Book 2: Chapter 31 (1/2)

“Mako…”

“Seriously?” Oswald let out a cry. “You’re going for this punk?”

Mako shot Oswald a displeased frown. “Don’t give me that look. I’ve carefully considered my options. With my virginity lost and my age advancing, I should have a baby now or I will never have the opportunity.”

“Still, shouldn’t you be interested in sleeping with a man more suitable considering your age?” Oswald asked.

“More suitable man? You mean…” Mako raised an eyebrow. “A man like you?”

Oswald nodded without hesitation. “Of course! I’m a well sought after stud. My numbers speak for themselves. 92% fertility rate and an average of 5.3 women a month.”

“Hmm… when you describe those stats, that’s exciting to hear.” Mako shot flatly.

“Excitement? We’re talking about procreation. What kind of excitement does a girl need?” Oswald responded dismissively.

“Romance? Love?” Mako raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat amused.

Oswald’s face turned incredulous as if those very concepts were silly to him. However, before he could say something, I stepped in.

“What are you doing, Oswald? Aren’t you the one who advised me to get Mako pregnant? Now you seem to be advising her to say no!”

Oswald shook his head. “Hey, this is a completely different situation.”

“How?”

“Back then, I was telling you to rape her and make her pregnant. If you pushed her down and forced her, there was very little she could do about it. Anyone would have seen this as normal. However, for a teacher to suddenly chase after a student like this, how can I see this as anything but strange!”

“If that’s your way of asking if I have an alternative motive,” Mako huffed. “I assure you I do not!”

“Clyburn, I advise you to hold back.” Oswald snorted. “When it comes to procreation, I must say that woman cannot be trusted!”

I wore a complicated expression on my face. Even someone like Oswald didn’t seem to be able to avoid the common sense of this world polluting how he saw things. Men and women depended on each other, but couldn’t trust each other. Men fought for their slice, and women fought for their seed. It was the way of this world, yet even now I still couldn’t bring myself to get used to it. I found the whole thing to be an ugly system. All of these beautiful women around me that have supported me only showed me I was right on this. I could trust these women. I wanted to be a man they could trust as well.

“Oswald, Mako is-“

“I brought a Lilith’s contract.” Mako broke in, pulling a packet of papers out of her purse.

What stopped me from interrupting was the sudden shocked look on the faces of both Rose and Oswald. Oswald quickly turned stern and walked up, snatching the form from her hands.

“Seriously girl? You’d bring one of those?” Oswald frowned.

“This is archaic. Mako… you can’t honestly be serious!”

Mako squared her shoulders, looking determinedly over at me before nodding. “That is what I offer as my slice. I offer to sign a Lilith’s contract.”

“How did you even get one of these made?” Oswald flipped through the sheets of paper, his eyes widening. “These are a taboo of the highest order. Even getting a look at a design requires a very high clearance in the government. Are you sure it is real?”

“I’ve confirmed it’s authenticity.” Mako shrugged. “It was merely a chance encounter. A certain woman who once helped me on my path.”

Oswald’s eyes shot up. “Care to provide details?”

Mako gave a wry look. “I’m not going to be able to tell you what you want to know. After I found out that I was an aseeded, I went to some great lengths to find out how to cure my affliction. I ran into a mysterious woman deep in some library. It was a silly thing. She was short and couldn’t reach the higher shelves, so I helped her. She told me she wanted to repay me. I mentioned that I was aseeded, and that’s when she pushed that contract into my hands. She said that if I wanted to uncover the truth of magic, that I must submit to a man in entirety She said that only by signing a Lilith contract could I regain my magic.”

“That…” Oswald shook his head helplessly.

“I know… I thought it was insane as well. This is why the contract was stowed away. I did take it to a trustworthy high-tier spellman, who confirmed it was real. I thought, one day, it might be something I could sell to a museum. Then… I lost my virginity, and I met Clyburn, another aseeded…”

There were several gasps this time. Rose even stood up from her seat, staring at me. I hadn’t bothered to tell any of them that I was aseeded. It was a bit of detail that I didn’t think needed to be known. However, they all looked at me with shock and surprise.

“You’re an aseeded?” Lyra asked, covering her mouth.

“Yeah? So? What of it?” I didn’t mean to snap, but their expressions made me uneasy.

“It’s nothing, dear.” Rose glared at the two half-sisters, causing both of them also to zip their mouths.

I frowned, not willing to allow them to just ignore things I ought to know. The way they looked at me contained too much shock and pity to be a simple matter. Just as I was about to demand the answers I sought, Oswald spoke up.

“Men and women are about equal in magical power. Most noncitizens never learn it. However, among high society, there is a notion that magical power coincides with fertility. Being aseeded is about the same as claiming you’re infertile. For a woman, it’s a shame, but few men bother to ask, so it’s still possible to get with a man and get pregnant. These women never admit afterward they’re aseeded though, only perpetuating the myth. For a man though…”

“Fertility is everything…” I finished his line of reasoning. “But, I’ve had two children, and possibly more on the way.”

“That was all before your aseeded test,” Mako explained gently. “Anyone who found out you were aseeded would assume you burned it out during that first use.”

“W-we haven’t been able to get pregnant.” Madison stepped forward and spoke. “We’ve tried all month.”

“That’s not necessarily evidence of anything.” Oswald frowned. “Pregnancies can sometimes take several months. This does not necessarily mean he’s impotent.”

I lowered my head, clinching a fist. Impotent. Those words reared their ugly head again. I already had possibly as many as four children. In my old world, I would have been elated to have that many kids. In fact, I might have considered that too many. In this world, it was all but a death sentence for me. The mood in the room grew somber. I had gotten Mia pregnant on the first go, and Aiko even with a condom! Yet, Ashton didn’t get pregnant, and neither did Madison. No one since my accident.  It was Madison who put her hand on my shoulder, feeling my body shaking slightly, she hugged my arm tearfully.

“It’s okay… we’ll keep trying.” Madison tried to reassure me.

“I-I will still give my virginity to Clyburn.” Lyra, who had been quiet since the

Announcement

, raised her fist. “Even if he’s… I still want to try with Clyburn!”

Rose nodded. “You’ve already given me a beautiful daughter, how could I leave now?”

I remained in silence for a few moments before I looked up at Oswald. “You said… aseeded women are still capable of having children?’

“In women… yes… maybe… as I said, few women would admit to being aseeded in the first place.” Oswald sighed and then his eyes sharpened on Mako. “Aseeded… does anyone else know about this?”

Mako nodded her head sadly. “I didn’t put it in the medical record, but the overdraft was witnessed by Diba Monic. So did Rebecca, Brooke, and half the magic class. At the time, they thought she was Clarice though…”

Oswald hissed. “Damn it, Clyburn, you should have mentioned this before… if word gets out he’s aseeded, our biggest bargaining chip is off the table.”

“It’s all hearsay and conjecture though…” Rose spoke up. “If Mako left no records of it, then claiming he’s aseeded is just a blind accusation.”

“If she needed records, she’ll just fabricate them. If she believes he’s aseeded, they can force him to take a test, and if he fails it, then…”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I demanded, glaring at Mako.

She lowered her head.  “I’m sorry, it was my mistake. I still suspected you may have been the man who raped me, and so I was still angry. Part of me didn’t want to get into it. You looked so depressed about being unable to use magic, I didn’t want to spring thoughts of infertility on you. Secondly, I thought you were born aseeded, which meant that your kids proved you fertile. Knowing now that you are struggling to make Madison pregnant, I’m no longer as sure.”

Mako genuinely did look sorry. Her eyes teared up slightly and her face was red. My attitude started to soften at that. I was angry, but it wasn’t at any of the women here. This was supposed to be my second life. How could I be impotent again? Why was my life so cruelly unfair. I believed my girls when they told me that they would stay by my side… but I also believed my wife. Flashes of her on the examination table getting plowed by that doctor came flooding back to me. How longer before Madison or Lyra decided to take their chances with the first man that offers?

Heck, Oswald was right there. It could be him who ultimately impregnated my sister, fulfilling the job I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop the bitterness from spilling on my face. This further soured the mood in the room. The worst part of all of it was that I could never even explain to these girls what I was thinking. Perhaps the only woman who could understand was Hannah, and she was off doing gods knew what.

“This will severely hurt our case.” Oswald sighed. “The government likes to look for opportunities to arrest men and turn them into sperm dispensers. I have no doubt that they’ll be pushing for a conviction. They’ll test you out, and if it’s true, they’ll simply trade you off to another country, and if the rumors are false, they have one more cum dispenser. It’s just what they would do.”

“So, you understand why I came here with the Lilith’s contract then,” Mako spoke up eagerly. “We must complete the contract, and then we will have sex. I didn’t choose to come today on accident. I’ve been checking my calendar. Tonight, I am at my most fertile. If the contract works, then perhaps I’m more likely to get pregnant than any other woman. Perhaps two aseeded can make a baby under a Lilith’s contract. At the very least, we owe it to ourselves to try.”

“I still don’t understand.” Lyra broke in. “What is a Lilith’s contract?”

Oswald looked over at Rose, clearly disinterested in explaining something like this. Rose was fascinated by history, and new a great deal about this kinds of facts. She stepped forward excitedly and then started to speak after clearing her throat.

“Long ago, women were the only sex on this planet. Men had been wiped out along with the demons by God’s flood, and the world sustained itself for eons by bathing in the waters of life. However, two things seemed to occur concurrently. One was the birth of God’s son, the blessed man. The second was the rise of the demon lord, Lilith.”

“This is scripture.” I murmured to myself, recognizing the tale I had read as part of my mother’s birthday present to me years ago. It had seemed like a myth the way it was explained in the book, but Rose was talking about this as if it was history.

“Yes, this is the origin story of women’s sin and the 1/1000th curse. However, all of that came later. What came first was the demon lord and her armies of monsters. The blessed man made himself known to the world, and he gathered 12 disciples. He led a charge on the demon lord’s castle, and in the end, made the demon lord submit to him.

“This is where things start to grow a little fuzzy. Although it was known that the blessed man went on to father six daughters and six sons from his apostles, it has never been clear what happened to the demon lord. Did she father any children? Some claim the Queen was the demon lord, but only a few truly believe this to be so. The most accepted belief is that Lilith had a daughter with the blessed man. Some even believe that line exists until this very day!”

“Hmph… stop showboating…” Oswald grunted. “Just tell them what they need to know.”