Harem Of Eternal Yandere Beasts: My Legendary Wives

Chapter 60: The One Who Waited

Orion woke well before dawn, a habit long beaten into him by years of relentless training. The academy grounds were dead quiet, the winding stone pathways outside Dormitory Seven still entirely empty of the incoming crowds. He preferred it this way; early mornings meant fewer distractions, less ambient noise, and fewer opportunities for Luna to pick fights with random strangers—though, knowing her, that last one was never a guarantee.

The cultivation chamber hidden beneath the dormitory exceeded every expectation. The moment Orion stepped inside, the sheer density of the ambient mana hit him. It was incredibly pure, drawn and refined by intricate wall inscriptions so advanced that even Cipher stirred within his spiritual space. Access to a node like this was something a Silver-ranked cultivator would happily kill for, yet the academy simply handed the keys to incoming first-years. Orion wasn’t about to complain.

Settling cross-legged at the focal point of the formation, he let the Sovereign Core begin its steady, familiar rotation. Stage Two refinement flowed smoothly through his channels, feeling far more natural and efficient than it had just a week prior, as if his physical body was finally adapting to the core’s permanent presence. Hours blurred by in the silence. When he finally opened his eyes, his perception felt sharper and clearer. The interface confirmed the steady crawl of his metrics: Combat Instinct was up to thirty-one percent, and Night Domain had reached fifty-seven. It wasn’t an explosive breakthrough, but it was real, tangible progress. And real progress was the only kind that mattered.

Walking back upstairs, he found Luna waiting for him in the main room. To his surprise, she was visibly pouting.

"What happened?" Orion asked.

"You left."

"To train."

"Without me."

"Luna, I was downstairs."

"Still counts."

They stared each other down, neither willing to blink, until Orion finally offered a truce. "I’ll bring snacks next time."

The pout vanished instantly, replaced by a satisfied nod. She truly was a terrifying creature.

By midmorning, the central evaluation district was swarming with thousands of students heading toward the main arenas. The sheer scale was massive, with heavy formation barriers enclosing each combat field while senior instructors watched the chaos unfold from elevated observation platforms. The air practically buzzed with competitive nerves. Plenty of rookies were already trying to glare each other down or posture in the lines—idiots, in Orion’s opinion. Anyone with actual combat experience knew better than to show their hand before a match even started.

He kept his head down, quietly cataloging faces, until the Sovereign Core gave a violent, sudden pulse. His stride hitched as the sensation from the previous day returned, only this time it was incredibly intense. Someone was close. An answering pulse rippled right back through the air—deliberate, pointed, and sharp. The other person had felt him too.

The dense crowd ahead parted naturally, not out of fear or conscious effort, but because the girl walking through it commanded the space entirely. She looked about eighteen, with long, striking silver hair, sharp violet eyes, and a black academy uniform that had been subtly modified to suggest she considered rules an optional suggestion. She didn’t possess the soft, delicate beauty most nobles praised; she looked dangerous, radiating the kind of presence that drew eyes like a magnet.

The moment her gaze locked onto his, the Sovereign Core inside his chest practically roared with recognition. The girl’s eyes widened by a fraction, her lips curving into a small, knowing smile.

"There you are."

Orion blinked. "Excuse me?"

She stopped directly in front of him, ignoring the dozens of students who had openly paused to watch the interaction. She studied his face methodically, as if comparing him to a mental image she’d been holding onto for months. "You took longer to get here than I expected."

"Do I know you?" Orion asked.

"No."

"Then—"

"I’ve been waiting for you."

The phrasing set off an immediate alarm in his head, but the puzzle pieces quickly clicked together. The System had warned him about another student—the only other Sovereign Core user among the student body.

"You have the attribute," Orion said quietly.

She nodded, perfectly blunt. "And so do you."

"This isn’t the place for this conversation," Orion noted, glancing at the nearby students who were doing an incredibly poor job of pretending to mind their own business.

Selene sighed, looking around at the amateurs. "After the assessment, then. I’m Selene."

"Orion."

"I know," she said smoothly, before turning away.

The evaluation process split the students into separate testing tracks, analyzing everything from raw mana density to summon control. Orion was directed to Arena Twelve, where roughly two hundred students sat in the tiered stands under the watchful eyes of several instructors. A massive, intricately carved crystal occupied the center of the arena floor—a piece of testing equipment that looked incredibly expensive and highly fragile.

"Student Orion Ashbourne," an instructor called out. "Step forward."

Orion walked up to the pedestal, and the crystal flared to life immediately. Running metrics of his mana flow, physical density, and combat threshold began flashing across its polished surface. The crowd leaned in, curious to see the metrics, but the light only grew brighter, intensifying until a sharp crack echoed through the arena.

The entire room froze. A tiny fracture spiderwebbed across the center of the stone. Before the instructors could even react, the crystal popped, collapsing into a heap of inert, smoking shards.

In the dead silence that followed, one of the instructors slowly rubbed his temples, looking thoroughly exhausted by the day’s events. "Student Ashbourne... what exactly did you just do?"

"Exist," Orion offered honestly.

The instructor’s irritated glare suggested the answer wasn’t going to help the official report.

Half an hour later, Orion was relegated to a bench outside the arena, temporarily disqualified from further magical testing while the staff sorted out the inevitable mountain of property-damage paperwork. A shadow fell over him, and he looked up to see Selene taking a seat on the bench beside him without waiting for an invitation.

"You actually shattered the testing crystal," she said after a long, quiet pause.

"It cracked under the pressure, yes."

"That’s hilarious."

"It looked expensive."

"Still hilarious."

The silence between them settled into something surprisingly comfortable. Selene turned her head, her violet eyes locking onto his with a sudden seriousness. "The lineage is going to absolutely lose its mind when they hear about you."

Orion raised an eyebrow. "The lineage?"

A genuine grin broke across her face. "Welcome to the Sovereign Network."

Orion’s attention sharpened instantly. Finally, actual answers were within reach.

Selene stood up, brushing off her uniform. "Find me when the rest of these assessments wrap up."

"Where are we going?"

Her grin widened. "The hidden library."

Deep within his chest, the Sovereign Core gave a sharp, excited thrum of anticipation. The mysterious lineage wasn’t just a collection of old legends; it was real, active, and he was about to take his first step through the door.