Rest (2)

Altina Meldios, thoroughly chewed out by Director Kim Moohul, came back with a gloomy face and apologized for her misconduct all over again. This time I accepted it — if only to spare the dignity of Director Kim Moohul, who had been the one to talk me into yielding Miho.

“Pull something like this one more time and I really won’t let it slide.”

“Yes. I’m sorry…”

With me, Franc, and the branch chief looking on, the researchers sat Miho and Hiarid down in chairs, brought over syringes the size of an adult’s index finger, and prepared to draw their blood.

The moment Miho saw the needle, her face twisted and she started thrashing her arms and legs.

“I hate shots! Hate them, hate them, hate them~!”

“M-Miss Miho?”

Watching Miho flail and refuse the syringe while the researchers panicked and began coaxing her, I spoke to the branch chief.

“I already donated a corpse of the exact same species as Hiarid, and they’re still this greedy for samples. I don’t understand it.”

“Well… what you collect from a corpse and what you collect from a living body can hardly be the same. In any case, I am proud that you are a Korean ability user. I shall continue to expect great things from your work. If there is anything I can do to help, I will help to the utmost of my ability — so please, do not leave Korea.”

“Then Sophia’s location…”

“Anything but that.”

“Tch. So long as our government doesn’t pull the same stunts Japan did, that won’t happen.”

“Now that is a reassuring thing to hear.”

When Miho kept refusing the shot, Director Kim Moohul brought over a box of the fine cookies she loved and held it out to her. Her scowl vanished as if it had never been there. She reached out, took the box, and beamed — and in that opening the researchers succeeded in drawing her blood, and rejoiced.

“You managed to figure out what Miho likes.”

“I was invited to a seat at the founding ceremony myself, so I saw it. Miho flying about with a cookie box as big as her own body left quite an impression. Hahaha.”

Ah, so the director had been there too. I apologized for not recognizing him, and he answered with modest courtesy that it was only natural, given how busy and chaotic things had been.

Director Kim Moohul seemed like a good man. I’d remember that.

“Whoa. Hey, look at this. It’s radiant blood.”

“Ooh?!”

“Man… what kind of structure does this blood have, to give off light?”

The researchers drawing Hiarid’s blood let out quiet sounds of awe at the radiant blood glittering inside the syringe.

Miho, a cookie clamped in her mouth, watched with her face screwed up as far as it would go while her blood was sucked away into three syringes as thick as an adult’s finger. The instant the draw was finished she came scampering over to me, nibbling her cookies bit by bit and glaring at the researchers.

At this rate, the next sample collection was going to be a disaster.

They finished collecting Hiarid’s hair, her nails, and a sample of the tissue from inside her mouth, and we were about to head back when Altina Meldios — who had been sunk deep in thought behind us — came running and planted herself in my path.

“What.”

“I’ll remember what you said earlier. When you establish that research institute, you absolutely have to call me, all right?”

“Ah! Miss Meldios!”

Having said only what she meant to say, she clapped her hands over her ears and bolted into the laboratory with her nameplate on the door. The branch chief went pale and chased after her.

I felt a little sorry for the branch chief, but it wasn’t my concern. Our business was finished, and the lab was growing busy as they prepared to begin their research with the samples, so I took Franc, Miho, and Hiarid and slipped out.

Altina Meldios… she was the sort of person I wouldn’t even need to headhunt.

I stamped a mental seal of confirmed recruitment on Altina Meldios with a bang, checked the condition of the Space Wall around the Ability User Association officetel with Spatial Perception, and returned to the Grand Blue Building.

After sending Miho and Hiarid home, I went to Hwayeon’s office, where she was checking documents — wrestling with paperwork again today. She’d said the paperwork had only multiplied because of that bitch Sophia…

“On your way back from submitting the samples?”

“Yeah. It’s evening already. You’re not getting off?”

“Entry is scheduled for three days from now, and the combat-team assignments still aren’t finished. It will take about another hour.”

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stepped around behind her and skimmed what she was looking at. A roster of six hundred and thirty-three names, reserves included, ran down the page across thirty-two teams. What Hwayeon was studying was their chemistry, and the combinations of their ability types.

This wasn’t something I could help with.

There was an entry schedule by raid team, so I flipped through it.

“This time it’s two Search squads and three subjugation squads… and one raid squad is going in as well.”

“Seven squads are scheduled for six days from now, too, and ten squads each on the ninth and the twelfth.”

“So the raid team’s work is finally getting on track. When do I start raiding?”

“If you wish to, there are plenty of dungeons and ruins that could be cleared right now. But why ask so suddenly?”

“I think I’m going to need a lot of money. I want to build a palace of a mansion on my training grounds in Shinchon-dong, and I want a research institute of my own besides.”

At the mention of building a mansion, Hwayeon flushed slightly, whatever thought had crossed her mind. Beside us Franc’s face pinked as well, and she began to grin in a daze.

I had a fair idea what they were thinking, and my own face grew a little hot. A home wedding, held in a palace of a mansion, wouldn’t be half bad either.

“Anyway, if we’re going to build a mansion and build our own institute, it’s going to cost a fortune. I’m stocking up as hard as I can, but I should still earn as much as I can while I have the chance.”

“True. Even constructing a phase-stone refinery costs a fair amount… Once the break is over, time will be hard to come by, so shall we change the destination of the raid team departing on the tenth and try clearing some ruins?”

“Let’s make it somewhere we can earn a lot.”

“All right.”

Come to think of it, the files recording the specs, records, and achievements of the ability users belonging to the raid team were more interesting than I’d expected. Oh — this person had even cleared a secret realm? Broken through the Plains of Light, where lightning pours down?

Whoa, and this one had survived the battle for Jade Flame Canyon. Fought the Flame Lizard legion, even. Flame Lizards — those things whose bodies are two-thirds fire, aren’t they? The kind that melt iron plate, packed wall to wall through the canyon…

I was browsing, cross-checking the achievements against the related entries on the Certifier community, when Franc approached Hwayeon.

“Hwayeon? There is something I wished to ask.”

“Yes. Please, speak.”

“Do you know anything of a person named Altina Meldios?”

“Yes. She is a scientist affiliated with the IWO, and rather famous. There is a rumor that her temperament grows a little difficult when the matter touches research in her field of interest… Has something happened?”

“She was at the Association laboratory we visited today…”

Hearing the whole of it, Hwayeon smiled faintly, as if she saw nothing amiss.

“If we build a research institute, the recruitment of one capable researcher is as good as settled. She will have junior scientists who look to her as well, so if we play it right, her whole circle may come tumbling in along with her.”

“Is her personality all right?”

“Had there been a problem, the IWO would have expelled her at once. Her standing within the organization is hardly insignificant — she operates at a level where she accompanies the director — so forming a connection with her should prove useful.”

So that strange woman’s skill had been outstanding enough for Hwayeon to remember it…

Thinking that I would have to draw her in for certain once the institute was built, I waited until Hwayeon finished adjusting the documents, and we left work together.

We clocked out together, came home, and were preparing dinner when Yeongeun — off work for the first time in three weeks — dove into my arms as if she were tumbling.

“Haah—. Haah—. Aaah~ I missed these arms so much.”

“Yeah, yeah. You worked hard.”

She rubbed her face against my chest and sniffed away like a pervert, mind completely gone, then started undoing the front buttons of my shirt from the top — pop, pop — baring the line of my chest. The intent was obvious. I snorted a laugh and fastened the buttons again, and the miserable face she put on was cute.

“I’m in the middle of making dinner, so go wash up first. Are you going in tomorrow?”

“Nooo! I get to rest the whole weekend!”

“Then let’s roll around in bed all night tonight. How’s that?”

“Mmm! I’d love it!”

Dashing off to the bathroom, Yeongeun seemed to get cuter by the day. They say that the older adults get, the more they turn back into children — was that actually true?

She washed in a rush and came out to help Franc and Hwayeon with dinner, and before long a lavish feast was laid across the living-room table.

It looked delicious. The aroma set my mouth watering, and there was plenty of it.

I started with the golden, crackling fried shrimp, dipped one in the sauce, and took a bite — and this was seriously…

“All three of you keep getting better at cooking. It’s incredible.”

“We made plenty, so eat a lot.”

“Seoha. Please try the braised short ribs as well.”

The braised ribs Franc set before me tasted… remarkably like what Mom used to make. She’d been going to see Mom now and then and seemed to be picking something up — had she learned to cook?

Beside me, Miho worked her tiny hands, spearing the meat dishes with her fork and wolfing them down. Seeing her eat nothing but meat, Hwayeon set a piece of vegetable on top of her rice, and Miho looked up at her with a miserable face — but at the words that picky eating was bad, she pouted and brought the broccoli to her mouth.

“By the way, Seoha? Is it all right if Hiarid doesn’t eat?”

“Don’t High-Tier Variants live just fine without taking in food?”

Answering Yeongeun, I looked over at Hiarid, seated on a stool in the corner of the living room. At my gaze she shifted her wings slightly and answered.

“If you’re replacing them with Phase Power, that means you’re constantly consuming it, doesn’t it? It would be a problem if you grew weak, so come over here and eat.”

“Hiarid? Come this way and dine with us.”

At Yeongeun and Franc’s urging, Hiarid sought my permission with her eyes, then knelt between the two of them, accepted the bowl of rice Franc offered, and slowly brought it to her mouth. She spooned up egg soup with the warm rice, and her stiff expression melted — I could tell her palate was no different from a human’s.

Mmm… she was my pet, so I ought to look after her, shouldn’t I? I’d have to pay a little more attention from now on.

When dinner was finished and everyone had gathered in the living room, I spoke.

“I said this once during the day, but Yeongeun didn’t hear ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it, so I’ll say it again. From here on, my goal is to earn a pile of money, build a grand mansion on the grounds of my training field, and make a research institute as well. It’s all right to put buildings up on the training grounds, isn’t it?”

“The permit for personal facilities on the training grounds is already through, so it’s fine. Build to your heart’s content!”

“Yeah. And I want to establish a foundation, too. The kind that protects and helps children who are good and innocent, but stuck in hard circumstances.”

“A foundation with the Master of Grand Blue as its chairman — not bad at all. But why a foundation, all of a sudden?”

Yeongeun, holding the black tea Franc had brought in both hands as she drank, asked with a curious look.

“You know Miss Kwon Heera’s little sister, right?”

“Mm. You mean Miss Kwon Heeji?”

“Yeah. They say Kwon Heeji lost even her older sister among those selfish cousins and was left all alone. She’s a girl younger than me, and if a fortune like that lands in a child’s hands, those trash relatives — the ones who tossed the two sisters aside without a single word of contact — are bound to come sniffing around and try to take it all. I can’t stand to watch that.”

When I said it with a hard face, my lovers looked at me with gentle smiles.

“So you mean to become a benefactor to children in hard circumstances who have kind hearts? All sorts of support would be included in that… Yes. If we set the purpose as charity and receive approval to establish the foundation from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, that should do it.”

“I’ll create the foundation and provide the material support, but I’ll need someone to run it in my place. Is there anyone I could entrust with that?”

“What about Juhan?”

“Butler Grandpa?”

“Mm. Juhan comes from that sort of background himself, and even now he seeks out children from struggling households and does volunteer work helping them. The foundation our Seoha runs won’t be especially hard work, so I think Juhan will be fine despite his age.”

“That’s a good one… Then tomorrow I’ll stop by to check whether Choi Soohan is getting her training properly, and ask him while I’m there.”

Miho, who had been paying brief attention to our conversation, soon seemed to lose interest. She brought over two handheld game consoles, handed one to Hiarid, and asked her to play.

Before long the music of a raid monster-hunter game was flowing through the room. I watched the two of them play, then spoke to Yeongeun.

“They say a raid team heads out on Monday, so I’m thinking of joining them.”

“…Haah. I want to go with you.”

Yeongeun pouted and grumbled, then something seemed to occur to her and her eyes began to sparkle. She wasn’t about to throw a fit and demand to take leave and follow me, was she?

“After I get back, I’m going along with Dad when he leaves for an academic conference in Britain.”

“There’s another reason you’re going to Britain, isn’t there?”

“The main purpose is visiting the Edelberg family — Sophia’s birth house. The second is looking into Alastor’s Terrible Dark Castle.”

Aside from that, I meant to visit House Aldion, the family Franc had once belonged to, and see whether the woman Franc had thought of as a mother — Shinomiya Chise, wasn’t it? — was still alive.

Hearing me, Yeongeun clapped her palms together as if she had just remembered, then spoke with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a slightly unpleasant look.

“I tried requesting a loan of the materials on that dark castle from the British government, and they refused, in so many polite words. They said that if it was only a matter of showing them, it wouldn’t be difficult, so if I wanted to see them, the person who wanted to see them should come in person.”

Then she scrunched her face, stuck out her lip, and muttered.

“Feels like they’re scheming to pull something on our Seoha one way or another. Disgusting.”

The cold gleam in her eyes was the look of someone storing it away. Throwing one’s weight around was something Yeongeun seemed to excel at, and they had gone and crossed her. I had a feeling Britain was going to end up rather pitiful.

“I would like to go to Britain with you as well, but work will not allow it. Instead, I would like you to be sure to take Miho and Hiarid. If Franc and those two are with you, then even if every ability user in Britain piled on, they would not be able to do a thing to you.”

“I understand that you’re worried, Hwayeon, but it doesn’t matter whether those two are there or not. So it’s better if they stay here and keep watch over my parents and the Ability User Association officetel, where I put up the Space Wall, and guard them.”

Hiarid glanced this way when her name came up, but at Miho’s urging she soon turned her eyes back to the game.

“Mm…”

“I will stay at Seoha’s side and protect him, so do not worry, Hwayeon. Mine does not reach as far as Seoha’s, but I do have Spatial Perception as well.”

“…Yes. I leave him in your hands, Franc.”

“Please entrust him to me.”

So if I entered the Phase World on Monday, came back out, and made the trip to Britain, would summer break be over? I was counting off whether I had left anything out when Yeongeun, apparently deciding the talk was finished, rose quietly from her seat, sat down on my lap, and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“Huh? What?”

“What do you think~? We had a promise earlier, didn’t we? Tonight’s a burning Friday. Tomorrow’s a holiday too! And there’s the promised first claim on love on top of that!”

“Hmph. Hwayeon went and did it with Seoha in secret at night, so I didn’t even get a turn.”

With Yeongeun blatantly pouring out pheromones, Franc, stirred by it, began creeping closer with heat in her eyes — and even Hwayeon, who had gotten a thorough, soaking taste of underwater sex beneath the moon, was staring this way hotly.

And I was caught by my three lovers and dragged into the big bedroom…

Yeongeun had sworn she would not come down off me, and yet less than twenty minutes after we began she reached her fifth climax. Around the time another twenty minutes had passed, her whole body was dyed a pale pink, sweat pouring off her like rain as she started to pant.

Then, twenty minutes after that, pinned beneath me, she sobbed and wailed for forgiveness — and in the end her eyes rolled back from the pleasure. She shuddered as if she were having a seizure, and fainted.

Once Yeongeun went limp as a corpse, Franc, who had been waiting for an hour while masturbating her nipples and her clit, threw herself at me.

“Th-this time it will be a little different, you know? You had better brace yourself too, Seoha!”

“Brace myself for what? What are you planning to do?”

Anyway, it seemed Franc meant to go second, so I focused the Mana Sieve on my cock. She swallowed hard, climbed slowly up over me, and began to take into herself the shaft slathered in Yeongeun’s slick.

“Hnn…”

The head pushed through a rather tight grip, and the rapturous flesh inside writhed, sending a pleasant stimulation through me. But Franc froze right there, having taken in only the head, with a look that said th-this isn’t it.

“What?”

“N-no. It’s nothing… hnn.”

Franc bit her lip, let out a small breath with resolve burning in her eyes, and in a single instant dropped her hips hard, taking the enormous cock into her body all at once.

“Oof.”

“Hauk! N…nngh!”

Something the size of a child’s forearm drove roughly into her lower belly with a thick, wet schluck. Franc’s mouth fell open. She braced both hands on my chest, and her shoulders shook.

She looked as if she were having trouble moving, so I caught her smooth ass and was about to begin — but Franc seized my arm with a frantic face and shook her head.

“Ah, wait. Y-you mustn’t move. I— I will move!”

“…Yeah? Then go ahead.”

Stimulation had begun traveling into my cock along with her spasms, and I wasn’t in any particular hurry, so I kneaded the ass in my hands and watched Franc’s face as she drew deep breaths.

“Huu, haaah… I will begin now!”

Having barely recovered her senses from the shock of the penetration, Franc turned both hands behind her, braced them on the bed, and spread her thighs wide in an M, like a frog.

Between thighs flung open as wide as a city gate, a pillar as thick as a forearm was buried in the opening of her pale-pink petals — and her lower belly rose slightly in the shape of the cock.

The stimulation hitting my eyes was ferocious. Hwayeon, sitting naked by my head and watching Franc’s blatant posture, could not endure it in the end. She started a weak masturbation, rubbing her own clit.

“Hnngh.”

Franc, who had bitten her lower lip lightly, lifted her hips a little and began to move her Phase Power.

She dropped her hips in that state — a wet slap, and a crackle — and on top of the feeling of my cock parting her inner flesh, a faint, prickling electricity stimulated it.

“Nngh!?”

What was this. Electricity?

Not the stabbing pain of being shocked — more like the stimulation of an electric massager, the kind that makes muscle bunch and ripple. That strange stimulation kept coming from the flesh walls that rubbed me every time Franc raised her hips and brought them down.

Squelch, schlick, shluck.

“Khh—!”

The unfamiliar sensation sent the urge to come surging up fast. Reflexively I seized Franc’s taut ass as if to burst it, lifted her roughly, and slammed her back down. The tingling grew stronger, and Franc’s snow-white thighs convulsed like mad.

“Hyaaang!!?”

An uncontrolled scream burst from Franc’s mouth. She hurriedly grabbed my hand and started gasping.

“Aughk! N-no! I… I am the one who will move! Huuk. Haah.”

Feeling a pang of regret as the sensation of current all but vanished, I relaxed the hands gripping her ass. Franc swallowed a breath — “hup” — and, body flushed red and sweating, slowly began to run current through her inner walls again.

Running a current through the inside of her petals — how had she even come up with an idea like that?

Hwayeon, who had been watching, stopped masturbating and kept her eyes on what Franc was doing. Slowly, but faster than before, Franc began to rock her hips, and every time they jerked, a chit, chik of current leapt from where we were joined.

“Nghk. Kkh!”

“Hyaang! Haaang!”

The tingling flowed all the way into my gut, and I felt as if I were about to explode. She had told me to brace myself — so this was her secret finishing move…!

“Aang! K…khhhn! Haang! Hup!”

…Huh?

“Aaaah! Seohaat. Waaaah…! Nnghh.”

……The weapon she had brought to beat me with was a double-edged sword.

As if she were being attacked by the very electrical stimulation she herself was putting out, Franc threw her head back. Her platinum hair — a good meter and more — scattered like a waterfall, and she screamed while her whole body trembled.

It felt as if her body had slipped her control and was running wild.

I shoved Franc down onto her back at once and savagely worked her inner flesh. Every time I drove deep, the current born inside her seemed to pierce her womb and stab up into her head, and Franc’s arms and legs flopped like a wooden puppet’s.

“Hik! Hiik! Hngiiit!?”

Somehow the current seemed to be growing stronger. But Franc had no mind left with which to regulate it. Her face sunk in pleasure, she went rigid and only screamed.

Schlick, slap, shluck, splurt.

I drove my hips up in time with the swinging of her limbs, hard enough that the impacts landed with a fuck, fuck of a sound, and Franc’s lower belly bulged in time with my movements.

Every time her inner walls spasmed and trembled, a different sensation came through, and it was enjoyable — but Franc, the one who had planned this attack, could only gag and fail even to moan, which was almost comical.

“Seohaht. S-save…!”

Caught in her own scheme. I hugged the trembling Franc tight — her tongue so tangled she could not even pronounce the words — so she could not move, and moved only my hips, knocking against the mouth of her womb.

Each time I struck the gate of her womb, the tingling ping-ponged between my cock and Franc’s uterus, and tears began to spill from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her eyes.

“K, hii, ngh. Ha! Ang, aaa! Ang!”

Meaning to enter her womb, I slammed the head against the mouth of it again and again, and from the lips of Franc, whose eyes had rolled halfway back, a scream jumped out one broken syllable at a time.

“Uwaaaah!”

“Krrrrrk…!”

I sat up, caught Franc behind the knees so she could not move, folded her wide open, pinned her down, and pounded like a madman.

From the throat that had been screaming came a boiling sound, as if her breath were about to stop. Current kept flowing from her sex, and every time it did, Franc’s legs kicked like a grasshopper’s.

When the current spilling from her crossed the last wall before I came, I pressed my pelvis flush to her ass — and in that instant a torrent of blue light poured out and began to fill Franc’s womb.

“…Hk!”

The stimulation of the current, the stimulation of the penetration, and on top of those the stimulation of semen laden with Phase Power filling her womb.

Had it reached its limit? Franc’s eyes rolled back, and her head dropped with a clunk.

Hwayeon, having shoved aside the two lovers who had fainted from pleasure beyond what their minds could accept, swallowed hard. Then she lifted both hands slightly and declared surrender.

“T-today, let’s take it soft.”

“Gently?”

“Y-yeah. If we go… rough, I won’t be able to hold out either. You want to enjoy this for a long time too, don’t you, Seoha?”

Worried, perhaps, that I might lose my mind and run wild, Hwayeon watched my face cautiously as she carefully took hold of the base of my cock and my balls and caressed them gently.

I gave a small smile and nodded at Hwayeon, who was stealing glances at me with her face flushed a pretty red. She smiled softly in return and began to serve me with her mouth.

By the time my cock, slathered in semen, had been cleaned by Hwayeon’s attentions, I laid her on her side and entered her slowly from behind. Hwayeon let out a small sound through her nose and answered my movement, rocking her hips a little.

I slid in and out, soft and smooth, and gently rubbed the place where her G-spot lay. Hwayeon caught my hand where it rested on her waist, turned her head, and looked at me with wet eyes, as if asking for a kiss.

I met her lips and kissed her, repeating a gentle thrust about once every ten seconds.

Franc’s violent electric sex was good, but lovemaking at a slow tempo like this was good too.

“Nn, nngh. Aah. Seoha, Seohaa.”

“Yeah. I’m right here.”

“I’m… happy. Haaah. The feeling of you coming inside is so… lovely. Hnn.”

“Me too. The way your inner flesh wraps around me so tenderly is too lovely.”

“…Aht.”

I thought that, from now on, we ought to share love like this from time to time.

In the end, the victor of that night was Hwayeon, who spent the whole of it sharing with me a love as smooth and sweet and warm as coffee with milk.