Chapter 270: Side Story – ‘Fathers-in-Law’ Please Give Me Your Daughters! (6)

Alisha’s shocking confession made Sophia collapse on the inside, but the situation had already tipped completely to one side.

A done deal really is like that.

What is she supposed to do if it already happened?

Ah, that I’ll take responsibility — isn’t that obvious?

“Ughk, ugggggh…!”

Seeing Lady Sophia grind her teeth as if they were going to shatter while glaring daggers at me, I felt a sting of guilt.

“Yes, honestly… I’m trash.”

“Well, it’s not like that’s a lie.”

“Corin, there’s a saying you chose your own harem. Now endure it with guts.”

“Where exactly did you learn that…?”

Anyway, even though Lady Sophia was trembling with rage, the atmosphere in the Arden family was as if they were celebrating a major occasion.

From the beginning, they weren’t against polygamy, so yes—this is definitely a family ruled by the supremacy of strength.

Whoosh!

And then the appointed time came.

A portal opened toward the Arden residence.

“Good afternoon. I see everyone is here.”

Josephine Clara.

She had come to pick me up.

“Oh, Professor Josephine.”

“Ah, it’s Professor Josephine.”

The eastern swordsmen—especially the knight-ranked ones—greeted her as if they’d known her all their lives.

Well, that made sense.

She’d been teaching at Merkabah Academy for over 80 years.

Almost all swordsmen of the East had passed through her classes.

“Lady Clara…”

Lady Sophia, who moments earlier had been trembling with fury against me, bowed her head to Josephine.

Hmm, that greeting sounded different from usual.

“Sana. It’s been a while.”

“…Yes.”

Well, it’s possible Lady Sophia was also Josephine’s student.

“I came to pick up student Corin. But did the conversation reach a good conclusion?”

“…”

Sophia trembled again, but she couldn’t deny it.

Letting out a deep sigh, she murmured in defeat.

“That man already… already consummated things with my daughters, what could I possibly do?”

“Pardon? A done deal?”

Josephine didn’t understand anything.

Ugh… do I have to explain this?

“That man… with my daughters… he… he—!”

As Josephine listened to the details, her face hardened.

And fwhap! she turned her head toward me, eyes sharp as blades.

“H-help me, my wives…”

“Dear, you haven’t even had the wedding yet, you know?”

“Ah, I… need to go somewhere for a moment—…”

Josephine walked toward me with firm steps, heels striking the ground.

Even then, neither Lunia nor Alisha dared look her in the eyes.

Of course—they were also her students.

“Student Corin.”

“Y-yes… professor.”

“Until now, I thought you were a young man with exceptional self-control and patience.”

“R-really? Thank you…”

“But I never imagined that… before marriage…”

“Professor Josephine, actually Alisha was the one who—”

“A man does not make excuses!”

“Yes, ma’am…”

Josephine cracked a whip in the air while looking at me with pure contempt.

“And to think Erin wants to marry you… what a tragedy.”

Didn’t she say she saw her like a daughter…? Why is she acting like a mother sending her child into a pit of lions?

“She’s completely infatuated. The worrying thing is that she forgives you absolutely everything.”

“Ahem… it’s just that I’m doing all this so everyone ends up okay…”

Well, whatever. At this point, being shameless is all I have left.

From the start I didn’t think I’d get everyone’s approval peacefully.

“So, the next destination…”

“Do you also plan on getting approval… in this manner?”

“No, no. I wouldn’t do it intentionally, professor.”

Lunia and Alisha were the ones who pushed me— I’m not that reckless.

“I’m trying to do things properly… please help me out a little.”

“Good heavens…”

Josephine sighed as if looking at a natural disaster, then activated a new spatial warp circle.

She came here only to take me.

“Corin, are you leaving already?”

Alisha approached quietly.

“Yes. I have to inform the others.”

“Then… next time will be in the capital?”

“It won’t take that long.”

“Student Corin, step into the magic circle.”

At Josephine’s urging, I stepped forward and stood at the center.

Lunia, Alisha—even Sophia, though her face was full of disgust—came to see me off.

“I’ll return soon, my wives.”

The two smiled faintly.

Sophia’s face wrinkled even more, but I’m sure that once I bring her many grandchildren she’ll get over it.

My children will not be allowed to have harems, so the next generation will be peaceful. Yes, sir.

And so, the circle activated and I was swallowed by the illusory space.

***

Thanks to Josephine’s ultra long-distance spatial jump, we arrived at a small eastern village surrounded by lush vegetation.

A rural village of the Eastern Empire that never appears in the main story of Arhan Hero Legends.

Here is the ancestral house of Hua and Ran’s family.

“Didn’t you say someone arrived before us?”

“Yes. I sent a message and the head of the Kang clan proposed returning home.”

Josephine spoke as if she herself had brought her.

Flying from Merkabah Academy to here on Hresvelgr would take almost an entire month.

Having a teleporter capable of spatial leaps is an absurd convenience.

“Miss Kang Yu-hwa, right?”

“Correct.”

Hua Ran—more precisely, Kang Ran’s father, Kang Yu—had connections with Eochaid Bres, who was one of Master Erin’s alter egos.

Apparently, during a collaboration with the Eastern Bora-mae Academy, he helped greatly with the development of the oriental magic department.

By the way, if we go back about 150 years, the first director of Bora-mae Academy was also Master Erin.

The unrivaled genius of illusory arts, Kang Yu, asked the master right before dying to take care of his daughter.

When the master received the letter and arrived with Lady Josephine, the tragedy known as the “Lunar Night City Incident” had already occurred—

A forbidden technique with no precedent turning a living human into a jiangshi to save a dying daughter.

That is why Ran became a jiangshi and, at first, was little more than a monster controlled by talismans.

However, Kang Ryun—the one who manipulated everything from the shadows and used Hua Ran for his own purposes—placed all the blame on Kang Yu.

Kang Yu was executed, and Kang Ryun tried to raise Hua to the rank of “posterior” and make her completely his own, but the master and Josephine took her away and ruined his plans.

Then came the Festival incident, meant as an event of harmony between the eastern and western academies.

Using the festival, he set up a magic formation and planned to completely erase Ran’s personality and elevate Hua to the level of “posterior.”

Well, you know how that ended.

After that, Bora-mae Academy was apparently turned upside down.

Head Professor Kang Ryun had committed such infamous acts, and although they were deceived, student council president Kang Yu-hwa and second-year head Sa Jin-hyuk had participated as well.

Even so, everything was handled secretly and there was no big uproar. Besides, Kang Ryun ended up with his head crushed by Estelle during the attack on the saint of the Magic Tower.

In summary, the villains died, and only Ran’s cousin, Kang Yu-hwa, and Sa Jin-hyuk—who hated Hua as if she were a mortal enemy—remained.

Since everything was covered up, all blame fell on the late Kang Ryun, and both Yu-hwa and Jin-hyuk were declared innocent.

Yu-hwa resigned as student council president, but even so, it was a happy ending for her.

And today—

We arrived at Hua and Ran’s hometown.

Well, to be precise, not their original hometown.

Kang Yu’s residence and almost all his property were confiscated when Hua Ran lost control in Lunar Night City.

Therefore, the house we visited was the main residence of the Kang clan, the so-called “mother house.”

“I hope she gets along well with her older cousin.”

“Ran and Hua are good girls, there won’t be any problem.”

Shortly after, we arrived at the main house of the Kang clan.

It wasn’t a ridiculous mansion like Marie’s, but for an influential family of the region, the residence was impressive.

Something like a long row of traditional tiled-roof houses like the ones you see in historical dramas?

But we had to stop in front of the main gate.

Between the long brick-and-tile walls, there were hundreds of fully armed soldiers deployed.

“Student Corin.”

“…Yes, they don’t look like ordinary private mercenaries.”

Just the well-equipped soldiers with swords and spears numbered in the hundreds. Among them were knight-level warriors and mages.

“Who are you?!”

“Stop there!”

The soldiers aimed at us with hostility. Josephine stepped forward.

“I am Josephine Clara, senior director of Merkabah Academy of the western continent. We have come to visit Miss Kang Yu-hwa, relative of one of our students.”

“The head of the Yangmun Kang clan, Kang Yu-hwa, is under arrest for harboring the traitorous criminal Kang Ran! Stand back!”

…Huh? What is happening?

Traitorous criminal? Now? But wasn’t all that cleared long ago?

While I didn’t understand any of it, someone approached.

“You’re a bit late.”

A young man with gray hair, walking clack-clack with his prosthetic leg.

“Sa Jin-hyuk?”

Sa Jin-hyuk, the Two-Sword Dog. He gestured with his chin.

“Let’s move somewhere else. Things have gotten pretty complicated.”

Two weeks ago.

“My home…”

‘…’

Returning after four years.

Ran had returned to her family home with Josephine.

“Then, student Ran, I’ll head back to Merkabah.”

“Yes, director! You’ll come in two weeks, right?”

“Correct. By then student Corin should have reached the Dunaleff duchy. After Dunaleff, it’s the Arden clan. If everything goes as planned, in two weeks he’ll come to the Kang clan to request marriage permission.”

“Hehe… for oppa to come to my house to propose…”

‘Don’t get excited. He’s a womanizer.’

“Oh, Hua, don’t be like that. Nothing to do about it.”

‘Hmph…’

Ran continued speaking softly, as if comforting a little sister.

“Student Hua, student Ran, take good care of yourselves.”

“Yes, professor! Hua also says have a safe trip!”

‘I said nothing.’

After Josephine vanished with another spatial jump, Ran headed excitedly toward the main gate.

“Wow! Everything is exactly the same. That flowering tree, that little alley— all exactly the same.”

Once I greet cousin Yu-hwa, we’ll go tour the village together.

Ran, who as a child couldn’t even run through these streets, was jumping happily when she noticed her sister wasn’t saying anything.

“…I’m sorry, Hua. For you this place only brings bad memories.”

‘…It’s fine.’

For Ran, this place was home.

The relatives’ house she visited by carriage, looking out the window because she was ill.

Though she spent almost her entire life bedridden, she had precious memories of her older cousin carrying her around to see the village.

For little Kang Ran, they were few and short memories, but precisely because of that, she treasured them.

But for Hua Ran, this place only brought pain.

Although she was being manipulated, she had caused a massacre in this country.

Her homeland rejected her, and the owner of the mansion, Kang Ryun, had used her only as a tool.

The monster, the killer, the puppet Hua Ran found her one place of support only when she arrived at the far western continent, at Merkabah.

It was inevitable that they saw their birthplace in completely different ways.

‘It’s fine. If Ran is happy…’

“Everything will be fine now, Hua. It’s already been proven the incident wasn’t your fault.”

Kang Ryun had been eliminated secretly, but all his crimes were made public.

Ran’s father, Kang Yu, could not be rehabilitated for turning a living person into a jiangshi, but at least it was revealed that the real culprit was Kang Ryun.

“From now on we’ll only make good memories. All of us together.”

‘…Yes.’

Many things had changed.

The demon girl who stole her body was now her sister, with whom she shared everything.

Ran and Hua had cleared away all their past resentment and truly loved each other.

And that was possible thanks to a boy who taught them the importance of choice and believed in them.

“Ahem! Right this way, please!”

Hearing Ran’s voice, the main gate opened. A familiar face came out.

“M-Miss Ran?”

“Huh? Aunt Mal-sook?”

“My goodness… you really came back!”

She was a servant who worked for the family. The one who prepared Ran’s three meals a day when Kang Yu was busy with research.

“Come in quickly, Miss Ran! Miss Yu-hwa is waiting for you!”

“Hehe, really?”

Out of habit, Mal-sook crouched to carry Ran on her back like in the old days when the girl couldn’t even walk.

But she quickly realized Ran could walk perfectly.

“Huh?”

“I’m cured now. I’m completely healthy!”

To prove it, Ran jumped and soared over 50 meters vertically before landing gracefully. Mal-sook was left speechless.

“Where’s cousin Yu-hwa? I want to see her already!”

It had been almost two and a half years since she last saw her older cousin after the incident.

Jumping joyfully, with no trace of her old illness, she reached the clan leader’s office in moments.

“Cousin Yu-hwa!”

“Ran?”

A beauty with deep black hair, dressed in traditional scholar clothes.

If you looked closely, she resembled Ran quite a bit. Seeing her little cousin, her face lit up.

“You came. Come, sit.”

Sword Master Kang Yu-hwa.

Current head of the Kang clan after Kang Ryun’s death, and the clan elder who could grant permission for Ran’s marriage.

…
…
…

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, completely serious.”

When Ran said she wanted marriage permission, Yu-hwa immediately guessed who it was.

Corin Loch.

The boy who revealed the horrible truth about Kang Ryun and saved Hua and Ran at the cost of his life.

Yu-hwa remembered that boy, torn to shreds, gently patting Hua’s head.

A boy who acted with kindness, bravery, and justice — a good person.

If she had been Hua Ran, she also would have fallen for him.

But she was worried too.

Ran wasn’t alone.

Inside her also lived the demon personality, Hua.

Of course she knew Hua wasn’t evil like Kang Ryun tried to claim, and that she hadn’t stolen the body by force.

But in the end… wouldn’t it be two women sharing one husband?

Thinking about it made her uneasy, but on second thought, Ran never had a choice.

Whoever her future husband was, he would always have to accept Hua as well — they were a shared destiny.

And now it turned out both loved the same boy? What were the chances of such perfect alignment?

Sending both to Corin Loch was the inevitable choice.

The problem was what Ran revealed after returning home.

“…Besides you, there are six other wives?”

“Not yet, but yes. Counting us, we’ll be seven in total.”

“…”

It wasn’t that polygamy was unheard of.

Great nobles and the imperial family sometimes took concubines.

But seven? Did she really have to give her little cousin to a man who would have seven wives?

“R-Ran… shouldn’t you think about it more…?”

“No.”

A blunt rejection.

She smiled like the little cousin Yu-hwa remembered, but the coldness in her refusal was something entirely new.

“It can only be oppa.”

“B-but… and Hua? Does Hua also think the same?”

Seeing not a trace of negotiation in Ran, Yu-hwa called directly for Hua.

In response, the girl’s hair and eyes turned red, and her expression shifted from sweet to serious.

“…Hello.”

“It’s Hua…”

Before, she hated her and resented her. But now she knew she wasn’t guilty.

So what remained were only guilt and sorrow toward her.

“You’re okay with this?”

“…”

Hua took a long time to answer.

In truth, she wasn’t okay. She had many complaints. She also had desires to monopolize him. Her limit was the two of them at most.

“If I’m not okay… Corin suffers.”

She remembered that day. Him trembling, pale as death.

“I don’t want Corin to suffer.”

She remembered something he had said in the past, when she still didn’t understand love.

“If you get hurt… my heart hurts.”

It was true. Not a shred of a lie.

“If Corin suffers, I suffer too.”

Seeing him in pain hurt her chest.

Her heart hurt.

“…”

Within that expressionless face, Yu-hwa clearly felt the intensity of her feelings and smiled bitterly.

This child is truly in love.

She felt it so clearly it reached her soul.

“There’s no helping it.”

She could not refuse this marriage.

“…Thank you.”

And so, long before Corin arrived, Hua Ran had already secured marriage permission.

But one week after her arrival—

“High treason criminal Kang Ran, show yourself!”

Unwanted guests appeared.

The imperial army had come to arrest Hua Ran.