[LOVE POINTS LEDGER]

[Oathran Alicei: Total Accumulated: 11,100]

[Spent: 10,194]

[Usable: 906]

[Arkai Dawnoro: Total Accumulated: 7,954]

[Spent: 6,421]

[Usable: 1,533]

[Eastiel Edengold: Total Accumulated: 5,001]

[Spent: 1,735]

[Usable: 3,266]

[TOTAL CONVERTIBLE ROLLS REMAINING: 1,141]

Cecilia stared at the numbers and the numbers stared back. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the System hummed self-satisfiedly.

Looking at how many she had just accumulated in a short time period, she wondered... What were her husbands doing? Generating Love Points while she slept? While she breathed? While she looked in their general directions? Did they ever stop?

She took a deep breath.

Let’s think about that later.

The new Romance Trope Exclusive Banner had arrived. The one with the incomprehensible title and the deeply unsettling implication that she was about to be yeeted into an alternate universe as a pregnant runaway wife.

"Ten rolls."

DING!

Nothing.

Not nothing nothing. As usual, there were weapons, materials, a few four-star items that flickered past too quickly to register, but no banner exclusives.

"Again."

DING!

Still nothing.

Earlier, Arkai had decided that they were going to take an early nap. The little birthday celebration was planned for midnight, the official start of the Winter Solstice, and he refused to be exhausted for it.

So he had clutched Cecilia’s waist with one arm, hauled Rinne over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes with the other, and marched them both to the bedroom.

Rinne had protested, but the protests had lasted approximately thirty seconds before the boy’s head had hit the pillow and his eyes had closed.

The afternoon’s wrestling match had been epic. Arkai had not held back, and Rinne had responded ferociously like he had something to prove. They had worked up a lot of sweat and a lot of laughter.

Father and son had fallen asleep almost immediately, their breathing evening out in synchronized rhythm. They looked peaceful and content, thus unaware that Cecilia was about to gamble with the fabric of reality itself.

Cecilia was not sleepy at all.

She had stared at the ceiling for a while and counted Arkai’s and Rinne’s breaths. So she had opened the Love Points Ledger and seen the numbers.

She realized that she had more than double the convertible rolls she had left at the end of the last banner. The system was generous when her husbands were emotionally effusive. Which was apparently always.

Thus, she had decided to go all out.

DI-DI-DING!

Ah. There we go.

[Five-Stars Scenario: Oathran Alicei, the Burger-Flipper!]

Cecilia stared at the notification.

Eh?

Bur... what?

The words were arranged in an order that suggested they formed a coherent concept, but her brain refused to parse them. Burger. Flipper. Was Oathran going to flip something? Was a "burger" some kind of beast? Some kind of... enemy? Some kind of—

Oh, well. Let’s find out the details later. Sixty rolls in, she had won her first banner exclusive five-star, and it was better than losing the 50/50 to a duplicate of something she already had.

Perhaps the System would provide another helpful definition of what a "Burger-Flipper" was.

...or it would simply yeet her into the scenario and let her figure it out through context clues. Either way, a win was a win.

DI-DI-DING!

Oooh.

[Five-Stars Scenario: Eastiel Edengold, the Welder!]

Cecilia’s head tilted so far to the side she nearly cricked her neck.

...???

Weld? Like... blacksmithing?

Hmm, like the hot, sweaty, muscular art of... forging metal?

Eastiel had acquired a blacksmithing skill from his last five-star scenario. Was this an extension of that, and the System building on his existing skills? Was he going to be a professional blacksmith in this alternate universe?

Another seventy rolls. Another 50/50 won.

That was lucky.

Two banner exclusives. Two 50/50s won. Two scenarios acquired. And she still had lots of rolls left.

DI-DI-DING!

Huh?! A-again?

[Five-Stars Scenario: Arkai Dawnoro, the Plumber!]

Cecilia stared at the transparent screen.

Three 50/50s won in a row, in just two hundred rolls!

This was suspicious. Again, a luck that preceded a calamity.

Now, what is a plumber? she thought.

She did not know what a plumber was. Nor a burger-flipper, and a welder beyond the obvious blacksmithing implications. She was about to enter a world where her husbands had identities she couldn’t even conceptualize, and she was supposed to be the PREGNANT WIFE.

She took a deep breath.

This was a bad omen, right? This was definitely a bad omen.

[Congratulations, Cecilia!]

The system sounded pleased with itself.

[Before you can begin the scenarios, you must enter a preview world, the prologue of the scenario! Also, this banner requires you to enter the Love Interests’ scenarios at once.]

At once? That’s new.

Harem ending immediately? No separate routes? Just straight into the deep end with all three of them simultaneously?

"I managed to pull all three," she said carefully. Why would the rules of the game keep changing? "But what if I had no rolls and I could not get one of the scenarios? Does that mean I could not romance whoever I failed to get from the banner in that world?"

[Yes!]

The System answered.

[Without acquiring the Love Interest’s scenario from the banner, the progress you make for the scenario’s challenges will not count, even though you have technically done it. Well, knowing you, we knew you would get all three quite quickly!]

"Is that an insult?"

[It is a compliment, Cecilia!]

[You are very, very loved!]

Well. Yes. Loved. Harvested for emotional fluctuation. Same thing, apparently.

"For now," she said, steering her thoughts back to practical matters, "let us roll with everything I have and get as many ranks as I can. I will start this prologue scenario tomorrow."

[Oka—]

Knock-knock.

Cecilia turned her head toward the door. Behind her, Arkai’s breathing remained even and peaceful, his arm still wrapped protectively around Rinne.

Neither of them stirred or had any idea that their wife and mother had just gambled her way into three alternate lives. Which was great.

She rose from the bed soundlessly, her bare feet made no sound on the floor. Her sleeping robe, a soft, cream-colored thing, whispered around her ankles.

She tip-toed gracefully, her back straight and her movements fluid, toward the door. The handle turned without a sound and the door swung open by a crack.

"Luna..."

Borak stood in the corridor. His wolf ears were slightly flattened. His voice was already low, but when he saw Cecilia put her finger to her lips, he lowered it even further, until it was barely a rumble in his chest.

"What is wrong?" Cecilia whispered, slipping through the door and pulling it mostly shut behind her.

"A message from the temple, Ma’am."

Borak held out a small, folded piece of parchment. The seal was unbroken and the paper was cheap, not the vellum used for official correspondence, but the kind of scrap a busy temple acolyte might grab in a hurry.

Cecilia took it, cracking the seal under her thumb. The message inside was short.

"Father Rohan hasn’t returned. Summoned by Tiger Prince."

Hm.

This was from Angel’s Bunny, it seemed.