Chapter 198 – Singer (8)
[Chapter 11 – Verse 4] Got Caught!
From here on out, it’s a matter of reality. It all depends on what I do.
My mother will handle the winter Olympics preparations. It feels like I’m dumping all the annoying stuff on her, but since she registered for every single Olympic event without even consulting her son in the first place, she probably doesn’t feel too wronged.
‘Of all things!’
Because Song Sun-young is my accomplice, I can’t even complain a single word to my mother.
What can I do? She registered for all twelve winter Olympic events just because she wanted to teach that arrogant prince a lesson for looking down on her boyfriend!
I just couldn’t muster the courage to ask my girlfriend—whose eyes were practically screaming “Praise me already!”—why she had registered in the first place.
“Wolves and wild horses…”
“Yes.”
“If we search the whole Earth hard enough, there’s bound to be some decent ones. The problem is we don’t have much time left to find them.”
“Please take care of it.”
“Don’t worry and just trust Mom~”
Poof!
The young Song Sun-young’s whimsical suggestion was put into action immediately, without any verification.
‘It’ll work out somehow!’
I’ll have to return to reality soon. That means from now on, I need to move quickly to deal with the issues I’ve been putting off.
“Sun-young-ah.”
“Yes, Oppa.”
“Want to visit my maternal family’s side?”
“Huh?! That’s way too sudden…”
At the mention of “maternal family,” Song Sun-young’s face stiffened and she tensed up completely.
“Sorry. I phrased it wrong. I meant let’s go play in the Holy Roman Empire, where my maternal family is. I have some business to take care of for a bit.”
“Ah… If that’s the case, sure.”
“Settled then.”
Now, let’s head to the Holy Roman Empire where the young Kang Moon-soo is!
***
“Zzz… zzz…”
Having failed to adjust to the time difference, the young Song Sun-young flopped straight onto the bed the moment we entered the hotel room near the Holy Roman Empire’s Second Airport.
“Rest up.”
Compared to an average person, her aptitude as an “athlete” gives her exceptional stamina, but even she can’t help but get exhausted when she’s with someone like me whose stamina doesn’t decrease at all.
Click.
The moment I took one step forward, my world spread out wide in every direction.
‘I wish Senior could see me now…’
I’ve completely stolen and mastered all of my mother’s techniques, so now I’m a full-fledged shaman. I’m confident I won’t hear any more complaints about being frustrating.
Snap.
My senses, scattered like a radar net, caught onto the young Kang Moon-soo.
He was much harder to locate than the resistant Sword Demon or the patient, but is there anyone on Earth who knows “Kang Moon-soo” better than I do?
‘That’s strange.’
I thought he’d be at the imperial palace—the witches’ hideout—but he wasn’t there at all.
Whoosh~
For now, I hailed a taxi. It was too far to run on foot.
“Where to, sir?”
“Hmm… I don’t know the exact address, but please take me to the lake north of here.”
“Are you perhaps referring to the Sacred Lake Ranuvela?”
“Ah! Yes, that’s the one.”
Sacred Lake Ranuvela.
I’d never heard the lake’s name before, but that definitely seems to be it!
“That area is under direct imperial jurisdiction, so entry is prohibited for ordinary citizens.”
“Oh dear…”
“Would getting close be alright?”
“Yes. Please.”
Direct imperial jurisdiction.
Prohibited for ordinary citizens.
The moment the taxi driver said those words, the strong scent of conspiracy hit me.
“Heading out.”
“Yes.”
Vroooom~
Right now I’m using a taxi, but the day will come when I’m so familiar with my world that even this becomes unnecessary.
Something like continuous spatial leaps!
It’s not like I can flap once like a Wing Demon and go anywhere, but within my domain, movement is possible anywhere…
Wings are an organ humans don’t have, so mimicking them wasn’t easy, but with my mother’s help, I finally managed it.
‘It’s a bit brutal, though.’
It requires performing short-range spatial leaps continuously in a very short time.
What does that mean?
When a Wing Demon flaps once to cross to the other side of the Earth, I have to perform 23,125 spatial leaps in the same amount of time to keep up—that’s the insanely brute-force plan!
It lacks practicality for now, but as I master it, both the number of consecutive leaps I can do and the distance per leap are gradually increasing.
Screeech—
“We’ve arrived.”
While I was seriously contemplating this ridiculous plan, we reached the vicinity of the imperial jurisdiction.
“Thank you.”
Jingle!
After paying and stepping out of the taxi, a beautiful lake stretched out before me.
“If you get caught trespassing, the fine is no joke, so be careful.”
“Yes.”
“And… Oh! When are you heading back? There aren’t any people around here, so no taxis or buses run.”
“I don’t have a set time yet.”
“I see. Have a pleasant trip.”
Vroooom~
The taxi driver, assuming I was just an ignorant traveler, kindly gave me various warnings before driving off.
‘…Shall I go?’
At this distance, I should be able to cover it in “one step.”
Flash—!
***
The young Kang Moon-soo, dragged all the way to the Holy Roman Empire under Ranuvela the 13th’s hypnosis.
This was also the future that would have unfolded if I had never met Song Sun-young.
How has he been living?
Finding him with my abilities wasn’t difficult.
However,
“What the hell is this situation…?”
A large villa built right by the lake near the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Apart from the fact that it was completely enclosed by grim, prison-like iron bars on all sides, it looked perfectly ordinary—and there was the young Kang Moon-soo…
“Lord Moon-soo.”
“Mr. Kang Moon-soo.”
Surrounded by young women whose bulging lower bellies made it obvious to anyone that they were pregnant!
One, two, three, four… Oh my God!
The women who had come out to stroll in the garden following the young Kang Moon-soo were just the tip of the iceberg. There were far more inside the villa.
A few women hadn’t shown any signs yet, but most of them already had new life firmly nestled in their wombs.
“It’s time to work.”
“Work… right, work.”
The young Kang Moon-soo shuffled wearily into the villa, guided by the women straight to the bedroom.
“Lord Moon-soo.”
And in the room, a naked woman was lying languidly on the bed in a seductive pose.
…Is this for real?
The woman, her full breasts completely exposed, spread her arms and spoke gravely.
“Don’t fail today.”
“Yes. I will make every effort not to fail today.”
Make every effort.
That was the phrase I used to say out of habit whenever I made a mistake while working part-time.
“Come here.”
“Yes.”
The young Kang Moon-soo immediately stripped off his clothes and headed toward the bed, squeezing out whatever motivation he had left.
Swish—
Unable to watch any longer, I turned my head and quietly slipped out of the villa.
“……”
“……”
I passed by the guards stationed at the only entrance to this prison-like compound surrounded by iron bars and walked straight to the lake.
My mind was a mess.
‘That’s supposed to be me?’
The young Kang Moon-soo, living a life so completely different from mine, felt like a total stranger.
“Your skills have improved. Now you can even find people other than the patient quite well, huh?”
“…Mom, did you know about this?”
I asked my mother, who had approached like a ghost without making a sound.
“Of course~!”
Her breezy, completely unbothered reply made all the strength drain out of me.
“That is…”
“Every man’s dream harem, isn’t it?”
“Our thoughts are completely different. To my eyes, he looks like a stud horse.”
Stud horse (種馬).
While wandering around the stables in Siberia, I had seen more than enough former racehorses spending the rest of their lives as breeding stallions.
And now, seeing “myself” living like a stud horse at such a young age… I felt an indescribable shock.
“Think about it coldly.”
“I am being cold.”
“The founder Ranuvel and Ranuvela the 1st desired sons for the prosperity of the family line. A woman’s body, even if she works diligently, can only produce one child every two years—and even that is so taxing on the body that she can’t do it many times.”
“Well…”
I already knew well from biology class how much more women suffer compared to men.
“On the other hand, men are different. If he puts his mind to it, he can impregnate 500 women in a year. All he has to do is sow the seed in the woman’s body and he’s done.”
“500 times a year isn’t a man—that’s a monster.”
Even factoring in pregnancy success rates, 500 women a year is absolutely impossible.
“Anyway, it’s overwhelmingly more than one every two years, right? As long as he’s careful about STDs and death from overexertion during sex, there’s virtually no risk.”
“That’s… true, I suppose.”
It was a ruthlessly cold assessment that would probably make anyone who likes romance have a seizure.
“I explained before that every Ranuvela inherits knowledge and experience from the dreams of their predecessors in order to rapidly learn the family techniques, right?”
“Yes.”
“That includes ideology as well.”
“……”
“Every Ranuvela, influenced by the founder and the 1st, desperately desires sons. For the prosperity of the family line.”
“…Even you, Mom?”
“Of course! Mom wants to see tons of grandsons who look just like her son.”
“Ugh…”
I finally realized the reason why Song Sun-young—the most beautiful woman in the world—had said, “I’ll give you lots of strong, healthy children.”
The root cause is my mother!
My girlfriend, who isn’t even married yet, was already suffering from mother-in-law pressure.
“To a Ranuvela, a son is a treasure that cannot be traded for anything.”
“For a treasure, they sure treat him roughly.”
“At least he wasn’t physically captured and imprisoned underground like Mom was, right?”
“Ah!”
I just realized that Her Eminence the Cardinal had actually treated me quite preciously!
“Look at it now. You called him a stud horse in disdain, but that villa only accepts children carefully selected from across the Holy Roman Empire. They’re young, beautiful, and intelligent. These are top-tier women that even highly capable men would have a hard time obtaining.”
“It’s forced, though.”
“Oh my! That’s blasphemy toward P. How could it possibly be forced?”
“Really?”
“I’ve said it multiple times: you are P’s descendant. In the Holy Roman Empire, where 99.99% of the citizens have been devout believers from the moment they were born, your position is the number-one groom candidate. Rejection? Refusal? Such irreverent words simply do not exist in their minds.”
“…….”
I had momentarily forgotten that this country is a theocratic state that reveres P as God.
Not wanting to bear P’s descendant?
As my mother said, in the Holy Roman Empire, that is absolutely impossible. If someone tried to elope for love like in a romance fantasy novel or ran away from home, even a princess would be burned at the stake for blasphemy.
That’s the kind of country this is.
“Oh my! The 7th really is the 7th, after all.”
“Hm?”
“She’s here.”
No sooner had my mother finished speaking than Ranuvela the 7th approached our location alone, having dismissed her maids and guards. Heading straight toward us—even though we were invisible.
“I know you’re here, 10th. Show yourself.”
“…Mom got caught.”
“That’s a misunderstanding. It’s because she knows my unique wavelength. You’ve been caught too, son. The way we search for the Sword Demon is the same principle, so hiding is impossible.”
“Ah…”
Resistance.
A foreign substance not belonging to my domain.
If it’s not the patient or the Sword Demon, it has to be a Ranuvela.
“Right, 7th?”
“10th… You’re a different 10th, aren’t you? The 10th I know is in the terminal stages of virtual reality game addiction.”
“You probably already know, but don’t waste your energy. It’s impossible for the 7th to beat us.”
“Because you’re a fake, right?”
“Yes.”
“……”
“……”
A heavy atmosphere flowed between the two Ranuvelas, who had only ever shown friendly appearances to each other.
“What are you here for? To mock us as fakes?”
“Oh my! That’s going too far. The one who dragged her heavy behind all the way here to confirm an uncomfortable truth is you, 7th, isn’t it?”
“This is under my jurisdiction. When strange phenomena are detected, I have a duty to investigate. You’re not unaware of that, are you?”
“I came to see my son too.”
“As expected… It really is the son.”
“You attached all those women to him without even being sure?”
“It was worth experimenting with.”
“Experiment?! Experimenting on my son?! Fake 7th! You’re going to get scolded by m—”
Poof!
At the word “experiment,” my mother flared up and suddenly vanished.
“…What just happened?”
“I banished her to her smug reality.”
“Ah!”
Reality assimilation.
The top-tier technique that Senior used to rescue me and save my mother. Among the Ranuvelas, only the 7th can perform it.
“Anyway… How long are you planning to stay hidden?”
As my mother had predicted, she had noticed my presence but didn’t know who I was.
Slither—
She slowly extended her hand precisely in my direction.
“I surrender.”
Confirming that it wasn’t just a probe, I gave a wry smile and revealed myself.
“Uh…?”
The 7th, who had been composed in front of the 10th, now showed a girl-like bewilderment for the first time.
“Hello, 7th.”
“This is… way outside my expectations. P will be delighted when she finds out.”
“Is that so?”
“Ever since she saw the video of her descendant appearing on a broadcast and dancing around like a clown, P’s words have drastically decreased.”
“…That wasn’t me.”
“It seems so. Hehehe!”
“……”
Ranuvela the 7th’s attitude toward me was no different from reality. Like a kind-hearted Cardinal big sister, perhaps.
Treating me so differently?
It drove home once again just how much meaning and obsession these women attach to their “son.”
“Compared to you, the Kang Moon-soo of this world is a failure.”
“Was that the only method available?”
“Do you want to criticize me?”
The 7th gazed at my face with a suggestive look and gently stroked my cheek.
“No. Just simple curiosity.”
“Curiosity, is it?”
“Yes.”
“In that case… ask your own 7th.”
“Huh?”
Poof!
Got caught!
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