## Chapter 54 – 54. Responsibility
#54. Responsibility
“Did you really forget everything?”
Choi Hye-na closed the distance in an instant.
Her face was flushed red as she looked at me from a distance where even her breath touched me, without needing to reach out.
Even with the redness blooming like a full-blown rose, Choi Hye-na was so pretty that I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Actually, I knew she had put a lot of effort into her appearance when I first met her, judging by her outfit, but seeing her this close, almost nose-to-nose, made me feel breathless.
No matter how much I was meeting top-tier beauties like Iris, Chun Yeo-hwa, and Han La-el one after another, and living the prime of my life, it didn’t mean I could act nonchalantly when I made eye contact with a woman like this.
‘Come to think of it, the Director was also incredibly beautiful.’
She was smaller than other beastmen, but her overall body proportions were perfect enough to put any model to shame.
Moreover, her pure white fur and golden eyes were so captivating that I still often thought about them.
“Hey.”
While I was unknowingly lost in thought, a chilling voice pierced my ear.
My spine felt as cold as if I had fallen into a winter valley.
“Are you thinking about another woman right now?”
Choi Hye-na, who had been grabbing my collar, suddenly grabbed my face with both hands.
“…Of course not.”
I had to lie to survive.
“Really?”
“Do you think I’m crazy enough to do that in this situation?”
I desperately avoided her murderous eyes because I still had so many things I wanted to do while alive.
I wanted to finish the first night with Iris that had been interrupted by a strange interference, and I wanted to free her from that stuffy prison as soon as possible.
If I had the chance, I thought it would be nice to travel the fantasy world together.
Moreover, I had often felt that Chun Yeo-hwa, who was different from her first impression and seemed like a good wife and mother, and I had made it one of my goals to find a nice house and live happily together.
As much as I had a clear conviction that my relationship with Iris and Chun Yeo-hwa was close to or beyond that of lovers, my relationship with Choi Hye-na was somewhat ambiguous.
“…Then answer me. Did you really forget everything?”
“Yeah.”
“…”
Choi Hye-na seemed quite shocked.
“You told me to forget.”
“Y-Yeah, but still… how could you…”
I couldn’t say I didn’t understand her reaction.
Choi Hye-na was clearly a first, and even if it was unavoidable, I had taken her first time.
We had spent the night together, mixing bodies not just once, but multiple times.
As a man, I should take responsibility, but Choi Hye-na had clearly told me to forget everything that had happened in the gate.
If I said here that I remembered everything that happened back then, it would be no different from saying that I would take responsibility for Choi Hye-na.
‘It wouldn’t matter since I’ve already decided to build a harem…’
Choi Hye-na’s background was the problem.
The Seongbuk Choi family was famous for having outstanding magical talent in the maternal lineage for generations.
Choi Young-ok’s grandmother and Choi Hye-na had outstanding talent, reaching the 3rd Circle at the young age of 21, but her grandfather was an ordinary person.
It wasn’t difficult to guess the reaction of the Seongbuk Choi family when they accepted the only granddaughter and successor of the Seongbuk Choi family, where the status of women in the family was far superior to that of men, as a member of the harem.
-Kill that bastard.
Of course, they wouldn’t try to assassinate the benefactor who had even saved their granddaughter’s life, but it was certain that if the person she had even gone on a blind date with now revealed his ambition to build a harem, it would be no different from tarnishing the honor of the Seongbuk Choi family.
The reason I accepted the blind date even though I expected things to turn out that way was simple.
I was attracted to Choi Hye-na’s picture, but would such a pretty rich girl really recognize me as a husband?
The answer was NO.
Would a super-class beauty with a diamond spoon suddenly ask a poor man she met for the first time to marry her? It was clear that there would be no after, let alone marriage.
As such, I was sure that Choi Hye-na would not accept me.
Then, I thought it would be more beneficial in the long run to accept Choi Young-ok’s request and incur debt.
Huh? But what is this?
On the day of the blind date, I was trapped in an isolated gate, and after this and that, I ended up not only sleeping with Choi Hye-na, but also saving her life at the cost of my own.
Thanks to this, the Seongbuk Choi family had an indelible debt to me.
If I only looked at this, I could have been intoxicated with the joy of achieving what I had initially planned, but the incident happened after that.
I had felt that Choi Hye-na’s eyes and attitude towards me had been strange since I was hospitalized, but I never thought she would reveal her feelings so blatantly and say, ‘I have a crush on you!’
However, I already had two lovely lovers to take responsibility for, so I couldn’t accept those feelings.
And there would be more in the future.
Of course, it was by no means that I was ignoring Iris and Chun Yeo-hwa and trying to put them in the harem without their consent.
I was planning to tell them everything soon and ask for their understanding.
It goes without saying, but it was uncertain whether both of them would allow the harem even if I asked for their understanding.
If I was rejected, I was willing to listen to everything except the request to give up the other, but that was not the case for Choi Hye-na.
In the first place, Choi Hye-na was not my woman. That night, mixing bodies was just a process to save Choi Hye-na’s life.
Not yet.
“Really…”
I had two choices here.
“Really forgot…?”
Confess like a man first and get the harem recognized.
Or push her away.
“…Do you remember what I said last time? That I have two girlfriends.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Choi Hye-na’s eyes trembled pitifully.
“T-That wasn’t just a boast…?”
When I looked at Choi Hye-na with heavy eyes without any special answer, Choi Hye-na’s expression deteriorated rapidly as she realized that my words were sincere.
“…I’ll tell you in advance, I have no intention of giving up on the two of them. No, there will be more in the future.”
In fact, Choi Hye-na was very familiar with polygamy.
Among her relatives, there were people who had several wives, and in the upper class, there were fewer people who had only one wife.
Nevertheless, as soon as she heard that Kang Hyun-woo had two more women she didn’t know about, she felt like her heart was pounding.
If she relaxed even a little, she felt like tears would fall down immediately.
Her heart ached.
She felt stuffy and couldn’t breathe well.
She hadn’t even conveyed her feelings yet, but she already felt like she had been rejected.
Kang Hyun-woo, of all people.
A beggar, of all people.
‘Who are you to reject me…?’
Just as her resentment was about to explode, Choi Hye-na gritted her teeth and hardened her heart.
It was a hundred times better to think rationally like a wizard than to cry pathetically here.
Was it right to let Kang Hyun-woo, who was spouting nonsense that he had two more women and would increase the number of women in the future, go like this?
Choi Hye-na’s answer was NO.
“…Take responsibility.”
“What?”
Choi Hye-na threw the biggest bluff of her life and made up her mind.
If she could catch Kang Hyun-woo with that, she didn’t care about the aftermath.
“I’m pregnant, so take responsibility.”
“…?”
The bluff was successful.
Kang Hyun-woo complained of a severe headache, as if he wanted to collapse right away.
‘M-Me, a father…?’
In fact, Choi Hye-na’s body was not able to get pregnant in terms of common sense. It was not because she was infertile, but because the upper class received the blessing of the church from birth and was always in a state of contraception.
No matter how much they managed it, children were not born as parents wanted, so they made a permanent contraceptive blessing by paying donations to the church when the child was just born so that the unfortunate event of suddenly bringing a child would not happen.
The blessing was the kind that was automatically lifted when a wedding was held in the church.
This was a tradition that was so old in the upper class society that there was no one who didn’t know it, but who was Kang Hyun-woo?
He was the poorest commoner who was about to freeze to death in the corner of the market on a winter day.
There was no way he would know the physiology of the upper class.
The only thing that flashed through Kang Hyun-woo’s mind was the thick semen that he had shot into her uterus without using a condom.
‘…How many shots did I fire?’
Is there anyone who remembers the number of rice grains they have eaten in their life?
Of course not.
Kang Hyun-woo also had no way of remembering how many shots he had irresponsibly fired.
That irresponsibility was about to return to Kang Hyun-woo as a heavy responsibility.
Kang Hyun-woo suddenly recalled the advice his teacher had given him during high school Korean class.
-You monkey bastards! Listen to me! Since ancient times, men! If you can’t control your mouth and your lower body! Your life is over! Got it?!
Ah, I miss you. Teacher…
While all sorts of thoughts were mobilized and confused Kang Hyun-woo’s mind, Choi Hye-na was smiling.
She felt like all the worries she had been worried about were rewarded by Kang Hyun-woo’s bewildered expression.
Choi Hye-na quickly established a plan.
Of course, pregnancy was just a bluff, but nothing was true from the beginning.
Just as magic was once a lie of scammers, she could make her bluff true in the future.
The time when the belly swells due to pregnancy is about 16 weeks.
If she uses magic as an excuse there, she can maintain the bluff for up to 5 months.
‘…If I lift the blessing from the church in the meantime.’
She could become 1 day pregnant instead of 5 months pregnant.
In fact, Choi Hye-na didn’t intend to take such strong measures from the beginning.
She was planning to continue meeting gradually, confirm her feelings for each other, and then receive a confession from him.
However, now that she knew that he had two other women, she could no longer sit idly by.
She recalled her grandmother’s childhood advice that a man who has no backbone in his lower body should be held tightly from the beginning.
‘I can earn money.’
Kang Hyun-woo’s eyes, who suddenly had to take responsibility for a woman who was imagining pregnancy, trembled violently as if an earthquake had occurred.
At the moment when the faces of Iris and Chun Yeo-hwa, whom he had temporarily left in another world, flashed by, a small salvation came down.
Knock knock-
-Miss, the mistress is calling for you.
“Tsk.”
Choi Hye-na clicked her tongue and stepped back at the maid’s voice coming from beyond the door.
Only then could I take a breath.
“Lucky you?”
“…”
There was a faint smile on Choi Hye-na’s lips as she said that, but her eyes were colder than ever.
Was this the feeling of the neighbor’s puppy who was about to undergo neutering surgery?
I cherished the miserable feeling in my heart and followed Choi Hye-na to what looked like a reception room.
“Oh my, did Hye-na give you a tour of the mansion?”
Unlike Choi Young-ok, who was looking at us with a happy expression as we came in close together, I was dying.
What would she react if I said that I made her only granddaughter pregnant?
No one knew whether she would be furious and try to kill me, or whether she would have a wedding right away tonight.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your good time.”
“…No.”
Poke- Choi Hye-na, who was sitting next to me, poked my side with her finger.
What answer is she hoping for that she’s expressing her dissatisfaction again?
“It’s not that, I wanted to call you because I wanted to repay you for saving our granddaughter this time.”
“Ah, about that…”
“The orphanage, right? I heard about it from Hye-na in advance, and I’ve already taken measures.”
“…Yes?”
I glanced at Choi Hye-na with only my eyes turned at the unexpected words.
Choi Hye-na was smiling and saying something with her mouth.
‘My…as…?’
At that moment, I almost burst out laughing without realizing it.
How can a person’s personality change so drastically? Or maybe that’s what her personality was like in the first place.
“You can hear the details from Hye-na later.”
“Thank you.”
I bowed my head with sincerity.
“There’s no need to thank us. This is not the reward we promised you. Besides, we owe Hyun-woo an indelible debt. A very big debt that cannot be repaid with anything.”
Choi Young-ok’s gaze briefly turned to Choi Hye-na.
The gaze was so soft that it was reminiscent of the head nun for a moment.
“Even if we give you a huge reward, you shouldn’t thank us, Hyun-woo. We should be the ones saying thank you. Besides, we have no intention of replacing it with just the building and the protection of the orphanage people?”
When Choi Young-ok snapped her fingers, the maid who opened the door and came in placed a fairly large box on the table.
“I told Hye-na that she needed magic equipment, right?”
At Choi Young-ok’s suggestion to open the box casually, I didn’t refuse and carefully opened the box.
I couldn’t believe my eyes at the contents of the box that were revealed soon after.
“This is our sincerity and expression of gratitude.”