Chapter 979: The Bet They Never Thought He’d Lose
Ethan’s eyes stayed fixed on the three women as if the rest of the room no longer existed.
"Alright, everybody out. Go do whatever you were doing. Victor, we still haven’t finished our dungeon run, and people are waiting on us."
Markham immediately caught on to the atmosphere. Without wasting another second, he grabbed Victor and the others and started herding everyone back inside. The rest exchanged knowing looks and followed along with poorly hidden smiles, not a single one of them foolish enough to stay behind.
A moment later, only Ethan and the three women remained.
"I’m back."
He said it again, quieter this time. That was all it took.
The tears they had been holding back finally spilled over. Silent trembling turned into muffled sobs, and Ethan stepped forward without hesitation, pulling all three of them into his arms.
"I’m sorry. I made you worry."
His smile carried a trace of guilt as he held them tightly against his chest. Before long, the front of his shirt was completely soaked.
People always said women were made of water. Right now, it felt more like a dam had burst.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed several heads peeking around nearby corners. Markham, naturally, was the boldest of the bunch, grinning through a crack in the doorway like he was watching the greatest show of his life.
Ethan almost laughed.
There was no way he was going to stand there and let those idiots enjoy the scene any longer. With a flicker, he vanished together with the three women.
"The hell?"
Markham nearly stumbled through the doorway. "Where’d they go?"
The others looked equally shocked. None of them had sensed even the slightest fluctuation of energy. One second Ethan was standing there, and the next he had disappeared completely.
Leo walked over and kicked Markham square in the ass.
"Move already. You’re always the one causing trouble."
Markham nearly pitched forward face-first.
"The hell are you blaming me for? You people wanted to watch too!"
He spun around cursing, only to find everyone walking away as if they didn’t know him. Even his own sister covered her mouth to hide her laughter before following the others back inside.
Markham stood there alone, furious.
’Traitors. Every last one of them.’
---
Ethan had brought the three women straight to his old room.
The crying continued for a while after they arrived. It was only once their emotions settled a little that they realized they were sitting on the bed, still wrapped in his embrace.
"Ah!"
Rainie let out a startled cry and hurriedly pulled back. Amber reacted just as fast, though not quite as dramatically.
Only Lyla remained leaning against Ethan’s chest, looking up at him with sleepy, tear-filled eyes.
The other two had reacted because Ethan’s hands had unconsciously wandered a little lower than they probably should have.
Lyla sniffled once, then suddenly burst out laughing.
"What are you two panicking for? It’s not like he’s never touched you before."
Out of the three of them, Lyla was actually the only one who had never gone all the way with Ethan. Inside the game, they had long since crossed every line imaginable, but in reality she was still completely inexperienced. Seeing Amber and Rainie act so flustered gave her the perfect chance to tease them.
Amber narrowed her eyes immediately.
"You little brat. You’re actually making fun of us?"
She grabbed Rainie’s arm with a grin.
"Come on. Let’s teach her a lesson today."
The atmosphere changed in an instant.
Clothes tugged loose. Fabric tore. Limbs tangled together as the three women collapsed onto the bed in a chaotic wrestling match that was somehow both playful and dangerous to Ethan’s sanity.
He stood there staring blankly for several seconds.
By the end of it, Lyla was completely overwhelmed. Two against one was simply unfair, and before long Amber and Rainie had pinned her down triumphantly.
Ethan’s throat suddenly felt dry.
His eyes drifted over the scene in front of him, and his brain stopped functioning properly for a moment.
Who exactly was he supposed to help here? If he sided with one, he would offend the other two. But if he stayed put...
Then his gaze landed on Lyla again. His nose nearly betrayed him on the spot.
"Coward," Amber said, breathing unevenly as she glanced over at him. "What are you staring at? Get over here already."
Amber had always been the boldest of the three. Half her clothes had already been pulled crooked during the struggle, one leg hooked around Lyla’s thigh while one hand pinned Lyla’s wrist above her head. The other hand was very deliberately holding something Ethan absolutely should not have been looking at for this long.
Hearing her call out to him while seeing the three of them tangled together like that nearly shattered the last of his self-control.
His heart pounded so hard it hurt. He almost threw himself onto the bed right then and there.
But at the last second, something felt... strange. Not wrong exactly, just off.
He frowned slightly, unable to put his finger on it.
After hesitating for several long seconds, he finally forced himself to speak.
"How about... another day?"
The words left his mouth, and Ethan immediately wanted to slap himself. Any normal man in this situation would have lost his mind already.
But the moment he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the room abruptly changed.
The supposedly trapped Lyla suddenly broke free with suspicious ease and bounced upright on the bed with a victorious laugh.
"Yes! I win!"
She pointed proudly at Amber and Rainie.
"So what’s the punishment for you two?"
Amber and Rainie froze. Then both slowly turned toward Ethan with expressions full of disbelief and resentment.
"Coward."
"Are you even a man?"
One sentence each, and both hit like knives. Ethan stood there in silence while his dignity crumbled to dust.
Then realization struck him.
"You’ve got to be kidding me."
He stared at the three women.
"You were betting on me?"
They had been testing whether he would actually lose control. Ethan laughed in disbelief before raising a hand.
The three women yelped at the same time.
A translucent barrier instantly spread across the room, sealing away every sound.
---
A long while later...
Night had already fallen outside. Ethan lay back in his chair, looking thoroughly satisfied with life.
"Finally..." he muttered. "I don’t have to hold back anymore. Damn."
For the first time since his rebirth, he genuinely felt released.
Before this, every moment with Amber and Rainie had always ended the same way. Things would heat up, the two of them would end up trembling and tearful, barely able to endure any more, and Ethan would stop himself out of pity before ever fully crossing the line.
Which usually left him suffering alone afterward.
This time was different. Very different.
His gaze drifted toward the bed.
The three women were sprawled there like they had completely melted, exhausted beyond words beneath the tangled blankets. Near the sheets, a faint trace of red remained.
Lyla’s.
A smug smile slowly spread across Ethan’s face.
"That little troublemaker finally became a woman too."
He pulled the blanket properly over the three of them before waving a hand to dispel the soundproof barrier around the room.
After getting dressed, he quietly opened the door.
"Ethan..."
Lyla’s weak voice suddenly drifted over from the bed, so soft it was barely louder than a whisper.
"We got a system message earlier... It said you should log into Ethereal as soon as you came back."
Ethan paused. ’A system message?’
Why would Ethereal specifically send something meant for him through the others instead?
He was about to ask another question when faint snoring reached him from behind. Lyla had already fallen asleep immediately after finishing her sentence.
Ethan chuckled softly, closed the door without waking any of them, and stepped into the hallway.
A few moments later, he arrived outside Regis’s room. He raised his hand to knock.
"Come in. Door’s unlocked."
The old city lord’s voice sounded from inside before Ethan even touched the door.
Ethan paused briefly in surprise. Regis had improved again. Even at Ethan’s current level, the old man could still sense him approaching.
Pushing the door open, he stepped inside.
Regis sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, clearly in the middle of meditation. The old man opened his eyes and smiled the moment he saw him.
"About damn time you came back," Regis said. "You have any idea what we old bastards went through while you were gone? We nearly died a few times."
Ethan scratched the back of his head awkwardly.