Exusiai—real name, Lemuel.
She was one of Penguin Logistics' star employees, and her favorite food was apple pie.
Also, she happened to be Lucian's childhood friend.
They practically grew up sharing one pair of pants, so to speak.
Which meant Lucian knew her inside and out.
Not just her height, weight, personality, and preferences—he even knew exactly how many moles she had, whether they were star-shaped or round, including the ones she couldn't see even in a mirror.
Their relationship had always been good.
She was, after all, the one who had eloped with Lucian from Laterano.
For the conservative, rigid Angel race, most people wouldn't leave Laterano unless necessary—let alone do something that could practically be called running away from home.
To abandon everything and follow Lucian across the world… outsiders couldn't misunderstand their relationship even if they tried.
These two Angels were absolutely shacking—
"El, your apple pie." Lucian said calmly.
"Mmnh."
Exusiai sat on the couch with her arms crossed, watching Lucian hustle around before he set a freshly baked apple pie in front of her.
Lucian's cooking needed no explanation. El had grown up eating it; she knew his scent from head to toe.
But today Exusiai was very unhappy. Extremely unhappy.
She didn't reach for the pie.
Instead, she lifted her chin at him, opened her mouth, and said:
"Ah."
"..."
Lucian's mouth twitched. He really wanted to pretend he hadn't seen that.
But Exusiai's hand had already twisted into his thigh.
"Ah. Ah! AH!"
"Why are you yelling?!" Lucian surrendered instantly.
He cut a small bite of apple pie and fed it to her.
Only then did Exusiai look satisfied. Her cheeks puffed as she chewed a few times, then—
"Ah."
…Was this supposed to be cute or childish?
Lucian had no choice but to serve his regressed childhood friend, feeding her over half the apple pie.
Finally, he stuck a straw into a bowl of Soy Milk and handed it to her. She happily slurped down most of it before letting out a long, blissful sigh.
"Huaaah I'm alive again."
Her face immediately lit up. She grabbed a lock of her long red hair and brushed it teasingly along Lucian's neck.
"I'm back, Lucian. I've been working so hard, you know? Windy outside, dusty air, my skin's all dry… And I come home to find you getting cozy with my very best friend. How do you plan to make it up to me?"
"That's what I'm doing right now—making amends."
Her hair tickled his neck, and Lucian batted it away as they bickered.
"And it was a misunderstanding. Nothing happened between me and Texas… Very unfortunately, nothing happened."
"Wow. This guy says 'unfortunately' on purpose. Real trash." Exusiai narrowed her eyes at him.
Texas, by the way, had already escaped. She dumped all the "calm Exusiai down" responsibilities onto Lucian and fled under the excuse of "going to watch the shop."
But Lucian knew El wasn't actually angry anymore. This was just their usual routine.
Exusiai sprawled across his lap and played with her hair.
"I'm gone for a few days, I even asked Texas to keep an eye on you, and you use that chance to trick my best friend into bed. Isn't that way too shameless? Texas looks all cold, but she's really easy to trick. You're not allowed to make a move on her, got it?"
"Again, nothing happened. And I didn't trick her." Lucian grabbed her hand before she could tickle his neck again.
"And what's this? Are you jealous I 'stole' Texas?"
Exusiai nodded hard.
"Of course! Texas is mine. I'm not giving her away to anyone. At least offer me five hundred million Lungmen Dollars as a bride price!"
"Are you her mom selling a daughter?"
Lucian flicked her forehead, and the two continued their pointless squabbling.
Anyone with a normal sense of romance seeing how close they were would immediately assume they were a couple.
But the two of them never admitted anything.
Was it because they'd been like this since childhood?
Or because they didn't see each other as the opposite sex at all?
Objectively, Lucian knew El was beautiful. If she made a sexy photoshoot, he absolutely could… appreciate it.
But the real her?
No reaction at all. Weird.
She was probably the same.
Which was why she clung to him, hugged him, draped over him without restraint—treating him like either a bro or a best girlfriend.
After enough chaos, Exusiai stretched and shifted into a comfier position.
"I'm so tired this time. The client was so far out, I rode the Motorcycle forever through the Wilderness. My hair's all frizzy now. I wanna chop all this red fluff off! I'm gonna cut it short!"
Lucian, certified straight man, blinked.
"Then cut it? You said you wanted to chop it when we left Laterano. So chop it."
"..."
Exusiai shot him a deadpan glare.
"This scumbag… zero awareness. Obviously a long-hair fetishist… who do you think I'm keeping it long for?"
Lucian: "You said something? Wind was too loud, didn't hear."
Boom—Exusiai punched him right in the kidney.
But despite all their noise, she wasn't actually mad.
So Lucian finally asked something real.
"The client was near Chernobog, right? I saw the news—there was a Disturbance there. Did you run into trouble?"
"Nope. I didn't even go into the city."
She flopped onto her other side.
"This client wasn't normal. I thought they were just smugglers trying to sneak into Lungmen. But when I got to the coordinates, guess what I saw? A whole Landship!"
Exusiai's eyes sparkled.
This world was constantly tormented by Natural Disasters—from meteor showers to earthquakes to volcanic eruptions.
Most of them were tied to Originium, causing long-term contamination that made the land uninhabitable.
To survive the Catastrophes, cities were built on mobile platforms.
Catastrophe Messengers predicted where disasters would fall, and the Mobile Cities moved in advance to avoid them.
But those were national-scale structures.
A private client owning a Landship?
That was a first for Penguin Logistics.
Exusiai continued,
"I even met their leader—super young bunny girl. Their request was for a guide inside Lungmen, someone who could help them avoid trouble spots."
"Cautious type," Lucian said.
"So their Landship is docking at Lungmen for supplies? Which country are they from? Do they need to avoid the Lungmen Guard Department?"
Exusiai shook her head.
"They said they're from Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals—an organization that shelters and treats Oripathy Infected."