Fantasy drama · Part 1
Laila had already made up her mind about the man standing in front of her.
His beige shirt was worn. His dark vest offered no sign of wealth. To a woman who had once managed a merchant’s accounts and watched nobles beg for loans, Jason looked like the last person who could change her fortunes.
But as he stood before the three women in the sunlit stone square, a strange number revealed just how little she thought of him.
Current Affection: −1.
That was where the short video ended. Jason’s decision was still ahead—and it would shock everyone watching.
A widow who refused to be impressed
The crowd and guards remained around them. Pale stone walls, rough paving and steps framed a choice that everyone seemed impatient for Jason to make.
He looked at the three women.
All three are top tier. Which one should I pick?
Laila’s thoughts were much colder.
I kept my late husband’s caravan books and watched nobles kneel to borrow money. Marry a penniless nobody like him. Dream on.
She did not say those words aloud. Her guarded expression and the negative affection score conveyed the distance between them.
Jason’s assessment, however, went beyond her rejection. She was a merchant’s widow with high standards and a sharp mind. Her experience with money and business mattered. Winning her trust would be difficult, but he saw value in the very qualities that made her difficult to impress.
His thoughts settled into a conclusion:
Merchant’s widow, high standards and a sharp mind. The harder she is to win over, the more valuable she is.
Three women, three different reasons to leave
Lampito met Jason’s gaze without looking away.
She was not imagining a comfortable marriage. Her thoughts were fixed on escape and revenge. Jason looked too thin to inspire much confidence, but at least he held her gaze. Leaving with him might give her the chance she needed.
He’s skinny as a stick, but at least he doesn’t look away. I’ll use him to get out of here and find a chance to take revenge.
Jason saw her strength. In his own blunt calculation, choosing Lampito would mean gaining someone capable of protecting him.
Then Cleio spoke.
“Pick me. As long as I don’t have to go to the barracks, I’ll do anything you say.”
Unlike the other women’s private judgments, her plea was spoken directly to him. She wanted to avoid the barracks, and she was willing to put her future in his hands to do it.
Jason noticed how readily she might place her trust in him. He believed her affection would be the easiest to raise.
Laila brought a sharp mind. Lampito brought strength and a hidden purpose. Cleio offered obedience born of fear. Each woman gave him a different reason to hesitate.
The soldier had run out of patience.
“Quit stalling! Choose now or you’re going straight to the suicide camp.”
His impatience concealed another motive. Privately, he was already thinking about sending the three women to Lord Polemon after sunset if nobody chose them.
Jason’s decision threatened to interfere with that plan.
The warning that changed the choice
Before Jason could settle on one woman, the system interrupted him.
The glowing fox appeared, followed by a crimson warning:
“Crimson warning! Abandoning any bonded affection target will result in immediate host termination.”
The consequence was immediate and brutal. Leaving any of the bonded targets behind would cost Jason his life.
His private reaction was equally direct: Shit. I die if I marry one less?
Now the choice had changed completely. He could not simply select the easiest person to live with, the most useful ally, or the woman most likely to accept him. The system’s warning applied to all three.
The soldier demanded an answer.
“So who are you choosing?”
Jason answered in front of the watching crowd.
“All three. I’m taking them all.”
Disbelief spread through the square. A penniless man wanted three women. How could he possibly feed them? The villagers protested that one Spartan man should have one wife. In their eyes, he was breaking tradition as well as making a promise he could not afford.
The soldier’s reaction carried a more personal anger.
“You want all three?”
His thoughts returned to Polemon. If Jason took the women away, the soldier would have nothing to offer him that night.
The price of taking them home
The soldier presented Jason with a new obstacle: three women meant three hundred pounds of rye.
For someone who looked as poor as Jason, the demand sounded impossible. The soldier made clear that failing to pay would bring a severe consequence.
Jason did not withdraw his answer.
“Does Spartan law say I can’t choose three? As for the grain, you’ll have your answer in a month.”
The crowd remained unconvinced. Three hundred pounds of rye in a single month was more than they believed he could earn, even by working himself to exhaustion. They predicted that the women would simply be dragged back when he failed.
For Laila, Lampito and Cleio, leaving the square would therefore be only the beginning. Their future depended on a promise that almost nobody around them believed Jason could keep.
At last, the soldier allowed them to go.
“Take them. One month from now, I’ll come collect the grain myself.”
Jason’s reply gave the crowd one more reason to stare.
“Bring a few extra carts.”
He had made his choice. All three women would leave with him, and the impossible debt now had a deadline.
Yet the soldier was already planning to report what had happened to Lord Polemon. Jason had protected his own life by obeying the system—and, in doing so, had drawn the attention of a powerful man.
Part 1 ends with the choice resolved: Jason takes all three. What remains is a month to produce the grain, three women with very different expectations, and an enemy whose plans he has just ruined.