Chapter 54
#54. The Responsibility
“Did you really forget everything?”
Choi Hye-na closed the distance in an instant.
Choi Hye-na was close enough that I could feel her breath without reaching out, and her face was bright red.
Though her blush had bloomed all over her face, Choi Hye-na was so beautiful that I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
I had known from the way she was dressed when we first met that she had made an effort with her appearance, but seeing her this close, close enough for our noses to touch, left me feeling as though my breath had caught in my throat.
No matter how much I was enjoying the prime of my life by meeting top-tier beauties like Iris, Cheon Yeo-hwa, and Han Ra-el one after another, that didn’t mean I had become capable of acting nonchalant when I locked eyes with a woman like her.
‘Come to think of it, the dojo master was incredibly pretty too.’
She was small compared to other beastkin, but her overall proportions were so perfect that ordinary models did not even compare.
Besides, her pure-white fur and golden eyes were so alluring that I still occasionally found myself thinking of them.
“Hey.”
While I was lost in other thoughts without realizing it, a chilling voice stabbed into my ear.
A chill ran down my spine as though I had fallen into a valley stream in midwinter.
“Are you thinking about another woman right now?”
Choi Hye-na, who had been gripping my collar, suddenly grabbed my face with both hands and pulled it toward her.
“...No way.”
I had to lie if I wanted to survive.
“Really?”
“Do you think I’d be insane enough to do that in a situation like this?”
I had too many things I still wanted to do while alive, so I desperately avoided those murderous eyes.
I wanted to finish the first night with Iris that an unforeseen interruption had left incomplete, and I also wanted to free her from that suffocating prison as soon as possible.
If I got the chance, traveling around the fantasy world together sounded nice too.
Besides, unlike my first impression of her, I often felt that Cheon Yeo-hwa had the makings of a good wife, and living cozily together in a house we bought in a nice place had become one of my goals as well.
I had such clear certainty that my relationship with Iris and Cheon Yeo-hwa was close to that of lovers, or even more, but my relationship with Choi Hye-na was somewhat ambiguous.
“...Then just answer me. Did you really forget everything?”
“Yeah.”
“...”
Choi Hye-na seemed genuinely shocked.
“You told me to forget it.”
“Th-that’s true, but... how could you...?”
I couldn’t say I didn’t understand her reaction.
Choi Hye-na had unquestionably been a virgin, and even if unavoidable circumstances had been involved, I had taken her first time.
We had spent the night together, joining our bodies not merely once but several times.
As a man, I should take responsibility, but Choi Hye-na had clearly told me to forget everything that happened in the Gate.
If I said here that I remembered everything that had happened, it would be little different from saying that I intended to take responsibility for Choi Hye-na.
‘Now that I’ve decided to build a harem, I suppose that shouldn’t matter...’
Choi Hye-na’s background was the problem.
The Seongbuk Choi family was famous for producing outstanding magical talent through its maternal line for generations.
Along with Grandmother Choi Yeong-ok, Choi Hye-na possessed extraordinary talent, reaching the third circle at the young age of twenty-one, while her grandfather was, in fact, an ordinary person.
It wasn’t difficult to predict how the Seongbuk Choi family would react if its only granddaughter and heir, in a family where women’s status was far higher than men’s, were accepted as a member of a harem.
-Kill that bastard.
Of course, they probably wouldn’t go so far as to assassinate the benefactor who had even saved their granddaughter’s life, but it was certain that if the man who had been set up with their heiress now announced his ambition to build a harem, it would be no different from smearing the Seongbuk Choi family’s honor.
I had accepted the blind date despite expecting things to turn out that way for a simple reason.
I had been tempted by Choi Hye-na’s picture, but would the beautiful granddaughter of a wealthy family really recognize me as husband material?
The answer was NO.
Would a diamond-spoon super beauty abruptly ask the penniless man she had just met to marry her? There clearly wouldn’t even be a second date, much less marriage.
That was why I was certain Choi Hye-na wouldn’t accept me.
If so, I had judged that accepting Choi Yeong-ok’s request and making the family incur a debt to me would be more advantageous in the long run.
Huh? But what was this?
After being trapped in an isolated Gate on the day of the blind date and going through all sorts of things, I had not only ended up sleeping with Choi Hye-na but even risked my life to save her.
Thanks to that, the Seongbuk Choi family had incurred an indelible debt to me.
If I stopped there, I might have been drunk on the joy of achieving what I had originally planned, but then things took a turn.
I had sensed that Choi Hye-na’s gaze and attitude toward me had been strange ever since I was hospitalized, but I never imagined she would reveal her feelings so blatantly and come out with, ‘I’ve fallen for you!’
Even so, I already had two lovely lovers I was responsible for, so I couldn’t accept those feelings.
And there would surely be more in the future.
Of course, I wasn’t trying to disregard Iris and Cheon Yeo-hwa and add them to my harem without their consent.
I planned to tell them everything and ask for their understanding soon.
Needless to say, whether the two of them would tolerate a harem even after I asked for their understanding was uncertain.
If they rejected it, I was willing to agree to anything except a request that I give up one of the other two, but that didn’t apply to Choi Hye-na.
Choi Hye-na wasn’t my woman to begin with. That night, joining our bodies had merely been part of saving her life.
At least not yet.
“Really...”
Here, I had two choices.
“Did you really forget...?”
Either confess first like a man and get her to accept the harem,
Or push her away.
“...Do you remember what I said last time? That I had two girlfriends.”
No sooner had I finished speaking than Choi Hye-na’s eyes began to tremble pitifully.
“Wh-weren’t you just bluffing...?”
When I looked at Choi Hye-na with a heavy gaze without answering, she apparently realized only then that I was serious, and her expression rapidly darkened.
“...I’m telling you in advance, I have no intention of giving up the two of them. No, there will be even more in the future.”
Choi Hye-na was actually quite familiar with polygamy.
Some of her own relatives had multiple wives, and among the upper class, men with only one wife were rarer.
Even so, the moment she heard that Kang Hyeon-woo had two other women she didn’t know, it felt as though her heart had dropped with a thud.
She felt as though tears would spill at any moment if she relaxed even slightly.
Her heart hurt.
She felt stifled, as though she couldn’t breathe properly.
She hadn’t even confessed her feelings yet, but she already felt as though she had been rejected.
How dare he.
For a penniless bum like him.
‘Who do you think you are, rejecting me...?’
Just as her pent-up sorrow was about to explode, Choi Hye-na clenched her teeth and steeled herself.
It was a hundred times better to think rationally, like a mage, than to sit here pathetically sobbing.
Was it really right to let Kang Hyeon-woo go just like this when he was shamelessly spouting that he already had two women and intended to add even more?
Choi Hye-na’s answer was NO.
“...Take responsibility.”
“What?”
Choi Hye-na made up her mind and threw out the biggest bluff of her life.
As long as it could hold Kang Hyeon-woo, she didn’t care what happened afterward.
“I’m pregnant, so take responsibility.”
“...?”
The bluff was a success.
Kang Hyeon-woo complained of such an intense headache that he felt he could collapse at any moment.
‘I-I’m the father...?’
In fact, Choi Hye-na was physically incapable of becoming pregnant for perfectly ordinary reasons. It wasn’t because she was infertile; members of the upper class received the church’s blessing at birth, placing them in a state of continuous contraception.
Since children couldn’t be left entirely to their parents’ wishes no matter how carefully they planned, they paid an offering to the church when the child was born to obtain a semipermanent contraceptive blessing, preventing the unfortunate possibility of an unexpected child.
The blessing was the kind that was automatically lifted when one had a wedding at a church.
This was such an old tradition in upper-class society that it was famous enough for no one to be unaware of it, but who was Kang Hyeon-woo?
He had been an ordinary man among ordinary men, nearly freezing to death in a corner of a market in the middle of winter.
There was no way he would know the customs of the upper class.
The only thing flashing through Kang Hyeon-woo’s mind was the thick semen he had ejaculated into her womb without even using a condom.
‘...How many times did I come?’
Had anyone ever remembered the number of grains of rice they had eaten over the course of their life?
Of course not.
There was no way Kang Hyeon-woo remembered how many times he had irresponsibly ejaculated either.
That irresponsibility was about to return to Kang Hyeon-woo as a heavy responsibility.
Kang Hyeon-woo suddenly remembered the advice his high school Korean teacher had given him.
-You monkey bastards! Listen carefully, you hear? Since ancient times, a man’s life is over if he can’t keep his mouth and his lower half under control! Got it?!
Ah, I miss you, sir...
While all sorts of thoughts raced through Kang Hyeon-woo’s mind and threw it into disarray, Choi Hye-na was smiling.
All the anxiety she had felt until now seemed to be repaid by that one helpless expression on Kang Hyeon-woo’s face.
Choi Hye-na quickly formulated a plan.
Of course, the pregnancy was nothing more than a bluff, but nothing had been true from the start.
Just as magic had once been nothing but a lie told by con artists long ago, she could simply turn her bluff into the truth from now on.
Pregnancy became visibly apparent at around sixteen weeks.
And if she used magic as an excuse, she could maintain the bluff for up to five months.
‘...If I have the church lift the blessing during that time.’
She could turn it into the first day of pregnancy rather than the fifth month.
In fact, Choi Hye-na hadn’t initially intended to use such a forceful tactic.
She had planned to continue seeing him gradually, confirm their feelings for each other, and then have him confess to her.
But after learning that he had two other women, she could no longer stand by and watch.
Her grandmother’s advice from childhood came back to her: a man with no principles even in his lower half had to be firmly tied down from the very beginning.
‘I can earn the money myself.’
Kang Hyeon-woo’s eyes shook violently as though an earthquake had struck, suddenly faced with having to take responsibility for a woman who was supposedly pregnant.
At that very moment, when the faces of Iris and Cheon Yeo-hwa—whom he had temporarily left in another world—flashed through his mind, a small salvation descended.
Knock, knock-
-Miss, the mistress is calling for you.
“Tsk.”
At the maid’s voice from beyond the door, Choi Hye-na clicked her tongue and stepped back.
Only then could I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Lucky you, huh?”
“...”
A faint smile spread around Choi Hye-na’s lips as she said this, but her eyes were colder than ever.
Was this how the neighbor’s Poppy had felt before being taken in for neutering?
I carefully tucked my wretched feelings away in a corner of my heart and followed Choi Hye-na toward a place that looked like a parlor.
“Oh my, did Hye-na give you a tour of the mansion?”
Unlike Choi Yeong-ok, who looked pleased to see us entering side by side, I felt like I was facing death.
What kind of reaction would she have if I told her I had gotten her only granddaughter pregnant?
Would she fly into a rage and try to kill me, or make us hold a wedding ceremony tonight? No one could know.
“Sorry to interrupt your nice time.”
“...Not at all.”
Poke- Choi Hye-na, who had been sitting beside me, jabbed me in the side with her finger.
What kind of answer was she hoping for that she was expressing her displeasure again?
“The reason I called you here is that I wanted to repay you for saving my granddaughter this time.”
“Ah, if that’s what this is...”
“The orphanage, right? Hye-na told me about it beforehand, and I’ve already taken care of it.”
“...What?”
I cast only a sidelong glance at Choi Hye-na, so astonished that I could hardly believe it.
Choi Hye-na was smiling and silently forming words with her lips.
‘I... took... care...?’
At that moment, I nearly let out a hollow laugh without meaning to.
How could someone’s personality change so drastically? Unless this was her real personality all along.
“You can hear the details from Hye-na later.”
“Thank you.”
I bowed my head sincerely.
“There’s no need to thank us. This isn’t the reward we promised you. Besides, we’ve incurred an indelible debt to you, Mr. Hyeon-woo. A very great debt that nothing could repay.”
Choi Yeong-ok’s gaze briefly turned toward Choi Hye-na.
That gaze was so gentle that for a moment, it reminded me of the Mother Superior.
“Even if we gave you an enormous reward, you mustn’t thank us, Mr. Hyeon-woo. We’re the ones who should be thanking you. Besides, we have no intention whatsoever of considering a building and protecting the people at the orphanage sufficient compensation.”
When Choi Yeong-ok snapped her fingers, a maid opened the door, entered, and placed a fairly large box on the table.
“I told you that Hye-na needed magic equipment, didn’t I?”
At Choi Yeong-ok’s subtle suggestion that I open the box, I didn’t refuse and carefully lifted the lid.
When the contents inside the box were finally revealed, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“This is our sincerity, and a token of our gratitude.”