Hogwarts’ Holy Grail War - 245 (Patreon)

Chapter 245: I Must've Woken Up Too Hard. I Heard My Girlfriend Encouraging Me to Start a Harem

Ariel froze in the doorway of the hospital room. Staring at the two of them, their faces still faintly flushed, she suddenly felt as though the world were spinning around her.

Could someone please tell her what exactly was going on here?

Why was the man she liked, and who she thought liked her back, fooling around with her most precious younger sister? And from the looks of it, her sister had been the more aggressive one?!

How had things ended up like this? She had finally fallen in love for the first time, and her sister had found a boyfriend who could support her and give her someone to rely on. Two happy things had come together and should have brought her even greater happiness. She should have been living through a dreamlike period of bliss... So why had it turned out like this?

“Sis?!”

The girl in Ethan’s arms cried out in alarm and hurriedly pulled away from him. Like a mistress caught in the act, she hastily straightened her disheveled clothes while staring nervously at her sister, whose expression was growing darker by the second.

She knew her sister well. Ariel might usually seem fierce, but that did not mean she was actually angry. It was only when every trace of emotion vanished from her face and she became eerily calm that it meant she was truly furious.

Just like now.

Ariel’s bloodless lips trembled uncontrollably. Ignoring her sister’s startled cry, she fixed her red-rimmed eyes on Ethan, who was still sitting frozen on the bed, completely at a loss.

This was all that man’s fault. He must have deliberately seduced Alanna!

If what Alanna had said was true, that Ethan had stood up for her and she had fallen for him because of it, then that only made Ariel even more certain that the bastard had planned this from the start.

Alanna was nothing like her. She had never really dealt with people out in society. She was a princess raised in an ivory tower, innocent and without much guile. With her unguarded personality, if someone reached out to help her when she needed it most, of course she would fall for him!

Ethan, Ethan... I never saw it before. Who would have thought you were this calculating?!

And to think I actually liked him. I must have been blind!

The plate in Ariel’s hand slipped from her fingers and hit the floor with a loud clatter, shattering into pieces. Dragging her uncooperative body along, she staggered to the far end of the hospital room, shakily seized the coat rack beside the window, and swung it down at Ethan.

“You beast! How could you do something like this to Alanna?!”

Ariel cried out in helpless fury.

“Alanna is only fourteen! You... How could you bring yourself to lay a hand on her?!”

Ethan caught the descending coat rack barehanded, then exchanged a baffled look with Alanna.

Ethan: What does your sister mean? Does she think we’re moving too fast?

Alanna: That shouldn’t be it. When I told her about us yesterday, she was pretty supportive. Why did she suddenly turn like this?

Seeing the two of them still daring to exchange meaningful looks right in front of her, Ariel trembled with rage. Despite the warmth filling the room, her hands and feet had gone ice-cold. She braced one hand against the railing at the foot of the bed and shouted at Alanna between ragged breaths.

“Alanna, get over here! If you’re dating him, I absolutely refuse to allow it!”

“Ariel, we can talk this through.” Ethan forced a smile. “I understand that it’s hard for you to let go of your little sister, but Alanna and I really are...”

“Don’t call me Ariel! I really misjudged you!” Ariel’s face flushed crimson as she pointed at Ethan, grinding her teeth in fury. “Is it fun for a grown man to prey on a young girl? Are you happy taking advantage of a helpless girl when she’s vulnerable? Does tricking a girl so much younger than you give you some kind of sense of accomplishment? And after deceiving my sister, you want to deceive me too? What next? Are you planning to have both sisters serve you together?!”

“What?”

Ethan’s face twisted in disbelief. He wrested the coat rack from Ariel’s hand and set it aside, torn between exasperation and amusement.

“Putting aside all the bizarre nonsense you just said, what do you mean by a grown man preying on a young girl? I’m only fifteen!”

“Huh?”

Ariel stared blankly at Ethan’s physique, which looked at least twenty no matter how she examined it, and for the first time in her life felt as though her brain simply did not have enough processing power for what was happening.

Ethan followed Ariel’s gaze down to his own blazing, muscular chest and immediately understood how this entire farce had started. He sighed helplessly.

Great. His prematurely grown physique was causing trouble again.

Apparently, there was no escaping the stereotype that he looked much older than he really was.

“Sis, you misunderstood Ethan...” Alanna tugged gently at Ariel’s clothes, blushing as she spoke meekly. “He’s in the same year as me. He’s not some... old man...”

“Huh? He’s in your year?” Ariel continued staring blankly at Ethan. “Then why have I never heard you mention him before?”

“Transfer student.” Ethan shrugged without a trace of shame. “I only came to Hogwarts this year.”

Ariel glared at him. “I wasn’t talking to you!”

“Oh.”

Ethan ducked his head and obediently fell silent.

This young lady was still furious. Better not dance right under the nose of danger and deliberately provoke her.

Sure, she could not beat him if they actually fought, but she was still Alanna’s family. An elder sister was like a mother, after all. If this was merely a misunderstanding, it would be easy enough to clear up. But if they truly fell out, who knew whether Ariel might change classes into some villainous older sister determined to obstruct her little sister’s freedom to love?

For now, keeping his head down was the safest option.

After a frantic round of explanations from Alanna, Ariel finally understood what had happened.

“So that’s what it was...” Ariel looked at Ethan with a complicated expression. He had shrunk into his chair, sitting there like the very picture of an obedient child. “I’m sorry. I misunderstood the two of you.”

So this wasn’t some older woman robbing the cradle after all.

She was the one who’d made a move on someone way too young—and gotten nowhere.

And somehow, that made her feel even worse.

Thinking about it that way made her feel even more... sick to her stomach.

“Then why were you so attentive to me before?” Ariel asked. “You were constantly taking care of me. Is that really how you should treat a woman who isn’t your girlfriend?”

“Sis, now you’re treating me like an outsider.” Ethan looked perfectly serious. “Alanna’s family is my family. Isn’t it only natural for me to take good care of my own family?”

Ariel looked again at Ethan’s sincere expression, which showed no sign of pretense, then remembered what the two of them had just been doing right in front of her and let out a long sigh.

So that was it.

He had only ever liked Alanna. He had never harbored any improper feelings toward her at all. Everything she had imagined before had been nothing more than her own one-sided fantasy...

Her first love...

It had ended before it had even begun.

Ariel visibly wilted.

“About what happened just now... please don’t take it to heart. It was all a misunderstanding. As for your relationship with Alanna... I never intended to stand in your way. Now that the misunderstanding has been cleared up, please don’t let my foolish assumptions cause any unnecessary cracks between the two of you...”

“Don’t worry. I won’t take it to heart.”

Ethan’s Adam’s apple shifted slightly, as though he had noticed something, but in the end he merely nodded.

“Please rest assured, Sis. I’ll take good care of Alanna. You can safely entrust her to me.”

Ariel nodded wearily.

“That’s good. Then I’m entrusting my most precious little sister to you. Make sure you take good care of her...”

With that, Ariel staggered toward the door and refused Ethan and Alanna’s attempts to support her.

“I’m a little tired. I’m going back to rest for a while. Don’t come bother me for the time being.”

Her heart hurt so much.

She wanted to cry her eyes out and hold a funeral for the first love that had died before birth, but she could not do it here. At the very least, she could not show such a vulnerable side of herself in front of her sister.

She should just go back and curl up beneath the blankets...

“Ethan...” Watching Ariel’s dejected figure disappear through the doorway, Alanna wrapped her arm around Ethan’s and asked softly, “You... don’t dislike my sister, do you?”

“No. I’m not that unreasonable.” Ethan shook his head. “I’m not going to hold something like this against your sister.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

The girl shook her head as well.

“My sister... I don’t know why, but it looks like she’s fallen for you. You noticed that too, didn’t you?”

“...Yeah.”

“Then... have you ever thought about...” The girl bit her lip, her voice barely louder than a mosquito. “Being with both of us sisters at the same time...?”

“???”

Ethan recoiled immediately. He reached out and pressed a hand to the girl’s forehead, staring at her in confusion.

“No fever. Then why is this kid suddenly talking nonsense?”

“I’m not joking.”

Alanna took the hand resting against her forehead and held it against her cheek, gently rubbing against his palm.

“I’m seriously asking you. Would you mind being with both of us... together?”

Ethan frowned.

“What happened to you?”

It had been somewhat understandable when she said she was willing to share a husband with Cassandra before. After all, she had been saying things to put his mind at ease while giving what she thought were her last words. But now she was perfectly fine, and she was already trying to pair him with Ariel too...

Was there no end to this?

Was this any way to test a comrade?

What comrade could possibly withstand a test like this?!

“To be fair, I don’t really want to let you get such a good deal either...”

“Then why are you saying something so ridiculous?”

“But my sister likes you too. She raised me all these years, and she’s always suppressed her own feelings so I wouldn’t have to suffer. Now she’s finally found someone she likes, but somehow I ended up beating her to him... I don’t want to see her so heartbroken...”

The girl pursed her lips slightly, then looked at Ethan with a trace of anticipation.

“If it’s you, I think I could entrust my sister to you. And it’s not like I dislike my sister either. So even if you wanted both of us, I could accept it.”

Normally, she never would have agreed to something like this.

But this was her dearest sister, someone just as important to her as Ethan. The moment she realized how Ariel felt, her instinctive reaction had been to step aside and make room for the two of them.

Yet she could not bear to simply let Ethan leave her.

So after weighing both sides, she had come up with this solution that was hardly a solution at all.

She did not dislike Ethan, and she certainly did not dislike her sister. If Ethan actually agreed, then she would never have to be separated from Ariel because her sister got married or anything like that. The two sisters could stay together for the rest of their lives.

It would be twice the happiness.

“So this is the ‘best of both worlds’ solution you came up with?”

Ethan scratched his scalp, his head beginning to ache.

He never would have imagined that Alanna’s sense of ethics would become unexpectedly loose when faced with something like this.

I don’t dislike my sister, so she can just join us. No problem turning our life as a couple into a threesome!

Even doujinshi wouldn’t dare write something like this...

No, wait. They probably would.

But this isn’t a doujinshi world!

This is Harry Potter, not Punishing Hermione!

“Even if I didn’t mind, do you really think your sister would agree?” Ethan grimaced. “Besides, this might all be wishful thinking on your part. I genuinely don’t have those kinds of feelings for her.”

“My sister’s easy to talk to. As long as the two of us explain it to her with both reason and emotion, she’ll definitely understand our good intentions. And she likes you too, doesn’t she? That gives her even less reason to refuse.”

The girl blinked innocently.

“Besides, feelings can develop over time. Isn’t that how you fell for me? My sister’s a really good person. Once you spend more time with her, I’m sure you’ll come to like her too.”

“What are you even thinking?”

Ethan poked the girl on the forehead and said irritably, “By that logic, a certain someone once said in her last words that she wanted to set her best friend up with me too, and even said she wouldn’t mind if we were together. Why don’t I go win her over as well? Then I can get the three of you together for a full table of three-player mahjong!”

Alanna covered her forehead and glared at him, embarrassed and annoyed.

Realizing that he had taken the joke a little too far, Ethan immediately tried to comfort her.

“Don’t take it seriously. I was actually just...”

“...That’s fine.”

The girl blushed and gave a small nod.

“See? I knew something this ridiculous was obviously... What?”

Ethan stared straight at the crimson-faced girl before him, feeling as though his heart had stopped for several beats.

No, I was joking, bro!

Are you trying to shake the Dao heart of this Pure Love Warrior?!

Pure Love Warriors stick together. Anyone who starts a harem is a dog!

And here I was confidently telling Mordred that there was no way you’d ever agree. I never thought you’d change your tune this quickly!

How long has it even been since I formally confessed to you? Are you already this eager to push me toward other women?

What is this supposed to be? Your subjects are ready to fight to the death, so why has His Majesty surrendered first?!

“What did you say? Say that again?!”

The sudden reversal had left Ethan completely flustered instead. He grabbed the girl by the shoulders and asked again.

“I said it’s fine,” the girl murmured, lowering her head.

She had come to terms with it now.

Since Ethan himself had no intention of doing anything like that, there was really no need for her to guard him so obsessively.

With Ethan’s current personality, merely adding her sister to the equation was already enough to make him resistant. Even if Alanna truly loosened her stance and gave him permission to pursue other women, there was no way he would actually be capable of doing it.

It was not as though Ethan would suddenly change his personality and become a womanizer, somehow winning over Cassandra while also getting involved with a whole crowd of other girls, right?

What the girl failed to realize, however, was that a certain someone was not some decent man who would need a sudden personality change to become a womanizer.

He had been a full-fledged womanizer in reserve from the very beginning.

He had merely restrained his true nature after meeting her.

Now that she had loosened the reins, future events were likely to gallop wildly in a direction no one could control.