The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 206. My Harem Needs to Get Along Without Any Yandere Bullshit
"O-okay... let me try again." Talyra said those words while attempting to maintain her composure.
"Talyra Skydancer," she introduced herself, as was her custom when navigating ambiguous social situations. Talyra believed that stating her name helped clarify her identity.
"It’s nice to finally meet you and speak with you, Talyra," Diana said, and she shook her head. "I’m Diana Von Starlight."
Talyra’s body tensed up when she shook Diana’s hand for the first time, and she glanced at Aisella quickly, who just gave a slow nod.
She said, "The pleasure is mine," carefully, hoping to hide her discomfort as she looked at Diana’s face for any signs of what was really going on behind her friendly smile.
They looked at each other for a moment that was neither hostile nor comfortable but rather a specific, honest assessment between two people who understood their situation and were deciding how to navigate it.
Then Diana looked at Lily, and Lily looked back at Diana; their exchange resembled that of two people who had known each other long enough for a complete conversation to be conveyed through a single look.
In that moment, they made a silent promise to face whatever came next together. Talyra and Aisella could feel the change in the air and knew that their bond was stronger than the things that were bothering them.
"You two should come with us," Lily said. "We were going to celebrate Rex’s return anyway."
Talyra looked at Rex, and Rex looked back at her with the look of someone who was technically agreeing to something he didn’t really want to do but knew how to act in that situation.
"All of us?" Talyra asked.
"Indeed, all of us," Lily affirmed, her tone conveying the resoluteness of someone who had made a decision and was not open to reconsideration. "Rex’s friend is our friend too."
Aisella, who had come to stand at Talyra’s other side with her documentation packs still slung over one shoulder because she had not found a moment to set them down, looked at the assembled group with a diagnostic expression and then nodded once in the way she did when she had assessed a situation and found the practical outcome acceptable.
"Thank you for having us," Aisella said, giving a slight bow.
"There’s no need to be so formal with us," Lily giggled. "From now on, we’re equals!"
Aisella smiled at Lily’s excitement and liked how it made the air feel less tense for a moment. The group looked at each other, and a sense of friendship began to grow, which was a sign of the teamwork that would define their time together.
Rex smirked to himself, thinking, ’Yeah... that’s it. My harem needs to get along without any yandere bullshit.’
...
Elizabeth’s debrief didn’t take long, but it was very thorough.
She went through each group in the order they came back, starting with Apollo’s. They had a good record of clearing dungeons and collecting resources, and Elizabeth noted that they were "intact and professionally managed" when they got back, which was the assessment register’s way of saying they did great work.
Apollo said that his group had cleared the second chamber of the dungeon without any problems, but he did have one hostile encounter with a standard-class monster. He was obvious about the amount of resources available, the layout of the dungeon, and the timeline, just like he was transparent about things he had done carefully.
Rex paid close attention to Apollo’s report, as if he were gathering information for future use. He noted the dungeon’s structure as Apollo described it: a simple descent, two chambers, a normal number of monsters, no divine remnants, and no sealed sections.
The island that Apollo’s group had been on was not the same one that Rex’s group had been on.
There was a big difference.
Elizabeth glanced at the documentation packs that Aisella had placed on the briefing table for Rex’s group. Her expression mirrored the one she wore when recalibrating her expectations in real time.
"Start with the research record," Elizabeth said.
Aisella opened the main documentation folder and got to work.
The report took 40 minutes to complete. Elizabeth interrupted only twice: first, to inquire about the methodology used for the geological provenance assessment of the Elder Script, and second, to verify the criteria for classifying the six specimens that had been tentatively identified as potential new species rather than mere regional variants.
Elizabeth was quiet for a moment after Aisella finished explaining, just like she was when she was finishing an evaluation and hadn’t yet moved on to the verbal part.
Elizabeth said, "About the dungeon..."
Rex recorded the events in a logical sequence for record-keeping: the sealed door, the descent, the guardian chamber, the design and behavior of the constructs, the preservation chamber, the golem, and the chest.
He informed her about the identity of the Earthen Apostle by using the information that Aisella had translated. Elizabeth wrote this down with the kind of attention that showed she was going to look at it again later.
"The gauntlets," Elizabeth said.
"We got them back from the chest and put them in the supply cache," Rex said. "But then... something happens."
He told what happened in the attack. The five undead matched the exact signature that Aisella had confirmed from the Thornmaze dungeon incident, and they were arranged in a tactical formation.
He recounted the battle in the exact sequence it unfolded, detailing the loss of the gauntlets at the waterline with the precision of someone who had witnessed the events and was truthful about his inability to intervene.
"Direction for the group with the gauntlets?" Elizabeth inquired.
"Offshore into the Intermediate Waters," Rex said. "We lost them at approximately forty meters depth."
Elizabeth wrote something down after hearing the reason. "Those demons really wanted everything the humans have, huh..."
Apollo, who had been standing on the edge of the debrief while his own group’s results were being put into the official record, straightened up when he heard the word "undead" and has been paying attention ever since.
He said, "The same profile as the Thornmaze attack," and the way he said it made it clear that he wasn’t asking.
"Yes... almost the same signature," Aisella said with the confidence of someone who had run the diagnostic twice and was sure of what she was saying. "The core necrotic pattern was the same, even though the deployment configuration was different."
Apollo’s jaw was set in the exact way it was when he was processing information that had to do with something personal and was in charge of the connection instead of reacting to it.
"They went after the gauntlets on purpose," he said.
"The fifth undead went straight to the supply cache." Rex said, "It was planned while the others were a distraction."
"Mordecai," Apollo said, and the word carried the same quality it did now, which was that of an answer explaining things in a way he did not find satisfying.
"Yeah..." Rex said, "That’s probably the working theory."
"The divine remnant," Apollo said as he looked at Elizabeth. "A first-generation Apostle tool in the hands of a demon is—"
"A problem I’m going to present to Lady Valentina before the end of the day," Elizabeth stated, indicating the version of this conversation she was prepared to have in the current setting. The tone of her voice made it evident that a more detailed discussion would take place elsewhere.
Apollo nodded once, showing that he was holding back on purpose because he had more to say but didn’t want to say it here.
Elizabeth looked at the groups that had gathered.
"Alright, everyone, listen up!"
"The assessment is officially over." She said, "Final scores will be up by tomorrow morning."
"What I can tell you now is that the work from this group—" she looked at Rex, Talyra, and Aisella for a moment, "—produced research results that the Academy hasn’t seen from a student assessment in eleven years."
She stopped, which was the Elizabeth way of putting stress on something.
"The assessment exemption stands, and with that... you don’t have to take any standard tests for the next two weeks."
"You can still use all of the Academy’s facilities and training materials, and I expect you to be in class when I’m actually teaching something."
She looked at the rest of the assembled students. "All of you."
"Dismissed."
