Chapter 13: There’s No Date Violence, but There Is Date Education
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 13: There’s No Date Violence, but There Is Date Education
“Ah, you mean Seoha? That girl absolutely hates talking to people. She usually just appears and disappears like a ghost, so you don’t really need to pay her much mind.”
That was the answer I got from Mother when I told her about the Mermaid Sister, who had observed me for about ten minutes before heading back to the pool.
“Then how did you become friends with her?”
“I don’t really remember. It just kind of happened. We were hanging out, and before I knew it, she was part of the group. Hindel seems to like her well enough, too. And doesn’t Morian see her often for work?”
“...She might look like that, but she cares a lot about her friends.”
The Snow Woman Sister fidgeted with her hands, stealing a glance at me. I had to be careful with the bait; if I gave in too easily when she was about to give up, my value would only plummet. I sat on Iris’s lap, signaling that I was currently occupied and unavailable for use.
“Ah, right. That’s true. Definitely. She’s like a ghost, but you really feel her absence when she’s gone. Remember when we went camping in the Great Forest Valley? Back then…”
Mother began telling stories about her outings with her friends. Since it wasn't a particularly interesting topic, I tuned it out. All I needed to know was the conclusion: she was someone who faded into the background but left a good impression on her friends.
I looked over at the Mermaid Sister floating in the distance in the pool. She’d had two legs when she was sitting in the chair, but now her lower half was like a fish. Come to think of it, when I first met Mom’s friends, I saw something floating in the pool; that must have been Yuseoha.
I climbed off my sister’s lap and headed straight for the pool. I saw Iris try to follow me, only to give up and turn back after seeing the view from 5,000 feet through the transparent floor.
It was disappointing that her love for her brother couldn't overcome her fear of heights. Regardless, to grind for affection points with the Mermaid Sister, I had no choice but to linger around her.
I watched her for about ten minutes, but since there was no reaction, I started to get bored. With nothing else to do, I just dove under and looked at the scenery below.
The airship, heading to an unknown destination, was moving forward rapidly. It didn't seem as fast as a plane, but it was certainly faster than a typical car or train.
A vast plain stretched out below. It was too far to tell if there were people, but the expanse of green reminded me of the cornfields in Indiana.
Something massive was moving slowly across it, and wherever it passed, the earth turned the color of soil. I wondered if it was a machine made with magitech and wanted a closer look, but there was no way to observe it further from here.
I ran out of breath and surfaced. The pool was deep enough that it felt a bit much for a five-year-old brat. I looked up to see someone standing in front of me—a sister who looked like a safety guard was staring intently at me.
When I bowed my head in greeting, she nodded and held out a life jacket.
“Men don’t use things like that.”
“...Understood.”
The safety guard sister replied with a dubious expression. I might look like this, but I was a rascal with half-elf blood in my veins. There was no way I’d drown and swallow water in a pool, right?
“...Then, for safety reasons, may I continue to watch over you, Young Master?”
“Thank you!”
The sister gave a thin smile, brought over a chair, and sat down.
“It looks like you went in without warming up. Why don't you do some exercises with me?”
I wasn't sure if it was her professional spirit or if she was just looking out for me because I was a cute kid, but she wasn't wrong. So, I broke a light sweat with the muscular, tanned safety guard sister before getting back into the water.
The Mermaid Sister was still floating in the water. Her face was submerged. Well, she was a mermaid, so breathing probably wasn't an issue. After diving a few more times to look at the view below, I got bored of that too and just watched the Mermaid Sister.
She seemed to be in the water with her eyes open, her face expressionless. Seeing as she didn't show even a hint of interest in me—a genius of cuteness capable of inducing visual assault in this insane world—there was a high probability she was a lesbian.
Just as I was about to give up, thinking this wasn't some breath-holding competition, Yuseoha sat on the edge of the pool. Her pink hair hardly looked wet at all, even though she had just come out of the water.
I casually approached and sat down next to her. Those eyes staring intently at me were still difficult to deal with.
“Doesn't it feel good to float in the water?”
Nod.
It seemed it was time to give up.
“I had fun in the pool with you, Noona. Bye-bye~!”
Looking at her face as she stared blankly without a reaction, I decided she should be excluded from my list of targets. I was too busy to go around forcibly remodeling people's sexual orientations.
When I returned to the table, my sister was already asleep in Mom’s arms. Looking for an empty seat and avoiding Morian’s piercing gaze, I climbed onto the King Milk Cow Sister’s thighs.
“Oh my, oh my, did you have fun swimming~?”
“Yes~!”
More than the hand stroking my chin like I was a puppy, I liked the massive mounds of fat I felt against the back of my neck. I slowly closed my eyes, lulled by Camel’s warm body heat.
“Hehe, you must be sleepy. How cute~!”
As she gently grabbed my waist to flip me over, I buried my face in her chest for the time being. I felt no maternal love from them, but they were an insultingly, ignorantly large pair of breasts.
“Anyway, it’s a real problem how uneducated boys are these days.”
“...Are you agreeing with what the Director, who’s currently begging to have my son sent to her foundation, is saying?”
It sounded like another interesting conversation was starting.
My exhausted body craved sleep, but for my survival strategy, I needed to know the general consciousness of these high-society types in detail.
“No, I’m not that old-fashioned. There was an incident in a middle school where a fight got so big the police were called.”
“Ah, I think I know. You’re talking about that assault case involving an adult male student, right?”
“By the time they’re middle schoolers—legal adults—they should know how to read the room. Do you know why they fought?”
Was I really hearing this astral nonsense about becoming an adult in middle school? I suppose it was possible in this world.
In the 19th century, laws were enacted to ban child labor for those under nine!
So what about before that?
It meant it was perfectly fine to go around cleaning chimneys at my age. Well, I was a bit too big to fit in a chimney, but considering they used to shove three or four-year-olds in without safety gear, I guess it made sense.
“I think it was because the boy ignored the girl when she called him.”
“To be precise, she called his name several times. He had the audacity to ignore her.”
“He deserved a beating, but… from what I heard, he was injured quite badly.”
Another depressing story about male human rights was unfolding today.
“The police brushed it off since it’s a common occurrence, but since we’re an educational foundation, we held a disciplinary committee to hear the details.”
“Camel, you’re finally telling an interesting story.”
The cow sister let out a small giggle.
“Turns out the two of them were dating.”
“Was it ‘Date Education’?”
“It’s a bit complicated. When we looked into the boy’s background, his mother only existed on paper. She immigrated to the Empire after paying a fortune and hasn't visited the school to see her son once. Not since elementary school.”
“Sounds like she sold him off as a matrilocal son-in-law.”
It wasn't called date violence; it was called date education. And the talk of selling a child as a matrilocal son-in-law—there wasn't a single part of this I could ignore.
“Exactly. He was raised to be that girl’s fiancé. He’s been attending since elementary school. I don’t know what my mom was doing, not even buying me a matrilocal son-in-law.”
“Didn't you refuse a matrilocal son-in-law? Said you hated them because they were stupid. Anyway, if he was a matrilocal son-in-law, he should have been ‘educated’ well. Why did he act out?”
“I guess they spoiled him, calling him pretty and all. There’s a reason people say men need a beating once every three days, right?”
“...Except for our Yong-hwan.”
As expected, I only had my mom. In this godforsaken world, the only sanctuary wasn't these massive mounds of fat, but my mom’s slightly smaller—but still very large—breasts.
I tried to pull away, but my body was stuck to the King Milk Cow’s chest like a magnet. These were some cowardly, underhanded tits.
“Right, right. If he grows up like he is now, that won't happen. Anyway, the point is, he cheated. With another girl.”
“...Kids these days are truly insane. He cheated when he had a fiancée? And a matrilocal son-in-law at that?”
The King Milk Cow nodded vigorously in agreement.
“If our academy, the top elite training school in the United Kingdom, is like this, imagine what other places are like. I’m not telling you to send Yong-hwan to our foundation for no reason. I’ll take ‘special’ care of him.”
The cow sister’s slender fingers slowly stroked my hair. When her hand, which had been lightly scratching the nape of my neck, swept down my spine, I felt a sudden chill.
“You’re busy with police work, and it’s not like you, being obsessed with promotions, would ever consider moving to a more relaxed department, right?”
“Still, when he’s young, a mother should…”
“I’m saying send him starting from middle school. He can’t stay in his mother’s arms forever. If you keep this up, Yong-hwan might end up wandering the streets after the sun goes down.”
I really wanted to ask why it was so bad to be out on the streets after sunset.
“Ugh… don’t curse him! You cow bitch.”
“I’m just stating facts. You love statistics, don’t you? You should know what happens to a boy the longer his mother’s working hours are.”
Normally, wouldn't a child work harder if their parents worked long hours?
‘My mom and dad are working so hard. Even if I can’t live like them, I should at least live somewhat like them!’ That was the default I knew.
“...Tell me about the school program.”
“The curriculum is similar to a regular school. Instead, I personally manage the etiquette education.”
“You hit them yourself?”
“As if. I’m not the type to hit anyone. And while our school has corporal punishment, we don’t hit the boys. You know what a mess it would be these days if a teacher was caught hitting a boy.”
Listening to this, it seemed that despite the crazy conversation, society was moving toward ‘normalization.’
“We actively use police statistics, sex crime education, and gender sensitivity training, and we hire lecturers for that. I’ve handpicked them myself, and some of them are even your seniors. Well, in conclusion, we ‘properly’ teach them how scary society is, that only a wife can protect a man, and that everyone else has bad intentions.”
“That’s not bad.”
To me, it sounded like a thorough brainwashing program, but Mom seemed to agree as if she liked it.
“I told you, 10% of the boys from our academy even get jobs. The rest get married and perform proper ‘supportive husband duties.’ What do you think?”
“...It’s better than other private schools.”
“It’s not like you’re going to send him to a public school, right? If you send him to a place like that, he’ll 100% be victimized by those beast-like girls. I heard teachers are even participating in crimes against male students these days?”
Mother let out a long sigh. Judging by her reaction, it seemed to be ‘real.’
Such an inhuman pandemonium was currently ongoing?
“Most of them are just arrogant and don’t know their place. Our Yong-hwan will do well wherever he goes.”
“Then send him to a public school.”
“You crazy bitch… that’s not what I meant. I should also have him do some exercise… so he can protect himself.”
I had the most fun playing with my sister and mom at home. I didn't want to do any exercise. No, maybe I did need to exercise.
“Why don't you have Hindel do it? You looked like you were coveting his talent last time.”
“There’s no way that guy would teach a boy.”
“He’d do it if you asked, wouldn't he?”
Mother had to refuse. Was she really going to entrust me to that monster who looked at me like she wanted to eat me? No, those eyes had already torn me apart and killed me ten times over in her mind.
In times like this, I had no choice.
“Hindel… is scary…”
I mumbled in a low voice as if talking in my sleep.
“...I don’t want to leave him with her, but Hindel is the most qualified.”
Mother seemed to have made up her mind.
I seriously wanted to ask where my indirect refusal had gone.