Bunny’s attention was completely focused on the feast in front of her, so she failed to notice the Sentinels’ gazes quietly drifting toward her bare legs, darkening with an intense, hunger-laced focus.
In ancient times, a woman’s exposed ankles were considered scandalous, an intimate secret reserved for private quarters. This wasn’t an ancient world, of course—yet these men hadn’t laid eyes on a woman in seven or eight long years.
Bunny finally set her fork down with a light clink against the porcelain rim. Looking up at Xander, she said, "I’d like to inspect the soothing room now."
The Guide was clearly brimming with professional enthusiasm for her new duties, and the squad could hardly refuse her.
Xander studied her for a long moment before offering a polite smile. "Of course. I’ll have Orion guide you there." Turning his gaze, he added, "Orion, your instability levels are relatively low today. Why don’t you serve as Miss Bunny’s first practice session?"
Singled out so suddenly, Orion looked faintly flattered. He immediately set down the dumbbell he was holding and fell into step behind Bunny like a dutiful bodyguard.
Sunny whirred to life, leading the way out of the living area.
Cyrus lifted his eyes from the sofa, shooting a quiet, dangerous warning toward Xander. "You’re going to terrify her."
Xander drained the last drop of juice from his glass, a faint, unbothered smirk touching his lips. "Which is precisely why I sent Orion with her, isn’t it?"
That quiet, non-verbal idiot was the perfect shield to help the little rabbit lower her guard. Certain lessons required a gentle, gradual touch. Patience was key when handling timid prey.
Cyrus stood up from the couch, looking thoroughly bored. "Fine. Let’s see how long you can keep up the gentleman act."
Or more accurately—how long you can endure the strain.
Sunny escorted Bunny into the elevator, taking them down to the expansive training sector on Level 70.
The floor was precisely segmented into specialized facilities: deep-simulation combat arenas, zero-gravity chambers, live-fire ranges, close-quarters combat zones, and high-intensity mental conditioning bays.
The soothing room was tucked away in the farthest corner of Area D.
It was obvious no one had set foot inside for decades. A thick coat of fine dust blanketed the door handle and the wall interface.
"Miss Bunny, I’ll leave you to your work! Call me whenever you need me!" The little maintenance bot whirred happily before rolling away down the corridor.
Orion remained standing silently behind her. He had never entered this room either; for the abandoned Sentinels of District 616, a Guide’s soothing room had long been nothing more than a useless, derelict rumor.
Bunny pressed the red door release. With a heavy mechanical hiss, the reinforced metal doors slid apart, unveiling the long-sealed sanctuary to the light.
As the overhead particle lamps flickered awake one by one, the first object to emerge from the shadows was a massive, pristine white electric chair bolted directly into the center of the floor.
It was fitted with reinforced leather restraints and heavy metal locking mechanisms. Dark, weathered stains—long since dried to a rusty crimson—crusted the base of the seat. The mottled walls surrounding it were gouged with countless deep, violent scratch marks.
Bunny widened her eyes in shock.
Her gaze darted nervously across the rest of the room. In hindsight, she really should have looked away. Because the moment she took in her full surroundings, her heart nearly leaped out of her chest.
Flanking the central electric chair were heavy restraint benches, steel cages, and suspended wall mounts. Worse still, the entire far wall was covered in a terrifying display of heavy-duty hardware: leather whips, meat hooks, electrified batons, bone saws, and butcher’s knives.
What on earth was happening here?!
Was this supposed to be a medical soothing facility, or a black-site interrogation chamber? A gruesome crime scene where a serial killer dismembered their victims? Had the previous Guides stationed here been a terrifying hybrid of Jack the Ripper and a chainsaw-wielding lunatic?!
Yet that wasn’t even the most bewildering part.
When Bunny’s gaze finally drifted to the innermost alcove, her entire understanding of sanity collapsed.
Past several plush leather sofas, reclining examination tables, and medical apparatuses whose purposes she couldn’t even begin to guess, sat a massive, ridiculously plush round bed.
Scattered carelessly across the velvet duvet were padded bite guards, silk restraints, heavy leather straps, and an assortment of explicit paraphernalia that immediately made her imagination go wild.
Even someone as innocent as Bunny could instantly decipher what those items were meant for.
This wasn’t a soothing room at all—it was a giant, high-tech, adult role-play dungeon!
Bunny desperately fought to keep her jaw from hitting the floor, her mind spinning in absolute horror.
W-Were the Guides in this era really this... uninhibited?!