Ch.603Chapter 23. Patriotic General Do Ji-hwan (7)

Two S-class heroes were pregnant.

Thunder Empress Kim Yoon-ji.

Firefox Yoon Yi-seon.

This news set fire to the hearts of many men, and after learning who had impregnated them, the same complaint was heard at every drinking session.

“That bastard Do Ji-han!”

“It’s not Do Ji-han, it’s Do Ji-hwan.”

“Do Ji-han or Do Ji-hwan, who cares! Damn, that son of a bitch isn’t just picking S-class women!!”

“Ah, you’ve had too much to drink. I wonder who poured you so much, hmm?”

Throughout the country, everyone was cursing Do Ji-hwan.

If before, drinking sessions were filled with talk of tearing apart Haeguneul, now Do Ji-hwan’s name had taken Haeguneul’s place.

Of course, this was mostly in all-male drinking sessions.

“Deputy Manager, Do Ji-hwan got two women pregnant. Weren’t you a Firefox fan?”

“Huh? A-ahem. Mijung, I’m a fan of her as a hero. It’s not like I’m Firefox’s boyfriend, so what am I supposed to say?”

“Oh my, Deputy Manager…”

“If she’s happy, then it’s okay. Haha, hahahaha.”

In gatherings with women present, men pretended not to care or…

“But really, no matter what, how can those women be with the same man like that? I find it a bit much.”

“R-really…?”

“Of course. I prefer a man who can look only at me, not someone who goes around dating different women without any principles.”

“Ahem. Well, it must be because they’re ability users. What good is a handsome face? A man should have devotion to love only one person for his entire life.”

Most would agree with the women’s comments and put down Do Ji-hwan.

If there were any favorable discussions about Do Ji-hwan…

“Hey, did you see Deputy Han’s face earlier? Ugh, disgusting. He’s probably going home to delete all the photos on his smartphone while sobbing ‘I loved you, dammit!'”

“He’s just going crazy with jealousy. Ha, I’m super jealous too. Those women get to have sex with that hottie just because they were born S-class.”

“I’m good at sex too. See this photo? This bulge in my pants, isn’t it like a bat?”

“Wow, too much information…”

“What are you saying, crazy bitch. Sigh, I want to do it with Do Ji-hwan too. They say those women didn’t get pregnant because of some pregnancy warrant, but because they fell for Do Ji-hwan’s awakening tool.”

“Like, if I did it with Do Ji-hwan, would my child be an A-class ability user? Something like that.”

What would this man be like in bed?

While Do Ji-hwan was being verbally beaten in men’s gatherings, among women he was like an onion being peeled layer by layer.

That was the public sentiment.

So how did the government view Do Ji-hwan?

“How can he get two S-class heroes pregnant! No, wait! He already got one pregnant before, so now three women are pregnant with Do Ji-hwan’s children?!”

Even the President raised his voice during a cabinet meeting.

“Even if they’re young and ability users, this chaos happened because we issued that Patriotic License! What are the lawmakers who proposed this bill going to do?!”

“Well, with the separation of powers, the executive branch can’t…”

“Say that in front of the Thunder Empress and Firefox fan clubs!”

“Mr. President, they would have gotten pregnant with Do Ji-hwan’s children even without the Patriotic License…AACK!”

“Get out!!”

The cabinet meeting descended into chaos.

The “Patriotic License” that the ruling party had pressured the President to create had turned the entire country into a boiling pot due to Do Ji-hwan’s awakening tool’s activities, even before the license could take effect.

Everywhere across the country, people talked about Do Ji-hwan.

Stories about Haeguneul, the Leech, and even Hwalbindang still circulated occasionally, but the main gossip on everyone’s lips was all about Do Ji-hwan.

“Sigh, Yirin.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

“You’re not like that, are you?”

“Grandfather, even I think this is something to be angry about.”

“I’ll relay that directly to the Deputy Prime Minister. He asked if you were like that too, and I almost cornered him in the bathroom, but I held back.”

“You should have done it.”

The fallout from the “double pregnancy” incident caused by Do Ji-hwan had spread so far that it even came up in private conversations between the President and his granddaughter.

“Yirin, if you ever decide to do something like that, please let me know in advance so I can prepare myself.”

“You’re not telling me not to?”

“If you truly like him, what can I do? But there could be political issues, so I’m just asking you to help politician Tae Chae-jin prepare. Can you do that for me?”

“Of course. But shouldn’t you be more worried about my brother?”

“…Well, I think I’m more concerned about someone other than Tae Jo.”

Three female S-class heroes were pregnant.

There were suspicious glances toward the only remaining female S-class hero, but if anyone cast such doubtful looks, the President himself would go and poke their eyes with his finger.

“I guess the others are fortunate to be men. When women get pregnant, they need to focus on childcare, but men can continue their external activities. Sigh.”

Because Do Ji-hwan had been inserting his awakening tool everywhere, three female S-class heroes would be taking a 10-month break, but Do Ji-hwan himself could continue wielding his awakening tool even more than before.

Due to the fundamental physiological differences between men and women.

And this applied not just to Do Ji-hwan, but potentially to other S-class heroes as well.

“People are saying that one day, one of the male S-class heroes might suddenly turn into a woman and appear pregnant.”

“……”

In neighboring Japan, there had already been an unprecedented case of an S-class hero turning into a woman.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of “Goblin-san,” they managed to return Cheonghyeseong to a male hero rather than a female heroine, but once something happens, it can happen again.

Therefore, people were incredibly worried.

“Tae Jo, Cheok Jun-gyeong, Battle God… and Lord of Radiant Wings. If news of pregnancy comes, I hope it’s news about who they got pregnant, not themselves.”

“Something like the Demon of Solitude won’t appear again, Grandfather.”

“Yirin, life is unpredictable. In all my years, I’ve seen things I never experienced before, and just because something happened once doesn’t mean it won’t happen again. Who would have predicted S-class pregnancies would happen twice?”

Just as lightning always strikes twice and storms always blow twice.

Human affairs are unpredictable—strange things can happen anywhere, anytime.

“By the way, have you heard anything from those two?”

“Heard what?”

“Yes. I’m just asking, but… there’s a rumor going around that ‘you get stronger when pregnant.'”

“Grandfather.”

Tae Yi-rin, Tae Chae-jin’s granddaughter and the only surviving(?) 17-year-old female S-class hero, sighed and spoke.

“It’s true.”

“What…?”

“Both sisters have ‘awakened.'”

“…Well.”

Tae Chae-jin covered his face with one hand and lamented.

“Thank goodness, really thank goodness that Lord of Radiant Wings has revived.”

“Pardon?”

“Otherwise, I would have made them participate in the World Cup with their awakened powers. Just thinking about it is terrible—a president forcing pregnant ability users to compete in the World Cup.”

Tae Chae-jin wiped the sweat from his forehead with genuine relief.

“…The young ones got pregnant, but in a world where approval ratings drop when heroes don’t participate in the World Cup. If not for Lord of Radiant Wings, my approval would have fallen to 17% by now. Hehehe.”

“…I think it might fall even more.”

“What?”

Tae Chae-jin turned pale.

“There’s more bad news?”

“Well, the public doesn’t know that the two sisters have awakened.”

“Ah.”

Tae Chae-jin’s face contorted severely.

“…They’re not planning to publicize their awakening, are they?”

“Um, the two sisters asked me to tell you something.”

Tae Yi-rin smiled bitterly and gave Tae Chae-jin two thumbs up.

“…They said to prepare yourself mentally because they might receive more calls from overseas.”

“……”

Tae Chae-jin trembled as he fidgeted with the hotline phone cord in front of him.

* * *

“If we just end it with being pregnant, there will be a lot of people gossiping behind our backs, so should we make it more clear to everyone?”

“Yes.”

“Like Senior Seol-hee.”

“You two aren’t even pregnant.”

The two who had made Do Ji-hwan look like someone who uses his body without restraint through their phantom pregnancies were now saying they wanted to prove the effectiveness of my awakening tool.

“You’re seriously going to use such power in early pregnancy, publicly? Really?”

“Senior Seol-hee used such massive ability power while actually pregnant.”

“That’s right. We want to try using that power too. Not as much as Senior Seol-hee, but we want to give Do Ji-hwan more credibility by using power ‘as if we’ve awakened.'”

“……”

There’s one thing the Syndicate needs.

To make sure that random people don’t casually desire Do Ji-hwan, they need to make “real” S-class or S+ class heroes want him.

For example, if the “Maid of Orleans” from France wanted Do Ji-hwan’s awakening tool, other French ability users would be too intimidated to even attempt bidding.

Making such individuals desperately want to meet Do Ji-hwan is what the Syndicate desires.

Why?

“So the Syndicate can manage female ability user heroes from various countries through Do Ji-hwan, right?”

“Everyone united under the pillar of Do Ji-hwan. Impressive. Is this how the Syndicate plans to rule the world?”

“No.”

That’s definitely not it.

“And what you two are trying to do now in the name of awakening isn’t right either.”

I also think what they’re trying to do as a “method of awakening” is wrong.

“Where the hell is Tae Jo?”

“We don’t know Armored Taejo, we asked Black Taejo to make this for us.”

“Hmm, hmm hmm. Indeed, unlike the original, a mature adult’s…”

“Stop talking nonsense and tell me where he is right now.”

While having some kind of special effect for awakened individuals might visually appeal to people…

“Designing thin layers of mana gold to be placed like tattoos over the lower abdomen.”

This is just wrong.

“Cradle protection my ass. This is clearly just a tar—”