Tying Up Loose Ends (1)
Anyway, still feeling awkward, I swept the house with Spatial Perception—and there, shut away in the smallest room in the farthest corner, was Sophia, the air around her gloomy and sullen.
Seeing her reminded me of Miho and Hiarid, who ought to still be watching Ha Cheolsu's room from the studio flat beside the Alliance building. I'd completely forgotten about them. I needed to bring them back first.
"I'll go get Miho and Hiarid."
"I'll have a car prepared."
"No need. I can be there and back in a few seconds."
"...A few seconds?"
I stopped Hwayeon as she rose, and she asked what on earth I meant. Showing them would be faster than explaining. I took Franc's hand, flashed a grin at Hwayeon and Yeongeun—both watching me with puzzled faces—and unfolded Space Leaping.
It was too far for a single jump, so I leapt first to the vicinity of Olympic Park, then straight on into the studio flat beside the Ability User Alliance building, into Ha Cheolsu's room where Miho and Hiarid stood guard—and, urk?!
"......!"
I swallowed hard. Hiarid's staff and Miho's fox-fire were shoved right up against my nose, and the moment I gulped, both of them drew weapon and flame back at once and retreated.
=Heavenly Lord?=
"Huh? It's Master!"
I—I'd just lost ten years off my life. I'd let my guard down, and for a second I thought I was about to eat a hit before I could even unfold Mana Mode - Acceleration.
Feeling my heart hammer, I let go of Franc's hand and caught Miho as she bounded up into my arms.
"Master~ I missed you~!"
"Yeah. Nothing happened?"
=No. There were no problems.=
Getting an unplanned taste of how the two of them responded was reassuring, in its way. But the longer that bastard Ha Cheolsu took to come out, the stronger he'd be when he did. I couldn't afford to leave this post empty anymore.
Maybe I should send these two into the raids to hunt in my place. I could stay in reality, charging High-Tier Phase Stones and High Grade ones to sell.
"Come on out. I'm going to lay down a Wall of Space."
I patted the backside of Miho nestled in my arms, stepped out through the door, and calmly stacked Walls of Space inside Ha Cheolsu's room, thirty layers deep. That ought to be enough to melt a Peak-Rank Variant the instant one stepped out. Anything beyond that would strain me a little even with my increased Phase Power, so thirty layers felt about right.
"Waaah~. The scent coming off Master smells even better now! Ehehe~."
=.....=
Miho clung to me like a koala, arms and legs wrapped around my body, sniffing away and rubbing her face into my chest over and over. Watching her, Hiarid stared at the display with open envy. I beckoned her over, stroked her head, and praised her for a job well done—and a flush bloomed across cheeks as white as snow.
Yikes. Franc's expression was growing fiercer by the second. This was as far as I should take it.
"We're heading home, so hold on tight."
I grabbed both of them, unfolded Space Leaping again, and returned home. I let go of Hiarid's hand and moved to set Miho down... down...!
"You little—! Let go already!"
"Don't wanna~! Master smells good. Uheheng."
I grabbed Miho's round forehead and shoved with all my strength, but she clung on as if she'd sooner break her own neck than release me.
"What's gotten into you? Miho, if you don't let go, you're in trouble!"
"Heeheeheehee! I won't let go even if I get in trouble!"
What was wrong with this kid all of a sudden? She was acting like she'd taken something.
Huh? Even Hiarid, whom I'd set down, was creeping closer, and the air around her was anything but normal. Her face had gone red, heated through—almost, almost like when she was being brainwashed...
=Haa.....=
"Ehihing! Kyaha!"
In the middle of all this, Hwayeon and Yeongeun came up as well, their faces faintly flushed, and caught my arm to ask.
"Seoha. What was that just now?"
"That just now—don't tell me it was a warp? A teleport? Something like that?"
"Hold on. I need to peel Miho off first. Hiarid, you go back to your place."
I ordered the approaching Hiarid to fall back and grabbed Miho's tiny hands, trying to pry her off by force—only for her to light up one of her six fox tails and cling even harder.
"Don't waaant tooo~!"
Th-this little brat. She didn't want to be pulled off so badly she was even using Physical Reinforcement. Force her loose and Miho would be the one who got hurt, not me.
"Ah, why is this kid acting like this all of a sudden."
With no other choice, I decided to wait until she tired herself out and dropped off, and sat down on the sofa—only for my three lovers to press in close and stare at me with heated faces. Their eyes demanded I explain the technique I'd just shown them, and quickly.
"Space Leaping is probably the better word for it than teleport. I don't know if it was Myrddin's magic, but I experienced a spatial phase shift..."
When I explained what had happened in the medieval era, and that I'd grown once again, Hwayeon and Yeongeun pressed in even closer and let out cheers that were closer to screams.
"Kyaaa~! Teleport! That's insane! Completely insane!!"
"Offense and defense already beyond compare, and now a transcendent movement skill on top of it. You grow closer to a perfect man by the day. Satisfying."
...These two seemed a little off as well. That giddy look, like they were drunk—hmm? Don't tell me Franc too?
"Good grief. Why is everyone like this? ...Aaah! Hiarid!"
Fortunately Franc was still in her right mind. Hiarid, though, seemed to be losing hers. She had the Heavenly Staff wedged between her thighs and was gently rubbing her sex against it, and the clear fluids running down her legs had already pooled into a puddle at her feet.
I was staring blankly at the absurd sight, at a complete loss, when in that instant Hwayeon's and Yeongeun's hands slipped inside my pants and the fine hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up.
"Hey, what are you two doing right now? Can't you see Miho's stuck to me?!"
"Nngh. Seohaa. Haaa."
"My body, huff. It's hot... Why am I... like this...?"
"Ah, no! Don't pull on my pants!"
Sweating cold, I tried to stop Hwayeon and Yeongeun—eyes half-glazed as they worked to strip my pants—when, to make matters worse, even Hiarid started panting and closing in!
=Haaa... Heavenly Lord. I, too... can no longer restrain my lust.=
"H-hey, wait! Franc, help me!"
"Hiarid! For heaven's sake!"
Hwayeon and Yeongeun had claimed both my legs, and Miho hung off my side, letting out a bizarre laugh. Hiarid, caught in Franc's grip, was still flailing, trying to reach me. The situation was as bewildering as it was awkward, and I was just thinking I might need to get out of there when I caught sight of the faint flush on Franc's face—and a hypothesis flashed through my mind.
Could it be?
"Hiarid. What kind of scent are you picking up from me right now?"
=I sense a scent that drives me into a powerful state of heat. I can endure it no longer. Heavenly Lord, bestow upon me heaven's grace...!=
The calm voice was only her usual manner, it seemed. She'd completely lost her mind—eyes slightly unfocused, leaking ragged breaths as she began to reach out. Realizing my hypothesis was right, I snatched the arm she was extending, shoved her down onto the living room floor, then spun Mana Mode hard enough to peel Hwayeon and Yeongeun off me and planted a foot on Hiarid's back so she couldn't move.
Then I hiked up the hem of Miho's clothes—she was still stuck to my side, going ehing-ehing—set a hand on her small back, and began pushing TP into her.
"Kyahaha! That tickles! Haung. Aung..."
The little fox who'd been fluttering her white tails and fox ears soon dropped her head and fell asleep.
"I knew it!"
"Me too, touch me toooo."
"Seoha, haa. I can't hold it anymore either. So..."
I passed the sleeping Miho to Franc, then pulled the two of them—Hwayeon and Yeongeun, wavering in like zombies—into my arms. A little TP into their lower backs and the undersides of their breasts, and they went slack as if they'd been given a sedative, mumbling sounds I couldn't make out.
Whew.
I laid the half-lidded, limp Hwayeon and Yeongeun down on the carpet, then set a hand under the armpit of Hiarid—still pinned beneath my foot, licking it—and sat her up. For her to reach Highest Tier she'd still need to take in over four and a half million Phase Power from here on, so pushing in a little TP shouldn't cause any problems.
Franc, her brow faintly creased, held Miho and watched as I prepared to inject TP into Hiarid. Because of her wings, Hiarid was still wearing a dress cut open down the back. I reached out and laid my hand against her exposed side—and fluid gushed from between her legs as if someone had opened a faucet.
I hadn't even injected any TP yet, and she was already like this. Incredible.
"Huk? Hey!"
In a moment of carelessness she grabbed the hand I'd had at her waist and tried to drag it down to her crotch. I yanked free in a panic. Franc was glaring daggers—what was I doing!
I shouted at her to stay still, seized her by the waist, and shoved TP in hard. Four of her wings spread wide and began to thrash in a wild flutter, like a willow caught in a storm. The savage beating that had seemed as if it would never stop soon went slack, as if it had never happened, and then drooped entirely, the strength gone out of her.
From the puddle of fluids she'd released rose a scent of clouds, the kind you only catch on a mountaintop at dawn. I wiped away a cold sweat and glanced at Franc.
"......"
Seeing her face, both cheeks packed full of displeasure, I felt the cold sweat about to turn into a proper nervous one.
"Haha. This really has me breaking out in a cold sweat."
"What on earth has happened? Hwayeon as well, and Yeongeun—they are acting precisely as if they had taken an aphrodisiac..."
"Don't call it an aphrodisiac. At least say stimulant..."
Avoiding Franc's angry gaze, I picked Miho up, laid her in the wooden basket-bed set in a corner of the living room, and pulled a blanket over her. Then I sat down beside the limp Hwayeon and Yeongeun, and the two of them—still wavering like seaweed—wrapped themselves around my legs again.
Watching them, I ran Mana Mode and used the Mana Sieve to reel in the Phase Power that had been leaking outward in a moderate stream, binding it up tight inside myself, and spoke to Franc.
"This phenomenon. I'm starting to think it might be a trait of my bloodline. Something that heightens the sexual sensitivity of women who come into contact with my TP, and drags them down into pleasure."
"Pardon?"
"I can't think of any other reason they'd all be acting like this. Don't you think so, Franc?"
"Ah, that does seem certain. Then, because you attained enlightenment and your Phase Power doubled, the effect grew stronger?"
"Wouldn't that be it? My Phase Power doubled, so Hwayeon and Yeongeun, who'd been apart from me for a while, couldn't adapt and went all loopy. Thinking back, right after I came home from the Floating Sky Islands, everyone got incredibly worked up too."
Back then I'd also shot up from C-Class to B-Class in one go. Looking only at how much Phase Power I'd gained, there wasn't much difference between then and now. Seeing Hwayeon and Yeongeun rubbing their faces against my legs like cats, Franc conceded.
"I suppose so..."
A short while later, Hwayeon and Yeongeun finally came back to themselves. They looked at my face, hesitated, and then buried their faces in my thigh. Looking down at the crowns of their heads, red all the way to their ears, I felt laughter rising from my chest.
Hiarid seemed to have come around as well. Seeing her quietly push herself up, I spoke.
"Hiarid. Clean the floor, then go wash up and rest."
=Yes.....=
I watched her retreating back as she wavered off, fetched a rag, wiped up the fluids she'd spilled, and headed for the bathroom. Then I turned to my two embarrassed lovers.
"Embarrassed?"
"Uuungh."
Hwayeon mumbled with both hands covering her cheeks, as if her face were on fire, wearing a look that said she couldn't understand why she'd acted that way. So I told her what I'd just told Franc. Only then did she seem to accept it, but her reddened face showed no sign of returning to normal.
"But Siha and Mother seemed perfectly fine, didn't they? Franc looks all right too. I don't understand why it's only me and Hwayeon who end up like this."
Yeongeun looked down at her own body with an expression of pure incomprehension. Hwayeon, as if her throat had gone dry, went into the kitchen and drank cold barley tea.
"Ah, bring me a cup too!"
She called toward the kitchen, then let out a slightly weary sigh. Looking at her, I said, "You reacted like you'd taken a stimulant, and so did Miho and Hiarid. What's the thing you all have in common?"
"In common? That would be... ah. That we've received a large amount of your TP before?"
"Right. What you just showed me might literally be the symptoms of addiction to my TP. So once the research institute is built, I want my TP looked into properly."
TP addiction. Just the sound of it was rotten luck.
Franc and Yeongeun looked troubled by the word. Hwayeon came out with the barley tea bottle and three cups, her face still slightly red, and spoke as she poured.
"I don't see any particular problem with things as they stand. But if researching it will put your mind at ease, then do so."
"Huh? There's no problem?"
"The field I dug into after rising to B-Class was bodily durability and immunity. I've kept testing physical durability and resistance even after meeting you, Seoha, and the numbers show that after I took your TP into my body, my various immunities rose dramatically."
"By how much?"
At my question Hwayeon thought for a moment, then switched on her Authenticator and brought up a graph to show me.
"I gained a regeneration ability at E-Class, and when I rose to C-Class I gained disease resistance. Regeneration or not, if the severed part isn't there, it can't be restored, and a penetrating wound takes a long time to close. Disease resistance is disease resistance in name only—enough that I don't catch minor illnesses."
Her color was finally starting to return, as if she were calming down. When I stared at her, she avoided my gaze, cleared her throat, and went on.
"But once I started receiving your TP, I gained a resistance close to immunity against ordinary viruses. Regeneration strengthened as well. Ordinary activity doesn't tire me, and even if a hole is punched through my body, the wound seals within half a day. After a day, only a faint trace remains."
It sounded like her abilities had improved, but I couldn't quite feel the scale of it. As if she'd read the thought, Hwayeon smiled faintly.
"To put it simply, I could be stabbed and slashed by a Disease Rat's claws and come out fine."
"Whaaat? You tested that?! Are you in your right mind?!"
At Hwayeon's comparison, Yeongeun shot to her feet and started scolding her fiercely. So I looked up what a Disease Rat was on my Authenticator... and learned it was an extraordinarily vicious thing.
A High-Rank Variant? Get stabbed or cut by those claws and every kind of complication comes flooding in?
There were several photos of victims, and every one of them was horrific. Bodies with muscle and skin sloughing apart after a lethal dose of radiation, pus running over the whole of them; lesions that looked like the black death, typhoid, and leprosy mixed together. I switched the Authenticator off and looked at Hwayeon.
"...Hm. No. I tested it with a truly minute amount. Of course I had an ability user for recovery and disease treatment with me. There was no risk fact—"
"Yoo Hwayeon."
"...Sorry."
Running an experiment that dangerous and leaving the healing to other people. She should have at least called me. Hwayeon, who'd been about to make excuses, took our glares and quietly closed her mouth. Yeongeun still looked displeased with her, but soon smoothed her expression and turned back to me.
"Come to think of it, my Physical Reinforcement has gotten stronger too. These days my body's tough enough that sparring with that Hwayeon over there doesn't even injure me, and when I compared, I'd become about 1.4 times sturdier than a Physical Reinforcement user of the same rank. Franc, your Spatial Perception changed a little recently too, didn't it?"
"That's right. I can shift it into a form of visual analysis now."
"So my ability and Hwayeon's were strengthened, and Franc's changed form. All of this is thanks to Seoha's TP, isn't it?"
When Yeongeun sought agreement, Franc and Hwayeon nodded as a matter of course. What? My TP wasn't just increasing Phase Power?
"In several respects, the effect is that of a new drug."
"Mm-hm. With an effect this incredible, treating it like an addictive drug feels juuust a little harsh, doesn't it?"
Watching Yeongeun giggle, I scratched my head, and Franc added an explanation that actually made sense.
"Ordinary Aberrants take in Seoha's TP and turn into subspecies because of it. So it feels only natural that our abilities would improve after we have ingested it."
"I agree. In any case, we will need to watch the changes carefully until the institute is built and formal research begins."
"We'll have to put trustworthy people on the research, won't we? I'll need to find suitable talent before then."
"If it is talent you require, would Doctor Edelberg and his children not suffice?"
"Hmm~. The field fits, so they are suitable, but... you're not thinking of just handing it over to them, are you?"
"Of course not. That would be after we have put a firm collar on them, at the very least."
I stared blankly at the two lovers with their heads together, whispering, then decided I ought to steer things back to the original subject and clapped my hands to gather their attention.
"I'll finish the story I didn't tell you downstairs. It's as important as the secret of my birth, so sit comfortably and listen."
I called them in, got them focused, and played the recording from the moment I'd entered through the Return Point at Stonehenge. Then, with Franc adding explanations here and there alongside me, I told Hwayeon and Yeongeun the truth of the Phase World that I'd heard from Myrddin.
Learning why the Phase World had opened, both their expressions turned grave.
"So in the end, the Phase World is the past of reality? Can we believe this?"
"Phase Power, formed from energy accumulated out of fear of the unknown. An exceedingly irrational story."
"But I understand it. Even now, as Phase Power spreads, people are still advancing science and trying to push out into space, are they not?"
If I had to name a representative product of that scientific progress, it would be the appearance of equipment that can measure a Phase Power's type—technology that resolves ignorance about abilities in a single stroke. But the way I saw it, science was slowly being overtaken by the unknown Myrddin had spoken of. The measuring device had been around for decades, yet the equipment was so massive it had to be fixed in place at specific sites in reality. Maybe the great powers, blinded by their power games and the profits from Phase Stones and their byproducts, had simply delayed the development of miniaturization. Still.
"More than that, the greatest problem is that the forced summons will not stop until Phase Power has spread fully through reality, and once they do stop, Awakeners will begin to appear in reality—and Aberrants along with them. There is also the question of when the forced summons will stop."
Compared to Franc, whose face had gone grave at Hwayeon's point, Yeongeun opened her mouth at her leisure, looking neither particularly tense nor worried.
"Don't you think this will be a problem too? Once the forced summons end, we may no longer be able to come and go between the Phase World and reality. If that happens, the Phase Stone supply gets cut, and if the supply of energy plates stops for even a single week, an economy built on Phase Stone energy will collapse in an instant. And we're supposed to wait until the Aberrants that appear in reality have accumulated Phase Stones in their bodies? Before that, won't human civilization—having burned through every Phase Stone it stockpiled—simply perish?"
With that, she flicked the rim of her cup with a finger—ting, ting—and looked straight through me as she went on.
"Use that opening, and it becomes a foothold for our Korea to leap to the top of the world in a single bound. In exchange, the number of humans on Earth would drop to about a tenth."
"Y-Yeongeun? Is that really true?"
At the talk of billions dying, Franc looked at the leisurely Yeongeun with trembling eyes.
Civilization couldn't possibly collapse that easily, could it? They'd ration the stockpiled energy, conserve it to the extreme, and fire the old fossil-fuel plants back up. Even so, I figured about half the world's population would die. The harsher the region you lived in, the higher the odds.
Yeongeun gave a bitter smile as she looked at Franc's face, gone pale—but that smile was a put-on. Why? To tease Franc, obviously.
"Honestly, the Earth's total population in the sixteenth century is estimated at three hundred million, isn't it? And looking at our Korea alone right now, the whole population is a little over sixty million. So if only we prepare well, even if every other country's people vanish, given enough time we'd come back to the present numbers, wouldn't we?"
"Th-that's... that's too much..."
"If we begin preparing for self-sufficiency from now, it would hardly be impossible. There may be some ripple from the collapse of other civilizations, but lay down a foundation of self-sufficiency and that damage shrinks to almost nothing. If we alone hold our tongues, who could possibly know the world is going to end? Until that day, a single person will simply be pointed at—a foolish woman swimming against the times."
"I'm the only one who gets cursed at?!"
Watching Franc's pretty face soak in despair and fear until she looked ready to cry was pretty entertaining. I glanced at Hwayeon and Yeongeun and saw they were half enjoying it too. So I joined in.
"It is a tempting story. Even if they ran short on energy and tried to invade us by force because we were well-off, I'd be here, so it wouldn't amount to much of a threat. But even if we went that far and grabbed something like hegemony over the Earth, what would we do with it?"
"Heheh. Spoken like a Seoha with no greed in him."
"Right?! So please don't talk about plans that assume billions of people dying!"
At the sight of Franc pleading so desperately, I couldn't hold it in. I laughed.
"Franc, you really do go out and borrow trouble. Civilization isn't going to collapse that easily. So let's stop teasing you and think about what to do with the information Myrddin gave us."
"...Eh?"
Seeing Yeongeun giggling at what I'd said, and me and Hwayeon snorting along, Franc seemed to realize only then that we'd been teasing her—and her face went red.