Hospital Vi?sit (2)
Hospital Vi?sit (2)
To wield the Calamity Flame, mental discipline to control emotional impulses was essential.
For Hong Yeon-hwa, whose Calamity Flame output was unprecedented, the importance of that mental discipline had been especially emphasized.
Despite appearances, Hong Yeon-hwa possessed considerable patience.
Even so, she had caused plenty of trouble.
Even she couldn't claim she'd been well-behaved.
Most of those incidents stemmed largely from having no real need to endure things by wasting precious mental energy.
When she was fourteen, maybe?
In the middle of a party, there was a girl who'd been picking a fight and running her mouth while pretending not to.
Hong Yeon-hwa had been angry back then. Not to the point of gut-wrenching fury, but enough to tip the scales toward: should I deck her?
She was angry. The Calamity Flame blazed. Her emotions were stoked, and as she struggled to suppress them, Hong Yeon-hwa tilted her head as a question suddenly surfaced.
Did she really have to hold back?
The mental math was simple.
Family? It would be an insult to compare them to the Calamity Flame Family.
Force? Even back then, before she'd really matured, she could've flattened that girl with one hand.
Other factors? The only way she'd lose to that bitch was in age.
Crushing her wouldn't bring any real repercussions to Hong Yeon-hwa.
So, pretending it was unintentional—pretending it was a mistake—she casually smashed a fist right into that yapping face.
With all that crap plastered on such an ugly face, her fist had come away so sticky...
'......'
Right now was similar to back then.
The moment she witnessed Lee Ha-yul nestled snugly in someone else's arms, her insides twisted.
The woman holding Lee Ha-yul against her chest as if he belonged to her.
Golden hair and eyes that outshone the light were the first things that stood out. Her features were finely chiseled; her looks left no room to pick faults.
Even more palpable than that was her powerful presence.
Hong Yeon-hwa knew who she was. Not from hearing her name as a professor after entering Siyoram—she'd heard her name even before that.
'Atra Clyde.'
A madwoman who mainly roamed the African Demon Realm, equally renowned and notorious.
The renown came from being a genuine powerhouse who'd repeatedly distinguished herself in 3rd-Rank monster subjugations and from intercepting monsters across the frontlines.
The notoriety came from her prickly, foul personality, and from the times she beat heroes who picked fights with her so badly they ended up semi-permanently crippled.
Given such a brutal reputation, the sight of her cradling Lee Ha-yul with the care of a craftsman holding a delicate piece was nothing short of absurd.
Eyes met.
Red eyes and golden eyes locked onto each other.
A brief silence passed. The one who spoke first was Hong Yeon-hwa.
"Hello. I'm Hong Yeon-hwa. I'd sent word that I'd be visiting."
"Hello, I'm Baek A-rin! Professor Atra, it's been a while since the last time!"
"...Right. Come in."
Once Hong Yeon-hwa broke the ice, Baek A-rin, who'd been wavering between fleeing or not, immediately jumped in and greeted Atra.
Lee Ha-yul seemed to still be asleep.
Baek A-rin didn't understand why he was sleeping in Atra's arms, but she figured she'd greet him later when he woke up.
"Isn't nursing difficult? You wouldn't need to do it yourself, after all..."
"It's not that hard. Maybe for an ordinary person, but for a superhuman, this sort of thing is hardly physically taxing. Besides, the magical measures here are so thorough."
"Lately, the pace of magical engineering development really is fast. I'm taking lectures in that field too, and the difficulty is real..."
After that, the usual pleasantries were exchanged.
The conversation was mainly led by Baek A-rin.
She'd stayed quiet at first, flustered by Hong Yeon-hwa's sudden shift in demeanor, but once she'd adjusted a little, her words started flowing.
Just as Hong Yeon-hwa had scrutinized Atra, Atra scrutinized Hong Yeon-hwa too.
A sick visit wasn't something you could just show up for and call it good.
The two of them had asked Lee Ha-yul, now past his intensive healing period, whether it was all right to visit, and he'd accepted, so here they were.
Even if not today, several more would come by to visit in the days after.
'Hong Yeon-hwa of the Calamity Flame Family... and Baek A-rin of the Changhae Family.'
Atra knew those two as well. Even an ordinary person who wasn't a superhuman would probably know them well enough.
They were the heirs of the Three Great Families. Their names reached you even if you didn't want to hear them.
After watching Hong Yeon-hwa for a moment, Atra moved her hand.
It wasn't a conscious gesture. There was no intent, like provocation. It was purely reflexive after doing it so often these past few days.
She placed her hand on Lee Ha-yul's head and pressed down firmly.
Lee Ha-yul was buried deep against her voluptuous chest.
Lee Ha-yul squirmed briefly, then went still. If anything, he settled more docilely, as if he liked it better this way.
Hong Yeon-hwa's lips twitched.
Standing beside her, Baek A-rin glanced at her and quietly edged away.
Baek A-rin was confident she could suppress the Calamity Flame when it flared up fiercely, but she had no idea what to do with the Calamity Flame that lay smoldering beneath the surface, leaking cold energy in waves...
Lee Ha-yul wriggling. It was a familiar sight to Hong Yeon-hwa.
A sight she'd seen many times.
Lee Ha-yul being cuddled. Lee Ha-yul burying his face against her chest, blissfully languid even while embarrassed...
The perspective was different.
In her memories, all she could ever see was the top of Lee Ha-yul's head and his face.
The sensation was always him in her arms, and his pounding heartbeat along with his sweet, subtle scent had always lingered close to her.
There'd never been a third-person perspective like this. She'd never imagined it.
Lee Ha-yul being cradled... she endured it. Hong Yeon-hwa had been told what kind of state Lee Ha-yul was in.
An injury that had brought him to death's door. On top of that, his first real combat had been that kind of mess, so naturally he'd taken psychological damage.
So she'd managed to accept that he needed human warmth, and that the professor who'd beaten lessons into him was the one providing it.
But now that she, Hong Yeon-hwa, had actually arrived, watching her press Lee Ha-yul's head down to bury his face in her own boobs made Hong Yeon-hwa's insides twist further.
- Fwoosh...
An impulse rose. Her emotions surged rawly. The Calamity Flame that fed on them surged too.
This time, something was different from back then.
The Calamity Flame didn't burst out wildly. It didn't swell greedily, threatening everything around it.
It burned calmly. Cool rather than hot, quietly sharpening its edge.
The Calamity Flame knew too. Right now, blazing up in a frenzy would gain nothing at all.
If she rampaged here, she might even earn Lee Ha-yul's antipathy.
Hong Yeon-hwa's intent was the same.
So she composed her expression.
She straightened the corners of her eyes that had been rising, smoothed down the mouth that had been twitching, and gently relaxed the facial muscles that had been contorting.
Then she rebuilt her expression.
A deliberate yet genuinely felt expression, one that could be perceived as comfortable and gentle.
She adjusted her voice too. She'd never thought her normal voice was lacking, but if she was going to be heard, she wanted him to hear her prettiest voice.
"Ha-yul?"
- Flinch
Lee Ha-yul jerked. The voice that had pierced through his half-asleep consciousness was familiar—and welcome.
A voice filled with warmth...
'Ah.'
Right. Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin said they'd come visit.
He'd turned off his Observation Authority and his senses were dulled, so he hadn't noticed.
Only then did his mind snap awake. Consciousness that had been languidly stretched out gradually returned.
When he'd been truly on the verge of death, Hong Yeon-hwa's face had flickered before him too.
She was someone he wanted to see.
He felt a surge of gladness.
His body squirmed. With the arms he had wrapped around Atra, he tapped her waist. A signal asking to be let go.
It wasn't like he could see ahead, but still, he wanted to show his face.
Atra helped. She held his waist and turned his body around.
He ended up pillowing his head on her chest, back leaning against Atra.
'...This is...'
A somewhat awkward position.
He'd received persistent nursing from Atra these past few days.
Thanks to that, his heavily damaged mental state was being restored.
Alongside that, the rationality that had been shoved down to the bottom of his consciousness was slowly resurfacing.
So were the feelings of shame and embarrassment that were attached to rationality.
They hadn't all come back. For now, the happiness that came from being held tight and cherished still outweighed the embarrassment and shame.
But doing that in front of those two, though... it was a bit of a thing.
"Ha-yul?"
The warm voice approached again.
"Come over here... ah, should I be the one to come to you?"
Come here.
It was an abrupt thing to say, but Lee Ha-yul felt like he understood what she meant.
He could imagine Hong Yeon-hwa standing there with her arms spread open.
"......"
His rationality was gradually being restored, but it wasn't complete yet.
Inside his head, Lee Ha-yul pulled out a simple, clear set of scales.
On one side, rationality, embarrassment, and shame.
On the other side, the softness and tenderness when he was held. The warmth. The touch that patted and stroked him...
The scales tipped.
Lee Ha-yul moved his body.
His physical body had recovered a lot too. He still needed a wheelchair or Atra to carry him to go outside for long, but he could walk a little.
- Squeeze...
He couldn't move. Because of the hands that had coiled around his waist. They'd come from behind.
Puzzled, Lee Ha-yul tilted his head back.
With a somewhat perplexed expression, Atra was wrapping her arms around his waist.
Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes sank coldly.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Atra Clyde
●●●●●●●○○○(73▷79/100)
「Adult」 「Guardian」 「Expectation」 「Stability」 「Affection Seeking」
...
Lee Ha-yul → Hong Yeon-hwa
●●●●●●●●○○(84/100)
「?」 「Sense of Debt」 「Sorry」 「Gratitude」 「Worry」
...
Lee Ha-yul → Baek A-rin
●●●●●○○○○○(50▷51/100)
「Favorable Impression」 「Question」 「Confusion」
[Conditions to lift the 「Curse of Silence」 have not been met]
[Conditions to lift the 「Curse of Solitude」 have not been met]
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