Future Dreams (6): Harem
Future dreams (6) Harem. Another way to put it is polygamy. On 21st-century Earth, it’s nothing more than a male sexual fantasy. In this other world, however, it isn’t particularly illegal. From my experience, the sexual norms here are far more open than on Earth. That doesn’t mean the women are loose. Respect and consideration for chastity still exist. If anything, some Viking men proudly remain virgins until the day they die. Those crazy bastards. Anyway, what I mean by “open” is this: polygamy isn’t the only arrangement here. The opposite also exists—polyandry, where one woman has multiple husbands. I was genuinely shocked to learn that such a self-serving marriage culture existed regardless of gender.
“What the hell is this harem or reverse-harem nonsense?” It was a dizzying reality, but I had no choice but to accept it. This is a world where the strong are ethically permitted to monopolize everything. After all, this is a place where an individual’s martial prowess can sometimes exceed that of an entire nation. It’s only natural that the law of the jungle and the worship of the strong would have taken root long before human civilization properly settled here. If some ridiculously powerful primitive declared himself chieftain and impregnated every woman in the tribe, no one could stop him without getting their skull split open. You could call this another facet of the “survival of the fittest” doctrine. There are even records from humanity’s primitive era of a single overwhelmingly strong individual conquering a tribe and taking every woman as his wife—ninety-eight in total. Even back then, there were monsters among men. This pattern is common in the wild as well. In nature, the strongest male claims multiple females. Lions, gorillas—many animals share this trait. This culture of the strong taking everything has turned this world into a paradise for the powerful. Humanity here is still living in the animal kingdom. Polygamy is simply one of its consequences. Parental qualities are passed down to some degree, and honestly, those in power—whether male or female—tend to want as many consorts as possible.
But to be blunt, this world’s absurd customs had nothing to do with me. I’m the kind of person who plans to develop spatial-transfer magic one day and return to 21st-century Earth. Why would someone whose goal is to leave this world bother building a family here? It would be incredibly irresponsible and disrespectful. I couldn’t just pull a Liu Bang and say “I’ll make more kids later” before running back to Earth. Therefore, even this culture that clashed with my Earthling common sense was someone else’s problem—as long as I didn’t pay it any attention. At least, that’s what I thought.
—Hey. Once you’re freed from slavery, are you going to get married?
It happened during my time at Carmine University, after we finished some god-awful long-term project. Just the two of us left at a drinking party, Dana asked me that question.
—No? I’m not really thinking about marriage.
Still a slave at the time, I answered politely. I explained that I had a dream I’d wanted to achieve since long ago—returning to Earth—and that I had no intention of marrying until I accomplished it.
—This idiot still doesn’t know how the world works.
After I finished explaining my dream, Dana sighed while downing her drink.
—If you want to achieve that dream you mentioned, you’ll have to get married. And if possible, take multiple wives.
—Excuse me?
Surprisingly, that was the reality.
—The moment you build enough power to achieve your dream… no, even with your current abilities, you’re already tempting enough for most nobles. You’re a talent that plenty of them have their eyes on.
—Isn’t that a good thing?
—No, you moron. Do you not understand what “having their eyes on you” means? It means those weak nobles who can only throw their weight around in the boonies will try to force you into marriage with their daughters.
—Holy shit. Bride kidnapping!
So I was going to be targeted as a victim of this world’s version of Mongol-style abduction and rape? I felt my soul leave my body at Dana’s words.
—Forget about doing research alone. Where are you going to get funding? If someone sponsors your research, it means they acknowledge your abilities. You have no idea how many people are sniffing around Professor Erna.
—Can’t I just keep rejecting them like the professor does?
—Well. You said you’re twenty-six now? Even if you somehow establish yourself without any backing like the professor did, that’ll take thirty years. You’ll be fifty-six by the time you get your doctorate and your own lab.
—Life suddenly feels like absolute garbage.
—That’s reality, you idiot.
Dana’s words forced me to face the truth. In this world, polygamy was a symbol of one’s power and authority. Even in Britannia, multiple marriages weren’t illegal. This was a world that had never seen Puritanism or Confucianism. As long as a man could support them, having multiple wives was perfectly acceptable. Among nobles, consorts were even ranked separately from official wives. Eventually, an unmarried man came to be seen as incompetent. Even on Earth, until the eighties and nineties, people who couldn’t marry were treated like failures. Getting nagged and scolded every holiday was normal, and one of my uncles wasn’t even allowed to visit the main house during holidays until he got married. This attitude was even stronger here. Remember that old internet joke?
—Polygamy must never be implemented.
—Why?
—Because if it becomes legal, women will want to be Kang Dong-won’s ninth wife instead of dating you.
—You don’t even have any wife applicants right now.
—Where the hell do you live, you bastard?
Thus, the institution of polygamy could actually become an enemy to men. Just as weak male monkeys live their entire lives as bachelors picking bugs in the corner, in this world of the powerful, an individual’s abilities represented their worth.
—What you do isn’t important. But if you don’t want nobles targeting you, you need multiple wives.
Dana continued.
—If you’re single or only have one or two wives, you’ll get dragged off as some noble’s son-in-law you’ve never even met.
—It’ll be hard for me to refuse any proposals. It won’t just be a matter of losing sponsorship—they might retaliate outright.
—You understand well. That’s right. Even if you claim you have no intention of marrying, they won’t believe you. I don’t know how it was in your country, but in Britannia and the surrounding nations, no one will accept that a mage with Carmine University credentials would remain unmarried.
Refusing a noble’s marriage proposal wasn’t wise. If I was unlucky, they might interpret my rejection as me looking down on their family. “I could never be satisfied with the likes of your house! I’ll wait until a more prestigious noble offers!” That’s how my refusal would sound to them.
—Is it really not okay to have just one wife?
—Ahem. Hmm. I don’t know? Still, having only one wife feels like wasting your talents. What if your wife goes around saying, “My husband is so capable, so why does he only have one wife?” Wouldn’t that make you angry?
Dana added while chugging more alcohol.
—And this is more of an urban legend, but there’s a story in Romania about a devoted husband with only one wife whose wife was murdered so he could be taken as a son-in-law. Romania’s political struggles are notoriously brutal, so let’s set that aside, but you can’t relax just because you’re in Britannia either.
—…At this point, wouldn’t it be faster to just hope some decent noble lady takes me instead?
Faced with this despairing reality, I tried to escape into that fantasy. A future where some haughty, beautiful noble lady (blonde in a bun) grabs me by the leash and says, “Become my one and only slave!” That didn’t sound so bad, right?
—Decent and beautiful noble ladies are usually used for political marriages with other nobles. The proposals coming your way will probably be from some thirty-year-old, overweight, foul-tempered noblewoman looking for her fourth husband.
—I’ve actually been dreaming of polygamy for a long time.
What kind of country is this? Upon later investigation, Dana’s words turned out to be absolute fact. In most countries, polyandry was far rarer than polygamy and viewed much more negatively. The main excuse for polygamy was “to produce many heirs,” but the miraculous logic was that since a woman can only get pregnant once at a time anyway, what was the point of having multiple husbands? Because of this, aside from women with truly terrible reputations, few had multiple husbands. Instead, women with an 80-point marriage score were more likely to become the Nth wife of a 150-point man. It was the same as modern Earth’s marriage-broker culture. Even I would rather become the kept man of an oil baron’s daughter than marry three convenience-store part-timers with only high-school diplomas. In other words, when a noble house’s head had a daughter living an irredeemable life, they would attach capable commoners as husbands to turn them into the family’s legal slaves. That was the reality of polyandry. Even if the target wasn’t a slave, if they coveted his abilities, they could simply collar him with marriage and work him like a slave!!
—Damn. I never thought the day would come when I’d understand how disgusted women feel when they see harem stories.
When I learned this truth, I thought of all the men somewhere out there still being sexually exploited as indefinite slaves, and my vision went white. It was the same hellish life as those poor lab rats in some godforsaken experiment!! A life that wasn’t really living!! An evil spin-off of the old Korean bride-abduction custom that survived until the early Joseon period!! What kind of mindset would it take to live as a baby-making machine (plus all the other miscellaneous chores) rather than a person?! On top of that, the women of this world apparently had some kind of related sexual fantasy, because the publishing industry was flooded with stories about noble ladies enslaving hordes of men!! Goddamn it!!
—Whoa, I almost ruined my life.
I sincerely thanked Dana for telling me this. If I had stupidly kept insisting I wouldn’t marry, my isekai life would have ended in slavery. Think about it. Choosing between a harem-loving macho and a feminist reverse-harem member—how the hell was I supposed to avoid being consumed by machismo?
—Shut up!! Give up!! Just because you came to another world, do you think you’re some erotic novel protagonist?! A harem that ignores women’s dignity?! Say something that makes sense!!
Occasionally the old fundamentalist Confucian Taliban dragon inside me would rage and tell me to stop spouting nonsense, but the isekai-adapted macho Nord didn’t even blink. And I, too, took the macho Nord’s side.
—Just shut the hell up, you bastard!! If I stay single, I’ll become the fourth husband of some 150kg, reeking, hysterical noblewoman and end up living as a cuckold with idiots like me!! Even if it kills me, I refuse to live in that kind of environment. I absolutely don’t want to spend my life as a collared husband-slave, translating ancient texts, interpreting for foreign guests, and tutoring brats while being worked to the bone. And mandatory defense battles every night against a forties-era, overweight noblewoman? I’d have to fight like a soldier charging into the Battle of Haengju every single night. Eventually I’d get crushed under a wife with a thicker waist than mine and go out with a pathetic whimper. If my parents knew my situation, even they wouldn’t be able to oppose me building a harem. And honestly, damn it, I’m a man too. There’s no way I’d hate having multiple pretty wives!!
Of course, I hadn’t given up on returning to Earth. If I had, I wouldn’t have come all the way to Sargadis. I would definitely build a family. But abandoning that family to run back to Earth was out of the question.
—Then wouldn’t it be enough to just find a way to travel back and forth between Earth and this world? It shouldn’t be impossible. Just like how no one expected space travel to be possible before rockets were invented, technological progress turns the impossible into the possible. From that perspective, two-way dimensional travel should definitely be achievable! I just need to reproduce it in this world’s version. Even if I ultimately fail or can’t return to this world once I go back to Earth, I don’t really care. I can either bring my family from this world with me, or give up on returning to Earth and stay here while sending letters to my family on Earth. I’ll write down memories and secrets that only my family would know. Then they’ll believe I didn’t disappear and die, but that I’m alive and well somewhere. Anyway, with that decided—I resolved to take multiple wives in this world. So that no one targeting my research results or abilities could threaten me with marriage, and so I could build a family worthy of my status. This was the reason I began living as an isekai macho.