Haruto was still staring at the glowing screen in his mind, trying to figure out why his levels hadn't increased, when Sirehtea's voice suddenly popped up, sounding completely done with him.
"Oh my god, use your brain for a second!" she sighed loudly.
"You didn't get a level up just because you put a ring on Lilith and Seraphine! Those level ups triggered because they were brand-new powerful entities joining your team for the first time. Understand? Ivory, Bellona, and Lustra were already registered on your team from the very beginning. Why would the system reward you twice for the same people? This system didn't just break its own rules for you."
Haruto got highly annoyed and snapped back in his mind, Hey! Watch your mouth!
"I didn't literally mean that, it was just a figure of speech!" Sirehtea fired back, rolling her eyes internally.
"Anyway, change the subject and look at the bigger picture. Didn't I tell you that those three genuinely love you? Look at how easily they accepted the rings. Girls are soft-hearted like that."
Haruto mentally frowned, his emotional baseline completely flat and uncaring. I already told you, I'm not interested in romance. Got it?
"Fine, that's your choice," Sirehtea said, her voice dropping into a mysterious, teasing tone.
"But let me tell you something interesting. Lilith was actually a reincarnated soul in her past life. That's exactly why she didn't care at all when you added more girls to your circle. Do you want to know the secret behind that?"
Haruto's attention caught on that variable. What secret? Tell me.
"Nope! If I explain it, it won't make any sense to you," Sirehtea giggled, completely locking him out.
"Lilith will have to tell you herself when the time comes. You can go ahead and ask her later."
Haruto stood near the edge of the hall, his mind completely blank and emotionless as he pondered what Sirehtea had just revealed. A reincarnated soul? Is that why Lilith is so casual about all of this? He filed the information away for later, realizing he'd just have to ask her directly when they got back to the mansion.
Looking away from his thoughts, Haruto scanned the grand room. The atmosphere had shifted once again. The formal royal protocols were officially over, and the servants were now rolling out large barrels and pouring heavy amounts of alcohol for the guests. The noblemen and high-ranking officials were completely letting loose, raising their glasses, shouting cheers, and drinking heavily.
Since Haruto's basic awareness and physical senses had become incredibly sharp, he quickly scanned the entire crowd. A strange detail immediately caught his attention. Wait... there isn't a single child or young person in this entire hall, he noted bluntly. Every single guest drinking and celebrating here is an old noble or a senior official. They really are keeping this entire double engagement and the existence of these girls completely hidden from the rest of the world.
As the minutes dragged on, the noise of the drunken crowd grew louder, and Haruto felt a familiar, heavy wave of boredom hitting his mind. The exciting parts of the game—the combat calibrations, the sudden double ritual, and the secret balcony event—were all completely finished. Now, it was just a room full of old men getting drunk.
This is getting incredibly tedious, Haruto thought, his inner player mindset completely checked out. I already got the engagement rings, cleared the main event, and stabilized my progression paths. There's absolutely no reason for me to stand around in this stuffy palace anymore. It's time to pack up my things and get out of here.
He looked down at the royal tables. He had strictly promised himself earlier that he wouldn't touch a single drop of alcohol, so his own glass remained completely untouched. But everyone else around him, including Toya, Aetherna, and the older lords, were busy enjoying their drinks.
Realizing he couldn't just walk out the front door without causing a scene, Haruto quietly backed away from the main spotlight, waiting for the perfect split-second to slip away unnoticed from his own celebration party.
Haruto's sharp gaze darted across the loud, crowded hall, and his eyes stopped right on Aetherna. He blinked, watching her casually raising a glass and drinking right along with the adults. Wait, even Aetherna is drinking? He paused, his logical mind quickly correcting the thought. Oh, right. She just takes the form of a little child, but she isn't actually a kid at all. She's completely fine. And since every single noble in the room was thoroughly wasted, absolutely no one was paying attention or trying to stop her.
But as Haruto looked away from her, his internal warning systems instantly went off. The three Queens were walking straight toward him.
Oh great. This is a massive, high-level bad news event, Haruto thought, his face remaining completely flat despite the mental alarm. The Queens had clearly had a lot to drink themselves, and they looked incredibly dangerous as they closed the distance, their usual royal grace replaced by a loose, unpredictable energy.
Before they could corner him, Haruto noticed a shift in his surroundings. He was suddenly guided away from the main hall and pushed straight into an adjacent, private royal bedroom. But he wasn't alone. Lilith and Seraphine were right there with him—and both of them were completely, utterly drunk. The Queens had clearly forced them to drink a massive amount of the heavy palace alcohol before pushing them all in here.
Thud.
The heavy wooden door swung shut behind them, and the sharp sound of a lock clicking into place echoed through the quiet room.
Haruto walked over and grabbed the handle, twisting it firmly. It didn't budge. Great. The gate is completely locked from the outside, he thought, his analytical mind assessing the perimeter. My voice pack is completely locked out, my emotions are at zero baseline, and I am trapped in a confined space. I literally cannot do anything to force my way out right now.
He turned around to face the room, his eyes landing on his two new fiancées. Lilith and Seraphine were swaying slightly, their faces completely flushed a deep, burning red as they giggled and muttered incoherently.
A heavy trace of suspicion crossed Haruto's mind as he observed their bizarre behavior. Wait a second... why are they acting this wild? he thought, stepping back slightly as they started to stumble toward him. The normal palace wine shouldn't affect them this aggressively. Did the Queens force them to drink something entirely different? This doesn't look like normal intoxication at all... something is definitely wrong here.
Just as Haruto was analyzing their strange behavior, Sirehtea's voice popped up in his mind, sounding incredibly amused.
"Yep, your logic is 100% correct. Those two definitely didn't drink normal palace wine. The Queens made them drink Drape Fruit juice."
Haruto couldn't speak out loud, but he mentally questioned her, demanding to know what exactly a Drape Fruit was.
"A Drape Fruit is a super rare magical fruit," Sirehtea explained, giggling.
"Just a single drop of its essence is used to make a thousand regular bottles of wine. But drinking the pure juice itself? That hits your system with the power of a thousand wines combined! It's incredibly expensive, but of course, the royal family keeps a private stash. Right now, both of your new wives are completely out of their minds and totally uncontrolled."
Haruto stared blankly as Lilith and Seraphine took another stumbling step toward him, their eyes completely unfocused.
"Look, I'll give you a helpful tip if you want to survive this," Sirehtea whispered mischievously.
"If you set your movement to absolute zero and stand perfectly still, their blurred vision will basically ignore you like background furniture. But hey... if you want to make things a little more interesting and spicy, please just let them be! I really want to watch these girls go absolutely wild!"
No way, shut up! Haruto snapped back in his mind, completely rejecting her chaotic idea.
Without wasting another second, Haruto cut his internal link with Sirehtea. He stood right where he was, locked his joints, and turned himself into a literal human statue. He didn't blink, he didn't twitch, and he barely even breathed, hoping his absolute stillness would trick his two incredibly drunk fiancées into looking right past him.
Despite Haruto standing as still as a stone wall, his absolute zero-movement strategy failed immediately. Lilith and Seraphine stumbled right up to him, swaying heavily on their feet. The moment they closed the distance, a massive, overpowering wave of pure Drape Fruit scent hit Haruto right in the face. The smell was so intensely thick and dizzying that his face went completely pale, and a violent wave of nausea turned his stomach. He felt like he was about to throw up right then and there.
Before he could even process the sickness, Seraphine suddenly spun around on her heels, completely losing her balance, and collapsed face-first onto the large royal bed, dead to the world for a split second.
Haruto let out a silent sigh of relief, thinking half the threat was down. But he relaxed too early. Lilith turned around, her unfocused eyes locking straight onto him.
Before Haruto could take a single step backward, Lilith lunged forward with surprising speed. She threw her arms tightly around his neck, using her full body weight to pull him down. Haruto lost his footing completely, and Lilith slammed him flat onto the mattress, pinning him beneath her.
Both girls were still wearing their incredibly heavy, elaborate royal ceremony dresses. Between the massive layers of Lilith's gown and her pinning him down, Haruto's entire body was completely trapped and covered. He couldn't move an inch. Lilith sat right on top of him, looking down with a wild, flushed smile as she muttered fuzzily, "Where do you think you're going, huh? You can't run away from me..."
Hearing the commotion, Seraphine suddenly blinked her eyes open and sat up on the bed. When she saw Haruto pinned right beside her, her drunk eyes lit up with sudden excitement. She crawled over, leaning over him with a bright, chaotic grin.
"Oh! Look who it is!" Seraphine cheered, her voice completely slurred but incredibly loud.
"My very first fiancée in my whole life! You're mine now... so don't you dare be shy around me!"
Lilith staggered slightly on top of him, blinking through her blurred vision, and pointed a shaky finger toward a nearby side table. Seraphine's drunk eyes followed her gesture, and she let out a loud, excited cheer. "Oh! There's more! I'll go get it!"
Seraphine crawled across the mattress, grabbed a heavy, beautifully sealed crystal bottle from the table, and stumbled back over to the bed. Lilith took it from her, her hands completely clumsy as she ripped away the royal wax seal.
Haruto's sharp eyes immediately locked onto the official palace label pasted across the front of the container:
[ 100% PURE DRAPE FRUIT JUICE ]
Warning: Strictly do not consume more than $100\text{ ml}$. Exceeding this baseline limit will trigger extreme, unpredictable physiological anomalies.
Haruto's internal alarms screamed in absolute panic as he read the secondary metric on the glass. The bottle wasn't a standard small flask—it was a massive, 2-liter jug of pure, concentrated concentrate.
The moment Seraphine popped the cork, a dense, suffocating wave of pure Drape Fruit aroma exploded into the bedroom air, instantly making the entire room spin. Before Haruto could even attempt to lock his jaw or roll away, Lilith leaned down, pinned his shoulders firmly against the mattress with her heavy ceremonial dress, and forced the rim of the heavy glass bottle straight between his lips.
Without a shred of hesitation, she tilted the bottle completely upside down.
Because his voice pack and physical controls were locked by the system baseline, Haruto couldn't scream, protest, or push them away. The thick, intensely sweet, and violently burning crimson liquid began pouring down his throat in a heavy, continuous stream. Little by little, the girls held the bottle high, giggling chaotically as the massive 2-liter reservoir slowly emptied directly into his system.
The sheer volume of the magical elixir completely overwhelmed his physical senses. A burning, blinding heat surged from his chest and raced through his entire body, turning his skin bright red as his internal hardware tried to process the massive overdose. The intensity of the sensory overload was so violent that, despite his flat emotional baseline, involuntary tears of pure physical strain began to spill from the corners of his eyes, tracking down his face as the last drops of the 2-liter bottle finally emptied into his mouth.
The moment the last drop of that massive 2-liter bottle slid down his throat, Haruto's consciousness shattered completely. The physical world around him evaporated instantly. It felt as though he had plunged headfirst into a vast, boundless ocean of pure light, completely severing his connection to reality.
Within this warm space, all the heavy boredom, the locked systems, and the constant mental tension vanished. Beautiful, glowing flowers seemed to bloom everywhere around him in mid-air. He felt completely weightless, floating through a breathtaking sky where every single detail looked stunningly beautiful. For the first time in a very long time, he felt absolutely no pain, no pressure, and no constraints.
Suddenly, a resonant, echoing knock vibrated through the center of his mind.
Who's there? Haruto asked, his voice echoing in the peaceful space.
Two massive entities materialized directly in front of him. One was a brilliant, radiant being emitting pure light, and the other was a deep, mysterious form that seemed to absorb light itself. It was Sirehtea and Aetheris.
Haruto looked at the light-emitting form, recognizing him instantly. Aetheris... long time no see.
"Haha, yeah," Aetheris's voice echoed deeply, filled with a tired but warm amusement.
"I've been incredibly busy in the background data tracks lately."
"He worked hard all day long," Sirehtea added, stepping forward within the light.
"I only used to pop into your mindscape before just to pass the time and check on you. But right now, both of us are seriously furious with you. That magical alcohol is absolute poison for your human physical body!"
Haruto waved his hands defensively in the floating space. Hey, don't blame me! I didn't drink it by choice, and I don't even like the taste! But honestly... look around. This place feels incredibly beautiful and pleasant.
Sirehtea's expression turned incredibly sharp. With a single wave of her hand, she warped the beautiful scenery, conjuring a highly detailed, translucent human figure right in front of him.
"This is a real-time layout of your physical body right now, Haruto. Look at it!"
Haruto stared at the projection and recoiled in horror. The internal organs of the phantom body were completely failing. The stomach and intestines were violently inflamed as if they were on fire, the liver was darkening rapidly from severe toxic overload, and both the pancreas and kidneys were turning a bruised, ash-black color under the chemical strain.
What the hell?! Haruto was shocked out mentally. I only drank from that bottle one single time!
"I have already told you that 'one time' was concentrated enough to equal a thousand heavy doses at once!" Sirehtea scolded him firmly, her eyes flashing with absolute authority.
"From this exact moment on, you are making a strict promise to us: you will never, ever touch a single drop of alcohol again. Do you understand?"
Staring at the horrifying status layout of his internal organs, Haruto didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second. Yes... I promise. I am absolutely never drinking that stuff ever again.
The moment the words left his mind, both Sirehtea and Aetheris faded away into a soft glimmer of light, and the beautiful floating ocean dissolved into darkness.
Haruto's eyes snapped open with a heavy, sudden gasp.
The weight of reality hit his senses all at once. He was back on the mattress of the locked royal bedroom, the morning light faintly peeking through the heavy curtains. He groaned slightly, his head throbbing with a dull ache, but his body's core systems felt stable again.
He slowly sat up, resting his back against the headboard, and looked down at his sides. Lilith was curled up fast asleep on his left, and Seraphine was sprawled out completely sound asleep on his right. The sheer, overwhelming intensity of the Drape Fruit juice had finally knocked both of them out cold, leaving the room completely quiet after a wild, chaotic night.