I wake up, and all I see is white... ceilings?

  “He’s awake.”

  Two heads pop into view — one on each side.

  Roka and Felmina.

  “He looks fine to me,” Felmina says.

  I look down and notice a doctor at the foot of the bed.

  Wait… why does this world keep having similarities to my old one?

  Also — both girls are holding my hands.

  For some reason, I feel completely fine. I sit up. They both release a synchronized sigh of relief.

  “How are you feeling?” the doctor asks.

  “I think I’m good, sensei.”

  “Sensei? Ah, you must be from Earth too.”

  Wait—he’s also from Earth?

  He glances at the two girls, shrugs, and stands.

  “I’ll give you guys a moment.”

  He leaves.

  Damn it, I really want to talk to that guy.

  A few silent moments pass before Roka finally speaks.

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  “Uhm… Ryu-san, while you were unconscious, Felmina and I had time to talk, and we cleared up the misunderstanding between us, so…”

  “Have you perhaps reconsidered my proposal, Sir Hero— I-I mean… Ryu…-san?”

  Felmina leans forward. Determined. Hopeful. Aggressive. Relentless.

  I close my eyes and think.

  It’s not that I dislike this new honest version of her. I barely know her… but I barely knew Roka before the wedding interview too, so…

  I open my eyes to answer — and they’re both giving me puppy-dog eyes.

  So unfair.

  I put my hand over my face.

  “…Fine.”

  “He agreed!!”

  They high-five over the bed like they just won a championship.

  A Few Weeks Later

  I’m now working full-time in the trenches.

  They finally got the people-to-digging-speed ratio figured out. By the way, those dirt containers they pull up? Apparently the damn things have anti-gravity enchantments on them. That’s why everything started going waaaaaay faster.

  And now I fully understand why they call Roka a genius — the enchantment idea was hers. The entire layout of the New Section was hers. After she presented it to the king, he basically had no choice but to let her handle the “unladylike” work.

  Honestly? She’s terrifying.

  I also had my marriage interview with Felmina. It went much better than my first one with Roka. After the introductions, she just… bared her soul to me. Completely honest. No tricks. No seductive nonsense.

  It felt real.

  She also told me about that creep duke’s son who kept asking after Roka. That part concerned me, so I asked the head assistant to keep tabs on him — and to fetch me immediately if anything happened.

  Good thing I did.

  But more on that later.

  Felmina now brings us lunch every day. Usually she picks up Roka first, then they come together. We all get along great. They seem fine with everything. So… why not?

  One day, they told me they had a surprise.

  I asked what it was.

  They both stood, turned their backs to me, then lifted their hair.

  On the nape of their necks—

  The Absolute Loyalty Seal. Activated.

  Shit.

  I completely forgot about that.

  Turns out they had already done their part. They were just waiting for me to do mine.

  From then on, I carefully avoided the subject. I mean… are they that serious? They should know that using the seal comes with real danger, right? Like death danger?

  So I kept putting it off.

  Turns out…

  That was a big mistake.