My Taboo Harem!

Chapter 970: Weak Phei Against Odds

The distance between the quiet lakeside road where they had picked up Noor and Soraya and the dealership consumed a considerable stretch of Hell’s Paradise Island, enough that the limousine seemed to glide for a long while through a corridor of darkness with only its headlights and the scattered amber lamps along the asphalt pretending to be civilization.

On either side of the road, the night lay thick and almost liquid, swallowing the trees, the slopes, the distant shapes of private estates and whatever else the island wished to hide from polite company.

The roadlights offered small pools of gold that looked comforting at first glance, but comfort was often just darkness wearing better manners, and the farther they drove, the more those gentle lights seemed less like protection and more like decorative mercy placed there so rich people would not feel abandoned while traveling through the teeth of their own private paradise.

Inside the limousine, the air was warm with perfume, leather, soft laughter and the quiet shift of beautiful women adjusting around one another, yet Phei’s thoughts were not as calm as the luxurious space should have made them.

The encounter with the butler had left something uncomfortable sitting beneath his ribs.

A Mortal Sovereign dressed in a butler suit, standing beside a stopped car as though he were merely hotel staff, had shaken a part of Phei’s confidence to the core: he had not realized was still so fragile.

He had once believed, with the tragic arrogance of a young man who had not yet been insulted enough by reality, that Legacy Families were the true special ones, the private peak of the world; the bloodlines and names around which power naturally gathered.

Then his own life had begun patiently dismantling that belief like a teacher with no mercy and excellent evidence:

First had come the realization that his awakening had never truly belonged to the System at all; the System was useful, yes, a helper, a guide, a convenient companion with mysterious functions and questionable timing, but the root had always been his bloodline: the Ryujin Tiamat Bloodline he had not even known lived inside him.

Heck, he’d never known his own family had something so special in them until his life started unraveling after he got the system.

That alone had been enough to make his old ideas about himself and his family look stupid, but now the matter had grown worse.

Hayashi was not Ryujin Tiamat neither was the butler was not Ryujin Tiamat.

Many of the people working under Chaos were not legacies or part of his own family in the usual sense either, yet they possessed power that could make Phei’s current Master Stage feel painfully young.

And Phei had thought only Legacies were the ones who possessed power on Earth and here was everything he’d thought being proven wrong!

’So how many people across this world walk unseen with monstrous strength hidden behind ordinary roles?’

How many servants, executives, drivers, guards, teachers, chefs, doctors and quiet men in corner offices are secretly freakishly powerful while the rest of society strutted around thinking titles and family names explained everything?

The question irritated him because it felt less like curiosity and more like warning.

Sooner or later, he would face people like that, and when he did, he would have to discover whether they were rivals, enemies or allies:

If they were allies, good. If they were enemies, then what exactly was his Master stage supposed to do, bow politely and ask them to wait while he trained? He really had to grow stronger, and here he had foolishly believed he might catch a break.

One’s most persistent fantasy remained the idea that life would stop being inconvenient merely because one had suffered recently.

’You’re weak Phei!’ he told himself.

While Phei’s mind moved through those thoughts, the women around him were busy getting to know Noor and Soraya, and the two new arrivals were being absorbed into the living disaster that was his circle with impressive speed.

Victoria and Nastya kept their expressions calm, polished and princesslike, which would have been convincing if everyone in the car had been blind, foolish or recently dropped on the head.

They did not let Phei suspect their envy directly, but their glances toward Noor and Soraya carried the quiet sting of women watching others receive warmth they themselves had not yet fully claimed. Soraya sat with sharper attention, her eyes bright and assessing, while Noor’s elegance felt softer, guarded by familiar concern and practical affection.

When Soraya explained that she would need to speak to her sister before making any permanent arrangement, Phei nodded as though the idea was only natural, and she continued, "She will probably want to meet you first. Officially, I mean. She is the only immediate family I have near me, and if her baby sister suddenly says she is moving in with a man she met properly tonight, she will want to see whether you are charming or dangerous."

"Moving in?" Nastya asked, and the words came out so quickly that several heads turned toward her at once.

Maddie’s smile spread with immediate wickedness, the kind of smile that should have been classified as a public hazard in closed vehicles. "Oh, is that new information for you?" she asked, while Sierra, already amused, leaned back with her arms crossed and looked far too pleased to be innocent.

Valentina, seeing the moment ripens like fruit on a branch, lifted her hand with elegant seriousness and said, "May I explain?"

Sierra gestured with solemn generosity, "Please," and Valentina gave a tiny nod as though accepting responsibility for state education before saying:

"Phei kind of wants to live with all the women he is involved with. He is not a one-day thing person, if you understand what I mean."

The silence that followed was exquisite.

Noor slowly turned her head toward Valentina, Soraya blinked while Nastya stared as if someone had just summarized a war treaty as "people disagreed."