Chapter 186: Loli Boss (1)
I left Choi Soohan with Grandpa the butler, came back to the residential wing, and stepped onto the thirty-ninth floor to find Mom already making dinner.
Sis had said she was working and couldn't come, so the rest of us ate on our own. By the time I got home and dropped onto the bed, exhaustion had its hands around my arms and legs and was dragging me under.
One thing I hated after another had piled up these past few days, and I was running low. Friday's string of bad news, and then forcing a commendation onto Choi Soohan today, had sunk my mood even further.
I was sprawled out like a corpse when Franc, reading me, conjured puppy ears and a puppy tail and started laying on the charm. A bra and panties printed with a cute puppy face, stockings with a puppy drawn across the knees—Franc was radiating lethal cuteness, and my foul mood flipped positive in an instant.
"Whew. If I didn't have you, Franc, I'd have died of a critical Franc deficiency."
"Pfft. What is that even supposed to mean?"
I pulled her in and hugged her waist hard. Franc let out a breathless sound, then burrowed happily into my arms and giggled.
"Not a joke. I mean it. Nasty things kept blowing up one after another, and I was depressed. And then I went and forced that whole business on Choi Soohan."
"Is that so? Then I shall comfort you with everything I have!"
She peppered my face with little kisses—and the white fox that had been staring up from the floor leapt onto the bed, charged over, and started licking my face like mad!
"Gah! What's wrong with you?!"
Kyii! Kyong!
I caught her around the middle and lifted her. All four legs flailed, and she looked at me with her tail swishing.
"What? You saw Franc doing it and copied her?"
Kyaeng!!
Franc looked utterly dumbfounded at the short bark.
"Ah, I ought to name this one too. I can't keep calling her this and that forever..."
A white fox, so... white fox... white...
"Let's go with Heuni."
Kiiing? Kyaeng!
"Huh? You don't like it?"
Kyuung! Kii-kking!
"What's so picky about it? Just take the name you're given."
Those big jet-black eyes filled with discontent. I frowned and turned to Franc.
"Franc is a good name..."
Kioong! Kyong! Kiaang! Kyang-kyaeng!
"Ack! Why is this little brat throwing a fit?!"
I'd been about to ask Franc if she had a good name in mind when the fox suddenly headbutted my stomach, sprang up, latched onto my head, and thrashed. I peeled her off my face and gave her head a light smack. She went kkuung and drooped. Franc stood with her arms crossed, staring down at the creature as if she couldn't believe the nerve.
"It seems she doesn't want anyone but you giving her a name, Seoha."
"...Seriously?"
Kkuong!
Kkuong, my foot. Haah. Hopeless.
I narrowed my eyes at her as she wagged her tail, expectant. Unlike the sand-colored fennec, she had white fur like an arctic fox. Malnutrition had left the coat patchy, but two days of eating well and sleeping well had put some flesh on her, and new fur was coming in. It was still uneven, but once she was healthy she'd be cute as a mix of arctic fox and fennec. She looked shabby for now, yet her tail had no bends or kinks. It was bound to hang as fine as a fox stole.
Tail. Tail...
"Let's go with Miho."
Kyuung! Kyaeng-kyaeng!
"Yeah, yeah. You like that? From now on you're Miho—mi for tail, ho for fox."
Kki...ing?
You thought it was the mi that means beautiful, didn't you? Hold on. Does this little thing even know Chinese characters? Did some researcher teach her?
I held both of them in my arms for a while and played, and the heavy, gloomy mood from earlier vanished without a trace. Thanks to that, I figured I'd sleep easy tonight.
Starting the day with a beauty's kiss is an exceptionally pleasant thing.
"You're awake?"
Kyooong.
"Mm. If you woke me with a kiss every single morning, that would be perfect. Haaaahm."
I grumbled—not quite a grumble—up at Franc, who was smiling down at me, and her expression turned awkward. I reached out and stroked Miho's head. She seized my hand with all four paws and started nibbling my fingers, playing. She'd perked up considerably. In four days she'd put on enough weight that, unless you pushed the fur the wrong way, the bones that used to jut out no longer showed, and her cute look was coming back to life.
I stroked that bushy tail and asked Franc, who still wore the awkward face.
"Why the look?"
"Ahaha, well... when Hwayeon or Yeongeun is here as well, they both try to be the one."
So nobody got to kiss me awake? They could just take turns.
I looked at Franc as if that were pathetic, and she bristled, lips pushing into a pout.
"That is largely your fault, Seoha!"
"Huh?"
"Count them, once you have verified it! Has there been a single night you did not hold us?!"
"..."
"Every time, you u-use us until we lose our senses, and then you are the first to rise!"
D-did I?
"And even when you are not, we all wake together, so there has scarcely been a chance to rouse you with a kiss! That is why we end up competing...!"
"Ah, yeah. I get it. Sorry, okay?"
Listening to her, I understood. That was the look she meant by angry. I quickly pulled the sulking Franc into my arms, patted her backside, and stroked the back of her head. She rested her face on my shoulder, and I felt her let out a small sigh.
"There, there. Let's go eat at Dad's and then head to school. Miho, you can come with us from today too."
Kyaeng!
"Yeah, yeah."
I put on my uniform and went downstairs. Sis was nowhere in sight, so I looked with Spatial Perception and found her in her office in the administrative wing, working a tablet. Already gone to work?
"Mom. Did Sis already leave for the company?"
"Aigoo, don't even start. She crawled in at midnight, collapsed, and fell straight asleep! I went to the trouble of getting her clothes off and putting her to bed, and she was up at dawn and off to work again."
"Whoa. A total work addict."
Dad saw the dumbfounded look on my face, furrowed his brow, and threw a scolding my way.
"It's all because of you, you rascal. She takes on that hardship because it's your raid team."
"Because of me?"
He clearly wasn't pleased that Sis was suffering like that. Fair enough—he was a daughter-fool of a father. She came home after he was asleep and left before he woke. Of course it would grate.
"Then should I fire Sis?"
"..."
Keuh. Been a while since I saw that 'what an absurd brat' look.
He put on a pathetic expression and turned his eyes to the newspaper, and a surge of irritation made me whine.
"Ugh, seriously, you only ever dote on Sis. If she says she's getting married and brings a groom home, I'll snap his legs clean off."
"Isn't that obvious? You think I'd hand my daughter to some frail young punk who can't even beat one old man like me?"
"Ah, yes, yes."
Grumbling, I sat down at the kitchen table and happened to catch Franc's eye. She was staring at me, flabbergasted.
"What?"
"You were not planning to let Lady Siha marry, were you?"
"Huh? Me? When?"
"You said her partner would have to be someone stronger than you."
Whoa. So she really had read my mind back then? From the living room I heard Dad mutter that it was a fine idea. Mom must have heard it too. She was carrying the finished dishes over with Franc when she shouted at him.
"You! Stop talking nonsense and come eat breakfast! And is there even anyone stronger than our son right now? Don't go blocking your daughter's marriage prospects. She already looks like she has no interest in men, and I'm worried enough as it is."
At Mom's scolding Dad put on a sulky face, sat at the table with a frown that said he still didn't like it, and Mom planted a hand on her hip and let out a deep sigh.
"Aigoo. The men in this family, I swear."
"Ahem. It'll get cold. Let's eat."
"Whoa. Seafood doenjang stew today? This is gonna be good!"
"Hehe."
It was a morning when Franc's smile felt strangely embarrassing.
I set Miho on my shoulder, made her promise once more that she was absolutely not to attack or harm anyone, and took a taxi to school.
Every kid who saw her perched there raised a phone and started snapping photos. Miho folded her ears, as if she hated the constant shutter-clicks, and that stabbed straight through the girls' hearts. They screamed.
"Waaah! A fennec! That's a fennec, right?! What happened, Seoha?!"
Su Yu-ri and Cho Min-ho saw Miho up on my desk and stared, looking as if their minds had gone blank. Yu-ri I could understand. I hadn't expected even Min-ho to lose it like that.
"This one's an aberrant too, so look. Don't touch."
Yu-ri and Min-ho, who had been sneaking their hands out, froze the instant they heard me. Set a beef rib in front of a pet dog and say hold it, and you'd get exactly this face. The two of them groaned as if their hearts were wearing thin, and Miho stared right back with a look that said, What are these humans?
"Wow. Cute. Insanely cute. You get a permit to keep her?"
"Issued yesterday. She understands people, and I've taught her that attacking someone would be a disaster, so she won't. Still, don't go provoking her."
I answered Kim Chang-hyun while he marveled, and reached out a finger to gently scratch Miho's head. She closed her eyes and tilted her head this way and that, and around us people kept making sounds like they were dying.
"I've seen the necklace this child's wearing. It doubles as a restraint in an emergency, doesn't it?"
Han Go-eun had been studying Miho carefully from behind Yu-ri. So she hadn't been looking at Miho at all—she'd been looking at the collar.
Yu-ri couldn't take it anymore and started begging, half in tears.
"Uuugh. Seohaaa. Can't I pet her just once?"
"Don't ask me. Ask Miho."
"Ah! This child's name is Miho?! Miho, Miho. Would it be all right if Big Sis petted you just once?"
Kyang!
"She says no."
"Ehh?!"
At least Yu-ri had tried talking. Min-ho just stared, soul gone, with the face of a kid burning up inside. Pitiful.
Just then Kang So-ra shuffled into the classroom looking a bit rumpled, shoved aside the kids occupying her seat, and dropped into it with a groan.
"Haaaaah~. I'm so tireeed~."
"Miss So-ra? Your hair's sticking up."
"Aah~ don't care, don't care~. I hate the creator who invented mornings~."
Pretty sure what you actually hate is the constitution that makes you oversleep.
Lydia took a comb from her bag and started brushing the hair of Kang So-ra, sprawled across the desk. A sitting princess, combing someone's hair—luxury didn't come any richer than that, but So-ra was half asleep and looked as if the entire world were a bother.
Kyang! Kyang-kyang!
Miho didn't like the commotion. She cried out sharply, squirmed, and burrowed inside my shirt, and the kids drifted back to their seats, disappointed.
I sat through Otherworldly Survival back to back in first and second period, then Otherworld Biology in third and fourth, and nearly died of how hard the sleep hit. Teacher So Yoojin, supposedly the most beautiful teacher in the school, stood at the podium and poured her heart into the lesson. A year ago I would have listened hard while thinking pitch-black thoughts. Now, honestly, next to my lovers she might as well have been a man.
Hwayeon would be back today, and Yeongeun would finish her work and return. I kept checking the clock, which only made the time feel slower.
"Heading to the student council room again?"
I spoke to Lydia as she started up toward the third floor after lunch.
"Yes. The student council is really something. Watching students step forward on their own to handle part of the work the teachers are supposed to do is genuinely impressive. There is a great deal to learn."
"Yeah? I was hoping we could talk for a bit. When do you think you'll have time?"
"Right now!"
"...Didn't you say you were going to the student council room?"
"That is secondary! Seoha comes first! Come, let's go!"
With that she grabbed my hand and started off somewhere. She could let go of the hand, though. Franc was glaring.
I said I didn't want to go outside because it was hot, and she accepted that, so we talked in an empty supply room, looking out the window at the athletic clubs.
"First off, thanks for yielding that bastard to me."
"You mean... Ha Chilsu?"
"If you mean the brainless piece of trash who lost his mind—Chilsun or Childeuk, I don't even remember which—then yeah."
I glanced at the twins standing side by side outside the supply room to keep anyone from coming in, then went on.
"You're a party to this, so I figured you should know. I'm digging up everything he did in the past so he can face judgment under the law. We're gathering complainants and drafting the complaint. It should get started around next week."
"How much punishment can a simple insult actually bring? If he walks on a light misdemeanor, I think I shall be disappointed."
"No chance of that. Like I said, I'm dragging up everything from his past. I'm not spelling it out because I don't want to dirty your ears, but that son of a bitch committed crimes enough to rot in prison for centuries, at minimum. And even if he rots his way out, I'll put him on a shrimp boat or a crab boat or some deep-sea vessel so he never sets foot on land again."
The princess listened, flushed for a moment, then looked at me primly.
Why's she like that? I stared blankly back, and Lydia turned her head slightly.
"It is that bad...?"
"Rotten past the point of rotten. A maggot so far gone that rehabilitation isn't even possible."
Kyuung.
Miho, perched on my left shoulder, must have felt the killing intent in my voice. I felt her licking my cheek, lap, lap. I raised a hand and scratched under her chin, and she rumbled, savoring it.
Is this thing a cat? I thought foxes were canines.
"That's why I'm running the background check and laying the groundwork, so look forward to it. I'll punish him so hard it'll feel excessive next to the abuse he threw at you."
"So you are asking me not to tell the ambassador. Is that it?"
"Something like that."
"I shall. If I went back on the promise now, I feel you would be disappointed, and come to dislike not only me, but Britain as well."
She smiled brightly as she said it. Her pale gold hair glittered in the sunlight. Not as pretty as Franc, but pretty enough to look at.
"That's the end of it."
"Yes. Then... oh, right."
Lydia, who had been stepping lightly toward the door, turned back.
"I ended up giving up on the swimsuit I wore that day."
"Huh?"
"I decided to swim in my school uniform, just as you advised. Hehe."
Then she turned, left the supply room, and walked off toward the student council room on the second floor with the triplets in tow.
"Why is she telling me that?"
I asked Franc, who looked a little sulky beside me, and got a shocking answer.
"Because you are a devilishly charming young carnivore prince, Seoha!"
Keuk. So she's sulking because I didn't shake Lydia off when she took my hand?
Nobody was looking this way, so I quietly drew Franc in by her slim waist and pressed our upper bodies close. Through the thin summer-uniform shirt, the feel of her full breasts filled my chest. She huffed and shot me a sidelong glare, but being able to look down at her like this put me in a strangely good mood, and a laugh slipped out.
"...Good grief."
Seeing me laugh, Franc smiled as if there were no stopping me, gave my lips a light kiss, and spoke.
"No cheating."
"If a breeze starts blowing, I'll erase every last bit of it with a Mana Bullet."
I covered wide-eyed Franc's lips and tormented her apple-sweet tongue for a good long while.
After school the kids invited me to hang out. I told them a team was returning today and I had to go, and they made faces like they wanted to come along.
"Not this time. We haven't even made an official announcement to the press. I'll call you when there's a chance later."
"You promised!"
Who knew when that chance would come. I left the excited kids behind and headed for the Grand Bleu building.
Traffic was a little backed up, so I arrived past four. Just in case Team 2 had already gotten in, I sensed the entire building, but Hwayeon was nowhere to be seen.
Come to think of it... that was Sis, right? It was definitely my sister, but something around her felt familiar. This was like...
Right. A Return Point. It felt subtly different from one of those.
I tilted my head, took the elevator up the administrative wing, and got off on the thirty-seventh floor. Aunt Hyeryeong looked pretty busy too. Sis looked extremely busy, and I'd come to Aunt Hyeryeong so I wouldn't get in the way. She was already on the phone.
"I'm telling you, it has to be handled right now! No—Team 2 returns in an hour...! If there isn't any, make some! That's what the deputy warehouse manager of Business Support Building 2 is for! If it doesn't get done, the Master might just fire off a Mana Bullet!"
What?! Why is she using me as a threat?!
"Call a vehicle from the byproduct processing plant this instant and hand it over, or move it, or consult Manager Kim on Business Support Team 1! Immediately!!"
Aunt Hyeryeong hung up with a clack, lifted the receiver again to call somewhere else, and gave me an apologetic look.
"Things are a little hectic just now... If it isn't urgent, could we speak in a little while?"
"Ah, it's not urgent. Not at all. I'll be on the fortieth floor, so when Hwayeon's Team 2 gets back, please call me."
"Yes, I will! Ah, President of Kangseong Tech? How much spare room is there in the byproduct warehouse right now? What? Half a building is empty? Shouldn't the whole of Building 1 be empty by now?"
...The head of general affairs is checking even that? She really did look busy, so I ought to get out of the way.
I took Franc's hand in one hand and tickled Miho's chin with the other, heading up toward the fortieth floor, when someone else occurred to me. I stopped on the thirty-eighth and got off.
We'd talked a few times, but he was someone I'd be living alongside from now on. Better to build a little rapport.
Thirty-eighth floor of the administrative wing. The office of Boss Park Jiwoong, former boss of Hwarang, was decorated like the office of a high-ranking executive at a major corporation, the kind you see in dramas. If mine was based in deep brown, solid wood giving it a freshness that coexisted with weight, his was done in marble—and countless potted plants and bonsai, plus a Persian carpet patterned all over with white and gray flowers, covered the floor and softened the marble's chill.
Boss Park Jiwoong sat at his desk with both hands on a jet-black sphere resting atop a tripod-like stand, concentrating. The sphere was large, a good twenty centimeters across, and something about it felt off.
"Oh? Master, what brings you here?"
"I've just never really talked much with you, Boss Park... If you're busy, I'll come back later."
"Hahaha. What work is there for a figurehead boss like me? In my spare time I merely train and practice my detection ability."
He took his hands off the black hemisphere. I sensed it lightly with Spatial Perception, and something inside was squirming, moving wildly. I focused on the strange feeling and realized it wasn't alive. Something was simply flowing around inside the sphere.
"Haha. I take it this is your first time seeing one as well, Master?"
"Yes. The outside looks perfectly fine, but the inside is moving all on its own."
"Hoh. You sensed the inside of a sensing sphere from all the way over there? As expected, remarkable."
Boss Park Jiwoong picked up the jet-black sphere he had called a sensing sphere and came over to the sofa, and I followed and sat across from him.
"Is that the aberrant that was an Energy Eater?"
"Yes. She was nearly dead, but fortunately she's putting on flesh and getting healthy."
He studied Miho carefully, then soon looked away and set the sensing sphere down in front of me.
"It's fascinating. The outside is intact, and yet the inside keeps moving."
"It absorbs a little Phase Power, and it constantly gives off a faint energy wave, so grasping what is inside from a distance is extremely difficult. On top of that, the movement within is very subtle—hard to catch unless one is paying attention. That is why detection-type ability users use them a great deal for training. And you, Master, sense a sensing sphere like this as easily as drinking water."
Heh. So this is how detection-types train?
I was looking at it with my eyes only, not touching it, when Boss Park Jiwoong let out a hearty laugh.
"You can see even underground as clearly as the palm of your hand, Master, so you will have no need of a practice tool like this."
The blatant praise made me a little awkward, and I smiled faintly. I'd thought detection types didn't really train—or if they did, that it was just sensing people from somewhere high up, or catching movement. I hadn't known there was a dedicated practice tool.
Thinking about it, when I reached C-Class, Spatial Perception was the only thing that hadn't changed at all, wasn't it? Should I practice it more, and put it through its paces?