Yeonhwa's Ordeal Strikes Twice
Yeonhwa's Ordeal Strikes Twice
Lee Ha-yul has no blind spots while his Observation Authority is continuously manifested.
The range of his observation is vast, and the detail it captures is precise enough to distinguish every individual pore on a person's face.
But Lee Ha-yul didn't notice Hong Yeon-hwa approaching.
Even when she came up behind him and placed her hands on his waist, he failed to register her presence and let out an ungainly yelp of surprise.
It was strange.
He was even running thought-division to prepare for moments when his main consciousness might sink into a haze.
Even if his main consciousness had settled into that haze, the split consciousness focused on crisis detection should have noticed an external entity's approach.
'No... it did notice...'
He was wrong. Lee Ha-yul retraced the memory with a dazed mind.
His distracted main consciousness might not have known, but his split consciousness did notice Hong Yeon-hwa coming closer.
But it did not alert his main consciousness.
Because that particular split consciousness prioritizes crisis detection.
To Lee Ha-yul, Hong Yeon-hwa's approach was not a crisis.
It was not simply arrogance—the assumption that she could not possibly threaten him—but trust: the belief that she would never harm him.
It would have been no different even if Hong Yeon-hwa had been wearing her armaments.
Even if she had drawn her weapon into her hand. Even if she had crept up behind him with the weapon aimed at him.
Even at the very instant she thrust a weapon into Lee Ha-yul.
He believed that if Hong Yeon-hwa ever turned a blade on him, there would be a reason for it.
Lee Ha-yul had that kind of faith in her.
"Smack..."
That chain of complicated thoughts snapped. A kiss forced its way into the gap.
The arms wrapped around his lower back pulled him against her ample chest, and the hand gripping his chin demanded the kiss without gentleness.
The unavoidable difference in their heights forced her to brace herself on tiptoe to lock their lips together.
"Mmm..."
It was a decidedly coercive act, but Lee Ha-yul did not mind.
On the contrary, he stretched out both arms and held Hong Yeon-hwa tight. He pushed his lips out as if craving more, actively pressing his body against hers.
'Nice...'
[Nice]
He felt the soft fullness of the body pressed against him. The warmth of her body heat made his temperature rise.
Drunk on the sweet scent rising softly from her skin, his head fogged over.
With their lips rubbing together and their breathing mingling on top of it all, he felt as though his mind would turn to mush for real.
'Happy...'
[Happy]
That was what he liked about it.
The tangled complications that had filled his head until just moments before—the bitterness, the anguish, the disappointment—were all swept aside, and their place was entirely filled with overflowing affection.
- Hwareureuk...
The Calamity Flame, not yet extinguished, slipped into the space and raised its head. As if reading the mood, it cautiously pushed emotion forward.
He liked that dizzying sensation, as if his already scatterbrained head was truly regressing.
If only he could be buried in this kind of affection for the rest of his life... after he had finished everything he had to do. If only he could pull it off...
"Hmph..."
Hong Yeon-hwa could not grasp every detail of Lee Ha-yul's complicated inner state.
But she could clearly see that the negative shadow cast over his face was gradually melting under the generous outpouring of her affection.
A child like pure porcelain was being suffused by her colors.
Lee Ha-yul, who had once been all bristling thorns and wariness, was now melting away at her every gesture and nestling into her arms...
'Wow, holy...'
A sense of moral transgression, as if she were wantonly scribbling all over a perfectly blank white canvas, made her breath tremble on its own.
...Of course, that sort of unsavory feeling was not her only motivation.
Something about his mood had been strange from the moment he entered the mansion.
And sure enough, left alone, he had been cooking with such a lonely air—like a puppy soaked to the bone in the rain.
Hong Yeon-hwa, who has yet to bear a child, found herself understanding the feeling of leaving a baby by the water's edge. Probably everyone around Lee Ha-yul has felt this at some point.
'At least it's easy to soothe him when it's this side of things.'
Truth be told, cheering up a downcast, dejected Lee Ha-yul was remarkably simple.
Just stroking his head would untangle most knots.
On the rare occasions he sulked, if she said she was sorry and pulled him into her embrace, he would pretend he had no choice and cuddle up to her, fussing.
If she then offered her chest for him to lean more comfortably and patted his bottom, everything would melt away and he would go completely limp.
And after all that, did he really still expect not to be treated like a child?
"Ha-yul."
Their lips had been pressed together persistently for a while.
After thoroughly savoring the dewy, warm, rapturous sensation, Hong Yeon-hwa slowly raised her head.
"Hhk, haah..."
No answer came.
Only a pink tongue briefly showed itself between his slightly parted lips, and shallow breaths escaped him.
At some point, the savory aroma of cooking had disappeared. In its place, the honeyed fragrance wafting from Lee Ha-yul's body—held fast in her arms—was seducing Hong Yeon-hwa's nostrils.
"Ha-yul."
"Y... yes..."
Only when she patted his back and called his name again did she get a response.
Unfocused eyes looked up at Hong Yeon-hwa. His pronunciation slurred thickly because both cheeks were squished against her chest.
'Seriously, how can a person be this pretty...?'
Hong Yeon-hwa reached out with eyes dripping honey.
Her thumb brushed beneath his eye.
Then it traced the bridge of his nose, his cheek, his dimple, his earlobe, his forehead, his eyebrow... she cradled each feature of his face in her hand.
'This is insane...'
Lee Ha-yul's looks had been enough to draw admiration even from Hong Yeon-hwa from the very first moment they met, but as time passed, mere admiration was no longer the end of it.
It is often said that many superhumans have refined features thanks to the influence of their powerful physiques and mana, but Lee Ha-yul was on an entirely different plane.
Even the cadets of Siyoram—who have encountered all manner of beautiful people—find themselves staring slack-jawed, unable to tear their gaze away the moment Lee Ha-yul appears.
Lee Ha-yul himself currently seems largely unaware of the effect his appearance has.
But if he were to walk down a main city street without covering his face for just ten minutes, he would feel on a visceral level exactly what sort of threshold his looks had reached.
"Ha-yul, do you have plans on the day of the Birth Festival?"
"Ah... Birth, Festival...?"
Lee Ha-yul, who had been blankly savoring the sensation of his face being traced, murmured back.
The Birth Festival. An event Siyoram holds annually at the end of every year.
It was a major event treated with considerable importance even in the original.
The Birth Festival is, strictly speaking, a festival, so the cadets are given time to enjoy themselves.
The little incidents and accidents around that time... the sub-quests. If you went around and did them well, your Affection scores would spike.
Not only that, but the Tower of Growth would also be entered during the Birth Festival.
The unique points were that everyone entered together regardless of their academic year during that time, and... that a special event existed for the Special Admission Cadet.
As far as Lee Ha-yul remembered, the Tower entry took place on the third day of the five-day schedule.
"Be with me on the last day. Right through until the next morning."
"Last day...?"
"Yeah, the last day. I'll also feed you... something delicious that day."
"Something delicious...?"
Tilting his head, Lee Ha-yul lifted his eyes.
He saw Hong Yeon-hwa's face looking down at him, wearing a smile filled with embarrassment and anticipation.
He tilted his head again.
'The Birth Festival...? Did I have something to do then...?'
His dazed mind fumbled through its memories...
- Whack!
"Eep..."
Lee Ha-yul straightened his back with a jolt. A dizzying sensation zinged its way sharply up his spine. Warm breath then touched his ear.
"Answer me."
Lee Ha-yul flinched. At the low voice that seemed to demand an answer, he nodded dumbly.
"Yes, yes, I will... I will, so... I'll be with you, Yeon-hwa..."
Without even a sound judgment, Lee Ha-yul agreed unconditionally.
Put plainly, his reason and heart had both melted away, a state of mental and physical debility far from his right mind.
They hadn't even mixed tongues. At most, they had simply pressed their lips together. And this was the state he was in.
Normally, Hong Yeon-hwa would have waited for him to answer in his right mind. But right now, feeling a little greedy, she extracted an answer forcibly from Lee Ha-yul in his mentally and physically weakened state.
"Yes, good... good boy."
"Mm... smack."
Hong Yeon-hwa smiled with satisfaction and gently patted his lower back with a kindly touch.
And then, as if giving him a reward, she dipped her head and bumped her lips to his once more.
Lee Ha-yul's body, which had gone rigid from the dizzying sensation, went soft and limp again.
After that, under the thumping pats that felt as if she were soothing a child, his eyes slowly glazed over.
- Tap
"Smack... mmm...?!"
His eyes, which had been growing increasingly unfocused, flew wide open.
The dewy... warm sensation that tapped-tapped at his firmly closed lips made his body jolt.
A firm hand suppressed the squirming Lee Ha-yul. The hand that had held his chin was now pressing the back of his head, while the other still drew his lower back toward her.
"Mm. Chup...?!"
Tap-tap— At the scandalous sensation knocking repeatedly at his lips, he squeezed both eyes shut.
This was not the first time, in truth.
Whenever he fell asleep beside Hong Yeon-hwa, that lewd sensation would rap against his lips time and again, as if telling him to go on and open up.
He had managed to hold out until now somehow.
Because he felt that if he parted his lips and tangled his tongue with hers, he would truly become an irredeemable fool...
- Tap-tap
"Nngh..."
But that, too, was gradually reaching its limit.
No matter how steadfast a castle gate, if the knocking comes ceaselessly, cracks are bound to be forced open.
And so it was for Lee Ha-yul.
When the person who showers him with such affection persistently urges him on with gentle words and gestures like this... Lee Ha-yul, who is already weak to insistence, could not help but open up little by little.
"Mmff..."
At long last, a sign that his lips were beginning to part.
'It's opening.'
Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes brimmed with delight.
In an instant, memories flashed past like a panorama. The days of repeatedly steeling her patience, pressing desire down with all her might, after that mistake at the family estate.
The days of enduring a desire that seemed ready to burst at any moment...!
Now that is over. Once the lips open once, everything after happens in an instant. According to what her mother, Mrs. Choi Ji-yeon, had taught her, that was how it went.
The timing was perfect. Even if it was semi-coercive, she had secured a promise for the Birth Festival too.
It was just when hope and anticipation were flooding through Hong Yeon-hwa's mind.
- Excuse me~! Ha-yul~! I'm here!
'Oh.'
A voice that must not reach her ears—or at least, must not be heard right now—rang out to her.
The mansion, with its needlessly excellent facilities, relayed the voice of the guest who had arrived at the front gate to its owner.
Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes flooded with consternation.
"...Ha-aah!"
Lee Ha-yul's energy shifted too. Sanity crept back into eyes that had been melting like candy under the blazing sun.
Soon, with the sound of a breath sucked in, Lee Ha-yul came back to his senses and pushed firmly against Hong Yeon-hwa's shoulders.
"Ah, a, ah...! Gyaak...! Gyaa-ah...!"
As red as a fresh apple, Lee Ha-yul shuddered and shifted in place like a broken machine.
- Shwoooooom!
And then, with a weird scraping noise that leaked from his throat, he shot away like through the teeth of a comb.
The speed was tremendous.
It was no simple effect; it was a sudden acceleration achieved through instantaneous Body Reinforcement Technique and Homogenization - Swiftness.
The aftermath sent Hong Yeon-hwa's hair whipping wildly as if a storm had descended on her.
The momentary gale of hair settled. Beneath strands now tangled more messily than before, a pair of deep crimson eyes blinked blankly.
"Goddammit."
A bloody curse slipped through the lips that had been held tightly shut in a show of feigned innocence.
Things do not go according to one's will in this world.
Born as the designated heir of the Calamity Flame Family.
Having lived wanting for nothing, doing whatever she wished, obtaining whatever she desired—the precious daughter of the Calamity Flame Family, Hong Yeon-hwa.
She had once again been forced to realize the way of the world.
* * *
"Wow."
Baek A-rin let out an exclamation before she could stop herself.
Her blue gaze took in both of the people who had come out to greet her.
A face bright red, fanning himself with his hand: Lee Ha-yul. And glaring at her with a murderous intent unprecedented in their entire acquaintance: Hong Yeon-hwa...
Confirming the sight, Baek A-rin tugged her lips upward into a bright smile.
"It looks like I arrived at exactly the right moment! How fortunate!"
The murderous intent intensified.
But Baek A-rin did not retract her remark; she simply kept that smile on her face as if to counter it.
* * *
【Player Correction System: Affection】
Lee Ha-yul → Hong Yeon-hwa
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♡(92▷93/100)
｢Affection｣ ｢Milk｣ ｢Indebtedness｣ ｢Gratitude｣ ｢Warmth｣ ｢Stability｣ ｢Softness｣ ｢Shyness｣ ｢Embarrassment｣