The region that had seen a sharp decline in the male population due to the outbreak of the Red Death in the early modern period, Europe.
Despite the expropriation of colonies during the imperialist era, their male ratio was one of the lowest in the world. The ratio averaged 1:40 in each country.
After the world wars, due in part to the development of various technologies, deaths among the young had decreased and life expectancy had increased.
On top of that, along with the groundbreaking invention of artificial insemination, the total population was gradually recovering.
However, this trend, too, had reached a plateau, and in order to solve the problem of population decline that was expected to occur in the future, drastic reforms had been implemented since the 1970s.
As part of these reforms, they established male preferential zones on several islands in the Mediterranean Sea and invited men from all over the world to vacation there.
Except for travel expenses, men who visited the preferential zones were free of all expenses for their stay, including accommodations, meals, entertainment, and so on.
To ensure the safety of the men, it was only natural for the security around and inside the islands to be as vigilant as at a military base.
On the other hand, women – staff members were only natural, but even those with sightseeing purposes (which cost more than twice the market price) – who were allowed to visit the islands were limited to those who had passed strict requirements and high competition in terms of age, appearance, background, etc.
The ratio of men to women on the islands was always kept at 1:5-8, and the security was also so well-maintained that it was possible for men to walk alone in designated areas.
Thanks in part to this, there were many men and women who had not only had momentary romances in the male preferential zones, but had even gotten married.
According to a survey conducted in a Western European country, men who had spent time in the male preferential zones seemed to be twice as likely to produce offspring as those who had not.
Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island that was floating in the Mediterranean Sea, was also one of those islands.
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My mother, who had just graduated from high school in Barcelona, wonderfully passed the recruitment for restaurant employees on Lampedusa Island.
There she met and fell in love with my father, a Japanese tourist.
What was more fortunate was that my father was not just having fun with her for the duration of his stay on the island, but was properly interested in taking her as his significant other… no, as one of his wives after spending a month with her.
My mother later told me that my father, who was 10 years older than her, had already had four wives, so even though she was his fifth, she didn't mind it at all.
That was because having a relationship with a man and to be taken as his wife was a great fortune in and of itself, after all.
My mother accompanied my father to Japan and formally married him.
Born one year later was me, Martina.
By the way, I have five elder sisters from different mothers, but not even a single elder brother.
Even though it was better than Europe, the male to female ratio in Japan had dropped to about 1:30, so I barely had any chances to meet men, but even so, I was happy that my father doted on me a lot since I was his youngest daughter.
In this world where men are extremely scarce.
It seems that there was even a time when a large number of women swarmed young men, maintaining the population by squeezing sperm out of them over and over again to bear their children.
However, in the latter half of the 20th century, artificial insemination technology was developed, and they were able to have children, even if it was limited to girls, without having to force themselves to scramble for men.
Therefore, there are also all-women families that have continued for two generations, or three if they are unlucky.
Should that happen, when the daughters of matrilineal families reach the age of adulthood, when they want to fall in love and get married, they don't know how to treat men because they are not accustomed to interacting with them.
As they sometimes resort to forceful means, there are even times where they are accused of being female molesters or rapists.
Still with no experience with men even when they reach the age of 20. The type who thinks being able to have children through artificial insemination is better.
There are also women who grow old without being able to have children due to economic or physical reasons.
This is the negative spiral of the matrilinear family that has become a problem in recent years.
On the other hand, as they have someone from the opposite sex they are close with since early ages, girls who have a father or brothers have some leeway in interacting with men and are still able to treat them naturally, making it easier for them to bond with men.
It was true that I was blessed in many ways, but maybe I was born into such circumstances too.
Me being able to enter a co-ed high school was of course partly the fruits of my efforts, but….
It was just that, I was troubled by my chest, which rapidly grew like a fruit ripening as I grew taller.
It was on the level where they stood out so conspicuously among girls of my age, made my shoulders stiff, and it was painful when they swayed as I exercised.
It was also troubling that when I tried to buy a bra with a design I liked, there were no bras that matched my size.
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