Chapter 187: ...That’s It?

"No," Rhea replied with a bitter, defeated roll of her eyes. "That’s his other girlfriend, Jenny. My sister is Andrea."

Silence seemed to settle amongst the group for several seconds as no one said anything after Rhea.

The quiet in the dim corridor became thick, broken only by the faint, muffled hum of the hotel’s ventilation ducts and the distant creaking of the damaged structure.

Sophia’s face was spectacularly iconic at the moment, as she stood with a blank look.

Her soft blue eyes were wide, blinking in slow, bewildered intervals. Her lips were parted slightly, caught halfway between a gasp and an incredulous scoff.

She already knew about Jenny and Rose, but she let it go thinking that maybe their relationship was complicated and she was quite drunk to worry more about it. After stumbling down from the upper floors with a bottle’s worth of vodka burning through her veins, she had simply assumed the strange, pale demoness and the blonde Awakener were tangled in some bizarre, modern love triangle.

But now, the human girl in front of her was telling that Andrea, her sister is also a girlfriend of Fredrinn?

"...How many does he even have?" She asked speechlessly.

"Three..." Vivienne replied calmly, sighing as she added a warning... "For now."

"For now..." Sophia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

She stared down the hall toward the tightly shut door of Room 308, completely dumbfounded by the sheer audacity of the entire situation.

The world was in ruins and survival was a difficulty on its own, but this man was going around collecting women in his harem? Outside the reinforced windows, mutated horrors roamed the crumbling streets, resources were scarce, and civilization had collapsed into dust overnight. Yet here, right on the third floor of an abandoned luxury hotel, some handsome guy was living out the dream scenario of an emperor.

Though, it wasn’t like Sophia hated it. In her eyes, survival wasn’t guaranteed, especially not in the apocalypse.

Life had become cheap, fragile, and fleeting. You only live once, so you should just enjoy it as you please and do what you like... Of course, within the rules and the morality. If all consenting adults agreed to it, who was she to sit on a moral high horse?

"Well..." Sophia murmured awkwardly, staring at the door before looking at Carmen, who scoffed lightly and refused to look and focus on the door again.

The little girl had pointedly crossed her small arms, turning her back on Room 308 with an unmistakable expression of disgusted disdain.

That was enough of a signal for Sophia to understand that things inside weren’t so... PG, and there might be a while before they wake up.

After all, who knows how long they went at it?

Were they doing it all night? All 4 of them?

The mental image blossomed in her head before she could stop it. Three gorgeous women—a fiery human, an athletic blonde, and an exotic demon—locked away in a king-sized bed with one ridiculously energetic man.

Sophia felt her curiosity rising, along with the same bitter feeling that had been assaulting her for the entire life!

WHY WAS SHE STILL SINGLE?!

The sheer injustice of the universe felt like a slap straight across her face.

She was gorgeous, her nature was fun and light, she wasn’t as clingy and annoying as other girls... At least according to the ones she’d seen in the online reels and dramas, and... SHE WAS RICH TO BOOT!

Her family possessed wealth, influence, and now she even possessed an Awakened nature-element gift that let her grow lethal vines and pretty blossoms at will. If a man made his list of requirements for a dream girl, Sophia was sure that she would match at least 2-3 requirements without a problem!

Yet, she was still single.

Never even had a boyfriend. Not in high school, not in college, and certainly not during the end of the world.

’Sigh... They must be too scared of my overwhelming beauty and cannot approach me at all.’ Sophia clicked her tongue as she shook her head, sighing inwardly.

Though, it was far from the real truth. In reality, her chaotic lack of restraint, her habit of knocking back hard liquor until she tried to karate-chop people, and her unfiltered mouth tended to scare off suitors long before they could build up the courage to ask for her number.

"Anyways, if they’re ditching you guys, you guys should ditch them too! Let’s go, girls! I will treat you to breakfast instead!" Sophia smiled widely and proudly, flicking her hair arrogantly as she offered.

And though she was acting quite high and mighty about it, none of the girls felt awkward about it since they knew that Sophia was acting narcissistic more as a joke rather than a real egoistic prick.

Her bravado was theatrical, vibrant, and lighthearted. In addition, her warm and bright smile was enough of a reason not to hold any grudges against the gorgeous pistachio green haired angel.

"Uh... We have some food items in the bus, maybe we can heat them up if we find some utensils?" Rhea offered finally after losing the hope of waking up Fredrinn and the rest. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

She cast one last sullen glare toward the wooden barrier of Room 308, completely writing off any chance of her sister emerging anytime soon.

Downstairs, several civilians were staying in the second floor and also feeding themselves with the supplies they had brought from the storage room of the Shimada Mart.

They didn’t want to wander out in danger at all when they can just be safe in rooms till their leaders decide to move out again. The ordinary survivors huddled behind locked doors, nibbling quietly on rations and speaking in hushed whispers, waiting for Fredrinn, Jenny, or Max to take the lead.

"Oh? You got food items? What do you have?" Sophia asked curiously.

Her mystical blue eyes sparkled with genuine interest, leaning forward like an eager child waiting for a surprise.

"Uhh..." Rhea hesitated for a second, remembering about the stingy Jacob who acted quite miser about his food.

The nervous, bespectacled man had practically treated every cardboard box from the mart like gold bullion. If Rhea invited a stranger to join them in eating, Jacob might scold her later for it.

But then again, she had already offered it so there was no backing off now. Besides, Fredrinn had clearly established his dominance over the group anyway; Jacob’s petty opinions carried zero weight against someone who could summon wooden spears.

"There’s instant noodles, biscuits, some canned meats and food stuff..."

Sophia blinked blankly, "...That’s it?"