My Taboo Harem!

Chapter 969: Chaos Has No Respect for Scale

The silence that followed was immediate.

Nastya blinked while Victoria turned very slowly.

Valentina smiled, serene and merciless. "I am only asking. For emotional clarity."

Maddie nearly choked on her laugh.

Sierra covered her mouth, shoulders shaking.

Victoria looked out the window again, dignity bleeding quietly in the corner. "This car is becoming intolerable."

"It was already intolerable," Nastya muttered.

"Yes," Maddie said happily. "But now it has character."

"It has too much character," Victoria corrected, and then, because misery did at least love company, she added under her breath, "and not one functioning ally in it," which made Nastya glance at her sidelong with the faint, startled warmth of two proud women discovering they had been drafted into the same losing army.

Outside, Phei finally released the two women from his embrace, though one of them lingered against him for a heartbeat longer, and he allowed it, brushing his hand lightly over her back before turning toward the butler.

The young man straightened immediately.

Phei walked to him and nodded. "Thank you for bringing them."

The butler bowed with impeccable grace. "Do not mention it, Young Master."

Phei paused.

’Young Master not sir?’

Most of the hotel staff, even those who had welcomed him as the owner’s Young Master when he first arrived nights ago, had returned to calling him sir. Polite, formal and bit distant.

Only Hayashi had stubbornly continued with Young Master, because Hayashi worked directly under Chaos not just the hotel manager, and Phei was, more or less, his next master.

The title meant something when used that way.

Now this man had said it too.

Phei turned as if to leave, took two steps, then stopped.

He looked back.

The butler raised his eyes quietly.

Phei tilted his head. "Do you perhaps work for Ch—" He caught himself. "I mean, for the Empress? Not merely as hotel staff?"

The man’s eyebrow lifted faintly. His gaze shifted once toward the limousine, toward the tinted windows where several women were absolutely pretending not to listen, which meant they were listening with their entire souls, but he was not exactly looking at the women but someone else only he could see.

Then he nodded as if he’d got a confirmation. "Yes, Young Master. I serve under Hayashi-sama. We are not ordinary hotel staff. We answer directly to the Empress."

Phei’s eyes sharpened. "So, there are normal hotel staff, and then special cases directly under the Empress."

It was not really a question.

The butler remained silent, which was answer enough.

Phei studied him again, curiosity blooming. "How powerful are you?"

"Mortal Sovereign stage," the butler replied.

Then both of them froze.

The man’s eyes widened by the smallest degree, horror slipping through his perfect composure like a crack in polished glass. He had answered too fast and too honestly. As if something in Phei’s question had pulled the truth from him before caution could throw itself heroically in the way and die for protocol.

The butler looked toward the limousine again.

This time, he shivered.

Phei, however, was still absorbing the answer.

’Mortal Sovereign.’

A man dressed as a butler was more powerful than him.

No wonder Phei’s senses had bounced off whenever he tried to probe the man. A Mortal Sovereign was right next to a Sky Sovereign and Half-Divine, and only two major stages away from the Demigod stage, the first rank of the Divine Realm.

A whole four steps above Phei’s current Master stage.

’And Chaos is keeping such people as butlers.’

As drivers.

As hotel staff.

Phei’s face twisted slightly.

"How wasteful of her!" he muttered.

The butler pretended not to hear, with the admirable discipline of a man who enjoyed survival.

Phei turned and led the two women back toward the limousine, his expression still carrying faint disbelief. A powerhouse capable of erasing an entire town, maybe more depending on preparation and mood, had been standing beside a car like a polite employee waiting for guests to finish hugging.

’Chaos truly has no respect for scale.’

As Phei and the women entered the limousine, the introductions happened in the small chaotic way they always did around him — Soraya announcing her own name before anyone asked and immediately appraising Nastya and Victoria with open, friendly challenge, Noor was offering a softer greeting and folding herself half into Phei’s side as if she had reserved the spot in advance.

Nastya and Victoria received both with the frosted politeness, watching two more rivals climb cheerfully into an already overcrowded boat, which delighted Maddie enormously.

Maddie’s eyes immediately caught Phei’s expression. "What happened?"

Phei sat down with a grimace. "Nothing. I just discovered my wasteful Grandma uses terrifying powerhouses as hotel staff."

Victoria blinked. "That is very her." She knew how their grandma was like than Phei did.

"It is wasteful."

"It is fashionable," Sierra corrected, sliding close enough for her shoulder to touch his. "Also, you still owe me an answer."

Phei looked at her. "To what?"

"Whether you enjoyed the jealousy."

Phei smiled faintly and reached for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers, then lifted it and pressed a slow kiss to her knuckles while holding her eyes the entire time. "I enjoy you."

Sierra stared at him for one dangerous second.

Then her lips twitched, and the warmth crept all the way up to her ears, because he had done it again, in front of everyone, and the maddening truth was that she had felt the second deflection coming and had lifted her hand into it anyway.

"Again. Distracting me."

"Again," he agreed.

She squeezed his hand, pretending to be offended while looking entirely too pleased, the smile she was failing to hide blooming so plainly that Maddie pointed at it like evidence in a trial. "You are getting shameless."

"I am learning from my women."

"That is worse," Nastya muttered.

"No," Maddie said, grinning, "that is progress."

"It is a public health crisis," Victoria offered, which was, everyone quietly noted, the first joke Victoria had volunteered all night — and Phei caught it and gave her a small private smile that made her look immediately back out the window, victorious and furious about it in equal measure.

The limousine door closed, and the vehicle rolled away from the stopped car, continuing along the moonlit road toward the floating lake buildings.

The butler remained where he was, head slightly bowed, body still as the cold wind brushed against his suit.

Then a voice reached his ears, it was low but calm and merciless:

"Remain where you are. Do not move from that spot until I return."

The butler’s blood went cold.

Ryuzen’s voice faded with the departing limousine, soft as silk and sharp as execution.

The young man swallowed.

He had really messed up, hadn’t he?