“Desmond, you’re sitting in the way again.”The voice cut sharp through the thin library air. A boy in worn-out clothes, tall, muscular, with a smirk that always carried trouble, stood over him.Desmond looked up from his notebook, blinking as though dragged out of a dream. “I… I wasn’t blocking anything,” Desmond murmured, clutching his pencil.“You exist, that’s the problem,” the bully sneered. Laughter followed from two others at his side.Desmond kept his eyes down. He knew how this game went: push, shove, mock. Same every day. “I’ll move,” he said softly.“You’ll move? You’ll vanish if you know what’s good for you.” The boy’s palm slapped Desmond’s notes, scattering them across the floor. Scribbled equations, half-finished diagrams, scraps of thoughts, gone under their boots.One of them leaned down, eyes glittering with mock sympathy. “Why don’t you ever fight back, Desmond? Oh, right, you’re a nobody. No family, no money, no friends. Just a weirdo writing useless things no one

The door creaked shut. Silence pressed down. Three women, strangers bound to him by law and circumstance, stood in the cramped room.Desmond felt their gazes pierce through him like blades. The system’s voice pulsed cold in his mind:[Challenge Active: Earn trust before dawn. Time remaining: 9 hours, 57 minutes.]Desmond’s throat was dry. “You should… sit. It’s not much, but”Selene’s laugh cut him off, sharp as glass. “Sit? In this hovel? Don’t insult me.” She brushed dust from a rickety chair, nose wrinkled. “…I shouldn’t even be here. Father will hear of this.”Desmond flinched at her thought. She meant it. She saw him as less than dirt. Lysandra smirked, settling against the wall with arms folded.“Relax, princess. You’re not the only one who hates this arrangement.” Her gaze slid to Desmond. “Tell me, boy, do you even know what you’ve done?”Desmond blinked. “I… followed the law.”“You mocked it,” she snapped. “One man, three wives? The King will make an example of you.” Her eyes

The fire was almost out. Only a dull orange glow flickered from the embers, shadows crawling across the walls like restless spirits. The night was long, and silence pressed down on them, heavy and suffocating.Desmond sat with his back against the cold stone, listening. Dogs still barked in the distance. Somewhere, a drunk shouted.The city was alive, even while he and the three women were trapped in this fragile circle of mistrust. The system’s voice pulsed again in his skull:[Time Remaining: 3 hours, 52 minutes.][Trust Progress: 22%. Requirement not met.]A shiver crept down his spine. He couldn’t let this slip away. He looked at them one by one: Lysandra sharpening a splinter of wood as if it were a blade.Selene perched like a queen even on broken stone, Mira hugging her knees to her chest with soft eyes that held both fear and longing.He drew a steadying breath. “We can’t just sit in silence until dawn.”Lysandra’s gaze snapped to him first, sharp as a dagger. “Talk wastes str

The horn blast still echoed in the distance, carried on the cold wind. Dawn was coming. Desmond’s heart pounded with the weight of the system’s warning.[Trust Progress: 72%. Requirement: 80%.][Time Remaining: 56 minutes.]He exhaled slowly, the sound ragged in the silence. The women were watching him now, not as an outcast, not as prey, but as something they couldn’t name. He swallowed. If I don’t risk everything now… we all fall when dawn breaks.Desmond turned first to Lysandra. Her sharp eyes tracked him like a hawk, still poised to strike at weakness.“You told me revenge is the only thing keeping you alive,” he said quietly. “But what happens after you take it? What’s left then?”Her jaw tightened. “Then I’ll finally be free.”“No,” he pressed. “You’ll be empty.”Her nostrils flared. “Careful.”He leaned closer, meeting her glare. “I’m not afraid of your threats. You think strength is only blades and vengeance. But true strength is building something after the blood. If you tru

The square still hummed with noise long after the King dismissed them. Shouts, jeers, laughter, whispers followed Desmond like ghosts as he pushed through the crowd, the three women close behind.Mira clung to his arm as if afraid she might be snatched away again. Lysandra walked with a soldier’s stride, chin high, scanning every corner as though expecting an ambush.Selene drifted just far enough to the side to make her disdain clear, her silken voice curling like smoke whenever she chose to speak.The crowd parted around them. Men smirked, women gossiped, children pointed. “There’s the fool,” someone muttered.“Three wives? He’ll be dead in a month.”“No, watch. He’ll be on the front lines by winter.”Desmond ignored them, jaw tight. But the system whispered in his head:[Public Reputation Established: The Mad Groom.][Caution: Early scorn may later shift into influence if trust is proven.]His gut twisted. He hadn’t wanted attention, not like this. But there was no turning back. Mi