So, he was calling the girls to know.
To give him anything. Any scrap of information, any whisper of gossip, any half-rembered detail about the woman who held his fate in her probably perfectly manicured hands.
He couldn’t just waltz into the Dean’s office without a strategy. Might as well attempt to seduceavolcano by complinting its eruptions.
Hey there, beautiful. Love what you’ve done with the lava. Really brings out the death and destruction in your eyes.
Yeah. No.
Phei knew nothing about her. Less than nothing. His surveillance had failed, his research had turned up empty, and his usual thods of gathering intel were about as useful as a chocolate teapot in this situation.
The girls, though.
Maddie. Sierra. Delilah.
Main Legacies, all of them. Born into the circles that orbited power like planets around a sun. They’d grown up attending the sa galas, the sa charity events, the sa tedious dinner parties where secrets were traded like currency and reputations were made or murdered over dessert wine.
They had to know sothing about her.
Hopefully.
Sothing that could tilt the tables. Sothing that could turn this suicide mission into... well, a slightly-less-suicidal mission. He’d take what he could get at this point.
Because right now?
Right now, the very idea of trying sothing on the Dean is making shiver.
And Phei didn’t shiver.
Not anymore. Not after everything he’d survived, everything he’d beco, everything the system had forged him into.
But this woman...
He knew she was terrifying. That much was abundantly, painfully clear from every whisper he’d ever caught, every student’s face when her na was ntioned, every teacher who went pale at the thought of disappointing her.
But she was also—from what little he’d gathered—a proud beauty.
Most powerful won were, especially the ones with connections to the Legacy families. It ca with the territory.
You don’t climb to the top of Paradise’s food chain without knowing exactly how devastating you are and wielding that beauty like a weapon forged in hellfire.
And while she wasn’t a Main Legacy herself, she was An Imdiate.
From the Ashford House.
The Ashford House.
The family that owned the very ground this academy stood on, the buildings that housed its students, probably half the bloody air they breathed. An Ashford—even an Imdiate one—was the kind of hot that ca with a warning label.
The kind that made volcanoes look lukewarm. The kind that burned you just for looking too long and made you thank her for the privilege of having your eyeballs lted.
But there were also other limits pressed on him to make the hopeless situation more hopeless.
A ceiling.
His godly form, his charms, his techniques—they could only carry him so far. They were tools, not miracles.
Advantages, not guarantees.
In a situation like this, he couldn’t rely on them as the main strategy. They were supporting characters, not the protagonist. The confluence that might tip the scales, not the hand that moved them.
Yeah.
That sounded like a good way to put it.
He needed information. Real information. The kind that turned impossible odds into rely improbable ones.
And his girls were about to deliver.
Hopefully.
Footsteps through the trees.
Phei looked up.
Three figures erged from the path—Sierra in front, moving with that predatory grace that made lesser mortals forget how to breathe. Maddie slightly behind, still walking with that careful gait, thighs pressed together in a way that made Phei’s lips twitch with dark satisfaction. Delilah bringing up the rear, nervous energy radiating off her like heat from a furnace.
And Maya.
Maya at the back, silver hair catching the filtered light, watching everything with those knowing eyes that saw far too much.
The three princesses strode toward him—and then stopped.
Their eyes had found Emily.
The small, brown-haired girl standing politely but confidently at Phei’s side, spine straight, hands clasped, looking for all the world like a professional assistant awaiting instructions.
Sierra’s eyebrow arched. "And who’s this?"
Emily stepped forward before Phei could answer.
"Emily Hartwell," she said crisply, extending her hand like she was at a business eting rather than a secret gathering in the woods. "My father works in accounting for the Montgory Group."
Sierra’s expression didn’t flicker. Why would it? The Montgory empire employed thousands. The idea that she’d know the family mbers of every accountant on her father’s payroll was laughable. She probably didn’t even know the nas of half her own household staff.
"She’s also," Maya’s voice drifted from the back, soft but clear, "the girl Phei helped. Last spring. In the hallway."
Emily’s beam intensified to near-nuclear levels. "You know about that?"
"I know about most things." Maya moved closer, that gentle smile playing on her lips. "Phei gave her a tissue when she was crying. Stopped when no one else did. It’s actually quite a sweet story—she’d been having a terrible day, and he just appeared out of nowhere with this tissue, didn’t say a word, just held it out, and she took it, and then he nodded once and walked away, and she’d been—"
"Maya," Phei interrupted.
She stopped mid-ramble.
"I love that you know my entire backstory," Emily said, looking at Maya like she’d found a kindred spirit. "Most people don’t rember—"
"Okay, sweet story and all," Maddie cut in, eyebrow raised, "but what is she doing here? With you? At our secret eting spot?"
Emily straightened, that serious assistant mode snapping back into place.
"I’m Phei’s locker manager," she said crisply. "General operations coordinator. And president of his fan club."
Maddie’s eyes went wide.
"Wait." She stepped closer, a grin spreading across her face. "Wait, wait, wait. You’re the one behind PheiCrush Simps?"
Emily bead. "You’ve heard of us?!"
"Heard of you? Girl, your account is legendary." Maddie laughed—that chaotic, delighted sound that ant she’d found sothing genuinely entertaining. "The edits! The compilations! That slow-motion video of him walking through the quad with the dramatic music—I’ve watched that like fifty tis!"
"Sixty-two thousand views," Emily said proudly. "And counting."
Phei massaged his brow.
PheiCrush Simps.
He’d been embarrassed by the na since the mont he’d discovered it existed. Which had been approximately like three minutes ago, when Emily had shown him the account.
****
A/N:Guys, today’s Arc is going to be long, from here to seducing the Dean, Phei’s move on his first-teacher taboo (illicit if you will) Amber’s move, Going to the Ashford Estate where he ets the Ashford Madam and the Dormant Succubus, eting the Consort and One Above.
Okay that’s lots of spoilers but everything is going to be so good. Also... The Awakening of his first Elent!
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