Haruto quietly slid out of bed, stepped over to the door, and slowly unlocked it. When he pulled it open, he was surprised to see Seraphine standing in the dimly lit hallway. She was wearing her nightdress, which was a bit revealing and short, catching the faint light from the corridor.
Haruto looked at her, his voice quiet so he wouldn't wake anyone.
"Oh, Seraphine. What are you doing here at this hour?"
Seraphine shifted on her feet, looking unusually vulnerable. Even though she was slightly drunk from the party earlier, she seemed to have regained enough of her senses to be coherent.
"Haruto... I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm actually feeling really scared to sleep alone tonight."
Haruto looked at her calmly.
"And what exactly do you want me to do about that?"
"Could you please ask someone to come sleep in my room?" Seraphine asked softly, looking past him. "Like... maybe Lilith?"
Haruto glanced back into his dark room where Lilith was completely passed out across his bed. Waking up a drunk, unpredictable Level 99 goddess right now would be an absolute death wish. He turned back to Seraphine and offered a logical alternative.
"Waking her up right now isn't a good idea. How about this? I'll just go sleep in your room instead."
Seraphine's face instantly flushed a bright, deep red. She completely misunderstood his point and cut him off, waving her hands in a panic.
"N-No way! I am absolutely not sleeping in the same bed as you! We aren't even engaged or married yet, Haruto!"
"Listen to my full sentence first," Haruto said, his tone entirely flat and unbothered.
"You take this room and sleep on my bed. I will head over to your quarters and sleep in your room alone. That way, you don't have to be scared."
Realizing she had jumped to conclusions, Seraphine's face turned even redder out of pure embarrassment. "Oh... I-I'm sorry," she mumbled, looking down at the floor.
She quietly slipped past him into his bedroom, heading toward the bed. Before climbing in, she turned around and whispered, "Thank you, Haruto."
Haruto closed the door behind her and walked down the quiet hallway toward Seraphine's room. For the first time since moving into this massive mansion, he was actually leaving his own personal quarters to sleep in someone else's room. He stepped inside, laid down on her empty bed, and stared up at the dark ceiling.
His mind immediately began analyzing the night's loop. Seraphine was drunk enough that her fears got the better of her, but she didn't even notice or comment on the fact that I was speaking normally to her, he calculated. The alcohol blurred her processing speed, so she completely missed it. But Lilith... He narrowed his eyes in the darkness. Lilith was just as drunk, yet the absolute millisecond she heard my voice, her system flagged it instantly. Even with a mind full of alcohol, she is incredibly observant and dangerously sharp. I'll need to be much more careful around her moving forward.
With that final warning logged into his thoughts, Haruto closed his eye and finally let himself drift off to sleep.
The next morning, Haruto's eyes snapped open as a voice echoed sharply through the silence.
"Hello? Wake up!"
Haruto instantly sat up, his gaze scanning the unfamiliar layout of Seraphine's room, but the perimeter was entirely clear. No one was there. He immediately tried to speak to test his vocal functions, but his throat tightened. He pushed his breath, but not a single sound came out of his mouth. The three-hour unlock from last night had officially expired, and his vocal files were completely restricted again.
"Hello? Are you awake yet?"
The voice rang out again, vibrating directly inside his skull. Haruto froze, instantly decoding the frequency. It was Sirehtea.
Why are you contacting me directly in my head right now? Haruto thought, channeling his inner dialogue toward the source.
"Well, I was thinking about your situation," Sirehtea's voice replied inside his mind, sounding casual and a bit amused.
"Since you can't speak out loud to anyone right now, I figured you'd get incredibly bored living like a silent statue. So, to keep you entertained, I've linked myself directly to your consciousness. From now on, whatever you see and whatever you think, I'll be right here seeing and thinking it with you."
Haruto leaned back against the headboard, his mental expression turning flat. Great. A permanent voice-over in my head. But are you just here to chat, or can you actually provide some useful data parameters?
"Hey, don't underestimate me!" Sirehtea huffed inside his mind.
"Through this link, I can scan whoever is standing in front of you and feed their thoughts, data, and full status screens directly into your mind. Why do you doubt me so much anyway? You are literally talking to one of the two most powerful entities in existence. For me, hacking into a baseline database and making all of this possible is a piece of cake!"
Haruto leaned his head against the wall, taking in this new development. If you can monitor everything, he thought to her, then tell me what exactly happened to my magic. And when am I getting my actual voice back?
"Oh, right, your powers," Sirehtea replied inside his head.
"Aetheris and I are doing everything we can, but formatting and stabilizing that clash between Creation and Nothingness is going to take at least a full month. Your permanent voice will take a month to restore too. But we did manage to hardcode a small bypass for you. From now on, you can unlock your speech for exactly three hours every single day, whenever you want."
Haruto's eyes narrowed slightly as he analyzed this. Any time I want?
"Yes, but there's a catch," Sirehtea warned.
"Once you activate it, the timer runs continuously. You can't pause it or break it up into small pieces throughout the day. It's a single, three-hour continuous block. So choose your timing wisely."
A rare look of genuine satisfaction crossed Haruto's face. Honestly, that's more than enough. It gives me a perfect emergency backup for when I absolutely need to communicate during important missions or tight situations. Having you linked to my mind is actually turning out to be pretty useful. You're basically acting like my own personal AI system, scanning the world and giving me raw data updates.
"Hey! I can hear everything you're whispering in your head, you know!" Sirehtea snapped back, sounding highly offended.
"I am absolutely not your personal AI system, so keep that straight!"
Haruto smirked a little. That's funny. AI doesn't even exist as a concept in your fantasy world. How do you even know what that term means?
"If you're so confused by that, let me explain how our connection actually works," Sirehtea said, her tone shifting into a proud explanation.
"It's all about automated translation. Whenever you think or say something using the modern terms and language from your past world, our mental bond automatically translates it into concepts that make sense to me. And similarly, when we speak using the ancient terms of this world, your mind automatically translates it into words and phrases that you can easily understand. It's a perfect, real-time data bridge."
Well, I actually figured it was something like that already, Haruto thought back to her, entirely unfazed.
He stood up from the bed, stretched his arms, and walked over to the closet to look for a change of clothes. But just as his hand touched the wardrobe door, a sudden, highly critical realization struck his mind.
Wait a second, Haruto froze, his internal thoughts turning sharp. If you can literally see every single thing that I see... and you're technically a girl... doesn't that mean I can't even change my clothes without you watching?
"What do you mean 'technically' a girl?!" Sirehtea snapped loudly inside his head, her tone dripping with offense and annoyance.
"I am a full, complete goddess! And as for you changing your clothes, please get over yourself, Haruto. I have absolutely zero interest in looking at your body. Seriously, do you have any idea how many male bodies I've seen? Almost every single human soul that dies comes through my domain, and I see them exactly as they are. I am completely desensitized to male bodies at this point. What am I even going to do by looking at yours?"
She let out a dramatic, irritated huff before continuing,
"But fine, since you're being so dramatic, I'll close my mental eyes. Go ahead and change quickly. And hey—aren't you going to take a shower first? You're completely dirty from yesterday!"
Just as Haruto was about to open the wardrobe, it suddenly hit him—this wasn't his room. He was still in Seraphine's quarters. Looking around properly, he was completely stunned by what he saw. Seraphine had already moved all her personal belongings in and perfectly arranged the entire room in record time. Ugh, trying to understand how these girls operate is truly impossible, he thought, shaking his head.
He quietly slipped out of her room and headed back to his own quarters. Since he hadn't taken a proper bath after throwing up the night before, he went straight into his spacious bathroom and turned on the water. After stripping down, he stepped into the large, steaming tub to relax.
Suddenly, the bathroom door swung open, and Asobi walked right in without a care in the world.
"Good morning, Boss! Look at you, waking up all by yourself today!" she chirped cheerfully.
Haruto stared at her, completely frozen in the tub. Since his voice was locked, he couldn't even yell at her to get out. He quickly gestured with his fingers, making a motion like he was writing with a pen.
Asobi caught on instantly. She snapped her fingers, and a notepad and pen magically materialized in his hand. Haruto quickly scribbled down a message and held it up:
"Go fetch my fresh clothes. And thank you for keeping my secrets safe last night. By the way, is everyone else awake?"
Asobi read the note and smiled.
"Nope, everyone else is still completely passed out from the alcohol. But a royal messenger arrived from the palace just a little while ago. He brought an official letter for you. You and your entire party have been summoned to the palace today. Because of some sudden circumstances, your official engagement ceremony is happening this very evening!"
Haruto leaned back against the tub, digesting the news. Well, looks like I'm going to miss the academy classes today, he thought. But I suppose this is fine too. It's time to face the royal court.
Haruto finished getting dressed in his finest formal clothes, came downstairs, and sat calmly on the couch in the main hall. Within a few minutes, the rest of the household started trickling down, all of them nursing mild hangovers.
The moment Lilith spotted him, she marched straight over, leaned down, and pinched his ear playfully. "Hey," she whispered mischievously into his ear.
"I distinctly remember telling you that I wanted to sleep with you last night. So how on earth did you end up sneaking into Seraphine's room instead?"
Haruto gently tapped her hand to make her let go. He pulled out his notepad and quickly scribbled down a response:
"She was scared last night. More importantly, we have been officially summoned to the royal palace today. Please focus on that for now."
Lilith blinked, staring at the paper, and then looked up at his silent face.
"Wait, Haruto... you can't speak today?"
Haruto simply shook his head 'no'.
"That's so strange," Lilith muttered, scratching her head in genuine confusion.
"I could have sworn I heard you talking to me perfectly fine last night. Was I really that wasted?"
Hearing this, Ivory couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Pfft! Look at that, Haruto completely played you, and now you're literally hallucinating! Please go get your brain checked, Lilith."
Lilith shot Ivory a furious glare, but her anger vanished the moment she fully processed Haruto's note. Her eyes lit up with absolute excitement.
"Oh! Wait! If we are being summoned to the palace today... Does that mean our official engagement ceremony is happening tonight?!"
The moment the word 'engagement' echoed through the hall, Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra completely froze. The three goddesses looked visibly shaken, their eyes widening in shock.
"Engagement?! Today?!" Ivory stammered, stepping forward with a tense expression.
"Haruto, you told us you weren't going to get engaged to anyone anytime soon!"
Seeing Ivory's defensive reaction, Lilith immediately snapped, crossing her arms with a smug, irritated smirk.
"Oh, shut up, Ivory! Why are you throwing a tantrum about the engagement anyway? You should be thanking me that Haruto didn't actually sleep in my bed last night!"
Haruto quietly watched the three goddesses. Lilith's words from last night echoed in his mind—she had claimed that Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra looked at him with a completely different kind of affection. He still couldn't understand why they would feel that way about him, but he decided to put those thoughts aside and focus on the current situation.
He pulled out his notepad, quickly scribbled a note, and handed it to them.
The three sisters leaned in to read the words:
"Listen, I don't see any harm in getting engaged to Lilith if it grants us real royal status and power. This will ultimately be a massive advantage for all of us in the long run."
As they read the message, the reality of the situation finally hit them. Up until now, they had secretly hoped this whole marriage arrangement was just a temporary joke or a political game that Haruto would reject. But seeing him approach it so logically made their deepest fears real. Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra slowly lowered their heads, their expressions tightening as a heavy wave of sadness and disappointment washed over them.
Lilith noticed their dejected faces and let out a mocking, triumphant laugh, thoroughly enjoying her victory.
But before she could say anything, Haruto stood up from the couch. He walked straight over to the three silent goddesses and, without a single word, pulled all three of them into a warm, sudden group hug.
Lilith didn't mind his action at all. Instead, she just watched them with a playful smirk, thinking to herself that this was actually a pretty interesting turn of events.
When Haruto finally stepped back and let go, he looked at them and noticed that all three of their faces had turned completely bright red from the sudden affection. Before they could get too flustered, Haruto quickly handed them another sheet of paper.
They looked down and read his fresh handwriting:
"Even if I am officially engaged to Lilith, you can view it as a strategic move purely for power. The three of you are my true companions, and you will always be the ones standing right by my side."
The moment the three goddesses finished reading the note, Sirehtea's voice suddenly echoed loudly inside Haruto's mind. Wow, quite a bold move there, Haruto! I am absolutely certain now—those three are definitely in love with you.
Don't overthink it, Haruto replied to her mentally, his thoughts completely calm. They just stress out too much over everything, so I had to calm them down.
If you say so, Sirehtea replied with an amused giggle.
Having read his reassuring words, Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra felt the heavy burden lift from their chests. They quietly tucked the note away, a soft sense of relief washing over them as they sat back down, much more relaxed.
Lilith, however, had peeked at the paper over their shoulders. She marched right back over to Haruto, caught his ear in a firm but playful pinch, and pouted.
"Oh? So I'm just a tool for power to you, huh?" But a second later, she let out a soft laugh, releasing his ear.
"Well, even if it's just for power right now, at least you're finally mine."
Just then, the rest of the household finished getting ready and walked into the main hall. Toya, Seraphine, Rutherford, Asobi, and little Aeterna gathered around the group.
Asobi stepped forward, checking her notes.
"Alright, Boss! Everyone is fully dressed and ready. It's time for us to head out to the royal palace!"
Haruto gave her a firm, confident nod. The entire party was finally aligned, and they were ready to make their move.