Harem Of Eternal Yandere Beasts: My Legendary Wives

Chapter 57: Departure Preparations

The first week slipped by faster than Orion expected—which, in his experience, usually meant he wasn’t paying enough attention. The realization hit him on a quiet, humid morning in the center of the training grounds. Sweat stung his eyes as he guided a fresh wave of Stage Two refinement through his channels. Six entire days had simply vanished. Inside his chest, the Sovereign Core spun with a quiet, heavy rhythm. It wasn’t the explosive breakthrough he’d half-expected, but rather a slow, relentless momentum. Like a mountain quietly settling into the earth.

"You’re doing it again," a voice drifted down.

Orion looked up to find Luna dangling her legs lazily over the edge of the training wall.

"Doing what?"

"Thinking too hard. Your face is doing that smug thing again."

Orion frowned, wiping his brow with the back of his forearm. "I’m literally frowning right now."

"Exactly. A smug frown," Luna said, looking entirely too pleased with herself.

Orion sighed and chose to ignore her, though a small knot of worry tightened in his stomach. She was getting way too good at reading him.

The shift around the estate wasn’t physical; it was social. The dust from the trial still hadn’t settled, and the sudden lurch in hierarchy was making everyone awkward. Servants who used to look right through him now bowed so low it looked painful. Junior cousins who had spent years pretending he didn’t exist suddenly found reasons to loiter near the training fields, attempting agonizingly stiff small talk.

One boy had spent five grueling minutes debating the upcoming rainy season before panicking and fleeing when Orion asked a genuine follow-up question. Another tried to ask for swordplay tips, only to nearly faint when Luna silently materialized in his blind spot. Orion still wasn’t sure what the third one wanted; the guy had just stared at him from behind a pillar for ten minutes.

Recognition changed people, but success changed them at a sprint. The Ashbourne family had treated him as an inconvenience for as long as he could remember. Now, his name was in every mouth. It wasn’t an unpleasant change, exactly, but it felt like a problem that needed solving—and unfortunately, there wasn’t a cultivation technique for handling awkward relatives.

Three days later, the atmosphere in the estate grew even tighter when Magnus Ashbourne requested a private audience. The Patriarch didn’t typically *request* things; he issued summons. A request implied Orion had a choice, which meant Magnus wasn’t looking for blind obedience this time. He wanted honesty. That realization made Orion far more nervous than a standard command would have.

They met in the Patriarch’s private inner garden, stripped of guards, attendants, and politics. Magnus sat beside a low stone table, already pouring from a steaming clay pot. He gestured to the empty cup across from him.

Orion took his seat in silence. It wasn’t the tense, suffocating silence of the courtroom, but a heavy, patient quiet that neither felt the need to break.

"You’ve changed," Magnus said eventually, setting the kettle down.

Orion caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the dark amber tea. "I should hope so."

"I don’t mean your strength," Magnus clarified, his sharp eyes locking onto Orion’s. "I mean your perspective. Six months ago, you were a boy looking at his own feet, wondering how to survive the next step. Now you’re looking at the horizon."

"The trial forced my hand," Orion admitted.

"It did. And the Imperial Academy will do the same, only on a much grander scale." Magnus took a slow sip. "The empire is vast, Orion. Larger than this family’s pride. You’ll meet geniuses there."

Orion held his gaze. "Good."

"You’ll meet monsters."

"Better."

Magnus let out a rare, genuine laugh that crinkled the edges of his eyes. "You really are your grandfather’s blood. That was a compliment, by the way." He set the cup down, his expression hardening back into the formidable Patriarch the world knew. "The academy rewards raw talent, but it also breeds vicious ambition. There are clans out there that make the Ashbournes look like provincial merchants. There are entities older than the throne itself. And there are plenty of people who will offer you a smile while calculating the exact cost of your burial."

Orion absorbed the words, the casual warmth of the garden suddenly feeling very far away. "I’ll remember."

"See that you do. Don’t let a few easy victories make you careless." Magnus studied him for a long, quiet moment before nodding, apparently satisfied with what he saw.

Orion breathed a mental sigh of relief. Failing an exam you didn’t even know you were taking was always a massive headache.

The following week brought an entirely different flavor of complication. During a quiet family dinner, Doran casually remarked that the Imperial Academy drew thousands of students from every corner of the empire.

Orion had nodded, thinking nothing of it, until Doran added, "And roughly half the student body are women."

The dining room went dead silent. Orion froze mid-chew. Astra’s eyes darted sideways. Doran instantly realized the gravity of his mistake, his jaw tightening as he stared at his plate.

Luna slowly set her chopsticks down, a slow, terrifyingly bright smile spreading across her face. "Half, you say?"

"Luna, don’t," Orion muttered, rubbing his temples.

"Thousands of them," she mused aloud, completely ignoring him as Astra tried—and failed—to stifle a snort. "How highly educational."

By the third week, the numbers finally started moving again. His Combat Instinct ticked up to twenty-nine percent, while the Night Domain broke past the fifty-three percent mark. The daily sparring sessions with Doran’s summons remained a brutal, exhausting nightmare. Every time Orion figured out how to counter the stag’s infamous antler-to-the-knee strike, the beast immediately invented two entirely new ways to humiliate him. It was an incredibly frustrating way to learn, but damn if it wasn’t working.

Then, with just three and a half weeks left before departure, the familiar, cold weight of the interface flashed in his vision.

◈ MYTHIC SUMMONING SYSTEM ◈

Condition Met: Long-Term Growth Evaluation Complete.

Host Progress Exceeds Projection.

Reward Available. Claim?

[ YES ] / [ NO ]

◈ ◈ ◈

Orion blinked, staring at the floating text.

"What is it?" Luna asked, leaning over his shoulder.

"A growth reward. The system’s throwing me a bone." Orion tapped [ YES ], and the text blurred into a new description.

◈ REWARD ACQUIRED ◈

Sovereign Insight Token ×1

Description: A single-use perception enhancement. Allows temporary observation of hidden potentials, concealed talents, and dormant evolutionary pathways.

Duration: 30 Minutes

Recommended Use: Academy Evaluation Period.

◈ ◈ ◈

Orion stared at the token resting in his inventory. The timing was entirely too convenient. The system, or whatever ancient intelligence ran the damn thing, clearly knew exactly what was coming down the line.

When the final week arrived, time seemed to blur together in a chaotic rush of packing, supply runs, and final farewells. Before he quite felt ready for it, the morning of departure arrived.

The estate gates were a chaotic mess of carriages, shouting servants, and emotional families before the sun had even cleared the mountains. Orion traveled light, carrying only a single leather pack. Luna walked beside him, while Mist remained coiled tightly within his shadow and Cipher rested silently in his spiritual space.

Doran approached them first, the massive silver-eyed stag trotting quietly at his heel. He thrust a small, heavy wooden case into Orion’s hands.

"Emergency salutes and antidotes," Doran said roughly, looking everywhere but at Orion. "Knowing your luck, you’ll burn through them by mid-semester."

Orion smiled, tucking the case into his pack. "Thanks."

Astra stepped up next, tossing a small, rune-carved token into the air. Orion caught it out of habit. "Signal beacon," she explained, crossing her arms. "If you get famous out there before I do, I’m coming to challenge you myself."

"I’d expect nothing less," Orion said.

The crowd near the gates fell completely silent as Magnus Ashbourne walked toward them. The Patriarch stopped a few paces away, his gaze sweeping over Orion one last time, measuring the posture, the flow of mana, the quiet confidence. He gave a single, firm nod.

"Go."

It wasn’t a long speech, but it didn’t need to be. The command carried everything—grow, survive, and return when the world knew his name.

"Yeah," Orion replied.

Luna climbed into the carriage first, immediately taking the best seat by the window to claim her territory. Orion climbed in after her, and with a sharp whistle from the driver, the wheels began to turn.

As the high stone walls of the Ashbourne Estate slowly shrank into the distance, Orion didn’t look back for long. He turned his eyes toward the open road ahead, toward the Imperial Academy, the strange instructors who already knew his name, and the vast, dangerous empire waiting to test him. Deep within his chest, the Sovereign Core turned with a steady, unyielding power.

He was ready.