Conquest Complete, So Why Is the Affection Dropping? - Chapter 40
Event Progress Impossible! (Insufficient Conditions)
Special Event [Wedding] cannot proceed due to insufficient affection.
Current Affection: 32
Required Affection: 99
‘What is this? Why suddenly a wedding?’
Moreover, why is there a warning window about not being able to proceed with an event rather than the event itself?
Normally, if conditions aren’t met, it shouldn’t appear at all. What’s with this arbitrary pop-up talking about insufficient conditions?
The absurdity didn’t end there. As if to deliver another blow, an even larger window appeared below.
Surprise Quest, [Family Without Blood Ties]!
Kaint wishes for you to become another family member to his siblings.
Will you accept his wish and embrace his young siblings with love?
If accepted, you cannot leave the Admiral’s castle until the youngest sibling ‘Chloe’ becomes an adult.
Success Reward: Kaint’s affection increase speed doubled (30 days), ‘Bomb’ deactivated.
‘Is he crazy?’
It’s a universal truth that men with children are off-limits as marriage prospects.
Even if they’re not his biological children but adopted siblings, if I have to take on parenting duties the moment I marry him, the situation isn’t much different.
‘Not just a proposal, but wanting me to take care of 10 siblings? What kind of trash quest is this?’
Of course, I trust Kaint’s character. He wouldn’t dump difficult child-rearing responsibilities on me. Like until now, he’d continue taking care of his siblings himself, probably just wanting me to be their emotional support.
‘Still, this crosses a line.’
Asking me to become both sister and guardian to his siblings – first Marvis, and now Kaint too seems quite confident in his looks.
I admit Kaint is handsome enough to make my heart flutter just by making eye contact. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say there might be players willing to spend their entire fortune and bet their life for that bewitching eye-smile.
But I can’t be that person.
No matter how devastatingly handsome he is, good looks only excuse plotless romance developments.
Even then, with the landmine of post-s*x affection drop still lurking like a bolt from the blue, I’m not desperate enough to jump into the fire voluntarily.
Well, I might have been that desperate in the past, but not anymore.
“Admiral.”
“Yes, Shin Joo. Please speak.”
“Now that I feel assured, I should get going.”
“Shin Joo?”
“Please turn the ship around.”
Kaint’s siblings were cute and playing with them was fun, but as a modern person exhausted from life, it’s impossible for me to take responsibility for 10 children.
If this is the only way to pursue Kaint, then I’ll give up on pursuing him.
Better to cut off my head instead!
“Shin Joo, could you spare a little more time? There’s still much I haven’t shown you.”
“I know you’re capable now, so I don’t need to see more. I’ll trust and leave it to you.”
I gave Kaint a thumbs up with a soulless expression.
Though watching the cannonballs fly and waves surge was interesting and fun, the training was simulation while childcare would be reality. Well, since it’s a game, it’s ultimately virtual reality, but still.
When I can barely take care of myself, I don’t have the confidence to handle childcare in a dating game.
‘Now I understand why this is a trash game.’
The barriers to conquest are too fatal in this game. Who designed these settings anyway?
***
After escorting Shin Joo to her room, Kaint was seized by an inexplicable feeling.
The Savior of Destruction who maintains the world from collapse. The temple that should have kept the Divine Master safe failed to protect her from the demon race’s attack. He’d even heard that her former Guardian Knight had conspired with the demon race to monopolize her.
He couldn’t leave her in the temple, which had become a crucible of chaos. So when Shin Joo requested his help, Kaint rushed to her without hesitation and brought her back to his castle.
He was more suitable as Shin Joo’s protector than the temple, which was preoccupied with its own interests, or the Guardian Knight who had fallen so low he would sell his soul to receive her favor.
‘At first, that was the only reason.’
His heart inexplicably fluttered when she said she liked numbers that placed 1 and 0 side by side.
When he delivered gifts sent by citizens who admired her, she returned them asking him to use them for the people, and when he asked her to meet his adopted siblings, she sincerely cared for them and made them happy.
She was a good person. That’s why he wanted to protect her with all his heart. He wanted to watch from beside her as she dedicated herself to people.
From the closest position possible.
When he first realized these feelings, he truly thought his desire ended there.
Moving up the mock training date and asking Shin Joo to watch was to find fulfillment as a guardian. Despite being an unscheduled invitation, the kind-hearted Shin Joo accepted his proposal.
It was a good opportunity to show his unit’s strength and earn her trust.
Until he brought her aboard the ship, he really thought that was the extent of his desire.
But once he actually boarded the ship with her, a strange feeling arose. The small hand resting on his arm, the slender arm, the subtly warm temperature, the sight of soft hair disheveled in the wind.
His heart strangely stirred. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. It felt like he was the one swaying, not the ship.
Perhaps she was making him nervous because she was a difficult woman to deal with. Though he had no experience with women in private matters, Kaint was not a man ignorant of etiquette. Though it was his first time escorting a woman, it shouldn’t be too difficult if he followed what he had learned.
That’s why he caught Shin Joo when she lost her balance and stumbled on the swaying ship.
But the moment she looked up at him and smiled in his arms, all the knowledge he thought he had mastered evaporated in an instant.
He wanted to marry this woman and live together.
Kaint was dumbfounded by his own sudden surge of desire.
Marriage? That was a contract between two people bound by deep love and trust. Kaint had never had intimate exchanges with Shin Joo. Their relationship wasn’t at that level.
So why did he suddenly feel such an impulse?
‘The siblings did like Shin Joo.’
The siblings followed Shin Joo with blushing cheeks as if they had met a hero from mythology. He caught a glimpse of her standing among those small children.
Her smile was warm enough to linger in memory even after turning away.
The children, who had lost their parents and siblings early in life, needed a guardian. Kaint had sufficient ability to care for those children. However, being an unmarried man, perhaps he was lacking in emotional care.
So if Shin Joo stayed with him, though they wouldn’t be blood-related family, perhaps they could become an even stronger family than a real one.
‘If Shin Joo stays with us… the siblings won’t have to be sad.’
Kaint wanted to make his young siblings happy. And he wanted to make Shin Joo happy.
She seemed like someone who found fulfillment in dedicating herself to others. Just like Kaint. Because their approaches to life were so similar, it wasn’t difficult to imagine a future together.
‘That must be why I thought of marriage. Not because I harbored any impure or wicked feelings toward her.’
Kaint was accustomed to suppressing himself and dedicating his life to others. He believed his happiness lay in caring for and pleasing those dear to him. He had never lived for himself to begin with.
Kaint, who had focused his entire life solely on leading his subordinates and caring for his siblings, lived a regular life. He woke up at the same time every day, ate the same meals, wore the same uniform, and met the same people.
That regular routine, which wasn’t supposed to change until he retired with age, was interrupted by the external factor called Shin Joo.
Kaint wanted to incorporate her variable into his original daily life. For that purpose, marriage would undoubtedly be the most efficient method.
Kaint called for his adjutant Nix.
“Did you call for me, Your Grace?”
“Nix. I intend to propose to Shin Joo.”
“Ack.”
Adjutant Nix bit his tongue in that moment. He was too shocked to even ask for clarification.
A proposal? So suddenly?
“Um, you two… since when have you been in that kind of relationship?”
“I thought about it during today’s mock training.”
Nix’s pupils trembled. He wondered if he was having hallucinations and hearing things. Did he eat a poisonous mushroom? What was on the dinner menu again?
“When you say you thought about it… does that mean Shin Joo hasn’t expressed any particular feelings toward Your Grace?”
“Hmm?”
Kaint tilted his head.
“She readily agreed to observe the unscheduled training.”
“……”
“Before that, she also accepted my request to meet my siblings.”
“……”
“She smiled at the children.”
Most people smile when they see children.
Nix wanted to say this but seeing how serious his superior was, he decided to change the direction of his advice.
“Um, Your Grace. With a woman you like, you should confess first, not propose.”
“Isn’t a confession the same as a proposal?”
“They’re different!”
