Chapter 223: How Not to Build a Harem!
Alexandra had told Martin to have fun with her older sister, but the confused look he gave her stayed in her mind long after she logged out.
The poor man probably thought she had lost interest in him, which was fine. Let him puzzle over it for a while.
She lay diagonally across her enormous bed with a tablet propped against a pillow. Its pale light washed over her face and the thin silk nightgown clinging to her body. She had chosen it for her own comfort, though she certainly wouldn’t have complained if Martin had been there to appreciate it.
Katherine had practically ordered Martin to log out so she could call him. Whatever happened between them was none of Alexandra’s business unless her older sister chose to tell her later.
Alexandra was happy to let Katherine make the first move, but she had no intention of standing aside forever.
As she settled deeper into the pillows, Rangar’s booming voice returned to her.
You got yourself a harem!
He had announced it in front of half the academy, leaving Martin surrounded by women and looking like he wanted the Light Tree to swallow him. Elisebeth immediately claimed she wouldn’t share. Cassandra pointed out that they wouldn’t receive any marriage-tax discounts. Katherine called the idea far too debauched, then waited much too long before saying no.
Alexandra hadn’t rejected it at all.
A harem, huh?
At the time, the word had simply sounded exciting. It was shameless, excessive, and completely different from every normal romance she had ever heard about. One man surrounded by several women who all wanted him should have been a disaster, yet Rangar had said it as though the arrangement were the most obvious thing in the world.
The idea kept returning whenever she thought about Martin and the women around him.
Katherine wanted him, and Alexandra did too. Cassandra’s feelings had become painfully obvious, no matter how much dignity she wrapped around them. Elisebeth’s interest could probably be seen from another continent, and the others were hardly indifferent.
Still, that didn’t mean Alexandra was ready to gather everyone in a room and announce that they should start sharing him. She didn’t even know what being part of a harem involved beyond the obvious.
Did the women date Martin separately, or did everyone live together? Was there some ridiculous schedule? Would they constantly fight over who got to sit beside him?
Most importantly, why would any sane woman agree to it?
Alexandra rolled onto her stomach, kicked one foot lazily behind her, and opened a search engine.
"All right," she murmured. "Let’s find out whether this is brilliant or completely insane."
She started with history, figuring she should understand the real thing before judging it. Twenty minutes later, she wished she had skipped that part.
Most of what she found involved rulers, noble families, political alliances, and arguments over succession. Women entered royal households because of their bloodlines, their families’ influence, or their ability to produce heirs. Some gained wealth and real power, but very few seemed to be there because anyone actually loved them.
Her frown deepened as she scrolled. One ruler gathered women from powerful families to keep those families loyal. Another had so many consorts that palace officials recorded when he visited each one. Several women spent their lives fighting for his attention because their safety and position depended on remaining useful.
"This isn’t romance," Alexandra said. "It’s government administration with bedrooms."
She pictured Martin behind an enormous desk while Cassandra stood beside him with a schedule and the stern expression of someone managing a national emergency.
Monday evening would belong to Katherine. Tuesday morning would be reserved for a diplomatic breakfast with Alexandra. Wednesday would involve reviewing potential heirs and preventing another succession war.
Martin would last three days before throwing himself out a window.
Alexandra snorted and shifted onto her side. History was useless as a model. She had no interest in becoming a political asset, and Katherine would probably strangle anyone who tried to rank her according to how many children she could produce.
Maybe novelists had made the idea less depressing.
The castles and dresses became prettier when Alexandra moved on to Western fantasy novels, but most of the relationships still revolved around politics. Princesses were married off to secure alliances. Mistresses were hidden in separate estates, while queens and concubines plotted against each other. Entire kingdoms collapsed because the man at the center couldn’t have one honest conversation with the women around him.
Even stories that claimed to be romances often ended with the hero choosing one woman after leading several others on for hundreds of Chapters.
Alexandra narrowed her eyes at the screen.
"So he lets five women fall in love with him, kisses three of them, promises to protect all of them, and then marries his childhood friend?"
The reader reviews were split. Half the audience praised the ending for being realistic, while the other half wanted the author publicly executed. Alexandra agreed with the second group.
Once the hero chose his official partner, the other women usually faded into the background. Some vanished from the story entirely. Others smiled through their heartbreak and claimed they had always known he would choose someone else.
"Pathetic."
Alexandra would never smile politely and step aside because another woman reached Martin first. At the same time, she couldn’t imagine feeling victorious while Katherine forced herself to do exactly that.
She hadn’t started researching because she already believed a harem would solve everything. The idea had simply sounded fun when Rangar shouted it.
Now she was beginning to understand why it had stayed in her head.
If a man genuinely cared about several women, why did every story insist that only one of them could be happy at the end?
The cultivation and fantasy NovelFires she found were much more willing to let their protagonists have several lovers. For about six minutes, Alexandra thought she had finally found something useful.
Then she opened the first story.
The hero and heroine became trapped inside a cave after both were poisoned by an aphrodisiac. They had sex because it was supposedly the only cure, and the story presented the entire incident as the beginning of a beautiful romance.
Alexandra stared at the summary and read it again in case she had misunderstood something. Somehow, it became even worse the second time.
Sitting upright so quickly that the blanket slid from her legs, she shouted at the empty room.
"Isn’t that basically rape?!"