STM 17

“He’s not just a pervert. He’s a pervert obsessed with men.”

She answered flatly and began eating, but I completely lost my appetite. Of all things, why did I end up in a pervert’s body?

“So wherever there were men gathered, he ran there. He was unbelievably diligent when it came to chasing men’s crotches.”

Doctor Kim praised the pervert brother, and my face twisted in the opposite way.

“That’s why I’m saying this, when you officially attend the party, you know you have to act like Lu, right?”

“I almost died and came back to life…”

“Don’t think you can solve everything with that excuse. A person can change a bit, sure, but no matter what, do you think a man-crazy pervert suddenly stops being one just because he nearly died?”

“He could change.”

“Not Lu.”

She shook her head firmly.

“Lu isn’t your average pervert. Out of everyone I know, he’s number one when it comes to losing his mind over men.”

I felt like my own mind was about to break. I sighed and rubbed my forehead, and then I heard her sigh too.

“Ha, maybe this is my fate.”

“What fate? Having a pervert in the family?”

I joked halfway, but she nodded seriously.

“Not a pervert, but my little sister loved men too much. She had a kid when she was young, dumped the baby at our house, and never showed her face again until the child grew up.”

Doctor Kim sighed again.

“Having only one child might’ve been the best thing she ever did. My niece’s a bit younger than you, and I guess it’s lucky she didn’t take after her mother.”

She murmured softly and sighed again.

“And now, even in another world, my brother’s obsessed with men. This must be some kind of curse.”

She drifted into thought, and I couldn’t think of anything to say. I just stabbed the food with my fork. Then a single line of comfort came to mind.

“At least Lu didn’t have a kid, so that’s better, right?”

I mashed the potato until it turned into paste and started eating. Then I felt her eyes on me and looked up.

“What is it?”

“You don’t know?”

Know what? I blinked with my cheeks full of potato like a hamster. Doctor Kim looked at me with a strangely tender gaze.

“You can get pregnant.”

“Who can?”

“You.”

I froze with the fork in my hand.

“I… what?”

“You can have a child.”

“What…?”

I thought it was a joke, but her face couldn’t have been more serious.

“You’ll probably give birth easily.”

Bang!

I pushed my chair back and jumped up.

“I already checked. This body’s male!”

“You’re an omega.”

“What’s that? Fish oil?”

“That’s omega-3, unsaturated fat. You’re just an omega. In this world, it’s not only male and female. There’s a sex called omega that can get pregnant…”

“That’s impossible! How could I get pregnant?!”

“You can, very easily.”

No, I can’t. That’s not possible!

As I stood frozen in shock, she noticed my panic and tried to reassure me.

“Don’t worry too much. To get pregnant, you need to go into heat. Lu’s been taking medication that suppresses it for a year. That’s the one thing I made sure he kept up with every year.”

She looked proud, but soon her face darkened as if she had remembered something unpleasant.

“The side effect of that drug is supposed to be loss of libido, but Lu overcame even that without a problem. That’s how much of a pervert he was.”

She shook her head and realized I was still too stunned to function.

“Anyway, you haven’t had a kid.”

“Giving birth isn’t the issue, wait, then with a man, my position would be…”

I froze again, unable to finish the sentence. Doctor Kim explained calmly.

“Yes. You’re always the one underneath.”

Crash!

The cup I had knocked over hit the floor and shattered. The broken pieces mirrored my feelings exactly, but Doctor Kim looked perfectly calm.

She even waved her hand to assure the butler, who rushed in surprised, that everything was fine. Then she turned back to me with that same calm voice.

“You’ve a new body. You just need to adapt. No need for drama.”

“Well, I’ve always been the one on top…”

I stopped, realizing I’d revealed too much, and shut my mouth. Doctor Kim smiled at me with a curious look.

“So you’re not completely hopeless as a man after all.”

So what, damn it. I brushed my hair back with my hand and set the chair upright.

“But I refuse to be the one underneath. Not that I plan to date anyone here anyway.”

“No.”

She sternly interrupted me and set her fork down.

“If we can’t eliminate the traitor, we’ll have to use Plan B.”

“What’s Plan B?”

“You push the traitor aside and marry Duke Kun.”

Ha! I laughed before I could stop myself.

“That’s not Plan B. That’s Plan X. X.”

I crossed my arms in an X to make my refusal clear. But then came a blow I couldn’t counter.

“Are you planning to destroy our world?”

Flinch.

I frowned and sat back down.

“If I find the traitor at the non-wine party, I’ll kill them right away. Don’t worry.”

“Fine. Let’s keep Plan X as the last resort.”

Doctor Kim comforted me and added lightly,

“Even if it comes to Plan X, so what. You just have to lie down once.”

Shivers ran up from my toes to my scalp. Something like that could never, ever happen.

Green deepens, and the red veil of the sky silently covers the land. Come and taste wine ripened by blue and red.

-Count Li Penuang.

The words on the card looked like an advertisement, but it was a party invitation. Anyone could tell it meant “Come and buy wine.” But since it was openly a wine party, it was perfect for my reconnaissance.

Even if I could use Lu’s memories for information, seeing and experiencing things myself was always best.

Especially since I needed to find and kill the traitor without drawing attention at the party. So this time, I came with pure scouting intent.

‘Every big mansion owned by a rich person has secret passages. Go there and see if you can move around unseen, watch the people, and spot the traitor.’

Doctor Kim had said it casually, but sneaking into someone else’s house and roaming their secret passages was hardly easy. Of course, she couldn’t understand my concern.

‘What’s hard when you’ve money?’

Then she handed me a set of blueprints with the secret passages marked, like flyers being passed out. Thanks to her, I had the layout of a stranger’s house memorized.

But I didn’t think my first outing in this strange world would be easy. Fortunately, I had one item that could save me if trouble came.

Yes, this.

I pulled the object from my chest pocket. It was a palm-length scroll Solongo had given me before I boarded the carriage.

‘It lets you teleport to a designated location. When you use it, unroll it completely and then tear it apart’

They said tearing it would take me straight back to the Adeye mansion. A world with magic sure had all sorts of things. So I jokingly asked how much it cost.

‘The price of two two-story houses in the capital city center.’

Capital, and city center, no less. Damn, that’s like two apartments near a subway station back home.

I’d never use this unless I was seconds from death. I carefully tucked the scroll back inside my clothes like it was sacred.

Just then the carriage stopped, and I finally had a moment to look outside. The party was already in full swing, but the front of Penuang Manor looked calm.

Clack.

The carriage door opened smoothly, and the coachman held out his hand to help me down. I almost refused, but Mo’s warning stopped me.

[Adeye Lu never stepped out of a carriage unless someone helped him.]

Lu, you ridiculous bastard.

I touched the coachman’s hand for exactly 0.1 seconds, then pulled away and jumped down myself. A servant from House Penuang came to guide me, and all I had to do was follow him.

But I couldn’t move right away. Red letters appeared in front of me from Mo’s interface.

[System entering sleep mode due to accumulated overload. Filter functions restricted. New commands cannot be executed.]

…What? Now? Right now? You’re telling me to go on my first outing alone?!

Crunch.

A leaf crunched under my shoe, but no one was nearby, so no one noticed me hiding among the trees.

Even if someone had been, the sound was so faint they wouldn’t have caught it. Buy I still didn’t relax. I checked my surroundings, then jumped up onto the first-floor terrace railing.

Without stopping, I used the decorative molding on the wall as a foothold and climbed up to the second-floor balcony. If it were my original body, this would’ve been easier than chewing gum, but with Lu’s body, it wasn’t so simple. As soon as my feet landed inside the terrace, I exhaled the breath I’d been holding back.

Damn it, I’ll do a hundred pull-ups tomorrow.

I promised myself that silently, then opened the terrace door and stepped into the dark room.