And you can't expect the children, who weren't normal to begin with, too behave normally.
Is not about if the mc is not interested, is about the (majority) of readers not being interested. For once we dont want to read borderline pedo shit. I wont deny im a gooner but that doesnt mean i would swallow every harem slop that comes my way. Having a story not make an adopted child falling in love with the mc is not that much of an ask lol idgaf if those 5 kids were born unhinged it doesnt change the fact the the creator is deprave for even putting the idea out there...
He's not that much older than them from what I remember. Either way, people are reacting this way because they keep thinking he's going to end up with one of them and he's literally just trying to pursue knowledge of magic and doesn't have a romantic bone in his body.
Aside from that, they weren't adopted by him but HE does think of them as family. He only sponsored them at the orphanage and from a distance, so they didn't establish the bond he thought he made. That's why everyone, including the male characters, are confused when he says he sees them as family. Not one of them thought of him that way. Anything else is from their wild imaginations. He can't help that they were always meant to be insane
I'm tired of y'all complaining about "the harem" when he has no interest in any of them (and people who read the novel has mentioned this before). He never will. It's all one sided. The whole joke about this manwha is the miscommunication he has with everyone.