I Haven't Fallen for Hypnosis Yet? (Episode 52)
Since my usual bright, sunny smile had vanished completely, replaced by a face brimming with anger that turned her into a fierce, wild beast ready to pounce at any second, I had no choice but to follow the direction she led without a single word of protest.
“We said we’re not some kind of… establishment like that! Why are you constantly harassing us like this? I don’t know what’s going on! You’re not walking around half-naked like the other saintesses to lure in patients, are you? And judging by the building itself, anyone with eyes can tell! If only you had any sense, you wouldn’t compare us to those decadent brothels that hang out red lanterns outside and seduce customers! Right? Right?”
“…”
“Answer me.”
“Ah… was I allowed to speak?”
Looks like I was right to expect something like this.
This saintess—right now she was absolutely seething with fury over the crackdown operations sweeping through the entire Saintess Village.
I had no idea how long it had been going on, but the cheerful or sly smiles she always wore so proudly were nowhere to be seen. Instead, she prowled the surroundings like a furious lioness that could snap anyone in half at any moment, sniffing the air with heavy, coarse breaths.
“Why are you looking around so much…”
“I can’t tell when those snitches will pop out of nowhere! Just a little while ago, they were trying to sneak in through the windows!”
“Whoa…”
I never thought the word “snitch” would come out of Nemea-san’s mouth.
She must have been through quite the ordeal.
“What about Leo?”
“Unnie’s resting. Just like the other staff, she’s been on guard day and night because of those snitches barging in at all hours… probably sleeping right now?”
“Ah…”
So that’s why Nemea-san had come out herself.
No matter how tough Leo was, she was still a living person who needed to eat and rest properly.
Since that dungeon incident last time, some of the misunderstandings about her being a fierce lioness had cleared up. I couldn’t hide my relief, but I had no choice but to watch Nemea-san drag me somewhere deeper with the same stubborn determination.
“Hey, this isn’t the way to the treatment room.”
“Stay quiet! Don’t raise your voice!”
“?”
I wonder if she’s really just playing with fire.
If this really was a clean, legitimate clinic, the enforcement squad would have left long ago after being harassed too much. The fact that Nemea-san was this worked up over herding me here meant there had to be a good reason.
She kept scanning the surroundings with such suspicion that I looked at her curiously. Nemea-san growled, then snapped, “Stay quiet. If you want to be eaten, at least stay still until then.”
“Huh?”
“I’m going to eat you anyway, but I want you to stay quiet until then! Why do you keep provoking me like this?!”
“Huh?!”
What the hell did I just hear?
My eyes widened in shock at what I’d heard just a few hours earlier—back when I’d been standing right in front of those perverted knights and beastkin rookies, doing exactly that and growing used to their random dirty talk.
“This is a crackdown, sure, but we have to eat before Unnie notices! Even though it’s a drag having Unnie catch us, if it’s the only way to make up for the gap between us until then, we can’t let this chance slip by…!”
“You’re doing this right in front of the other party… But why did you bring me here?”
Still flustered, I was led by Nemea-san’s grip straight into a corner of the clinic.
She dragged me all the way to a spot so isolated that it was far from the treatment rooms and even hidden from the other staff. She scanned the area a few more times, then finally let out a small smile, as if relieved.
The same bright, sunny smile she always wore.
But I naturally took a step back.
“Where are you going?”
“Huh? Ah… no, that’s… well, I came for treatment, you see.”
She’s enjoying this—she’s pinned the prey in the corner and is getting ready to taste her catch…!
Nemea-san gripped my wrist even tighter, refusing to let me escape.
Of course, I was being serious about wanting treatment, so I tried to keep a strict, dignified expression on my face and maybe throw out a retort, but unlike the way she had been eyeing me like she was about to pounce at any second, her eyes now held a strangely serious look as she stared at my arms.
“Come to think of it, I forgot. I do need to treat you, don’t I? I’m sorry. Did it hurt?”
“It’s more like I got a little restless from being held. You can keep your hand on me, though.”
“Hehe… i-is this a signal telling me to eat you?!”
“…”
Even while saying such ridiculous things, Nemea-san inspected my arm with the grace of a true saintess.
But my eyes weren’t fixed on her in the same way. They were looking somewhere else.
What’s this picture?
My gaze had landed on the wall right in front of me.
Even though it was in a dark, remote corner far from the treatment rooms and the staff, it had a framed picture hanging there that didn’t belong at all.
It was a landscape painting that looked so peaceful it would calm both eyes and mind—just the kind of thing you’d find in any other part of the clinic. But here, in this isolated spot?
“Hehe, are you curious? Why is this picture here?!”
“L-l-leave my butt alone first.”
Before I could even finish my suspicious gaze, Nemea-san noticed it right away. She gave a sly grin, wrapped her arm around my rear, and reached out to the frame as if it were a joystick, shaking it left and right.
“Up-up, down-down, left-right, left-right… and finally, AB.”
“That pattern feels familiar.”
Click—!
When she pressed the screw at the bottom marked A and B one last time, a locking mechanism clicked open from somewhere.
While I flinched at the thick iron door that sounded like it belonged in a bank vault, Nemea-san—clearly used to this—grinned wickedly and placed her hand on the wall.
“Hehe, actually, this is a secret wall! It only opens if you use the special pattern on the frame!”
“I see… But why is it here?”
Nemea-san pushed aside the wall that had turned into a revolving door and pulled me into the secret space beyond.
She said she wasn’t some kind of… establishment like that!
Anyone could tell this hidden space was built to dodge the eyes of the crackdown squad, a heavily intended secret wall meant to conceal something I really didn’t want anyone to see. Yet I couldn’t help but think that in my heart.
But Nemea-san, as if she’d predicted my reaction, gave me a saintess-like but utterly vulgar smile and said, “Why is it here? I’ve been to the Saintess Village several times already and you’re asking such innocent questions… ♡”
“I never came here for that kind of purpose!”
“Hehe, what kind of purpose? I wonder what that could be. As a pure saintess, I don’t know, but… whoa ♡”
She kept groping my crotch without hiding anything, then playfully slapped my butt one more time before locking the secret wall again.
“I know what you’re trying to say, but this is really a dormitory, you know.”
“Dormitory? The atmosphere screams that this place is exactly like that establishment!”
“Huh? Does something feel off?”
Even though only a single wall separated us, the clinic around us felt bright and positive, while the corridor ahead was bathed in eerie red lights that created a thoroughly decadent mood. It looked like any moment a succubus could pop out. I sensed that not only had Nemea-san’s hidden space been stacked up before, but she had taken extra care this time.
“The interior decoration has nothing to do with misunderstandings! This is strictly the saintesses’ dormitory!”
“Huh?”
“If I could, I’d use the bright lights like the treatment room, but if it’s too bright, the necessary secrecy of a secret space might be compromised… ♡”
She did have a point. Since they were protecting themselves from fanatical outsiders by hiring bodyguards, hiding in a secret space to keep their personal safety made sense. But she could at least try to hide her emotions a little in her eyes.
Her playful, lust-filled gaze directed straight at me was eroding my trust.
When I looked down at her sternly and told her to tell the truth, Nemea-san let out a small sigh as if she had given in, then raised her hand to her hips and shouted at me with an aggrieved expression.
“This really is the dormitory! Um… of course, it’s not like a house, but it’s a place to use during on-call shifts, and besides the times when saintesses who accidentally met patients would bring them in to share love, it’s strictly a dormitory! Ah, and by the way, I’m Ice Man-san’s one and only, so the patient I dragged in here… well, you know, right? Hehe ♡”
“That’s exactly an establishment like that!! What kind of perverted saintess is saying something so cute?!”
In the end, I couldn’t hold back and tackled her.