Chapter 103 Sun sets

“He was…” Mathew attempted to repeat what he had just heard out loud so that he could process it better. He then opened his eyes, unwilling to listen to Norbert’s voice while thinking.

‘Are you fucking serious?’ he whined in his mind, this single sentence putting even more mental burden on the young man’s mind.

“Are you disappointed?” Nadia asked in a slightly colder tone than usual.

“Why would I be?” Mathew asked and rolled his eyes. “Do you really think I’m craving more pussy than I already have?” he asked, his own voice matching the coldness of Nadia’s.

“That was rude and uncalled for,” Leila commented, joining in on Nadia’s side.

“Yeah, I know.” Mathew didn’t bother trying to skip on the responsibility for his own words. “But can you two be silent for a moment?” he asked harshly and closed his eyes.

“What the hell do you…” Norbert rushed to use the opportunity of Mathew being able to hear him.

“Shut the fuck up and let me think,” Mathew shouted and swung his arm to the side, smashing his fists against the wall he was resting his back against.

The surroundings of the group turned silent for the very first time since they all ventured to get the second merchant secured. And for the first time, Mathew found some space for himself to think.

‘If that guy is screwing Norbert’s sister, there are only two possible scenarios,’ he thought. Mathew then leaned his head to the back as far as the wall behind him allowed.

‘He either knew who Norbert was, or he didn’t. If he didn’t, then he had to consider every stranger a threat to his situation, something that would make any sense only if Carol wasn’t willing to sleep with him.’

Mathew liked to analyze the situation from the ground up. Only by figuring out the reasons behind one’s behavior could he get deep enough into their mind to get a relatively accurate assessment of how they could react down the line.

And against someone with a sacrifice system that was limited only by one’s determination and creativity, understanding how that guy’s mind worked was of utmost priority.

‘The other option is that he knew who Norbert was and considered him a threat to whatever he could care about,’ Mathew continued to analyze the options…

But just like in most of the times where he would try to think ahead like that, it took the young man only a while to reach a wall.

Mathew then opened his eyes.

“First off, I’m sorry I lashed out like that,” he said as he alternated his eyes between Nadia and Leila. “Norbert’s words put me in a spot, making it hard to gather my thoughts not to speak about figuring the situation out,” he said.

Mathew then took a step forward, finally moving away from the wall he was resting his back against. And then, without any shame in it, he lowered his head before the girls.

“I hope you can forgive and forget my words,” he apologized.

“No biggie,” Nadia shook her shoulders and cast a quick glance at the other girl. “Aren’t we all stressed out?” she asked before shaking her head and moving her eyes back to Mathew’s face. “It’s obvious we would start clashing sooner or later, given how we need to be on the lookout for danger for the entire damned day,” she added before sending a glance towards one of the nearby windows.

The day outside… was practically over. The brightness normally offered by the sun now turned into a palette of different shades of grey, indicating that it was only a matter of moments before the sun would fully set.

‘Maybe it’s the darkness that this guy is waiting for?’ Mathew suddenly thought when several points of what he thought about before all clicked together.

‘He doesn’t want us to remember about him, yet he didn’t wish for us to forget about his system, the only other thing we could remember him by,’ Mathew lowered his chin on his hand. ‘He is willing to turn us into enemies by attacking Norbert, a policeman. What he couldn’t expect, though, was that his ghost would pass the information about this event to us. We were likely supposed to learn about his situation far later.’

Mathew’s fingers rubbed his chin while he continued to draw lines between the disconnected dots of what his group had learned before.

“The one thing that eludes me is what the heck does he want?” Mathew muttered, unaware of the fact that his thoughts spilled over through his mouth.

“Isn’t it pretty damn obvious?” Daria said, interrupting the nearly perfect silence that allowed the young man to gather his thoughts.

Shaken awake by the sudden interruption of his peace of mind, Mathew raised his eyes to the girl.

“What do you mean?”

“What’s the one thing any man would love to secure in a crumbling world?” Daria asked, crossing her hands over her chest as she graced Mathew with a small smirk. “What was the first thing you rushed to do once you could afford to think about anything but your own immediate survival?”

Mathew kept his eyes on Daria’s smiling face as he pushed his mind to look for the answer. He then moved his eyes around the place, scanning the faces of all the girls in his tiny harem.

And then it struck him.

“Pu…” the rude version of the answer almost escaped Mathew’s mouth. But after the small clash from before, the young man knew better than to be brutally direct with his girls. Especially given how it could change their perception of Mathew’s motives during the early hours of the day. “He likely wanted to keep Carol by his side.”

“Ding dong!” Daria smiled even wider while making a cringing sound. “You did everything in your power to save your girl because you loved her,” Daria said, helping Mathew’s case a little. “On the other hand, given how eager Carol was to join us rather than to stick with her boyfriend, it’s likely that he wanted to keep his pussy by his side,” she explained her line of thought, not minding the brutality of the approach.

“That makes sense,” Nadia muttered under her nose. “I’m kinda aware of the lengths some guys could go just to get their dick wet,” she stated, only for panic to appear on her face as she turned her eyes to Mathew. “I didn’t mean that I slept with someone else…”

“Calm down,” Mathew shook his head. “I know you gave me your first time, so how could you sleep with someone else before that?” he asked, pointing out the obvious.

Mathew then shook his head and took a step towards the stairs, resuming their march towards the inevitable.

“We know that he wants to keep Carol by his side. We also know that Carol doesn’t like this idea very much. This means we are in the great position of being able to choose whether to help her or not,” Mathew pointed out as he started to climb the stairs.

“Is this even a question?” Daria suddenly asked, grabbing Mathew by his shoulder and forcibly turning him around.

She was five levels weaker than Nadia; her class also didn’t appear to have much to do with physical prowess. Yet, compared to Mathew, whose combined statistics only made him as strong as a fourteen-level system holder, she was still easily able to overpower him.

“Mathew, I know that you dislike the idea of expanding your harem,” she pointed out with a stern look on her face. Daria then glanced over her arm to the two girls behind her. “I’m also aware that neither of you likes the idea,” she added, only to turn her eyes back on Mathew’s face.

“But you think that I don’t really have any choice when it comes to Carol,” Mathew finished what Daria wanted to say right as she opened her mouth to say so. And seeing the shock appearing on her face, the young man could only smile. “Out of all of us, you are the one following reason and cold logic the most. That’s how I knew what you wanted to say,” he added.

Adding girls to the rooster of Mathew’s wives was the easiest and the most straightforward way of increasing the strength of their group. Even if it was only to be a superficial relation on an emotional level, as long as his system would acknowledge them as wives, they would get an avenue to obtain strength to survive in this new, changed world.

‘And with how little humans will survive the coming days, every girl that’s not mentally broken means a valuable opportunity to obtain a new asset,’ Mathew thought, allowing the cold-hearted logic to guide his thoughts for a moment.

“I’m not going to ask you to add some random and ugly girls,” Daria said before pulling her hand off Mathew’s shoulder and taking a step back. She then crossed her arms over her chest and looked directly into Mathew’s eyes. “But Carol?” Daria shook her head. “She is likely the last girl in the entire school that you could turn into your wife capable of fighting. And there is no way we will be able to survive in this world with just the four of us.”

Daria’s reasoning was simple. The more people capable of fighting and growing their strength, the better. It struck right into the greatest strength of humans that allowed them to grow from an endangered species way in the past to fully dominate their home planet.

“What’s important right now is for us to deal with this matter,” Mathew stated as he slightly increased the pace of his steps, hoping to pull the rest of the group along.

‘Because contrary to that guy who can just wish for night-vision, once the true night begins, we will be all at his mercy!’