The entire group stormed down the grand staircase like a tidal wave, with Ivory leading the charge. She marched straight up to Haruto, her face flushed with indignation as she pointed a finger at him.
"I saw and heard absolutely everything!" Ivory yelled, her voice echoing off the walls. "What kind of ridiculous rumors are you spreading about me? When do I ever just start screaming?! And more importantly, what is the meaning of this? You explicitly told us before that nobody was allowed to take the Queen's Suite!"
Haruto didn't even flinch. He slowly turned his head, shifted his gaze from Ivory, and locked eyes with Seraphine, giving her a heavy, deadpan "I told you so" look. Seeing his perfect prediction play out in real-time, Seraphine couldn't help but let out a soft, amused giggle, completely enjoying Ivory's predictable meltdown.
Ignoring the shouting, Haruto calmly flipped to a fresh page in his notebook. His pen glided across the paper with fluid precision before he ripped it out and held it directly in front of Ivory's face:
"Seraphine is officially set to become my second wife. If I am occupying the King's Suite, it makes perfect logical sense for my future wife to occupy the Queen's Suite. It's basic protocol."
The moment Ivory read the words aloud, a collective shockwave hit the entire crowd of girls. Whispers and sharp gasps broke out among them, their reactions ranging from pure disbelief to simmering jealousy as they processed the cold, structural logic of his decision.
Haruto watched their chaotic expressions with a look of absolute detachment. Truth be told, he absolutely loathed dealing with this kind of dramatic, emotional baggage—it was a total drag on his mental processing power. But as he glanced back at Seraphine, a deeper, tactical realization crossed his mind. By publicly assigning her that room and explicitly labeling her as his future wife in front of everyone, he wasn't just solving a housing dispute. For the first time, he was actively claiming authority over Seraphine and marking her as an official, protected asset of his inner circle.
Haruto let out a silent, internal sigh as he watched the girls absorb his written statement. The real reason he had dropped that bombshell about the Queen's Suite wasn't to play favorites or stroke anyone's ego; it was a cold, calculated move to force a sudden, shocking silence over the room. His internal processor knew that by completely stunning them into quiet submission, he could finally stop wasting his mental bandwidth on their petty arguments and focus entirely on quietly stabilizing his mutating vessel and storing his energy.
But as the silence stretched on, Haruto looked at Seraphine and felt a rare wave of uncertainty. He truly didn't know what to do with her in the long run.
Tonight was the designated deadline. He was about to bring this entire newly formed group together to lay out every single card, exposing his deepest secrets to them. But the math of the outcome was completely unpredictable. Would they actually accept his true nature, or would the whole house fracture? For a guy who viewed his entire existence through the lens of a game, the stakes of tonight's meeting were crystal clear: this was either going to grant his party a massive, permanent baseline boost, or hit them with a catastrophic debuff that would disrupt his entire life.
He glanced toward Aeterna, who was still standing quietly near the back of the hall, looking down in shame. Her reckless outburst from earlier that morning had completely backfired, but ironically, it was her massive mistake that had set all of these dominoes in motion. Because of the chaotic chain of events she triggered, Seraphine had already witnessed a terrifying, undeniable display of Haruto's world-bending power during the Wizard Quest. She already knew too much, and she remembered every single detail.
There was no turning back now. The pieces were locked into position on the board, the countdown to the 30-minute mark was ticking away, and Haruto had no choice but to initiate the high-stakes meeting.
As the girls continued to chatter and argue among themselves in the middle of the living hall, Haruto stood back, watching the utter chaos with a completely deadpan expression.
His internal processor ran a quick, dry diagnostic of his current living situation, and he couldn't help but feel a sarcastic sting. My beautiful, quiet, and perfectly peaceful sanctuary is officially turning into a literal zoo, he thought to himself. Look at this roster. I've got a Spirit , spirit wepons, actual literal Goddesses, a high-ranking human royal, and if I look outside, there's Kobi who is an Elf. Unbelievable. What kind of mixed-race guild am I even running here?
Realizing that letting them continue to bicker would only drain more of his valuable mental bandwidth, Haruto opened his notebook one more time. His pen moved in sharp, commanding strokes as he wrote out a final, definitive directive for the household. He ripped the page out and held it up for everyone to read:
"Everyone, go take a bath, relax, and finish up whatever daily chores you have left. Get yourselves completely sorted out right now. We need to have a very serious discussion before dinner tonight. Meet back here in exactly 30 minutes."
The girls stopped talking as they read the note, the sudden shift to a mandatory timeline instantly cooling the heated atmosphere in the room.
Lilith stepped back, her violet eyes locking onto Haruto. She gave him a sharp, intense, knowing glare—a silent acknowledgment that the high-stakes game of revealing their ultimate secrets was about to begin. Haruto didn't blink. He met her gaze head-on, returning the exact same heavy, knowing look right back at her. The board was fully set, the timer was ticking down, and in thirty minutes, all their cards would be on the table.
After reading Haruto's note, Seraphine took a deep, formal breath to compose herself. She bowed slightly to the rest of the girls, trying to mask her previous embarrassment with her high-society posture.
"As you have all clearly figured out by now, I will be living in this mansion from this moment on," Seraphine announced, her tone trying to sound dignified. "And yes, I look forward to building a bright and successful future alongside all of you. I hope you will take good care of me."
Lustra rolled her eyes, completely unbothered by the grand display. "Ugh, please. Cut the unnecessary drama already," she muttered, waving her hand dismissively.
Suddenly, Aeterna stepped forward from the back of the crowd, pointing a finger at Seraphine. She looked right at Haruto and said, "Papa! Is this the girl you were talking about earlier?"
The moment the word 'Papa' echoed through the hall, Seraphine's dignified expression twisted into total confusion. Her jaw dropped slightly. Wait... did I just hear that correctly? she thought, her mind racing. Papa? Hold on a single second. I have never seen this girl before in my entire life. I recognize the woman who looks like a maid, and I know the butler, and I know who the rest of these people are... but who on earth is this kid, and why is she calling him 'Papa'?
Seraphine slowly turned her head, her gaze locking onto Haruto with sharp, demanding suspicion.
Haruto stood completely frozen under her stare, his internal processor issuing a massive system alert. Oh, great, he thought, his face remaining a stone-cold mask while his mind panicked. We are completely doomed. The game plan just went entirely off the rails, and the buffalo has officially drowned in the water.
Before Haruto could even reach for his notebook to explain, Seraphine's confusion instantly boiled over into absolute shock. She pointed a trembling finger at him and screamed at the top of her lungs:
"PAPA?! Why is she calling you 'Papa'?! You never mentioned anything about already having a daughter!!"
Seraphine's mind raced as she stared back and forth between Haruto and the young girl. Suddenly, a realization struck her, and she turned her gaze sharply toward the princess. "Wait... is she Lilith's child?!"
Lilith's entire face flushed bright red, her usual smug composure completely shattering. "W-What?! No way!" she stammered, waving her hands frantically. "We haven't even kissed yet!"
Still deeply suspicious, Seraphine turned her eyes toward the rest of the girls in the room, scanning their faces for any signs of a secret romance. One by one, Ivory, Lustra, and Bellona blushed furiously and shook their heads in absolute denial.
Finally, Seraphine rounded on Haruto, her eyes flashing with anger. "Don't tell me it's with some other girl? Are you really that low?!"
Haruto didn't break his stone-cold expression, but he calmly raised his hand, gesturing toward Aeterna to clear up the misunderstanding before the drama escalated any further.
Aeterna stepped forward, crossing her arms as she looked at Seraphine. "Hello? I am adopted! Please stop ruining my Papa's reputation."
Hearing the word "adopted," Seraphine instantly let out a long, heavy sigh of relief, the immense tension leaving her shoulders. "Oh... adopted. Right. I see, I see..." she muttered, her voice dropping as she realized how wildly her imagination had run wild.
Seeing her opening, Lilith's mischievous smirk immediately returned. She leaned in toward Seraphine, a teasing glint in her violet eyes. "My, my, Seraphine... why were you getting so incredibly impatient and worked up just now? Hmm?"
Lilith chuckled softly, thoroughly enjoying the shift in power. "Don't tell me you've already fallen in love with Haruto? I mean, we all just saw that incredibly bold display from you downstairs. 'Just do whatever you want to me!' Wow, I didn't know you were that aggressive."
Seraphine's entire face exploded into a brilliant, furious shade of crimson at Lilith's teasing. Completely overwhelmed by embarrassment, she violently waved her hands around and began pushing through the crowd of girls to break the tension.
"Shut up! Just leave me alone!" she stammered loudly, trying to hide her burning face. "I need to take a bath right now! Does this sub-par place even have a decent bathroom?!"
Bellona smirked, stepping forward with her arms crossed as she proudly clarified the mansion's specs. "A bathroom? Please, we don't just have a regular bathroom here. We have a massive, custom-built bathhouse that looks like a literal indoor lake. Just so you know, it's big enough for fifty people to relax and bathe together at the exact same time."
Seraphine's eyes widened slightly at the impressive scale, but she quickly masked her surprise. "Fine! Good!" she huffed, immediately grabbing Bellona and Ivory by their shoulders and aggressively pushing them toward the corridor. "Now stop standing around staring at me and help me navigate this house! Show me where the bathhouse is right now!"
With Seraphine forcefully nudging them along to escape her embarrassment, the crowd of girls finally began dispersing toward the upper floor, leaving a brief trail of complaints and laughter behind them as they went to clear out before the big meeting.
As the crowd of girls finally dispersed and headed upstairs to get ready, the heavy tension in the grand hall fully dissipated. Only Toya and Rutherford remained downstairs with Haruto.
"Alright, Captain, we're going to head up and get sorted out too," Toya said, offering a brief nod. "We'll see you back here in the hall in thirty minutes."
With that, the two men prepared to follow the group upstairs. Just as she reached the landing, Seraphine paused, looked over the railing, and pointed toward her massive pile of luggage in the corner. She looked directly at Rutherford. "Hey, butler! Make sure you bring all of my bags up to the Queen's Suite immediately."
Rutherford froze on the stairs, his eyebrow twitching violently as a wave of sheer annoyance washed over him. She seriously thinks I'm just some regular, low-wage butler, he thought to himself, his internal pride as a legendary elite taking a heavy hit. Why on earth do I have to drag these heavy bags around like a pack mule?
But before he could even think about grumbling, he felt a chilling, authoritative gaze lock onto the back of his neck. He turned his head slightly and saw Aeterna staring down at him. Her eyes flashed with the absolute, cold dominance of a supreme ruler, wordlessly commanding him to follow the princess's orders without hesitation.
Rutherford involuntarily shivered, a cold sweat breaking out across his back. Right... that is a direct, silent order from my absolute Queen, he calculated, his instincts forcing him into total submission. I have no choice but to obey.
He quickly bowed his head, swallowed his complaints, and went back down to grab the heavy suitcases.
The ironic part was, looking at Aeterna right now, nobody in their right mind would ever suspect her true identity. As the group walked toward the bathhouse, she was currently snuggled up comfortably in Lilith's arms, looking like nothing more than a cute, innocent, and perfectly adorable little child. She looked so completely harmless that even Lilith was happily doting on her.
But the countdown was ticking. In exactly thirty minutes, the entire household would gather in the living hall, and the truth would finally explode. Every single person in this mansion was about to find out that the sweet, cuddly little girl resting in Lilith's arms was actually a literal, all-powerful Spirit Queen.
Haruto watched the last of the group disappear down the corridor, the echoes of their footsteps finally fading away. Feeling a heavy wave of mental exhaustion wash over him from the sheer volume of dramatic data he had processed today, he turned and headed toward his own room to rest and mentally prepare for the high-stakes game awaiting him in thirty minutes.
Meanwhile, inside the mansion's massive indoor bathhouse, the atmosphere was thick with warm steam. All the girls had gathered to relax, with the sole exception of Asobi, who was finishing up her tasks elsewhere.
Seraphine, feeling a lot more relaxed after washing away the stress of her arrival, looked over at the small girl sitting nearby. Unable to resist how incredibly adorable she looked, Seraphine scooped Aeterna up and comfortably settled the child into her lap.
"You really are the cutest little thing," Seraphine cooed, smiling warmly down at her. "Tell me, what's your name?"
"My name is Aeterna," the little girl replied softly, playing along with her innocent cover.
Seraphine nodded, but her curiosity quickly got the better of her. She tilted her head, looking thoughtfully at the child. "So, Aeterna... how exactly did you meet Haruto in the first place?"
Hearing the question, Lilith's ears perked up instantly. She swam a bit closer, her eyes widening as she realized something. "Wait a minute... I never actually asked about that either! How did you two meet?"
Aeterna's entire body went rigid. A sudden wave of panic hit her internal system, and she began to sweat under their intense, inquiring stares. She didn't know what to say, mostly because Haruto had never explicitly given her a calculated cover story or script to answer this specific question.
Just as the silence was about to become incredibly suspicious, Ivory stepped forward through the steam, coming to the rescue.
"Oh, it's actually a pretty simple story," Ivory lied smoothly, waving her hand dismissively to diffuse the tension. "Haruto found her wandering all alone in the middle of a desert, completely lost and crying her eyes out. He couldn't just leave a helpless child behind, so he brought her with him."
Aeterna snapped her head toward Ivory, her jaw dropping slightly as her internal processor glitched. Crying my eyes out? Me? The supreme ruler of spirits, weeping in a desert?! she thought, utterly insulted by the ridiculous fabrication.
But seeing Ivory give her a sharp, subtle wink, Aeterna quickly swallowed her pride and forced a cute, innocent smile. She nodded her head rapidly in agreement. "Mmm-hmm! Yes, that's exactly what happened! I was so scared and crying so much until Papa rescued me!"
Hearing the standard, heartwarming backstory of a lost orphan being saved by a brooding hero, both Lilith and Seraphine instantly let out a sigh of relief. The heavy suspicion vanished from their faces, completely accepting the lie as they went back to relaxing in the warm water, totally oblivious to the fact that the "helpless crying child" in the room was a literal force of nature.
Inside the steaming water, the three goddesses—Ivory, Lustra, and Bellona—could feel the invisible tension rising. They knew that if they stayed in the bathhouse any longer, the girls' endless curiosity would eventually lead to questions they couldn't answer without blowing their cover.
Lustra leaned over to Ivory and whispered under her breath, "If we hang around here much longer, their questions are only going to multiply. We need to cut this short."
Bellona nodded in agreement, whispering back, "Yeah, we should definitely get out of here before we dig ourselves into a hole."
Hearing this, Ivory immediately stood up, splashing the water slightly, and gently grabbed Aeterna's hand to pull her along. She turned to Lilith and Seraphine with a quick, polite smile. "Alright, we've soaked long enough. We need to head out and get ready for the meeting."
Lilith pouted slightly, looking disappointed. "Aww, already? So soon?"
"I think I want to stay and relax in the water for just a little bit longer," Seraphine added, leaning back against the smooth stone edge of the bath.
"That's completely fine, you two take your time. We'll head up first," Ivory said smoothly. With that, the three goddesses and the disguised Spirit Queen dried off and left the bathhouse, leaving Lilith and Seraphine alone in the massive, steamy room.
The moment the doors clicked shut, Seraphine slid closer to the princess. "Princess Lilith—" she began, her tone formal.
Lilith instantly raised a hand to cut her off, flashing a warm, relaxed smile. "Please, just call me Lilith. I told you that back in class, didn't I? No need for royal titles here."
Seraphine cleared her throat, her expression turning serious as she looked at her classmate. "Alright... Lilith. Tell me... what kind of person is Haruto, really?"
Lilith's eyebrows arched in amusement, a playful smirk dancing on her lips. "Oh? Why the sudden interest?"
"Because... well, technically I am set to become his second wife now," Seraphine stammered, her cheeks flushing slightly as she looked away. "I mean, obviously not practically or intimately yet! But... I just can't figure him out. He's an absolute enigma. One moment he acts so cold, detached, and completely closed off from the world, and the next, he's surprisingly straightforward. It honestly feels so bizarre to me. He possesses this terrifying, monstrous amount of power, yet he remains so incredibly down-to-earth. And on top of that, he already has three incredibly beautiful girls living by his side... so how does he just casually assert his authority and claim rights over us like it's nothing?"
Hearing Seraphine's long, frustrated rant, Lilith couldn't help but let out a soft, knowing chuckle. She looked through the rising steam, her eyes growing deeply reflective.
"Listen closely, Seraphine," Lilith said, her voice dropping into a serious, gentle tone. "Look at him all you want, but remember this: Haruto is absolutely nothing like he appears to be on the surface."
Lilith leaned back against the smooth, warm stone of the bath, looking through the rising steam at Seraphine.
"Haruto might look as solid and unreadable as a stone wall on the outside, but I've learned that I can actually manipulate him just a little bit if I play my cards right," Lilith explained with a confident, knowing smirk. "He is incredibly tough to crack. He only truly opens up when he completely trusts someone on a fundamental level."
She paused, her expression growing deeper and more philosophical as she analyzed his personality. "You see, Haruto views this entire world through a very specific lens. He acts under the belief that this life will constantly throw endless challenges at him, and he genuinely wants to face and enjoy those challenges. But when things get too quiet, when life becomes peaceful and the challenges disappear, he gets incredibly bored and depressed. In a way, he's a total battle junkie who sees life as a high-stakes game."
Lilith then leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a serious whisper. "But do you know why he called this mandatory meeting downstairs? He actually told me his plan. Tonight, he is going to completely open up and lay out every single one of his deepest secrets to the entire household. In just a matter of minutes, you, me, and everyone else will finally know exactly who and what Haruto really is."
A sharp, realistic glint flashed in Lilith's eyes. "Make no mistake, though—he isn't doing this because he's deeply in love with us. As far as I can tell, he views us as pieces on a board and wants to use our abilities for his own goals. But at the end of the day, he's still just a teenage boy. If we stay by his side, we can absolutely teach him what real love and genuine human emotions feel like."
Seraphine sat quietly in the water, her mind completely spinning. Half of Lilith's psychological breakdown went totally over her head, and she couldn't fully comprehend the complex, gaming mindset of the guy she was supposed to marry. Realizing that guessing would get her nowhere, she decided to stop overthinking it.
She silently nodded, washing off the last of the soap, and steeled her resolve to just wait for the high-stakes meeting downstairs where all the mysteries would finally be solved.