Certified by a Unicorn... (1)
Certified by a Unicorn... (1)
"S-so he liked rice cakes..."
On the way back to the dorm from the study room.
Hong Yeon-hwa, trudging along the twilight-dyed path, muttered vacantly.
The scene she'd witnessed in the study room just moments ago...
Baek A-rin casually offering rice cakes to Lee Ha-yul, and Lee Ha-yul, just as matter-of-factly, accepting them as if it were an utterly familiar routine...
The shock of that unexpected sight still lingered.
[?]
Having heard Hong Yeon-hwa's murmur, Lee Ha-yul tilted his head.
Lately... ever since Baek A-rin had shared her rice cakes after the tournament, he'd taken a liking to the texture and occasionally snacked on them.
Before that, he'd never even considered finding something worth eating, but having something chewy to hold, bite, and suck on brought him a strange sense of mental and physical calm.
He'd tried gum too... but he couldn't swallow it, so that was no good. So, very occasionally, he'd just buy rice cakes.
Drifting through the air in flight, Lee Ha-yul sidled up to Hong Yeon-hwa. He then leaned in and brought his lips close to her ear.
A sweet, honeyed scent suddenly drew near. Then, a dizzying breath pressed against her ear.
"Lately... I've been eating them, little by little..."
"Ah, a-ah... I see..."
The careful, quiet voice that followed tickled her ear, and Hong Yeon-hwa's body trembled involuntarily.
A moment later, Lee Ha-yul pulled back. His body scent and warm breath receded as well. Hong Yeon-hwa, feeling a pang of regret, subtly turned her head.
Even now, Lee Ha-yul was floating in midair.
The green wind supporting his body caught Hong Yeon-hwa's eye.
Rather than normal vision, it was a shape perceived flickeringly through mana detection.
It was flight via spirit arts, not magic. Though Hong Yeon-hwa had no talent for either magic or spirit arts, she could recognize the technique.
'Sigh...'
If she had her way, she'd scoop him up and carry him in her arms, but she couldn't force that on Lee Ha-yul when he insisted on doing this outside specifically to practice flying.
...Of course, knowing Lee Ha-yul's personality, he'd submit obediently even if she forced the issue, but she shouldn't resort to such coercive behavior.
"Ah... so ever since A-rin gave you some...?"
Hong Yeon-hwa's expression soured as she took in the circumstances.
After studying the floating Lee Ha-yul with a complicated look, Hong Yeon-hwa turned her head to stare at Baek A-rin.
"Hm?"
Baek A-rin tilted her head and pointed a finger at herself.
At that utterly innocent—no, pretending-to-be-innocent—infuriating display, Hong Yeon-hwa's face crumpled.
Baek A-rin blinked.
"What's with that face? If you suddenly glare at me like that, my delicate feelings get hurt, you know?"
"Tsk..."
Hong Yeon-hwa clicked her tongue openly. Even her way of speaking was pure provocation.
Baek A-rin's eyes widened as if deeply wounded, and she covered her mouth with both hands.
"Wha-wha-wha-what? The person who couldn't even figure out Ha-yul's food preferences is clicking her tongue at me... Aagh! Put the fist away. Ha-yul is right next to us."
"You son of..."
Her fist, mid-swing toward the air, stopped abruptly. Hong Yeon-hwa's fist trembled, overcome with rage.
Hong Yeon-hwa mentally chanted the mantra for patience and slowly lowered her fist.
Then, just in case, she glanced toward Lee Ha-yul, gauging his reaction.
'That...'
...Lee Ha-yul was already chatting idly with Ellia.
Seeing him drift around near Ellia with a thoroughly relaxed expression only roiled Hong Yeon-hwa's already troubled heart further.
'Ellia Srade.'
A fellow cadet from the Ipchun Class whom she'd met at the start of the semester and gotten close to.
Since their personalities had compatible points, they'd become fairly friendly early on.
She's cheerful, has maxed-out sociability, and a wide network.
Her talent is also excellent. Among rare recovery-type unique abilities, hers is one that allows both regeneration and healing in parallel.
It was later revealed that she also possesses outstanding spirit affinity, so her future's bright.
That was my impression of her.
'...She's too close, though...'
But at some point, she'd suddenly gotten very close to Lee Ha-yul.
I knew he'd received some small help from her in the past and formed a minor connection, but now, it was plainly more than just some minor connection...
By the time I realized it, Ellia had already stockpiled a mountain of goodwill with Lee Seo-yul, whom Lee Ha-yul loves and cherishes like his own child.
She'd practically moved into the dorm and was now acting like an outright mother.
On top of that, while Lee Seo-yul pretended to be sulky, she accepted Ellia's touches without resistance, and Lee Ha-yul was also receiving her care...
The saying goes, a docile cat climbs onto the hearth first... there's nothing wrong with that saying.
'I-I haven't even gotten to hold Seo-yul once yet...!'
For some reason, Lee Seo-yul always bared her wariness only toward her, growling like a guarded puppy.
Lee Ha-yul, who by his own account was just looking after a fairy, but who anyone could see loved and cherished Lee Seo-yul like a daughter...
Because of that, it had become a complicated situation where meddling wrongly might get her hated by both Lee Ha-yul and Lee Seo-yul.
Hong Yeon-hwa, even put positively, wasn't highly sociable. She was clumsy with human relationships and, since this was her first love, had no idea how to respond.
She was getting advice from her mother, Choi Ji-yeon, but she didn't want to blabber every little detail either.
'Tsk...'
And more than anything, that thing catching her eye.
Hong Yeon-hwa lowered her gaze slightly and scrutinized the area around Ellia's chest.
A voluptuous bosom.
Those large mounds of flesh so blatantly visible because her dress shirt was swollen to bursting.
Hong Yeon-hwa's pupils dimmed.
With those absurdly bountiful udders like a dairy cow, she must have seduced Lee Ha-yul, who's starved for maternal affection...
'Mine aren't exactly small either...'
Hong Yeon-hwa subtly examined her own.
She saw her own chest, equally full and swelling.
Large, dramatically curving mounds of flesh. Useless lumps of fat she'd wished would disappear because they got in the way of movement.
But recently, lumps of fat she was grateful to have...
She roughly gauged the size difference between hers and Ellia's. Hong Yeon-hwa's mind spun rapidly. The result came out.
Ellia > Hong Yeon-hwa
'Damn it.'
A curse slipped out before she knew it. It was a stupid thought. Comparing herself to someone, getting upset alone... what was she even doing?
Hit by a wave of self-reflection, her expression crumpled badly, and Hong Yeon-hwa averted her gaze.
"Why has your face crumpled like that? Got a worry? If you do, consultation available anytime! Running a 24-hour worry counseling service! Contact me by text!"
"......"
Just as she was lost in such worries, Baek A-rin, having noticed Hong Yeon-hwa's odd mood, sidled up.
Staring in disbelief at Baek A-rin's playful chatter, Hong Yeon-hwa suddenly caught sight of Baek A-rin's chest area.
The calculation she'd kept running produced a result.
Ellia ≥ Baek A-rin > Hong Yeon-hwa
It was roughly on par with Ellia's.
Meaning it was udder-like and bountiful, too.
'......'
Baek A-rin on the left, Ellia on the right.
From the shameless wreck of a professor who'd beaten her like a dog and now acted all caring, to Professor Liana, whose gaze toward Lee Ha-yul had been strange lately...
If she rammed headfirst into all of them, she might end up hated by Lee Ha-yul... She was surrounded on all sides by profoundly complicated things.
"Haaah..."
Heaving a deep sigh, Hong Yeon-hwa pinched and stretched Lee Ha-yul's cheek. She freely toyed with his warm, soft cheek that was like glutinous rice cake.
"Bweh eh eh..."
Letting out a strange sound, Lee Ha-yul obediently offered his cheek.
* * *
The lectures were mostly sorted out.
I decided on magic for my major subject.
Occasionally, once or twice a week, I signed up for miscellaneous courses like crafting or monster taming.
I barely took any combat-related courses.
Because I had my master's teachings.
Incidentally, my master also evaluates me and assigns credits. I checked my first-semester report card; nearly everything was a perfect score.
When I cautiously asked if it was preferential treatment, she drew a firm line, saying it was a cold-hearted assessment. I can't know her true intentions... but if that's what she says, I'm grateful.
Today started early, as usual.
'Sleepy...'
I opened my mouth and stifled a yawn. No matter how much I kept sleeping, the drowsiness simply wouldn't go away.
It wasn't this bad before...
'Split Consciousness... is working well. Very good.'
The word split might be wrong. It's merely drawing boundaries within my consciousness and assigning each part its own task.
You could essentially consider it multitasking.
Consciousness one: conducting a 24-hour, all-direction precision observation for any potential danger.
Of course, absorbing every scrap of information would turn me into an idiot, so I only observe information deemed a threat.
Obviously, since this is Siyoram, there shouldn't be that kind of threat... but knowing it's a safe place, I'm practicing with peace of mind.
Consciousness two: diligently accumulating and analyzing knowledge, observing magic texts kept in the dorm and those far away in the library.
Feeling the limits of studying while fighting off sleep, I was using split consciousness to run observation and study in parallel.
Several other miscellaneous split consciousnesses are operating as well.
Thanks to that, it's consuming a massive amount of resources... mental energy.
To be honest, this might be why I've been so drowsy lately no matter how much I sleep...
Headaches accompanied it, too.
A pain comparable to the start of the semester when I was crushed by pressure and stress... no, worse than that.
But since I've grown too, I can endure it sufficiently.
Also, because I'm always held in someone's arms these days, stress gets relieved so well that it's fine.
Wriggling my body, I popped my face out from where it had been buried against a bosom.
My head pulled back, and the bodily scent that had filled my nasal passages thinned out.
As I was feeling a pang of regret, the sleeping Hong Yeon-hwa's brow furrowed slightly.
Soon, both her arms flailed, trying to grab me.
I blinked, and the deeply carved valley of flesh came into view.
It was the place where the bodily scent was strongest. Even now, a sweet bodily scent was wafting up.
If I let myself be caught by those hands, I'd be buried in a warm, soft bosom, breathing in the scent of milk and drifting into blissful sleep... but regrettably, I had a lot of schedule items.
Swallowing tears of blood internally, I extracted myself.
There were others behind me, too.
Seo-yul, clinging tightly to my back, and Ellia, holding Seo-yul in her arms as she slept.
In order, it was Hong Yeon-hwa, me, Seo-yul, Ellia. An arrangement reached by some consensus.
Since the bed was large, there was plenty of room.
I sat on the edge of the bed and tapped my smartwatch. Soon, a hologram projected, displaying the day's schedule.
[Today's Alarms]
[▶AM 10:00 - 『Monster Taming and Response』 Overview Orientation]
[Current Time: AM 07:30]
Today was the day for the monster-taming lecture.
I started to climb down from the bed...
"Daddy, where are you going..."
[Kek.]
A hand reached out from behind and snatched a handful of my hair.
The culprit was Seo-yul. Without even opening her eyes, still half-asleep, Seo-yul whined and tugged her hand back.
[Ow, that hurts.]
[Seo-yul...]
[You shouldn't pull someone's hair...]
Her strength was tremendous. Where did this power come from? At that fierce pull, I was thrown roughly back onto the bed.
The strength itself wasn't anything compared to mine, but my conscience wouldn't let me resist Seo-yul...
Soon, Seo-yul, having wriggled out of Ellia's embrace, squirmed over, then climbed on top of me and flattened me as if I were a pillow.
"Sleep with me... don't go..."
Her arms and legs bound me like rope.
[Gyaaak...]
In that instant, I received a massive shock.
I was in Seo-yul's arms.
I hadn't hugged her; I was being held in her arms.
Seo-yul hugged me...
'Good heavens...'
Seeing Seo-yul, now undeniably larger than me, something inside my heart crumbled away...
A spoonful of emotion, thinking how terribly quickly children grow.
A whole bucket of despair, that I'd already been overtaken...
I need to restore my body as soon as possible.
My willpower blazed anew...
[Aagh...]
[You mustn't bite...]
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Ellia Srade
●●●●●●●●○○ (80▶81/100)
｢Fondness｣ ｢Gratitude｣ ｢Chick｣ ｢Sorry｣ ｢Guilt｣
...
Lee Ha-yul → Baek A-rin
●●●●●●○○○○ (68▶69/100)
｢Fondness｣ ｢Question｣ ｢Confusion｣