The Seal Did Not Break
For days Korea had been in an uproar while the members of the Patriotic Subjects' Society stood trial, and next door Japan was no quieter, scrambling through a sudden general election and the rebuilding of a half-ruined capital. Through all of it I sat in my chair in the office and did nothing but stare at the sky.
A few things I had been deliberately burying in my lovers' arms were climbing, little by little, to the top of the list in my mind.
The greatest question was the matter of what I was.
Taken by itself, my ability was nothing more than a freakishly unique power scraped together while I stumbled past one near-death crisis after another. Let the Supergiant Turtle's single remark into the picture, though, and the whole story changed.
Who was I? No—what kind of being was I?
Franc and Hwayeon were out together. Yeongeun and my sister were busy with work, and Miho had gone to badger Aunt Hyeryeong for cookies. That was when I asked Hiarid, who stood beside me looking up at the same sky.
"When you first saw me, you said my soul stank. What did you mean?"
=…….=
Hands folded neatly and lowered, eyes closed, Hiarid flinched at the question and drew her legs together.
What was that? Why did that reaction bother me so much?
=From the Sky Lord, I sense an intense fragrance whose cause I cannot infer.=
She hesitated, unable to say anything more. I stared at her until she lifted her golden eyes to mine and spoke again.
=Our clan smells of wind. The clan of the earth smells of soil, and the clan of the great sea smells of water. But from the Sky Lord there came a scent I had never smelled before—an unpleasant fragrance that, when one drew near, pierced the head and stirred the chest and the lower belly.=
"Only me? Or my sister, who was right there beside me?"
=From Lady Siha there was only an ordinary scent. Not Lady Siha alone—every other human carries a perfectly commonplace fragrance. The only one who smells as though one might be devoured simply by standing close is the Sky Lord.=
My thoughts tangled worse than before. A scent like being devoured? What was that supposed to mean?
At the center of the tangle sat the dream I had dreamed just before rising to B-Class.
Ordinary dreams vanish within hours—no, within minutes—yet the dream I had upon becoming B-Class still nagged at me, even though I could not remember a single thing that had been in it.
The Supergiant Turtle's words. Alastor's Terrible Dark Castle. The unpleasant, stimulating scent Hiarid said rose from my soul. The contents of a dream I could not remember and could not leave behind. And the violence and cruelty that surged up in me from time to time, things even I could not understand.
I was frowning when Hiarid, rarely letting anything like dismay show, opened her mouth.
=I-it was not that it was unpleasant. At the time I called it a stench only because it was a fragrance whose nature I could not identify. Now, I understand.=
"Huh? And now?"
=It is a fragrance that puts me in heat.=
"Ghk—!"
=It is a fragrance that calls to mind the sensation of the Sky Lord's hand stirring my lower belly. Miho called this "heat."=
Watching her stand pigeon-toed, rubbing her thighs together, I remembered what I had done to break her, and swallowed hard.
All at once I recalled the strange thing Album Cetus had said when he looked at me.
"Was it &#$@ and *&#$? ...What? Hiarid, why are you startled?"
=Where did you hear that?=
I had never seen her offer a reaction first like that. Where had I heard those words?
"Album Cetus said it. That I was &#$@ and yet *&#$, but that my heart was pure. &#$@... What does this impossible word even mean? And *&#$."
=When I received lessons together with Miho, I learned that the race called humans possesses a single soul, and yet is spoken of as a being in which reason and emotion coexist. In the language of humans, &#$@ means that the thoughts and reason of the head follow emotion, and that the two complement one another. And *&#$ is a word for an ill state, in which thought and emotion are pressed down beneath reason.=
"What is that even supposed to mean..."
I frowned, lost, and Hiarid's explanation only climbed further into the absurd.
=To put it another way, &#$@ means a long discipline of composing the spirit so that one may ascend to a higher place, and the magnanimity—the capacity—to look down upon what lies below. *&#$ is the hardship of walking the edge of a cliff in order to go from a low place toward one still lower, and what exists before it is principle and law...=
"Stop. So, simply?"
=I will say only this. One who does not know might take it for a stench. I feel it as the scent of heat.=
Oh, for the love of— At this rate I was going to understand exactly how Emperor Wu of Liang felt, talking to Bodhidharma!
"Come here..."
=…….=
She must have sensed that my mood had soured. Hiarid edged over to where I sat before the reinforced glass. Looking up from the chair, I thought her legs might well be longer than I was tall sitting down.
She wore a long sleeveless dress whose hem fell past the knee. I caught the skirt and lifted it, and there—whoever had dressed her—was a pure-white string panty.
It was like the smell of cloud you catch climbing a mountain under a heavy overcast. Something of that sort seemed to be drifting from between Hiarid's legs.
The center of the panties was wet. I reached out, undid the strings, and the small scrap of cloth slid away, baring a sex whose many folds of inner labia ringed the opening like a rose.
I looked at the place, already soaked through, then told her to brace on the window and push her hips out.
"You're twisting your words on purpose right now. Just to mess with me."
=I-I am not.=
"No. You know I'm stupid, so you're talking in circles on purpose to trip me up. I'm right, aren't I?"
=I am no—hk!=
Something thick and long drove suddenly deep into her lower belly. The shock made Hiarid clutch her abdomen with both arms, and her four great wings shivered.
"Really not? Listening to you, it sounds like you're just throwing together words that don't mean anything at all."
I opened the fist I had pushed into a woman's precious organ of birth—a female's—and worked my fingers this way and that. Hiarid pressed her knees together, bowed her back like a drawn bow, and began to shake.
She was starting to let her feelings show, little by little. Was the brainwashing coming loose?
From the hand buried to the elbow there came a heat beyond mere warmth, the movement of a living creature's organs, and a squeezing pressure. Strength gathered slowly in my third leg.
I stroked the small groove at my fingertips, then stabbed in hard. The groove was forced open, and my finger sank into it with a soft give.
=Haaahk... I-I am nooot... aaang...!=
Then I began pouring an enormous flood of TP from my fingertips. Hiarid rose onto the tips of her toes, and her upper body started leaning farther and farther back.
Breasts larger than watermelons flattened and spread against the glass. Her cheek was crushed to the window too, and she trembled there.
Her whole body shivered in fine tremors as she swayed, her lower mouth seeming to suck my hand in deep. I caught her by the hair and bent her head toward me. Then I focused Mana Vision hard, laid Mana Voice over it, and spoke.
"Look me straight in the eyes. Who is your master?"
=Th-the Sky Looord... i-is... aaang!=
"Can you swear upon your very existence that everything you have said until now is the truth?"
=It is the truuuth!=
Her face was flushed a deep red. Moisture gathered in the two eyes shining gold. A thread of saliva ran from the corner of her mouth as she forced her body to hold and looked into my eyes, rapturous.
Hmm. Was I imagining it?
I had thought the forced brainwashing might be loosening by degrees, so I had stimulated her again to check. There was no sign of it coming undone, and everything she had said seemed to be true.
I dumped a huge volume of high-purity TP into her until Hiarid's womb swelled taut, then yanked my hand free. With a wet squelch her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed flat on the office floor.
I looked down at the angel sprawled there without a shred of dignity. At last her head lay at my feet, so I set my foot upon it and spoke.
"I'm asking you as a favor. Don't make me regret leaving you alive."
=Yes... sir...=
I pulled tissues, wiped my soaked hand and forearm, and fired Healing Wave, Stage 1. Hiarid's four snow-white wings fluttered.
A gentle pulse to restore stamina and settle shaken phase power.
So in the end, had Album Cetus just been calling me some incomprehensible weirdo? No—at the last he had said I had a kind heart... Ugh.
Me, a good person? Had every decent soul in the world frozen to death?
When I took my foot off Hiarid's squirming head, she slowly removed my shoes and socks, then, face flushed, began to lick my feet.
...This one is an aberrant. An aberrant. Because she's an aberrant. She's nothing but an aberrant!
Stifled, I looked up at the shining sun overhead and let out a sigh.
The Japan affair had been settled, and a stretch of idle time had arrived.
The high-tier aberrant raid that had been scheduled so I could become B-Class had fallen through the moment I ranked up to B-Class on my own.
The founding ceremony of the Grand Blue raid team, once set for early next year, had also been carried off successfully a few days ago.
I had slapped my summer-break assignments together well enough to be done with them, so I had time to spare until Dad left for the academic conference in Britain.
Miho wanted to play a game she had seen advertised on TV, Raid Monster Hunter, so I bought three consoles, and Franc, Miho, and I were playing in the office when Han Go-eun walked in dressed as a secretary, carrying refreshments. I was shocked out of my skin.
Franc was staring at her with round eyes when I asked.
"Why are you wearing that?"
"I started a part-time job on the twenty-fifth?"
"...Wait. Your parents let you work part-time? Isn't your father a senior official at the Ministry of Education?"
"Yeah. I told them I was doing a part-time as your secretary, and they allowed it."
Han Go-eun came over with a model's sway in her hips, wearing a secretary's formal uniform, her hair twisted up into a neat bun at the back. It suited her to an absurd degree.
But the way she moved was exactly that of a wicked secretary seducing her boss, and Franc looked subtly uncomfortable.
"Just you... Ah. Don't tell me that sly little smile at the closing ceremony was because of this?"
"You caught on fast. And it's not just me. Suri went in as a part-timer in Integrated Management, Sora's in General Affairs, Chang-hyun and Ju-chan went into Business Support, and Cho Min-ho even joined External PR."
"They all came..."
For all her seductive body language, Han Go-eun poured tea into the ceramic cups with practiced hands, set a cup in front of Miho where she played on her handheld, and poured one for Hiarid, who stood beside a large potted plant.
"Yeah. But the rumors about you are seriously vicious, you know? They say if someone gets on your bad side, you beat them while they climax, they scream in pleasure, you keep taking them until they die, and they orgasm from the verbal abuse and die of pleasure. The demonic young carnivorous prince. That's what they call you."
"Pfft—!!"
The story shook me so badly I sprayed the tea I had been holding in my mouth, then frantically yanked out tissues and started wiping.
"So I told them Seoha's an idiot who only has eyes for Boss Yoo Hwayeon, and he doesn't do things like that. I did good, right?"
"Y-yeah."
I was watching the innocently smiling Han Go-eun with thoroughly complicated feelings when a ding came from the elevator. Aunt Hyeryeong and my sister came up, saw Han Go-eun, and their eyes went round.
"Oh my. A new secretary?"
"No, Aunt. They're Seoha's friends from school. They said they wanted part-time work, so I introduced them. You've seen them before, right? She's one of those kids."
"Ah. That child."
"How do you do! Han Go-eun, third year, Euihan High School!"
The strange walk and the ridiculous body language she had shown me were flung far out over the West Sea in an instant. Han Go-eun became the very picture of a crisp new hire and bowed to my sister and Aunt Hyeryeong at a perfect ninety degrees.
I was staring at the sight, dumbfounded, when Franc looked at my face and let out a soft laugh. Then she started watching me with a suggestive look.
"...Why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's nothing~ I was only thinking that if even Miss Han Go-eun, who started her part-time just recently, already knows, then that rumor must have spread all through the Grand Blue building by now."
Hearing her say it with that peculiar smile, my vision swam. What was she talking about in front of my sister?! If this reached my sister's ears...!
"Hm? Franc, what are you talking about?"
"Well, you see~."
...!!
Before I could stop her, Franc spilled the entire rumor to my sister!
Aunt Hyeryeong and my sister looked back and forth between Franc and me in shock. I quietly set the handheld down and started calculating the timing of an escape.
"Wh... what kind of story is that, Franc?"
"You know of Miss Choi Soohan's matter, don't you?"
Choi Soohan's case was famous enough that my sister and Aunt Hyeryeong both nodded. Seeing that, Franc smiled brightly and began to tell the story from the start. Aunt Hyeryeong stared at me, truly astonished, and my sister looked at me with eyes gone the color of ash.
I already knew it was too late. I switched on Mana Mode—Acceleration, snatched Franc around the waist, and bolted up the emergency stairs toward the heliport.
Mana Mode — Acceleration
"Ah?! Seoha!"
I heard my sister calling from behind, but I did not want to see her face right now!
Planting my feet on empty air, I crossed to the heliport of Business Support Building 2, set Franc down, crouched, and covered my face with both hands.
"Fraaanc. How could you say that in front of my sister."
If my sister told Mom, what then? I could not even guess how Dad would react. I was drowning in the worry when Franc lifted her brows a little, smiled, and spoke.
"This way resolves things faster. By the day after tomorrow, every baseless rumor about you ought to be gone."
"What? What do you mean?"
"That rumor was due to die down anyway. I cannot tolerate a bad rumor like that circulating about the master of Grand Blue—the raid team that will now be, in name and in fact, the best in Korea, and the best in the world. Lady Siha will be a little angry, but I stressed that it was an unavoidable measure to keep Choi Soohan alive, so she should not be too upset."
"Not too upset... It's a ridiculous rumor, but the person who would get angry just because a rumor like that exists at all is my sister..."
Franc came over to where I was crouched, hugged me from behind, and then said something shocking.
"Except for the part about dying, it's all true, you know?"
"Huh?"
"It doesn't go all the way to dying of pleasure, but even I sometimes think I might actually die. Hwayeon and Yeongeun are the same."
Had I been that rough? I had only been working hard to satisfy them in ordinary positions...
Hearing "death by pleasure" come out of Franc's mouth, it suddenly seemed a little serious.
"Uuugh... I'm sorry about that. That's why I stuck to just three ordinary positions. Missionary, cowgirl, and from behind..."
"That isn't the problem. For some reason, the moment I am in your arms I become uncontrollably aroused, and then my body just keeps climaxing without a pause. Enough that I am suddenly terrified I might die like this."
"...Really? Was it like that from the start?"
"No. It began from the moment you came back after becoming B-Class. Is there anything you can think of?"
"Not really... I told you everything that happened to me after I got back, didn't I?"
I tried to recall what had changed about my abilities, but nothing stood out. I had even told them what I had done to Hiarid, so I had recounted everything that happened there.
If anything, I was the one who was curious. Why to that extent...
Ah. Hiarid had said the scent coming off me was practically a heat scent. Was it because of that? When I told her, a flash passed through Franc's eyes.
"I think I need to speak with Hwayeon and Yeongeun. I'll go to Hwayeon. What will you do, Seoha?"
"Uh, I'll go look in on the warehouse at Business Support Building 2. I hear the kids are there, so I should show my face once. I don't want to see my sister right now."
"All right. I'll see you later, then."
No wonder my lovers climaxed so quickly whenever we made love, and passed out in an instant. Maybe becoming B-Class had given me something besides the Space Wall.
Watching Franc's back as she flew toward Hwayeon in the office building, I let out a heavy sigh. How was I supposed to block this heat scent?
I found Business Support Building 2, where my friends from school were working part-time. The two of them were in the byproduct warehouse, sweating buckets as they sorted materials. They were working hard without a single complaint, so I found myself watching them with a strange new feeling.
"Oh? Seoha's he— Master, you've arrived!"
"Heh. What master. Nobody's around, so just call me normally."
"Heh, should I?"
I waved at the slyly grinning Kim Chang-hyun and Kang Ju-chan. Kang Ju-chan smiled and waved back, then nagged at Kim Chang-hyun.
"Chang-hyun. We have to finish sorting all of this by lunch. No time to rest."
"Oh. Right, yeah."
Looking around, I saw packaged byproducts piled in a mess inside a room of about a thousand square feet. All of this had to go into the boxes that matched the labels, and then up onto the steel cabinets?
"I'll help."
"Are you trying to get us killed? You just watch from over there. This is our job."
"Yeah. Even if you don't help, Seoha, we can finish it easily by lunch."
Call it a fierce sense of professional duty... I was scratching my head when Kim Chang-hyun, pouring sweat as he hauled byproducts that looked like vacuum-packed chicken drumsticks, spoke as if impressed.
"You really are something. How's it feel to fight the country of Japan and win?"
"How's it feel... I just feel sorry to the victims that I didn't resolve it a little faster."
"Haha. That's such a Seoha answer. Still, it wasn't late. If anything, you resolved it fast."
Kang Ju-chan answered as he shifted a pillar that looked like a stag beetle's horn blown up to enormous size.
"You think? Anyway, I didn't do anything. Just a show of force. The Madam and the raid team's executives did all the actual work."
"That show of force, and those connections, are your power too. Every time I remember that Japan's in chaos preparing for an election because of your power game, I go blank."
"I'm more surprised that half the Western powers sided with you. How on earth did you pull that off?"
Wearing protective gloves of a special material, Kang Ju-chan asked while he checked and inspected the quantities of special materials stacked in the byproduct warehouse.
"Who knows? The director of General Affairs and the Madam handled all of that too."
I could have told them honestly. Those just weren't things the kids needed to know.
Kim Chang-hyun lifted a scythe-beetle shell—bigger than the body it had come from, six red spots set into the carapace—carried it over, straightened his back, and spoke.
"So you don't do anything except throw your strength around? ...Aaaagh."
A dying groan spilled out of him along with the crack of his back.
"They say the scariest thing in the world is a diligent idiot. It's important that a fool who's only strong stays quiet, so we don't end up with the worst case—a strong idiot running wild."
I said it snickering, seated atop a high pile of Hubble-sheep fur and looking down at the two of them. Kim Chang-hyun and Kang Ju-chan snorted and nodded.
"But you don't use your head, and yet I get the feeling you'd be seriously scary if you did. Just look at how you handled Princess Lydia."
"That guy Seoha is the type who finds it a pain, dumps all the work on the people under him, and loafs around. A competent lazybones. That's exactly the Seoha type, isn't it?"
"Haha. That's true."
"If a guy like that started running around busy, the people under him would actually drop dead. So Seoha at about this level is perfect. Heh heh heh."
"Heh heh."
"Talk behind my back when I'm not in the room."
We joked around like that, and I ended up hearing how Han Go-eun and her crew had come to work part-time for the raid team.
As it turned out, after we had eaten dinner with my sister last time, Han Go-eun had gotten my sister's number. After that she had contacted her and said that she and her group wanted to do part-time work at Grand Blue—any position would do.
"Wouldn't it be better for you guys to look for something a little more future-oriented?"
"We're still high school seniors, aren't we? We can worry about the future after we get into college."
Kim Chang-hyun said it as if there were no rush, humming while he carried the last of the items—burlap sacks—and stacked them in the corner. Kang Ju-chan hauled the last sack as well and spoke.
"I'm going to succeed my father, so just getting to know the faces at the best raid team in the country like this is enough for me. And..."
He set down a sack bigger than his own torso, straightened his back, looked at me, and smiled.
"Thanks for treating Jubin."
"...You thank me for the strangest things. Anyway, I'm off. Work hard."
"Sure. You go slack off hard, too."
"See you."
I left the warehouse and went looking for where Su Yu-ri, Kang So-ra, and Cho Min-ho were working. Each of them was diligently doing the job they had been given. All of it, they said, was thanks to my sister arranging things so they could do the work they wanted.
I told them, smiling, to tattle if anyone was giving them a hard time, and when I heard that everyone was treating them well and they were working comfortably, a mischievous impulse surged up.
So I turned toward the supervisors with a wicked smile and opened my mouth.
"Aren't the part-timers working a little too comfortably? You're paying good money and even teaching them the job. Shouldn't you work them to death?"
"Heh, understood. We'll work them just short of killing them!"
"Ehh?!"
Thanks to the tearful look on Su Yu-ri's face, the employees burst out laughing. I left them behind, and because of those kids the weight on my mind loosened a little.
They were out finding work they could do. I ought to do something too.
If it was something I was good at besides fighting, then of course it would be making money, right?
I needed money if I was going to raise a grand mansion at my training ground in Shinchon-dong, establish a foundation to protect children like Kwon Hui-ji, and build a research institute. So the only thing left to do was raid!