Mind, and Manipulation (2)

There was another cat over there. A human one.

I looked at Yeongeun, legs crossed, sipping her juice with all the hauteur of a cat, and the frustration rising in my chest made me reach out and lift the Norwegian Forest cat into my arms.

Meow.

It stared straight at me, mewling, and when I set it down it didn't leave. It came closer instead, rubbing its head and its back all over my knee in a frenzy.

"Just like Yeongeun in heat."

The moment I muttered it, the woman who was herself a Norwegian Forest cat in heat stuck her lip out in a pout.

I sighed, watching the cats and dogs nipping and playing around me, and Yeongeun asked what I was brooding over so hard.

"No matter how hard I rack my brain, I can't come up with a trigger..."

"Do you really have to overthink it that much? Why don't we just ask a mental manipulation user to show us how it's done?"

"Franc~ Porongi. Porongi!"

"Mm-hmm. I'll put it on. Just a second."

Study time must have ended, because Miho latched onto Franc and started begging her to turn the cartoon on.

Once Little Friend Porongi began, Franc scooped up Miho — glued to the television — carried her to the sofa, sat her down, and came over to my side, opening her mouth with a worried look.

"And what are you going to do if it gets out that Seoha obtained mental manipulation?"

"Our honey's Spatial Perception range is 6.75 kilometers, isn't it? We use that. The whole world's growing more anxious about mental manipulation users right now, so we slip into that gap, pull the branch chief of the Korean Ability User Association's strings from behind, and have him look into it. Not exactly difficult, is it?"

...Ugh. Just hearing it gave me a headache. How many steps would it even take to puppet someone into moving exactly as I wanted from behind the scenes? And I'd have to manage the distance, and move without getting caught.

Hwayeon, who had been reviewing what looked like a top-secret file, closed the folder and made her disapproval plain.

"Even if he moved by Space Leaping, the intelligence networks of nations around the world are now fixed on Seoha. They may even be tracking his movements by satellite. That means the chance of being caught is correspondingly high, does it not? In a climate like this, mobilizing a mental manipulation user to stage a demonstration would be difficult, I should think."

"Hmph. Still wet behind the ears, and she looks down on this mother of hers."

At Yeongeun's scorn, Hwayeon furrowed her brow and answered in a voice edged with irritation.

"Then what method do you intend to use?"

The moment she listed those four words, a gleam entered Hwayeon's eyes. I had no idea what the plan was, but...

"I feel the same as Hwayeon. This ability has to stay a real secret. Even without it, they say the leadership of the world's great powers is growing warier of me over Space Leaping and the Wall of Space. If they learn I can use Spatial Manipulation, they'll start questioning the root of my abilities all over again, no question. Stir their wariness too far, and we might push them into doing something dangerous."

Even now we had the Anti-Field Egg running twenty-four hours a day, the room soundproofed and sealed against eavesdropping, just so word that I was practicing mental manipulation wouldn't leak...

"It's tempting, but let's rule out stealing a look at another mental manipulation user's demonstration."

"If that's how Seoha feels, then so be it."

Leaving Yeongeun and Hwayeon wearing faintly disappointed looks, I gazed down at the beagle that had flopped over and started to doze, and spoke.

"I have a feeling a little more practice will do it. So don't go doing anything reckless."

"I knooow~."

It was only a feeling, strictly speaking, but my lovers seemed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to trust me — they were sidling closer... Wait. Why were they coming closer?

Then I caught the faint heat flowing through their eyes as they met mine. The heat switch had flipped again.

After the Ha Cheolsu incident sent my Phase Power surging to 18.92 million, my lovers had started slipping into lust like this the moment they let their guard down beside me. It wasn't as if their reason vanished root and all — only that their bodies grew hot beyond their control — and they were gradually adapting, so I wasn't worried. Still, on a day off like this, with time to spare and nothing to do, they seemed all the more willing to give their bodies over to desire.

Not that I disliked the situation. My stamina always ran over, and they had hot bodies of their own.

I slid a hand up under the crop top that cinched her slender waist and bared the vertical line of her navel, and closed it around Yeongeun's breasts, soft as pudding. My other hand went down beneath Hwayeon's blue skirt to the valley already growing wet, and I kissed Franc as we all headed into the bedroom together.

Mm... Still, I needed to get used to containing this increased Phase Power, and soon. I couldn't go outside radiating an aura that put women in heat.

Because of Ha Cheolsu's ability terror incident seven days ago, argument had raged over whether this year's national college entrance exam ought to be postponed by a few days. The Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation, it seemed, had sided with the view that they could not delay even a single day — not when they thought of the children who had suffered through three years preparing for it — and so the exam was held on schedule.

Of course, it had nothing to do with me. I meant to skip college and dive straight into the Phase World, so I watched from behind as Franc disciplined Miho, occasionally glancing at the exam halls streaming on the broadcast.

Han Go-eun and her crew were probably in there taking the exam right about now.

Mom and Noona had looked deeply disappointed when I said I wouldn't go to college, but they hadn't tried to talk me out of it.

At home, a three-way war had broken out in its own fashion.

"If Seoha enrolled at Uihan University, I would be truly happy."

That was Hwayeon.

"Our Seoha wouldn't get a single useful thing out of tasting college life at this point~! So don't go to college. Stay home and play with me."

That was Yeongeun. Franc, who was with me no matter what, only smiled softly, as if either way was fine.

And only today had that three-way war finally come to an end.

The ten minutes of discipline must have ended, because Miho came running up to where I had claimed the television and was watching the news, and stared at me with round, shining eyes.

Sensing the wordless plea that she wanted to watch Little Friend Porongi, I handed her the remote. She broke into a wide smile, flipped the channel, sat down between my legs, and began watching the penguin and the polar bear on the screen with a deadly serious face.

When I carefully drew the faint trickle of TP leaking from my body back inside, the six white tails that had been swaying slowly came to a stop, then began to wriggle with vigor again. A moment ago they had been tracing an oddly suggestive S-wave; now they were simply bristling and flicking — a plain sign that she was happy.

Resting at home for several days while I practiced containing my Phase Power, I had realized the principle behind the heat-scent leaking from my body was nothing elaborate. A faint quantity of TP I had been releasing outside myself without knowing it, upon touching someone who had once taken in my TP, called up the pleasure engraved in their body at the moment of absorption — a response no different from Pavlov's dog. Which meant a woman baptized by my Mana Sieve would grow aroused beyond all control, while a woman who hadn't would only have her nipples stiffen without even noticing.

Miho going into heat just from catching the scent of my TP was dangerous in more ways than one, so I had to keep it properly sealed away like this.

I was fiddling with a tail so soft that even the finest fox fur couldn't compare when a call came in through my Certifier.

"Huh? What's Noona calling for?"

It had been a while, so I answered, wondering what this was about — and there she was in the hologram window, wearing rimless glasses with no prescription at all.

She looked down with a blank expression at Miho's head nestled in my arms, pushed the frames up with a finger, turned her gaze to me, and spoke.

"It's only been about a month. He already found the cause?"

"Yeah. I'll head over right away."

He'd found something? Now I was curious.

We headed for the Uihan University Institute of Physical Phase Research, which they were using as a temporary laboratory, in the gray Porsche coupe my sister had just bought with her salary.

...If it had been the usual Noona, she would have chattered without pause the whole way. Now she drove in silence, as if someone had zipped her mouth shut.

The strange quiet made me uneasy. Wondering why she was acting like this, I glanced at Franc in the back seat; she only smiled awkwardly and gave a small shrug.

I thought about poking Noona in the side — her weak spot — to test her reaction, but doing that while she was driving would cause an accident, so I let it go.

I kept stealing looks at her profile, and when we stopped for a light she put on a smile and asked.

"Why do you keep staring? Something you want to say?"

"No, not really..."

Deep behind that smiling face there was something that wasn't a smile. I didn't know what to call it. Whatever it was, my current instincts couldn't read it.

Aish. It was getting on my nerves.

I turned my head and looked forward, and she let out a soft chuckle, pinched my cheek, and said, "So silly." Then she faced ahead again and went blank once more.

...Wow. Seriously. I really want to know what she's thinking! Is it just me?

I'd been a forever-alone for a long time, and right after that I'd ended up with three beautiful girlfriends. All that cuddling had left me with a personal standard for skinship. The touch Noona had just given me didn't belong to family. It was... how to put it. About 44.32 percent the touch of the opposite sex.

Ah, of course a cheek-pinch between family could pass as an everyday thing. But her touch just now had felt like that.

If I set a day aside, tickled her, and tormented her while I asked, would she confess everything...?

She wouldn't throw a skill at me, so if I turned on physical reinforcement, pinned her, and introduced her to tickle hell, I had a feeling she'd spill it all.

The temptation was shifting — from leaving her alone, toward a tickle assault that would force out whatever she was thinking — when we arrived at Uihan University, whose grounds were some three times the size of an ordinary campus.

Thanks to its place at the foot of Mount Geumam, Uihan University had come through the November 7th Ability Terror Incident unscathed. I'd been told our destination, the university's affiliated research institute, lay in the deepest part of the grounds, and confirming ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it with Spatial Perception showed the institute built deep underground, dug into a somewhat steep mountainside.

Like that, they only needed to guard the entrance like an iron wall. Security looked solid.

As the car made its slow way toward the parking lot, I scanned the school with Spatial Perception and found Hwayeon, who had left for campus early that morning, standing in the lot. Nearby, about a hundred students had gathered roughly a hundred meters from her, murmuring among themselves and filming her on their phones.

"Aaaah~ Unnie, you're so pretty!"

"Whoa, whoa. Unnie's skin is insane today. Like ice with snow piled thick on it."

"A fly would slip right off."

"Facts."

"Uuugh~ look at that snow-white nape. Monopolizing Unnie... I hate the Grand Blue Master."

"Hate him!!"

So this was how I'd been getting cursed out in places I didn't even know about.

I was stealing the crowd's conversation by lip-reading when my sister's Porsche coupe pulled into the lot. We got out, and Hwayeon came clicking over in a ponytail — brown leather shoes, ivory skinny-fit pants, a wine-colored knit.

She'd said she was going to class. Shouldn't she be in a lecture at this hour? I asked Hwayeon, who wore an easy smile.

"Why are you here?"

"Hm? Am I not allowed to be here?"

"No — shouldn't you be in class?"

"I had a free period, so I was passing the time. I came out because I heard you were coming to the institute."

A free period, then. My sister gathered her small handbag, stepped out of the car, and waved at Hwayeon, and the stir in the crowd grew louder.

"We love you, Siha-unnie!!"

Cries like that rose here and there, only to be swallowed by thuds and screams.

The moment three women of devastating beauty appeared in the parking lot, the eyes of every passing college student snapped our way.

"Isn't that the Grand Blue Master?"

"Not a maybe — it's really him!"

"What's he doing at our school?"

"I heard the Grand Blue Master is a high school senior too, and today's the college entrance exam. Is he not taking it?"

...They weren't looking at the three beauties. They were looking at me. At this point I could really feel it — my fame, strong enough to nullify even a man's instinctive pretty-girl radar.

I let the students' murmurs wash past my ears and surveyed the campus with Spatial Perception. True to its name as the most beautiful campus in Korea, a late-autumn landscape spread out in full. Parking lots and roads had been laid in natural stone rather than asphalt, with trees transplanted from abroad standing among them. School buildings steeped in European color, red vines climbing their outer walls, conjured an old-world elegance that hardly seemed to belong to Korean soil.

Above all, trees claimed more of the Uihan University campus than the buildings did, and the warm sunlight blended so perfectly with the red-dyed foliage that the whole grounds looked like a painting.

Private university or not, Yeongeun seemed to have poured a fortune into the landscaping. Then again, she'd paid plenty of attention to the grounds at Uihan High School too.

We walked a path of flat stone that ran straight ahead, between boxwoods trimmed into squares on either side and maples lining the road to its end, and the few remaining leaves dyed red fell one by one onto our heads. I ignored the college students beginning to follow behind us and was admiring the scenery, trailing my sister and Hwayeon with Franc, when Hwayeon looked back, slowed her steps, and came to stand beside me.

"Do you like the campus? Maple Lovers' Lane is one of the most beautiful places even at Uihan University."

A blush had risen on her cheeks, and I was wondering why, when my sister's voice, laced with laughter, came from up ahead.

"There's a rumor that couples who walk this path stay devoted and grow old together for a hundred years. Do you have any idea how badly Hwayeon has wanted to walk it with you?"

At that, Hwayeon linked her arm through mine, face flushed. And so did Franc.

Mm. So Hwayeon had wanted that, had she? I smiled at her as she grinned and tried to cool her heated cheeks — and in that instant, my sister's expression turned faintly uncomfortable.

......?

Puzzled, I looked at her, but she acted as if nothing had happened — or rather, with a blank face, she quickened her pace a little and spoke.

"I'll go ahead to the institute and get things ready, so the three of you take your time looking around and come along."

Uh... her voice had gone a bit cold, too. Was she uncomfortable with the college students murmuring as they watched us?

"Ah, I'll go with you."

"Will you?"

Franc glanced back at me and Hwayeon with a mischievous look, then quickened her pace and walked off with my sister.

Well, since Noona and Franc had gone ahead, I unlinked Hwayeon's arm from mine, wrapped a hand around her slender waist, and drew her in. She startled slightly, then smiled with perfect ease and rested her head on my shoulder.

Hahh~ now this was it! This was how lovers were supposed to stand!!

Since becoming an ability user early this year, I had grown explosively over the course of nearly a year. Twenty centimeters in a single year was explosive enough to justify the word. Thanks to that, I stood about ten centimeters taller than Hwayeon in her flats — and thanks to that, this posture suited us so well that I was delighted.

"I knew she was the president's lover, but our Ice Goddess, looking like that..."

"Waaah. My first heartbreak is finally here."

"I think I'm gonna have a meltdown..."

Walking the brilliantly colored maple path, I savored the feeling of a victor as I watched, through Spatial Perception, the countless male students trailing us sink into despair — then decided to give my full attention to Hwayeon beside me.

Leaves drifted down as we slowly made our way along Maple Lovers' Lane, and a peculiar sensation washed over me: the coziness and the chill of late autumn, existing side by side. And beside me, the lover I cherished walked with a happy face.

...Mm. If I attended Uihan University, could I savor this feeling every day?

I was walking and taking in the scenery when Hwayeon cleared her throat and began to speak, slowly, as if to tempt me.

"A campus under winter snow carries a romance all its own. It can feel as though you've stepped into a land of snow. In spring, new buds open and a warm wind blows, and if you listen to the brook murmuring as the snow stacked through the winter melts away, you know spring has come right up beside you. In summer, when the sun beats down, sit in the shade by the lake laid out within the grounds and listen to the birds singing and the cicadas crying, and the feeling rises that you are in the very heart of summer."

Her intentions were so naked that I turned my head and laughed without a sound, and Hwayeon's earlobes turned red.

"Ah, sorry. Go on."

"......"

A moment later her whole face was red, and her mouth stayed shut. She didn't cover it. She only put a little more strength into the hand resting on my waist.

Changing the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠subject now would be the gentlemanly thing, wouldn't it?

"Hwayeon."

"Mm."

"Noona's been acting strange lately. Do you know anything?"

At my question Hwayeon looked puzzled, glanced at my sister's back growing small in the distance, and opened her mouth as if to ask what on earth I meant.

"Strange? What's strange about her?"

"Mm. She doesn't tease me like she used to. She talks less, she's gotten quiet, she doesn't call, sometimes she speaks in a cold voice like she's threatening me, and she stares at me with a blank face... Listing it out like this, she really is strange."

The longer I went on, the more Hwayeon furrowed her brow, her eyes following my sister's retreating figure as it vanished beside a building that looked like a two-story medieval chapel.

"Since when has she been like that?"

"Since I got back from England, I think. Do you have any guesses?"

"...No. I don't."

At the words that came after a brief silence, I narrowed my eyes at her, and she slowly avoided my gaze. She was going to claim she had no guesses, looking like that?

"Really nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Really?"

"...Nothing."

Her face and her behavior said yes. Her answer was no. I gently stroked Hwayeon's soft side and whispered in her ear.

"...Sounds to me like you're saying Hwayeon gets left out of bed starting tonight."

"Urk."

My actions seemed to stir up a commotion in the procession behind us, but I paid it no mind and focused on Hwayeon.

Perhaps because of my breath against her ear, she hunched her shoulders slightly and opened her mouth as if she had no choice.

"There's something I can guess, but I can't say it now. If you won't hold me because you don't understand that... It's sad, but it can't be helped."

Seeing her turn faintly gloomy, I figured I wasn't going to get the story out of her. She'd gone that far. I couldn't force it by tormenting her.

"Can't be helped, then. Nothing bad happened to Noona, right?"

"No. I imagine her head is simply so full of things to think about that she has no spare attention left for anything else. It's not something you need to worry over, Seoha."

When I showed I was taking a step back, Hwayeon pressed a hand to her chest as if relieved.

"All right. When you can tell me, tell me."

"I will. When that time comes, perhaps... No. Never mind."

Aish. Now I was curious.

"I don't think anything torments a person quite like starting a sentence and stopping~."

I drummed my fingers against the hand at her waist as if playing piano keys, and she flinched and squirmed, pressing her body even closer to mine.

"D-don't do that..."

She put on a strong face most of the time and only showed weakness at moments like this, which only made me want to tease her more.

Before I knew it, Noona and Franc were talking companionably as they disappeared into the entrance of the affiliated institute halfway ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up the mountain. I'd better hurry after them.

Hwayeon, embarrassed, was starting to ease away, so I caught her hand and drew her along the path my sister had walked first.