[Nightmare]

Elsa's long black hair was spread against her shoulders as she hugged Helix closely.

Her messy hair made her look like more of a mother than the serious professional she usually was.

Elsa gazed at Helix with warmth in her eyes.

She had gotten to know Helix well from the attacks on his life, so the two had become close over the last month.

Now she was there for him again, and Helix appreciated it from the bottom of his heart.

"You can listen to the circles if you wish.

They'll be ready for you when you're ready for them.

Everyone was asked to speak to you, expecting you to hear them.

So while it's partially deceptive, it's also honest." Elsa announced to Helix with a warm smile.

"But… what if they would be embarrassed?

It sounds deeply personal." Helix replied with puffy eyes.

"They're separated into three categories.

Those who wish you'll hear them, those who are nervous but willing, and those who look uncertain.

So you can choose to listen to some and not others if you wish." She explained with a smile.

Helix nodded.

"I'll spread them out. Hopefully, their messages help me through until Marie, Charlotte, and Riley arrive." He whispered.

"Hah! You better start listening.

There are 107. We bundled the circles to prevent them from taking up every slot in your item storage." Elsa laughed.

Helix looked at Elsa with shock in his eyes.

"Are you surprised? Every servant showed up to celebrate your life.

You impacted all your nurses, doctors, fifteen guards, and teachers.

Not all of it was positive, but it was memorable."

Helix gave Elsa a wry smile.

"I'll keep that in mind." He replied hesitantly.

"Here, this is the group message from your girlfriends." Elsa said while removing the face sealing from a circle.

Helix stared at it with tears welling in his eyes.

"I'll leave you—"

"Will you please stay and listen?" Helix asked with conflicted eyes.

Elsa smiled.

"Of course."

The address from his partners was on a conventional magic circle disc.

"Oh, yoo~hoo. Hee~lee. We gotta message for our harem~leader."

"I'm not part of his harem."

"Be quiet, Atlas. If you weren't at least interested, you wouldn't be in the room during the harem address."

"I'm bored. With Helix gone, I can't run from my debt collectors anymore."

"Atlas, I thought you had three circles of vanity.

I thought they didn't disappear."

"Spent."

"Wait… you're telling us that you've wrecked three identities?"

"Noooo way! What a legend!"

"A bored legend."

"Ummm… aren't we supposed to be recording how much we love Helix?"

"Sure thing, Rize. But~first, let's feast upon Marie's embarrassed face."

"I'll crush you, Charlotte."

"Oooooh~ Scary. I'd burn you, but I don't think your face can get any hot—owwww!"

"Haaaaaaah. Yo, what's up, Helix?"

"Heeeey~Hellie."

"Ummm… Hi."

"Sooooo~cute."

"I swear to God, I'll—"

"Hey, Helix. It's only been a week, but I've been thinking about you every day."

Helix started laughing and crying when he heard his closest friends being… themselves.

"I miss you guys."

It made him happy they weren't sending him an introspective eulogy like the others.

"Me too…. It's not hard to think of you. I'm reminded of you every time I see smiling faces.

Things are much happier now with your cultivation world idea." Marie confessed.

"Me~too. But it's every time I see a jelly with the face of a docile lamb." Charlotte chimed.

"It's hilarious." Atlas chuckled.

"I think it's wonderful. All the weak people are happy, and the jealous people are quiet." Riley said with a warm voice.

"Weeeeell, yeah~ They have no choice but smile and wave.

Everyone's jealousy peaked when Hellie got 100% of the attention 24/7, but now they're too afraid to show it." Charlotte said with a malicious voice.

"Don't make it sound like people live under a dictatorship." Marie snapped.

"Hooooh? Yo. Hellie. You'd die if you saw the jelly parade." Charlotte chimed sarcastically.

"Every time Marie hears the word Helix come out of her mouth, she glances at them, and then they calm down.

She blu~shes first, of course—ow!"

"Helix… I swear I'm not a tyrant!" Marie cried in a panic.

"I think your leadership is amazing, Marie." Riley commented.

"Only the bad people are dissatisfied."

"Cut the PC. Just say [terrified] like a respectable—ow!"

Helix was rolling on the floor, laughing.

Elsa watched the scene with a bright smile on her face.

"Real talk, though; Marie's killing it with your strategy." Atlas asserted with a mildly serious voice.

"I don't think people realized how toxic the culture had become until it suddenly disappeared."

Helix smiled, and Elsa did too.

She had read about what happened and how Helix saved Alzeria from a serious crisis.

"It's wonderful, Helix. Everyone smiles more, even the people that used to be jealous." Riley said with a gentle voice.

"Yeah. It's super… weird." Charlotte remarked.

"Marie's a boss. Any strong person can create laws through force." Atlas added.

"However, she's been enforcing them without harming anyone."

"That's because she's scar~ey.

I think it's her face—ow! Ow! OW!" Charlotte cried.

"Okay! Okay! Look, I can't find anything else to jab at you for.

At least give me some competition room, jeez."

Helix burst into laughter, and soon Elsa and everyone recording did the same.

"Charlotte's joking around. She's super nice to Marie now." Riley said with a smiling voice.

"One night, she had us all sleep in the same bed.

She called it harem training for when we see you next, but we all know she was just trying to comfort everyone."

"Riley!" Marie cried.

"What? Don't you want Hellie to know there's something to look forward to?" Charlotte said with an evil voice.

"Yo. I'm out." Atlas followed up.

"Whatever. You could've at least dragged us into [your] room instead of busting down my door in your skimpy pajamas." Marie snapped indignantly.

Helix was rolling on the ground.

Elsa was rolling her eyes.

"Correction. Cultured pajamas." Charlotte snapped.

"I like them. The pink stripes on them make you look like you're wearing anime panties on your whole body." Riley giggled.

"Riley… where did you learn that language?" Marie asked in bewilderment.

"She's an otaku, dummy. Nice otakus are still otakus." Charlotte chastised.

Helix looked up over to Elsa nervously.

She was going through her belongings, pretending not to listen.

He sighed a breath of relief.

"Ah… whatever. Oh my god, we're still recording!" Marie cried.

"Um~yeah. This is what Helix [wants] to hear." Charlotte said with the inflection of a shrug.

"Don't be such a [Prude Patricia]."

"Is that even a saying?"

Helix's eyes widened in bewilderment.

"It is now." Charlotte replied.

"Wait. What are you still doing here, Atlas?" Marie asked.

"It's been five seconds since the last time I was bored." Atlas replied dismissively.

"Still don't have anything better to do."

Helix burst into laughter, and Elsa followed, proving she wasn't ignoring the conversation.

He wanted to sweat nervously but was too busy laughing to think about it.

"Ahem. Why don't we play 21 questions with Helix as the topic?" Marie suggested.

"Way to cock~tail out of the convo, leader." Charlotte chimed with a mocking voice.

"But I'm in. Make my questions spicy."

"Riley, don't listen to her." Marie demanded.

"But why? Isn't it what Helix wants?" Riley asked.

"There are various forms of loves and wants, and Charlotte's isn't appropriate for our love circle." Marie countered.

"It~is when you put it like that~" Charlotte said with an evil voice.

"Aaaaaah haaah. Riley, I second Marie's opinion." Atlas sighed.

"Let's let Charlotte ask herself spicy questions when she records her personal."

"Okay. If that's what's best." Riley replied with a warm voice.

"It is. I'll go first." Marie announced.

"Charlotte, when did you first fall in love… wait, when did you start [liking] Helix?" Marie asked after some deliberation.

"Hmmm. Smart woman…. But it's a boring question because the answer is immediately." Charlotte said shamelessly.

Helix's eyes widened in shock.

The gasps in the recording conveyed the same reaction.

"Charlotte. This game isn't a competition." Marie sighed.

"Woah, there. Calm your tits. I'm not joking." Charlotte huffed.

"Wait… you're being serious?" Marie asked.

"Well, yeah. I talked to Hellie on the first night because I was interested in his response to that frea~kie blood barrier." Charlotte recounted.

"While you girls were floundering around like school girls, I analyzed his strategy.

I couldn't figure it out. However, I knew it worked once I heard Hellie survived the encounter with a few broken ribs instead of dying."

"Wait… what? You mean his strategy to improve the servants' situation?" Marie asked in confusion.

"What? No. Hellie told you that if he was about to be attacked anyway, he might as well be nice to servants, yeah?

He chose that route against his best judgment.

His main goal was survival.

Helping the servants was secondary.

The girls forget that because they fell in love with~him for it." Charlotte replied mockingly.

"Haaaaah. I've never seen Marie blush so much—ow!" Atlas cried.

"You're getting way too strong, Marie."

Helix laughed when he remembered the night of the [first] honorary harem.

Now Atlas was being dragged in.

"No, think~back. Hellie isn't the type of person to flirt with women, right?

Have you seen him be so openly charming since?" Charlotte asked with an evil tone.

"Come to think of it, that is strange." Riley replied with a reflective voice.

"Yeah…. Thinking back, that's strange." Marie affirmed.

"We women always come to him, not the other way around."

"Exactly~ The guys that attacked us were sitting at the table next to us." Charlotte said with a grin.

"He was eyeing those guys down like a predator.

Suddenly~they were the people that attacked him, but he survived even though he should've died.

After that, he was given a shadow guard and hidden from practice.

It was masterful. Who wouldn't be interested in someone so cunning?"

Marie and Riley gasped in surprise, and Atlas chuckled with an evil grin.

Helix was too busy sweating.

Elsa was eyeing him down with a vicious look.

"Why would he do that?" Riley asked in a soft tone.

"Because the dweebs didn't have combat skills.

He would've died if people tried killing him even a day after combat training started." Charlotte replied.

"I still don't know much about what happened, but I know he did something, and it worked.

I thought it was strange how he emphasized he wanted to live~ but openly announced how killable he was while purposely pissing people off~

Turns out, he wanted to live after all."

"You're right. That's exactly what happened. I'm impressed." Helix chuckled with a warm smile.

He was glad Leera never caved and told about Helix's strategies to trap Lucas and Ethan.

Charlotte did plenty of investigating on her own but came up short.

If Leera had cracked to anyone, Charlotte would have known and confronted Helix as usual.

Therefore, he knew Charlotte's analysis was solely on her own observations.

Elsa gave him a pensive stare and started reflecting upon the situation and if he had done the right thing.

"Ooooooh. That's a good point." Marie whispered in praise.

"It's a bold move… for a weak idiot." Atlas laughed.

Helix flushed bright red when everyone burst into laughter.

Even Elsa was chuckling.

"Anyway, after that, I always hung around him.

I didn't do that out of boredom, you know?" Charlotte said with a dismissive tone.

"I am usually noncommittal to the point of losing friendships, and I have Tinker for emotional support.

But I kept hanging around Hellie because I was interested in him.

I didn't pounce because he always gave me the [you're crazy af, but I'm okay with it look]."

Helix burst into bewildered laughter, and a choir of giggles and chuckles backed him up.

"So~Atlas. When did you fall in love with Hellie?" Charlotte asked with an evil tone.

"Haaaaaah. Look, I'm not involved in this, but I'll tell you how I met him." Atlas sighed.