[Host, stop overreacting]

Wren’s right eye twitched violently in a rapid involuntary flutter that betrayed the sheer annoyance bubbling up beneath his normally calm exterior.

’Stop overreacting?’ He thought, completely incredulous at the sheer audacity of Nyx. ’You just told me to seduce a famous woman... Nyx, do I look famous to you? Do I look like the kind of impossibly wealthy, high-society playboy who smoothly waltzes into the pristine lives of celebrities and sweeps them off their perfectly manicured feet?’

[Well no, you’re poor. Regardless it isn’t anything to be that worried about, though if you don’t, you’ll miss all that 100k worth of starting funds~ Combine that with the 100k that Pops sent you and we’ll be well on our way to making the Langford Lodge better again, we could even give it a brand new name]

Wren paused, his breath catching slightly in his throat as the glowing holographic text faded away into nothingness.

All of what Nyx was saying wasn’t a lie... the Lodge desperately needed the financial injection. A cool two hundred thousand in total would transform the crumbling estate into something a bit respectable but the sheer logistical nightmare of the task loomed over him.

These were famous women, high-class socialites, and beloved public figures. Didn’t they all have a very specific type? Sure, he was tall and undeniably handsome, possessing a naturally broad-shouldered physique with good muscles that made it look like he worked out relentlessly, but he knew his absolute limits when it came to navigating the terrifying waters of high society.

’Could Leah be classified as a Famous woman?’ Wren thought with another aggressive twitch of his right eye.

She was a direct descendant of the notoriously powerful Merritt family, so her bloodline was certainly famous... but the only saving grace was that Leah herself hadn’t made any significant public appearances yet.

She preferred the shadows, so she most certainly wasn’t famous in the traditional, paparazzi-hounded sense of the word.

’If it was her older sister, then— Nah, I’m sure her older sister would hate the absolute shit out of me.’ Wren finished the thought with a heavy internal sigh.

Leah always talked endlessly about her older sister, painting a terrifying picture of an authoritative, flawless woman and while the young girl could definitely be overexaggerating her sibling’s intimidating aura, honestly, Wren didn’t want to stick around to find out the truth.

Anyone who had the capacity to genuinely annoy a master ragebaiter like Leah was an absolute devil in his books.

"Urath to Wren... What happened? You’re shocked by my greatness right?" Leah suddenly waved a delicate, perfectly manicured hand directly in front of his face with her free hand resting confidently on her hip.

Wren blinked, violently snapping out of his deep internal monologue. As his vision focused, he suddenly realized that Zoe, Diana, and Leah were all staring directly at him in the quiet dining room.

Wren awkwardly cleared his throat, shifting his posture in his chair.

"On The Celestine?"

Leah nodded enthusiastically with a bright triumphant smile spreading across her face.

She eagerly explained that she had personally asked her mother, and her mother had casually said that it was completely fine to invite some people over for the voyage.

"Though my mother strictly warned that you guys shouldn’t cause any kind of trouble, obviously. But I already told my mother that you and the rest were entirely chill," Leah added with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Wren raised an incredibly skeptical eyebrow at the young girl’s blatant confidence. "You haven’t even met them yet, so how exactly would you know if they are chill or not?"

Leah simply chuckled.

"I’ve been speaking with Dani and she said so, she assured me that your friends weren’t like that, in fact, she’s the one that showed me the exact direction of the house."

Wren sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose in sheer defeat. At this point, he wasn’t even surprised anymore.

’This is just exactly like Dani... but that certainly doesn’t mean I won’t aggressively hit her on the head when I see her next.’ Wren thought, silently plotting his petty revenge against his childhood friend.

Zoe was the one that talked this time.

"Leah, are you really inviting us onto the Celestine? From what I heard, the tickets for that cruise are unimaginably costly, and even then, a massive amount of incredibly popular elite people are usually there..." Zoe said, her hands nervously fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

Sure, the girl standing in front of them was from the legendary Merritt family, but still... How on Urath was a modest group like them supposed to naturally blend in amongst the overwhelming abundance of rich judgmental people roaming the decks of that luxury liner?

"Yes, you don’t need to worry about that at all..." Leah said smoothly, her voice oozing with reassuring confidence. "The Celestine isn’t only strictly limited to very rich people like you think. There’s a lot of normal, everyday people there too, taking vacations and not only that, but you’ll be personally invited by me, a Merritt, so there’s absolutely not an issue."

Then, in a terrifying display of emotional whiplash, Leah’s confident expression instantly turned incredibly sad.

She slowly raised the shiny tickets closer to her face, her bottom lip quivering slightly as her large eyes turned instantly glassy with unshed tears. "B-but if you guys really don’t want to come with me... then you don’t have to."

Diana immediately waved her hands frantically forward, looking incredibly nervous at the sight of the young girl’s sudden heartbreak. Beside her, Zoe was looking profoundly apologetic too, completely falling for the act.

"If you want us to come, then we absolutely will... We just have to quickly arrange some appropriate clothes for the trip," Diana said softly, trying to comfort the girl.

Zoe nodded rapidly alongside her mother in total agreement... completely surrendering to the guilt trip. Instantly, the tears vanished. Leah’s deeply saddened expression turned into a radiant, beaming smile of pure sunshine.

"I can totally help you buy some beautiful clothes, Mother, and you too, Sister Zoe... you absolutely have to look your best for this," Leah said with terrifyingly cheerful enthusiasm.

Wren sat frozen in his chair, feeling an icy chill run violently down his spine.

Truly, the frightening way that these women were able to flawlessly change their complex behaviors and emotions in under an instant made him genuinely scared.

First, it was Priya smoothly lying through her teeth in under a moment, and now it was this flawlessly executed manipulative guilt trip.

’It is truly, utterly stressful to deal with women...’ he mentally concluded.

"Here’s your ticket, Mother, and you too, Zoe..." Leah said sweetly, extending her arms to pass the two of them their respective passes.

The tickets looked unimaginably expensive. They were thick, beautifully textured, and caught the light with a mesmerizing sheen.

Diana slowly reached out and held the luxurious ticket with two shaking hands, treating it with the utmost reverence as if it was an ancient fragile relic.

"It’s totally okay to lose them since your names are already permanently registered on the central boarding computer," Leah reassured them gently. "But it’s honestly just better to hold onto the physical tickets just to be completely sure."

"Thank you," Diana said, her voice a hushed whisper as she stared down at the beautiful piece of cardstock while holding tightly onto it. "I’ll cherish it..."

The older woman’s genuine awe made Leah giggle cutely.

"She is so cute..." the young woman whispered then, Leah confidently extended a final ticket directly to Wren.

Wren reached out and took it, his fingers brushing against the cool, premium material.

He looked closely at it. The ticket was completely coated in a reflective metallic silver finish, with a bold #12 elegantly stamped on the front. He flipped it over, and on the back, his full name was printed in stark, clear black lettering.

’WREN LANGFORD’

"How many days is this trip going to be?" Wren asked with his mind immediately doing the calculations. He had exactly 12 days left on that specific system mission, so that meant that the duration of the luxury trip would probably be—

"It’s going to be ten days," Leah replied instantly. "Today is just a free day to pack, and tomorrow all of us will head straight to Caldena to be able to board the ship a full day before the actual sailing begins. There’ll be a whole lot of amazing events hosted on board, so I really hope you don’t get violently sea sick... I clearly remember you looking pale and feeling as if your head was spinning out of control when we went to that massive Aquarium last time."

"Haha, very funny," Wren said dryly, his tone dripping with thick sarcasm as he carefully pocketed the expensive silver ticket into his jeans. "Regardless of your teasing, thank you for setting this all up."

If she hadn’t orchestrated this entire luxurious getaway, then he would have probably spent the next few days rotting in absolute boredom.

Leah smiled brightly as he said that, clearly pleased by his rare display of genuine gratitude and then her beautiful face turned a whole lot happier.

"So, do you completely forgive me now for everything? And are you finally ready to tell me exactly why you lef—"

Before Leah could finish her pressing sentence, the heavy wooden door of the living room suddenly burst open, and someone rushed frantically through the hallway and directly into the dining room.

Dani immediately entered the dining room space, skidding slightly on the floorboards as the short girl breathed out a heavy dramatic sigh of utter exhaustion.

"Wow, so this is the famous Leah hu—"

Before Dani could even finish that smug sentence, Wren casually reached out and whacked her squarely on the back of the head.

The sudden impact made the short woman stagger sideways with a yelp, her hands instinctively flying up to hold onto her stinging head.

"Do you really have to hit me that damn hard...?! I’m a very delicate woman, for fuck’s sake!" Dani complained loudly, glaring daggers at him while dramatically rubbing her scalp.

Wren simply rolled his eyes, utterly immune to her exaggerated theatrics.

"You should have texted me or told me that she was coming over today. And more importantly, you shouldn’t have immediately sold me out for some shiny cruise tickets. Is this really how supposedly loyal childhood friends treat each other?" Wren asked rhetorically, calmly reaching over and taking a hearty bite of heavily seasoned chicken from his plate.

Dani looked at him with wide, innocent eyes, before suddenly rushing over to his chair. Without any warning, she aggressively pulled his face forward, pressing his head firmly against her plush chest while gently patting his hair in a soothing manner.

"There, there, Wren... Don’t worry your pretty little head, I completely forgive you for hitting me. Though, if you want to really hit me, then you should playfully spank my ass instead..." Dani purred teasingly with an utterly shameless grin plastered on her face.

Wren immediately pushed her away with an annoyed groan, freeing his face from the suffocating softness, which only made the chaotic woman laugh uproariously.

’Are they close?’ Leah thought, her dark eyes instantly narrowing into dangerously sharp slits as she watched the highly intimate, physical interaction between the two.

What the hell was happening right in front of her? She was the one that was supposed to be in his personal space.

’Calm down, Leah... Breathe... They’re just being playfully platonic...’ she desperately finished that thought, forcing her raging jealousy back down into the depths of her mind.

Her dark eyes magically turned back to normal, and she plastered on a flawless welcoming smile.

"It is so incredibly nice to finally meet you," Leah said sweetly to Dani.

Dani paused her laughing and brought out her palm too, firmly shaking the younger girl’s hand.

"It is really nice to meet you as well, Leah." Dani replied cheerfully.

However, beneath the polite smiles, a silent war was being waged. Their palms remained firmly attached to each other’s hands for a very uncomfortable, excessively long duration, much longer than any normal greeting ever required.

Finally, they both strategically split off, pulling their hands back.

’This woman... likes Wren too?’ Dani thought, her finely-tuned ’Wren senses’ absolutely ringing like frantic alarm bells in her head but Wren had explicitly said that this girl already had a boyfriend, so did that mean that this wealthy, manipulative woman was brazenly trying to double-date or something equally scandalous? ’What a truly Heinous woman...’

Dani mentally vowed that she wouldn’t just sit back and let Wren blindly fall into the dangerous, perfectly manicured hands of this woman.

Even her voluptuous, perfectly proportioned body looked exactly like she was a mythological succubus meant to drain men dry and even though Dani clearly couldn’t combat against that kind of overwhelming, high-class financial wealth, she fiercely believed deep in her soul that she was a much better, healthier fit for Wren than her.

Oblivious to the intense mental warfare, Leah then gracefully sat back down on her cushioned seat and smiled brightly at the gathered group.

"Why don’t we quickly finish eating our breakfast and then head out immediately to go shopping for some brand new clothes for the trip? I really want to show my deep appreciation for all of you welcoming me, and that definitely includes all of Wren’s friends... however, only the female ones," Leah said smoothly. It wasn’t necessarily that she hated the idea of buying clothes for men or something petty like that, but... her current disposable allowance budget was really quite limited at the moment, and menswear could be outrageously expensive. "So I’ll be personally paying for all of them. Dani, does Wren happen to have any more female friends hanging around? Could you please call them over to join us?"

"Well, there’s Priya, and I’ll absolutely call her over immediately," Dani said excitedly, wasting no time rapidly pulling out her heavily stickered phone and dialing Priya’s contact.

After a few agonizingly long rings, the woman finally picked up the line. "Oh Priyaaaa~ Guess who’s currently here handing out free shopping sprees?"

...

"So sir... do you think you could possibly give me your personal number?"

The bold woman standing in front of him, currently dressed in the exact same provocative maid costume from last time they had met, asked the question with a deeply hopeful gaze.

They were currently standing patiently outside the private changing rooms of the high-end Harlow Boutique.

Each individual woman was currently sequestered away in their own private dressing room with the entrances completely obscured by thick, heavy, midnight blue velvet curtains.

Diana, Zoe, Leah, Dani, and Priya were all inside, trying on the cute clothes Leah’s credit card could secure.

"My number?" Wren raised his eyebrow in genuine surprise at the worker’s sudden, highly unprofessional forwardness.

The maid’s face instantly erupted into a massive, frantic blush as she nervously tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Maybe lat—"

Before Wren could smoothly deflect the awkward proposition, one of the heavy velvet curtains suddenly slid open on its brass rings. It was Diana’s designated room.

The older woman stepped out onto the plush carpeted pedestal, and Wren’s words died completely in his throat.

Diana was wearing a breathtaking, deep crimson-red dress that clung incredibly tight around her body. The silky fabric flawlessly mapped the mature, exquisite slope of her hips, cinching tightly at her narrow waist before beautifully highlighting the heavy, generous curves of her chest.

The plunging neckline was elegant yet undeniably sultry, perfectly framing her collarbones. She looked absolutely mesmerizing, a vision of mature, undeniable beauty, and a deep, rosy red tint completely covered her usually composed face as she nervously shifted her weight.

"S-s-so... How do I look?" Diana asked softly, her voice barely above a nervous whisper.

She was secretly incredibly happy that all the other velvet curtains belonging to the other women were still firmly closed shut... She desperately wanted Wren’s mesmerizing eyes to be absolutely, completely focused on one thing.

...Only on her right now.