One week ago.
Victor and Hamlin had been in a bad mood for the past few days.
It was because they had suffered great embarrassment due to Jane.
“Bring that wench to me!”
An old man who had gone crazy for Jane, having seen her somewhere, badgered Victor and Hamlin.
It was useless to tell him that Jane had already paid off her debt and therefore Victor and Hamlin couldn’t touch her.
“You bastards! Then give me the penalty fee. Wasn’t it ten times the money you received in exchange for promising to put that wench in my bedroom?”
Victor and Hamlin’s faces turned pale. They belatedly remembered the contents of the contract that had Jane as the commodity.
Ten times if successful, ten times even if failed.
It was a gambling-like contract. But a contract is a contract, so Victor and Hamlin had to pay.
If they couldn’t keep it, they would have to pay with their lives – that was the rule of the back alleys.
But where on earth could they get that kind of money?
The money given by Duke Hastings wasn’t even half of the penalty fee.
“Damn it.”
Victor frowned deeply, chewing on his lips.
He had thought to make a big score, but things had gone wrong.
Is there no hole where money could come out?
“Brother, shouldn’t we start an operation?”
Hamlin asked cautiously, covering his head with his arm. Victor had a terrible temper and would often throw ashtrays even when told the right thing.
“Operation? What? You want to do some construction work?”
“Yes!”
Hamlin and Victor were people who made a living by swindling others.
“The twins have already paid off their debt so we can’t touch them, and Jimmy has nothing to give even if we squeeze him. Find a new model? There’s no time for that, you bastard! Do you have a brain or not?”
Victor’s ashtray flew inevitably, but Hamlin was safe. Thanks to narrowly avoiding it.
“And even if we shake down small fry, we’d only get pocket change… We need to pay the penalty fee quickly…”
“Instead of small fry, we should catch a whale.”
Hamlin made a meaningless retort. And immediately covered his head. The ashtray was gone, but there were still plenty of things to throw on Victor’s desk.
However, instead of throwing something, Victor adjusted his posture. Hamlin looked at him through the gap between his forearms covering his face.
“Right, a whale! Why didn’t I think of that? Jane brought a whale!”
“By whale, you don’t mean…! Are you going to mess with the Hastings ducal family?”
Hamlin was so surprised that he even lowered his arms covering his head. As if waiting for this, an object flew.
“Ugh!”
Victor, who had finally hit Hamlin’s head with some rolling trash, grinned.
“What’s so special about the Hastings ducal family? We’re just going to spread a few rumors.”
Victor, whose mind worked brilliantly when it came to bad things, had already made a plan.
Looking at his sparkling eyes, Hamlin thought.
It was certain that he had gone mad out of fear of dying.
* * *
Several days had passed since Hamlin became certain of Victor’s madness.
Hamlin now thought that he might go mad himself due to Victor’s insanity.
It was because of Duke Hastings, Cain, who was right in front of him.
He had barged in very late at night. At a time when the only women wandering the streets were prostitutes.
It was a time when the esteemed duke should have been playing poker at a gentlemen’s club, drinking whiskey, or comforting himself in the arms of a voluptuous woman.
But Duke Hastings appeared in a semi-basement, in a place like a gutter.
Even back alley thugs are reluctant to come here at this hour. Because they could lose their lives without anyone knowing if they’re not careful.
It would be fortunate if they could at least have a proper funeral after losing their lives like that, but sadly, in many cases of murders that occur here at this time, even the bodies couldn’t be found.
Of course, the investigation by the police was not properly conducted either.
“W-w-what brings you here?”
Victor wanted to tear his own mouth for stammering.
It’s as if he committed a terrible crime when he hadn’t done anything particularly wrong!
“You should know why I’m here.”
Cain neither raised his voice nor glared. He just looked around the gutter with a slightly bored expression.
Things like the browned wallpaper that looked like something had splattered on it, the torn floorboards, and the scattered rat droppings.
None of it was beautiful. He wanted to cut out just this part and throw it out into the world.
Unlike his calm face, Cain’s insides were becoming more and more twisted.
“I-I don’t know.”
Victor made his second mistake following the mistake of stammering. He told such an obvious lie.
The corners of Cain’s mouth curved upward. It was a subtle movement, but Victor and Hamlin flinched and stepped back.
“You had two chances.”
Cain pulled out a revolver from his breast pocket. And playfully opened the cylinder and spun it.
The rhythmic sound was like musical rhythm to Cain, but a funeral march to Victor and Hamlin.
“W-w-what do you mean by chances?”
Victor felt quite wronged.
Coming here out of the blue and just observing like someone looking for a room!
Click, Cain put the cylinder back in place. The crisp sound of it locking improved Cain’s mood a little.
He had the leisure to explain to Victor.
“When I came here, you should have begged.”
If they had cried and begged for their lives, saying they were sorry and would make things right, Cain wouldn’t have pulled out the gun himself.
‘Would I really have?’
Cain immediately denied his own thought. However, even if it wasn’t true, it wouldn’t be a big problem, so he continued speaking.
“At the very least, if you had answered when I asked why I came, it would have been much easier for both you and me.”
Cain raised the revolver. Cold sweat beaded on Victor’s forehead.
“Ha, haha, D-Duke. I think there’s been some misunderstanding…”
Bang!
“Huk! Heuk!”
Victor collapsed right where he was. He was so shocked that he couldn’t even scream. Warm liquid flowed between his legs, soaking his pants. Fortunately, it wasn’t blood.
“It works well.”
Cain muttered, looking at the smoking revolver. As if he had just conducted a performance test.
“Brother!”
Hamlin ran over with a tear-stained face. Hamlin’s face turned pale when he saw the bullet hole about a hand span away from where Victor had been standing.
“My lord, we were wrong!”
Hamlin was more perceptive than Victor. He immediately apologized, banging his forehead on the floor.
And he tugged at the collar of the dazed Victor, urging him to join in this apology.
Making strange sounds like “Euk, euk,” Victor only came to his senses when Cain’s gun muzzle pointed at his forehead.
He too quickly bowed his head. He didn’t even care that his knees were getting wet from the urine he had released.
“My lord, please spare us. We were wrong!”
Even when Cain pulled out the gun, Victor didn’t think he would shoot him.
Because he knew the rumors about Cain.
Cain was famous for being fair and just to everyone. And he was known to be generous to the socially vulnerable.
When doing business, he used part of the profits for the vulnerable in the area where the business was located. He was also active in employing the vulnerable.
So while he wasn’t a kind and gentle nobleman, he was a figure exemplifying noblesse oblige.
In other words, he wasn’t someone who would shoot a gun out of personal feelings.
That’s why Victor spread false rumors, and even when Cain appeared, he acted boldly instead of immediately confessing his crimes. He was planning to subtly demand money depending on the situation.
He thought he’d be forgiven once.
But the unfolding situation was desperate. Even if he received money, it would only be enough for travel expenses.
Victor loved money the most, but not more than his own life.
He begged pathetically, not minding that urine got on his hands.
“I was wrong, please spare me, if you forgive me just this once…”
“If I forgive you, what can you do?”
Victor swallowed.
“Can you stop me?”
The destructive urge boiling inside him.
Cain asked leisurely, tapping his palm with the gun barrel.
The terrified Victor slowly shook his head.
“Indeed not. Right?”
Cain had briefly hoped for something from Victor.
Cain had everything. But sometimes he felt an indescribable lack.
At such times, he was overwhelmed by the desire to throw away everything he had, or to smash it all.
It was a destructive urge that would be of no help to his life.
Cain strived constantly to resolve this urge in the right way. At least in a way that wouldn’t harm others.
First, he tried to find the cause of his destructive urges.
But neither the doctor who had briefly helped him in his youth, nor the friend he had known for a long time could discern the source of his hunger.
He started drinking, smoking cigars, and playing card games to suppress this urge.
It was because he had been advised that the destructive urge might have come as a reaction to an ascetic life.
But the urge didn’t disappear and occasionally popped up like this, eating away at his life.
So, ridiculously, he even ended up expecting something from someone like Victor.
Cain made a sneer, either at Victor or himself, and put the revolver back in his breast pocket.
Even his bullets were too luxurious for such fellows.
“A-are you sparing us?”
Cain, who was turning to leave, looked back at them. Victor, meeting his gaze, despaired.
There was no mercy in his eyes.
Male lead says he’s pregnant — and it’s female lead’s child
Something seems a bit off about this world.
Wang Zhao thought as she watched a pregnant man walking towards her…
Intro
Female lead finds herself in a world where the men who possess the ability to bear children.
As she navigates this unfamiliar reality, she is caught off guard by the sudden appearance of her boyfriend, who reveals that he is pregnant.
Is this truly her boyfriend?
Why can’t she recall any details about their time together?
She begins to doubt whether the child her boyfriend is carrying is even hers.
Is there a hidden reason behind her amnesia, or could it be a side effect of her sudden arrival in this strange new world?
Just when it seems the protagonist’s life couldn’t become any more entangled, her ex-boyfriend makes an unexpected appearance, raising questions about the protagonist’s past.
__________
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