112 – Nymphs and the Dark Haildo #4
Seo Ye-rim was taking a brief break in her office.
Then she suddenly remembered the message she received from Inoi.
“Inoi: The owner of the house has brought a new animal…! It’s a very magnificent and beautiful spider…!”
It was news that a new animal had arrived at Haildo’s house.
Its name was Mi-ong.
She had said it was a beautiful spider, and they held a welcome party for such a spider, which looked very fun from the photos Inoi sent.
“I want an invitation too. Does he dare not invite me?”
Seo Ye-rim was the one who helped Haildo acquire his house.
She was also the overall manager taking care of the house.
However, it was somehow frustrating that Haildo hadn’t contacted her even after getting a new pet.
“Hey! Inoi said there’s one more animal named Mi-ong that he adopted, right? Then he should have told me first!”
So, she sent a message right away.
About five minutes later.
Tick-tock!
For some reason, a reply came back quickly.
“Wow? Why is your reply so fast today?”
With a slightly trembling heart, Seo Ye-rim checked the message, and she was surprised to see Haildo’s reply, causing her hands and feet to tremble and her face to flush.
“1: O.”
Haildo.
He sent a one-word reply!
This was unprecedented in Seo Ye-rim’s life, where she had always received princess-like treatment wherever she went.
“…Is this for real? Is this true?”
Everyone she normally communicated with tried to please her and sent thoughtful messages with emoticons.
Haildo, too, used to put effort into his replies, maintaining proper grammar and punctuation.
But sending a one-letter reply like this!
“This, this j*rk…! Even then, he used a period…! This is surely mocking or provoking me…!”
Seo Ye-rim was so angry that she felt tears welling up.
How could someone be so ruthless and cruel?
“I have to go confront him right now!”
Seo Ye-rim packed her bag and got up from her seat.
Mheuheuheu-.
At that moment, someone chuckled mischievously.
It was the nymph Illinois, who she managed.
“The house master is finally trying to distance himself from Core Ye-rim…! After all, up until now, Core Ye-rim’s attitude has been quite ugly…!”
“What? You think my attitude was bad…?”
“Not just bad but very trashy…! Cores with such an attitude are of course abandoned by men…!”
“What do you mean?”
Seo Ye-rim frowned deeply.
“Why is my attitude bad? Why am I trashy? Come here! Corebi- Nymph cheek pinch!”
Seo Ye-rim grabbed Illinois’s cheek and pinched it.
This was a technique that could be used by those recognized as “Core” by the nymphs, a cheek-pinching technique.
There were also sister techniques like “Nymph Honey Slap” and “Nymph Allowance Reduction.”
With Seo Ye-rim’s pinch, Illinois’s cheeks bulged out.
“Hieek…! The problem is that you’re attacking Illinois’s cheeks…! Haven’t you heard the saying not to hit nymphs like flowers…!?”
Don’t hit nymphs like flowers.
She had never heard of such a saying.
“Mheuheu, that Illinois made it up…! Being violent toward nymphs like this negatively affects the house master’s fondness for nymphs…!”
“……!”
Seo Ye-rim felt shocked.
Could it really be true?
She released Illinois’s cheek, and Illinois touched her cheek with tears in her eyes.
“Didn’t my recent attack stretch Illinois’s cheek like mozzarella cheese? If that Illinois gets stretched, she becomes Illinois….”
“…….”
“Anyway, if you buy me the latest ‘Nymphtendo Game Console,’ I will tell the house master about Core Ye-rim’s nymph-friendly characteristics…!”
Illinois chattered away.
While dealing with such a talkative Illinois, Seo Ye-rim fell into thought.
‘Did I act too cold and upset him? Or is it some kind of teasing…?’
Seo Ye-rim felt strange about the reply that simply read “O.”
Somehow, she felt a mix of frustration and unease.
So, she decided to go check on him directly!
# # #
“O.”
This was the first time I sent a one-word reply.
It was truly an impolite, uncouth, and wicked act.
It felt like the pent-up frustration I usually received from Seo Ye-rim was melting away.
“Very good.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
For some reason, a sense of guilt and a strange feeling of omnipotence surged within me, making me feel good.
The mana in my body also felt like it was boiling stronger.
“I feel that something is off with me right now.”
Could it be because of the tattoo that appeared as a hole on my chest?
If there was someone to discuss this with, it would be Ari, who lived in our neighborhood.
“Ari.”
I visited Ari’s house, which settled in this primordial village.
Ari’s house had a small yard and a rather old slate roof; she said she liked it because it felt minimalistic.
Knock-knock-.
I knocked on Ari’s door.
I even pressed the doorbell twice.
Ding-dong-ding-dong-.
Soon, I could hear the sound of bare feet slapping against the floor from inside, and someone approached the door.
Then she asked.
“Senpai, what brings you here? You come looking for me on a Saturday morning! Please wait a moment! Just a moment! It’ll only take 5 minutes! I haven’t even washed my face…!”
Thud-thud, thud-.
An incredible noise started coming from inside.
Exactly five minutes later, the door opened.
Yu Ara greeted me with a light makeup and a comfortable white dress.
“Senpai, this is the first time you’ve come to our house since the housewarming with Inoi, right?”
“Yes. Can I come in?”
I entered Ari’s house and looked around at the cute dolls placed here and there, everything was well-organized and it smelled fragrant.
“Please sit down for a moment! I’ll make you cocoa! I just got mana cocoa. It tastes good and is good for you. Just a second─.”
Yu Ara began to prepare cocoa.
I sat on the living room floor and took a sip, but it tasted very salty.
It seemed she used salt instead of sugar?
Usually, I would have drunk it nicely as given, but for some reason, I just couldn’t bear it now.
“Ari, the cocoa is too salty.”
“Eek? Is, is that so? It shouldn’t be…! It shouldn’t…! Oh no…! I must have used salt instead of sugar…! I’m so sorry for this mistake…!”
Yu Ara hurriedly took the cup away.
She soon returned with a delicious chilled cocoa and handed it to me.
It was refreshing and tasty with ice in it.
“It’s the first time you’ve come to our house alone, so I was a bit flustered… So why are you here on such a nice weekend…?”
Ari asked me.
“Rather than explaining, it’s faster to show you.”
I took off my shirt to explain my situation.
“Whoa…! Sen, senpai…! Isn’t it too early to skip so many steps…! Whoa…!”
Ari blushed and covered her face with her palm, looking genuinely flustered.
“Wow, wow!”
Swiftly-.
But I had taken off my shirt and showed my bare skin to Ari.
It was only natural to show the affected area to a doctor.
“Ari, look here. There’s a black spot, right?”
The tattoo that had appeared on my chest.
I showed it to Ari, but she, with a flushed face, glanced at me and trembled as if she couldn’t understand, saying, “A spot? I don’t see anything….”
You mean my fist-sized black pattern isn’t visible?
“Are you saying you can’t see this? Really? Here it is. This part.”
“Yes, no…! I can’t see it…! But, um, maybe I can tell if I touch it…! Or take a closer look…!”
Swiftly-.
Ari slowly approached and looked at my chest.
Then she even touched it with her hands, but she still seemed confused.
“I don’t feel anything… How about tasting it? Like licking it….”
Ari was a very enthusiastic doctor.
However, I thought if I licked this unknown thing, it might create a big problem for Ari, so I put my shirt back on.
Refusing a doctor’s examination was a very bad thing, and an unsettling shiver ran through my body, tingling to my fingertips.
“First, let me explain what happened to me. What happened was─.”
Chatter-chatters-.
I began to explain everything that had happened to the trustworthy doctor Ari.
Ari was a very intelligent woman and quickly understood most of what I said.
“So, according to senpai, after being attacked by that parasitic creature, a spot appeared that only senpai can see, and you keep feeling the impulse to do something bad, right?”
“That’s exactly it. My body’s mana has risen to grade A.”
“If that’s true, it would be a remarkable discovery! A parasitic creature that raises an Awakened’s mana to A… This is indeed a significant breakthrough!”
As Ari said, it was an astonishing discovery.
A parasitic creature that rapidly increases the internal mana of an Awakened and enhances its destructive power.
However, with sudden power comes a price, and I was currently feeling that price deeply.
“Excessively provoking a person’s aggressiveness. It seems to amplify negative feelings. To be honest, it’s not easy to control.”
“Is that so? When I see you, it doesn’t seem like that at all. You don’t seem so different from usual… Unless you’re lying, of course.”
Ari didn’t seem to realize.
I came to Ari’s house without bringing a gift!
And it was the weekend when everyone was resting, yet I was putting her to work!
This was certainly an impolite act, disregarding common courtesy.
But it was fine─ that confidence overflowed within me.
In fact, if I hadn’t had that confidence, I would never have boldly visited a woman living alone like this.
“Certainly, it feels like a different kind of confidence than usual… That seems to be the case. So what do you want to do, senpai?”
“I think it’s best to figure out something one way or another.”
I wanted to get rid of this parasitic creature.
Losing control over myself and being compelled by an outside force.
Even if I gained powerful abilities, if I couldn’t control them and harmed others, it would be worse than being a harmless weakling.
And it might just be my imagination, but I felt that the hole on my chest was slowly growing larger.
If it continued to grow and cover my entire body, I wouldn’t be able to predict what would happen.
Then Yu Ara clapped her hands.
“I understand. Then let’s start with an examination first. You mentioned it reacts to intense emotions, right?”
Swiftly-.
Ari attached a strange device to my hand.
It was a machine to measure heart rate and mana waves.
“I’ll carefully observe your condition throughout the day. If you feel any impulses different from usual, don’t resist it; just go with the flow. Understood?”
Saying this, Ari held her front hem with her fingers and fluttered it.
“Oh, it’s a bit hot, isn’t it? The air conditioning hasn’t been installed yet…”
Flutter, flutter-.
Watching her, I felt something impulsive stirring up inside me.
Normally, I would have let it pass, but…
