Vastarael stepped quietly back into the Royal Bedroom, the silken thread of his teleportation circle dissolving behind him.
The instant he arrived, the warmth of the palace bedroom embraced him. Adelasta was already up. She stood by an arched vanity on the left side of the room, untying the sash of her nightwear. She looked over her shoulder at him.
"Where did you vanish off to this early, Darling?"
He slid a hand through his hair and already reaching for a towel that hovered midair from one of the shelves.
"The Levenees Section. Had to finalize a few things for Runner's birthday."
At that exact moment, Narisva walked past in a white bathrobe toward them. She stopped, glancing at him with a half-sigh, half-smirk.
"You're pushing yourself too hard again. We all saw how drained you were after yesterday. You didn't have to fix all those issues just for a week off you know."
Vastarael leaned against one of the bedposts, letting the sensation of being home settle into his bones.
"No, I just needed to finish something important. I'm not breaking down or anything. Still, every time I look at this room, I realize just how insane its size is. I didn't think it would be this big."
"Of course it's big. You're beloved to five women. You need the space just to survive."
She stifled a yawn and padded barefoot across the carpet. Moments later, Elyonari emerged from a side chamber, already unbraiding her hair, her feet barely making a sound on the floor. She was dressed in a silky green gown that clung to her slender form.
"It's unfortunate Phaenora and Asenane are still too shy to sleep in here with us. At this rate, we'll have to start dragging them in."
"Hey, I'm just glad I got back in time to see you all naked."
Adelasta raised an eyebrow. Elyonari pursed her lips, but couldn't hide the smirk. Narisva's voice called out flatly.
"Darling. Your monologue's leaking again."
"I'm not even allowed to admire my beloveds, aren't I? I'm not even being poetic about it this time."
"You are never poetic."
Adelasta rolled her eyes and walked past him, her long legs brushing against his side intentionally as she passed.
"Just admit it, you like acting like a noble pervert when we're not calling you out."
"You all like it when I do that. Don't deny it."
They did. They just wouldn't admit it to his face.
With a small flick of his finger, he drew a rune in midair. A burst of gold light enveloped him, and his royal tunic disappeared, replaced by a forest green bathrobe with constellation patterns subtly embroidered into the lining.
"How do you do that? Do mages… materialize their clothes or something?"
"Close, Nari. We embed mystic runes on outfits stored in our personal inventory space. When we cast a transfer spell or Rune, it swaps the clothing we're wearing with the ones tagged by the Rune."
"Meaning the bathrobe comes, the tunic goes," Elyonari summarized.
"Exactly. Makes life easier."
"Well, it's useless anyway. You're just going to remove it again. Shower, remember?"
"I did jog ten times around the Levenees Sector with extremely heavy weights and Gravity Runes. I need to clean up."
Just then, a melodic voice echoed from the hallway.
"We're here!"
The bedroom doors opened with a gentle whoosh of mystic air pressure and in walked Phaenora, dragging a reluctant but freshly-awake Asenane behind her. Phaenora was already in her robe, her smile devilish as always.
"We heard shower time so obviously we had to join."
Asenane, her cheeks tinted with the faintest pink, clutched the edge of her robe a little tighter.
"I… I was dragged here. Just so you know."
Elyonari tilted her head sympathetically.
"You'll get used to it. Eventually, he's going to see everything anyway."
"Why does everyone keep saying that?"
Phaenora nudged her with a giggle, then turned to Vastarael.
"You're lucky I love you, Darling. You looked exhausted last night. I'm glad you took a break. Dynasty work is really taking a toll on you."
"This is my break."
Adelasta opened one of the side compartments leading to the hot springs, steam spilling out lazily into the room.
"It's snowing in Anqerise. The cold is biting harder than usual."
Vastarael followed behind her, running a hand along the smooth golden railing that lined the passageway.
"Then the hot springs are perfect right now."
As the group stepped into an enclosed garden where the private hot springs lay, the mood shifted. The steam kissed their skin. Snowflakes drifted from the enchanted dome ceiling but the hot spring water remained perfectly warm.
______
The hot springs steamed with a gentle hiss that blanketed the entire courtyard in a mystical mist with imported minerals that Vastarael had personally sourced from one of the mineral-rich floating peaks hovering above Anqerise's northern region. His body sank deeper into the stone pool carved with sapphire-lined runes. The heat wrapped around his muscles. It somehow eased the tension that even Divine Enlightenment couldn't entirely banish from his frame.
He tilted his head back and let it rest on the polished obsidian edge. The cold Anqerise winter was brutal. The snowflakes were thick enough to cut skin if one wasn't careful. But in here, wrapped in divinely optimized heat and layered mysticism, the world outside felt like another planet entirely. Ever since he arrived in Spheraphase, he promised himself he wouldn't let go of the comforts he knew from Earth not just the luxuries, but the moments of stillness. And hot springs were one of them.
He'd been sixteen back in Earth when he'd first stepped foot in one during that school-sponsored trip to Japan. Even though he barely had the money to cover food, he scraped together every coin and voucher to enter that open-air bath in the Nagano countryside. It had been the first time he'd truly felt peace. And that memory stuck with him even after death. Now, here he was, no longer a powerless student, but a Divine with five Enlightenments, Sovereign of the Aeterium, and beloved by five women who happened to be among the most powerful beings alive. The full-circle irony didn't escape him.
He glanced sideways.
Narisva lay sprawled along a smooth black rock, her long starry hair trailing into the water like a comet's tail. Her smug grin hadn't left her face since she first sank into the bath and whenever the steam would momentarily clear, Vastarael caught the glint of that mischievous, always-too-knowing gaze.
Nearby, Elyonari sat in silence, her eyes closed and hair running down her back. Phaenora, meanwhile, was openly floating on her back, arms spread like wings and her hair creating a silken river of sapphire.
"This is divine. You know, Darling, I really underestimated how good your taste in pleasure was. I stand corrected."
"You say that every time we try something new."
"Because I'm surprised every time. It's a little unfair how competent you are. Save some points for the rest of the men in the world, no?"
"You mean for the zero men who can get within twenty kilometers of you without you killing them for looking too long?"
"I didn't say they were good options."
Adelasta, who had been silent for most of the soak, sat with her arms resting on the pool edge, gazing at the walls where runes softly pulsed with heat. She hadn't said much since they entered. Just that slight, thoughtful look she wore whenever something was building behind her eyes. She finally turned.
"You adjusted the rune intervals since last week."
"Yeah. I noticed a minor pressure imbalance in them after the sixth-hour mark. So I added a secondary sequence. Fewer temperature spikes."
Adelasta nodded, then sank a little deeper into the water, her crimson hair fanning across the surface.
"Good. I noticed it too. But I thought I was imagining it."
"You're never imagining things with your Mystic Eyes of Perception. If you were I would be worried."
Asenane sat stiffly between Phaenora and Elyonari, her cheeks still flushed from earlier. She wore a towel that stayed stubbornly in place no matter how wet it got. She hadn't spoken much either, but she did keep sneaking glances at Vastarael whenever she thought no one noticed. Which, of course, they all did.
"You okay?"
"I—I'm fine, Ellie. I'm just not used to this."
Phaenora said with a splash as she emerged again.
"You'll get used to it. You're already here. Next time, we're taking you to the mineral bath. It smells like apples."
"What are apples?"
"Mmm... then we can make use a scent from your favorite flower?"
"I don't have a favorite flower."
"Liar. You do. You're just too shy to say it out loud."
Vastarael looked up at the runework embedded in the surrounding pillars. The system had taken three months of trial and error. The Water and Heat Runes were basic but calibrating them to adjust for Divine tolerance without burning out was tricky. Most materials couldn't handle mysticism over time but obsidian in Spheraphase could. It absorbed and stabilized mystic vibrations like a grounding wire. Even the ancient civilizations of Spheraphase used obsidian for rune pillars, energy networks and beacons.
And then there were the Clean Runes, one of his favorites.
Every two hours, the water would gently evaporate in a controlled burst of warmth, leaving only a clean, empty basin behind. Then the Water Runes would refill it, and Clean Runes would clear any residual mysticism, dust, or buildup. All of it was automatic, maintained by subroutines drawn in runes that only Vastarael and the Levennes mages could decipher.
"This... is a very good morning."
Narisva yawned, stretching like a lazy cat.
"You say that now. Just wait until you get summoned to another House Council meeting and have to listen to Maximilian elders argue about economic border policies."
He groaned. "Don't ruin the moment, please..."
Phaenora's voice drifted across the pool.
"Darling, when are we getting the cold springs installed?"
"No,."
"But we could use both! Cycle between them to shock the body. It's good for the skin."
"No."
"You said you wanted to try new things."
"Not everything. I draw the line at voluntary frostbite."
Laughter echoed across the hot spring as steam curled upward.