Chapter 37. My System Has Better Morals Than Most Webnovel Protagonists

Chapter 37: 37. My System Has Better Morals Than Most Webnovel Protagonists

For the first time since the awakening, the panel unfolded into something long. It slid across my vision in careful, orderly lines, and I sat up a little straighter against the pillow.

[UNIQUE CLASS MECHANISM: BREEDING KNIGHT]

[Your class possesses a scalable Lust Limit Suppression mechanism.]

[Every 5 additional established mutual bonds unlocks a new suppression threshold.]

[Current Threshold: 100%]

[Next Threshold: 200%]

[Further thresholds may exceed 200%, subject to class evolution and system conditions.]

I read it three times.

’Two hundred percent?’

[Correct, subject to the five-bond milestone being fulfilled.]

’And after that?’

[Further milestones may unlock higher thresholds. No fixed upper limit has been established at your current evolution stage.]

I stared at the ceiling beams for a good while.

Two hundred percent.

After five more bonds, I’d be able to carry twice the energy I could hold now, and after that, who knew.

I felt a ridiculous grin start to spread across my face, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep it from waking Laura. Then the sensible part of my brain caught up and elbowed the greedy part in the ribs.

The system seemed to know what I was about to ask, because it laid out the details without being prompted.

The Lust Reserve was the actual pool of energy I used to power my abilities.

Lust Consumption was how fast those abilities drained it.

And the Limit Suppression was something different, a kind of ceiling that determined how much I could hold at once, but it didn’t make anything free.

A bigger tank meant a longer fight before I hit empty, and that was all...

’So I won’t become an unstoppable god just by collecting female knights...’

[Maximum capacity, recovery rate, and consumption efficiency are separate attributes.]

[Additional bonds may improve them through individual partner abilities, class milestones, or evolution quests.]

That was a relief, honestly.

A cheat with no limits would have made me nervous, and cheats without limits tend to come with a bill that you don’t see until it’s too late.

A system with rules was one I could learn.

But...

There was one more thing I needed to know, and I asked it as carefully as I could.

’Do I need to be with five women at the same time to hit the next threshold?’

[Negative.]

[Progression is based on established mutual bonds, not simultaneous relationships.]

[All bonds must be freely chosen, mutually acknowledged, and recognized by the system as stable.]

A final line appeared at the bottom, in the same smug bracketed font as everything else.

[IMPORTANT NOTICE]

[A partner’s consent, trust, and individual compatibility are essential to stable bond formation.]

[Forced or unstable bonds cannot unlock full progression benefits.]

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Whatever else I thought about this ridiculous class... the thing that built it had at least put the right guardrails in place.

It wanted me to earn every bond, and that was the only way I’d have wanted it anyway.

I turned my head and looked at Laura, still sound asleep with her cheek squished against my shoulder.

Last night hadn’t been a recharge... I knew that, and I think she did too.

She had spent years hiding her feelings behind a cold face, and she’d finally put them down in front of me and trusted me not to break them.

If I’d ever treated that like a line on a panel... I’d have deserved to get stabbed. Stabbed in my whole fucking die until I die miserably.

And I’d never treat Alicia as a battery either... just because she’d been in my corner since we were kids.

’Okay,’ I thought at the system. ’I’ll build my strength, and I’ll do it right.’

’I won’t make any of this a transaction.’

[Statement acknowledged. This approach is compatible with long-term bond stability.]

I snorted quietly. My own system approved of my moral code.

This world was getting stranger by the day.

I’d just started to close the panel when Laura stirred.

"Nhhh... mmhhh... Roland...?"

I flicked the screen away so fast that I nearly gave myself a headache. "Morning... well... can’t say if it’s an early morning or a midmorning since we sleep like a sloth."

She blinked slowly, and for a moment she looked completely lost. Then she noticed where her head was and who it was resting on, and the color started creeping up her neck.

"Why are you... awake already?"

"I was thinking about the future..."

"This... uh... early?"

"I’m about to become a Royal Knight; did you forget that? It’s my job to think about the future of the kingdom."

"There’s no way..." She narrowed her eyes. "You were probably thinking about something stupid."

"Why does everybody keep assuming that...?"

"Because I know you well enough..."

I laughed under my breath, and she started to push herself upright, then stopped, because her hand was still wrapped around mine. We both looked down at it.

For once in her life, Laura didn’t seem to have a ready answer.

"Don’t look at me like that," she mumbled.

"Like what?"

"Like you’re... happy."

"Hell to the yeah~! Of course I’m happy." I smiled smugly. "So happy that I manage to have the heart of the knight named Laura Lapisfield~!"

"Nrgh..." She yanked the blanket up to her nose. "Then don’t say it with that face...!"

I would have lost it completely, but she poked me in the chest, gently, right beside a bruise I’d forgotten about. "And stop moving so much... You’re still recovering, you know?"

"Yes, Lady Lapisfield."

"Don’t call me that in my own bedroom."

"What should I call you, then...?"

She hesitated. "...Laura is fine."

"Laura," I said, trying it out.

"That’s better," she muttered into the blanket.

It was a simple, silly morning, and I’d have given a lot to keep it going.

Naturally, someone started pounding on the door.

"Roland! Laura! If you two are done lounging around, there’s a ceremony coming up ahead, and you’re both going to be late!"

Alicia’s voice carried through the wood like a bell.

Laura went rigid.

I closed my eyes. It was starting to look like peaceful mornings simply weren’t in my contract.

Alicia did not wait to be invited in.

She pushed open the door and swept into the room wearing the formal uniform of the Royal Knight Order, white with dark blue trim, with her long golden hair pinned up in a braid and a ceremonial sword at her hip.

She looked ridiculous, in the sense that she looked like the poster of what a knight is supposed to be. She had stopped in the middle of the floor, and I watched her eyes travel from my face to Laura’s, then down to the blanket, and back up.

She started to smile.

"Ohohhh...?"

Laura shot out of the bed, dragging half the sheets with her. "Alicia, do you not have any shame to just barge in without our permission?!"

"Ahahaha! Come on! Don’t give me that... you know that this is going to be our daily thing, right?"

"No! I still want privacy!"

Alicia covered her mouth with one hand, which didn’t do much to hide the shaking in her shoulders.

"Good morning, Alicia," I offered, in what I hoped was a calm and mature voice.

"Good morning, Roland... How did you sleep, and you know~?"

"Fine... still the best thing ever!"

"And how’s Laura?"

"Alicia!"

She burst out laughing, and Laura threw a pillow at her, which she caught without even looking.

I watched them with a growing sense of relief. There was no hurt in Alicia’s face and no hidden edge in her smile.

She looked like a woman who had spent weeks quietly hoping her two favorite people would find each other and who was thrilled to be right.

When the pillow fight wound down, she came over to the bed and checked my ribs with the brisk touch of someone who’d done it a hundred times.

"No heavy exercise today," she said. "Sharon says you’re not fully healed."

"I know."

"And don’t even think about sneaking off to train after the ceremony."

"I wasn’t going to..."

"You weren’t going to say it, but you were thinking it."

"I agree with Alicia," Laura said from across the room, pulling on her boots. "For the first time in recorded history."

I looked between them. "I haven’t even been knighted yet, and I already have two supervisors."

"Three, if you count Sharon," Alicia said cheerfully.

"I don’t want to count Sharon."

They both laughed, and Alicia stuck out a hand to haul me off the mattress, while Laura came around to the other side to take my arm.

Between the two of them, I was dressed and presentable in about ten minutes, with a lot of fussing and one argument about whether the collar was straight.

The uniform was crisp and stiff, white with deep blue edges, and I felt like a man wearing a costume that he hadn’t earned yet.

I can tell how much aura I’ve produced from this drip alone.

"I’m so fucking awesome..."