Sitting on the edge of the leather chair in the overly large conference room, Blair kept her eyes lowered, taking in the small, terrifying details around her.
Across the long glass table sat three men. Pureblood beastmen. Their cold, suffocating presence filled the air and made even her own saliva feel heavy to swallow.
On the left was Philippe. He sat motionless in a wheelchair, his dark eyes shadowed and sharp. Beneath his tailored dark green suit, Blair caught a quick glimpse of a long, black tail resting completely still against the side of his chair.
In the middle sat Lukas, his messy hair hiding a pair of faint, twitching animal ears. His eyes darted restlessly around the room, full of exhaustion and sensory overload.
On the right was Sebastian, sitting flawlessly straight, his posture relaxed, but his gaze as hollow as glass.
They were icy, distant, and completely untouchable. They were the Derunos.
Yet, as Blair stared down at her trembling hands, she realized something strange. Their coldness felt... warmer compared to Jason’s.
Perhaps it was because these three men held no malice toward her. They were sharp and transactional, but they weren’t cruel.
Looking at the joint-marriage contract resting on the glass table, Blair felt a familiar, heavy guilt in her chest.
These three powerful tycoons were making a huge mistake. They thought they were hiring a quiet, harmless placeholder wife to satisfy their family’s legal demands. They didn’t know she was completely useless—that her body was breaking down, and that she didn’t even have the ability to hold a full-time job.
Once they realized how broken she was, once they saw her faint or cough up blood, they would toss her aside just like everyone else had.
She couldn’t do this to them. She couldn’t take their safe shelter and medical coverage under false pretenses when she knew there was nothing she could ever do in return.
She was a burden. Everyone told her that, and with her recent diagnosis, she had come to believe it and swallowed her fate as well.
Blair pressed her pale lips together, taking a shallow, aching breath. She looked up at the three men, her eyes burning with quiet, helpless tears.
"I’m sorry..." she whispered softly. "I can’t sign this. You’re making a mistake. I’m useless, and I only have a month left to—"
Snap.
The entire room went dead silent.
The heavy rain that had been slamming against the tall glass windows stopped mid-air. A stray water droplet hung suspended right outside the glass. The ticking of the wall clock cut off instantly.
Philippe’s tail was frozen mid-twitch. Lukas’s restless fingers were trapped above the table. Sebastian’s empty smile was locked in place like a statue.
Blair blinked, looking around in confusion, but before she could panic or start asking questions, a gentle, glowing blue light materialized in the air right in front of her face.
A translucent screen floated softly in her blurred vision, its text appearing line by line like a quiet, comforting voice.
[No being in the world is born perfect.]
Ah, it was the same voice she heard before she had passed out. Did she not hallucinate it after all?
On the translucent screen were words she could read.
[The Heart Capital System Has Awakened And Bonded With Host.]
[Target Group Found: Three Flawed Pureblood Beast Tycoons]
[Host’s Physical Status: Terminal Illness / Life Remaining: 30 Days]
You are not useless, Blair. Where others see power, you see their hidden pain. Offer your care, your patience, and your presence to heal their deficits, and earn your right to live.
What? She was even more confused now. What did it mean to earn her right to live? What even was going on right now?
Another chime rang, and the text changed.
[First Mission: Accept the joint-marriage contract.]
[Reward: +7 Days of Life Expectancy & Symptom Suppression]
[Accept / Decline?]
Blair stared at the floating light, her small heart hammering against her ribs.
She was very confused, not even able to tell if this was even reality or a dream. Time doesn’t just stop in real life, and a strange text certainly doesn’t appear out of nowhere promising to extend her lifespan either, so it felt more like her own imagination than reality.
It already felt so much like an impossible dream when these men picked her out of the waiting women in line to be their wife; she wasn’t even in line to begin with. How could she?
Who was she that they would want her as their wife? She was no one, and she only had 30 days to live.
But then, as she stared at the texts on the screen, the promise to live longer felt like a warm hand reaching out to her in the pitch-black cold.
It wasn’t asking her to be rich, strong, or grand. It was only asking her to care.
Even if this was a dream...
She looked at her pale, thin fingers. She didn’t want to die alone in a cold alley. She wanted to stand in a quiet kitchen, at the very least, cook warm meals, and feel the sun on her skin again.
With trembling hands, Blair reached out and gently pressed [Accept].
Snap.
Time crashed back into motion.
The rain slammed against the window heavily. The clock ticked loudly. Philippe, Lukas, and Sebastian stared at her with their cold gaze, sitting across from her as if nothing had happened, and waiting for her to finish her apology.
"I only have a month left to..." Blair paused, swallowing her old words. She took a small, steady breath, reached out, and picked up the pen that felt heavy for some reason.
She looked up at the three beastmen with soft, clear eyes. "I mean... I will sign it. I will do my best to take care of you."