Quietly Hiding that I am a Man chapter 44- Fake Prophecy

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When he tried to get up, his legs gave out, and he collapsed back down. For some reason, his legs had no strength.

As he struggled on the floor, someone passed by him. Seeing who it was, Luke’s voice trembled.

“What did you do, Jerome?”

Jerome didn’t answer. Instead, he helped Luke up and seated him in a hard guest chair, while Jerome himself sat in a cushy boss chair, crossing his legs.

After a moment of listening to the waves, Jerome finally spoke.

“I’ve infiltrated your subconscious. It’s one of the most basic mental magic spells. You go into someone’s subconscious and skim through their childhood, emotional poverty, or their unspeakably filthy sexual preferences.”

“…”

“Why do you look so unimpressed? Aren’t you going to praise me?”

“…Why can’t I stand up, then?”

Annoyed by Luke’s sharp tone, Jerome averted his gaze. After hesitating for a moment, he answered.

“Well… it’s nothing serious. I just severed the nerves in your ankles.”

That was absolutely serious.

Luke scanned the surroundings with weary eyes.

In a way, this was Jerome’s subconscious room. Jerome, now swiveling his chair to face Luke, casually waved the cigar in his hand.

For some reason, Jerome was dressed like a doctor from a medical drama.

“But all of these things are new to me. How do you use this?”

Jerome picked up an item from the table.

It was a vintage camcorder—an object that didn’t match the time period in which Jerome lived.

But that was because this subconscious space wasn’t really Jeanne’s; it was closer to Eunsoo’s. Luke sighed and asked.

“By any chance, don’t you think it’s rude to barge into someone’s mind without permission?”

“No.”

Jerome responded instantly, and Luke glared at him. Unfazed, Jerome fiddled with the camcorder, pressing a button. With a faint hum, the camcorder came to life.

“You’re as strange as this thing.”

“I don’t want to hear the word ‘strange’ coming from someone who looks like you.”

The room’s surroundings slowly came into focus.

It seemed Jerome had haphazardly pieced together information from Luke’s mind.

Jerome, inspecting the camcorder in his hand with curiosity, pointed it at Luke.

The red light blinked on, reflecting Luke’s familiar face in the lens.

“How does it feel? I’m thinking of keeping you locked here for a century or two.”

“Are you hoping I’ll go mad and die?”

“No… that’s not it. I just like you. I’m so curious about you that I want to keep you locked here for millions of years. I don’t have any bad intentions.”

Should I point out that the time frame Jerome mentioned suddenly stretched from centuries to billions of years?

Or should I comment on how his intentions are unmistakably dubious?

While I was lost in thought, Jerome approached me, holding a vintage camcorder.

His eyes were glued to the image of me in the camcorder, as if fascinated.

“I like the way you look,” he said. “How should I describe it? It’s like capturing a wild fox, scooping out its organs, and stuffing it with cotton.”

“……”

“You seem unresponsive to external stimuli, but in reality, you’re so sensitive that you deliberately shut off your senses. I love that about you. Girls who are a little difficult are cute.”

Jerome’s way of speaking was erratic, bouncing from one topic to another, from A to B without warning.

The more he talked, the more I felt my eyes drift away. I shook my head quickly to regain focus.

“Just get to the point. Stop being deliberately distracting.”

The camcorder that had been filming my feet slowly panned up to my face.

Maybe it was the camera, but I tensed up, my whole body rigid with nervousness.

Jerome folded the camcorder and tilted his head slightly.

His narrow eyes curled into crescent moons as he smiled.

What he said next nearly made me bite my tongue.

“I want to do it.”

I was speechless.

He couldn’t possibly mean he wanted to play a game of Go-Stop here, could he?

No matter how I thought about it, the only conclusion I could come to was chilling.

Cold sweat dripped down my back.

If only Jeanne were a woman, I could’ve said, “Fine, let’s get this over with and be done with it!”

But the secret I was carrying was far too heavy for that.

“Why?”

I was so tense that my voice cracked. Jerome responded leisurely.

“What do you mean, why? We’re married, aren’t we?”

“Even so, in any marriage, intimacy is consensual. Just because you want to, doesn’t mean I should immediately lie down and spread my legs, right? I don’t want to. If you’re that desperate, go find a lover for that.”

Jerome was silent for a moment, then he replied with a tone of indignation.

“Jeanne, if you wanted mutual consent, you should’ve married a man with common sense.”

As I listened, I realized he wasn’t entirely wrong. N

ow that I thought about it, I was curious.

With Jerome’s ability to manipulate minds, he didn’t need to argue with me like this.

As he reached out to subtly touch my cheek again, I smacked his hand away and asked,

“Why don’t you force yourself on me?”

“Because the peace of a household depends on the happiness of the wife.”

“You dare talk about my happiness after you’ve crippled both my ankles?”

“Aren’t you starting to feel the urge to use the bathroom? How will you go? Will you crawl like a baby?”

Instead of answering, I grabbed a nearby goat statue and hurled it at him.

The sound of shattering glass filled the room as the mirror broke into pieces.

Jerome sighed as if exasperated by my seething anger.

“Alright, alright. I’ll grant you a wish. Whether it’s revenge, reuniting with your lost family, endless pleasure for decades, fulfilling an unachieved dream, or even wealth—whatever you want.”

Jerome set the camcorder aside and knelt in front of me.

The atmosphere felt like the perfect embodiment of the word “contradiction.”

Here he was, dressed in a doctor’s coat out of nowhere, asking me to name anything I wanted, as if he were some dreamlike figure. I looked down at him, frowning.

Resting his chin on my knee, Jerome smiled faintly.

“I’ll give you everything you want… You just need to give me one thing.”

“……”

“Let me be your first man.”

Golden flecks trickled like droplets from Jerome’s fingertips as he held my knees.

The thought that maybe living here wouldn’t be so bad crossed my mind.

‘Here, I don’t have to pretend to be some imperial concubine, and I’m not constantly under threat from heretics… Though, with my legs like this, I can’t walk.’

Maybe it was the sound of the waves crashing rhythmically, but I felt my mind growing foggy.

I couldn’t tell what the right decision was anymore.

Frowning, I pondered.

‘But… Am I really unable to walk?’

With a flicker of hope, I tried to stand up again.

Contrary to my expectations, my legs gave out, and I crumpled to the floor.

Seeing me lying there, groaning, Jerome laughed heartily.

‘He wasn’t lying. This bastard…’

Only after landing flat on my backside did my clouded mind clear up.

‘He really plans to keep me trapped here!’

As soon as I grasped the situation, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

This world Jerome had created, where he could give me anything, also meant I couldn’t do anything without him.

Jerome’s mindset was fundamentally different from that of a normal person.

I couldn’t even begin to guess where I’d need to start reasoning with him.

‘What am I supposed to do with legs like these? There’s nowhere to escape to anyway, so why bother severing my ankles? Am I your toy?”

Even my effort to remain calm and composed was reaching its limit. Mid-sentence, my face flushed red with frustration.

As I started to seriously lose my temper, Jerome’s smile faded, and his expression turned somber.

With clenched fists, I continued in an irritated voice,

“Let me go. Now. Love? Who in their right mind could love someone who cuts off their ankles? I’ve told you before, I hate you! The only reason I want to destroy the demon sealed inside you is so that you won’t kill me afterward. Whether it takes centuries or billions of years, I’ll never love you.”

I glared at him, veins bulging in my eyes.

I was teetering on the edge of panic, overwhelmed by the fear of being trapped in Jerome’s subconscious for who knows how long and the helplessness of not being able to control my body.

Desperately, I shouted at him, who stood motionless.

“I said I hate you! I hate you! For god’s sake, wake me up from this nightmare—!”

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