Suddenly, a Meeting with the Parents (2)
Suddenly, a Meeting with the Parents (2)
To Yujin, it had been nothing more than a minor slip of the tongue.
It was somewhat embarrassing, but Yoo Jeongcheol, head of the clan, didn't think much of it.
'Had he choked a little while trying to talk about taxes? Heh heh.'
Given the context, the boy could not possibly have been making a sexual joke at him. He must simply have stumbled over the word 'tax.'
It was only natural for a young man to be nervous before the head of a major clan.
If anything, he had intended to laugh heartily and say, 'So you have a human side after all.'
...At least, until Sia, his only daughter, suddenly flew off the handle.
"S-S-Sex...!?"
'What was I saying in front of Dad!?!'
It was an explosive reaction born of a colossal misunderstanding.
From Sia's perspective, however, the misunderstanding had been unavoidable.
There had been Yujin's strange mood earlier, and the pounding in her chest when he touched her bare shoulder.
Then there was the hypnosis, which had almost seemed designed to prevent her from seducing anyone else...
And finally, the atmosphere of meeting the parents.
All of it had left her thoroughly confused, and then she had heard a word perfectly suited to the wrong conclusion.
She couldn't help springing to her feet in shock.
'Was Yujin seriously bringing that up right in front of my dad!? If he really wanted to do that with me, he should've come to me first...'
"That's not it! I was trying to talk about taxes and my tongue just slipped!"
"......Oh."
Of course, that misunderstanding lasted only an instant.
Yujin's explanation made Sia realize her mistake immediately.
The 'ta...' he'd started to say had meant taxes?
Right. There was no way he'd talk about that to my dad.
He was an innocent kid who never even thought about that sort of thing.
Overwhelming embarrassment followed the stunned realization.
—Flush.
'What on earth was wrong with me...!? Had that vixen Alice corrupted me!!?'
Sia wanted to crawl into the nearest hole.
Though if she tried, her needlessly plump hips and thighs would probably get stuck, and Alice would exclaim, 'Stuck in a wall!' But never mind that.
Only two seconds passed before Sia covered her face in mortification.
That was more than enough time for Yoo Jeongcheol to grasp the situation.
'It was clearly a slip of the tongue given the circumstances, yet Sia reacted like that?'
'His daughter had become that embarrassed merely on hearing the word sex.'
No matter how innocent she was, even Sia wouldn't normally react with such extreme shyness...
'...Could that bastard have done something with my daughter!!?'
A suspicion flashed through his mind.
Could his daughter recently have done something involving the word 'sex'?
Was that why she had become so excessively embarrassed?
And could the culprit have been Yujin, standing right before him?
Suspicion hardened into certainty.
'No wonder he had looked so good!! Right, there was no way a guy with that face was a decent young man. He must have seduced my innocent Sia with that slick face of his!!'
For the first time, Yujin's looks counted against him.
He had always looked like the sort of man who could effortlessly seduce women.
That playboy had ensnared his precious daughter!
A girl who knew nothing, who'd still been wearing her high school uniform just last year!
The cool-headed businessman transformed into a father deranged with fury.
"Why, you insolent son of a bitch!!!?"
"......!!? It's a misunderstanding, Father!!"
"Who are you calling Father, you thief!?"
"That's not what I meant!!"
For Yujin, the accusation came out of nowhere.
He'd suddenly become the immoral young man who'd boldly cracked a sex joke in front of his father-in-law.
The injustice nearly brought him to tears.
And now he was a thief too?
The man actually suspected him of having done something sexual with Sia?
"Sia and I do not have that kind of relationship... Ah."
'Wait. I'd rather die than deny this.'
He found himself unable to deny it.
He was working this hard for his wives. How could he deny the bond he shared with them?
Yujin simply couldn't force out the words, 'Sia and I are not like that.'
"......You bastard!!!"
'He couldn't deny it in front of the woman he had embraced, was that it!?'
Veins bulged across Yoo Jeongcheol's wrinkled hands.
It was absolute fury—the same level of rage he had shown only when Yujin prostrated himself to seek permission for a harem in the First Round.
Yujin hurriedly initiated an evasive maneuver.
"I-I told you it's not like that! Right, Sia? Nothing strange has happened between us, has it!?"
"R-Right, Father! We haven't done anything yet...!"
"Yet?!! Ye-et!!!!!?"
Yujin and Sia moved in seamless coordination, while Yoo Jeongcheol brushed their teamwork aside with his berserk pattern.
Tears welled up in Sia's eyes.
"I-It is true... I said it is true..."
'I was so embarrassed. Please, just stop...!!!'
She had already wanted to die from the first misunderstanding.
Now her father was making an even greater scene.
And the innocent Yujin was so flustered he didn't know what to do?
She felt twice as guilty and four times as mortified by her father.
And in the first place, was it right to argue in front of his daughter about whether she and Yujin had done it?
Right in front of the boy involved, no less?
—Tremble, tremble.
'Dad, you idiot, moron, blockhead...!!!'
For the first time, Sia felt resentful of her father's love.
Her fist trembled.
Yoo Jeongcheol's fist was also trembling.
"How dare you touch my Sia!!!"
-Whoosh.
Even though he knew full well from his wife that an ordinary civilian could never defeat an awakener, he threw the punch at Yujin without the slightest hesitation.
Faced with that resolve, Yujin closed his eyes as well...
'Unyielding would keep it from hurting anyway, so I'd let him hit me once. Once he calmed down, I could explain again...'
-Whiz.
"Dad, that's enough!!!"
"......!!!"
...Before he could close his eyes, Sia stepped in.
Her face was redder than ever at her father's antics.
And then,
"Sia, stay out of—"
"I said it wasn't true!!! You pervert!!!!"
-Crash!!!
Shadows rose from every direction.
Sia's S-rank Innate Talent engulfed her own father.
There was no way an ordinary civilian could withstand a shadow-powered smack to the back.
"...Gahhk."
-Thump.
His body slowly crumpled.
Sia stood there in front of him, fuming.
"Hmph... Seriously, you idiot. You complete moron. I hate you, Dad."
"......."
'Would my father-in-law be okay...?'
As the saying went, no parent could defeat their child. It had proven true.
* * *
My father-in-law had collapsed after raging for quite a while.
I considered rushing him to the hospital, but fortunately, he was back on his feet soon enough.
"......Ugh, Sia, you're pretty heavy-handed. You take after your mother."
'He was awfully used to being knocked out and waking up, wasn't he?'
Perhaps that strange familiarity was simply the fate of a man married to an awakener.
As I felt an odd sense of kinship with him, my father-in-law regained his composure and looked at me again.
"You are..."
"I swear, nothing like what you're worried about ever happened, Clan Head."
'At least, not in the Second Round.'
"Alright. I believe you."
"......?"
He had ignored every word earlier, yet now he believed me. What was going on?
"Even while I was doing that, you never used hypnosis or even tried to dodge, did you?"
"Ah."
"The guilty try to hide their faults, while the innocent seek to prove their purity. That was enough to convince me."
He rarely resorted to violence, so I had assumed he was simply that furious, but...
Had he been testing me even at the height of his rage?
He had not become the head of Korea's strongest clan for nothing.
I couldn't help but admire him.
"As expected of you, Clan Head!"
"Right. And more than anything..."
—Glance.
"It's the first time Sia has ever defied me, you see. What can I do when my beloved daughter acts like that? Heh heh."
"......?"
I didn't know why he was bringing up Sia.
I tilted my head without thinking.
'Of course Sia would stop him. Who could stand by while he threw a punch at someone he was trying to recruit?'
"Hm? That look... Good grief. You really had not noticed at all?"
"Pardon?"
"It is nothing. Good grief."
—Mutter, mutter.
"How can a man be so oblivious? It is almost as though he hypnotized himself."
He even muttered something while looking back and forth between Sia and me.
As I blinked in confusion, Sia hurriedly cut in.
"S-St-Stop talking nonsense!! More importantly, the contract! He finally agreed to join, so have him sign it first!!"
"Hmm. Right, let's do that."
Thanks to that, the topic returned to the contract.
A sheet of paper slid toward me.
It was Cheonhwa Clan's exclusive contract.
"You even researched current signing bonuses for awakeners, so you know what this is, right?"
"Of course."
"Good. That makes this easier. Then..."
-Slide.
A luxurious fountain pen was handed to me as well.
I wasn't flustered, as I'd experienced this in the First Round too.
"If there are any terms you want, feel free to write them in."
"Dad? What does that..."
"We will pay you a signing bonus of 20 billion won. It's an unprecedented sum in Korea, but still less than what those American bastards offered."
"I have no issue with it..."
"What do you mean, it does not matter? I have no intention of being accused of offering an unfair contract, so write down whatever you want. I'll accommodate you as much as possible."
This was effectively a blank-check contract.
It was clear that almost any demand I made would be granted.
I accepted without hesitation.
"Then I gratefully accept."
—Scribble, scribble.
The pen danced freely across the contract's blank space.
A dedicated response team and legal counsel to handle malicious comments and false information targeting me.
Publicity to build a positive public image.
Protocols to protect my privacy and personal information.
Outsourced operation and management of my social-media accounts after graduation, and so on.
The page soon filled with clauses preparing for the backlash once I formed my harem.
"These are things the clan normally handles anyway. Is there a need to stress them like this?"
"I hate being bad-mouthed by strangers. I'm willing to cover any additional costs myself, so please be thorough."
"...I won't pry. Understood."
My father-in-law, who had been watching, let out a sigh.
He was probably assuming I had some complicated backstory.
I didn't bother to correct the misunderstanding.
This wasn't for my sake, but for my wives, who would be hurt to see people bad-mouth me.
If his misunderstanding made him take a little extra care of me, I could only be grateful.
So I kept scribbling without hesitation.
As I finished writing the last clause, cries of astonishment burst out from both sides of me.
[The payment of the 20 billion won contract fee shall be substituted by donating it to the Cheonhwa Foundation.]
"......Huh? Yujin?"
"Young man, are you in your right mind?"
It was a clause that even surprised Sia and her father, two of the clan's executives.
It was practically a statement of intent to sign the contract without taking any money.
However, my expression was perfectly calm.
"Yes, I'm in my right mind."
'A real man ought to draw the big picture.'
Because I was aiming for something far bigger than a measly 20 billion won.