Haruto pushed the front gate open and stepped into the courtyard, his boots making a soft crunch against the gravel. Expecting an absolute circus the moment he crossed the threshold, he was caught completely off guard by the heavy, suffocating silence hanging over the entire property. The ground floor was entirely dark and empty.
Suddenly, a sharp, furious shriek shattered the quiet, echoing down from the upper residential floor. "Are you completely out of your mind?!"
Haruto instantly recognized that sharp, authoritative voice—it was Ivory. His logical mind clicked into high gear as he realized a massive confrontation was already underway. He immediately made a quiet run for the grand staircase, his steps completely silent as he began mounting the stairs.
Before he could even reach the top landing, another voice pierced through the corridor, dripping with absolute confidence and entitlement. "There are plenty of empty rooms in this mansion, so sleep in any of them!" Ivory snapped again.
"No way," Lilith's voice countered smoothly, laced with an incredibly smug tone. "I am officially Haruto's wife. I will be sleeping in his room, and his room only."
Haruto finally stepped onto the top floor, his messy, blood-stained uniform coming into full view. The entire household was gathered outside his bedroom door like a small army. Ivory, Lustra, Bellona, Toya, Theriana, Rutherford, and Asobi were all standing in a tense circle. The moment they spotted Haruto standing at the end of the hallway, a collective sigh of immense relief washed over the entire group—everyone finally relaxed their shoulders, completely relieved to see their captain back in one piece.
Well, everyone except Ivory and Lilith.
The moment Ivory saw him, her temper completely flared up, and she marched straight toward him, gesturing wildly toward the bedroom. "Haruto! Where on earth have you been?! Listen to this—Lilith is throwing an absolute tantrum, stubbornly demanding to sleep right inside your personal bedroom tonight! And to make things worse, Asobi refuses to even say a single word to stop her!"
Asobi raised her hands defensively, shifting uncomfortably under Ivory's glare. "Hey, leave me out of this! I don't know the full legal protocols here. If she is officially his wife, that makes her my boss's wife—which technically means she's my mistress. How am I supposed to talk back to the lady of the house?"
Lilith let out a triumphant, mocking laugh, crossing her arms as she looked down at Ivory.
Ivory's jaw tightened, her face turning red with absolute frustration as she turned back to Haruto, completely ignoring Lilith's smug expression. "There are literally dozens of luxury guest rooms available in this house! Why does she absolutely have to stay in your room?!"
Haruto looked around at the chaotic crowd gathered outside his bedroom door, his face remaining entirely expressionless despite the massive headache building behind his eyes. He turned his gaze toward Asobi and extended his hand, making a brief, sharp writing motion with his fingers to ask for a pen.
Asobi caught on instantly. Nodding quickly, she channeled a small spark of mana and smoothly summoned a blank sheet of paper and a sleek fountain pen straight into her hand. Haruto snatched them without losing a second, resting the paper against the corridor wall as his hand flew across the page in sharp, rapid strokes.
Once he finished, he ripped the paper off and thrust it directly into Ivory's hands.
The entire hallway went dead silent as everyone crowded around her. Ivory held the note up, her eyes scanning the lines before she began reading it aloud to the group:
"Listen to me carefully. Ever since that duel yesterday, I have been completely unable to speak. My throat is locked, so please stop stressing me out over something as stupid as room assignments. Let me make one thing crystal clear to everyone right now: my body's magic energy is completely exhausted. I am so thoroughly drained that I cannot channel even a single microscopic shred of magic right now. Use your heads, start acting like grown-ups, and sort out this room situation quietly without making a scene."
Ivory froze, her voice trailing off as the sheer weight of his confession hit the room. Lustra and Bellona exchanged deeply concerned glances, while Lilith's smug smile faltered slightly as she stared at his messy, dirt-stained uniform.
But Ivory wasn't even finished reading. Her eyes widened in absolute shock as she hit the final sentence of the note. She looked up at Haruto, her jaw dropping. "Wait... what?! There's more!"
She looked back down at the paper, her voice rising in disbelief as she read the last line:
"And one more thing. Seraphine is also moving into this house tonight. She will be arriving here in almost 30 minutes."
Standing near the back of the group, Aeterna looked down at her hands, a sudden wave of deep guilt hitting her. She remembered how harshly and terribly she had spoken to him earlier that morning. Stepping forward with her head lowered, she looked up at him with tearful eyes.
"I... I didn't know you couldn't speak papa. I'm so sorry for how I acted earlier... please forgive me."
Ivory's jaw dropped as she stared at the note, completely blindsided. "Wait, what do you mean Seraphine is moving in too?! Haruto, what kind of mess did you get yourself into?!"
Before Haruto could even think about how to respond with his hands, Toya stepped forward, his eyes locking onto Haruto's chest. "Wait a minute... Haruto, what the hell happened to your uniform? Did you get into a fight?"
Lilith's expression instantly turned serious, her playful attitude vanishing. "I was just about to ask the exact same thing," she muttered, stepping closer to inspect the shredded, stained fabric.
Everyone's attention immediately shifted. The chaotic argument about bedroom assignments evaporated into a heavy, tense silence as the entire group crowded around him, staring at the ruined material and the faint traces of washed-away blood. Something was completely off, and the uneasy atmosphere in the hallway grew suffocating.
Asobi and Rutherford exchanged sharp, calculating glances, their tactical minds racing in a desperate attempt to piece together how anyone could have possibly caught their captain off guard like this.
However, as Rutherford focused his seasoned senses on Haruto's form, his brow furrowed in absolute, deep confusion. Hold on a second, the veteran warrior thought, his internal mana-radar scanning Haruto's core with clinical precision. He wrote that his magic energy is completely exhausted and that he can't use even a single shred of it... but his internal mana flow is perfectly visible to me. In fact, the raw composition of his energy files isn't empty at all—it feels vastly deeper and significantly stronger than it ever did before.
Rutherford kept his observation entirely to himself for a split second, trying to reconcile the massive, glaring contradiction between Haruto's written note and the terrifyingly dense power quietly mutating inside his physical vessel.
Haruto raised his hand again, making a brief gesture for the pen. Seeing this, Asobi immediately realized he needed something more permanent than loose sheets of paper. She quickly channeled her mana and summoned a completely blank, bound leather notebook, handing it over along with the fountain pen.
Haruto took it, opened it to the very first page, and his hand began moving with rapid, fluent precision. He wrote out a comprehensive explanation to address the room's growing panic, then turned the notebook around to let Ivory and the rest of the group read it:
"I need to clear up two things right now. First, about the uniform—the blood you see is from an accident on my way back. I ended up falling over some sharp debris, and my chest got badly gouged. But for some reason, the wound has already completely healed on its own, so I am perfectly fine."
He let them process that for a brief second before his pen moved to the next, far more explosive paragraph:
"Second, as you all know, I went to Commander Fredrick's private office earlier today. While I was there, he officially offered me his daughter Seraphine's hand in marriage. I have already given him a definitive yes."
A collective gasp echoed down the corridor, but Haruto's written words sharply cut off any interruptions before they could start:
"I had several vital tactical reasons for accepting this arrangement, so please do not cross-examine me or demand answers right now. Because of this alliance, Seraphine is now officially a permanent part of our core group. To make sure we are all on the same page, we are going to hold a mandatory meeting tonight. Every single person in this house will share their deepest secrets so we can finally build absolute, unbreakable trust among us."
Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra stood frozen, staring at the notebook with a heavy, sinking feeling in their chests. It felt like Haruto was drifting further and further away into a world they couldn't reach. They never imagined he would get so incredibly busy building a literal royal household, but seeing the addition of a second wife before the first engagement was even official made reality hit them hard.
If we don't secure our own places by his side right now, Ivory thought, her jaw tightening as she glanced at Lustra and Bellona, these new girls are going to completely steal him away from us. They knew they couldn't just stand by anymore; they had to make sure their bond with Haruto remained unbreakable.
Meanwhile, Lilith's face flushed with a rare hint of a blush, though she quickly masked it with her usual playful, confident smirk. "Oh, my? Choosing a second wife when our official engagement hasn't even happened yet?" she teased, crossing her arms. "Wow, Haruto... you're moving incredibly fast, aren't you? But let's get one thing straight—no matter who moves into this house, I am still the one sleeping in your room tonight."
The moment those words left Lilith's mouth, Haruto felt a massive headache coming on. Without blinking, he glanced over at Asobi and gave her a sharp, definitive nod, gesturing toward the stairs.
Asobi, completely reading his mind, instantly understood the cue. She reached out, grabbed Aeterna's arm, and signaled to Rutherford and Toya. "Alright, clear out, everyone," Asobi announced smoothly, turning them all toward the staircase. "This drama is about to drag on for a very long time, and we don't need to be front-row spectators."
Aeterna looked back over her shoulder, completely confused by the sudden eviction. "Wait, but why are we leaving? What's going on?"
As they headed downstairs, Asobi leaned in and gave Aeterna a blunt, playful pat on the shoulder. "Look, kid, the reality is you definitely can't sleep in Haruto's room anymore. Just go downstairs, enjoy your own life, and chill out. Let the grown-ups handle the chaos."
A sudden, heavy knock echoed from the front gate downstairs, instantly cutting through the lingering tension on the second floor.
Haruto, along with Ivory, Lilith, Lustra, and Bellona, immediately turned their attention toward the staircase and headed down to the courtyard. Before they could even reach the front door, Asobi stepped forward to intercept them, her expression unusually serious as she looked at Haruto.
"Boss, they're here," Asobi reported, her voice low and alert. "I sensed them the moment they entered the perimeter. There are two people outside waiting with a massive amount of luggage. But you need to be careful—one of them possesses an absolutely staggering amount of magical energy. The pressure radiating from that person feels incredibly dense... honestly, it feels vastly more powerful than even your current state."
Haruto's single eye narrowed as he processed the warning. More powerful than me right now? he calculated silently, his mind shifting back into tactical mode as he approached the door. Fredrick said he was dropping Seraphine off personally, but if this signature is that monstrous, things are about to get even more complicated.
With the entire household gathered behind him, Haruto reached out and pulled the heavy front door open to face their new arrivals.