In The Palm Of One's Hand

After the first meeting with the three Radiant-rankers—the fathers of the three girls who all liked me—finally ended, I let out a deep breath of relief.

I survived!

Somehow.

I slumped back in my chair, my mind spinning. 'That was intense... but at least I made it out alive.' I thought, trying to relax.

Just then, another realization struck me. 'Oh right, there's someone else whose feelings I still need to address,' I thought, grimacing slightly.

Rose Springshaper—the girl who had asked me out.

I initially grew close to her because I tried to keep my distance from the main cast, thinking I had no right to develop feelings for them since they all were supposed to be with Lucifer anyway.

And while I did like Rose as a friend, I realized I didn't feel the same romantic connection with her that I felt with Cecilia, Rachel, or Seraphina. My heart told me this much.

'There's no point in giving her false hope,' I thought, frowning. Leading someone on was far worse than an honest rejection.

I cared about Rose and valued our friendship, but anything beyond that simply wasn't there. The people who had truly captured my heart were Cecilia, Rachel, and Seraphina.

I sighed deeply, feeling the weight of my situation. 'Am I really forming a harem here?' I thought, the realization sinking in. Not just any harem, but one made up of princesses.

As Alastor had pointed out, it was dangerous—very dangerous. None of the three fathers wanted to use their daughters for political advantage, but that didn't mean their subordinates felt the same way. There would be immense scrutiny on me moving forward.

Sure, my standing now was good—I was Rank 2 among Mythos Academy's first years, and I was the Martial King's disciple. But still, I would need a lot more power before I could even dream of making such a commitment.

'Well,' I thought, shaking my head, 'that's a problem for the distant future.'

But there was something I needed to address now.

I needed to confess to them.

My ears warmed as the thought crossed my mind. It wasn't easy to admit, but I had to follow through. I had promised to respect their feelings, and that meant being honest with mine.

Confessing to all three of them... Honestly, I had no idea how they'd react. Would they be fine with it? Would they even want to share me?

I couldn't force them into anything like that, nor would I want to. If they each wanted a relationship where I was theirs alone, I'd have to respect that, even if it meant difficult decisions down the line. 

It wasn't like I had ever been a fan of harems, and now here I was—actually living in one. The idea of someone else trying to date any of them filled me with an uncomfortable pang of jealousy. Hypocritical? Absolutely.

'I never liked harems in the first place,' I thought, clicking my tongue. And yet, despite that, here I was, falling for all three of these incredible girls.

'How did Lucifer manage this mess?' I wondered, frowning to myself.

After thinking it over, I realized something. 'No, it's not quite time for a confession yet,' I concluded. Was that cowardly of me? Probably.

But the truth was, I needed more time.

There were still things I had to figure out—like why I was even here in the first place. There was so much I didn't understand, so many questions I still had about my presence in this world. Before I could make any commitments, I had to get some answers. I couldn't rush into something as important as this without knowing what lay ahead.

So for now, I had to wait.

'Are you just afraid of it not working out?' Luna's voice echoed in my mind, causing me to wince slightly.

Yes, that was my biggest fear.

I had been a teenager in my past life, so I knew exactly how messy teenage relationships could be. Feelings were raw, intense, and often fleeting. The girls had fallen for me quickly, and I realized that I had, too.

But I wanted this to be different—better.

I couldn't just rely on the connection I had with them because I knew them from the novel. I needed to see them as real people. I needed to connect with them as fellow humans, as equals, not as characters in a story I had read.

Only then, if my feelings remained unchanged, and if I finally understood my place in this world, would I confess to them.

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind, one that felt oddly out of place.

'Why does Luna not know about my past life?' 

I paused, frowning. Luna and I shared a deep bond. She should've known about something so significant, yet she didn't. And this wasn't just a matter of controlling my thoughts—I hadn't deliberately hidden this from her. So why didn't she know?

What... was going on?

Something wasn't adding up. I could feel the unease rising in my chest, a feeling like I was missing something crucial.

It wasn't just this, though. There were other strange details that I had dismissed before, but now they seemed like pieces of a larger puzzle.

I sat up, grabbing my tablet and scribbling down my thoughts, my heart pounding with a strange mix of excitement and anxiety.

First, Seraphina's intense interest in me from the very beginning—it seemed almost unnatural.

Second, my behavior as a child had changed significantly when I first arrived in this world, yet no one seemed to question it. Nobody wondered why I, Arthur Nightingale, had become so different overnight. It was as if everyone just accepted it without question, with my parents only bringing it up the second time I visited them.

Third, Luna not knowing about my past life despite being bonded to me—a link that should allow us to share everything. 

And then another piece came to mind.

Fourth, the Temple of Enlightenment. When I visited it, it hadn't worked. I thought it might've been because of my reincarnated soul, but what if there was more to it? The temple was supposed to show visions, glimpses of one's past or future to pave the way for greater power. Yet, for me, it had shown nothing—an empty void, only causing me pain.

I stared at the list, my pen hovering above the tablet.

'What is this?' I thought, a chill running down my spine.

Something was happening, something I couldn't fully understand yet. There were too many loose threads, too many anomalies.

If there was one thing I learned from the novel, it was that every anomaly had meaning. Every inconsistency held a clue—a truth waiting to be uncovered.

'There's something here,' I thought, 'something I need to discover.'

Suddenly, a few more things came rushing back to me.

A voice I had heard in that moment when I was transitioning between worlds.

"I am sorry, this was the only way."

My strange acceptance of the fact that I had suddenly become Arthur Nightingale, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

The fact that I couldn't remember my name from my past life, or any of the truly significant details about it. Just a vague sense of who I was, without any defining features.

Why?

Why had none of this bothered me before? Why was I only questioning these things now?

A chill ran down my spine, goosebumps prickling on my skin. It was like my mind had been in a fog, keeping me from questioning any of it, until now.

'What's going on in this world?'

The pieces weren't aligning, and there was a gnawing feeling in my gut that something—or someone—was manipulating events beyond what I understood.

Luna, my bond, hadn't noticed my memories. Seraphina's inexplicable interest in me. The Temple of Enlightenment showing nothing. My acceptance of this reality. That voice, so filled with regret.

The signs were all there, but I had been too distracted to notice. I'd been so caught up in surviving, in adjusting, in trying to navigate relationships that I had missed what should've been obvious.

'Someone brought me here, and they knew what they were doing. But why? To save this world? Then who? Why me?' 

I needed answers. Not just for myself, but for the people I cared about—the people who had become a real part of my life. If I wanted to protect them, to ensure they weren't just pawns in someone else's game, I had to understand what was happening.

To test my theory, I tried talking to Luna about my past life.

It didn't work.

Something was blocking me, something beyond even her understanding.

'Whoever brought me here far surpasses Radiant-rank,' I realized.

Even Radiant-rankers couldn't detect Luna, a qilin whose power was equivalent to that level, yet this being could block my communication with her. It meant they were beyond what I had encountered so far—beyond the known limits of power in this world.

And then there was Seraphina. It seemed likely she had been manipulated by this person into taking an interest in me, just enough to push that first domino over and set everything into motion. Chills ran down my spine as I considered just how deep this manipulation could go.

How much of my life here had been foreseen?

Did I have free will at all?

Becoming close to everyone, falling for them, gaining Luna's will, unlocking Lucifer's second Gift, beating Ren, becoming Magnus's disciple... had all of it been premeditated from the very beginning?

This realization brought with it a sense of danger I hadn't felt before—a chilling, creeping sense of dread.

If this being could manipulate things on such a massive scale, what else could they do? How much of my future was already decided, and how much of it could I still change?

I needed more information—far more.

And the only ones who might know anything about this were those at the very peak of power in this world.

Radiant-rankers.

I clenched my fists, determination solidifying within me. I needed answers, and there was only one place to start.

I needed to find Alastor Creighton.