Gathering Wives with a System Chapter 723 Good Morning, YOU TRIED TO KILL WHO?!

Morning.

Alice slowly opened her eyes while staring at the unfamiliar ceiling for several seconds. She stretched her arms, sat up on the bed, and rubbed her eyes as she looked around the room, trying to remember where she was. The room itself was unfamiliar, but she could still smell the familiar scents of Emily and Celia on the same bed, while Isaac's scent remained faintly on her forehead, almost as though he had spent the entire night gently caressing her.

The moment Alice thought about Isaac, the memories from the previous night rushed back into her mind. Anger, despair, confusion, shock, longing, intense affection, regret, and countless other emotions surfaced at once, making her head feel strangely heavy. Alice immediately covered her face with both hands and took several deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down before those emotions could overwhelm her again.

She remained like that for a while, slowly trying to sort through everything she had experienced. Knowing that she had once lost Isaac made her chest ache. Eventually, she lowered her hands and took another deep breath, deciding that she would deal with those feelings one at a time.

A few moments later, the door opened, and Isaac entered the room carrying a teacup along with a small tray of food. He looked slightly tired, but there was a relaxed smile on his face as he walked toward her and placed the tray in front of her. After sitting beside her, he reached out and gently patted her head before speaking in a casual voice.

"Good morning, my princess. You have bed hair."

Alice stared at him for several seconds without saying anything. As Isaac was about to pull his hand away, she suddenly grabbed it, while her tail wrapped around his other hand and brought it toward her face. She held both of his hands against her cheeks and quietly pressed her face into them before finally responding.

"Good morning."

Isaac smiled when he heard her reply, and Alice eventually released his hands before picking up the tea he had prepared for her. She took a slow sip while Isaac watched her with a satisfied expression, and for a short while, neither of them said anything. The quiet atmosphere was surprisingly comfortable, especially after the emotional turmoil Alice had experienced the night before.

After drinking for a few moments, Alice suddenly narrowed her eyes and looked directly at him.

"Hmm? Why is your mana so low?" she asked, her voice carrying a suspicious tone that immediately made Isaac's expression stiffen for a moment.

"I was training," Isaac replied after quickly recovering from his surprise. He tried to sound as natural as possible, but Alice continued looking at him while taking another sip of her tea, clearly unconvinced by the answer.

Alice looked around the room before turning her attention back to him.

"Where are we?" she asked, still watching him carefully as though she were trying to determine whether there was something he was avoiding.

"A hotel. I didn't want to stay in the palace where the Seventh Queen was, so I brought everyone here," Isaac explained. He gave her a small smile afterward, hoping that the answer would be enough to satisfy her, but Alice continued staring at him while drinking her tea.

Isaac maintained his smile, although he was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable under her gaze. Alice had always been observant when she it came to things related him, and after everything she had experienced the previous night, it seemed that her ability to notice suspicious behavior had become even stronger.

"What are you hiding?" Alice finally asked while narrowing her eyes. "You only look that intensely ahead when you're trying to hide something."

"Hmm, it seems your mood has improved if you can think of things like that already," he replied, deliberately changing the subject as he picked up a napkin.

Alice finished her tea, and Isaac gently wiped the corner of her lips with the napkin.

"If you think you can dodge the question by wiping my lips, think again," she said, looking at him with a suspicious expression though she made no attempt at stopping his hand.

Isaac silently clicked his tongue while continuing to smile. Normally, Alice was surprisingly easy to distract with small gestures like this, especially when she was embarrassed, but after the memories she had received from Jasmine, she seemed much more vigilant than usual.

Suddenly, Alice's eyes widened as something seemed to occur to her.

"Wait, you didn't—" she began, but before she could finish the sentence, a powerful gust of wind erupted through the room and Isaac immediately turned toward the window.

Alice was already standing there, frozen in shock as she stared outside. Isaac followed her gaze toward the elevated location where the Seventh Queen's palace should have been, and…. nothing was left there.

Alice disappeared from the room and reappeared a split second later. Thanks to his perception, Isaac knew that she had flown outside and inspected the area before returning, but the expression on her face told him that she had already discovered exactly what he had been trying to hide.

"What the hell did you do?" Alice demanded as she turned toward him. "The entire palace is gone, and there's a crater there!"

Isaac groaned quietly because he had already known this would happen. He also knew that Alice would probably take Jasmine's side, at least on this matter, after everything the Seventh Queen had done for her, especially because Alice now believed that Jasmine had given her something extremely important.

Alice had always been the type to watch someone's actions before deciding whether they were right or wrong. The problem was that Jasmine had given Alice the memories she needed, and because of that, Alice seemed to believe that she owed the Seventh Queen something in return.

"You crazy bastard, did you really blow up the palace and attack the Seventh Queen?" Alice asked, looking as though she was seriously considering grabbing Isaac by the collar and shaking him. Her expression was not one of hatred or fear, but genuine frustration.

Isaac remained silent for several seconds because he was trying to figure out how he could explain the situation without making it sound even worse. He knew that whatever explanation he gave would probably not make Alice happy, but refusing to answer would only make her more suspicious.

"Say something," Alice continued, glaring at him.

Isaac sighed inwardly as he looked at her. Someone unfamiliar with their relationship might assume that Alice would never become angry with him because she cared about him so much, but the reality was almost the opposite. Alice was extremely strict with Isaac whenever she believed he was doing something reckless, and she had never been afraid to make that clear.

Even back at the academy, Alice had fought him as though she did not care whether she broke his bones during training. According to her, she was only being strict because she wanted Isaac to improve, and although she fought fiercely, she had always taken care of him whenever he was actually injured. There had even been a time when Isaac broke a bone during training and Alice stayed overnight at the hospital to make sure he was properly taken care of.

That was simply how Alice expressed her concern. She was angry because she cared about him, and Isaac understood that better than anyone.

"Stop daydreaming and acting like you can't hear me," Alice said while glaring at him. Her tail moved impatiently behind her as she waited for his explanation, making it obvious that she was not going to let him escape from the conversation.

Isaac finally looked at her and decided that there was no point delaying the explanation any longer. "It's not my fault. I tried to settle things inside the Mirror Dimension, but that crazy Queen thought it would be a good idea to splice the Mirror Dimension so she could weaken it and use it against me."

He paused briefly before continuing, "I just punched her. The weakened dimension couldn't contain the force properly, so it collapsed, and the force traveled outside of it."

Alice stared at him in silence for several seconds. Her expression slowly changed from disbelief to suspicion as she crossed her arms and looked at Isaac as though she were questioning a child who had obviously left out an important part of his explanation.

"That was the palace of the Seventh Queen. It should have had ridiculously powerful defenses, and even if it was you, there is no way a simple punch could have blown up the entire palace like that," Alice said. She narrowed her eyes while taking a step closer to him, clearly unconvinced by his explanation. "What else did you do?"

"I... might've punched while using a buff," Isaac said after a while.

"And?" she asked, leaving no room for him to pretend that the conversation was over.

"...I might've also used the Dragon Transformation," Isaac admitted. He tried to sound as casual as possible, but Alice's expression immediately became completely blank.

For several seconds, Alice did not say anything at all. She simply stared at Isaac as though she were trying to determine whether she had somehow misunderstood what he had just said.

"You didn't use Dragon Transformation against the Third Priest because you wanted to hide it, and you used it here?" Alice finally asked, her voice carrying obvious disbelief. "You openly used it to attack the Seventh Queen's palace?"

"It's fine. Althea already knew about it," Isaac replied, as though that somehow solved the problem. He gave Alice a small smile, but the expression on her face remained unchanged.

"That doesn't mean you can use it to attack her mother!" Alice raised her voice slightly as she stepped closer to him. "Were you trying to kill her?"

"...We have a resurrection skill."

Alice's eyes twitched when she heard that answer. She glared at Isaac for several seconds, and when he realized that she was not going to accept that excuse either, he coughed awkwardly and looked away.

"Well, anyway, don't worry about it. I couldn't kill her," Isaac said, trying to move the conversation in another direction. "That woman is a freak of nature. Apparently, she awakened when she was three years old, so she has had a lot of time to level up, and if you combine that with the fact that she's a Technomancer, a Mechanic-type at that, then—"

"Wait, wait, wait. So you really tried to kill her?" Alice interrupted, staring at him with genuine disbelief.

Isaac stopped talking and looked at her. Alice continued staring at him with an expression that made it obvious she was struggling to understand how the conversation had somehow reached the point where he had casually admitted to attacking the Seventh Queen with Dragon Transformation.

For a moment, neither of them said anything. Alice eventually sighed and rubbed her forehead, because although Isaac's behavior was reckless, she likely already understood why he had acted that way.

The Seventh Queen had deliberately shown her those memories while knowing exactly how deeply they would affect her. From Isaac's perspective, Jasmine had manipulated someone he cared about, and he had reacted accordingly.

"Are we at war with the Seventh Queen now?" Alice asked after lowering her hand. Her expression remained serious, although she clearly planned to take Isaac' side.

Isaac thought about it for a moment before giving an uncertain answer. "No, I think... we're friends now?"

Alice stared at him.

Isaac stared back.

The silence between them became increasingly awkward as neither seemed entirely convinced by what he had just said. Alice slowly tilted her head, clearly trying to understand how someone could destroy another person's palace, fight them with Dragon Transformation, and then somehow conclude that they were friends.

"Friends?" Alice repeated, her expression becoming even more confused. "You just told me that you attacked her palace because she manipulated me, and now you're saying you're friends?"

"Well, what happened was…."