Epilogue Chapter 2 - Father (2)

Three fruits of love bloomed between Kang-Woo and his three wives. The first-born son Oh Kang-Hyun was between him and Cha Yeon-Joo, the second-born daughter Oh Kang-Hee was between him and Han Seol-Ah, and the youngest daughter Lilia was between him and Lilith.

After a discussion with his three wives, Kang-Woo taught his children to address all three women as their mothers regardless of who gave birth to them. It was so that the children wouldn’t fight or feel alienated by the fact that they were born from different mothers. Because of that, his three wives raised the three children as if they were all their own.

“The other kids say they have only one Mommy... So why do I have three?”

“...”

However, Kang-Woo had not expected the seed he had sown in his children’s minds for peace in the household to come back to strangle him in this way. He had not been asked this question by Kang-Hyun as he was going through his first year of elementary school so Kang-Woo had not ever thought about it.

“Uhhh... s-so... the thing is...”

Kang-Woo’s mouth felt as dry as a desert. Although he possessed enough authority and power to not give a shit about how society viewed him, he couldn’t bring himself to confidently tell his eight-year-old daughter the reason why he had three wives.

‘Eve.’

Kang-Woo sent an emergency SOS to Eve, stumped on an answer.

Riiing!

[...]

[How should I know?]

‘The fuck, bitch?’

[Why don’t you ask Mr. François dangling from your crotch?]

‘He’s a bit shy, he doesn’t talk much.’

[You say he’s shy but he’s been pounding nonstop every single d—]

‘Shut up.’

“Daddy?” Kang-Hee called.

“Oh, h-huh? S-Sorry, what were you curious about, my little princess?” Kang-Woo stuttered.

“About why I have three m—”

“Kang-Hee,” called a boy as he walked out of a room.

His hair was as red as a fully bloomed rose. He was Oh Kang-Hyun, Kang-Woo’s first-born as well as his only son.

“G-Good morning, oppa.”

Kang-Hee flusteredly tidied her hair disheveled from waking up after noticing her older brother. Kang-Hyun softly nodded and put on his glasses after cleaning them with a neatly folded cloth. He looked as wild as a starved beast like Yeon-Joo without his glasses but exuded a cool intelligent aura with them on.

“You’re troubling Father. That’s enough.”

“But in our home economics class—”

“I’ll explain it to you later.” Kang-Hyun calmly persuaded Kang-Hee, walked up to Kang-Woo, and bowed politely to him. “Good morning, Father.”

“Morning. Did you sleep well, my son?”

“Yes, thanks to Mother Lilith kindling a scent good for sleep.” Kang-Hyun nodded with a soft smile and turned to Yeon-Joo sitting at the table. “Hm? Didn’t you say you have a morning meeting today, Mother?”

“Oh, that? It got postponed to tomorrow.”

“I see. I thought you missed it because you overslept again,” replied Kang-Hyun as he put his hand on his chest in relief.

Yeon-Joo stood up angrily. “What do you mean again? I only missed a meeting because I overslept once!”

“Yes, once. That one was because of oversleeping. You also forgot to attend one when you were gaming all night because you lost seventeen ranked games in a row.”

“Th-That’s because my teammates kept trolling...”

“Mother, you are the master of Korea’s top guild as well as one of the top five guilds in the world. I believe you need to be more responsible.”

“No... I mean...”

“Of course, Red Rose has sound financial footing and profits are rising every year. It has also successfully branched out internationally. However...” Kang-Hyun lifted his glasses with one finger and stared fixedly at his mother. “That’s only because of the current vice-guildmaster Mr. Park Hyun-Woo’s phenomenal administrative management.”

“R-Right? H-Hyun-Woo is so capable that I have nothing to d—”

“But it is exactly during this time of rise that the owner risk has to be minimized to stabilize the stock prices.”

“O-Owner risk?”

‘What the hell is owner risk? Something like Ultralisk?’

Yeon-Joo’s eyes darted to Kang-Woo. He read her lips and saw she was asking what owner risk was. Kang-Woo clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“Mother... do you perhaps not even know what owner risk means?”

The mother was met with her son’s gaze as if staring at a dead fish.

“Wh-What’s wrong with not knowing something like that?!”

“How could the CEO of a listed corporation not know such simple business lingo...?”

“In my day, guilds naturally grew as long as you were strong.”

Back when monsters swarmed out of Gates to attack Earth, the greatest driving force of a guild’s growth wasn’t administrative capabilities but pure physical power.

“That is in the past. Guilds nowadays cannot run without proper business administration.”

Gates were still around but it had become far safer thanks to the

Protector

. Peace was nice and all but thanks to the drastic reduction in work for guilds, they needed to find something other than monster hunting to keep the lights on.

“Mother, you need to know the bare minimum business knowledge if you don’t want to be known as nothing but a figurehead.”

“O-Okay. I got it.”

“Please study business for at least two hours every day in the evening. I will be giving you homework, so please make sure to do them.”

“...”

Yeon-Joo was reduced to a mother who had her homework checked by her son. She pulled on Kang-Woo’s clothes teary-eyed.

“

Sniff...

Hubby, our son is harassing me.”

“It’s pointless crying to me about it,” Kang-Woo remarked.

He could get Yeon-Joo exempted from the homework since Kang-Hyun obeyed his every word like a devotee being given revelations by his god, but he didn’t.

‘Since he said nothing wrong.’

Rather, Kang-Woo had nothing to say because Kang-Hyun was so on the mark. Kang-Woo took his eyes off his wife clinging to him in tears and stared at his son.

‘Is this dude a regressor or something?’

A regular nine-year-old boy would be running around all over the place and making a mess like a dog off its leash. Not only that but Kang-Hyun was born between him and Yeon-Joo. He had been resolved for a few houses to be destroyed before Kang-Hyun became an adult.

‘But not only did that not happen, he even bought a house.’

Kang-Hyun began to take an interest in the stock market at around eight years old, so Kang-Woo gave him a hundred million won as an allowance. Kang-Hyun managed to multiply it tenfold in only one year.

‘I know nothing about stocks, but...’

Kang-Woo at least knew how impressive it was to multiply the money one started with tenfold in only a year.

‘Our son is a genius!’

It was a wonder how such a talented child was born between him and Yeon-Joo. Kang-Woo hugged his son, moved to tears by his prodigious talent.

“F-Father?”

“Kang-Hyun. If anyone asks who you take after more between your mom and dad, make sure you answer that it's me, okay?” Kang-Woo said.

“Oh... Yes, I understand.”

“Hey! What the hell are you talking about, Oh Kang-Woo?”

“What? Then do you think he takes after you?”

“Th-That’s...” Yeon-Joo groaned as she stepped back.

Even she knew Kang-Hyun did not take after her at all.

“Hehe. If he doesn’t take after you, then it’s obviously me,” Kang-Woo remarked.

“I think Kang-Hyun is smarter than you, though...”

“Yes, yes~ he sure is.” Kang-Woo snickered and disheveled Kang-Hyun’s hair. “You’re hungry, right, son? Let’s have breakfast.”

“Oh, just a moment, please. Let me wake up Lia first, Father,” said Kang-Hyun as he went back into the room.

“Mmm... Brother... I’m up, so please stop pulling me.”

A black-haired little girl soon walked out, pulled by Kang-Hyun. She was the youngest of the Oh Kang-Woo family, Lilia. As one would expect from her Succubus descent, she was the most sleepyheaded of the three children.

FYI, it was Lilith’s idea not to give her the

Oh

surname— she mentioned something about Korean names not being pretty.

‘Makes sense. A name like Oh Lilia would be weird.’

Besides, there was no naming tradition in the Nine Hells where the child inherited the parent’s surname, so there was no reason to be bogged down by Korean standards.

‘Who cares about a surname?’

Such trivial thoughts were wiped from Kang-Woo’s mind as he laid eyes upon his cute youngest daughter in frilly princess pajamas rubbing her eyes.

“Lia,” he called.

Lilia’s half-closed eyes shot open. “Beloved Father!”[1]

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

She immediately woke up fully and jumped into Kang-Woo’s arms with a radiant smile.

“Hmmmmm~ It truly feels like the day has begun after smelling you.”

“Okay, okay. How was your sleep, my baby girl?”

“It was great! I dreamed of you a bunch, Father!” said Lilia as she dug even deeper into Kang-Woo’s embrace.

“You did? What did you dream about?”

“Well, of course... Kyaah! Oh, Father! What embarrassing things are you trying to make me say?”

“What?”

‘What the hell did you dream about?’

“If you’re so curious, I’ll invite you into my dreams tonight—”

“Lia. What did Mommy say?”

“

Gasp

.”

Lilia flinched as she was digging into Kang-Woo’s embrace and turned around. Lilith was staring at her with narrowed eyes and a bright smile.

She said in a low tone, “I told you that you can’t use your dream abilities yet, didn’t I?”

“B-But...”

“Do you have a valid excuse to make?”

“Ngh.” Lilia bit her lip and glared at Lilith, Yeon-Joo and Seol-Ah frustratedly. She stomped her feet and shouted, “I can’t see Father without the dream ability because you guys are monopolizing him every night! I want to sleep with Father too!”[2]

Kang-Hyun’s ears perked up as Lilia mentioned she wanted to sleep with Kang-Woo.

“Oh.”

“A-Ahem. That’s...”

“Mmm.”

The three women were troubled. They would have yielded anything else but not their precious lovey-dovey time with their husband.

‘We only get a chance once or twice a week if we’re lucky!’

Unless it was some event or anniversary, only one of them spent the night with Kang-Woo while the other two slept with the children. Hence, each wife only slept with Kang-Woo about twice a week. No, it was less than that since Kang-Woo sometimes left to fulfill his role as the

Protector

for several days. In any case, they couldn’t yield that precious time even to their beloved children.

“Lia, do you remember what Mommy said last time?” Seol-Ah smiled and crouched to get on eye-level with Lilia. She patted Lilia’s head and continued coldly, “Daddy... can’t sleep with you at night because he’s busy.”

She was smiling but the eyes staring at Lilia were lifeless.

“E-Eek!” Lilia instinctively felt fear and ran to Lilith as she hiccuped. “B-Beloved Mother! Mother! I’m scared!”

“My... If you’re so scared, you shouldn’t have said something as nonsensical as wanting to sleep with your dad.”

“Even you, Mother?!”

Lilia shook as if she were struck by lightning and walked lifelessly to Kang-Woo, teary-eyed. Kang-Woo smiled and spread out his arms.

“Come here, my baby. Let’s have breakfast together.”

“Father...!”

Lilia’s expression brightened like someone who was rescued from sinking into a bottomless swamp. Kang-Woo lifted Lilia by her armpits and placed her on his lap.

“Haaa... Spoiling the children like that isn’t good for their education, my king.”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? They’re still young.”

Kang-Woo wanted to let them be spoiled since it was normal for children their age.

“Hmm,” Lilith expressed.

Kang-Woo scooped side dishes for Lilia, Kang-Hee, and Kang-Hyun to eat so that each of them had enough. The kimchi stew in front of him had grown cold. Seeing that, Lilith smiled faintly.

“You’ve changed, my king.”

The Demon King who had ruled the Nine Hells at the pinnacle of all demons had become a respectable father of three before anyone had realized it.

1. The way Lilia addresses Kang-Woo and Lilith is like how Korean royalty addresses their parents. ☜

2. By sleep, she means actually sleep. ☜