Haruto watched the Queen disappear down the long hallway, his analytical mind tracking her words. Man, these Queens are definitely hiding way more than they let on, he thought. They act all playful, but when it comes to running this kingdom's maintenance, they are incredibly serious. Then, a realization hit him, making his eyebrows twitch. Wait a minute... she just casually said I'm shifting to the royal quarters soon. I never even agreed to that! Are they just expecting me to blindly follow their script? This is crazy.
He turned his focus back to his current quest line: heading to the academy. But then, a sudden calculation problem popped up in his head. Shit... how am I going to explain my system restrictions to Emilie? In exactly three hours, my voice pack is going to lock out completely and I won't be able to speak a single word. He looked at the elderly maid waiting politely nearby and mentally shook his head. Whatever, I'll figure that out when the timer hits zero. Let's just move for now.
"Sir, your uniform is ready," Emilie said warmly, handing over a fresh, neatly pressed set of his academy clothes.
Haruto quickly changed, feeling a million times better now that he wasn't walking around the cold palace bare-chested. As he fastened his collar, he felt a sense of relief.
Going to the academy today is actually a good thing. It'll be a nice change of scenery to clear my mind and get away from all this intense palace drama for a bit. Plus, I really need to have a serious discussion with my professor about a few important matters.
With his loaded left hand safely hidden away, Haruto walked out of the royal quarters with Emilie following closely behind, ready to face whatever the academy had waiting for him.
As they walked out toward the palace courtyard, Haruto looked over at the elderly maid walking beside him.
"Emilie, if you don't mind me asking, how long have you been working here at the palace?"
Emilie gave a soft, nostalgic smile.
"Young master, I was assigned to the royal palace practically the moment I was born. My family has served this crown for generations, and now my own daughter is working here too. You could say I have been here for over seventy years. I've seen everything since the time of the current King's grandfather. In fact, once you officially join the family, you will be the fourth generation of royals I have looked after."
"Wow, that's incredible," Haruto said, his analytical mind instantly locking onto her massive wealth of experience.
"In that case, do you think you could answer a few questions for me about this place?"
"Of course, young master. I will answer anything you wish to know," Emilie replied politely.
Haruto rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a bit awkward under his active emotional pack.
"And also... Can you please stop calling me 'sir' or 'young master' every two seconds? You are much older than me. It feels weird. You can just call me by my name, Haruto."
Emilie looked startled and quickly shook her head.
"Oh no, sir, that is absolutely not allowed. We only use names for people of our own class. Using a casual name for royalty is completely forbidden."
Haruto stopped walking and looked at her firmly.
"Consider it my direct order."
"But... young master..." Emilie stammered, looking torn.
"No buts," Haruto said, crossing his arms and putting on a serious face.
"If you can't follow a simple order from me, then I'm afraid you can't stay by my side or come to the mansion. Please, just call me Haruto."
Seeing his stubborn expression, Emilie realized he wasn't going to back down. She let out a gentle sigh, her eyes warming up.
"Alright... Haruto. If that is your wish, I will follow your order. Please, ask me whatever questions you have, and I will do my best to answer them."
Emilie aligned her pace perfectly with Haruto as they crossed the quiet courtyard, keeping her voice low.
"Haruto, please ask whatever is on your mind. I am ready to answer anything."
Haruto didn't look at her immediately; his eyes remained fixed on the stone path ahead as his analytical mind began sorting through the political structure of this world. Finally, he spoke up, his voice steady.
"Emilie... did the King have any other children before Lilith?"
The question hit like a sudden status debuff. Emilie visibly flinched, her warm demeanor twisting into sharp, guarded anxiety as she looked around to make sure no guards were near.
"Yes, Haruto, but why do you ask?" she replied, her voice dropping into a heavily subdued whisper.
"There were other royal children once."
Haruto's gaze shifted straight to her face, tracking her micro-expressions.
"Then what exactly happened to them? Why is Lilith the only one left standing in the royal line?"
Emilie took a slow, heavy breath, staring at the ground as the dark history resurfaced.
"Years ago, our kingdom was locked in a cycle of brutal, relentless wars. The absolute worst of the chaos struck right when every single one of the King's wives happened to become pregnant at the exact same time."
Haruto frowned slightly, calculating metrics running in his mind.
"Why would that specific timing trigger a full-scale war?"
"Because in the world's system, a King's absolute greatest asset is his wives," Emilie explained with absolute seriousness.
"The women chosen to stand beside the King are selected from the absolute most powerful fighters across the lands. Our Main Queen, during her prime, was widely recognized as the strongest human being alive in the entire world. Her baseline level was somewhere around Level 70."
Haruto paused in his tracks, the raw data smoothly clicking into place.
"Oh, I see the logic now. When all the high-level Queens became pregnant simultaneously, their physical combat stats temporarily dropped. The enemy nations viewed that exact window as a severe vulnerability. They thought the kingdom's top tier of defenders was compromised, so they launched a massive, coordinated attack to wipe out the royal lineage."
"Exactly," Emilie nodded grimly, her shoulders tensing.
"The King had a total of ten wives back then. But there is a hidden royal mechanic attached to the marriage bond that commoners know absolutely nothing about. When a King and his Queens complete that sacred ceremony and exchange their blood, their very life forces become deeply bound through a special, hidden skill. If the King is ever fatally struck down in battle, any one of his bound wives can willingly sacrifice her own life force to force a system revival, bringing the King instantly back from the dead."
A sharp chill ran straight down Haruto's spine, completely shattering his calm baseline.
"Wait... what?!" Haruto gasped, staring at her in absolute shock.
"Are you telling me that if I ever get killed in a fight, any one of the girls who wore my ring can literally die in my place to resurrect me?!"
"Please, speak of more fortunate things, Haruto!" Emilie whispered frantically, waving her hands in deep worry.
"But... from a purely mechanical standpoint... yes. You are entirely correct."
Haruto stood completely frozen, his heart hammering against his ribs as a massive realization flooded his brain. His thoughts instantly raced back to the balcony ceremony and Sirehtea's mysterious words about Lilith's hidden past.
So this is the real secret behind the game mechanic, Haruto thought, his inner mind reeling as the pieces fell into place. Sirehtea told me Lilith was a reincarnated soul and had a hidden motive for pushing me to expand my circle. If every single bound wife represents a literal extra life or a backup resurrection protocol for me, then Lilith isn't just happily watching me collect engagement rings because she's being sweet. She's actively trying to stack up as many safety nets as humanly possible. She is trying to keep me alive, even if it means risking everything.
Before Haruto could fully process the terrifying weight of that realization, a voice echoed deep inside his mind. It sounded faint and distant, heavily muffled by static.
"That's... just the simple truth, Haruto..."
Haruto instantly snapped his attention inward. Sirehtea? Is that you? What do you mean by that? Explain it properly!
"I'm running... out of time..." her voice flickered, growing weaker by the second. "Just wanted to remind you... I have to go for a while now... to repair your internal system... and handle the data calibration..."
Hey! Wait a minute! Haruto mentally shouted, panic flashing through his logic tracks. If you're going to drop a massive hint like that, at least finish what you were saying before you vanish! Don't leave me hanging!
But no matter how much he called out, his mindscape remained completely dead and silent. The connection was entirely severed. Haruto mentally gritted his teeth, thoroughly annoyed. Dammit! What is her problem? She always pops in, drops a massive bombshell about world mechanics, and then immediately goes offline to 'repair systems' right when I need answers!
"Haruto? Are you alright? Are you even listening to me?"
Emilie's worried voice suddenly broke through his internal thoughts, pulling him right back to reality.
Haruto blinked, snapping out of his head as he realized he had been standing completely frozen in the middle of the courtyard, staring blankly into space. He quickly cleared his throat and looked at the elderly maid, forcing an awkward smile to cover up his distraction.
"Oh! Sorry about that, Emilie," Haruto said quickly, shaking his head to clear the thoughts.
"My mind just wandered for a second. Yes, I'm listening. Please, go ahead and tell me everything."
Emilie wiped her eyes and took a deep breath, her voice shaking as she continued the story.
"When all the Queens became pregnant at the same time, Lilith was already three years old. Her own mother was expecting another child, and the King's third wife already had a six-year-old son who was incredibly mischievous. He was the Crown Prince. Do you know what his name was? It was Khalid."
She paused, a look of profound respect flashing across her face.
"Khalid was terrifyingly powerful. Normally, a human is born at Level 0, and even stronger races are born around Level 5 or 6. Most people spend the first 15 to 20 years of their lives just growing up before they even start leveling up. But Khalid? He was born at Level 15. He was a prodigy at everything. Within just 30 days of being born, he was already walking and speaking perfectly. By the age of five, he had completely shaken the entire warrior class of this kingdom. Everyone was convinced he would become the most powerful entity in the world."
Emilie looked up at Haruto, her eyes glinting.
"But then Lilith was born. She entered the world at Level 4, but she completely surpassed Khalid's genius. On the exact day of her birth, she was already speaking, walking, and casting magic. The entire world thought our King possessed some sort of divine, forbidden sorcery. So, when all ten Queens became pregnant simultaneously after that, the neighboring empires panicked. They realized that if ten more royal children of that caliber were born, our nation would become completely unstoppable and conquer the world. That is why they united and declared a brutal, merciless war against us."
A tear finally slid down Emilie's wrinkled cheek. "They targeted the unborn children, Haruto. They attacked to kill them right inside their mothers' wombs. The enemies sent a massive army, and the Crown Prince, Khalid, was cornered by 200 elite warriors at once. He fought like a demon, but he was overwhelmed. In his final, bleeding moments, his only goal was ensuring that Lilith survived. The entire royal guard shielded her with their lives."
She trembled, gripping her dress tight. "The war was so catastrophic that the King himself literally died three times during the conflict. Once from a lethal poison, once from an arrow through his chest, and once from a dagger to his heart. Our Main Queen—Lilith's mother—was heavily pregnant, but she willingly triggered the sacred sacrifice mechanic and gave her own life force to resurrect the King. Two other Queens did the exact same thing, including Khalid's mother, sacrificing themselves to pull the King back from the system graveyard."
Emilie covered her face, sobbing openly now.
"The remaining Queens who were still pregnant saw the absolute slaughter around them. They truly believed that the heavy burden of their unborn children was the sole reason the kingdom was being destroyed. In their deep despair and guilt, they refused to eat, intentionally starving themselves and freezing their own lifelines until the babies died inside their wombs. Out of all the royal children, absolutely no one survived except Lilith."
She quietly wiped her tears away, looking up at Haruto with a heavy, questioning gaze. "It is a dark, forbidden history that no one speaks of... but tell me, Haruto, why did you suddenly ask me about this today?"
Haruto's eyes widened in absolute shock, his pupils dilating as the raw weight of the data hit him. Even though Emilie had explained the tragedy with the utmost gentleness and care, the sheer brutality of the history left him completely stunned.
What kind of twisted, cutthroat lore is this? Haruto thought, his analytical mind working at redline speeds. But wait... a completely new variable just entered the equation. Khalid.
His player mindset immediately started cross-referencing the power levels Emilie had just detailed. Hold on. Emilie said Lilith was born at Level 4 and grew from there? No... that doesn't compute with my actual inspections. Haruto knew for a fact that Lilith's hidden, absolute baseline was Level 99.
A massive revelation clicked inside his mind. It's impossible for a Level 4 child to just naturally scale to a max-tier world boss baseline like that. The only logical explanation is that Lilith possessed an incredibly high-tier system control modifier right from the moment of her birth. She must have intentionally suppressed her true Level 99 status, masking her data metrics to look like a Level 4 prodigy so she wouldn't alert the entire world's radar!
He stared blankly ahead, a cold sweat breaking out on his neck. Lilith's entire lineage is deeply shrouded in forbidden, high-level secrets. Everything she casually told me back at the mansion... it wasn't even 10% of the actual truth. She completely hid the real horror of her past from me.
The sheer gravity of the story left a heavy, suffocating silence in the courtyard. Haruto stood there, completely paralyzed by the dark background data for a long moment. Finally, he turned his gaze back to the elderly maid, his voice quiet but intense.
"Emilie..." Haruto asked, his eyes locki
ng onto hers. "Is there... is there anything else? Please, tell me the rest."