Date
The novel is set on Earth in a parallel universe.
As expected, between the safari tour, the artificial nursery, and dinner, it was already around seven in the evening by the time we finished. We left Osung Land and headed for the hot springs Jeong-mi had recommended nearby.
"Wow… Daddy. I want to see the baby tigers again… Can we come back?"
Honestly, nothing but Horan stuck in my mind. I knew I had looked at the baby tigers in the artificial nursery, but I couldn't remember a single one of them.
"Sure. But did you have fun today?"
"Yeah!!!!"
Na-hee sat on my lap, eyes sparkling, and A-reum and A-hee in the back seat chimed in that they had too. Before long, the car Jeong-mi was driving turned into a tourist hotel on the outskirts of Gaeseong.
A-reum and A-hee must have been exhausted; at some point they went quiet, and when I looked back they were nodding off, already half-asleep.
"Jeong-mi, Juae — watch the kids for a bit. I need to talk with Na-hee."
"Yes…"
Jeong-mi and Juae each scooped up a child, and I took Na-hee's hand and headed up to the room we'd reserved. She looked a little sleepy herself, but she never let go of my hand.
"Honey. I'm going to go buy swimsuits first, so fill the tub. Talk with Na-hee in the meantime."
I nodded. If they had been my biological daughters, going in naked would have been fine — but these girls were bound by slave contracts. I had been fretting over it, so Jeong-mi's suggestion was a welcome relief.
"Alright. Na-hee, go with Auntie Juae for now, brush your teeth and wash up. Got it?"
"Okay… Daddy."
The tub was quite spacious — the bathroom attached to the suite had a bath big enough for five or six adults. The scent of wood rose with the steam, and before long the whole room was thick with vapor.
"Na-hee. Did you have a good time today?"
"Yeah. I… honestly only came because Mom made me, and I was really worried. That Daddy would treat me different from A-reum and A-hee again."
Huh? Again? Ah… so she knew about that too.
"Ah… Na-hee, o-… did Daddy treat you differently?"
She nodded, lips trembling, on the verge of tears. I waited, sensing she was about to tell me when she had felt that way.
"D-… hic… Daddy always said only A-reum and A-hee were pre… hic… pretty, and I… like Oppa too, but you just scowled at me…"
Fragments of memory forced their way through. Looking back, Na-hee and I hadn't started off on bad terms. It had begun at some point — when the kids were around five, still tiny, during a holiday visit after months apart. I had been putting A-reum and A-hee to bed and called them pretty. Scene after scene flickered past, and in every one of them I could see Na-hee behind me, watching A-reum and A-hee with envy.
I was such an idiot, Na-hee…
"Is that so? I'm sorry. I thought you were asleep back then."
Of course Na-hee hadn't been blameless either — but thinking about it now, I had been locked in a petty power struggle with a child who had already grown up. That was entirely on me. One hundred percent my fault.
"And Na-hee. Look at Daddy. This is my normal face. Blank. I'm not scowling."
"Huh? Hic… really?"
I layered on a touch of performance — a blank expression with the faintest edge of irritation, still closer to blank than anything else.
"Of course. And back then Daddy was in middle and high school, stuck with evening self-study and everything, so I was probably just worn out. I never hated you, Na-hee… so will you forgive me now?"
"Okay… I'm sorry too. For chiming in when Oppa and Dad badmouthed you. For calling you by name like that."
"There, there. It's fine. Where's my pretty Na-hee — give Daddy a kiss on the cheek?"
I offered my left cheek, and Na-hee, still sniffling, broke into a bright smile and leaned in to press her lips to it.
I've still got a long way to go. Picking a fight with a kid for no reason… tsk.
That said, I had no intention of forgiving Jeong-cheol. She was the little sister, so I had wiped the slate clean — that was all.
Yeah… she's not even my kid, so the cock is a bit…
"Alright, wipe those tears. From now on Daddy's going to love you just the same. No more misunderstandings like that, okay?"
"Okay!!! Daddy!! Hehe — but can I go out now? I'm sleepy…"
"Sure. Tell Auntie Jeong-mi to come in."
"Jeong-mi. You looked like you were having even more fun than the kids."
She grinned bashfully — and of course those enormous breasts were the first thing that caught my eye. The water was fairly hot, so her whole body had flushed a deep red, and she looked unbearably sexy.
"Yes… honey. It was really wonderful. It's been so long since I've been to a zoo."
"Does this date pass, then?"
"Yes, honey. Next time bring Yuri, Na-yeon, and Mi-jin too. Pommi and Posuni as well. Here. And later, just the two of us."
The married-women lineup, huh.
"Alright."
In two years travel wouldn't be so free anymore — so if she wanted to go to Europe, I was willing to make it happen.
"Jeong-mi. When we head back down tomorrow, I'm going to give you something. You know Kang Ho, right?"
"Huh? Ah!! The tattoo guy?"
The bitches had been going to him for tattoos, so I had already given Jeong-mi his address. I nodded.
"Yeah. I'll give you a black scroll — a document. Just deliver it to him."
Curiosity flickered across her face. I wasn't sure whether to tell her, but Hye-yun and Jeong-mi — mother and daughter — had already been shown plenty of strange things, so I leaned in close to her ear.
"It's a document that works like magic — generates a house on Mi-jin's land. Just know that much."
"What?… Yes."
Her eyes went wide with shock. But a moment later, something seemed to click, and she nodded.
"Does he already know?"
"Yeah."
"Should I go with him?"
"No. Just deliver it. Ah—!"
I suddenly remembered what Jini had said — that bomb shelters, warehouses, and the rest would be configured along with it. We still had two years, but if we waited until the deadline to start stocking up, mistakes were inevitable. I leaned to Jeong-mi's ear again.
"Before January 1st, 2005… meaning by December 31st, 2004… can you fill the housing complex warehouses and bomb shelters with long-term food stores, survival gear, medicine, and so on?"
"What?… Yes. But alone…"
"Leave stock purchases and the houses to Juae — A-jeong's mother — and Pojin, Yu-ra's mother. You, Hyeon-ju, and Eun-hee handle this."
The stock buying was already going smoothly, so there was no need for a crowd of people on it. For managing the assets, Mi-jin — who already handled practical work for an upper-class educational foundation — and Juae, A-jeong's mother, would be more than enough. The more reliable ones for this job were Aunt Hyeon-ju, Aunt Eun-hee, and Jeong-mi, Hye-yun's mother, sitting right in front of me.
"H-how much should I tell them?"
"As much as you know. Ah— once Hye-yun and, later, A-jeong become part of our family, you can tell them too. If the others ask, just say it's my order and brush them off."
"Yes… but is something going to happen?"
Bomb shelters, long-term food, medicine purchases — none of that was normal. She had every right to wonder.
"I don't know the details either. Only that something is going to happen."
"Don't tell me… real zombies are going to appear?"
"Huh?… What are you talking about…"
"Th-the books you ordered arrived, Master. A whole pile of books about zombies."
In the West, the end of the world seemed to be called an apocalypse. I had searched for reference material on how to act when it came, but aside from zombie apocalypses, there were no novels or survival guides of that kind. Under ordinary circumstances, reading something titled Zombie Apocalypse Survival Handbook would get you called insane — but for me, it was reality.
"I don't think it's zombies. What I know is aliens… and even that isn't certain. In a dream, my maternal grandfather clearly mentioned aliens."
"Ah!!! Then shouldn't we sell all the stocks and buy gold and things like that?"
Honestly, I had thought the same thing when I first heard those words from Grandfather in the dream.
He only said to do as I was told and hold on… but it changed from five years to two…
Given that Jini wasn't saying much about it, society probably wouldn't collapse that badly. What I was asking of Jeong-mi might be excessive — but preparing for the worst never hurt.
"No. Grandfather told me to shut up, buy, and hold."
"Ah… then?… Yes…"
Hearing that, some of the tension left Jeong-mi's face. Worried I had fretted her too much, I cast Mental Protection and Purification, and she soon leaned into me with a look of ease.
"Master. Thank you. If I had never met you…"
"It's nothing… it's not even certain…"
"Th-yes. I'll go out and send Juae in. I have a lot to think about."
"Alright. And don't stress over it too much. We've still got about two years. And the fact that he told me to keep holding the stocks means it probably won't be that catastrophic."
"Yes…"
Before long Juae stepped into the tub and pressed herself tightly against me. Just the two of us now. I had already raped her and turned her into a bitch as revenge for Hyeong-cheol, and for goading the teachers and Mi-jin — so any lingering ill will was gone. She was A-jeong's mother as well, so I was glad the bad blood had been fully settled.
"Master. Please tell me now. As long as it's not that you're throwing me out, I'll take it gladly."
"Throw you out? Nothing like that."
I wrapped an arm around her waist and stroked her belly gently as I answered. Even if any resentment had remained, with A-jeong in the picture I would never cast her out. I still had to have mother and daughter together — and she had to become the womb for A-jeong's child.
"There's something I've been hesitant to tell you."
"Yes? Is it about Lady A-jeong?"
I shook my head. Of course I still needed to tell her about the schedule for the mother-daughter threesome — but according to Jeong-mi, she had already steeled herself for that.
"Is it about Hyeong-cheol?"
"Yeah."
"I heard. From Pommi and Posuni. That Hyeong-seop and the others are going to kill themselves soon? And that Hyeong-cheol hanging himself on Jeju Island was because of a ghost too?"
Huh?… She's awfully calm about this too.
"Yeah. I'm not going to deal with the Aegwi on Hyeong-seop, Nak-jun, and Gi-hun. So they'll probably kill themselves within a few days at the earliest, for sure. It's been months since the spirits attached, and their mothers went and shook their mental states."
"Yes. You can show Hyeong-cheol my video too. I don't care."
She clung to me even tighter. I hadn't planned to make Hyeong-cheol commit suicide, so her reaction caught me slightly off guard — and her coldness, as his mother, was more startling than I expected.
"Is my cock that good? Good enough to throw away your own son?"
"Mmm… yes. Only Master's cock."
She smiled seductively and slipped a hand into my swimsuit. I let out a short laugh.
I'd love to show that bastard this. That would be real revenge…
Her soft hand kneaded my cock.
"I'm going to pull the Aegwi off Hyeong-cheol."
"What? Why?"
She froze. Her hand slipped back out of the swimsuit — but my cock had already sprung free and was slapping against my stomach.
"I'm going to make Hyeong-cheol gay. If everything goes according to plan, he'll spend the rest of his life as some men's sex slave."
"Ah… yes. Do that. Thank you for sparing my son's life."
Her emotions didn't surge much. Still, a flicker of maternal feeling must have remained, because a look of faint relief passed through her eyes.
"In a year you might not even recognize Hyeong-cheol. With female hormones flooding his system, his chest will swell out — and he might even end up getting sex-reassignment surgery."
"It's fine. As long as he's alive. That's enough…"
She smiled bashfully, looking up at me as she drew closer. I gave a short laugh and pressed my lips to hers.