Responsibility
We moved from the palace overflowing with worn-out Wearhoneybees scattered everywhere for various reasons, arriving at a room that felt vaguely like a reception area. Lilith plopped down on the sofa, crossed her legs, and opened her mouth.
"Alright, spill it. What the fuck happened here?"
She said that while eyeing me and Liliana, who was trembling and clutching the hem of my clothes tightly.
Lilith looked seriously pissed off. I glanced at Hoaran for help, but she met my gaze and spoke up.
"I want to hear it too. You didn't even contact us... What kept you for a whole damn day? And..."
Hoaran turned to Liliana smoothly.
"Hanjo, I'm curious why you're connected to that girl."
Her use of "connected" wasn't about the physical mess we'd just seen.
Not the time when we were literally hooked together, but something that still lingered now.
I had a rough idea.
The pattern engraved on Liliana's ass—similar to the subordination seal on Sati, but slightly different.
And seeing Liliana clinging to my clothes like she depended on me, it was clear Hoaran meant some kind of bond between Liliana and me.
But...
I had no fucking clue how it happened, so how was I supposed to explain?
I just shoved it in her pussy, came, and boom—it appeared. That was everything I knew about the seal on Liliana.
Everything else? I'd been too busy fucking nonstop to think about it, so I knew jack shit.
Still, I could at least share what little I did know.
"Well..."
I explained roughly: how I'd been lured by 100 million won, ended up in the Wearhoneybee Autonomous District—what they called their kingdom—how Liliana ended up inheriting the throne due to circumstances, and the gist of everything that happened.
Lilith stared at me with a look that screamed, This dumb fuck, what am I gonna do with him?
No.
Why?
She told me to talk, so I did. Why the hell was she looking at me like that?
I'd just done my job faithfully.
I felt a bit wronged, but I had no ground to argue with Lilith, so I stayed quiet.
Meanwhile, Hoaran seemed deep in thought before turning to Liliana.
"I need to see for myself, so take off your clothes."
"Y-Yes...?"
Liliana looked at me uncertainly at Hoaran's words.
I told her,
"Better do what she says."
There wasn't any other option anyway.
Liliana nodded at my words.
"If my king commands it..."
"......"
"......"
As Liliana obeyed me like I was her king, I saw Lilith and Hoaran's brows furrow.
What the hell? Why were they so uptight about this...?
I hadn't done anything wrong except not contacting them and staying out overnight.
Anyway, at my words, Liliana slipped off the clothes she'd hastily thrown on before being dragged here.
Since she'd dressed so sloppily, it took seconds, and she was naked in no time.
Lilith and Hoaran stared intently at her.
"M-My king..."
Even as a woman herself, the scrutiny embarrassed her—or maybe the pressure from parts of the Twenty-Two Heroes who'd barged in, Lilith and Hoaran—because her eyes welled up as she covered her pussy and massive tits with her hands, looking at me.
Her expression screamed she wanted me to do something, but there was fuck-all I could do for her.
I was the one in trouble too.
Unable to help her, we just exchanged glances when—
"It's not a spell."
"Yeah, and not magic either."
Lilith and Hoaran said after staring at Liliana.
"As for the rest, the most likely culprit... seems like another one of that idiot's Gift abilities."
"An ability strong enough to subjugate a queen-level Wearhoneybee? Don't forget, Lilith, a queen's mental domination is top-tier. A queen-level Wearhoneybee commanding tens of thousands of her people has mental resistance just as powerful."
"But look—she just became queen... because of that idiot. If his Gift activated when she was still a princess, before becoming queen, it's possible, right?"
"Hm... That makes sense."
No...
What the fuck?
They bantered while eyeing Liliana, then Lilith stood, grabbed her body, and spun her around.
"Eek...?! M-My king...!"
"Sorry."
I couldn't do shit.
Anyway, they inspected the seal on Liliana's ass and started discussing.
"This must be the seal. You've never seen it before either, right?"
"Indeed, it's new to me. It resembles the Satyros subordination seal, but the power works entirely differently. Moreover... it's incredibly—no, extremely potent. None of the spells I know have domination this strong."
"Then... I'll look into this. Hoaran, you handle cleanup here."
"Understood."
Lilith nodded at Hoaran's reply, glared daggers at me, and said,
"I'll be back soon, so wait at home, you fucking asshole."
Ah...
Looked like more scolding was coming.
After Lilith vanished via spatial transfer, I trembled wondering what punishment awaited when—
"Well then... Hanjo."
Hoaran, still there, called me.
"Yes...?"
I approached as she beckoned with a flick of her finger, and she flicked my forehead hard.
"Don't make us worry like that. Never again."
"...Yes, ma'am."
Good thing it was Hoaran left instead of Lilith—no skull-splitting headache.
As I thought that, she pulled me into a tight hug.
"...We were truly, truly worried. Both Lilith and I were sincere."
I said to Hoaran, who spoke like that while holding me.
"...Sorry. I won't forget again."
It was my umpteenth vow to contact them on time without forgetting, but seeing her hold me and say that, I swore I'd really stick to it this time.
"Now, that queen over there... Liliana, was it?"
Still hugging me, Hoaran addressed Liliana.
"Y-Yes... yes..."
Liliana replied to Hoaran timidly, having seen me get flicked and then hugged.
Seemed like the hierarchy had sorted itself in Liliana's head too.
Me above her, Lilith and Hoaran above me.
Spot-on judgment.
"We caused quite a commotion. Gather all the injured here. And you..."
Hoaran eyed Liliana with a complicated expression, flicked my forehead again, and said,
"...I knew your job was dispenser, that this is your trade. But even for me, this is a bit disconcerting. How should I treat her? Even I... don't quite know how to handle this."
Hoaran muttered, and Liliana cautiously spoke up.
"...Pardon me, but... what is your relationship to my king...?"
Hoaran hugged me tighter and replied,
"It was a secret, but no need to hide from you. With that seal, you couldn't harm Hanjo anyway. So I'll tell you: I am... Hanjo's mother."
She said it proudly, chest puffed out, like it was no big deal.
My head buried between her tits shook a little.
"...Just now, the Empress...?"
Using Lilith's epithet, Liliana asked, and Hoaran replied,
"Lilith? She's Hanjo's mother too."
"Ah..."
I felt Liliana's gaze heat up as she looked at me.
"I suspected you were extraordinary, but to serve as mother to two of the Twenty-Two Heroes... My king, this queen is... deeply moved. What fortune for this queen... to bear the seed of a hero's child, the king's offspring..."
No.
Don't talk about seeds and shit with Hoaran here.
She's not immune to this stuff outside heat cycles.
But surprisingly, Hoaran didn't blush at Liliana's words.
Instead, she asked me,
"That issue remains too. What will you do, Hanjo?"
"...Do about what?"
"You embraced the Wearhoneybees' queen, didn't you? Traditionally, Wearhoneybees build their kingdom as one queen bears children. And when still a princess, she protects the first male she mates with deep in the kingdom, continuing relations to revive with their offspring."
In other words, Hoaran said to me,
"The moment you abandon her, one race faces extinction."
Holy fucking shit.
What the hell was that?
The weight on my shoulders was insane.
"Moreover, as the new queen, she'll bear children from your seed... I have no idea how to handle this."
I told Hoaran,
"No, it's not even my real bloodline."
"Does that change anything? Can you truly claim the children she bears as the new Wearhoneybee queen—from your seed—aren't yours?"
That...
I... didn't know.
It was the issue I'd avoided facing head-on.
With Mumungmumung too.
And now with Liliana.
Different races, kids with no blood tie to me—practically strangers—but they were still born because of me. No denying that.
Lilith had said not to worry, differences between races are natural.
"Hanjo, no matter the reason, the bond between parent and child is unbreakable. Even without a drop of shared blood, once the bond forms, it can never be severed—that's what parent and child means."
Hoaran said the opposite of Lilith: an unbreakable bond.
Two with different views.
Even split on this.
Me...
"...Liliana, one question."
"Speak, my king."
"Is what Hoaran-mama said true?"
I asked if they really mated lifelong with one male, if without me the Wearhoneybee kingdom—Liliana's kingdom—would collapse outright. She nodded.
"Half right, half wrong. Or... at least, it used to be."
"Meaning...?"
"In the world where our kind thrived, as the queen mother said... when becoming queen, the princess mates with her male, protects him in the kingdom, and revives it through their relations. But this world? We can't kidnap males anymore. So when my mother—the former queen—died suddenly after the world changed, she mated with various dispensers and bore us."
Ah...
So.
Didn't have to be me specifically?
I'd worried it was do-or-die for the kingdom or extinction if not me, but apparently not.
I started to sigh in relief inwardly when Liliana said,
"But... I don't want to do what the former queen did... Please, my king..."
She placed her hand firmly on her belly and continued,
"I beg you... don't abandon us..."
Ah...
Her teary upward gaze choked me up.
What Lilith and Hoaran told me.
Different opinions, but both spoke out of care for me.
Not about right or wrong.
The vast gap between races.
That rift—when Mumungmumung got pregnant, as I agonized, Lilith propped me up by calling it racial "differences."
Despite those vast racial differences.
Hoaran urged not to turn from the bond, clearly to keep me from straying in another way.
Abandoning your own kids, pretending they don't exist—that's wrong.
No matter how you slice it.
As an orphan dumped at birth, I knew that pain best.
I...
"...Liliana."
"...Yes, my king."
I stroked her head as she looked up.
"Honestly, there's not much I can do. I'm barely keeping myself together."
With 3 billion in debt too.
Kids and shit? Still didn't get it.
"Ah..."
Her face darkened at my words.
So I hurriedly added to her,
"No, listen to the end. Point is, with my job, I can't take care of everything. Hell if I know what to do."
Instead,
"On the flip side, call me anytime—this fucker's always ready. I won't ditch you, so relax."
Said I'd fill her baby room to bursting with cum for the right price, and her face lit up like fireworks.
"Hanjo..."
Hoaran's expression soured in contrast to Liliana's glow.
"...Why?"
"It's nothing..."
I wondered why Hoaran shook her head with a sigh.