Harem Training System: Every Girl I Train Makes Me Stronger!

Chapter 46: 46. She Do Know About It... Bruh... AND IT’S A SAFE DAY TOO! IT’S REAL!

Breakfast, when it finally happened, took place in near total silence for the first several minutes. William had found enough ingredients in Catherine’s kitchen to put together something simple, eggs and toasted bread, and he ate with the unhurried satisfaction of a man enjoying food that wasn’t academy rations, entirely unbothered by the tension radiating off the woman sitting across from him.

Catherine, dressed now in a plain robe with her hair hastily but properly brushed, stared at her own plate without touching it, occasionally glancing up at William with an expression that flickered between embarrassment and something almost accusatory.

"You’re eating," she said finally, "like nothing strange happened at all."

"Nothing strange did happen," William said around a mouthful of eggs. "You got drunk, you asked me to stay because you didn’t want to be alone after the dungeon, and I slept on your extremely uncomfortable couch."

"That’s the entire story."

Catherine’s shoulders sagged, some of the tension visibly draining out of her, though her cheeks remained stubbornly pink. "Mmhm... I truly don’t remember any of that..."

"You don’t remember trying to convince me that punching things was, and I quote... a perfectly valid sword technique?"

"That sounds like something Kaela would say... not me."

"You said it while pointing at me with your wine glass," William said solemnly. "It was very compelling. I nearly agreed to that statement."

"Narrgghhh..." Catherine buried her face in her hands, a muffled groan escaping through her fingers. "I am never drinking again."

"You said that last night too, actually... Somewhere around glass number two."

"William..."

"Sorry."

The silence in the room was heavy, thick with the kind of tension that only exists when two people are pretending they didn’t just spend the night trying to tear each other apart in the most carnal way possible.

Catherine lowered her hands slowly, her fingers trembling slightly. As she looked up at him, the initial panic in her eyes had settled into something deeper, something more raw and agonizingly mortified.

She looked like she wanted the floor to open up and swallow her whole, or perhaps just a very large, very sudden magical explosion to end her misery.

"I owe you an apology..." she began, her voice barely a whisper, her gaze darting everywhere except his face.

"Multiple apologies, likely..." she continued, her words tripping over one another in a frantic rush. "I clearly wasn’t myself."

"I imagine whatever... whatever vocalizations I made and whatever... unrestrained actions I took put you in an incredibly awkward position."

"And I promise you, William, this isn’t a pattern of mine!"

"I am a dignified elven noble, not a... a starving beast!"

"I don’t typically—" she started, her face flushing a shade of pink that matched the dawn.

"Catherine," William interrupted gently, though his own heart was thumping a frantic rhythm against his ribs.

He was trying to be the anchor, the steady man, but he could still feel the phantom sensation of her nails digging into his shoulders. "You don’t need to apologize."

"But the... the sheer volume of it," she hissed, her eyes flashing with a sudden, panicked realization. "I just do hope no one will hear me getting loud..."

’Wait a minute... DID SHE FUCKING KNOW ABOUT IT ALL ALONG, OR ARE WE ALL ACTING DUMB HERE?!’

’But still... I need to slowly lead this to something appropriate...’

William cleared his throat, a sudden, violent cough to mask the fact that he was also sweating. "W-well... You’d just survived a fight with a summoned monster that nearly killed both of us."

"Drinking too much afterward is an extremely human response to that kind of stress..." William then realized. "Oh, wait... you’re an elf, but I think elves are like that too?"

"No! It wasn’t just the drinking!" she blurted out, then immediately clamped her mouth shut, her eyes widening in horror at her own bluntness.

She looked at him, her gaze accidentally dropping to his chest, then quickly snapping back up to the ceiling. "It was... the... the enthusiasm."

"Enthusiasm," William repeated, his voice a pitch higher than he intended.

’Is that what we’re calling it? Because it felt more like a siege,’ his inner voice muttered.

"Yes! Enthusiasm!" Catherine insisted, her hands fluttering nervously. "A very... very high intensity, bone rattling, almost... structural damage-inducing enthusiasm!"

William felt a bead of sweat roll down his temple. "I’ve seen soldiers do a lot worse after a lot less."

"They usually just end up fighting a tree, but you... (Shit! What am I yapping about now?!) Well, y-you were much more focused."

The silence returned, but this time it was charged with a frantic, mutual embarrassment. They were both staring at a point somewhere in the middle of the room, terrified that if they made eye contact, the sheer memory of the night’s "instructional" moments would cause them both to combust.

Catherine studied him for a long moment, her shoulders finally easing, though her face remained a permanent shade of crimson. "You’re being remarkably understanding about this."

"Most men would be... well, they’d be running for the hills. Or asking for a second round."

"I contain multitudes," William said, his voice deadpan, a desperate attempt to inject some much-needed levity into the suffocating atmosphere.

For a heartbeat, the tension broke. A faint, shaky twitch of a smile appeared at the corner of Catherine’s mouth, a tiny, beautiful crack in her composure.

But as soon as she realized she was smiling at the man who had practically demolished her dignity, she visibly caught herself, smoothing her expression back into a mask of composed nobility, though her ears remained a telltale, glowing red.

"Indeed," she said, regaining her poise with a Herculean effort. "Multitudes."

"Though perhaps some of those multitudes should be kept under stricter... containment... in the future."

The silence that followed William’s "multitudes" comment was brittle, like thin ice over a very deep, very scandalous pond.

"But," William blurted out, the words escaping him before his brain could filter them for dignity.

He stepped forward, his hands raised in a gesture of frantic peacemaking. "Catherine, if we’re being truly honest... the apology should probably start with me."

"Because as much as you were... enthusiastic... I wasn’t exactly a passive participant."

"There was a moment, a very long, very loud, very ungentlemanly moment, where all my ’restraint’ just... evaporated," William exhaled. "I didn’t just lose control, but... I threw the concept of control out the window and set it on fire."

Catherine let out a sound that was half sob and half hysterical laugh. "Oh, don’t you dare try to split the blame, William!"

"You were a force of nature! A walking, breathing earthquake!" She gestured wildly at herself, her face a masterpiece of mortification. "And don’t act like you were some innocent bystander!"

"My legs are still shaking, and quite frankly, my... my entire lower half feels like it’s been through a localized magical siege!"

"I can still feel the... the thudding!"

"It’s not exactly easy to act like a dignified vice headmaster when you feel like you’ve been physically rearranged!"

William winced, his face heating up. "I know. I know. The... the structural damage was... significant."

"Significant?" Catherine shrieked, her voice hitting a pitch only a dog could hear. "William, you didn’t just ’interact’ with me!"

"You... you took my virginity! In a state of wine-induced madness!"

"There was no courtship, no flowers, no gentle moonlight—just a desperate, sweaty, primal collision that felt like it was meant to break the very foundations of this manor!"

"Whoa there... look..." William rubbed the back of his neck, looking like a man who wanted to hide inside his own ribcage. "In my defense... it was the wine."

"That vintage was... dangerously potent. And you were... well, you were very persuasive."

"Persuasive?" She glared at him, though the fire in her eyes was melting into something softer, something more vulnerable. "You were the one who didn’t stop!"

"You were the one who... who insisted on being so thorough!"

"Look," William said, stepping closer, his voice dropping into a low, serious register that actually managed to command the room.

He reached out, tentatively placing a large, warm hand on her shoulder. "I know this is a disaster. And it’s not an ordinary disaster other than a beautiful, loud, scandalous disaster."

"But I am not a man who runs from his consequences. If this... if what happened... has changed things, then let me take responsibility."

"I’ll be here. For whatever comes next."

"Whether it’s a scandal, a child, or just the awkwardness of breakfast."

Catherine looked up at him, her eyes searching his. The tension in her jaw finally broke, and she let out a long, shaky breath.

"Responsibility? You’re a good man, William."

"Even if you are a terrifyingly efficient lover." She paused, a mischievous, slightly wicked glint suddenly dancing in her eyes. "And for what it’s worth... as much as we both lost our minds... it was a safe day."

The effect was instantaneous.

William didn’t just smile; he practically levitated. A grin of pure, unadulterated, manically joyous triumph broke across his face, wide enough to split his head in two.

He let out a sharp, triumphant bark of a laugh that probably startled the birds in the courtyard.

"A safe day!" he repeated, his voice booming with a happiness that was entirely inappropriate for a man who had just admitted to a scandalous conquest. "Gods be praised! The universe is actually on our side!"

He looked as if he wanted to do a victory lap around the bedroom, his chest swelling with a relief so intense it was almost comedic.

Catherine watched him, her initial shock melting into a soft, amused shake of her head.

"Oh, honestly," she whispered, a genuine, warm laugh bubbling up from her throat. "You’re a menace, William. A total, absolute menace."