Haruto finally gave up. Seeing that there was no "Quit Game" button for this situation, he slumped back into his chair, looking like a defeated boss.
"Fine," he muttered, "just make it quick. I have a lot of... data to process."
But the Goddesses weren't in a hurry. They were enjoying this way too much.
Lustra took the first move, bringing a spoon to his lips. "Come on, 'Mastermind,' open up. This bite is for me."
Haruto's eye twitched in annoyance. "Lustra, I am a literal Star-Child. Stop this childish behavior."
"Shut up and eat!" she giggled, shoving the spoon into his mouth before he could say another word.
On the other side, Ivory had the next portion ready with surgical precision. "Haruto, your body needs stamina. If you don't eat properly, your brain won't maintain its processing speed." She fed him with the focus of a scientist performing a high-stakes experiment, but the smug glint in her eyes revealed how much she loved seeing him flustered.
Bellona was the most intense of them all. She was basically "power-leveling" his stomach. Haruto would still be chewing one bite when Bellona already had the next one hovering an inch from his face.
"Mmph—wait—Bellona, I haven't even finished the last—"
"Don't waste time chewing, Captain! Eat faster so you can recover faster!" she barked like a drill sergeant, clearly enjoying his suffering.
Haruto sat there, his cheeks puffed out like a squirrel, as the three of them tag-teamed him. He understood exactly what was happening: Princess Lilith's arrival had triggered a massive jealousy. By forcing him to eat like this, they were asserting their dominance, reminding him that as long as they were around, he didn't need anyone else—especially not a Princess.
For the first time in his life, Haruto felt truly helpless. Against the stubbornness of these three, his logic was useless.
To make matters worse, they forced him to eat three times his normal capacity. His stomach was reaching its physical limit.
"Stop... no more," Haruto managed to choke out, his face turning a shade of red.
"If you shove one more bite in, my stomach is actually going to burst"
Lustra reached out and wiped a stray bit of sauce from his chin, whispering playfully, "Would that Princess take care of you like this? Or would she just hide behind her hundred guards?"
Haruto let out a long, heavy sigh.
"The Princess probably doesn't even know if I'm a human or a machine. Now please, my stamina bar is at 200%. Let me sleep."
Only when the plate was scraped completely clean did the three Goddesses finally settle down. They stood over him with triumphant smirks.
"There, that's better," Ivory said, patting his head—a gesture of pure disrespect that Haruto was too stuffed to fight back against.
"Go to sleep now. We'll check on you again in the morning."
As the three of them marched out of the room, giggling amongst themselves, Haruto slumped forward and let his forehead hit the table.
"I'd rather leave this place than do that again," he whispered to the empty room. He reached into his pocket and felt the silver key.
"Tomorrow... I'm going solo. No Goddesses, no Toya, and definitely no spoon feeding."
As the three Goddesses marched out of the library, feeling victorious, they ran straight into Asobi. She was leaning against the wall, eyes narrowed, her pipe emitting a steady stream of silver smoke.
"Do you need something?" Lustra asked, still wearing a satisfied smirk.
Asobi didn't respond immediately. She just stared at them through the haze.
"Look, our mood is great right now," Bellona warned, crossing her arms. "Don't ruin it by being annoying."
"What exactly do you want, Asobi?" Ivory asked, her tone more calculated.
Asobi took a long puff from her pipe and exhaled slowly.
"How did you get in there? The Boss was very specific about the 'no disturbance' rule."
"We got in with your permission, remember?" Lustra reminded her with a shrug.
"And you promised," Asobi's voice dropped, becoming sharper, "that once you came out, you'd give me the details. You said you had something to tell me."
Ivory waved a hand dismissively as she started to walk away.
"Oh, that. We just filled Haruto's stomach. He's going to sleep now. Everything is fine."
Before they could take another step, Asobi snapped her fingers.
In a blur of motion, the three Goddesses found themselves physically compelled to turn back around, their momentum halted by Asobi's sheer presence.
"Either you've become incredibly forgetful, or you think I'm stupid enough to be brushed off with a story about a full stomach,"
Asobi said, her playful mask completely gone.
"I don't care how much you fed him. I want the juicy details. Now. Tell me everything about this Wizard Quest, and why the Boss looks like he's trying to solve a riddle that shouldn't exist."
She pointed her pipe toward the floor, signaling them to stay put. "Start talking. If I'm going to guard this mansion while he plays 'Admin' with his life, I need to know exactly what kind of fire we're sitting on."
The Goddesses realized they couldn't dodge her this time. Asobi wasn't just the housekeeper; she was the one who kept the sanctuary stable, and she wasn't about to let them keep the most dangerous part of the day a secret.
The tension in the hallway softened just a fraction as the three Goddesses realized Asobi wasn't going to let them pass without a "data exchange."
"Fine," Bellona grunted, relaxing her stance. "You should have just been direct about it."
"Honestly," Lustra added, her playful smirk replaced by a look of genuine concern, "even we don't fully understand why Haruto has turned into such a bookworm tonight. What he's digging for is a secret even from us."
Ivory nodded in agreement, her silver eyes reflecting the dim light of the corridor.
"It's the first time we've seen him this serious about... well, anything. That's why we're giving him some space. If he's treating this like a main quest, it's better not to interfere with his 'processing time.' Let's head to the Queen's room to discuss the rest. Haruto will be leaving the library soon anyway."
Asobi didn't say a word. She simply gave a slow, rhythmic nod and snapped her fingers once more.
In an instant, the three Goddesses felt a strange, pressurized sensation. They were slightly uncomfortable; Asobi was usually the laid-back presence in the mansion, and seeing her this "pushy" was a system anomaly they hadn't accounted for.
As they began walking toward the Queen's room, the air around them suddenly grew thick and hazy. Before they could take another step, a vibrant purple smoke erupted from the floor, swirling around them like a high-speed cyclone.
In a literal blink of an eye, the scenery blurred. The long hallway vanished, and they were pulled backward at an impossible velocity, landing squarely in the center of the opulent, empty Queen's room.
Bellona stumbled slightly, her hand going to her weapon as she growled at Asobi.
"What is your problem? You think it's funny to treat us like we're on a playground swing? That 'transport' was a bit much!"
Lustra smoothed out her clothes, looking equally annoyed.
"Seriously, Asobi. We were already walking there. There was no need to overclock our travel speed."
Ivory, always the most composed, adjusted her hair and fixed a cold stare on the housekeeper. "Next time, give us a warning before you disrupt our physical coordinates. That was inefficient and highly intrusive."
Asobi just stood there, leaning against the ornate doorframe as she took a slow, relaxed puff from her pipe. She didn't look sorry at all. She blew a ring of silver smoke into the air and gave them a bored, half-lidded gaze.
The Queen's Chamber was a massive, elegant suite that Haruto had intentionally kept empty. It was a space designed for someone of the highest rank—a place he refused to let anyone claim officially because he was the king. As they arrived, the smoke dissipated, leaving the Goddesses standing in the center of the silent, opulent room.
"You three talk too much and walk too slow,"
Asobi replied, her voice echoing in the vast, empty room. "We're on a timer and we don't have all night to stand around in the hallways. You're wasting time, and I don't like waiting."
Ivory stepped into the center of the room, her expression becoming dead serious.
"Long story short. There's a student at our school named Kaelen. His fiancée is Princess Lilith herself."
"Oh, royalty? Fancy," Asobi remarked, blowing a casual smoke ring.
Lustra snapped, "Keep your mouth shut and just listen, okay? This isn't a joke."
Ivory gave Lustra a quick nod of thanks and continued.
"Kaelen has the legal right to marry ten women. Lilith is already one of them, but he wanted to hand-pick the remaining nine from the Academy. Naturally, he set his sights on the three of us. After we turned down his cheap offers, he backed Haruto into a corner and challenged him to a Wizard Quest."
Asobi let out a dry whistle.
"A classic 'Ice Troop' story. Very dramatic. But tell me, this boy... what's his level?"
"Level 8," the three Goddesses replied in unison.
Asobi froze. Her pipe stayed mid-air as she stared at them in disbelief. "What? Level 8? I thought you were going to say Level 60 or 70 at least! You're telling me you're all shaking over a Level 8? You three are Level 99 entities!"
Ivory sighed, her silver eyes glowing with frustration. "Don't forget the system constraints, Asobi. Our abilities are strictly capped by Haruto's current status. Since he's officially Level 4, our power output is limited to exactly that. Our high-tier spells are unlocked, sure, but their capacity is like a Level 4 trying to fire a god-tier weapon. It's weak."
She paced the room, her footsteps echoing on the polished floor. "Even Toya... he had the strength of a Level 60 during his mana spike, but now that he's part of Haruto's party, he's been pulled down by the same cap. We're basically an elite squad forced to fight with the stats of beginners."
Asobi leaned back against the wall, her eyes narrowing as she processed the data.
"So the Boss isn't just fighting a Level 8. He's fighting a system that won't let his best weapons fire at full power. No wonder he's buried in those books... he's looking for a workaround."