Chapter 161: A Man's Way of Survival
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 161: A Man's Way of Survival
If I wanted to play with my toy, Ophelia, all by myself, it seemed I’d have to wait for nighttime or visit her separately during the school break.
In such a vast mansion, I couldn't exactly leave a guest alone, and since I had invited a 'friend,' I couldn't just toss her aside and tell her to entertain herself. It looked like I’d have to share my toy (the Little Duchess) with my sister for a bit.
It seemed to be an inescapable family trait to covet my toys, just like her younger brother did. I remembered how, before my sister hit her chunibyo phase, she used to snatch my transforming dinosaur robots to play with them herself.
Seeing how Gracia had taken over that role lately, I was starting to feel a bit sorry for my own life. This was all Mom’s fault, so she really ought to take responsibility.
"So, that’s why Iris-san fought with the swordsmanship instructor..."
Ophelia finished tidying up by placing a bin filled with clothes and underwear outside the door and began telling me Iris's story.
For the record, I was sitting on Ophelia’s lap, looking up at her while leaning my head against her warm, pillowy chest.
"Hey, don't talk about that...!"
"Hehe, should I not?"
My sister glared at Ophelia menacingly. The Little Duchess just giggled as if my sister’s threats were a daily occurrence and asked me, "Do you want to hear it?"
"I want to hear it!"
"Yes, yes, I suppose it can't be helped. Right, Iris-san?"
"...You, aren't you getting a bit too close to my brother?"
My sister looked at Ophelia with a face full of dissatisfaction.
"Ophelia is my friend too, so don't be like that."
Unlike Iris, I was someone who kept in touch with Ophelia quite often.
Lately, I’d been a bit busy with Alicia’s female training, so the frequency of our contact had decreased, but she was usually a good teacher who explained subjects like Imperial Studies and Political Science—things I’d likely never hear about otherwise—in a way that was easy to understand.
When I explained this to my sister, she looked back and forth between Ophelia and me with the eyes of a man who had just had his childhood friend NTR'd.
Anyone watching would think I’d already claimed her like a dog.
those blue eyes looking at me were incredibly insolent.
No, since I’d never slept with my sister, she wasn't a 'female' in that sense, so I shouldn't look down on her like that. If she were one of those total slut perverts like Mom’s friends—the kind of bitches who form irredeemable, cancerous social cartels—I could curse her out, but to say such things to my sister, who was still an innocent student, would make me a 'Bad Yong-hwan.'
I looked at my sister again.
She looked envious that her brother was acting cute toward her friend instead of her. I had no choice but to pull my head away from those soft, warm mounds and move over to my sister’s lap.
"My little cutie, acting all sweet for your sister. Did you miss me?"
"Yeah~!"
Since I couldn't exactly say, "No news is good news," or "Don't act like you know me if your chest is that flat," I just went along with it.
I had wanted to go on a 'find the dildo' quest in Ophelia’s room, but because my sister had followed us, such a heart-pounding adventure was impossible. Instead, I led the two of them out to tour the Duchess's castle.
The Duchess's castle was far more magnificent than it had appeared from the airplane, and much more massive than it had looked from the helicopter.
The place where that total slut pervert auntie lived could be called the Duchess's castle, but...
Strictly speaking, I realized through Ophelia’s explanation that it was merely a mansion located at the center of the 'Inner Castle'—a structure built by hollowing out an entire massive mountain within the Duchess's territory (which was the size of a city).
The area beyond the horizon, built like a planned city, was also inside the Duchess's castle. It was a terrifying thought that the high ground the mansion sat on was actually a flat plain created by shaving down a mountain.
It seemed the people of this otherworld lived by destroying and remodeling nature however they pleased, without a single thought for efficiency.
"...What is the annual tax revenue?"
"Ours? Mother would know exactly... but I think we pay about 10% to the Empire?"
What I was curious about wasn't how faithfully they paid their taxes, but how much tax revenue this Ducal family raked in every year to live so happily.
"No, I mean the tax revenue coming in from the Duchy."
"I heard that after deducting various expenses, we're just barely avoiding a deficit, but I'm not really sure."
Looking at Ophelia’s face, she genuinely seemed not to know. In terms of economies of scale, saying they were 'barely avoiding a deficit' was the same as saying they were unimaginably wealthy. They seemed to be on a completely different level compared to that third-generation chaebol pervert vampire from some marquis family.
"Even so, Ophelia’s family is re~ally rich, huh?"
"We have the corporations the family manages and the colonial business divisions. Mother is the rich one, not me."
I felt a surge of hostility toward Ophelia for making such a dirty, petty remark.
My mom leads our household while receiving a transparent salary envelope, but thinking about how the Duchess next door can duplicate buildings just by breathing... as a member of the gentry class, I couldn't stand it.
"That’s a lie. This girl is always out buying snacks. she lives with expensive cookies in her mouth."
"I-I only eat them occasionally when my blood sugar drops! Studying is exhausting..."
"I guess your blood sugar doesn't drop during training, then."
Ophelia avoided my sister’s gaze at the sharp remark. A rich young lady who loves cookies—that was quite a charm point.
"By the way... who are those people playing over there? Everyone else is working hard."
Far below the mansion, I could see people working, and others who weren't resting, but clearly playing. With my pathetic lack of martial power, things like enhanced vision were still a distant dream, so I had to ask Ophelia.
"Hmm... where? Ah, those are men. Men. Well, I guess there would only be men there."
Ophelia let out a sexist remark. Whether male or female, there are those who play and those who work hard; such blatant discrimination clearly showed a lack of proper education.
When I stared at her, Ophelia looked toward my sister as if asking for help, seemingly unaware of what she had done wrong.
"...Men usually don't work. Yong-hwan, have you ever seen men working?"
"When they work?"
"Work...?"
I told them about the older brothers I’d seen while filming movies and tokusatsu shows where I played a sexy shota villain executive. They might have been half-hearted about their jobs, but compared to those guys playing around while watching the ladies sweat and toil below, they were practically models of diligence.
"It's because they're ugly."
This time, my sister spat out a lookism-based remark. They say birds of a feather flock together—one was a sexist, and the other was a lookist.
What a disastrous duo.
"Ugh... is it okay to tell Yong-hwan?"
"He's smart, he'll understand. And even if he hears it, it won't be the same for him. He's my brother."
Iris and Ophelia exchanged opinions as if some great secret were being hidden.
Ophelia looked at my sister with a face that said she didn't want to play the villain, but my sister just stroked my hair without even meeting Ophelia’s eyes.
"The thing is... men are rare. Compared to the huge number of places that need them, there are very few who are willing to work."
"Yes, supply and demand. I understand that much."
"Uh... well... this is a slightly different story. Um... handsome men are... the supply is... very low. And... the demand is high. High enough that they don't even have to work..."
The conversation seemed to be heading in a strange direction.
"If they don't work, why hire them?"
"That’s... well... I don't know about the United Kingdom, but in the Empire, how many men you employ is... how should I put it... a point of pride? A way to show off your power? It's something like that."
It wasn't the conversation that was strange; it was this world.
"So I get that there’s a high ratio of men, but why aren't those people working?"
"Once the quantity is filled, the next step is to fill the quality, and that means appearance."
I was starting to understand, but my head was spinning.
"And if you make handsome men work, they quit very easily. You can think of them as being hired for 'maintenance of dignity.' Since they're viewed like mannequins, they aren't given any work."
I could finally reach a conclusion.
This was a truly artistic waste of money.
"So, you're saying those people are proving their worth just by standing there?"
"Yes, you could say that... Our Yong-hwan is so smart. I found myself stuttering through the explanation because I was afraid you wouldn't understand."
Ophelia stroked my head.
Anyway, getting paid just to kill time... I guess I was lucky to be born a man. If I ever became a 'Time Bill Gates,' maybe I could get a part-time job as a mannequin who just lies around and plays.
"They're also the type who have no intention of doing anything, living like parasites and just hoping to marry into the Ophelia family for a meal ticket."
My sister showed her blatant disgust as she watched the men playing on their phones.
"Don't say it like that."
It seemed Ophelia was trying to curb my sister’s hatred.
"It's just their way of survival."
Wait, no—she was agreeing.
The kind Ophelia, whose beautiful blue eyes usually looked at me with warmth, was now looking down at those men with a gaze filled with cold contempt.