Chapter 122

〈 Chapter 122 〉 Part 1, Chapter 7 (2)

“Ugh…. T-That’s enough. I can’t take anymore…”

[Endure it. It always hurts the first time.]

“No way, hnnnng…! This isn’t a moan… KYAA?!”

[…I didn’t say not to make noise. Actually, making noise is better.]

“Just… do ONE thing properly… haaah, haaah… Don’t suddenly speed up like that?! Why are you so good at this?!”

[Because I’m a specialist in this field… I’m putting it in.]

“What? No, stop! That’s too much… HAAAAAAA!!”

…

…

…

“It’s over! You’ve exhausted your magic power by using too much all at once. You’ll be fine after resting for an hour.”

“…My back feels broken. Can I lie down?”

Seok Harang wobbled around like a zombie. I carried her and laid her on the bean bag as usual. Harang’s face was flushed red as she panted heavily.

“You’re going too far… How could you just shove something that big in there…”

“That’s the fastest way without causing pain.”

I slipped the cube into my inner pocket.

“You don’t feel it now, but you recklessly used too much elemental spirit power. I’ve replenished it for you, so you’ll be fine now.”

“Yeah… Not putting anything else in…”

I turned away from the suffering Harang and opened the refrigerator. The inside was a mess compared to my last visit.

“I told you to leave the sesame oil outside, right?”

“…Just drink it already. Stop being picky. Get me a juice.”

“You’ve completely turned into a tyrant. To a guest no less.”

“I own this house, deal with it.”

I threw a blueberry-print milk carton at Harang with full force, aiming directly at her face. However, it fell into an ice net that suddenly appeared in mid-air.

“Thanks, hehe.”

Harang dissolved the ice net and picked up the milk carton, smiling happily. I clicked my tongue and looked down into the lower section of the fridge.

“……Canned coffee?”

An entire section of the fridge was filled with canned coffee. When I opened the vegetable compartment out of curiosity, it too was packed with canned coffee. Harang inserted a straw into the milk carton and began drinking it cheerfully.

“There’s no way I’d drink the coffee sold at cafes. At least this one has sugar so it tastes sweet… It’s basically just sugared water.”

“Why isn’t there any strawberry milk?”

“Why would I buy something like that? Just shut up and drink what’s here.”

“…Your mouth really runs off.”

I sighed and took out a canned coffee. The chillingly cold touch made me shiver as I collapsed onto the bean bag. We both lay down on the large bean bag. Though Harang’s face showed reluctance, her body remained close without moving away.

“Yap.”

I pressed the canned coffee against Harang’s arm. Thanks to her white box tee, her arm was fully exposed, allowing the cold metal to directly touch her skin.

Harang showed no change in expression.

“What are you doing? Making me an ice pack?”

“……As expected.”

Even with the canned coffee pressed against her arm, Harang didn’t flinch. Confirming that the magical power flowing through her veins had instinctively activated to prevent frostbite, I unscrewed the cap of the canned coffee.

“…What is this?”

Steam rose from the canned coffee. Using my magical power, I warmed it up and took a sip.

“The magical power within your body automatically blocked the attack. Upon contact with your skin, it recognized the potential for burns and immediately activated the magical power flowing through your blood vessels to maintain your body temperature. That’s a characteristic of SS-rank individuals. You might be able to survive on Mount Everest naked now?”

“As long as I can survive summer without air conditioning, that’s good enough, right?”

Harang turned toward me, her eyes lighting up. As the daughter of a Rusalka, Harang had near-zero affinity with flames, making every summer akin to hell.

While winter allowed her stamina to recover from the cold, summer inflicted continuous damage merely from breathing due to her abnormal constitution. But that wouldn’t be happening anymore.

“Now that I think about it, we skipped the event.”

“What kind of nonsense is that again?”

“The swimsuit event.”

“Phew!”

Harang spilled the milk she was drinking. I quickly ignited a flame to evaporate the milk on the floor.

“You… YOU PERVERT?! Who were you trying to do THAT with?!”

“…? Ah, don’t misunderstand. I was talking about vacation… …What have you been thinking about?”

I lifted my hand like a pair of chopsticks and pinched Seok Harang’s cheeks, shaking them. Realizing her embarrassment, she fidgeted silently before pouting her lips.

“Then you should have said that from the start.”

“It was originally meant to enjoy that aspect. Anyway…”

I carefully examined Harang’s body. While her figure wasn’t very noticeable under the box tee, it couldn’t hide itself from my magical perception.

Though Heroine physical beauty ranked highest with Cheon Gaeul, Seok Harang possessed an exquisite slender physique. Especially her legs…

“Hey. What are you looking at?”

“Your chest.”

“Are you insane?”

“No. I’m glad your mother’s genes didn’t work. If they had, you’d have ended up with flatlands stretching across Kimhae.”

I habitually climbed atop Seok Harang. With Harang lying on the bean bag, I overlapped myself on top of her, our faces facing each other. I placed my head between Harang’s bosom. Clearly, being five years younger than the original made her less developed, but with a bit more care, she had the potential to surpass the original in size…

Thump, thump, thump.

“…Miss Seok Harang?”

“Don… Don’t say anything…”

Suddenly overlapping bodies must have startled her, or perhaps seeing my face above hers made her blush. Harang’s heart was beating wildly. I rested my chin on her sternum and sighed.

“…Here we go again. I’ve already told you not to beat so fast.”

“Then don’t surprise me like this!”

“You never know when or where someone might launch a surprise attack. Puhehe. Or maybe our Princess Seolhua…”

I slightly lifted my body, supporting myself on the bean bag to meet Harang’s eyes. Our breaths were almost touching, and Harang’s rapid breathing tickled my neck.

“Did you fall for just anyone, including the enemy who killed your father?”

“…”

Harang’s heartbeat gradually slowed down. Her flushed cheeks lost their color, and the pupils that were trembling like an earthquake settled down.

Pak! Harang grabbed my shoulder and flipped me over. The bean bag tilted, but I willingly followed Harang’s lead and lay down on the floor.

Our positions changed. Harang pinned me down in a mount position. With a cold expression that seemed to drip ice, Harang glared down at me.

“Looks like I can’t look at you nicely.”

“Of course. Don’t forget. You must not fall for me.”

“…”

Harang glared at me. I met her gaze without averting my eyes.

We stared silently at each other for several minutes. I started to get curious. By now, she usually would have thrown me aside while muttering “What nonsense, you crazy.” Yet I still remained restrained by her grip on my wrist.

‘What’s wrong? Why is she acting like this? She’s scary.’

Could she have frozen in place from shock at my warning not to fall for me? Just as I wriggled my toes anxiously,

Wham! Harang suddenly hugged me. Confused by her sudden action, I froze.

“H-Harang?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

With a voice that sounded both laughing and crying, Harang whispered into my ear.

“My SS-rank abilities improved my ability to read emotions, you know. Wherever you’re spinning lies, this damn gasbag.”

“…”

How foolish of me. Quickly escaping her restraint, I attempted to curl into a fetal position—

Clunk. A tear from Harang’s eye fell. The transparent liquid brushed past my cheek and trickled down my temple.

“Why do you keep making yourself the sinner?”

“…”

“No, you’re mistaken. You’re misunderstanding right now. It’s all a misunderstanding—”

“Bullshit. Only you don’t realize how your heart is pounding.”

Harang pressed against my heart. Through the clothes, I could feel her coldness clearly. I tightly closed then reopened my eyes. In Harang’s eyes reflecting my pupils, blue flames were burning.

“Take your hands off.”

“Not until you answer me clearly. Otherwise, I might…”

Harang signaled with her eyes to generate an ice blade. Its sharp tip was poised to pierce my throat at any moment.

“Die if you dare, Seongju bastard.”

Her ice blade pointed at Harang’s own throat. I could also read emotions from her magical power to some extent.

Harang was serious.

“…This will be a long story.”

Despite having no intention of telling it, I ended up starting anyway.

* * *

“…”

“That’s how it is.”

I reached out behind Harang and patted her back. Fortunately, she had retracted the ice blade, but she was still quite shaken emotionally.

“I’m sorry, but I hope you understand. Eun Yuhwa truly worried about you, which led to those thoughts.”

“I know. That’s why it pisses me off even more.”

Lacking the strength to even lift her body, Harang collapsed on top of me. Her knees pressed against my thighs.

“It’s just ridiculous how both of you manipulated people’s feelings like this. Truly playing with human emotions.”

“…If it weren’t for Miss Eun Yuhwa, Yuha would have been dead by now. Originally, I intended to cleanly kill Yuha.”

“Is that something the person who killed someone’s father should say? Seriously, you’re taking sides with Sister Yuha now?”

“If I hadn’t, you might have killed Eun Yuhwa.”

Although my mistake revealed the secret negotiation with Eun Yuhwa, I didn’t want Seok Harang to become enemies with Eun Yuhwa. Honestly, I felt like kneeling down and apologizing.

“Aah, stop it. It’s embarrassing for me too.”

“…Damn it, if you were a monster type, I wouldn’t be readable to you. Move aside. I’m switching to monster form immediately.”

“Sucks for you? Sucks for you? If you’re annoyed, why don’t you reach SS-rank while in human form? Hehehe.”

I had nothing to say. I momentarily forgot that the maximum output for human form was S+. The problems caused by the Rusalka were indeed the root cause.

“Eh? Does that mean you can kill me now?”

“…”

“Keke. Look at you tensing up. I won’t kill you. I won’t kill Sister Yuha either… And I won’t say anything to the teacher.”

“…? Then what?”

Harang’s expression hardened.

“Seongju. That guy babbling in the darkness is the source of all evil. We need to take him down.”

“…”

“<The Whisperer in Darkness>”

“Whatever.”

Harang chuckled. I felt somewhat relieved. Still, how am I going to explain this to Eun Yuhwa? Considering this whole situation arose from my mistake revealing things to her—

Tock! Seok Harang flicked my forehead with her finger. It didn’t hurt, but it stung.

“…What are you doing right now?”

“For some reason, it feels like you’re screwing things up again. Also, you seem curious about how I found out, right?”

“…Right. How did you figure it out just by reading my emotions? The fact that Yuha is alive doesn’t logically make sense. There’s no way you could have understood that.”

“Look at this. If that’s the case.”

Harang slipped her hand behind my neck. Then she lay down beside me and pulled up the screen of her smartwatch.

“…Hero Community? What’s this about?”

“Just watch.”

Harang connected to a site she had visited before. Soon, a video played showing a stout bespectacled man inhaling deeply and passionately speaking.

[Professor Do, are you saying that this ‘Masked Swordsman’ is the deceased Yuha?]

[Of course! According to my theory, all six attributes except fire match exactly 99% with Yuha’s previous magical patterns! Unless it’s a Doppleganger, such a thing cannot happen! I stake my reputation on it! This person is Yuha!]

Ddeok! Harang played the next video. I barely managed to suppress the urge to shout curses.

Jwang, jwang. On the edge of a cliff, cloaked entirely in black, swinging a sword of light to intercept Western Sea Weapons. Since it was filmed from quite a distance, the excited breathing of the cameraman was clearly audible.

[Wow! Isn’t that Sir Yuha?! The technique looks exactly the same!]

The video became noisy and disappeared. However, the black screen continued to play as it was Harang’s script of the video.

“This isn’t the only one.”

[Hello everyone, this is Hitto from Tenchi TV! Doshii doshii! In today’s episode, we’ll review the mysterious Black Knight who appeared in the Korean Peninsula related to Moby Dick. To cut to the chase, according to my analysis, this user of special abilities is the S-class hero Yuha who was reported dead……

“…”

“I saved these videos before they were deleted. Haha. You really thought you could fool me so easily. Just teasing you a little made your true feelings come out right away? Hey, say something.”

I felt utterly defeated.

“That’s ridiculous. There’s no way I could be found out just because of this.”

“I didn’t give anything away myself.”

Harang poked my side and giggled.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice? The distance from Haeundae to that island is less than 1km. Did you think I wouldn’t feel it? Hmm? Hmm?”

“If you went down to Busan, you should have kept quiet. Why did you deliberately expose yourself?”

Harang swung her sword left and right, then clicked her tongue. Annoying enough to make me want to burn off her bangs instantly.

“At first, I thought it wasn’t him. But I started doubting. The sensation was 99% certain, but there’s no way a dead person could come back to life. But…”

“Dullahan and crap.”

“Hehehe. If heroes from the Dead Pineapple Brigade could resurrect briefly at the Kwangak Police Station before dying again, I figured it was worth checking. I spent all night collecting data and planned to toy with you by feeding you false information. But honestly, how could I trust it? Still, I somehow wanted to ask you.”

“So you hit it right based on intuition? Aren’t you insane? Be honest. You must have heard something somewhere. Right? Did Eun Yuhwa tell you?”

“…You really think I’d sell you out to death? Hehehe. Since reaching SS-rank, the world has changed. It’s like winning the lottery every time you buy a ticket, isn’t it? Hehe. Hey. People were speculating about our rivalry and causing quite a stir, but I guess I’ve won this time, huh?”

I grabbed Harang and threw her onto the bean bag. She screamed with laughter as she got buried in the bean bag, and I immediately climbed on top to lock eyes with her. Tension flashed in Harang’s eyes.

“…Eh? You, what are you—”

“Partial monster transformation.”

I pointed at Harang’s two hands clutched in mine. From below the joints to the fingertips, they had transformed into monster-type arms. Despite Harang channeling magical power to break free, it was futile.

“Even if I can’t unleash full power, handling SS-rank is easy.”

“…”

Harang lost her fighting spirit. I smiled triumphantly and released my grip on her wrists. Then I smoothed out Harang’s tousled hair with my hand.

“Don’t mess around.”

“…”

Harang swallowed hard and nodded. I stretched Harang’s cheeks with my gauntlet and let go before standing up.

“So since it’s been exposed, let’s confirm it clearly. Are you going to meet Yuha?”

“…”

“Not yet.”

Harang pressed her captured cheek with her palm.

“I don’t even know what to say if we meet. Now that everything’s known, it feels weird to call him ‘Teacher’ like before.”

“…Well, there will be plenty of opportunities. If you wish, just tell me. I’ll arrange a meeting.”

“Phew, thank you very much.”

Harang smirked with one corner of her mouth. I responded with a smile.

“Since it’s lunchtime, let’s go eat.”

“Alright? Ah, this time I’ll treat. I earned a lot of cores recently, hehehe. You’d be surprised how much I have!”

“Sure sure. Celebrate reaching SS-rank by treating us once. And again after at the café.”

“…”

I magically changed Harang’s clothes while preparing to go out. Outside, the clouds had cleared and bright sunlight was shining.

“By the way, thinking about it, it makes me mad. What gives you the right to sell someone’s father to Sister Yuha? Huh? Is Yuha property?”

“It-it’s because Eun Yuhwa bought him! We’re co-conspirators!”

“You probably seduced that innocent sister, didn’t you? Come on, you’re going to die at my hands today.”

“Hmph, is that fox really innocent? Lack of common sense AND learning ability, KYAAAK?! My chest?!”

“Hehehe, since you touched me, it’s fair game for me too! Wow, these are all magical power reservoirs, aren’t they? Your magical power is disgustingly abundant… Ah damn, this makes me even angrier!”

“G-Get off?! My body is—” [Stop it already!!]

She genuinely got upset. Harang’s hands swept across the breastplate of my monster form.

“Chomp. This is actually quite…”

Even after transforming into monster form, she tried to fondle me.

At that moment, I truly felt scared. Instinctively, I struck her weakness.

“KYA?! That spot?!”

[I knew where your erogenous zones were.]

“I-I- Pervert?! Alright, let’s fight! Don’t be cowardly, just switch hands like before! If you win, I’ll do whatever you want! Anything!”

[Oh ho. Did you just say anything?!!]

After wrestling back and forth, I lost track of how much time passed. Eventually, realizing our appearance was too disheveled to go out, we decided to order delivery food instead.

In frustration, I poured sauce everywhere.

“YAAAAAAAAAH?!?!”

“Hmph. I knew you liked dipping your food.”

After finishing the meal, we quickly moved on to round two.

As expected, fire types can’t defeat water types.