Even Without A System, I Will Build A Harem!

The attack began without much conversation.

General Yang gave a command, and the dozens of experts he had brought with him surged forward at once.

Their auras flared through the mountain air like a storm breaking loose.

I immediately backed away.

As the Witch’s so-called Brainwashed Underling.

I had absolutely no intention of throwing myself into the mess of people who could probably erase me with a single swing.

Big shots should fight each other.

Small fries like me should know when to survive.

So I hid.

Time passed.

The mountains trembled.

The air grew thick with blood and smoke, and all I could hear from my hiding place were the sounds of weapons colliding, flesh being torn, and people screaming out in pain.

Every clash echoed through the valley with such force that it felt like the mountain itself was groaning.

When the noise gradually began to die down, I finally dared to move.

I stepped out and looked toward the battlefield.

The sight in front of me made my chest tighten.

General Yang was missing one arm.

Most of the experts had already died.

The few that remained were barely clinging to life, their bodies battered and broken beyond recognition.

Even the witch was not in a good state.

Her breathing had become slightly heavier, and despite her usual expressionless calm, I could tell she had taken serious damage as well.

Then I saw them.

The four troublemakers from my village had slipped closer to her without making a sound.

Lin Fan.

Ye Chen.

Long Aotian.

Jiang Chen.

Their movements were tense, careful, and full of murderous intent.

’These bastards are really planning to kill her.’

My blood ran cold.

I couldn’t let that happen.

If she died now, then everything I had spent all these years doing would go to waste.

All the meals, all the conversations, all the small efforts I had made to make her understand affection and warmth, all of it would vanish like dirty water down a drain.

I couldn’t accept that.

I really couldn’t.

So I moved.

STAB. STAB. STAB. STAB.

The four blades pierced my back one after another as I threw myself in front of her.

For a moment, the world went quiet.

The four of them froze, staring at me as if they had just seen a ghost.

"H-Huh?! Strange name with surname Sorin? What are you doing?!"

They all shouted almost at once and took a step backward, clearly stunned that I had thrown myself into their attack.

I coughed up blood and glared at them with all the hatred I could muster.

"You bastards..."

My voice came out rough and broken, but I still forced it through.

"Don’t pretend you didn’t see me. Are all four of you secretly nearsighted or something? Cough!"

Another mouthful of blood spilled from my lips.

I could feel the witch staring in silence.

Her eyes finally trembled.

The four troublemakers retreated a few more steps, apparently realizing that they had just pierced through me instead of her.

’Why did you do it?’

That question seemed to hang in the air, though she didn’t speak it aloud.

When she finally opened her mouth, her voice was cold as ever, but there was no crack in it.

"Why did you do that?"

I laughed bitterly through the pain, though it turned into another cough almost immediately.

"How the hell should I know? I think I must have gone really crazy."

Her eyes widened slightly.

That was enough for me to keep going.

"Why do you look so hopeless?!"

The words burst out of me, louder than I intended, hot with the fear and anger that had been choking me for so long.

Today, at my deathbed, with a beautiful witch near me and the life I had foolishly chased for years slipping away in front of me, I no longer felt like holding anything back.

"Do you think you’re the only person in this world carrying some unbearable burden?" I shouted, blood bubbling in my throat.

"Why won’t you ever feel what I feel? Why can’t you understand that I have been sincere all these years?!"

She said nothing.

So... I continued.

"I gave you everything I had without asking for anything in return. I never once forced you to repay me. I never once demanded you give me your heart. I just wanted you to look at me properly, even once. Just once!"

My vision was starting to blur.

The blood loss was getting worse.

It felt like my body was trying to shut itself down whether I wanted it to or not.

And yet I still kept speaking.

"There is no hopelessness in this world! And even if there is, even if there is no love and no future and no miracle waiting for us, then what? Am I not still here? Am I not still standing in front of you? Why didn’t you just ask me for help? Why do you always have to be such a bitc–"

I stopped myself.

For one moment, I genuinely worried she might torture my soul for that word alone.

Still, I forced myself to continue.

"For heaven’s sake, can you at least... cough..."

Blood welled in my throat.

My body shuddered.

The world became dimmer, the edges of my sight dissolving into darkness.

And then, with the last of my strength, I said the only thing left in my heart.

"Fuck... my dream is shattered!"

My knees gave way.

I collapsed into her arms.

My harem dream was gone.

And right up until the end of my life, I never learned the witch’s name.

I wondered, just before the darkness took me, whether she would at least pity me in death.

Or maybe feel something she couldn’t explain.

If that happened, then perhaps.

I could proudly say I had stolen an evil witch’s heart.

.

.

.

The witch looked down at the young man who had collapsed onto her.

His face was covered in blood.

His expression was bitter, twisted with regret even now that life had already begun slipping away from him.

Her own face was also stained red, and yet no one could tell whether the blood on her cheeks came from the battle or from bloody tears.

Even she couldn’t deny it.

That stupid man had left a mark on her heart.

A ridiculous, fearless, infuriating mark.

Even now, he refused to leave her mind as she could hear his lame jokes.

And now that he had died, she didn’t feel much.

But somehow the emptiness in her heart only grew.

Her gaze became quieter more distant.

"This is the consequence of your love," She raised a trembling hand and gently stroked his face.

His expression remained pained, as though even in death he still had too many regrets.

"This is also why I don’t need your love."

She bent slightly, drawing his body closer.

"It was I who brought you ruin, foolish man."

Then she held his face in both hands as fire erupted from her palms.

The flames swallowed them both.

One dead, one still alive.

For a long while, the witch said nothing at all.

Then, as the fire continued to burn around her, her eyes grew empty.

Tired and a little broken.

As though the words he had spoken had finally carved something out of her that could never be replaced.

She slowly lowered herself into the ash and silence.

If that was the world he had seen.

"In next life, show me your world of hope..."