Chapter 77
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: With Another Woman Before the Engagement Ceremony
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After the meal ended.
"Wow, did you see the freshmen’s faces? They looked ready to drop dead."
"Eating mushroom chicken while we’re chowing down on real chicken next to them? Anyone would make that face."
"Veggie burgers really are the worst. I tried one before, and the taste was just..."
"Ugh, horrifying."
We leisurely picked at our teeth with toothpicks as we stepped out of the restaurant.
The main topic of conversation was, predictably, the relative deprivation from our diets.
Sure enough, the satisfaction of chewing into premium hanwoo beef while they munched on soy patties was nothing short of heavenly.
"Hmm... so we’ve got to keep this up for at least three more months?"
"And Geon-ho said he’d prepare a new vegan menu every single day..."
"The most diabolical part is... he lets us taste meat once a week, but only..."
""In tiny amounts!""
If we’d been completely cut off, we could’ve toughed it out and drowned our sorrows with a proper dinner replacement.
But Kim Geon-ho’s regimen was viciously clever, slipping in minuscule portions of meat right when the vegan stuff started getting stale.
An utterly ruthless tactic.
The most humiliating part? Knowing full well it was a trap, but being unable to resist anyway.
In a hellish lineup of mushroom chicken and soy steaks, a single piece of beef descends like manna from heaven.
You know it’s a taunt, a demand for submission, but it’s the kind of temptation no one can ignore.
Your brain whispers it a thousand times—just eat it, come on—and the first-year cadets had no defense against it.
"Wow... this year’s freshmen are legendary in every way."
Even the upperclassmen were stunned by their sheer lack of backbone.
While everyone was busy praising, marveling, and recoiling in horror at Kim Geon-ho’s methods...
One person was lost in completely unrelated thoughts.
So, did they do the engagement ceremony or not?
It was Airi, the daughter of a fallen house and bearer of a silenced song.
Truth be told, she couldn’t have cared less what was on the menu.
There hasn’t been any official word that the engagement fell through...
What mattered was Kim Geon-ho and Heila’s engagement ceremony.
The most official bond, formed with someone other than her.
Airi was furious, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it.
Because...
I’m... the daughter of a fallen house.
A family plunged into disgrace amid accusations of betrayal and treachery.
The shock had stripped her of every power she once wielded—reason enough to deem her unworthy.
Compared to the houses of Marren and Heila, her own was a pathetic shadow, a worthless husk.
Airi knew that full well, but she still couldn’t bring herself to give up on Kim Geon-ho.
It had been so long since she’d found any sense of stability.
She didn’t want to be shoved aside for some paltry reason like that.
That’s why the question of whether the ceremony had happened was so crucial to her.
If it hadn’t, then she still had a shot—right up until it did.
...Marren did it too.
Sleeping together before any official ties were formed.
Not just a kiss, but full-on intimacy. That fact alone was a powerful weapon.
Of course, it had been her first time—terrifying. And that thing of his she’d glimpsed before...
"You... it’s too big!"
Thinking back, it really was enormous.
"Huh?"
Kim Geon-ho, who’d been standing quietly, tilted his head at Airi’s sudden outburst.
But Airi’s eyes went straight to his lower half before she even registered his reaction.
This isn’t a joke!
Even in the reference videos she’d watched for “preparation,” sizes like his were rare.
Not monstrously inhuman or anything, but the kind that made you think it’d split you right open on sight.
From what she’d seen, the women in those videos convulsed the instant it happened.
I’d probably end up the same...
But for some reason, she didn’t feel like holding back.
Wanting to do it with the person you love? That was just natural.
I’ll just ask him.
Agonizing alone and blurting out nonsense wasn’t helping. Better to take a step forward.
Gathering her courage, Airi was about to ask Kim Geon-ho the truth about the engagement when...
"Geon-ho, remember that time we were rolling around at your place..."
Crackle.
Marren’s ambush furrowed Airi’s brow instantly.
"What did you do?"
"Oh, it was nothing big... Geon-ho called me over because he was bored."
"...To be precise, Marren showed up at our house."
Airi wasn’t the only one frowning at the interruption.
"Hold on. How does that bitch know our home address when even I, your fiancée, don’t?"
Heila, thoroughly irritated, shot Kim Geon-ho a glare demanding a full explanation.
"Like I said, Marren tracked it down herself. The address thing... I got briefly tangled up with the Marren house a while back, so..."
That damn house.
Unlike others, Airi felt no despair over her lack of backing since her family’s fall.
She was just a little pissed.
Revenge is inevitable anyway.
She was gathering evidence. Once she graduated from Hero Academy and built her strength through accomplishments, she could rebuild her house.
Sure, going without a family now was depressing and infuriating, but she refused to wallow in self-pity.
Because Airi was no longer alone.
Kim Geon-ho, who looked at her for who she was, house be damned.
The man who protected her without flinching against rival factions.
With him, she’d learned to love herself fiercely.
I can’t wield my house’s power yet...
But she saw that as a temporary state.
In just a few years, she’d bind Kim Geon-ho to her with her family’s full might.
With that resolve, Airi tightly gripped Kim Geon-ho’s hand amid the awkward tension.
"Right? I trust you, Geon-ho. Our deep kiss connected our hearts, after all."
To think I’d end up using Marren’s go-to line.
Airi clung to his hand, rapidly steering the conversation to shut out the others.
"I trust you this much, so you’ve got to trust me too, okay?"
"Huh? Uh?"
"I want to come to your house too."
"When?"
"Today."
From the sound of it, they hadn’t held the engagement ceremony yet.
Getting intimate before the ceremony? That’s fair game.
Airi nodded to herself. Perfectly upright and honorable.
"...Hmm."
"Is something troubling you?"
Baek Na-eun.
Wife of Kim Jang-seok and bride of the Mountain Lords.
Officially Kim Geon-ho’s mother, she’d been wrestling with one worry lately.
"My son’s popularity is getting out of hand..."
Kim Geon-ho’s appeal was soaring without regard for the heavens.
Even after the official announcement of his engagement to Heila, marriage proposals flooded in relentlessly.
How could they? He’d already said yes, yet here they were, begging him to reconsider for their daughters.
It was so absurd she was left dumbfounded—and more than a little angry.
"I told them, ‘Geon-ho’s a late bloomer; he’ll rise even higher later,’ and they ignored me. But now? They flip like a pancake and send proposals anyway!"
Kim Yeo-sook, the longtime servant attending Baek Na-eun, nodded vigorously in agreement.
"I think so too, ma’am. The young master is extraordinary."
"Exactly! Which is why I’m even more worried."
"Pardon?"
"That extraordinary son of mine already has three girlfriends."
"Th-three?"
"...Yes."
Like father, like son.
Kim Yeo-sook sensed the young master hadn’t changed a bit.
He’d had at least two girlfriends since kindergarten days.
That talent hadn’t faded with age—it was shining brighter than ever.
"So you’re