It's Only Right to Be Punished for Dereliction of Duty (2)
"...and that's how I managed to make it back."
Unpacking two days of ordeal didn't even take twenty minutes. Funny how short it all sounded out loud. Written down, I figured it would've filled three hundred and fifty-seven sheets of manuscript paper.
I finished the story and checked Mom and Dad's faces again. Still worried.
They'd listened calmly enough through the part about catching the zombie penguins, but the moment I mentioned swimming, their color drained. Dad suddenly fired off a few questions, and from then until the story ended, his expression never eased.
What had them so anxious? I'd hidden the filthy things I'd done with Franc, and I'd even softened the parts about clearing out aberrants, afraid Mom would be shocked.
Siha kept glancing at Dad, as if it bothered her too, and Franc's eyes drifted toward the two of them again and again.
This wasn't the reaction I'd been hoping for.
Deep down I'd wanted a little praise, but with Mom and Dad looking that grave, elbowing them for a compliment felt pretty shameless.
"...He must've saved a country in a past life. He keeps picking up ridiculous abilities."
As if she'd read my mind, Siha chimed in a beat late with something that could've been praise or an insult. Going by the flow, it had to be praise, right?
"Mm. I'd say that transcends saving a country. He must have saved the earth, at the very least."
"That much? Every ability he's picked up sits at the ceiling of its class, sure, but it's not like he can hog the whole field by himself, is it?"
"I think it's a combination that would pull its own weight on any team, and generate real synergy besides..."
"That's a low grade for a hero who saved the world. A hero ought to be a one-man raid team, at minimum."
"...I always think this, but Siha, your standards are far too high, and far too strict. The raid team you describe would rank among the world top twenty. If someone could manage that alone, they would no longer be human. A transcendent, or one who had broken past their limits. Even Jeral Packard, said to be the strongest of living humanity, is not on that level. In any case..."
This time it was Hwayeon's face that went grave. I ignored Siha, who was pouting, and looked at Hwayeon, who seemed to be turning something over.
"Your face just got serious out of nowhere. What's wrong?"
"I remembered the regional traits you described. There is a place where, for a certain period, it rains so heavily that an entire region floods into something like a lake. It is not widely known, but those who know it know it well."
"Really? Where is it?"
"I do not know where. All that is known is that it is a basin about half the size of Australia. And the reason it is famous is simple. An aberrant lives there that wiped out the largest raid team in the world."
"You mean the Archangel raid team? The incident that killed a huge number of people, three A-Class among them."
"Yes."
Franc's expression hardened in an instant.
"So that was the one."
"...What? What do you mean—don't tell me!"
Hwayeon's face all but screamed No, right? Tell me I'm wrong! I answered her anyway.
"Yeah, so I met that imoogi."
"What?!"
Yikes. So me meeting an imoogi really was that shocking a thing. Mm-hm.
The bombshell blew away even my parents' grave worry, and every one of them turned to stare at me, faces cranked all the way up to pure shock.
"The imoogi showed up right as the rain started pouring. Funny thing is, imoogi are supposed to leave you alone if you don't strike first. That one came at me anyway. I awakened Mana Sieve while it was baptizing me in lightning."
I'd cut out a lot in the middle, but that was the rough shape of it... Wait—?!
"Ah..."
"Dear!"
"Mom!"
Mom, whose color had been poor from the start, swayed as if a dizzy spell had taken her, and Siha and Dad rushed to catch her.
I flailed in a panic. Franc's eyes softened at the corners, and she murmured to herself.
"The shocks must have piled up until she fainted... She cannot have slept these two days for worry, and hearing that he met a Calamity-rank aberrant must have been the last of it."
Ack.
Dad scooped Mom up in a princess carry and carried her into the master bedroom. Siha grabbed the first-aid kit and followed him in.
Watching me flounder, Hwayeon sighed and shook her head.
A little later Siha came back empty-handed, sat down beside Hwayeon, closed her eyes, and pressed a hand to her chest. Her face was pale too—the look of someone who had just heard something bad for the heart.
I drew a glass of water in the kitchen and held it out to her.
"Drink."
"Th...ank you. ...Haaaaah..."
Siha took the cup carefully, drank about half, set it down, and sighed. That trembling breath made me wonder if I should have kept my mouth shut. If I'd known it would go like this, I wouldn't have said a word.
She drew a deep breath and asked in an unsteady voice.
"Right after you came back alive, your hair was curly. Was that why?"
"Yeah. I dropped off a waterfall about fifty meters high and swam something like twelve kilometers to get away, and the whole time the imoogi was dropping dozens of lightning bolts on me. That's why— Sis?!"
I caught her as she suddenly swayed. Hwayeon, startled, supported her and pressed fingers to the pulse at her wrist.
"She's had a bad shock. Let's lay her down."
"Ah—yeah!"
I laid Siha carefully on the sofa, fetched a cushion, and propped up her head. Hwayeon soaked a towel in cold water and laid it across her forehead.
Hwayeon watched her groan for a moment, then let out a small sigh and turned to me.
"Is it true?"
"It's true."
"You had not even told your family??"
"At first I didn't, because I thought they'd freak out. I figured it'd be fine to say it now, but..."
Click.
"...Why is Siha like this."
Dad came out of the master bedroom, saw Siha passed out on the sofa, and his eyebrow twitched.
"She collapsed after hearing that Seoha jumped from a fifty-meter waterfall and was baptized in lightning by an imoogi."
Ah. The eyebrow twitched again.
"Hoo."
Dad looked at Siha, still groaning, closed his eyes, opened them, and turned a serious face on me. That expression only came out when he had something grave or important to say.
Franc slipped into the master bedroom and came back out to tell me Mom was lying in bed, looking considerably better.
Seeing Mom and Siha collapse because of me left a rotten feeling in my chest.
"Son. There are a few things I need to confirm. May I ask?"
"Huh? Yeah. What?"
"Last Friday, you said it. That you had spent days on end doing nothing but swim, alone."
"...Yeah."
"And when you swam this time, you felt a mental fatigue so heavy that you yourself found it strange."
I nodded at his questions without a word.
After a few more, Dad looked me straight in the eye.
"I judge you to be showing the early symptoms of PTSD. If they worsen, you will be unable to swim. You will be unable even to be alone."
"Eh...?"
"Huh? PTSD means trauma, right?"
"Yes."
"...But I feel fine?"
"PTSD does not mean one is trapped in panic at all times. Yours, in particular, is on the mild side. When the symptoms are mild, it amounts only to anxiety, and a mounting fatigue of mind and body. Once it becomes severe, one reaches the panic and seizures so often shown in the media."
Beside us, Hwayeon was changing the damp towel on Siha's forehead. She asked,
"Uncle. When Seoha became an ability user, his mind gained resilience. Trauma... I do not understand."
"It stopped at this level precisely because he is an ability user."
At that short answer, Hwayeon shut her mouth.
"The boy is only eighteen. Before this, he had never killed a living thing. He had never even seen blood. He grew up like a hothouse flower under the overprotection of his mother and his sister. That same boy survived a brush with death in the Phase World. He leapt from a waterfall dozens of meters high, was attacked by an aberrant of the highest rank, and swam alone for dozens of hours across a sea with no end in sight, under a downpour that did not stop day or night. That it ended at this much is heaven's own fortune. That is what I mean."
"Did you see his manner while he was telling the story?"
My manner? Seeing Hwayeon's puzzlement, Dad went on.
"In every other part, there was nothing unnatural in his behavior. But at the passage where he swam for ten hours, a tremor entered his pupils. He scratched his head, moved his hands, showed signs of anxiety, as if he were restless. And in the parts where he especially stressed how exhausted he had been..."
Dad took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and sighed.
"As a physician, I have reached a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder."
"Is there a treatment?"
Hwayeon asked it with a stiff face. Dad stared straight at me.
"Whether he is dull or merely optimistic, fortunately the symptoms are slight. So the treatment will be playing in the water with people he likes, at a crowded pool or a beach."
"He must be made to accept, unconsciously, that water and swimming are not something to fear. And if not..."
"If not, before long he will be unable even to approach water. Ordinary association."
I'd thought something felt off. I never imagined it was trauma. I didn't know what to say. I was just scratching the back of my head when Dad continued.
"That boy has liked you since he was small. If you and Siha help him from his side, he will recover quickly. So I am asking you. When you have the time, will you help with his treatment?"
"Of course. Seoha is preci— ...important to me as well."
Listening to Dad, I understood why the symptoms had stayed light. I glanced aside. Franc was nodding with a clear, intent face, as if committing his prescription to memory.
There was only one reason my symptoms were mild. Franc had been beside me the whole time.
The instant she noticed my gaze and started to turn, I whipped my head around to look at Dad. Our eyes met, and he charged me with this.
"End this talk here, so your mother worries no further. If you need allowance, or anything else, say so yourself."
"Got it."
"From now on, never go near the water alone. And until you are fully healed, you are not to enter the Phase World. Least of all that."
"I won't."
"Ah. There is something I must say regarding the Phase World. Seoha, you listen as well."
Hwayeon said it while changing the damp towel on the forehead of Siha, who still hadn't come around and was groaning.
"Seoha's entry into the Phase World constitutes two violations of the law."
"Hm. Violation of the designated site, and violation of the age restriction."
"Yes. But there is much to consider. To appeal those points, I borrowed my station and my mother's name and sent a proposal and letter of protest to the headquarters of the World Phase Ability User Association. If that fails, I intend to bring a complaint before the IWO as well."
As she spoke, Hwayeon's expression grew steadily more vicious.
"If we strongly assert that the officers in charge, Kang Woohyuk and Choi Soohan—gnash—were negligent in delivering the essential knowledge a returnee must possess, and prove that this entry was force majeure, I believe it will be a crucial factor in resolving the situation."
Somewhere in the middle I heard a terrible sound, as if she were grinding her teeth. Red flames seemed to be leaping from her eyes.
"...Is that true?"
Dad asked, so I nodded honestly.
"Uh, yeah. They first showed up on the ninth day after I was hospitalized, and all they did was hand over a Certifier, a certificate, and two forms, then leave. After that, the only contact was a brief call with Deputy Chief Kang Woohyuk during the Yongmunsan incident, and running into Choi Soohan at Iljasan."
"So I mean to use this chance to smash— ...set things right, so they can no longer interfere where Seoha is concerned."
"You're going to smash them?!"
"No! The mistakes were Deputy Chief Kang Woohyuk's and Choi Soohan's—gnnsh—so we request sanctions against those two, and drag the Ability User Association in as well, so they cannot meddle with you."
"I see. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No. Uncle, Auntie, please remain as you are. Time River will take this on in full. Mother is already moving. She has ties among the senior ranks of the Association's Korean branch, so she will be of great help."
That lady and Hwayeon, stepping in personally? Team Leader Chae Hoon came to mind, and I felt sorry for whoever ended up facing her.
Rest in peace.
"What is that face, as if this has nothing to do with you. You are coming with me to Time River tomorrow morning as well."
"Huh?"
"...You are the party involved. We must build testimony that you received no notice and no instruction from Deputy Chief Kang Woohyuk or Choi Soohan, gather evidence that it was force majeure, and prepare a defense."
"Ah... Yeah."
"You need not do anything else. Give your testimony, and Time River's legal team and the government's Ability Affairs bureau will handle the rest."
"Got it. Tomorrow's Saturday, right? When do we leave?"
"Uncle. May I stay the night?"
"Do that."
Having gotten Dad's easy permission, Hwayeon nodded.
"Let's head out together in the morning."
I scratched my head and checked the clock. It was already nearly midnight. Time for me to sleep too.
...After I soothed Franc a little.
Having heard Dad's diagnosis—that I was on the verge of PTSD—Franc had gone pale, as if the whole of it were her fault.
Ridiculous. I couldn't see how any of it was Franc's fault. If anyone was to blame, it was me, for making that choice.
"Son."
"Yeah?"
"Do not worry your mother too much. She is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Your sister has not said so, but she is showing signs of anxiety as well."
"Ugh. I'll be careful."
Thinking it was because of me, a stuffy frustration welled up. I let out a small sigh and lifted Siha, who still hadn't come to.
"Nn... huh?"
"You're awake. You okay?"
I picked her up in a princess carry. Her eyebrows fluttered, and she nodded weakly.
"...Yeah. I'm fine..."
"You don't look fine at all. Hwayeon, get the door. Dad, we're going to bed too. You should sleep."
"Right. Sleep."
I laid Siha on the bed in her room, and she was asleep almost at once. Hwayeon followed me in and turned her this way and that to undress her, and she still didn't wake.
Wiping her down with the damp towel she'd brought, Hwayeon glared at me.
"Why haven't you left?"
"When she wakes up tomorrow, tell her to wash, yeah?"
"One cannot sleep deeply without washing. Get out. Even family has things they may see, and things they may not."
She lifted the wet towel as if she meant to throw it. I bolted.
Nngh.
I checked on Mom in the master bedroom. Dad was undressing her too. Whether she had fallen asleep straight out of the faint, her face was peaceful, her breathing even.
I went back to my room, took Franc's hand, sat her on my lap, and looked quietly into her face.
"Me having PTSD isn't your fault, Franc. It's the result of a choice I made. Even now, if I went back to that moment, I'd do the same thing over and over. So don't feel guilty. For treatment, all you have to do is stay beside me and hold me warm."
"...Yes!"
Franc shed a few tears, wrapped her arms around my neck, and stroked my head.
I focused Mana Sieve on the places where our bodies touched. The blue light deepened, and I could feel the warmth of her embrace.
I changed into pajamas, lay on the bed, and watched Franc floating in the air, and worries about tomorrow drifted through my head in every shape. Then the word health surfaced, and at once I swept Mom, Dad, and Siha from the inside out with Spatial Perception.
My baseline was Hwayeon. A physical reinforcement ability user would be absurdly healthy.
I took my time and scanned the family from the crowns of their heads to the tips of their toes. No sign of illness. I relaxed. Dad looked after their health so diligently that it was only natural.
...But was my dick being this big not genetic? Maybe I'd inherited it from my mother's side.
"Franc."
I reached out, and she came into my arms with a small smile.
Holding her, I wondered what Hwayeon was doing and looked into the next room. She had dressed Siha in pajamas and was changing her own clothes.
She undid a white tie, stripped off a black dress shirt and black cotton trousers, and stood there in her underwear. Honestly, she wouldn't lose to a retouched photo of a famous lingerie model. If anything, she crushed them.
The bra was a white halter. The panties were a low-rise thong. A tiny scrap of cloth covered Hwayeon's petals, and the strings bit faintly into the flesh of her hips and ass. It was extremely, extremely erotic.
Online, you see plenty of underwear that doesn't fit and looks awkward. Hwayeon's looked made to her measurements, clinging so perfectly it only made her body stand out more.
I took my time looking over her in nothing but that underwear, and decided I had to retract the claim that she fell short of Franc.
Franc's figure was, quite literally, the kind that looked soft and beautiful and made you want to touch it. Hwayeon's was sensual and beautiful, bewitching enough that you wanted to put your hands on it.
Neither was superior. Both were beautiful bodies, each with a charm of its own.
To only realize it now. A woman's body is simply beautiful, and here I'd been judging who was right and who was wrong. How stupid was I.
Anyway, Hwayeon pulled out Siha's black pajamas with the teddy-bear print and put them on. No. She tried, and gave up.
Her chest was too big. The front buttons wouldn't close. She was also about five centimeters taller than Siha, so her wrists and ankles stuck out past the cuffs.
I almost felt sorry for Siha.
With a look that said there was nothing to be done, Hwayeon fastened only the buttons around her stomach and lay down beside her with her chest left bare.
The pajamas pushed her breasts together, and against the black fabric the white underwear only emphasized those huge tits. Too lewd.
If I slid the door open right now and walked in, how would Hwayeon react?
I was curious. I only had one life, so I decided not to test it.
I cut off Spatial Perception, buried my face between Franc's breasts, and felt her stroking my head. Like that, I slowly gave myself over to sleep.
Morning sunlight poured onto my face, and my mind snapped clear all at once, as if consciousness were surfacing from underwater.
The clock said 6:30.
I'd only slept about five hours, but I felt as clear as if I'd slept ten. Beside me, Franc was fast asleep with my arm for a pillow.
Was Hwayeon sleeping all right?
The moment I looked into the next room with Spatial Perception, I almost cheered and swallowed it for dear life. She must have felt stifled in her sleep, because she'd undone her bra, and those snow-white breasts had spilled out of the pajamas as if showing off their majesty.
Siha had her face buried in that oversized chest, dead to the world. A pink nipple had risen up beside her cheek. Gulp.
I was jealous.
It was morning anyway, so Junior was already standing at attention, and seeing that, I couldn't hold it. What I'd experienced yesterday made it worse. The desire to do it one more time surged up hard.
Hwayeon, fast asleep with her breasts defenselessly bare, and those small, pretty lips, and my—
Aagh! No! Don't think about it! Add experience on top of imagination and I wouldn't be able to handle it!
I smacked my head with one hand to drive off the lust demon, and the instant I adjusted the cannon in my pants, Franc stirred and woke.
I'd forgotten there was a bomb right beside me.
A naked beauty curled up like a cat, and my heart started heating up without a brake.
I couldn't take it. I shot up and charged for the kitchen.
I grabbed a one-liter bottle of water from the fridge to cool my burning chest and chugged it. Only then did the heat inside seem to ease a little.
"Hoo... Dangerous. Dangerous."
Let my guard down and it'd be a major disaster. Careful. Seriously, careful.
I finished the water and stepped into the living room, and right on cue Franc came out of the room rubbing her eyes, greeting me with a sleepy smile.
"Seoha. Did you sleep well?"
"Huh? Yeah. Did you sleep well too, Franc?"
Kkh. I couldn't look at her straight. An angelic beauty offering a naked morning greeting—my mood felt like it could take flight, but it was dangerous in all sorts of ways. My social standing, in all sorts of ways.
Scratching the back of my head, I sat on the sofa and turned on the TV. The news came on, and Franc's attention drifted toward it.
Relieved, I gave the master bedroom a quick scan, confirmed it was safe, and checked on Mom. I'd been a little worried after she fainted yesterday, but Dad must have handled it well. She seemed all right now.
After watching the news for a bit, Franc turned to me with a meaningful look.
"Today is the day those people are punished."
Those people? Ah. Deputy Chief Kang Woohyuk and Choi Soohan.
"I... think I'll just watch quietly from behind while the adults fight. I thought about it, but if I step in, I'll only come off as arrogant."
"You have thought well. This affair is likely to become a contest of influence. Should Seoha, not yet of age, insert himself into such a fight, the problem will only grow more tangled."
"A power struggle, huh..."
"Miss Yoo Hwayeon appears capable. It ought to be enough to leave the matter in her hands."
Click.
Then came the sound of the door, and Hwayeon walked into the living room, face blank with sleep.
"Hwayeon, did you sleep we—?!"
"Ah!"
"Yes... Good morning..."
Bare white breasts. Pink areolae. Nipples standing stiff. God.
"Why are you... hht?!"
I was staring, mind blank, at those magnificent breasts glittering in the morning sun when Hwayeon followed my gaze, looked down, flushed crimson, covered her chest with both hands, and fled back into the room.
Those two snow-white moons, laid bare before my eyes, felt branded onto my retinas.
"...Hmph."
Ah. Franc seemed a little sulky. I laughed awkwardly at her pout and the little hmphs.
"Th-this was force majeure, okay? I never dreamed she'd come out looking like that."
"I did not say anything!"
"Ahaha."
I laughed, sheepish, and without meaning to I was comparing Franc's breasts to Hwayeon's when I heard her mutter in a dissatisfied voice.
"...I could... give you... now, as well..."
"Hm? Sorry, I didn't catch that. What'd you say?"
"Eh?! Ah, it is nothing!"
She startled and waved both hands wildly. I stared, puzzled, and she hid behind the sofa as if embarrassed, covering her naked body.
"...?"
I had no idea what was going on. I could tell she was extremely embarrassed.
Then Hwayeon came out again. She'd put the bra she'd flung off back on, and forced the front buttons of the pajamas closed as best she could.
"...Ahem."
Red-faced, she wouldn't meet my eyes. She went into the kitchen, drank some water, and issued an order in a voice cold as ice.
"Forget it."
"Forget what?"
"What you just saw!"
"Ah."
As if I could forget something like that. The first living woman's breasts I'd ever seen with my own eyes.
"Kkh!"
Ah. Had my thoughts shown in my eyes? Watching her, red as a tomato and trembling all over, I swallowed hard. She wouldn't actually hit me, would she?
But seeing her that embarrassed, the urge to tease her sprouted up lush and strong.
"If it hadn't been me, you'd be a murderer."
"...What are you saying."
"If it'd been anyone else, they'd have died of a heart attack seeing those white breasts of yours."
I could've sworn I heard a boom. Not just her face—her ears and her neck had gone scarlet too. Huh? Tears?
"Nnh...!"
She set the cup down like she was throwing it, ducked her head, and fled back into Siha's room. Watching that, Franc spoke with a note of reproach.
"Seoha is spiteful."
"I-is that so?"
"A maiden of twenty-one who bares her naked breasts to a man outside the family and feels no shame is a harlot, and no one else. And you are at fault as well, Seoha. She was already ashamed, and you teased her so. That is no act for a gentleman!"
"Ugh, sorry... I should apologize later."
"Do not do it at once. An apology without tact would only make Miss Hwayeon pitiful. When I give you the signal, apologize then."
"Yeah, I will."
If it hadn't been for Franc, I would've made Hwayeon explode before long.