Vacation (1)

My sister headed down to her office, and with only Franc left beside me in that wide room, I pulled her into my arms and whiled the time away.

The thought that vacation began tomorrow put me in a fine mood. There would be that much more time to sprawl around with Hwayeon and Yeongeun, the three of us together.

As we idled, I caught sight of Hwayeon and Aunt Hyeryeong, back from the Ability Users' Association and getting ready to leave for the day. Mom and Dad had already gone home.

Franc and I stopped by Hwayeon's office. Hwayeon looked at me without a word, then switched on her Certifier and started recording.

"......"

I stared back, dumbfounded, and my sister—who had been with her—only giggled.

"Seoha. Dad says we should have dinner together tonight."

"Got it."

When we all went up to the house, Mom covered her cheeks with both hands and cooed, oh my, oh my, then fetched her smartphone and started taking pictures of me too. How shabby did I usually go around looking, for everyone to react like this? From now on I ought to put a little more care into what I wore.

The moment we finished the generous dinner, my sister went straight back to work. Dad watched her go, shot me a sharp glare, let out a small sigh, and spoke.

"You. Sit there a moment."

"Huh?"

I sat on the sofa as told. Franc and Hwayeon stood quietly a little apart, between Dad and me, and Mom came out of the kitchen to sit beside him.

"Yesterday it was late, and several matters overlapped, so I let it pass. I will ask you one thing now."

"What is it?"

"Before Siha was forcibly summoned to the Phase World—did you not sense any sign of it, through your Spatial Perception?"

"......I did."

"And you... did not act."

"......"

I had nothing to say, so I sat there. Dad looked at me, shook his head once, and opened his mouth again with a grave face.

"You are not stupid. Not in the least. If you lack anything, it is attention."

"I-is that so?"

"Say it too often and it becomes nagging, so I will be brief. Train your attention. If you sense something amiss, do not simply let it pass. Make a habit of looking closer—why, how, and because of what."

"Mm."

I could guess why he was saying this all of a sudden. I was no longer an ordinary student. I stood where I would have to lead a massive raid team called Grand Blue, and he meant I should watch every gesture and every way of thinking.

"Always keep this in mind. When you thrash about without thinking, the wounds of the heart do not fall on you. They fall on the people around you."

"I know."

"Good. And... what you did to protect your sister was well done. I commend you."

"Huh? Uh, y-yeah."

Did Dad just praise me? Well, well. There's a first time for everything. I turned toward Franc and Hwayeon at his words and found both of them smiling.

Dad watched me in silence for a moment, then spoke again.

"Do you know where you stand right now?"

"Where I stand?"

"Your place in society."

"......Master of Grand Blue?"

I puzzled briefly over why he would ask, and since the raid team was the only social position I had, I said that—and he let out a small sigh. Then he glanced at Franc and Hwayeon, gave a slight nod, and picked up a book.

"He is not entirely a fool, so the two of you will have to labor a little. He did something dangerous while leaving you behind. A thorough scolding ought to be quite all right."

......A scolding?

Franc and Hwayeon laughed awkwardly at the sigh threaded through his words.

After Dad's warning and his praise, I went up to the fortieth floor, and Miho came pattering over and leapt into my arms.

Kyuung! Kying! Kying!

"Yeah, yeah. I was a little late, wasn't I?"

Kyiiing!

I stroked her as she twisted her whole body in my arms, as if to demand why, and looked over at Hwayeon and Franc. The two of them headed for the bathroom in easy accord.

"Shall we bathe? Will you bathe with me?"

"I'd like that. The sea breeze left me wanting a wash as well."

"Uh, I want to wash too."

"Seoha, you wait there quietly."

"Huh?"

"We begin once Yeongeun arrives. Understood?"

"Begin what?"

I asked what she meant, but Franc only smiled and lifted a finger to her lips. Then the two of them went into the bathroom.

Dad said a scolding. Don't tell me......?

A sudden urge to flee surged up in me. I had barged, without a word, into my sister's forced summoning, so Franc, Hwayeon, and Yeongeun must have suffered terribly in their hearts. Franc had even shed tears in secret the very day I returned. I had thought we worked through the hurt well enough that night, but apparently that had only been my own opinion.

Not long after the two went in to wash, Yeongeun popped out of the elevator. Her eyes went wide at the sight of me in a suit, and then she switched on her Certifier and started recording me as well.

"Yeong—"

"Ah, I'll wash and be right back?"

She didn't even hear me out. She vanished into the bathroom where Franc and Hwayeon were already washing.

All three of them were acting unlike themselves, and I couldn't begin to imagine what was coming. I swallowed, hard, without meaning to.

I sat still and waited, just as Hwayeon had told me to, and before long the three of them walked out of the bathroom together. Wearing nothing but bathrobes, they made me kneel in the middle of the living room, then knelt in front of me themselves.

Ah. So the immediate fire is out, and I'm confirmed to be in one piece, which means now comes the scolding.

"The moment I was parted from you, Seoha, I wanted nothing more than to faint."

"This is the third time I have felt, because of you, a pain as if half my chest were being torn away."

"I believed you would come back safely, Seoha...... Even so, it was a shock."

Franc sat directly before me, Hwayeon and Yeongeun to either side, and all three stared at me with blank faces.

S-so it's starting.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It is just as Father-in-law said. This time it truly was your mistake, Seoha. If you had found the signs that Lady Siha would be forcibly summoned to the Phase World—if you had paid just a little more mind......"

"Our Seoha......"

"Seoha, you......"

Kneeling there while my three lovers took turns scolding me in quiet voices, my head began to swim. So the greatest flaw of polygamy really was the nagging and the scolding, multiplied by the square. It was true......

"Understood?"

I felt as if the film had cut out somewhere in the middle, but once I confirmed their expressions had softened, I nodded hard, before the nagging could take off again.

"Then let us go and wash."

Ugh......

Miho had been watching this way with both front paws folded over her ears. When the three of them pulled me to my feet, her ears perked, and she swished her tails as if to say, so it's over now? Then she looked up at Hiarid, seated on the little sofa beside her own house, leapt onto Hiarid's lap, and settled there at her ease.

"Where are you looking?"

"Look this way, Seoha."

"H-huh?"

The three of them dragged me into the bathroom, stripped my clothes with gentle hands, and led me to the tub already filled with hot water. Then, with the utmost care, they began to wash me from the crown of my head to the spaces between my toes—using their own bodies to do it.

I had been thoroughly scolded only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠moments ago, and now they were serving me like a king. I couldn't adjust to it, and only stared blankly at their attentions. Franc used her ample breasts like a bath sponge and set about washing my arms and legs. Hwayeon knelt in front of me, set my foot upon her thigh, and with careful hands washed my foot and the gaps between my toes, while Yeongeun stood behind me, gently washing my hair.

Once they had washed me through, they shifted into the enormous tub—large enough that four people still left it with room to spare—and one by one took my length deep into their slick, wet lower mouths......

Treated in that bathroom to a service a king would not envy, I felt as if my whole body were melting.

I sprawled on the huge bed in a bathrobe, and naked Franc lay down beside me and drew me up onto her. I lay over her with those bare, voluptuous breasts for a pillow, and from either side Hwayeon and Yeongeun—not a thread on either of them—began to massage my naked body. Franc, whenever she had learned a scalp massage, started working my head this way and that. Languid under their hands, I suddenly remembered I had never gotten a reply to the text I sent that afternoon, and I asked.

"Section Chief Park Yoohee—you sent her on purpose, didn't you, Yeongeun?"

Yeongeun smiled faintly and nodded.

"That's right. The girl's a little prickly, and she isn't exactly charming, but she doesn't hesitate to speak plainly, so I thought she would be of use. Was she?"

"She was. A great deal."

"We thought it would land better as shock therapy, coming through her, than if we told you ourselves."

"Dealing with people is exhausting work. I was more at ease when I was facing aberrants."

"Right? Sometimes I want to throw the whole thing away too. The feeling goes away after a proper rest, though."

Yeongeun lifted my arm, tucked it into the valley of her breasts, and started kneading my shoulder.

"Do you dislike dealing with people, Seoha?"

"If it's people who tried to kill me, I'll deal with them all day. What I hate is the sort like Cheonggung or Suseong, who won't face me head-on and try to pull something from behind my back."

"And if you did have to deal with them, how would you want to do it? Physically? Or with money?"

"How many ways are there?"

"Mm. The simplest is to record yourself casually cutting down a high-tier aberrant in the Phase World, and show them the footage. Make the difference in power unmistakable. If you want to go a little more roundabout, you build a phase stone refinery, buy the raw material for more than they pay, and sell the finished product for less."

"I understand the first. What's the second?"

Build a factory?

"You know the smaller phase stones get refined and used all across society, right?"

"Yeah. Starting with medicine, they're added when alloys are made, and they go into cosmetics, even food. All sorts of things."

The field that had benefited most since energy plates were developed was portable electronics—smartphones, tablets, laptops, electric cars, electric bicycles. A charge of barely ten minutes now bought close to a week's use.

"Right. So we build one biiig phase stone refinery. The large stones are used as they are for power plants, or their energy is drawn out in a phase stone smelter and processed into plates. We keep almost no profit. We buy higher than Suseong or NG, and we sell lower than Suseong or NG. Our Seoha is more than capable of that, isn't he?"

"Then wouldn't the small and mid-sized companies under them take the hit and go under?"

"To keep unrelated people from being harmed, we commission them for a set volume of contract refining. Or we use overwhelming capital to buy up the factories that are about to collapse. Either will do."

Yeongeun's second idea was tempting, and I was turning it over when Hwayeon, who had been toying with my hand beside me, began to speak.

"All of that is possible only because of your charging ability, Seoha. There is no refinery that processes high-grade phase stones and above. But if the stones have been drained of TP and discarded, you can recharge them without limit, so there is no need to be sparing. Refine those high-grade stones there, crystallize the energy, and export it—or package them as if they were obtained in the Phase World, and sell them on."

"So it's a phase stone laundering plant?"

"Heh. Shut off their phase-stone revenue like that, and the likes of Suseong and NG will start to totter in less than two months."

True enough. A conglomerate turns like gears. They divide themselves into affiliates to keep the group itself from collapsing, but if they were forced to abandon a phase stone business that large, the damage would be severe.

"In the business world, the greatest power is money. However vast a corporation, it begins with money and ends with money, and in that it is no different from a small firm. Precisely because they are such places, once your charging ability enters the picture, Seoha, those whose whole structure is ruled by money will have started a fight they can never win."

Lying there, I looked up at Hwayeon and Yeongeun attending me on either side. From their large breasts to the shape of their nipples, their expressions, even the way they moved, they resembled each other so closely it was as if one person had used a clone. Since Yeongeun became B-Class, even the slight differences could no longer be felt.

And receiving this service from my lovers, I truly did not envy an emperor. The sting of being scolded earlier was already gone from memory.

"Do I have to choose only one of the two?"

"Oh my? What do you mean?"

Interest sparked. Yeongeun stopped the massage, laid her upper body across my chest, and her eyes glittered.

"From what I'm hearing, we'll have to build the refinery anyway, so we build it. And we show them the first one too—me smashing Japan. If they still come clinging after that, then we flip the whole board."

"Ohoho. Yes, Your Highness!"

With that playful answer, her hand slipped inside the bathrobe and seized the shaft that had already swollen thick. Hwayeon's hand and Franc's followed, caressing my balls and my chest.

I already finished twice with each of them in the bathroom, and it still isn't enough......?

The road to school was muggy even in the morning, and it was a Saturday besides, but my heart was light. Endure today, and I wouldn't have to come to school for a while.

Walking toward the school, I looked around at the kids nearby and saw that quite a few of them were sunburned.

"That's one serious tan."

Among them, a girl who looked like she belonged to an athletic club ran past with a short ponytail, skirt fluttering. The nape, the forearms, and the thighs beneath the hem were white, and everything else had gone a deep chocolate, and the contrast was something else......

"And just where are you looking?"

Franc puffed her cheeks and blocked my view. "Turning your eyes toward other women, are you~?" she said, and poked my cheek.

"No way. I was only thinking it's a little unfortunate I couldn't join the two-day seaside training camp right before break, because I ended up in the Phase World."

During a break in the PR shoot on the twenty-fourth, I had texted the guys, and around lunch a reply had come in.

......That was all it said.

"That's why it's your fault! If it weren't for you...... Ow, ow, ow!"

I stepped into the classroom, and Kim Chang-hyun—now a boy fresh from the tropics—jabbed a finger at me, broke into a grotesque shoulder dance, and started yanking at his collar, forcing space around his neck. The skin there must have peeled clean off.

"Didn't you put on sunscreen?"

"I did, and it didn't do a thing. They really made us swim from start to finish. I thought I was gonna die."

Kang Ju-chan, scorched just as black, came over clutching his own collar.

"What do you mean it's my fault?"

I asked while I watched Cho Min-ho totter in with his bag, shrinking in on himself, then turned to Kang Ju-chan.

"The principal was so moved by the sight of you that he declared the seaside camp would be brutal training from this year on."

I glanced at Cho Min-ho, collapsed wordless on his desk and playing dead, and looked around the class. Everyone was in about the same state.

"If the third-years are this bad, the first- and second-years must have been wiped out. Any accidents?"

"In exchange for the brutal training, they stationed about twice last year's safety staff and equipment."

......Han Go-eun and Su Yu-ri came struggling into the classroom, clinging to each other, and behind them Lydia followed with a smile. The triplets were as expressionless as ever. Last of all came Kang So-ra. Her skin was a little burned, but she seemed perfectly fine—no muscle pain on her. I had thought something was off about her from the moment she picked a competition swimsuit; she must have been training those muscles by swimming even on ordinary days.

"Welcome back."

"Seoha, I hate youuu."

"Hate youuu."

Han Go-eun and Su Yu-ri looked at me on the verge of tears, and a laugh slipped out of me. These were kids who always showed up early, and seeing them shuffle in like zombies just in time for morning assembly, they really must have had it rough.

A moment later, once I confirmed the whole class was in, I fired a Stage 1 Healing Wave.

A blue wave swept the classroom in an instant and vanished. Strangely enough, skin burned chocolate returned to its original color, and the peeling napes, the raw patches, the little scrapes here and there—all of it went back to what it had been.

"Huh? My body suddenly feels light!"

"What, what?"

"Blue light?"

"My torn nail healed!"

The kids who hadn't seen me use the Healing Wave turned toward me in surprise, and the ones who had witnessed the blue wave spreading from my body stared with wide eyes. And sure enough, the girls touched their flushed cheeks with expressions that said they didn't even know why they were heated, twisting their bodies just a little. The boys, by comparison, seemed perfectly fine. Not so much as a hint of an erection.

Does my phase power only arouse women?

"Kya! My skin's back to normal~!"

"Guess I don't even need the skin clinic."

"The cuts are gone too! Even the peeling skin!!"

As sunburned color returned to normal and wounds and muscle pain healed along with it, the classroom grew noisy in an instant. Han Go-eun's group looked at me in shock, and Princess Lydia and the triplets wore faces that would not have been more astonished if a dead person had come back to life.

"Sir Seoha......? W-what was that just now?"

"Area recovery."

"You've got a recovery ability now too? What kind of ability...... Don't tell me. You?"

Kang Ju-chan asked with a face that said, nah, no way, it can't be. At that question everyone in the classroom looked at me, waiting for an answer, so I gave a light nod and replied.

"I'm B-Class."

"Whoa?!!"

"B-Class?!!"

"Seoha! Sign this for me!"

The classroom went past noisy and straight into chaos.

The first time, the museum incident had put me on the media in a favorable light. The second time, being attacked by assailants of unidentified nationality had stirred public sympathy. The third time, the verification footage—short, but intense—meant that people who were not ability users themselves seemed to take the rumors about me relatively well. Even after several turns in the media, though, set beside the country's popular ability users, the gap in my fame was about that between a top-star actor and a rookie. I was the rookie, of course.

People directly connected to me thought, what kind of cheating human is that, while people who didn't know me only went as far as, and who is that? There was that much of a difference in temperature. If the latter sort—Suseong and the NG Group—meant to grind me under by putting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠forward the association where Cheonggung, Muhwaryeong, and the rest had gathered, then the former, Lydia, wore a slightly grave expression. While we were moving to the auditorium for the closing ceremony, she took my hand and led me around behind the building.

"Sir Seoha? Might I speak with you for a moment?"

"Hey. There's something I've been wondering. Why do you keep putting sir on me? Isn't sir a title you use for someone who's received a peerage?"

"Hehe. It is my own personal expression of respect. I wouldn't be able to use it in any official setting. And in American films, soldiers say sir when they answer, don't they? It isn't a title you need to take so stiffly."

Is that so?

Lydia answered with a bright smile, then soon composed her expression and looked at me with eyes that were calm, and trembling somewhere beneath.

"So? Why did you call me aside like this?"

Seeing Franc standing behind me, Lydia looked briefly glum, then sighed again. Just as I was thinking how colorfully her expression changed, the hesitating Lydia squeezed both eyes shut and cried out in a trembling voice.

"S-Sir Seoha. Won't you go out with me?!"

"Nope. I won't."

I refused without a second's thought, and Lydia—her lips glossy and moist, as if she had put on lip gloss—pouted and whined.

"I thought as much, didn't I? I expected you would. I didn't expect you to refuse without even one second of hesitation, though."

Looking at her, with the air of someone poking a persimmon she already knew she couldn't eat, I raised one eyebrow.

"Did they tell you back home to try a honey trap?"

"Yes...... Her Majesty the Queen telephoned me herself last night. She said to win you over, Sir Seoha, even if I had to use my body to do it."

Lydia, her face faintly flushed, gave a small bow of apology to Franc standing beside me. Franc, whose face had hardened at that out-of-nowhere confession, relaxed as the conversation went on, and returned the bow.

"I thought we were just building a friendship. Why all of a sudden...... Ah."

Yesterday's PR shoot. Is that it? Lydia tilted her head briefly at my murmur, then went on as if it didn't matter.

"Yesterday, near Incheon International Airport, you gave a practical demonstration of your ability, didn't you? That enormous explosion of light you made in the sky...... I think word of it reached home through our intelligence service. They say that at a royal council, someone proposed that if Sir Seoha would come to the British Empire...... to Britain, Britain would do everything it possibly could for you—and that I should use that to tempt you."

"Coming from a princess's mouth, the truth of it is full to overflowing. But I'll refuse. I have no intention of leaving Korea."

"Uuugh...... They say Britain would extend conveniences on a national scale to anyone who comes with you, Sir Seoha?"

"No use. I'm not particularly interested in power, or in fame, or in money. The comforts of my life, I'll secure with my own strength."

"Hehe. I'll be scolded when I go home."

Watching Lydia withdraw so obediently at my answer, I snorted a laugh and said,

"Too soft."

"I am well aware that I have a soft side!"

The princess, flushing slightly and protesting with a flared look, was certainly cute. Cute enough that if I had a younger sister, I would have wanted her to be like this.

"Not you. Britain. Lydia, how much do you actually know about my abilities?"

"......Physical reinforcement of at least D-Class. An elemental ability at B-Class level. A detection ability that cannot be measured. A recovery ability the same...... I know you as an ability user blessed by God."

As the princess listed what she had grasped, she let out a deep sigh, with an expression that asked how a person like this could exist. It had been accurate until recently. Now it had changed by a wide margin.

"Then what kind of assessment is Britain making of me?"

"They see you as someone of exceptional talent. A leader who will stand at the front of the next generation and lead the ability users."

"A talent with great potential, is it. As expected, their assessment of me isn't accurate."

"......Pardon?"

"First, B-Class physical reinforcement. Amplify it for an instant and it climbs to A-Class. For elemental shots, I have the Mana Bullet, of the same line as other ability users' elemental rounds, and of the cluster line, the Mana Cannon and the Mana Laser—and above those, the Arcane Bullet, the Arcane Cannon, and the Mana Riser. You saw the area recovery yourself, didn't you? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Spatial Perception goes without saying. And last......"

"Th-this is."

"Shall I tell you straight, or put it gently, and talk around it?"

Lydia could not take her eyes off the Wall of Space stacking and stacking on my palm until it bristled like a durian, and she opened her mouth in a trembling voice.

"P-please tell me straight."

"As I am now, I think I could erase Britain by myself."

"......?!"

"An explosive attack a hundred and fifty kilometers across, the kind that vaporizes a high-tier aberrant. Does Britain have a means to stop that?"

"......Th-there is n...... no, that flash that covered the sky was......"

Lydia was so rattled she looked dazed, and she couldn't get the words out properly.

"I'm telling you this because I trust the person you've shown me until now, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Lydia. You saw the explosion of light that burst in the sky around noon yesterday, didn't you?"

"Yes......"

"Think once more about how many kilometers above the ground it detonated, and across what range. And about why I am telling you this."

"Do you mean, don't get cocky?"

"......Where did you learn that word?"

"From Chang-hyun......"

"You shouldn't throw a word like that around."

"Ah. So it isn't a word for a moment like this?"

I sighed at Lydia, flustered and looking as if she had made a mistake, and spoke.

"Figure it out yourself. Anyway, all I want is to live in peace. So don't walk up to a sleeping lion and pluck the hairs from its nose."

I looked straight into the eyes of Lydia, tense all over again at my words, and spoke one last time.