Matilda organized her lunch party at the Charter family’s restaurant and ice cream parlor. The Neues and the Charters scheduled Barbara’s wedding for next month, and her father wouldn’t allow the bride to associate with Wolf. Gossip could turn a picturesque spring ceremony into a broken engagement, and considering Wolf’s reputation, Count Charter didn’t wish to risk his daughter’s good name.

He wasn’t the only one. Marquess Thonburi also didn’t want his daughter associating with the perverted Mage. However, facing Matilda, he couldn’t slam his hand down on the table and order her. Instead, he suggested with extreme politeness. Matilda, naturally, refused.

Out of five, only four young adventurers got together. Wayde freshly returned from a solo mission. He earned himself valuable experience and even more valuable Academic Credits.

The young Duke smiled as he finished retelling his mission. “Hopefully, I’ll break through soon. Then, I can stay in the elite class and attend your class.”

He raised his wineglass towards Wolf. He was painfully aware of Wolf’s reputation, but minor rumors weren’t enough for Wayde to avoid his prodigy roommate, even though some informants left him because of this association.

Wolf smiled back and toasted with South’s wine. His eyes darted towards Anna, but she ate in silence, watching her plate. Wolf had already examined her with fully awakened senses. On the outside, Anna appeared fine.

However, her heartbeat was too quick, her breath wheezed. The makeup covered the dark rings under her eyes well, but tiny differences in hue existed between the places where she applied it.

“Anna…” Wolf forced fondness into his voice.

“Yes, my fiance?” She lifted her gaze from the platter and stared Wolf straight in the eye.

Something was wrong with those eyes. Wolf didn’t know why, but his heart ached when he saw them. He never expected to see Anna so hopeless. The young woman reminded him of a broken, caged animal, not a manling. Unlike Matilda, who advanced her Order, and Wayde, who had confidence to advance in time, Anna was stuck. There was no way forward. Her future sank from elite to mediocrity. Her luck was good, otherwise she would’ve ended up like Barbara, a shackled breeding tool, unable to leave the house and enjoy ice cream with her friends.

“How have you been?” Wolf said without thinking. He bit his tongue at once, but he was too late. Careless words were already spoken.

Anna’s lip distorted, and her chin quivered. “Fine, thank you. I have random personages delivering essays and novellas to my doorstep. Parodies and satires regarding a certain Mage and his twisted concubines. Sometimes, they feature graphics in my likeness, there’s only a slight difference in the nose or around the eyes. But I recognize myself in them.”

Anna paused.

“I’m doing just fine.” She said in a hollow voice, downing her third cup of wine.

“Waiter, another bottle, please.” Anna tapped the glass with her nail, producing a clear chime of a person drowning their woes.

Wolf opened his mouth, then closed it. He mimicked a fish several times as his face grew red. He took a deep breath. I’ll kill them. He didn’t dare say it. He bit his lips and kept his mouth shut. If such a vague statement shackled his soul, it could force him to slaughter the entire city to get rid of it.

“I’ll try to fix it,” he gave an ill defined and useless promise, which wouldn’t move Mandy, let alone Anna.

“The books I’ve received state that voyeuristic concubine’s woes stem from the perverted Mage…” Anna spoke while sloshing the wine into her glass, then she downed her cup as soon as she filled it. “… and his inability to control his tiny penis.”

The half-drunk woman gave Wolf a haunting look. “And in case you’re interested, the other concubine’s problem is not having enough penises. She feasts on them. The more you throw at her, the wider her smile and the richer she gets, while the other one watches like an impotent drunkard.”

Wolf’s breathing quickened for a moment, and blood surged to his head.

Deeper, Mandy moaned that word more than once in her throes of pleasure. After Anna’s words, all the jeers he had heard these past two weeks made sense, as did the way Mage Academy students cried and cowered while mocking him.

While Wolf stared dazedly into the distance, Matilda’s eyes flashed, hinting at Anna to stop, but Anna was too drunk to care.

“You seem angry, my fiance?” Anna slurred. “I don’t dare leave my room these days. My refuge is in my dreams. When I go out to eat, bitches moan behind my back, or ask whether an invisible toothpick had pricked me.”

Wolf grit his teeth. “I could stop.”

Anna shook her head and cried, surprising him. “It would’ve helped if you had listened when problems were still small. Now it doesn’t matter. When your reputation hits rock bottom, it can’t sink further. I don’t know if you’re aware. The perverted Mage visited seventeen new brothels and pricked three hundred and forty-four victims with his silly chant and tiny wand.”

Matilda’s face was red. She was too shocked to stop Anna. Wayde was Wayde. He pretended nothing happened and ate. And finally, Wolf was ready to explode.

Those women saved me five years of Soul Force gathering! He wanted to shout, but couldn’t. If he revealed his secret, he would die, hunted down by every power of every nation. Even inside Mage Academy, Lord of Steel would search Wolf’s memories, then kill him without flinching.

The screech of wood scraping against marble echoed in everyone’s ears. Wolf knocked down his chair while rising, then stormed away without a word.

Matilda opened her mouth, wanting to shout after the dumbass. Wayde watched Wolf flee with his typical neutral expression, while Anna drank with unfocused eyes. She shuddered, her gaze growing clear from realization.

Father will beat Mother again. Anna stood up and dashed after Wolf, but she fell flat on her face after taking the first step. She tried to say something, but her tongue twisted and nothing but unintelligible gibberish left her mouth.

***

Wolf didn’t flee from Anna. He thought it was impossible to reason with her while she was intoxicated. She wouldn’t remember their conversation, nor could she say anything worth hearing.

Instead, he realized another concubine existed in the story. A concubine attacked more viciously than Anna. That woman didn’t fall apart. She smiled. She wasn’t a drunken wreck, blaming him for her woes, even though he was at fault. Instead, she looked at him with bright, untainted eyes full of admiration.

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

“Mandy, open up.” Wolf wished to see her. He wanted to understand how she felt.

“Go away! I’m ugly!” The door repeated the words Mandy shouted the last two times Wolf visited. After seeing her withered features in a mirror, Mandy didn’t want Wolf to meet her before she recovered her stunning figure.

“Open the door. We need to talk.” Unlike before, Wolf didn’t leave with a relieved ‘Alright’.

A moment later, gaunt Mandy opened the door. “What’s wrong? Did anything happen to you?”

He’s furious. She knew at a glance.

“Did you get those books?” Wolf asked without entering her suite.

“Naturally. Please come in.” Mandy smiled, giving Wolf a fond look while motioning him inside. He came because he worried about her.

“It’s impossible you found out just now?” Mandy closed the door behind Wolf.

“I knew some books existed, and that they featured Anna, but I never expected they would send them to you.” He had a conflicted look. He didn’t understand how Mandy could just smile like that. Anna was falling apart.

Mandy sighed. Wolf had a long way to go. “They are trying to get to you through Miss Annabelle and me, since they can’t get to you directly.”

“And you don’t mind being called ‘penis craving concubine’?”

“It’s the cock-loving nympho.” Mandy remained calm, a stark contrast to Wolf whose hands were shaking. “But no, I don’t mind. Your enemies can call me whatever they want, as long as I can be with you.”

“Now, I’m glad that you’re concerned about me, but you don’t have to worry. As long as I can be with the man I love, I’ll bear whatever burden comes my way.” Mandy truly felt blessed. Her fortune may have come after weathering a few storms. But, if she had known that this was coming after those trials ended, she would’ve bore all her burdens with a smile.

Wolf looked at those eyes which radiated love and didn’t know what to say.

“Are you really fine with what happened?” Wolf struggled, asking this question for the first time.

“No. I’m not fine.” Mandy bluntly admitted. “However, I don’t find the situation unfair towards me. Spending one day in hell and then having the wounds and memories erased is fair to get the happiness I longed for. I don’t want to imagine the horrors my mother and sister had gone through when our family’s caravan was raided. I don’t think life compensated them fairly and I think they suffered much more than I did.”

Mandy paused for a moment and gathered her thoughts. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to capture and castrate the bastards that put me through that one day in hell.”

“And Anna?” Wolf asked, worry seeping into his voice.

“Miss Annabelle Didot… I have to be honest with you…” Mandy made a dramatic pause, thinking whether or not she should tell the truth. “I’m really grateful to her. For several reasons. From what I heard in the rumors she wouldn’t give you any, so then you went and had an affair with me behind her back. Then she very violently pushed me into your life, which I believe she truly regrets. Is that true?”

Wolf nodded guiltily, but Mandy didn’t really need his admission. She wasn’t stupid.

“Back then I knew that what happened between us was a one time thing. But I still didn’t regret it. I don’t know how to put it… I feel a primal attraction towards you. I don’t know.” Mandy took a deep breath. Saying things like this wasn’t easy. She had to be honest to herself, then perfectly open towards Wolf.

“So I really feel grateful to her because she didn’t want to indulge in wonderful little bedroom activities with you. I’m grateful she arranged for you to be my knight in shining armor. But to be perfectly honest… Maybe, just maybe, deep down, I want to hear news of her suffering a similar fate. Then I could be content and treat her as my savior. But that’s not going to happen, even if it did, I’d feel guilty about it. In the end the good she brought me outweighs the bad. At least from my point of view.”

She paused and then took a deep breath. Since she was being honest she had to go all the way. “And I’m very grateful to you. For saving me, for healing me, for avenging me. Really. I can’t describe to you how grateful I’m feeling. Not because you’re my man, but because you’re my benefactor. I’d be willing to risk everything for you and I'd smile no matter what hardship awaits me, if it’s for you. I really mean it. I don’t think you could ever understand how I feel.” Mandy finished with her eyes moist.