Gacha Harem System-Chapter 43: Newly Minted A-rank

One Week Later

Lukas yawned, his eyes opening slowly to the familiar ceiling of his bedroom.

He glanced to the side to see that he was alone in the bed.

He sat up, blinking the sleep away, and looked around the empty room. She was nowhere to be found.

He looked down at himself to see that he was naked, and a smile appeared on his face as memories of last night resurfaced.

After their first sex a week ago, they’d been fucking like rabbits whatever chance they got.

He looked up again just as the bathroom door opened and Melody walked in, wrapped in her bathrobe, her white hair damp and pushed back from her face.

She saw him sitting up and smiled, crossing the room and leaning down to press a quick kiss to his lips. "Good morning."

He caught her hand before she could straighten, tugging her back towards the bed.

She laughed, pulling away. "No. We have things to do today, Lukas."

He sighed, putting on a fake hurt expression as if he’d been deeply wronged. "Fine."

He got up, took his bath, dressed, and made his way to the kitchen. The apron went on out of habit, and within a few minutes he had the stove going and breakfast underway.

It had become their rhythm over the past week. Melody had made genuine efforts in the kitchen, and he gave her full credit for trying, but the gap between their abilities was wide enough that there was no practical argument for changing the arrangement.

He cooked, she ate, and everyone was better off.

As he worked, his mind drifted to the system.

He now had a grand total of one thousand five hundred Gacha Points.

He had been sitting at that number for almost the entire week, which meant he was five hundred points away from pulling the Wife banner.

The problem was that the system had gone completely quiet during his recovery. Throughout the week, there had been no quests, no notifications, nothing. Just silence.

He wasn’t exactly complaining, after all, he had needed the rest, and the week had been good in ways that had nothing to do with leveling up.

But the tournament wasn’t waiting for him to be comfortable. It was getting closer every day, and he needed to be ready for it.

And the good news was that starting today, he was back in the game.

The aroma of the food spread through the house, and he heard Melody’s footsteps a moment before she appeared in the kitchen doorway, already drawn in by the smell.

"That," she said, inhaling slowly, "is the best thing about living with you."

"Just the cooking?" he asked.

She smiled and said nothing, which was its own kind of answer.

She sat down at the table, folding her arms on the surface and watching him plate the food with the relaxed attention of someone who had decided this was a perfectly good way to spend a morning.

"You know you still owe me a steak dinner," she said.

He looked at her over his shoulder. "I know."

"I’m just making sure you haven’t forgotten."

"Melody." He set the plate in front of her. "I haven’t forgotten."

She looked down at the food, then up at him, her expression morphing into a grin.

"Good," she said simply, and picked up her fork.

They began eating in comfortable silence.

Lukas watched Melody across the table between spoonfuls, the morning light catching the violet of her skin and the white of her hair.

She ate with a big smile on her face, giving appreciative moans like someone who genuinely enjoyed food, her eyes half-closed in contentment.

He had lucked out on his first draw. He knew that. Whatever the next pull brought, it would have a high standard to meet.

The past week had been good to her. Melody had thrown herself into B-rank dungeon runs the moment he had been well enough that she felt comfortable leaving, and she had moved fast.

She had crossed into A-rank three days ago, the advancement coming mid-run, and had come home that evening looking quietly pleased with herself.

Her share of the loot from the runs had also added up, and now they had a hundred thousand gold coins between them, which was more than enough to work with.

"This is really good," Melody said, looking up at him, and pointing to her breakfast with her fork.

Her words jarred him back to the present. "Thank you."

She smiled and went back to eating. He did the same.

When the bowls were empty, Melody gathered the dishes without being asked, washing them at the basin and setting them one by one on the rack beside it.

Lukas leaned back in his chair, listening to the ordinary sound of it.

Then three knocks landed on the front door.

He looked towards the hallway. "Are you expecting someone?"

Melody turned from the basin. "No."

Lukas pushed his chair back and went to answer it.

He opened the door to see the realtor standing on the step, a leather folder tucked under one arm and a smile on his face.

He was a middle-aged man with a neat appearance and the kind of smile that projected a warmth like he knew you personally.

"Mr. Valentine." He dipped his head. "Good morning."

"Good morning." Lukas stepped back. "Come in."

He led the man through to the kitchen and gestured to the chair at the far end of the table.

The realtor sat, setting his folder down in front of him. Lukas took the opposite end, and a moment later Melody dried her hands on a cloth and came to sit beside him.

The realtor opened his folder and smoothed the page in front of him.

"I won’t waste your time with preamble. The lot has been difficult to move, as I’m sure you anticipated. The house itself holds no value to a buyer. Whoever takes it will be tearing it down and starting fresh. That narrows the interest considerably." He paused. "However, we have received an offer."

"How much?" Lukas asked.

The realtor looked up. "Fifty thousand gold coins."