The drive had taken about four hours to reach the city of Dynadale, and now the prince’s vintage sedan pulled up in front of a small, modest apartment building.

The structure was somewhere not too close to town, in a quiet part of the city.

Rayleigh turned off the engine and stepped out with Ishtar following.

She stared at the building for a moment, before two servants appeared almost immediately from the entrance, bowing respectfully as they approached.

One was an older man with graying hair in a uniform, the other a younger woman with a composed expression.

"Your Highness," the older man greeted. "We’ve been expecting you."

Rayleigh nodded in acknowledgment. "Good. Thank you for the arrangements."

The servants moved to the trunk of the car, carefully retrieving the luggage and bags. Ishtar’s belongings were modest, but the servants handled them with care nonetheless.

As they carried the items toward the entrance, Rayleigh turned to the older man. "How frequent has contact been with this place? Has anyone from outside this vicinity interacted with you people?"

The servant paused, glancing at the prince. "No one, Your Highness. We haven’t had any external contact in quite a while."

Rayleigh nodded, he was satisfied with. "Good. We’ll keep it that way."

With that, they stepped inside the building.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

—

A few hours later, a van rolled into the workshop area of Stark Industries. It belonged to the Clustervayne Guild’s cleanup crew, coming from a C-rank breach, and carried the mana cores of the monsters slain by the main guild members.

The van came to a stop, and the crew began filing out. Hayley stepped down from the passenger side, having chosen to accompany them for one obvious reason, to see Ethan.

Mr Stark himself had been in the middle of a conversation with a few of the workers and lucy, when he noticed the arrival. He excused himself and made his way toward the van.

Hayley spotted him approaching and crossed her arms, putting on a pretentious look of annoyance. "You know I’m in this guild because of you, right? The least you could do is drop by and say hi."

Ethan gave a short laugh. "Hey."

She still held the pose. But Ethan who was not in the mood for it today, reached out and held her cheek for a brief second before turning away. His attention shifted to the men as he gestured towards the right path they would take.

Then his attention returned to Hayley, and he tilted his head slightly, signaling for her to come along. She sighed and fell into step beside him as they headed into the workshop.

"So, what have you been up to?" she asked.

"Right now? Recruiting new employees," Ethan said. "Mhm drafting new construction plans too"

Hayley nodded, glancing around the workshop as they entered. "Busy man."

"Uh huh" Ethan nodded, quickly moving back to his initial spot.

The rest of the day passed with Hayley lingering around the workshop. She watched as Ethan and Lucy worked through mechanical adjustments, attended to normal operations, and coordinated with the growing team.

She asked questions here and there, made a few jokes, and seemed content just being present.

-

Then evening came and Ethan was wrapping up for the day. Hayley had been waiting by the entrance.

"Want a ride?" Ethan offered.

She grinned. "Thought you’d never ask."

The drive home started with normal conversation. Hayley talked about the breach they had cleared that morning, how she still thought it was a wrong decision making Percival the Vice Guild Master. Then went on to ramble about a few more things, most of Ethan nodded or smiled to.

He also tried not to be too passive, and mentioned a few things concerning their progress with the planes, and how the mecha building took a short pause so that they could collectively focus on finish up the planes.

Hayley had a replied to whatever he said, whether it really fit or not.

Talking about it reminded her of something, which made her tone change a sec. "By the way," she began. "My dad’s been complaining that none of his kids are showing any real interest in the business."

Ethan glanced at her. "Oh? I thought Percival was at least."

"Uh not really, or maybe not as much as my dad expects. Percival prefers guild stuff" Hayley replied.

Ethan smiled for a moment, "yeah, true that...what about you? You don’t feel like doing some real business?"

Hayley turned her head toward him, with a devious smile. "Nope, but I’d like to do you though"

Ethan laughed, shaking his head. "You’re still on this."

"I’m always gonna be on this, love," Hayley said in playful tone. "Good thing werewolves have longer lifespans. Not as long as vampires, but we’ve got time."

Ethan kept his eyes on the road, but still had a smile on his face. This was probably the third time in the past month their conversation had drifted in this direction.

Hayley leaned back in her seat. "I’m not trying to ruin anything, you know. I’d rather not lose you over feelings or any of that. What we have matters more than me pushing for something that could mess it up."

She paused, then added, "And it’s not like you’re not allowed to have two women. The King has five wives, Uncle Melvin is taking a second mate."

At this point, Hayley was doing "Hayley-rambling" where she just said every and anything that came to her thoughts, so far it fit the context.

She continued, "Dating or marrying more than one person isn’t out of the question here. I know you could be open to it...maybe.. But I don’t know how the princess feels about it, and I’m not trying to push and spoil what you two have."

Ethan said nothing, but he listened.

"So yeah," Hayley continued, her tone going casual again. "I’m cool with where I’m at."

Eventually, they pulled up to the gates leading into the Arcorys compound, and Ethan walked Hayley to it.

Then she pulled him into a deep hug that lingered. Her arms were wrapped around him tightly, and for a moment, neither of them moved.

Ethan held her back, and when she finally pulled away, Hayley gave him a smile, then walked through the gates.

She didn’t look back as she walked toward the main building, but she did that intentionally thing with her tail, swaying it in such a way to compliment the movement of her bum.

As though knowing he was staring at her while she moved.

Ethan watched her for a moment, then sighed and returned to the car. His situation was... complicated.

Since Hayley’s return, he had come to realize the body still responded to her out of old habit. After all, it had once belonged to the old Ethan, and Hayley had been his first and only love.

But the soul within was different. It was Allen’s and it loved the princess.