The Goddess's Choice
The heat of summer in the Korean peninsula is stifling, thick enough to choke the breath right out of you.
Especially the heat inside this warehouse—it was worse.
“Ah!”
After lowering the last box and straightening my back, my head spun. The sweat-soaked shirt clung heavily to my skin.
I sat down for a moment and waited for the dizziness to pass.
“Sunwoo, what are you doing? Time to get ready for quitting time!”
“Just a little longer. You go ahead and start.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I probably just ate less for lunch.”
“You brat, eat properly and come back. Eat at least as much as your new sister-in-law, or your body will break down fast!”
“Haha. It’s not that I didn’t want to eat, okay?”
“Tsk. After work, I’ll buy you sundubu jjigae. Take it easy for a bit and hurry back.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. The sound of everyone heading to the break room filled the air.
I wanted to eat well, sleep well, and live healthily.
But I was constitutionally weak in qi and had poor digestion. Circulation was the right term, I supposed.
I was an ill-fit for this kind of life, yet as an orphan with no place to call home, I had no choice.
With my eyes closed, a faint breeze still slipped through, drying the sweat. As the stray bangs brushed my forehead with the cold touch of wind, the headache began to ease.
“Haaah.”
Only then did the spinning feeling subside. I let my shoulders drop, relaxing my whole body. Sleep crashed over me like a wave.
I had to finish preparing for quitting time… but my body was too weak to fight the oncoming darkness.
******
Whoosh.
A colossal fortress stood alone in the endless North Sea.
At its highest point, the massive Ice Crystal blazed like the sun, bathing the altar in eternal light.
It was the life-giving radiance that let people survive even in shadowed lands.
The last breath of the goddess who had once birthed the world still watched over it.
And right in front of it, a stunning woman with flowing silver hair bowed her head, her voluptuous figure radiating beauty.
“Goddess, I beseech you. Please protect the eternal existence of this Ice Palace.”
“Protect the Ice Palace.”
Behind her, the other women lined up and chanted the same words, voices trembling with devotion.
“Grant us a seed horse to overcome the successors’ qi.”
“Grant the seed horse.”
“Lift the curse of infertility.”
“Lift the curse.”
A blade-sharp gale whipped around the altar, slicing through their collars, yet not one woman flinched. They might as well have been statues carved from ice.
The prayers stretched on and on.
Lightning flashed through the clouds, striking the woman at the front.
“Palace Lord!”
The others startled and tried to rise, but the woman called the Palace Lord raised a hand to stop them.
Another bolt of lightning struck her. She opened her eyes wide.
“Next… the next lightning… grant it to me…!”
At her cry, everyone snapped their heads up. A colossal thunderbolt crashed down in the south.
“The goddess has descended our seed horse! Find him at once!”
The Palace Lord, having endured two bolts, collapsed to her knees and screamed. The instant she did, every woman bowed before the altar suddenly rose to their feet.
Their eyes burned with arctic ferocity—the same look a polar wolf or bear gave its prey.
Boom!
A sound like the ground shattering rang out, and the women leapt skyward.
A storm of frozen wind exploded outward from the altar, shattering the North Sea’s ice plain.
The place they reached was etched with a clear image of a figure piercing the frozen expanse as though it were paper.
“Search the surroundings! Don’t miss a single speck!”
One of the first two women who arrived shouted, her voice bright with determination.
The women spread out immediately, scanning the peaks and frozen plains.
Soon.
“Here!”
A cry echoed from the edge of a deep valley on the mountain.
All the women rushed over. There, in the frozen valley, lay a slender man collapsed in the center.
The silver-haired woman who had arrived first looked at him and frowned.
“This… is the goddess’s seed horse? A man who looks this weak?”
She didn’t speak the thought, but disappointment flashed across the eyes of the women who had followed her.
Then the black-haired woman who had given the earlier orders stepped forward and rebuked them sternly.
“What are you doing? Do you dare doubt the goddess’s oracle? Or are you doubting the mother who received it?”
“Ah, no, miss! Quick, everyone, carry this man! He is the palace’s seed horse!”
At her urgent cry, activity exploded once more.
The women who had wrapped the man in a soft blanket carefully placed him on a sturdy litter that appeared from nowhere and began to move him. They were so gentle it was as if they feared he might wake at any moment.
After how many steps? The man, who had been completely still like a statue, suddenly stirred weakly on the litter.
******
I wriggled my body.
Every joint creaked as though locked in ice.
Yet the bedding wrapped around me felt softer and warmer than anything I had ever known.
I wanted to stay asleep.
So I tried to pull the remnant of sleep back over me. I didn’t know what, but I desperately wanted to keep sleeping.
Then a thought brushed my mind, and my eyes snapped open.
“Insurance! Is this covered by insurance?”
I shouted and sat up. The sight was strange.
“What the—?”
Of course. I had been sleeping under a cloud.
And far below, a woman was looking down at me with pitying eyes.
Her appearance was impossibly perfect.
Rainbow-tinted hair and clothes that looked straight out of Greek mythology.
Of course those were also impossible, but—
What was truly impossible was her beauty.
A face that needed no exaggeration to be the perfect embodiment of “beauty.” And despite being far taller than me, her figure was graceful and voluptuous without a trace of exaggeration. Especially the line from her thick thighs down to her slender ankles—that was enough to make a man’s mouth water.
“Aphrodite?”
It was the only word that came to mind.
“Well, one of my many names.”
Fortunately her expression was much more satisfied than before. Aphrodite flicked her wrist and summoned various fruits. She popped a grape into her mouth and rolled it between her lips.
“Eh? How did I meet the goddess? Did I… die?”
The woman smiled, the corners of her red lips curling upward. She took another grape and placed it against her lips. The casual motion itself was so seductive it felt like the very definition of allure.
“It’s similar, but different. To put it simply, you’re in the middle of a dimension shift.”
“A dimension shift…?”
“Yes. In the world you came from, you were weak, couldn’t even eat properly, and had no strength. Small frame, no luck, no nothing. Right?”
“Yeah. That’s exactly it.”
“It had to be. You weren’t built for that world. You’re a creature that should have lived off other people’s qi, yet you were born in a place without qi circulation. It’s a miracle you lived this long.”
“Eh? So I was wrongly assigned to another dimension…?”
At my aggrieved tone, she shook her head.
“No. Assignments are completely random, and so are characteristics. Lucky people get matches. Unlucky people like you also exist. That’s all.”
The universe was just a giant gacha machine…
A hollow feeling settled in my chest.
“Anyway, why am I being sent to another dimension?”
“You were needed in the dimension I was recently assigned. You were making so much noise I couldn’t hear myself think. You should be grateful. Besides, if you die, your characteristics will be washed and recycled anyway. This is better, isn’t it? Sending you somewhere that matches your traits.”
Aphrodite plucked a grape and fed it to my mouth, then gave me a playful wink.
It was a commanding demand wrapped in kindness, but I didn’t feel the slightest bit humiliated. It was the kind of force that made me want to laugh.
So I chewed the grape without tasting it and swallowed, nodding.
“Ah, it’s so sweet. Here, another one.”
The merciful goddess placed another grape between my lips. I obediently took it and bit down. The bursting flesh was so sweet it made my head spin.
But the moment the juice touched my skin, the sensation was even more overwhelming.
A scorching heat spread through my entire body, pooling in my lower abdomen and clenching into something heavy.
“What the hell…?”
“It’s good, so don’t worry. Hmm, maybe it’s because I ate two already—it feels even better?”
The beautiful, kind, and majestic goddess placed a hand on my lower abdomen and stroked me gently while whispering.
To a man who had never even been touched by a woman’s hand in his life, it was an intense stimulus.
My lower body, which had never reacted to excessive beauty, sprang up hard.
And most shockingly, my lower body poked the goddess’s thigh. She had simply been too close.
“S-sorry! I’m sorry!”
I cried out and scrambled backward as though struck by lightning.
But her legs were longer than mine. In one stride she closed the distance, cupped my cheeks, and made me look her in the eyes.
“If you knew my myths, you would understand why I have no reason to dislike you.”
“Huh? But I’m not handsome, right?”
I recalled the story with Hephaestus and told her. She caught the thought and whispered softly.
“I love all love and all lust. The story of the beauty and the beast is one of my favorites. This is a small secret, but… my husband loves to share. Especially with his own brothers.”
The words were shocking. NTR had ancient roots after all. So this goddess was willing to sacrifice herself for her husband…?
This time, she read my thoughts and laughed softly.
“I said it, didn’t I? I love all love and all lust. I even love the brothers who feel lust for my husband.”
Aha. They were destined by heaven.
The goddess leaned in and kissed my lips. Her saliva was sweeter than the grape. It was pure temptation that stirred the soul itself.
Every thought stopped. Only raw desire took over my body.
I surged forward and laid her on the cloud. My lower body felt like a racing heart.
Aphrodite pushed me away gently and murmured in a honeyed, teasing voice.
“Hmm, I decided not to touch humans anymore… but what now.”
“Please…”
As I panted, she looked toward empty air, then giggled.
“Hmm, we’ll have to be careful too… All right. Humans have been a long time, so watch closely?”
She whispered that and wrapped an arm around my neck. We kissed like madmen. The goddess let out a sweet sigh, broke the kiss, and pulled down her chiton, exposing her full breasts.
Size, shape, firmness, color—even the scent. Everything about them was perfect.
I rushed forward and took one into my mouth. Milk spurted out, filling my mouth.
It was creamy, savory, and maddeningly delicious. It sent strange power through my body. My lower body grew even harder, as if I had taken Viagra.
“Hmm, good. Yes! That’s it. Faster. As much as you want. Ah!”
Under her seductive whispers, my mind fractured and I attacked wildly, senses taken completely by the goddess.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the details of what happened next.
All I knew was that it had been absolutely incredible.
The loss of my first experience was regrettable, but being able to have sex with the most beautiful woman in the universe gave me a confidence I had never felt before.
By the time the sensations returned, I could already feel the difference from the warm, soft cloud. A strange, heated breath slipped between us.
I snapped my eyes open. The silver-haired beauty across from me leapt back.
