Damp and Gloomy
Damp and Gloomy
"Hmph."
- Hmph, hmppph...
I talked Hong Yeon-hwa down just before she could haul me back to the treatment room and kick the door in, and we agreed I'd rest a little.
"One more, hmph."
- Sniff...
The rest room had a soft sofa and a bed.
Hong Yeon-hwa sat me on the bed, tore strips of tissue, and pressed them against my nose, carefully working loose the blood clotted in my nostrils.
There was a hint of embarrassment in her voice, but I didn't mind it at all, so I quietly held out my face.
"Really? You're really okay? You can't hide it if it hurts, got it?"
[Really]
[Really truly]
[I'm okay]
I nodded repeatedly.
I'd just pushed a little too hard and my strength had drained, that's all.
The Confession Necklace also proclaimed my innocence, but the worry hanging on Hong Yeon-hwa's expression refused to lift.
So did the concern flooding the touch that stroked my cheek.
Part of me thought she was being too overprotective, but strangely enough, being worried over like that felt good.
The way her worry-filled eyes fixed on me felt good, and the way she murmured anxious words while gently brushing my cheek felt good too...
'Ugh, so gloomy...'
Even by my own reckoning it was a pretty gloomy thought. It was almost enough to make me feel guilty toward Hong Yeon-hwa, who was worrying over me out of pure goodwill.
- Bzzzz...
Abruptly my head went foggy. It was different from the dizzy spell earlier. A very familiar feeling.
[Sleepy]
[Drowsy]
[Fluffy blankets]
I was sleepy. The prelims were over, and through the slackening threads of consciousness an irresistible drowsiness crept in.
'How many days have I been awake?'
I'd been up since the day before the midterm evaluation—that was nearly four days, wasn't it?
It hadn't been bad when I was just staring at written exams or clearing simple dungeons, but now that I'd fought hard during the prelims, sleepiness hit me like a wave...
'Really gotta sleep...'
A sense of danger suddenly loomed—that I might faceplant on the road and pass out without even realizing.
It wouldn't be a problem to fall asleep here, but if I was going to sleep anyway, I'd be better off doing it in the dorm.
More than anything, my first opponent in the main round wasn't great.
[Tournament Main Round Bracket (Group Ga)]
⑴ Lee Ha-yul │ Baek A-rin
'Baek A-rin.'
Of all people, my first opponent was Baek A-rin.
To be honest, I could guess the result, but this was a sparring match against Baek A-rin, who could already handle the Azure Sea at an advanced level even now.
There'd surely be things worth learning from the process... Should I be happy about that?
Anyway, given who I was up against, I needed to get my condition in order.
Let's go back to the dorm, take my medicine, and fall asleep fast.
With that thought, I tried to get up.
"...Ha-yul. If you're sleepy, you can sleep in."
I couldn't get up. Hearing the Necklace confess that I was sleepy, Hong Yeon-hwa blinked and then abruptly drew my head into her arms.
Squish... A soft, warm sensation pressed against my face.
Especially the warmth of her body that carried clearly through her clothes, sending my consciousness reeling.
[Sleepy]
[Soft]
[Warm]
[Dorm]
'Ah... I should sleep at the dorm...'
As I struggled to hang on to my last fraying thread of awareness, Hong Yeon-hwa brought her lips to my ear.
"It's okay. You can sleep here. I'm here, aren't I? Good boy..."
The quiet voice settling into my ear coaxed me to sleep.
The soft sensation against my face, and the warm body heat wrapping around me as I was held tight in her embrace, coaxed me just as earnestly.
- Slide...
'Hh.'
My body twitched with a start. A ticklish sensation on my stomach.
Wondering what it was, I turned my Observation that way—Hong Yeon-hwa had slipped a hand under my clothes and was rubbing my stomach.
'Wha, what...'
What is this. Why is her hand inside my clothes? I couldn't quite understand. As question marks floated in my head, Hong Yeon-hwa's hand moved.
- Slide, sliiide...
'Nnn, ahhhnngh...'
The soft palm rubbed my stomach, carrying warm heat into it. A cozy energy seeped into the hollow inside.
Soft, and warm. That energy didn't linger just in my stomach; it spread calmly through my whole body as if circulating.
At the sensation, like sinking into warm water, my mouth fell open and my breath came in short gasps.
"There we go. Good boy... Our Ha-yulie will sleep well, riiight?"
But it was comforting. It didn't feel unpleasant at all...
My consciousness, already on the verge of collapsing, felt like it was softly melting away.
'Hong Yeon-hwa says it's fine, right? It's warm. I like having my head stroked. It's all soft. The body heat is nice, and the gentle pats are nice. Being held, being worried over, being loved by someone—I like it all so, so much...'
My eyes were already shut.
And my body was already soaked in fatigue from one sparring match after another.
It couldn't be helped.
To the feeling of my back being patted and my stomach being rubbed, my awareness sank into sleep.
* * *
"...Ha-yul? Sleeping?"
Hong Yeon-hwa whispered near Lee Ha-yul's ear, her voice soft.
There was no response. He simply let out regular breathing, buried against her chest.
The gasping breaths he'd been making while his stomach was rubbed had eased into calm.
Hong Yeon-hwa's mouth twitched upward. Then she flinched in surprise and whipped her head from side to side, scanning the surroundings.
The rest facility with cots and other amenities installed.
Since many tournament matches were still underway, not a single cadet was using the facility.
After checking her surroundings, Hong Yeon-hwa subtly shifted Lee Ha-yul in her arms.
She patted his bottom to adjust his position and pulled his thighs a little higher.
Lee Ha-yul's form rose that much higher with it. His hair, giving off a heady body scent, came right up to the tip of her nose.
His scent always wafted from him strongly, but now, drenched with sweat, it was particularly thick.
"......."
Hong Yeon-hwa swallowed, then slipped a hand into the Subspace Pocket secured on her belt.
After rummaging for a moment, her fingers caught a cool glass bottle and pulled it out.
A glass bottle with a luxurious design, its contents as if it held a piece of the Milky Way.
A top-grade stamina recovery potion she'd set aside in advance.
It cost a fair bit, but the effect was certain.
Its only effect was stamina recovery, so there was no worry about the anti-doping test for the upcoming main round, either.
Usually, Hong Yeon-hwa would just press it into Lee Ha-yul's hand and leave it at that.
But every time she did, Lee Ha-yul refused, apologizing that he felt bad only ever receiving things, so she had no choice but to occasionally make him drink a bottle like this when she put him to sleep in her arms.
- Pop
When she pulled out the cork stopper, a refreshing fragrance, one that dug deep into the chest, spread around.
...Though even that fragrance was buried under Lee Ha-yul's own scent.
She held the recovery potion in one hand and tapped Lee Ha-yul's lips lightly with the other.
- Mmm...
At first his lips were sealed shut, as if wary of external contact, but as the careful tapping continued, they finally began to part little by little.
His mouth opened. It was an incredibly easy process. A few taps with her hand, and his small mouth opened like an automatic door.
Hong Yeon-hwa wore a strange expression.
'He seems a little too unguarded...'
The thought crossed her mind, but after mulling it over, that wasn't entirely the case.
Normally he gave off a harmless air, but she could still feel a kind of psychological barrier.
That barrier had just come down around only a few people.
And one of those people was Hong Yeon-hwa.
"......"
She tipped the glass bottle against his pinkish lips and tilted it.
- Gulp...
As she poured the medicine in a little at a time, Lee Ha-yul's eyelids fluttered and he swallowed it down, gulp by gulp.
Hong Yeon-hwa let out a sigh of relief. She'd deliberately brought a sweet flavor in case he spat it out.
The contents were soon emptied.
When she dropped the empty bottle, his parted lips closed back up.
- Puuuh
Then he let out one long breath, and went back to breathing evenly, burying his face back into Hong Yeon-hwa's embrace.
"...Mm."
Hong Yeon-hwa slipped her hand back under Lee Ha-yul's clothes and rubbed his stomach. And she didn't forget to transmit the warmth of the Calamity Flame while she was at it.
This wasn't just because she wanted to touch him; it was to harmonize the medicine's efficacy so it circulated well throughout his body.
Hong Yeon-hwa scanned her surroundings again. No one was there.
After confirming that, she buried her nose in the hair right before her eyes.
- Sniff sniff...
Her nose twitched, filling her nostrils with the scent carried in his hair.
'Wow.'
Her vision went dizzy.
A fragrance difficult to put into words filled her nose.
The scent she had felt so strongly in the Tower of Growth, the scent that sometimes brushed her nostrils and violently stoked her impulses.
A honey-sweet smell sweet enough to make her nose bend, and a fresh grass scent you'd only find in a forest full of life...
"Wow... Really, fuck..."
So intoxicated was she by that scent that even curse words she kept carefully suppressed in front of Lee Ha-yul burst out of Hong Yeon-hwa.
Then it happened.
[Hate swearing]
[Like Yeon-hwa]
Lee Ha-yul, who had been sound asleep, made a tearful face and shook his head from side to side.
As Hong Yeon-hwa flinched and jerked her head back, the Necklace rattled and spat out its voice.
Then silence again...
"...Ha-yul, did you wake up?"
Hong Yeon-hwa asked while patting his back. There was no response. His breathing steadied out again. Seemed like instinctive sleep-talking.
Hong Yeon-hwa's lips quivered.
She glanced at the ornament hanging around Lee Ha-yul's neck.
The Confession Necklace. An artifact gifted to him by Ellia.
To be honest, she was a little displeased by it.
The thought that she'd been looking into similar artifacts, that she could have been the one to gift it to him but had been beaten to the punch...
But when she listened to the inner thoughts Lee Ha-yul shyly tried to hide, she found it quite satisfying.
She recalled the words the Necklace had unconsciously spoken.
Hates swearing. But still likes Hong Yeon-hwa...
It was an absolutely adorable remark. So adorable she almost wondered if he was actually still awake right now, swishing his tail to try to seduce her.
'...This is Ha-yul's fault.'
Her impulses flared. The sticky Calamity Flame flickered.
It was a gloomy fantasy, fit to be kindling for the Calamity Flame.
But she didn't act on it.
She suppressed the filthy impulse and carefully stroked Lee Ha-yul's head.
Because she knew that acting on this fantasy was the worst possible move.
—Should I just settle an engagement on him?
She didn't need to go that far. She had a feeling that, without forcing anything, it would happen legally someday anyway.
When that happened, she'd be able to reasonably peel off the shameless scoundrel who'd beaten up a clueless kid and later showed up claiming to be his teacher, too.
If she just held out until then, behavior even wilder than this would legally... be something she could do to her heart's content.
"......"
Lee Ha-yul was so frail that he was a child someone needed to protect.
That's why she had to hold him tight in her arms and take care of him so he wouldn't go off somewhere and get hurt.
Hong Yeon-hwa thought so genuinely.
Wasn't he, even right now, sound asleep in her embrace?
It wasn't Hong Yeon-hwa's coercion—Lee Ha-yul wanted it too.
Lee Ha-yul also liked living cuddled in Hong Yeon-hwa's arms, liked eating up the things she fed him, liked being looked after.
So this behavior wasn't all that bad.
With that excuse, Hong Yeon-hwa once again buried her nose in Lee Ha-yul's hair—
- Thud
"!?"
At the sound of something dropping, she snapped her head up.
An open door. A plastic bag rolling across the floor, and a person's legs.
She realized her mistake. She'd been too distracted. It was because the thickening honey-sweet scent had made her unable to focus.
Hong Yeon-hwa's gaze rose. She met green eyes trembling as if an earthquake had struck.
Green eyes. Brown hair. Familiar features.
The pallid face and stammering lips were unfamiliar.
Lee Ji-yeon.
Current second-year at Siyoram, and the successor of the Taesan family.
Someone Hong Yeon-hwa had been close to as a child, back when they'd associated under the name of being children of the Three Great Families, and whom she'd comfortably addressed as her older sister, 'Ji-yeon.'
And this was a reunion with someone she'd had practically no contact with lately.
"......"
It was not a great reunion.
Lee Ji-yeon's mouth opened and closed. At her reaction, which clearly conveyed she had absolutely no idea what to say, Hong Yeon-hwa checked her own state.
...Holding the sweat-drenched, sleeping Lee Ha-yul in her arms, with a hand stuck under his clothes stroking his stomach, and her nose buried in his hair as she greedily drank in his scent...
"Uh... Sorry for interrupting."
"...Ji-yeon? Wait."
The stammering mouth spat out human language. The wandering, unfocused eyes squeezed shut, and then her body turned and distanced itself.
It was not a demand for an explanation.
It was flight.
"No, no! Hey! Wait just aaaa...!"
Hong Yeon-hwa's pitiful wail echoed through the rest facility.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Hong Yeon-hwa
●●●●●●●●○○(84▷85/100)
｢?｣ ｢Indebtedness｣ ｢Gratitude｣ ｢Warmth｣ ｢Guilt｣
...
Lee Ha-yul → Lee Ji-yeon
●●○○○○○○○○(21/100)
｢Successor of Taesan｣
...
[Conditions to lift ｢Curse of Silence｣ have not been met]
[Conditions to lift ｢Curse of Solitude｣ have not been met]