Humanity's Struggle
The night I spent sharing a single mattress with Chaerin was pure torment.
The mattress was far too narrow for a grown man and a grown woman to lie on together. Every time either of us shifted, our shoulders or backs brushed against each other, and each contact flooded my nerves with the soft give of her skin and the faint scent of her body.
It was the first time in my life I had ever slept in the same bed as a woman. No matter how hard I tried not to get worked up, my body reacted on its own. My cock refused to settle down, stirred endlessly by the constant brush of her flesh. I had to stay rigid, practically mummified, so I wouldn't thrash around and wake her. Only toward dawn did I finally slip into a shallow sleep.
Then a soft, yielding weight pressed against my arm, and sleep slowly peeled away. I turned my head just enough to see Chaerin clinging to me like a pillow, breathing in quiet, even little puffs. There wasn't a trace of wariness on her sleeping face. Soft breaths escaped her small nose, and every time they brushed my bare skin, a warm contentment spread through me.
So a pretty woman could make a man happy with nothing more than her breath.
What ruined that perfect moment was my cock, which had decided morning was the perfect time to stand at full attention.
Damn it…
This body really was hopelessly obsessed with women. I stayed completely still so Chaerin wouldn't wake, simply soaking in her warmth. A woman's body could be this warm. While I lay there thinking that, her eyelashes soon fluttered.
"Mmm…"
She made a soft, catlike sound as she stirred, then slowly opened her eyes. The moment she realized she was nestled in my arms, she jerked back in alarm. I kept my eyes closed, pretending to sleep while I secretly enjoyed her flustered reaction. For a while there was the soft rustle of movement, then silence. A careful, catlike presence crept closer.
And then—
Chup.
Something soft brushed lightly against my cheek and pulled away. I almost snapped my eyes open in surprise, but managed to hold still.
"Heh… Secret morning kiss successful again today."
Her pure, clear little laugh brushed my ear. Then came the careful sounds of her leaving the room. I sat bolt upright. The lingering sensation of Chaerin's lips still seemed to burn on my cheek.
After she finished her shower, a savory smell began drifting from the kitchen. I stepped out to eat breakfast.
"Why'd you sleep in so late?"
Chaerin tossed out the mild scolding as if the kiss had never happened. Having been kissed first thing in the morning left me awkward; I couldn't quite meet her eyes. On the table sat steaming white rice, kimchi stew, freshly fried eggs, and pink sausages—dishes prepared with a care I could never have imagined in my previous life.
"Thanks for the meal."
"Don't leave anything."
It was a flawless breakfast. I finished one bowl and went back for a second. Watching me eat so heartily made Chaerin beam like a mother whose child had a good appetite.
After breakfast we headed to the academy with Subin. I reaffirmed the resolve I'd made the night before: until I uncovered the truth behind that note, I would keep my head down. No sex. No women. At least for a little while.
That resolve started to crack before the academy gates were even in sight.
"Whoa…"
The word slipped out of me unbidden. The road to school was a parade of pure female display.
Latex bodysuits were the mild end of the spectrum. There were sheer blouses that left almost nothing to the imagination, and outfits that bared half a chest while only just covering the nipples. The clothes the female students wore on their way to class went past sexy and into the realm of art.
One woman walking some distance ahead of us caught my eye completely. She had the air of an upperclassman, mature and composed, and a black, catlike tail swayed at her hips. No way… I doubted my own eyes, but the tail wasn't sewn onto her clothes. Every time she took a step, the base of it twitched beneath her tight skirt. It was an anal plug. She was walking to school with a plug seated in her ass as if it were the most natural thing in the world—and she had four of those tails.
Behind her came a man surrounded by five women who clung to his arms, massaged his shoulders, and poured every kind of coquetry on him as they escorted him along. Envy rose in me unbidden; I shook my head and forced my gaze away.
The shocks didn't stop there. Off to one side, a male student strolled along as if walking dogs, four female students on leashes. The women crawled after him on all fours without a shred of shame, pads strapped to their elbows and knees so they wouldn't scrape the ground.
This world was insane. I had nothing left to say.
Then I spotted other women leaning against the academy wall, bodies trembling. Their faces were flushed with pleasure; muffled moans slipped from their lips as they tried to hold them back.
"What's that about?"
"Probably… their master ordered them to come with vibrators in their pussies," Subin explained in a small voice.
I couldn't stop marveling. This world was twisted far beyond anything I had imagined—and the fact of it excited me enough to push the anxiety over the note to the back of my mind for a while.
Inside the academy, a sign directed every student to assemble in the auditorium.
"It's all-school education day," Chaerin muttered.
The auditorium where yesterday's entrance ceremony had been held was still imposingly vast, larger and more magnificent than most concert halls. As first-years we sat in the front rows; the second- and third-years filled the seats behind us. On the second floor a balcony-like overhang held the teachers looking down on the students.
A short while later a woman stepped onto the stage. It was Choi Ara, the academy's chairman, the same woman I had seen at the entrance ceremony. Long silver hair that gleamed, beauty so striking it was impossible to guess her age, and a charisma that dominated the room. The moment she appeared, the noisy auditorium fell silent.
"Students, good morning."
Her voice was soft yet powerful as it rolled through the hall over the microphone.
"Today's all-school education comes before the practical physical training you will soon begin. It is a time to establish the fundamental mindset and philosophy that every woman who serves a man must possess."
"The goal of this education is to empty each of you of every unnecessary thought and plant in its place a single purpose: service to men."
Behind her, the three words that formed the academy's emblem—Devotion, Obedience, Sacrifice—were inscribed in gold leaf across the front wall.
"You are the most blessed beings in this world. Every woman born into it is given one sacred calling: to offer herself to her husband."
Choi Ara brought up a graph on the auditorium wall showing a male-to-female ratio of 1:20.
"Look at this imbalance. Do you not see our role? Every woman must become a living shield and cradle that protects men."
"Everything you will learn from now on points toward this single goal. Your knowledge, your skills, your bodies, even your hearts—all of it will be reborn as tools for a man's peace and satisfaction."
She poured out these staggering words without a hint of shame. Hearing that women should become slaves to men left me, a man, feeling strangely unsettled. I had been taught that all humans were equal. In a world where the sex ratio had been shattered, however, equality seemed to be a luxury.
"Obedience is the greatest act a woman can perform."
The chairman began explaining the academy's three great principles—unbreakable rules every female student was never to forget until graduation.
"First: A man's judgment is right in most cases."
"Second: Your desires are not your own."
"Third: Act before a man even speaks."
I watched the scene in silence. This went beyond education; it was pure indoctrination. Looking around, I saw that many of the female students—including Chaerin and Subin—were completely captivated by her words. Their eyes shone with respect and awe.
Only then did I begin to grasp something. I was finally starting to understand what the carefully planned and executed "Marriage Academy" truly meant to this country.
Humanity here was thrashing in desperation.
In the face of an extreme 1:20 sex ratio, this was a desperate struggle to keep the human species alive. They would turn the majority of humanity—women—into men's slaves if that was what it took to maintain the population. They had made the academy's education into "common sense."
I alone was a stranger in this vast vortex of madness.
I thought again of the note I had found the night before.
This is not mere amnesia. I must remember. I—
The original Kim Sihyuk who had cried out that he must remember.
What exactly had he been trying to remember about this mad world?