Chapter 134: Chapter 134 – Back to the Beginning
A short while later, Sohen, Runo, Karin, and Phoebe — who had just arrived because she’d been busy with something were already sitting in the kitchen.
The atmosphere was tense and heavy.
Sohen cautiously began to explain why it had happened that he had come home with three drunk women relatives didn’t know, who had been... "flirting" with him.
He chose his words carefully, trying to avoid misunderstandings.
Sohen explained to his relatives that they had misunderstood the word "flirting" and some other details...
(It seems Runo and Karin didn’t see Minju in the car and mistook her for some random drunk woman who was hugging me... It happens.)
For the next hour or so, he explained everything from start to finish.
Sohen recounted and reminded the ladies of the incident when he met a woman and how she later gave him a processor, how he and Minju went to a restaurant, who Akina is and what she means to Minju, why some of the women were drunk, and why Akina behaved that way.
He spoke calmly but in detail, trying not to miss a single important detail so that his relatives could understand the true picture of events.
At first, Sohen’s relatives were dissatisfied.
Karin sat with a stony expression, Runo frowned, and Phoebe listened silently, biting her lip slightly.
Then they were a little surprised when they found out who Akina was and what her status was.
After a while, their surprise grew even greater when Sohen told them about her connection to Minju, and in the end, each of them had their own personal reaction.
- (Phoebe). "The owner of Bank Yohenbe... has a female mistress? Wow! That’s unexpected."
- (Me). "Yeah..."
Phoebe said she was very surprised that a figure she considered quite well-known had a female lover, although it seems the fact that Akina is related to Sohen — even without Minju’s involvement surprised her far more.
(Did I know so little about this bank and its owner?... Why didn’t anyone tell me that the owner was actually a woman?)
- (Karin). "What a load of crap..."
- (Me). "..."
Karin was still unhappy most of the time; her face remained tense and her voice sharp, but when she found out that Sohen’s relatives were in that car with him, she seemed to soften a bit. Still, she often said something bad about Minju, and then she said similar things about Akin as well, and at the end she said something like:
- (Karin). "Now there are two of those sly bitches..."
- (Me). "..."
(Mom... you didn’t have to say that.)
- (Runo). "..."
- (Me). "Grandma?"
Runo, on the other hand, behaved relatively calmly and reserved, which now surprised Sohen a bit, since he knew that usually she could even say exactly what she was thinking without any censorship, but this time she behaved, one might say, neutrally; for a while, she seemed detached from the conversation, thinking about something with a serious expression on her face.
The only thing she said was that Sohen should be careful and attentive, since now... there were even more questions.
(Is that all she wanted to say?... That’s kind of strange. Thanks, of course, for your concern, but... I thought Runo would say something in her usual style, something that might pretty bluntly sum up the whole situation. She’s been acting a little differently lately, and it seems like sometimes Grandma and Mom are switching personalities... Strange again, and yet another mystery.)
Toward the end of the conversation, they switched to a lighter topic, and everything ended on a positive note.
Karin asked if he was hungry, to which Sohen replied that he wasn’t, since he’d eaten enough at the restaurant to be full.
With that, they stopped talking and went to their rooms, but before that, young man decided to take a shower, since it seemed he had gotten too heavily perfumed with expensive women’s perfume from Akina and Minju.
(It’s not like the three of us were together that long, but the scent is still noticeable even now, and quite distinctly... What kind of chemical composition must it have for the scent itself to be so strong and noticeable that even after a considerable amount of time... Oh! Karin is looking at me with irritation!...)
It seems the white-haired beauty had sensed the offensive scent for some time now, and with a smirk... and a knife in her hand, she advised Sohen to take a shower as soon as possible, because... she would be very upset and might do something not quite right.
He got the hint, quickly ran to the bathroom, and once again realized that Karin in a bad mood... isn’t exactly a nice woman.
(What the hell is wrong with her?! Why is she so angry?!...)
Sohen lingered in the bathroom for a while, this time filling the tub with hot water, and then, feeling refreshed, went to his room.
There, he decided to spend about thirty minutes checking on his earnings, reviewing charts and news on the crypto market, and then, for some reason, decided to read a novel he’d been putting off for a long time.
He immersed himself in reading for an hour, trying to forget about the whole stressful day.
(It’s not that the whole day was too stressful, but the last few hours were really tough and above all, mentally draining for various reasons. I need to take my mind off things a bit, and this story, which I happened to come across, will surely be the perfect choice.)
...
An hour passed.
(Well, I managed to take my mind off things and even finish reading the novella, but... Author, damn it, what kind of shitty ending is this?! Why did you have to make it so tragic?...)
Sohen was lying on his bed in his room and, with a heavy sigh, closed the tab on his phone with the novella.
He was clearly dissatisfied with the ending.
This was the first "Harem" genre short story he’d read this year, because all the previous stories he’d read were ordinary romantic, semi-romantic, or "Antihero" tagged tales that mostly ended in a clichéd, happy, and predictable way, but... this one ended in a way Sohen hadn’t expected at all, and it left him with an unpleasant, heavy aftertaste.
(I know what you’re thinking, my dear reader, so let me explain briefly...)
The novel was in the harem isekai genre.
The main character — an ordinary guy from our world named Gu Chonghu, was reborn in another fantasy world, where he began his adventures, improving himself, gaining strength, and simultaneously winning the hearts of beautiful women.
Overall, it was a typical Chinese cliché story, which, surprisingly, was quite popular and even had its own manhua, but it ended... not very positively and even depressingly, leaving a bittersweet aftertaste.
MC himself was relatively interesting, but too powerful from the very beginning.
This gave the impression that everything would be quite easy and smooth for him.
His harem consisted of ten different, unique, beautiful women who instantly fell in love with him and eventually even married him.
Each of them bore him at least one child.
Everyone was happy, and it seemed like the story should have ended there, but the author of the novella decided to make the ending unconventional, and in the end, the main character and his harem... all die together in a battle against the pure embodiment of evil, which was the very same entity that sent MC to the other world.
On the brink of death, the heroes promise each other that this is not the end and that they will meet again, but in new incarnations and with new identities.
Their eyes close for the last time; they all die, leaving their children to face the final antagonist on their own.
The children triumph and become the new protagonists, but only for one final story arc; then they go their separate ways and start their own families, remembering the feats their parents once accomplished together.
And that’s where the novella ends.
(What a load of crap...)
After Sohen finished reading, he decided to leave a personal comment for the author of this controversial story.
Over the next thirty minutes, he carefully detailed his personal emotions from what he had read... disappointment, surprise, mild irritation, and so on.
(The author of the novella.... not My Family’s Secret Website... you’re a total....)
With some criticism, he recommended that the author make the endings in other harem stories more positive and uplifting.
Then Sohen logged out of the site where he had been reading the novel still feeling dissatisfied.
(I’d like to give a piece of my mind to authors who write such depressing endings, and not just when it comes to books...)
His mood had noticeably worsened after reading it.
A certain drowsiness that had appeared unexpectedly toward the end of the story vanished just as unexpectedly.
Now he didn’t know what to do next, because emotionally he felt quite turbulent and restless.
For a while, he aimlessly watched entertainment videos on various social media platforms, switching from one to another, until he stumbled upon... the account of KedakaiSlave, the very same woman he had accidentally seen on that strange website he’d come across on Runo’s computer and on the unknown owner’s tablet.
(KedakaiSlave, huh... Well, then...)
