Entry Preparations and Persuasion (5)
It hadn't even taken a week. With my sister, Hiarid, Miho, Yeongeun, and Franc already won over, I laid my plans to pounce on—persuade—Hwayeon last of all.
The night before I put them into motion, I deliberately paced myself. Franc and Yeongeun I wore down so relentlessly they wouldn't so much as stir until the following afternoon; Hwayeon I held just lightly enough that she could rise easy on her feet come morning.
The result was everything I could have wanted.
Hwayeon woke at her usual early hour, took one look at Franc and Yeongeun—closer to knocked cold than merely asleep—and tilted her head.
"...Were they that worn out? They can't even get up."
"Yeongeun's been feeling the strain in her head, and Franc's exhausted too, even if she won't say so. Let them sleep."
"Hm. All right."
She drew their blankets, which had slipped below their waists, back up over their shoulders, then crossed to the bathroom with that long, perfectly proportioned figure of hers on full display. I followed her in. We washed together, then sank into the wide tub already brimming with hot water and watched the dawn come up beyond the bathroom's special glass.
As daybreak brightened, the dark in the room was pushed back, and clear sunlight poured over Hwayeon and me.
I reached out and took her hand. She squeezed mine in return and gave me a small smile.
When we came out into the living room, Choi Soohan and Sophia were standing side by side in the kitchen, getting breakfast ready. I threw the living-room windows wide, felt the cold morning air curl through the room, and was watching the morning news when Hiarid came walking out of the room across the way.
Miho, barely five feet tall, was riding piggyback on Hiarid's seven-foot-two frame. They looked for all the world like a child carried on her mother's back.
"Did you sleep well, Heavenly Lord?"
"Yeah. You sleep all right?"
"Master, good morning~! Franc and Yeongeun aren't up?"
"They're tired, so they're sleeping. Don't wake them."
Miho, who had been buried between Hiarid's wings, hopped down and came pattering over to hug me from behind.
The biggest room in the house belonged to me and my three lovers. The second-biggest had ended up as the room Miho, Hiarid, and Darky shared.
The third I'd originally meant to use as a study, but studying didn't mean anything anymore, and if I ever needed to I could just unfold a low floor desk in the living room—so I'd handed it over to Choi Soohan and Sophia. The two of them had turned it into something like an old Korean ondol room, sleeping on bedding spread across the floor instead of a bed and a desk. Last night they'd laid out a fine cotton-batting quilt and slept curled up together, perfectly content.
Of the three rooms left, two became guest rooms, and the last—the sixth—was a secret room stacked with charged Phase Stones.
Making Soohan and Sophia butler and maid really had been the right call. Even if Franc and Yeongeun slept in, the food still appeared on its own.
Breakfast was nearly ready, and still Franc and Yeongeun didn't wake. They'd gone from half-unconscious into a deep sleep; they'd be out for at least another three hours.
Right on schedule. I smiled a wicked little smile to myself and asked Hwayeon.
"Today's your day off, right? You planning to train at the gym all day again?"
"Yes. I'm starting to see results, so I mean to put a final push on the training."
Hwayeon came out of the kitchen with a vegetable juice, answered me, and began to drink the green juice at her leisure. Then, as if the meal were ready, Soohan started for the master bedroom to wake Franc and Yeongeun. I raised a hand and stopped her.
"They both look exhausted, so don't wake them. When they get up later, set the table then."
"Yes, Master."
I'd put them to sleep on purpose. Waking them now would waste the whole thing. Yeongeun especially was likely to go train with Hwayeon, so she absolutely could not be woken.
After a solid breakfast, Hwayeon finished brushing her teeth and went to the stand where the Heavenly Commander Cloud Sword and Ispect stood upright.
Good. She'll take Ispect to the gym and start training, and I'll follow. Heh heh heh.
But the moment her hand closed on Ispect, she flinched hard enough to notice and turned to look at me. A bitter smile, a small shake of the head. Had Nuhodi tipped her off? Even if she had, Hwayeon was already a mouse in my palm.
First I went back into the bedroom and hung the Soul Stone around sleeping Franc's neck. The training hall was more than four kilometers from the house; if I carried the Soul Stone necklace with me, Franc would slip into it in her sleep.
Coming back out, I asked Hwayeon, already finished getting ready to leave.
"Heading to train now?"
"...Yes."
Of course she was. But the way she looked at me was exactly the look you give a little sibling doing something cute, and that sat wrong. If she'd caught on to what I was planning, she ought to be blushing—embarrassed, at least—not looking at me like that.
It left me uneasy. I stepped in close anyway, slid an arm around her waist, and said, "I'll take you. I've got something to do myself."
"Heh. I'll leave it to you."
...Franc and Yeongeun didn't tell her everything, did they? Not that it matters anymore, even if they did.
"Have a good trip, Master~! You too, Hwayeon, work hard~!"
"Go safely, Heavenly Lord."
Seen off by Miho and Hiarid, I opened a Space Leap toward the gymnasium in Shinchon-dong—only to find that Darky, who had latched onto Hwayeon's leg at some point I hadn't noticed, was clinging there like a knee pad.
"And why did you follow us?"
I looked down at Darky as I asked. The little thing slid off Hwayeon's leg in a slow ooze, gathered into one blob, and jiggled from side to side like a well-made pudding.
Ploong? Wibble-wobble!
"I can't tell what you're saying. How am I supposed to understand you if you just wobble? Can't you shape words with those tentacles?"
Churrrg...? Churrrg...
Watching it sag like a pudding wilted by the heat, I got the message well enough. It couldn't. I stroked the little thing until it pulled itself back into shape, and Hwayeon, who had been watching with a small smile, soon walked into the Vanish-coated gymnasium, went to the center, drew a deep breath, and began to loosen up.
"Hey."
I'd been too busy soothing Darky to speak in time, and Hwayeon had already started.
I'd meant to talk to her while she warmed up, but a single wave seemed to finish the warm-up—head, then arms, torso, and legs, each twisted once in turn. She gave Ispect one great swing. Then she set her feet a step wider than her shoulders and dropped into a low guard.
Fiddling with soft, squishy Darky, I studied the stance she'd taken. It was textbook. Perfect form.
Spearhead angled down, shaft raised to shoulder height, she held the low guard and didn't move, and I watched—until I noticed steam rising off her shoulders.
Eyes closed, concentrating, and her body was steaming. Come to think of it, when she'd practiced that footwork, the Blossom-Drift Immortal Steps, steam had risen off her then too. Was there some kind of heat reaction at work?
And anyway—stripping her bare was a work of art, but the lines of that body in a training suit clinging that close were just as devastating. A leopard's figure, not an ounce of spare flesh. The serious look she wore in a body like that was attractive enough to get me worked up from watching alone.
Bbyorung. Brrrrung.
Without meaning to, I'd tightened my grip on Darky, and a cute little sound spilled out of its body.
"Sorry. I squeezed without thinking. Did that hurt?"
Two tentacles emerged from its body and drew an X. Then, as the shape changed, the tentacles started drawing some kind of figure.
...A heart?
"...What's that supposed to mean. You want me to touch you harder?"
Darky made a circle, as if to say that was correct. Harder? The force I'd just used could have punched a hole clean through a body if I'd been careless.
"I grabbed you as hard as I could just now. It didn't hurt?"
X.
"It didn't? A little more force and I'd have put a hole in you. You're really fine?"
O.
"Your body might get torn clean off, and you're saying that's fine?"
O.
"...You, when you've got the time, learn your letters from Miho or Franc. Once you do, you can make words with those tentacles and we can actually talk."
At that, the two tentacles formed an exclamation mark. Anyway, since it wanted to be touched harder, I put strength into my fingers and seized the round, jiggling, pudding-soft thing.
Bblorp. Brrrrung. Bwoing.
The pressure of my grip seemed to be forming bubbles inside Darky. And the way it sloshed and swayed this way and that felt, if I had to name it, like a hula danced out of pure happiness.
I wasn't even on anything. Why did it feel like this? Focusing on the sensation in my hand, I squeezed a little harder.
Rrrrip!
With a sound like something tearing, about half of Darky's body ripped away.
"Hah—what! You said you were fine, and your torso just tore!"
I moved to cast Healing Wave at once, but before I could, the portion that had split—about a third of it—squirmed, fused back together, and shaped a question mark with a tentacle.
Right. This thing had been blown to pieces by a bolt of light and still pulled itself back together. I'd forgotten.
I sighed and rubbed at the goosebumps risen on my arm. The thought that tearing a person's body might feel something like what I'd just felt had called up a gruesome picture.
Call it a critical pressure. Now that I knew how much force it took to rip like that, I'd have to touch it only hard enough not to tear.
Brrung. Bblorp-blorp. Prrrrk, eek.
Prrrrr. Ploong, brrrrung. Bwoing. Bblrrrk.
Eee, bing. Bblorp. Byorrrrng.
"..."
Hm? I could have sworn Hwayeon's eyebrow just twitched.
It wasn't my imagination. After more than ten minutes of standing eyes-closed in that low stance, Hwayeon slowly released the posture, planted the spear upright, and drew a long breath. Then she came at a quick walk to where I sat on the gym floor and crouched in front of me.
For an instant my eyes dropped to the deep cleft of her chest. I snapped them up just as fast and looked at her faintly sweating face.
"What?"
"What do you mean, what. If you've got something to say, say it. And stop making those... strange noises."
Even as she spoke, she kept glancing at Darky. The sounds coming out of it must have been getting under her skin.
Truth was, the noise had a strange way of turning addictive, and I'd been kneading away in a trance. The feel of it was exactly like Yeongeun's chest, or Hwayeon's. Sometimes, when I touched them, I caught myself wondering if they weren't rice cake, and wanting to grab as hard as I could. Squeezing that hard would have been a disaster, though, so I'd never even tried—I'd always touched them carefully. Thanks to Darky, you could say I'd finally scratched that itch.
"Ah. Yeah. I do have something I want to say."
Hwayeon nodded, then quietly opened her mouth.
"I trust you too, Seoha. You aren't weak, and your judgment is solid enough to rely on. If I stood in the way of something you believe is right, I would be unfit to stand as your partner."
She took my side before I'd even laid the groundwork for persuading her, and I blinked.
"Huh?"
"Didn't you follow me here to persuade me?"
I stared at her, the sound that came out of me halfway to idiotic, and she looked just as puzzled asking it back.
"Uh. No—yeah. I did, but... weren't you going to refuse?"
"If I'm honest, I was startled then, and not thinking clearly. Once I calmed down and thought it through, I realized I would have done the same in your place. And that it was the right thing."
As she said it, the hand that wasn't holding the spear reached out and stroked my cheek.
"..."
The quiet smile on her face was dazzling. And here I'd been planning to throw her down and let our bodies do the talking. A calm conversation would have been enough.
"Thank you."
"It's nothing."
Hwayeon smiled, bright and easy, and turned as if to go back to her training. Halfway there she suddenly went rigid, flushed red to the ears, and swung Ispect up and down with a whoosh as she shouted.
"Wh-what are you saying! That is absurd!"
Nuhodi must have said something. What could she have said to get her like that?
"What... pardon? No—you, what on earth...!"
What were they even talking about, that she was blushing and shouting at the top of her lungs?
While Hwayeon's attention was fixed on Ispect, I crept up and, without her noticing, took hold of the spear's shaft. Nuhodi's clear voice rang through my head.
"...Do you have any idea how pitiful it was, every time I watched you from the stand? The ache of it came just as the word implies—a tidal wave. Call to mind petite, lovely Miss Franc. Call to mind Miss Yeongeun, who bares her heart without hesitation and never thinks twice about a touch. Set beside them, aside from those large breasts and the one hole you possess that a man does not, you can hardly be called the same kind of woman at all. In short, your power as a woman is of a kind with a dull, unrefined man."
"F-Franc was feminine from the start, and if I try, I can do it t—!"
"Ordinary effort will not be enough. Just now was the same. Your mate was grateful for your consideration, and the mood was ripe for you to blush like a woman and slip into an embrace—or even a kiss—and all you did was stroke his cheek once and stop. Is what you and your mate share a bond of master and servant?"
"And what is wrong with that! There is even the saying that a wife follows her husband—. Seoha?!"
Hwayeon had been huffing out her rebuttal to Nuhodi, spear lifting in her hands, when she finally noticed me holding the shaft. She startled and yanked it toward herself.
"This is timely. Jung Seoha, that mate of yours possesses a truly pitiful cast of mind. What would you say to remodeling the consciousness of this macho-minded partner of yours, just a little?"
I lifted one eyebrow at Nuhodi's suggestion and answered. "I do want to change that mannish personality of hers, but it's been harder than I thought. Early on, when we first started seeing each other, she at least wore skirts and dressed up pretty. The moment things got serious, it was pants every single day. At first I thought she had a skirt allergy."
"Th-that's not it."
Hwayeon tugged gently at Ispect, flustered, denying it, while Nuhodi went on in a voice that was genuinely full of pity.
"To possess a face that beautiful and a body overflowing with allure, and still not know how to adorn herself—truly, the saying of this world, a pearl necklace on a pig, suits this young lady perfectly."
"Right? Every one of my lovers is lovely, but the boyish look has its limits. Sometimes she looks straight-up like a soldier."
"A soldier? I was just...!"
"A soldier. The regret overflows like a burst dam. If, when I yet lived, I had possessed a body like Hwayeon's, I would have wrapped the high priest in my skirts and used him exactly as I intended. A woman's beautiful face and bewitching flesh are the most powerful, most effective weapons she holds against a man, and this girl does not seem to know it."
"Mm. Honestly, you felt sturdy more than pretty, Nuhodi."
"Hohoho."
"..."
Hwayeon watched the two of us murmuring together, her own words going unheard, her face full of discontent. As her temper started to rise, she began shaking Ispect this way and that, trying to pull it out of my hand.
"Hwayeon, you are making me dizzy. Flying into a rage because an embarrassing criticism shamed you is something a child would do. If you are an adult, show the wisdom to recognize a fault and correct it."
"You, who didn't so much as blink at the Windmill, have no business lecturing me! Seoha, let go!"
The Windmill? Whatever it was, I wasn't about to let this pass. Talking it through had left me wanting to see Hwayeon's womanliness for myself.
The only time she showed anything feminine was when she'd taken in plenty of me and gone shamelessly, dripping lewd. Which meant...
One side of the gymnasium held an equipment storeroom, and in it sat all kinds of athletic gear that had never once been used. A mattress was stored there too, still in its plastic. If it was there... Good. Decided.
I glanced at Hwayeon, face red, still protesting to Nuhodi, then snatched Ispect and Space Leaped straight back.
"Ah!"
"Darky. Pass."
"Ploong?!"
I flung Darky backward and tossed Ispect after it, and Hwayeon broke into a run toward the spear.
She'd read a threat in my eyes. But I hadn't been idling all this time either.
Matching the speed Aaron Tempest had shown me—the British A-Class Physical Reinforcement user—I drove Mana Sieve hard and triggered thought acceleration at the same time. Whether my reinforced body had caught up to the multiplier of that accelerated thought, the whole world slowed, and I alone moved fast.
I cut in front of Hwayeon as she ran in slow motion. Her eyes widened by degrees. She twisted, spinning like a whirlwind to slip past my side—
Too slow.
An overwhelming gap in body, speed, and perception isn't something technique can bridge.
Her back was to me. I came down on her from behind and seized her by the waist.
The firm abs under my hands tightened and went hard, as if they already feared what was about to happen.