The Hidden Alpha Male Stops Holding Back - 1
I came downstairs alone and opened the practice room door.
People looking to rent the space had finally started trickling in, one or two at a time.
"As I mentioned beforehand, it's five thousand won an hour."
"Got it. I'll take five hours."
"That'll be twenty-five thousand. Cash or bank transfer—which would you prefer?"
"Cash."
A solidly built man dug a wallet from his pocket. He'd clearly come prepared after the notice about payment methods. I took the bills he held out and gave a short nod.
The oversized bag on his back caught my eye—more precisely, the enormous mascot head poking out past the zipper.
"Thank you. You're good until two o'clock this afternoon."
I kept any reaction off my face, took the money, and stepped out. The cash still had to go into the separate account I'd set up, and the entry still had to go in the ledger. Not a corporate ledger, mind you—just something simple. The usual warnings about property damage and indoor shoes only were already posted, so I didn't bother repeating them.
"Income really is going up."
Outside the practice room, leaning against the wall by the elevator while I filled out the book, I felt a strange swell of feeling. Best of all was not having to pay rent.
Ah? Here? It's great not sweating rent, since the place is mine.
To think I'd become the kind of person you only ever saw in TV interviews. That was fantasy for you.
I finished the entry with a flourish, closed the ledger, and looked back through the glass. The man was already dancing—bag dumped in a corner, mascot head still on.
Did he really need to do it that way? He must have had his reasons, but from where I stood it was just bizarre. Maybe it was an efficient way to work up a sweat. Maybe he simply enjoyed dancing in a giant costume. Furries, I guess.
Seeing a mascot suit this close called up one particular festival—the kind that made you doubt your own eyes. The furry convention.
Does this world have those too?
Curiosity won. I pulled out my phone and opened the browser, the thickish ledger still clamped under one arm. Sure enough—there were furry festivals here as well. All kinds of fursuits on display, booths full of merchandise; it was the same picture. Modern life was modern life, so the resemblances ran deep. I thought back over the clips I'd only ever watched online, then shut the phone off.
"…Hmm."
Furry talk had put another idea in my head. Not furry specialists, exactly—more like animal hospitals, pet cafés, that sort of thing.
Would they like that?
We were close enough to the capital that the distances weren't bad. Once I got my license, taking a drive out there didn't sound half bad. Driving practice and a day trip in one.
While Seo Ji-hyuk had been more or less forced out of the apartment, three women sat around the living-room table.
Elodie. Marie. Camilla.
Three beauties who could stop traffic on their own, gathered in one place—it was almost too much for the eyes.
"Is there a particular reason you asked for a meeting like this?"
Elodie's gaze settled on Camilla. For someone who had requested the gathering, Camilla's manner was oddly subdued, and that put Elodie on edge.
Camilla spoke.
"Mm. Things have been so hectic of late that there never seemed a proper moment to raise it. Still—I rather think it is time we put our house in order."
"Put our house in order?"
"As regards the rules of our relationship with him. You are the so-called primary wife, are you not? Therefore it falls to you to set the guidelines."
Primary wife. The words made Elodie's eyes go wide. She had expected something heavy from Camilla's serious tone—just not this particular kind of heavy.
"Do you truly think of it that way?"
Elodie took a careful breath, smoothed her expression, and looked at Camilla again.
"I do. What she thinks of it, I cannot say."
Camilla's eyes shifted to Marie. They had not coordinated beforehand, so the question had to be put here and now.
"Me… well, I'm hardly in any position to object. It was the same before—I get emotional, and there were more than a few times I nearly made a terrible mistake."
Back then, István—the man who was now Seo Ji-hyuk—had always stepped in at the right moment. In this life he hadn't been able to, and the mistake had gone through.
Marie sighed and shook her head. Camilla's lips parted again.
"It would seem she has no objection either."
"Marie and I have already talked about something similar, so that much I can accept. What I didn't expect was you inserting yourself as well. Has he really taken that firm a hold on your heart?"
"I have said as much. I have long believed that without that man, my fate would have turned out rather differently."
Tap, tap. Camilla, arms folded, rapped her own forearm with a fingertip.
"Of course, I am not burning for him the way you two are—or as that ill-starred queen once did. Still, I have often wondered what it would have been like had he been a nobleman. What it would have been like if we had married."
"Because he was so unusual?"
"That was a large part of it, yes—but not the only part."
Camilla paused, then cut a sidelong glance at Marie. In that brief look there was a quiet sympathy, a shared understanding.
"Both she and I were born to exalted stations, and with that came duty. There was no freedom of marriage such as exists today."
Though those with power still seem much the same even now.
When Camilla's voice fell quiet, Marie and Elodie both sank into thought. Marie, especially, felt the resonance keenly—the wealth that came with being a daughter of a great house, and the lack of freedom that wealth exacted. Gain one thing, lose another: few phrases had ever applied more sharply.
Even Elodie, to some degree, understood. She might not have once—but the family she belonged to now was a modern dynasty of no small standing.
"I understand."
"Hearing that eases my mind somewhat. At any rate, as I said—I am not as tenderly attached as the two of you. Even so, I mean to act on the wish to close the distance."
"Because you have feelings for him?"
"Naturally. I have already borne a child in the arms of a man I felt nothing for. This much is hardly difficult."
And for that, she needed the leave of the so-called primary wife. Camilla's speech had run long, but the substance could be reduced to a single line.
"What would you have done if this were not a world that allowed polygamy?"
Elodie asked after a long silence. The modern world, thinned by so many specter-related deaths, permitted multiple marriages. She wondered what Camilla would have done without that.
Camilla answered at once.
"Even if I could not bring him into the family, it would be no great matter. Such arrangements were hardly unheard of in the old days. And given his nature, he would not refuse a child."
It made no difference to her. There was little sign of deep deliberation in the answer—but its cool clarity was unmatched.
"I'm already grateful just to be near him," Marie said. "It isn't as though daily life is inconvenient. If I can receive his seed and make a child, that would be happiness enough."
She kept her face carefully blank as she stroked her lower belly—gently, with quiet longing.
"At the very least it would feel far better than making a child with some other man."
Camilla stopped mid-sentence and locked eyes with Elodie. The heavy talk had sunk the mood; now it began to lift again.
"Come to think of it—how does he perform as a male? You are the only one here who has tried him, are you not?"
Crude. Blunt. Not a question that often left the mouth of an ordinary young woman—not outside the shield of anonymity, at any rate. But none of them were merely young women. They had borne children and lived through old age; whatever youth's influence still colored them, their minds were those of unfettered elders. These were old bodies. So long as nothing went badly wrong, what did it matter?
"Well… simply being held by him is happiness enough that I've never really thought about it."
Elodie blinked, calling the nights to mind. She had the knowledge; she had known pleasure. There had been no particular lack.
"Then have you ever lost your wits at the peak? I have never experienced such a thing myself, so I cannot speak to it."
An even franker question from Camilla. Marie said nothing, but her shy interest was plain.
"There was fullness, yes."
Elodie, caught up in the same strange boldness, gave a rather unguarded answer. The rougher edge she had acquired living through battlefields of blood and throats and rolling entrails showed its face.
"I see."
Camilla gave a short reply and a nod—already thinking that if his function as a male was lacking, she would simply have to make up the difference herself.
Elodie spoke again.
"In any case, I understand your intent. And Marie seems to feel much the same."
"Just so. What will you do, then?"
"For now… I will accept it."
Monogamy was the natural structure of a household, so any departure from it tended to put people on edge—jealousy, resentment toward an unfaithful spouse. But in Elodie those feelings ran very thin. Like her, Camilla and Marie were bound to him by a special tie that stretched across past lives. It also helped that she had already lived a thoroughly satisfying life with Seo Ji-hyuk. They had had many children. And last of all, she was, by nature, a person of broad understanding.
"Very well. After all, I'm the only one here who has married him in this life and borne his child. In more ways than one, that is a special bond."
Indeed. Marie and Camilla both nodded at once.
"But if I were to refuse—what would you do? What, exactly, could you do about it?"
And if I say no, then what? What can you even do? Aside from fretting and whining, what can you actually do?
Had Seo Ji-hyuk been watching, that was surely what he would have thought. Elodie, however, was deliberately needling them—testing how far their sincerity ran. Times had changed, and hearts had changed; she could accept this. But if either of them crossed a line, she fully intended to push them back without mercy. Sharing was one thing. Being openly robbed of him was something even broad-minded Elodie would not tolerate.
"Why, nothing at all. What could one possibly do?"
Camilla shrugged and gave a short laugh. She found the prospect a little regrettable, but she was not about to make a fool of herself over it.
"I… for my part, there is nothing I could do either."
Marie, by contrast, made no effort to hide the sorrow and regret in her face and voice. Unlike Camilla, the feelings she held for Seo Ji-hyuk ran deep. She had even watched him die before her eyes because of her—more than Camilla, perhaps even more than Elodie. Small wonder she burned and clung so hard.
"I'm sorry. That was unkind of me."
Elodie dipped her head slightly to show the apology. Having confirmed they would not cross the line, the right thing was to soothe them.
Marie spoke.
"It's all right. My fault is the greater one. But… what, specifically, should we do?"
Her question was aimed not at Elodie but at Camilla—the one who had called the meeting in the first place.
"Why ask me of all people? Still… a few thoughts do come to mind at once."
"Such as?"
"The order in which we bear children. The order of the bed. The order and share of time each of us may have alone with him—and so on."
The bed was no small matter. Strength gathered in Elodie's eyes.
"Is that all for now?"
"Mm. If anything further occurs to you, decide it as you see fit. Including, of course, the rules I have just named."
"I will. And…"
Elodie broke off for a moment and looked over both women, as if to change the subject.
"Is there anything else you wished to say?"
When Marie asked, Elodie nodded.
"Since things have come to this, I think it would be best if you both simply made your home here. Marie, staying at Valérie's forever is inconvenient, and the same goes for you, Camilla."
"True enough—but do you have something in mind?"
"I received a considerable reward for the vampire purge this time. I thought I might put some of it to use."
Korea, France, and several other countries besides. She had not thrown herself into the work with payment in mind, but in the end the reward had been large—including Camilla's share.
"Ah yes—you collected my portion in my stead. I am known as a criminal, after all."
Camilla gave a dry little laugh and stroked her throat. The black choker still gleamed around her neck.
"Yes. That's right," Elodie said.
"Then let us use that money for a residence. It is shameful and I am sorry to ask it, but… my knowledge is lacking. I shall need your help."
"That much is no trouble at all—don't give it a second thought. Though… am I free to decide the design and so on as well?"
"Do so. One can hardly be difficult with the primary wife."
She left it entirely in Elodie's hands. Marie signaled her agreement as well. They were no longer nobles; so long as the place was reasonably clean, that was enough.
"Then I'll take care of everything."
Perhaps we should go look at furnishings together.
Clear as day in Elodie's mind rose the face of Seo Ji-hyuk—somehow changed from before.