My Scumbag System-Chapter 440: Covenant Morning

I stared at her.

She grinned, that wide, unrepentant thing that probably got her out of trouble as often as it got her into it, and crawled up my body with deliberate care, navigating around the unconscious weight of the other three with a gymnast’s casual ease. She kissed me before I could say anything. It was warm and unhurried, the kind of kiss that had no agenda except itself, which somehow made it worse.

She broke away and settled beside me in the narrow strip of mattress that wasn’t already claimed by unconscious women, fitting herself into the space like she’d always been there. Her head found my shoulder. Her hand came to rest on my chest, and for a moment it lay just beside Natalia’s, close enough that their fingers nearly touched.

"I missed a lot," she said quietly.

"You were there last night."

"Not for the beginning." Her fingers began tracing idle, thoughtless patterns across my skin, like she was mapping something. "Not the first time you kissed them. Not the first time they made you laugh. The little stupid things." A pause. "I came in late. I want to catch up."

I looked at her properly. The performance was gone. No grin, no sultry drawl, no arch little smile deployed for maximum effect. Her emerald eyes were steady and serious, and something about the directness of it landed differently than the flirting had.

"You don’t have to compete," I said.

"I know." The grin came back, quieter than usual. "I want to anyway."

Natalia shifted. The movement was slow, reluctant, the careful rearrangement of a person who had been deeply and deservedly asleep and resented the interruption. Her eyes opened, unfocused at first, drifting across the ceiling before finding mine with the homing instinct of someone who had learned exactly where to look.

"Morning," I said.

"Mmph." She blinked. Once. Twice. The machinery of consciousness grinding back to life behind those violet eyes as she took in the ceiling, then me, then Akari, then the specific configuration we were arranged in, Akari’s head on my shoulder and her hand resting openly on my chest.

Natalia’s expression settled into a flat, controlled line, the kind that meant she was doing arithmetic. The pale gemstone of the Cryo-Lich Ring on her finger pulsed once, a single cold flicker.

"She woke me up," I said.

"I bet she did."

Akari laughed into my shoulder. The sound was quiet and real and made Natalia’s expression shift from irritated to something more complicated.

"Relax," Akari said. "I was just having breakfast."

"It’s one in the afternoon."

"Can’t skip the best meal of the day."

Celeste stirred on my other side. Her periwinkle eyes opened, blinked at the ceiling, then moved to my face. A crease formed between her brows, the only indication she’d registered the situation before she looked at Natalia, then at Akari.

"Good morning," she said carefully.

"Morning, princess," Akari said.

Cel’s expression remained neutral, but the slight tightening of her jaw gave away the flash of annoyance. She sat up slowly, the sheet pooling around her waist. Her nightdress had ridden up during sleep, showing miles of pale thigh that made my morning problem significantly less resolved than Akari’s efforts had suggested.

Emi’s voice came from somewhere near the foot of the bed.

"Is everyone awake?"

I craned my neck. Emi sat with her knees pulled to her chest, yellow hoodie zipped up, her blue hair an absolute catastrophe. Her face was still pink.

"Unfortunately," Skylar’s voice came from the corner.

I turned. She was back. Sitting in my desk chair, legs crossed, looking like she’d never left. Her violet eyes were half-lidded and unimpressed, but her throat had a fresh hickey that hadn’t been there when she’d left the hallway.

"Did you get dressed?" I asked.

"Briefly. It was boring. I came back."

Natalia sat up properly and stretched. The motion did extraordinary things to her body that I absolutely noticed despite my brain being approximately seventy percent offline.

"We should talk about last night," she said.

The room went quiet.

"Or," Akari said, "we could make breakfast and pretend we’re normal people for twenty minutes before the existential crisis."

"I vote breakfast," Emi said immediately.

"Of course you do." Skylar stood. "You’re literally the only person here who knows how to cook a little."

"That’s not true. Satori can cook well."

"Satori nearly died twice in three weeks. He gets a pass."

I looked at Skylar. "Appreciate that."

"Don’t let it go to your head."

Celeste slid off the bed with careful grace and retrieved her nightdress from where it had ended up draped over my bookshelf. She pulled it on in one smooth motion without turning away, meeting my eyes the entire time.

"I’ll help Emi," she said.

Natalia stood and found her camisole inside out on the floor. She pulled it on without bothering to fix it. "I’ll supervise."

"I’ll watch," Akari said cheerfully.

They filed out. Skylar lingered at the door, her hand on the frame, and looked back at me still lying in the wreckage of my bed.

"Don’t fall back asleep."

"Wasn’t planning on it."

"Liar."

The door closed.

I lay there for approximately ten more seconds before my brain reminded me that five women had just been in my bed and were currently heading to my kitchen to make breakfast and probably discuss last night in detail while I wasn’t present to defend myself.

Also my parents were coming later.

Also my room looked like a crime scene.

I sat up. My ribs screamed. My arms throbbed. My everything hurt in the specific way that suggested I’d made several poor but extremely worthwhile life choices in rapid succession.

The System notification blinked in my peripheral vision.

[CONGRATULATIONS! ALL ENSEMBLE MEMBERS HAVE REACHED RANK 10: COVENANT]

[NATALIA KUZMINA - THE PSYCHIC SOVEREIGN]

[EMI AOYAMA - THE RADIANT HEART]

[SKYLAR AMANE - THE PHANTOM BLADE]

[CELESTE VANCE - THE WINTER QUEEN]

[AKARI MIYAMOTO - THE GOLDEN CHAIN]

Five covenants. Five permanent soul bonds. Five women who knew exactly what I was and chose to stay anyway.

Nel’s presence materialized at the edge of my consciousness.

Well done, protagonist, she purred. The Audience wept. Apollo laughed. Aphrodite is still crying in the corner because you actually did it.

"She made me do it."

You chose Impossible Mode. No one forced that.

Fair.

I stood. Found sweatpants. Put them on. Located a shirt that didn’t have mysterious stains and pulled it over my head.

Bartholomew watched me from his terrarium with the patience of something that had lived through worse.

"Don’t judge me," I told him.