The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness

“Evil Gods! This entire thing is the conspiracy of that Lord of the Stars! He secretly orchestrated all of this for the sole purpose of making all of you—people capable of changing the direction of the entire world—turn against one another! That’s right, this is an unimaginably terrifying conspiracy, and we absolutely cannot fall for it!”

“...”

As Muen roared furiously toward the heavens, the atmosphere fell silent once more.

But unlike the suffocating deadlock from before, the current silence was mostly born from surprise, contemplation...

And a tiny bit of confusion.

The beautiful girls exchanged glances with one another. The terrifying fluctuations behind them gradually vanished without anyone noticing. Even Ariel finally loosened the tight grip of her hands around Muen and sank into thought.

—Something about this felt wrong, yet they could not find any flaw in Muen’s logic.

After all, his reasoning truly was coherent, organized, and internally consistent.

And most importantly...

Nobody could exactly go interrogate the Lord of the Stars directly and ask whether He had secretly manipulated these events.

Leaving aside whether that was even possible, merely attempting to question an Evil God was already outrageous enough. If the Lord of the Stars became enraged by mortals mocking Him like that, He might explode on the spot and launch another insane attack similar to the Silent Moon’s death throes.

That would truly escalate things beyond control.

All the world’s major powers would be forced to intervene against the Evil God, save the world, then afterward ask what caused the disaster...

Only to discover someone had tried interrogating an Evil God over whether He was meddling in other people’s love lives.

Too stupid.

“Oh my.”

Anna’s mind worked the fastest. She instantly realized continuing down that line of thought was meaningless, so she immediately grabbed Muen’s ear and smiled faintly.

“Junior really is becoming more and more silver-tongued. Just like that, you’ve managed to cleanly remove yourself from all responsibility? According to you, we’re simply causing trouble for no reason, and if we aren’t careful, we’ll even fall into an Evil God’s scheme and commit an unforgivable mistake?”

“That’s right!”

Liya failed to fully understand, but that did not stop her from angrily chiming in.

“When did we suddenly become sinners?!”

“Stare—”

The other two gazes also stabbed into him like knives.

“Ahem, ahem!”

Muen reacted quickly as always. Although having his ear pulled made him look somewhat ridiculous, his expression shifted almost seamlessly between righteous indignation and awkward laughter.

“How could that possibly be? Even if you gave me ten times more courage, I’d never dare think such a thing. Senior Sister is wronging me—I’m an extremely law-abiding citizen!”

“Oh? Then what exactly do you mean?”

“Of course I’m at fault. My mistake was failing to see through that damned Evil God’s conspiracy and dragging all of you into it as well. If you wish to punish me, then punish me. I’ll accept anything!

...However!”

Despite saying that, Muen once again puffed out his chest proudly.

“Favoring one over another? Thinking about someone else while on a date with one of you? Dating multiple people at the same time?

None of those things ever happened! Those are all malicious rumors meant to frame me, and I absolutely refuse to admit them!”

“I swear to the heavens, swear to the Goddess, swear upon the flowers in your hands—I am sincere toward every single one of you! I love all of you... equally!”

“You all... are my wings!”

Muen’s eyes shone brilliantly, his expression solemn, as though he were delivering a grand speech capable of inspiring millions.

As emotions swelled within him, he even spread his arms wide, wanting to pull all of them into his embrace so they could feel the burning sincerity of his heart—

Unfortunately, all he received were several deadpan stares.

“Junior’s love truly is touching...”

Anna sighed soundlessly.

At this point, what else could she even do? Start fighting right here?

That would genuinely reduce her to a bitter, unreasonable woman.

To begin with, she had never cared much about “exclusive possession.” After all, the woman with the greatest legal claim over Muen was not even present here yet. Becoming obsessed with such matters would only disadvantage latecomers like herself.

Presumably, the others thought similarly.

After a brief moment of thought, Anna could only release him helplessly.

“If only your words could somehow exclude the fact that you’re a scumbag, they’d sound much better.”

“I already said I’m not a scumbag. I simply love all of you equally. Besides, if I weren’t like this, how would any of these stories even happen afterward?”

Muen grinned as he wrapped Anna’s small hand in both of his and happily kneaded it several times.

“Don’t worry. As a loyal and deeply affectionate good man, I absolutely won’t do anything to betray any of you!”

“...Let’s hope so.”

A soft sigh escaped.

The beautiful girls exchanged glances again.

Naturally, the hostility between them could not disappear so easily, but after being thrown off balance so thoroughly by Muen, those urges to immediately settle superiority through combat could only be temporarily buried.

There would be opportunities later.

At this rate... there would definitely be plenty of opportunities.

More importantly, none of their positions had truly been finalized yet.

As long as everyone still stood on the same starting line, there was no need to rush.

Pushing too hard would only backfire.

Sometimes, retreating first created better opportunities to advance later.

“I’ll forgive Junior for today.”

Anna tapped Muen lightly on the head with her flower.

“But next time you pull some restless nonsense like this again, I won’t let you off so easily.”

“Definitely! Definitely... whew, I finally survived!”

Seeing the hostile tension finally disappear completely and feeling the buzzing sensation of impending death fade away, Muen nearly burst into tears again from relief.

He had survived.

He could finally breathe again.

Too dangerous.

It had truly been too dangerous.

Never before had a harem battlefield brought him so close to death.

At that moment, those hatchets had only been 0.01 centimeters away from him!

Did people understand what 0.01 centimeters meant?!

If his reaction had been even slightly slower, the priest would already have slammed the coffin lid shut over his face.

Fortunately, he had once again proven through his own efforts that while harem battlefields were terrifying, with enough courage and wisdom, even a crisis like this could still—

“U-um...”

“Hm?”

The incident had ended.

Almost everyone was preparing to leave.

An examined her flower, contemplating what sort of vase would best suit it.

Anna stretched lazily, preparing to call the Empire’s forces over to clean up the area.

Liya scratched her head frantically, trying to figure out how to explain everything that had happened here to Lin...

And at exactly such a moment, only Ariel—the one most inclined to disregard common sense—stepped forward once more.

“What about the date?”

She tilted her head, swayed her slender waist, and tugged gently at Muen’s sleeve while asking shyly and expectantly:

“Now that everything’s settled, doesn’t that mean the date comes next? So who’s going on a date with Muen afterward? Me?”

“Hm?”

One sentence stirred up a thousand waves.

An looked up.

“A date?”

Anna turned around.

“A date.”

Liya’s little face became deadly serious.

“A date!”

Muen himself completely froze.

“?”

??????????

What was going on?

Ariel, what exactly happened to you today?!

How did you become like this?!

Where was your domineering independence?

Your fearless determination?

Your single-minded devotion to training?!

How could you suddenly become this bashful... this persistent... this adorably clingy... this...

Greedy for dates?!

T-this completely isn’t you anymore!

Hurry up and give him back the overpowered protagonist he knew!

Otherwise—

“Oh my, that’s true. I almost forgot about that.”

Anna brushed her hair lightly.

“If Junior truly is fair, then the opportunity to date him next should naturally be equal as well, correct?”

“What do you mean equal?”

An’s face turned cold.

“Young Master is already on a date with me. The rest of you pests should get lost.”

“Me me me!”

Liya raised her hand anxiously like a schoolgirl answering a question.

“Muen should date me! My schedule is very tight!”

“And what about me?”

Ariel’s eyes darkened once more.

“Are you going to leave me aside again?”

“...”

Incredible.

At this moment, Muen finally understood that the terrifying thing about harem battlefields was not the girls’ destructive capabilities—

But rather that they were sustainable long-term disasters.

They could erupt at any moment.

Preventing them entirely was nearly impossible.

He might survive once.

Twice.

But eventually, one day, he would still die in one of these explosions...

And be chopped into several pieces by hatchets.

Like right now.

After going in circles, they had returned all the way back to the original question.

Who should receive the flower?

And now—

Who should go on the date?

Choosing anyone was wrong.

The moment he selected one person, the other three hatchets would descend upon him.

And more terrifying than the flower dilemma was this:

Unlike before, this was now a pure multiple-choice problem.

Time stop could not save him.

He could rush out and pick three additional flowers in two minutes, thirty-two seconds, and twenty-one milliseconds...

But could he somehow go on simultaneous dates with four girls in the same amount of time?

Obviously not.

This time, every trick had been exhausted.

Therefore, after agonizing over it, Muen could only cover his face and unleash his ultimate move—

“How about... we draw lots?”

“Draw lots?”

Anna narrowed her eyes.

“Is Junior being this lazy now?”

“This isn’t about laziness. Drawing lots is the only way to guarantee fairness, right?”

Muen lowered his hands and forced out a smile.

“After all, who told me to be a good man who loves all of you equally? This is the only fair solution I could think of. Otherwise, if you all started fighting over me again, that would make me a real scumbag!”

“...Although hearing you call yourself a good man is incredibly irritating, this really is the fairest method.”

Anna nodded and stepped back.

“I have no objections.”

“I...”

An paused.

Initially, she wanted to refuse. By all reasonable logic, today’s date originally belonged to her and Young Master. Having to draw lots now was obviously unfair.

But after thinking more carefully...

Wouldn’t drawing lots potentially allow her to monopolize Young Master for additional time later?

For her, every extra moment with him was a net gain.

After all, she was already his personal maid.

“I also have no objections.”

“Fiiine.”

Liya was the least willing. If she failed to draw the lot she wanted, she would need to rearrange her already-packed schedule yet again.

But clearly, there was no way she could oppose everyone else alone.

So she reluctantly agreed.

As for the final person—

“When do we start?”

Ariel had already fully revived.

The fearless protagonist aura radiating from her once more blazed brightly.

“Hmph. If this is about luck, then there’s absolutely no way I can lose!”

“...”

Absolutely no way?

Had she forgotten who once lost badly enough during school days to survive on black bread for weeks?

Muen felt speechless.

He wanted to remind Ariel...

But forget it.

Her defeated expression was something he liked too.

“So then, how exactly are we drawing lots?”

“Make slips of paper and let Muen draw one?”

“Oh my. That feels a little too much like letting this terrible man choose concubines. I dislike it.”

“Then what should we do...”

“Let me think...”

Anna’s gaze landed on Muen.

The corners of her lips slowly curved upward into a familiar little-devil smile that instantly made every hair on Muen’s body stand upright.

“How about we try something different?”

...

Several minutes later.

Muen lay strapped atop a massive metal wheel, staring tragically at the sky.

There was no sun.

Several thin clouds obscured the daylight, much like the faint sorrow filling Muen’s heart at this very moment.

“Seriously... was this method really necessary?”

Muen twisted slightly, but in his current condition, escaping the rope restraints that Senior Sister had mysteriously produced—clearly specialized for binding criminals—was practically impossible.

He could only lie there like a fish on a chopping board while evil beautiful girls mercilessly played with him.

“It can’t be helped. This seems to be the only method that both satisfies all of us and remains fair.”

Anna admired the enormous wheel with satisfaction.

The wheel had been evenly divided into four colored sections, each representing one of the girls.

As for Muen...

Naturally, he himself was the pointer.

Wherever he pointed when the wheel stopped would determine who got the first date.

Perfectly fair.

No room for complaints.

“So, Junior, would you prefer spinning clockwise or counterclockwise?”

Before beginning, Anna still asked quite humanely—

Despite the fact that the situation itself was already profoundly inhumane.

“I prefer not spinning at all. How about we use a gentler method instead? Rock-paper-scissors sounds good, I think—”

“Unfortunately, you don’t have a choice.”

Four jade-like hands grabbed Muen simultaneously.

Even before they moved, Muen could already feel the terrifying explosive power hidden within those delicate fingers.

That’s right.

Though they looked like ordinary beautiful girls, their true identities were:

A reincarnated soul possessing ancient knowledge.

A wielder of the Silent Moon’s authority.

The Church’s Saintess.

And a Child of Destiny with limitless potential.

If they truly used force, they could probably spin the wheel of fate itself with ease—

Let alone this tiny wheel carrying one pitiful, helpless blond bastard.

Therefore—

“One! Two! Three! Start!”

BOOM!

The moment the countdown ended, Muen immediately felt violent wind screaming past his ears while the entire world dissolved into chaotic colors like paint splattered by lunatics.

An overwhelming dizziness violently tore through his nerves.

Previously, when facing the Lord of the Stars’ subordinate, only his head had spun.

Now his entire body was spinning.

Ecstatic enough to ascend directly into heaven.

Literally ascend into heaven!

Haha...

Hopefully the Life Goddess truly was as gentle as the Church described...

—Within the fragments of his consciousness being ripped apart, Muen offered that final prayer.

...

...

The next morning.

The calendar had just entered the final days of November, and Saint Blancfazesiya’s weather had officially shifted into a colder winter.

The city’s first light snowfall had drifted down quietly during the previous night.

Everyone who witnessed it felt surprised.

Because the snow had arrived nearly a month earlier than usual in Saint Blancfazesiya.

As though its descent symbolized someone’s sorrow and lamentation perfectly.

Creak—

Amid the chilly morning wind, a lightly dressed girl pushed open the door and stretched comfortably beneath the winter sunlight.

A small patch of snow atop the roof was disturbed by her movement and fell suddenly toward the ground, only for the girl to dodge it nimbly.

“Mmm... the weather’s wonderful.”

After snow naturally came clear skies.

Perhaps because the snowflakes had washed the heavens clean, the sky now stretched endlessly blue and cloudless, like glazed crystal covering the world above. Even the sunlight carried a faint hazy softness.

This kind of weather was perfect for going out!

Thinking that, the girl immediately became excited.

She ran into the courtyard and began practicing martial arts.

Though nobody sparred with her, every punch still carried fierce momentum and rumbling thunder.

After several full sets, a thin layer of fragrant sweat coated her body.

Without stopping, she swiftly returned to her room.

By then, the water inside a large bathing vat had already reached the perfect temperature.

She hurriedly began tossing medicinal ingredients into it one by one.

“Ashes of a Sivir Bear, stamens of a Rovitek man-eating flower, Mondis fruit...”

All were extremely precious body-tempering materials and part of the girl’s nearly daily routine during this period.

She was already so familiar with every ingredient that she could add them correctly with her eyes closed.

But after using all the usual ingredients, the girl hesitated slightly before finally tossing several strange purple flowers into the vat.

Then she carefully pinched several black jade beads from a small pouch and dropped them inside as well.

“Purple irises from Lake Afran, along with the local black jade pearls.”

Wisps of smoke rose upward, gathering into the hazy shape of a beautiful woman.

Pressing her lips together, the beauty examined the girl meaningfully.

“Those ingredients don’t seem to have any body-tempering effects at all. Their only purpose is enhancing fragrance, if I remember correctly. You used to completely disdain such things, saying they were worthless aside from selling well on the black market...”

“Teacher!”

The girl—

Or rather, Ariel—

Stamped her foot furiously in embarrassment.

“Why are you teasing me again?!”

“Well... because teasing you now is extremely entertaining.”

The smoke beauty gracefully turned sideways, elegantly dodging the shoe Ariel threw at her.

Taking advantage of her teacher shutting up momentarily, Ariel immediately slipped into the vat and began rapidly absorbing the medicinal effects.

Glug glug...

The water inside the vat first turned golden from the ingredients, then gradually became clear again as Ariel absorbed everything, before finally darkening black.

Symbolizing the completion of this entire training session.

What normally required a full hour of body tempering and medicinal absorption had astonishingly taken only half an hour this time.

Even Peles looked surprised.

After all, she knew exactly how agonizingly painful the absorption process normally was.

But the results were unquestionably exceptional.

As Ariel rose from the vat, her smooth skin carried a faint pink glow beneath pale whiteness, even radiating soft luster.

Wonderfully alluring.

Most importantly, a subtle seductive musk-like fragrance continuously drifted from her body, making her seem even more like perfectly ripened fruit—bright red and naturally fragrant.

“Tsk tsk. Looking like that, what man wouldn’t be tempted?”

“I want him to be tempted!”

Ariel raised her chin proudly.

After all the preparation she had done, if he still failed to feel tempted...

Then she would simply have to resort to physical methods to make him tempted.

Of course, she hoped that would remain a last resort.

Battle aura surged through her body, instantly evaporating all remaining moisture. Ariel then quickly changed into a set of clothes she had prepared long ago—

Or rather, prepared specifically for this occasion.

A light-blue dress paired with a fluffy white upper jacket.

Youthful and bright.

Especially combined with the small heeled boots on her feet, perfectly emphasizing her long legs while adding a playful charm.

The fur lining came from the magic-infused hide of an overlord-class beast.

The leather boots themselves came from another rare magical beast.

The old Ariel would naturally never have been willing to spend resources so extravagantly.

But now...

She no longer needed to worry about lacking materials, so there was no reason to remain overly frugal.

After dressing completely, Ariel spun around once before Peles.

“How is it?”

“Very nice.”

Peles nodded seriously.

“If you had dressed like this a few years earlier, Muen Campbell probably wouldn’t have been constantly at odds with you back at the Academy. He might’ve even tried pursuing you himself. The only issue is your chest—it makes you look a little young. Though I suppose that works out fine, because if you tried competing in pure sex appeal, you definitely—”

Ariel expressionlessly grabbed the ancient ring and shoved it back onto her finger, cutting off the drifting smoke.

“As if you needed to say it!”

Ariel puffed her cheeks and glanced down at her chest.

“That guy said there’s still room for growth as long as I massage them more. Hmph. Once I fully transform and emerge from my cocoon, I’ll absolutely crush the faces of all you milk-cow monsters!”

Of course, that was a matter for the future.

Whether it would actually succeed...

Only a certain blond bastard in the future probably knew.

Right now, Ariel had more important matters.

“Oh no, oh no! I’m going to be late! Books say you’re supposed to arrive at least half an hour early for this kind of thing!”

After checking the time, she hurriedly cleaned up the room before rushing outside.

Once out the door, she sped off like the wind itself.

Very quickly, she spotted the figure she had spent the past several months longing for day and night waiting at their agreed meeting place.

“You came this early?”

“Not really.”

Muen smiled.

“I just arrived too. Look, we basically arrived together. Doesn’t that count as being connected by destiny?”

“Hmph. Starting off immediately with sweet talk? You think I’d fall for something that simple?”

“Your smile’s already escaping, darling...”

“Don’t touch me yet!”

Ariel slapped away the hand trying to pinch her cheek immediately upon approach.

Then she stepped closer to Muen and began sniffing around him repeatedly with her little nose.

“Mmm... there’s perfume, but it’s men’s cologne. No scent from other women. Excellent!”

“...Seriously?”

Muen’s cheek twitched.

“Even you’re using this move now?”

“What do you mean ‘this move’? This is basic caution!”

After finishing her inspection, Ariel immediately turned her attention to the surroundings.

The morning streets were still relatively quiet.

Ariel fully expanded her perception, carefully sensing every possible abnormality.

No one was following them. Excellent.

No suspicious people nearby. Also excellent.

No sign whatsoever of those seductive little vixens...

Perfect.

Looks like they had ultimately honored the outcome of the gamble. Ariel had won yesterday’s giant spinning wheel fair and square, so none of them were interfering now.

Which meant...

At last, it was finally her turn to enjoy a proper date with Muen.

Ariel quietly clenched her fist, genuine anticipation swelling within her heart.