The royal carriage pulled up to the gates of Haruto's mansion. Stepping inside the quiet estate, the layout was completely peaceful. Toya and Aetherna were nowhere to be seen, still deeply asleep.
Rutherford materialized silently from the shadows, watching them enter.
"Sir, you have returned," he noted in his usual gravelly tone. Then, his gaze shifted sharply toward the elderly maid.
"And who might this be accompanying you?"
"This is Emilie," Haruto explained, adjusting his academy collar.
"She's a high-tier palace maid. Due to some specific orders from the Queens, she's going to be stationed with me for today."
Rutherford nodded slowly.
"Understood. Shall I assign her a permanent maintenance routine within the estate?"
"No, this isn't a full-time transfer yet," Haruto replied.
"For now, she's just staying close to me. I'm heading out to the academy soon. Where is Toya?"
"Hello, Boss. Good morning," a lazy voice called out. Asobi strolled into the main foyer, casually holding her ornate pipe to her lips and blowing out a slow, swirling puff of smoke with a slight smirk.
"Good morning, Asobi," Haruto greeted her.
Asobi chuckled, tapping the edge of her pipe.
"If you're looking for Toya and Aetherna, good luck. Those two staggered back to the mansion last night after drinking an absolute mountain of alcohol. Toya is completely out cold in his quarters."
Haruto's internal analysis alarms immediately started blinking. He walked straight up to the first floor, heading down the corridor until he reached Toya's room. Pushing the door open, he saw Toya sprawled across the mattress, snoring heavily and completely unresponsive to the world.
Turning back toward the hallway where Emilie was waiting, Haruto put on a calm face.
"Emilie, could you please fetch me a glass of water? The kitchen is right down on the ground floor."
"Right away, Haruto," Emilie replied warmly, bowing before heading down the stairs.
The moment her footsteps faded, Haruto's expression turned completely serious.
"Asobi, Rutherford, get in here right now. I know you're tracking my location."
Rutherford stepped cleanly through the doorway, while Asobi materialized directly down from the ceiling grid, landing silently on the floor.
"I maintained absolute stealth protocol while the old maid was present," Rutherford stated smoothly.
"Sir, your voice channels are active. You can speak freely."
"Only for a limited time window," Haruto muttered, his mind tracking his system clock.
"The system grants me exactly a three-hour operational baseline to use my voice pack every day after the reset."
"A restriction like that? How bizarre," Asobi murmured, blowing a small ring of smoke.
"What's the cause?"
"Even I don't fully understand the backend code behind it yet," Haruto said, shaking his head.
"But right now, that's not our primary concern. Asobi, can you run a quick diagnostic check on these two? Did they drink standard palace wine last night, or was it something else entirely?"
"I can't determine the chemical breakdown just by looking at them, Boss," Asobi replied, shrugging.
Haruto turned back to the room to scan for physical evidence. He walked over to the side of Toya's bed, grabbed the edge of the heavy royal bedsheet, and yanked it back. His heart instantly sank.
Lying empty on the floor beside the frame was a familiar, empty crystal container. It was the exact same Drape Fruit juice bottle.
Shit. Don't tell me they chugged an entire bottle of this stuff too? Haruto thought, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. The system warning explicitly stated that exceeding the 100 ml baseline could trigger severe, unpredictable anomalies, especially threatening mental health and psychological stability.
His analytical mind rapidly ran the numbers, comparing their stats to his own data track. My core system managed to neutralize the extreme toxicity because of my unique player status and hidden support entities. And as for my five fiancées—four of them are literal high-tier goddesses, and Lilith is a Level 99 max-tier reincarnated soul. Their raw baseline metrics can handle the strain.
But Seraphine, Toya, and Aetherna? Seraphine and Toya are just normal human variables! And even with Aetherna's high-tier spirit anatomy, will her spiritual mindscape be able to safely isolate and process a massive overdose like this?
He stared down at the empty bottle, remembering the Queen's words. According to Mom, normal systems take a full five days just to process the toxin and wake up. As long as their internal baselines stay stable, they should just sleep it off... I just have to pray nothing glitches out while they're under.
Suddenly, the door clicked open. Emilie walked back into the room holding the glass of water.
In a split-second reflex, Asobi—who had been casually floating in mid-air—dropped straight down, landing perfectly on her feet. She tucked her arms behind her back, hiding her ornate pipe, and blew out her remaining puff of smoke as quietly and inconspicuously as possible, trying to blend in with the background data.
Emilie blinked, looking at the sudden gathering of Rutherford and Asobi inside Toya's bedroom. She turned to Haruto, her face filled with a polite apology.
"Oh, I am so sorry, Haruto. I didn't mean to interrupt you if you were discussing important household maintenance or security matters with your staff."
"No, no, it's totally fine, Emilie. We were just checking up on him," Haruto replied quickly, smoothing over the tension with a casual smile. He took the glass of water from her.
As he held the glass, a brilliant tactical thought flashed through his analytical mind. He needed a seamless way to distract Emilie so that Asobi and Rutherford could run a full, uninterrupted system diagnostic on Toya and Aetherna without her noticing anything strange.
"Actually, Emilie," Haruto said, turning his gaze toward her with a warm, relaxed expression.
"You mentioned earlier that you used to style and care for Khalid's hair every single morning, right? Honestly... I really haven't been taking good care of my own hair lately. We still have a little bit of time left on the clock before I need to head out to the academy. Do you think you could give me a proper head massage and oil my hair?"
Emilie's eyes lit up with genuine, motherly joy, and a bright smile broke across her wrinkled face.
"Oh, why of course, Haruto! It would be my absolute pleasure. I would love nothing more than to do that for you."
Haruto quickly drank the water, emptying the glass, and then turned his head slightly toward Asobi, giving her a sharp, meaningful look.
"Hey Asobi, is there any hair oil available in this estate?"
Emilie chimed in immediately, nodding. "Yes, young lady, there should be some proper high-tier grooming oil down in the storage or the kitchen sectors. Could you please fetch it?"
"Sure thing, Boss. I'm on it," Asobi replied with a lazy smirk, fully catching onto Haruto's hidden plan.
Haruto turned back toward the door, gesturing for Emilie to follow him out into the corridor.
"Alright then, let's head over to my personal room for hair oiling. Let's leave this poor guy alone so he can sleep off his heavy night in peace."
Haruto sat down cross-legged on the floor of his room, allowing Emilie to stand behind him and gently begin applying the hair oil. Her experienced hands worked through his hair with a smooth, comforting rhythm.
After a few quiet moments, Emilie softly spoke up.
"You know, Haruto... your hair is incredibly unique. Half of it is black, and the other half is pure white. Why is that? I heard from some of the palace attendants that your hair wasn't always like this."
Haruto kept his eyes fixed on the floor, his face shifting into a serious expression.
"Yeah, that's true. It wasn't always like this. I guess... it changed because of a sudden surge of power, or maybe just from an extreme amount of stress."
Emilie massaged his temples gently, her voice turning incredibly soft and motherly.
"Haruto... can I tell you something? I hope you won't take it the wrong way."
"Sure, go ahead," Haruto replied, leaning into the warmth of the massage.
"You look like a very strong, capable warrior on the outside," Emilie murmured softly.
"But for some reason, when I look at your heart, you feel like a fragile little child to me. A child who is deeply terrified of being left completely alone... like a little boy who feels as though he has already lost everything in the world."
The moment those words left her mouth, a massive wave of locked thoughts suddenly flooded Haruto's brain. Uncontrolled flashbacks tore through his mindscape, ripping him right back to his original reality.
He vividly remembered the horrific car accident that had instantly killed both his parents when he was just thirteen years old. Ever since that tragic day, he had been entirely alone in a cold, harsh world. He remembered working grueling, endless shifts at a convenience store just to survive, spending his grueling nights collecting metal scrap, and using every spare second of his miserable life to code custom game tools.
He remembered the exact night a sudden, falling star shattered his ordinary life and warped him into this universe—a fantasy world he had always desperately craved, a world where he finally had the power to do absolutely anything. He saw flashes of how he had inherited the reality-bending Creator metrics, and how he now held the terrifying, absolute power of Nothingness itself within his system.
Just a short while ago, he didn't even have enough spare coins to buy a proper meal, and now, he was officially standing as a King and a groom to five powerful women. Man... he thought, a sudden wave of deep nostalgia hitting his code, it feels like it's been an eternity since I last went out to collect scrap.
When his consciousness snapped back to reality, his active emotional pack completely overwhelmed his baseline. Before he could even react to suppress it, silent, heavy tears began to spill from his eyes, tracking down his cheeks.
Emilie stopped her hands instantly, looking down at his wet face in absolute horror and deep panic.
"Oh my goodness, Haruto! I am so, so sorry! Did I say something terrible? Please forgive an old woman's foolish mouth..."
Haruto let out a soft, wet chuckle, quickly raising his hand to wipe away the tears.
"No, Emilie... you didn't say anything wrong at all. In fact, you hit the spot perfectly."
He took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly but sounding completely genuine.
"You're right about everything... except for one small detail. I'm not actually afraid of being alone. If I were terrified of loneliness, I wouldn't have survived my entire past life by myself. The thing that actually terrifies me... is the thought that this entire world might just be a beautiful, temporary dream. I'm scared that one day I'll suddenly wake up, and everything—this mansion, the girls, you, this power—will completely vanish into thin air. That's my real nightmare."
Emilie looked down at him, her expression softening into pure, unconditional warmth as she gently placed her hands back on his shoulders.
"If that is what your heart feels, Haruto, then it is entirely valid. But I promise you, this reality is very real, and I am right here beside you."
"I wish I could blindly trust all of this," Haruto muttered, his voice dropping as he looked down.
Before he could spiral deeper into his thoughts, he felt a sharp, sudden pinch at the top of his head. "Ow! What the—?"
Emilie stood behind him, casually holding up a single strand of hair she had just plucked. "Oh, my apologies, Haruto. Did that hurt?"
"Of course it hurt!" Haruto said, rubbing the spot on his scalp and looking back at her, thoroughly startled.
Emilie gave a gentle, knowing smile. "If the pain is real, Haruto, then this world is real too. A dream cannot bite back like that."
Haruto stared at her for a second, processing the simple, undeniable logic of her action. The heavy tension in his mind completely evaporated. He closed his eyes, letting out a soft laugh. "Yeah... you're entirely right about that."
Emilie chuckled softly and went right back to massaging his head. To keep his mind off his worries, she started sharing a couple of funny, chaotic stories about what the palace was like back when the current King's grandfather was running things. Haruto found himself laughing out loud, the warm humor melting away the last of his stress. As he listened, a sudden realization crossed his player mindset. Man, I don't think I've ever opened up or just talked to anyone like this in my entire life. There was absolutely no doubt about it—Emilie was a top-tier caretaker. The way her experienced hands moved through his hair made him feel completely safe, protected, and cared for.
Remembering something she had mentioned earlier, Haruto spoke up.
"Emilie, you told me earlier that your daughter works as a maid here at the palace too, right?"
Emilie's hands paused for a fraction of a second before continuing their steady rhythm.
"Ah... she was a maid, Haruto. She doesn't work here anymore."
"Oh, did she change jobs?" Haruto asked casually.
"No," Emilie replied, her voice dropping into a quiet, calm acceptance.
"During the war that broke out fifteen years ago, an enemy soldier killed my daughter. I have no one else left in this world now."
Haruto froze, a heavy wave of guilt and sadness hitting his feelings. "Emilie... I am so sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
"Oh, please don't apologize, it is not your fault at all," Emilie said gently, her tone completely devoid of bitterness.
"My entire world exists strictly within these palace walls. I will simply keep doing my duties here, day after day, until my time finally comes. When I leave this world, I will find my peace. So it doesn't bother me"
Haruto looked down, his analytical mind tracking her words with a heavy heart. It's wild... he thought. I have alter reality and traverse whole dimensions, yet for people like Emilie, their entire universe is bounded by a single palace grid. Their lives are so quiet, packed into such a tiny space.
Before the mood could get any heavier, the door to his room swung open. Asobi stepped into the frame, her pipe tucked away, looking at him with her usual casual smirk.
"Hey, Boss. Your academy schedule is ticking away," Asobi announced.
"If you're still planning to head out to class, we need to move now. Otherwise, you can just sit back and take a rest day."
Haruto instantly stood up, shaking off the lingering drowsiness from the morning and checking his uniform. "No way. I'm going. Let's move."