Chapter 203: The Mermaid Princess and the Perverted Prince (11)
Chapter 203: The Mermaid Princess and the Perverted Prince (11)
—Ruji Fermaton is getting married!!
Fermaton was instantly plunged into chaos.
Marriage.
Normally, when someone says they’re getting married, you offer congratulations or perhaps condolences. But when a "Fermaton" says they’re getting married, it brings nothing but utter confusion.
"No, wait. How old is Ruji Fermaton right now?"
"Young. Extremely young. Even if he had a son right this second, he wouldn't even be fifty by the time the kid becomes an adult."
"Oh, shit. Then won't their ages 'overlap'?"
Overlapping ages.
This was a massive problem.
"I don't know if things are going to go to hell if some unnecessary conflict breaks out."
"There's still so much profit to be milked from the Infinite Labyrinth. Tsk. Having multiple Fermatons around only makes things unstable..."
"Why can't he just do what the previous Fermatons did? Why is he doing this? Ha, seriously. Why is he creating risks for himself!"
Until now, the Fermatons had managed their age gaps with extreme precision.
The method was simple: they adjusted the timing so that the next Fermaton would reach adulthood just as the previous one was dying.
Assuming the average human lifespan was sixty years:
They would father a child at forty, raise them, and hand over everything when the child turned twenty. For those first twenty years of adulthood, a Fermaton enjoyed absolute sexual freedom—doing whatever they wanted, with whoever they wanted—as long as they didn't get anyone pregnant. Then, about twenty years before their expected death, they would impregnate exactly one woman to produce an heir.
This was only possible because of a tacit agreement among everyone in Fermaton.
If someone held a grudge against a Fermaton and tried to kill the sole heir?
—You crazy bastard! Are you trying to cut off our meal ticket?!
—Are you going to screw us all over just for your petty revenge?!
—You son of a bitch! Don't you know that as shitty as the Fermatons are, they're sacred ground?!
The people living in Fermaton would throw their bodies on the line to stop it.
It wasn't out of loyalty or a sense of gratitude for the Fermaton's kindness. It was a display of excessive loyalty born from the sheer terror of the economic system built upon the Infinite Labyrinth collapsing.
Thus, the Fermatons had maintained a single bloodline.
To ensure Fermatons never committed fratricide.
To ensure that multiple Fermatons didn't pop up and get seduced by outside forces into using the Labyrinth's resources for their own ends.
To ensure that only one Fermaton held all the decision-making power, the people had protected the existence of a single Fermaton through a silent social contract.
But Ruji Fermaton was getting married at a young age—not even thirty, let alone forty?
—I understand him wanting to become the Count. It's about time he took the title.
—Enjoying his freedom and then stepping up to his duties? Okay. But marriage is a no-go!!
—I'd understand if he said he'd marry and not have kids! I could even accept it if he married a man and said, "I'll love this man for the rest of my life and then impregnate some random woman twenty years before I die!" But not this!!
Ruji Fermaton.
In his twenties, he intended to impregnate multiple women.
—How many kids is he planning to have? Is he going to knock up every woman he sleeps with?
—I'm worried he'll have too many even with just one wife, but he's saying he'll marry every woman he has? Is he insane?
—He won't... die from overexertion, will he? No, he won't, but the problem is that if there are multiple children, every faction out there is going to start acting up.
The Kingdom.
The Empire.
The Adventurer's Guild.
The Magic Towers.
There were already four major powers with their claws in Fermaton.
And within the struggle of these giants, there were dozens of smaller organizations trying to set the stage so they might catch a few scraps of profit.
Suppose.
Suppose a new Fermaton was born to the daughter of a shopkeeper.
Then everyone would start begging that daughter's parents, her family, and her relatives for favors.
Whether it was asking for a tax cut,
Or asking for the exclusive right for their adventurer party to raid a specific floor of the Infinite Labyrinth,
Or trying to arrange a meeting between the next Fermaton and a child from their own faction to ensure the future Count or Countess was one of their own.
Anything.
—Let the Fermaton do whatever he wants!
—Right up until he dies.
—Just make sure he fathers a child twenty years before he kicks the bucket, raises him well, does whatever the hell he wants, and then dies on schedule!
—Just like the Fermatons have always done!!
Because a new Fermaton held absolute power, at least until they produced an heir.
But.
He was going to split that power himself?
He was going to lay down that power early?
—Doesn't that mean we can just kill Ruji Fermaton the moment his kid turns twenty?
—We only need one Fermaton, right?
—As long as that brat of Ruji's is alive, Ruji can die for all I care.
It meant death would come that much sooner.
To avoid that death, he would need a level of overwhelming power that could control all of Fermaton, but would that be easy?
—Every Fermaton tried and failed, eventually submitting to their fate. Can Ruji Fermaton really do it?
Why.
Why would he commit such a madness as moving his own funeral up by twenty years?
Only Ruji Fermaton knew the answer.
The people could only speculate through rumors.
Ruji Fermaton.
There was only one reason he wanted to get married.
"Because he wants to have pregnancy sex."
He was a madman.
* * *
"What do you think, Mother?"
"...Are you doing this for your image, or are you being serious?"
Countess Zenith still couldn't grasp my true intentions.
"Are you really planning to get married?"
"Of course. Isn't that why I came to take the title of Count?"
For me to become the Count, first, Zenith had to hand the title over to me.
Seeking permission from the Royal Family was a secondary formality.
The most important thing was Zenith transferring the Fermaton Earldom to me.
That was the first step for me to start a new life as a Count and, simultaneously, to marry multiple women as a Count.
"If you don't hand over the title quietly, there will be bloodshed."
"...To say such a thing to me. Are you serious?"
"Yes. I will fuck you and fuck you again until you hand over the title."
"......Sigh. Of course you would."
Zenith frowned.
"I thought you were going to say you'd take the title through blood and iron like other nobles."
"That's not the Ruji Fermaton way."
While other nobles wielded swords and spears to gain power, I wielded my cock.
"I will make Fermaton strong in my own way. So that no one dares to look down on us. I told you that day, didn't I? That I would build a Fermaton Kingdom."
"...You did."
"You were always worried. Worried that I might rebel against the Kingdom."
It was the mindset of a medieval fantasy noblewoman. A natural conclusion.
Since she didn't know what I might do, she had been watching me until now out of concern.
"A Kingdom, an Empire—these aren't just political systems. If capital, magic stones, military force, and sex can become power and rule over people, then that itself is a Kingdom."
"Are you saying you'll transcend the state?"
"Yes. Well, I might become a state in the process, but rather than swallowing a Kingdom or an Empire, I think it's enough to run Fermaton as long as they don't interfere with me."
I didn't want world conquest.
However, I wanted to enjoy as much power as an organization that had conquered the world—no, even more than that.
"Rule, but do not reign."
It's the opposite in reality, but in this world, I would be a ruler who does not reign.
"I will make the Kingdom and the Empire bow to me on their own."
One who can control everything without having to sit on a throne.
"While others strive to be kings and emperors, I intend to become a god."
"...A god of sex?"
"I'm not just talking about the act itself. Hehe."
I could be the God of Capital, the God of Magic Stones, or the God of Sex.
"The one who holds all power based on sex. A dictator of sex. The pioneer who opened the era of a Rape Dictatorship."
If an omnipotent being who coordinates everything is called a Deus Ex Machina, I would dare to call myself the Deus Sex Machina.
"From now on, I will show the people of this territory countless acts of sex. I'll catch mermaids in the coastal zone of the Labyrinth to provide opportunities for interspecies sex, and I'll build a water park on the plains over there to create an outdoor resort where people can walk around in swimsuits. It would be good to build lodging facilities nearby, like inns, to encourage men and women to have sex."
"It all comes back to sex, doesn't it?"
"That's who I am. So, Mother. It's time for you to hand over the title of Count."
"......Hehe."
Zenith could only let out a hollow laugh.
"Really. When you suddenly cut your hair and became a different person, I wondered why you had changed so much."
"Is it strange?"
"No. I actually prefer it. I've been wearing a crown that didn't fit me for too long."
Zenith pulled a ring from her left hand.
"This is the ring of the Count of Fermaton. Wearing this doesn't suddenly make you the Count, but..."
"It's the same as having an investiture ceremony to become a knight. Mother. Will you put it on me?"
"...Of course."
I reached out to Zenith, and she slid the ring onto my finger.
"...Hehe, should I start calling you 'Count' right away?"
"Please, speak comfortably. It's nice to be called Count, but I've prepared a gift for you."
"What is it? Your cock? Are you going to fill my belly with semen?"
"What do you take me for?"
I pulled an object from my robe.
"Will you become my Countess, rather than the Countess of the former Count Fermaton? My Lady?"
"......What is this?"
Zenith frowned.
"Saying such cringeworthy lines all of a sudden... that's not the Ruji Fermaton I know."
"Now that I'm the Count, I should change as a person too."
Yes.
I wasn't just Ruji Fermaton anymore.
"From now on, I am Ruji 'Lewd-Man' Fermaton."
"I've never heard of such a middle name."
"I made it up myself."
"...Sigh."
Zenith tilted her head.
"I don't know if this is right. Do you really want to get those women pregnant that badly?"
"Yes. Of course."
There was a perfectly valid reason.
"If they don't have children now, they'll suffer from the complications of advanced maternal age later. I can't let my women go through such pain and terrible experiences, can I?"