Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Blind Date (4)
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The office was permeated only by the chilling glares of the two women.
With Si-heon absent from the room, Byul sat with the corner of her mouth raised, facing off against Se-young.
"Hey."
"Yeah."
Byul touched her lips to the bitterly black espresso after addressing her, saying nothing more. Se-young, her friend, knew full well that Byul—who usually stuck to fruit juice—was acting different today.
No deep thought was needed; even a rough guess gave the obvious answer. She'd found out about the relationship between Se-young and Si-heon.
"You know you crossed the line, right?"
A single icy remark, cold as a midwinter cold front.
"Se-young-jang. I came here seriously thinking we'd date for real, you know? Be honest. Si-heon already told me everything."
Bullshit. Se-young dismissed it inwardly.
Si-heon probably hadn't spilled everything. No doubt he'd vaguely excused it as unavoidable, assuaging his guilt in that roundabout way.
In Se-young's mind, the image of Si-heon with Byul floated up vividly, as if she'd witnessed it firsthand.
"But does the girl who didn't resist and enjoyed every bit of it have any room to talk?"
"Si-heon didn't do anything wrong? It's all because of your wicked ass. I had no idea you had those kinds of sexual hang-ups. Vanilla or whatever, right?"
"Sexual hang-ups my ass. I told you to quit with those comics of yours. Just thinking about you two sleeping together turns my stomach... You really have no clue, do you?"
Some people got thrilled at the idea of stealing a lover, but Byul's guess was pure nonsense.
Byul tilted her eyebrow, clearly irked by Se-young's words.
"What is it already? I'm the raid leader for game tonight, so I gotta head out early. Spit it out."
"Gaming slut... Fine, fuck it. You need to know anyway."
After lightly cursing Byul, Se-young pulled a thick stack of filed documents from her handbag and shoved them at her.
"What's this?"
"Everything on the bastards targeting Si-heon right now, all compiled."
"Targeting Si-heon? Well, there was all that kidnapping fuss last time... I held off saying anything in front of him so he wouldn't worry. But why?"
Se-young furrowed her brow and let out a sigh. Seeing the torment on her face, Byul stiffened her own expression.
"They're husbands of World Trees."
"Huh?"
Byul had shown an oddly obsessive attachment to Lee Si-heon, so this was something that had to come out eventually.
Se-young began her story slowly.
They bickered constantly, but as longtime friends, she figured Byul would understand.
Bluntly, she confessed that she'd been raped. She didn't forget to mention it was part of Lee Si-heon's quest.
Being Se-young's account, it was naturally laced with her subjective take and biases—but Byul wasn't the type to miss that.
"...Hmm."
Byul's face turned grave.
Rape. Quest or not, the weight of that word wasn't something to take lightly.
She'd planned to hash it out and demand a concubine spot, but she hadn't expected to uncover her friend's bizarre sexual quirks too. With those thoughts, Byul finally voiced the question that had nagged her the whole time.
"Not my place to say or anything. But why do you like Si-heon?"
"Everything about him."
Se-young answered without a second's hesitation.
"Why need a reason?"
She'd fallen hard. She didn't know exactly when she'd realized it.
Definitely not during the rape. No matter her tastes, Lee Se-young wasn't the type to get hooked on sex from that.
Her mental fortitude was ironclad enough to endure any torture.
It was simply this.
Si-heon had been the first to pierce her stern facade.
Their first encounter, one where mutual guilt could arise. A relationship of sworn enemies.
Se-young had never had much in the way of male relationships to begin with, so it was fair to say Si-heon was the first man to form a connection with her.
Even if that connection had started off negative.
It hadn't taken long for it to flip.
Couldn't deny the raw chemistry.
For some inexplicable reason, their bodies synced perfectly—just a touch, and she'd feel it all.
"Where's the part worth falling for?"
Se-young shrugged at Byul's question. There was plenty she could say.
The charm of looking after his bumbling, helpless side.
The shared guilt from those unavoidable misdeeds. The secret only they two held.
His sucker tendencies, throwing himself into danger to save others.
But the real trigger that made her like him even more was this certainty:
If she were ever in danger, he'd come running no matter what.
The trust that certainty bred. The shared wavelength, the romance straight out of a fairy tale.
Only Se-young—who best understood Si-heon's ugly side and the affection he held for others—could give that answer.
It was far too intricate and profound for outsiders to grasp; even she, the person involved, struggled to explain it properly.
No matter how much others pried and called it weird, Se-young could only vaguely sum it up: despite being raped, she'd come to understand his true character afterward.
What Si-heon and Se-young shared wasn't anything so simplistic.
Their thoughts overlapped. Their hearts aligned. Something deeper. A red thread binding the two.
Perhaps it was fate ordained by a World Tree.
...Even if that World Tree was the enemy now.
"If that bastard wasn't so damn handsome, you never would've slept with him, right?"
"What the hell kind of talk is that?"
"Ah, fuck, then I'd have him all to myself. Maybe stuff him silly and fatten him up? A chubby him would be cute too."
She sometimes fantasized about living alone with him.
Wearing a bitter smile that wouldn't fade, Se-young shoved the dreamy vision from her mind and spoke to Byul.
"Anyway. You like him?"
"......"
"Can't forget him, huh?"
Byul, too, hadn't been able to shake the lingering taste of her first man.
Seeing Byul's face flush pink, Se-young continued in disbelief.
"Then hear me out."
Se-young and Si-heon shared a bond beyond words.
She pulled out her phone from her pocket and sent a message to a man saved in a separate contacts list.
*****
KakaoTalk!
-Savior: Handled.
I stared at the screen in my hand, my head spinning from the hangover.
What couldn't this woman do? A chuckle escaped me, but now wasn't the time for a reply.
[Spirit Augmenter]
The pack drink sitting by my head. Reward for completing this sub quest.
I had no idea how or why, but the system said the quest was cleared.
Even though I hadn't hooked up with three people.
The implication was crystal clear.
"Tell me."
"Tell you what?"
Cheon-do, lounging on the sofa and happily spooning some mystery pudding she'd gotten who-knows-where, gave me a deadpan look.
"Which of you raped me?"
Cheon-do blinked, looking utterly clueless.
"Who raped who?"
"One of you masters. Me."
"What?"
Cheon-do set down her pudding. For the almighty Cheon-do to abandon sweets—shocking.
Her face turned serious as she closed her eyes for a long moment before sighing deeply.
"No clue. You sure it happened?"
"Dead certain. Quest required sex with three people. Only did two."
"I don't care about your sex life. Mission accomplished, so isn't that the end of it?"
Fair point, but something still nagged at me.
If you're gonna do it, at least do it when I'm awake... Sneaky thoughts like that crept in.
I'd checked the Tree Encyclopedia too—intercourse while unconscious didn't count; it hadn't updated.
"For now... Can you call Sister?"
"......I wanna eat pudding."
"Finish that first."
Cheon-do plopped back on the sofa, savoring her pudding with a grin before polishing it off and shifting forms.
"Ung... Dong-sang? Hehe, Dong-saaang!"
The yellow-haired version of her beamed innocently, stretching both arms over my shoulders. I grabbed them and stared into her eyes.
"Don't dodge. Look at me."
"Dong-sang? What's up?"
"Didn't hear earlier?"
"......Was asleep. Missed it."
Hwang-do wore guilt on her sleeve if she had any. But her face showed nothing.
If anything, she seemed thrilled to wake up and hug me, looking every bit innocent.
Baek-do? No way that guy's the type.
"Sister. You didn't pounce on me last night, did you?"
"Huk! Can I pounce?"
"No jokes."
"Puhuhu, busted? But I was wiped out yesterday taking care of our Shiba."
Who the hell was it? My mind was a mess.
"Can I hug now?"
"Yeah, go ahead. Hug away."
"Dong-saaang~"
Walak.
Hwang-do flopped into a hug and stroked my head vigorously.
"My Dong-sang~ Curly hair~ Naughty boy my Dong-sang~♪"
I'd pegged Hwang-do as the most likely suspect, but apparently not.
After letting her play with my hair for a good while, I switched voices and asked her to summon another.
"Call Baek-do, please."
"Wanna stay with Dong-sang."
"Sister, later we can grab each other and go out somewhere."
"Huk, got it. Calling now."
-Pong.
Baek-do materialized and shoved me away from the hug with all her might, brushing off her chest in disgust.
"...What the fuck?"
"I figured no way, but just to be sure. You didn't pounce last night, right?"
"Fuck, why the hell would I pounce on you? Gives me the creeps just thinking about it. Cut the ridiculous bullshit."
The ridiculous one was me, the victim—why were the perps flipping out?
Then again, I couldn't say shit since I'd pulled the same on Lee Se-young.
"Got proof?"
"My quest—"
"Heard about it. But couldn't a World Tree have tweaked the quest details?"
...Could be.
I propped my chin, pondered long and hard, then scratched my head furiously and got out of bed.
"Ah, seriously? Driving me nuts."
"What about you would I even want?"
"Haa... Wanna eat? Making shrimp fried rice."
"Shrimp fried rice. Love it."
The World Tree wanted me dead; no way it'd suddenly tweak a quest.
But straight-up asking if the peach sisters raped me... that was weird in its own right.
"Piiing..."
Shiba, in her chick pajamas, woke up rubbing her eyes and looking for me.
I scooped her up on the bed, and she happily drifted back to sleep in my arms.
Seeing her cute face melted away my pent-up frustration.
"Our daughter's up?"
"Peep! Peep."
I patted her back and headed to the fridge to prep breakfast.
Ingredients Hwang-do had bought were still stocked.
I opened the fridge door, grabbed frozen shrimp, and was reaching for rice in the canister when—
"?"
I spotted something out of place in the nearby trash can.
A large seed. Pulp clinging nearby.
Bite marks clear as day. I frowned and fished it out.
"Hey, Master."
"Need a hand?"
"Nah, but... did you buy any peaches on the way here?"
"No."
A peach seed.
I cocked my head and tossed it back in the trash.
What the hell.
One baffling thing after another since morning.