line meant: I’m giving you a chance to prove that you deserve to be part of this group. If you refuse, you lose.

It was elegantly said but ruthless.

However, if Neville wanted to stand beside someone like Grayson and be taken seriously, he needed to prove himself. Not to everyone in there, but for himself.

Everyone knew that.

Bryan set his glass down, his pleasant smile firmly in place, but his eyes were sharp.

Julius quietly moved to the living room near the exit.

Thiago also moved together with Julius.

And Neville—

Before he entered this relationship also knew about it.

That was the thing about Neville that people kept misunderstanding. He might’ve looked like he had wandered out of a high school campus and into the wrong building.

But Bryan and Julius had seen the other side.

They had seen the man rise from an anonymous, lucky orphan applicant to the top of the secretarial department in under a year.

He had single-handedly destroyed the hidden powers corrupting the Maxwell Corporation.

Developed and patented an AI system and cooking robot under his own name.

Choke the directors for their award-winning proposals and information systems.

All the while maintaining his poor, loyal, and diligent worker appearance, who didn’t want any trouble.

Bryan remembered Neville’s silent, grinding persistence amidst the power play in the company. Facing what should’ve been a soul-crushing defeat with his spine straight while loading his next move.

Julius remembered the look in Neville’s eyes during the Mick Hewitt incident. Calm and resilient amidst the physical oppression because he was an omega.

These two men knew and also shared the same unspoken concern as everyone else in the room.

However, Grayson’s enemies were not to be slighted.

Most of them were people with political power, military connections, and the kind of resources that could erase a person’s existence between breakfast and lunch.

Standing beside Grayson Maxwell meant standing in the blast radius of every grudge, every conspiracy, and every quiet act of violence that had accumulated around the Maxwell name for three generations.

It wasn’t enough to be smart.

It wasn’t enough to be capable.

You had to have teeth, a fang to bite at every enemy.

Everyone waited for what was to come.

Neville was still pressed against Grayson’s chest and looked absurdly small.

And he was annoyed; his patience was running dangerously low for this kind of ridiculous social play.

He just wanted to relax.

He just wanted to lean against his ridiculously handsome boyfriend. Then watch the sunset bleed into the ocean through the estate’s panoramic windows together.

He just wanted to forget about favorability percentages and system quests for a second.

Was that too much to ask?

Apparently, yes. Because some supermodel with poor white lotus acting has been persistently calling out to him for a while now.

He felt Grayson’s hand press lightly against the small of his back.

A quiet, grounding warmth that said: Whatever you decide.

He was not asking him to do anything anymore. It seemed that his patience was also thinning.

Neville closed his eyes for a second.

He thought about how incredibly, unreasonably tired he was of performing.

And then he opened his eyes, lifted his head from Grayson’s chest. He looked directly at Lilianna with a bland expression.

"Fine."

Lilianna’s smile sharpened imperceptibly.

"Wonderful! So what do you—"

"You said I could choose?" Neville said, cutting her off.

"Of course! Whatever you’re comfortable with. Pool, darts, cards—"

She gestured expansively toward the game area, where the casino decks gleamed under focused lighting.

"We even have the mecha simulation pods if you’re feeling bold. I’m okay with anything."

The room collectively held its breath. Lilianna deliberately emphasized the mecha pods.

Since Lilianna had a military background, a mecha challenge would be walking into a kill box.

"None of those." Neville adjusted his glasses. "You said you’d adjust to my level, right?"

Lilianna smiled confidently. "Absolutely."

"Okay." Neville nodded and nonchalantly said. "Rock, paper, scissors."

Silence.

Everyone was baffled at this unexpected game suggestion.

Bryan coughed, seemingly choked mid-sip. He was trying to stop a laugh from escaping mid-cough.

"I’m sorry?" Lilianna’s smile had frozen.

"Rock, paper, scissors," Neville repeated.

He straightened up, taking his weight off Grayson but keeping one hand loosely hooked on the inside of his elbow.

"Since you already said that I can choose, I’m choosing. Best of three. Unless that’s too complicated?"

"That’s—" Lilianna’s golden brows drew together by a millimeter. "You can’t be serious."

"Why not?" Neville’s eyes blinked innocently. "You said whatever I’m comfortable with. You said you’d adjust to my level. Are you saying rock, paper, scissors is beneath you?"

And there it was.

The trap sprang out of nowhere, and half the room didn’t even realize it was a trap until it had already sprung.

Because Lilianna had framed the challenge as a generous concession—she was the experienced one, she would come down to Neville’s level, she would be gracious.

And Neville had taken that into account, accepted it completely, and used it to select a game that was:

One: impossible to flex on.

Two: impossible to train for.

Three: entirely, perfectly, absurdly random.