40. Determination
40. Determination
"...No, what are you doing right now?"
"Tsk tsk, stay still."
"......."
A girl with an expression that seemed to scream, "I'm super focused right now" - her pale pink hair swaying chalrang - was dabbing a paintbrush back and forth across my face.
Whenever Yuriel gets absorbed in something that's not even a big deal, her expression is always so special that I want to take a picture of it before she even notices.
Yuriel applied layer after layer of color onto my face using the vividly colored paints from a floating palette hovering next to her, then soon looked at me with a quite satisfied expression and said,
"Whoa, Siwoo-ya. Out of all the looks I've ever seen on you, this is the most handsome. Seriously."
"Don't lie. You've probably drawn something weird on me again."
"Ah, no I didn't? You really are handsome, though?"
Could you please not say things like that without smiling? Because of all the makeup powder, I felt quite sticky and had an urge to wash my face clean with Cleanse right away, but whenever I saw her happy smile, I somehow found myself immensely enjoying it too.
"Tsk, don't laugh. The drawing's all getting distorted."
"......You stop smiling first before you talk."
Yuriel smiles.
Yuriel, who never shows her emotions to anyone no matter what happens, is smiling at me.
A smile that only I can see, solely for me.
Is there really anyone whose heart wouldn't grow warm upon seeing this smile? Probably not.
"But seriously, there are a lot of people. Right."
"Totally."
The second day of the festival.
Truth be told, no matter how famous Seowol Academy was, I had inwardly thought, How many people would really come to a school festival? But a crowd so massive it practically rivaled a real festival had visited the academy.
"If we had done ours at an outdoor booth, we really would've been crushed to death."
"I know, right."
Turning my head past the window, experiential booths held outdoors, street busking, and plays lined the area. It wasn't that the indoor booth run by our class wasn't busy, but after seeing that outside, I felt like the indoor booth was heaven.
A haunted house.
That was our class's booth concept for this festival.
Actually, Yuriel and I hadn't planned on participating in this festival under the pretext of the Seowol Academy Winter Tournament, but due to an unexpected voting issue and the fact that Yuriel had helped out quite a bit with the class cadets' tasks during festival preparation, they seemed to think they had gotten somewhat close to her and begged her endlessly to do it together, which ended up dragging her into participating as well.
Frankly speaking, I would've preferred not to participate, but since she looked like she wanted to do it so badly no matter how I looked at it, I just decided to do it together.
So the role we took on was the information desk in front of Class 1. Basically, it was a face-madam role sitting in front of the booth with Yuriel to guide people to the haunted house. From the very beginning, I had no intention of doing ghost cosplay, and Yuriel could indirectly scare participants while sitting at the information desk anyway by using her ability. Wasn't that a win-win for both of us?
Turning my head to look at Yuriel, she was looking around here and there with a heavily flushed expression, seemingly intoxicated by the bustling festival atmosphere.
Of course, to others she might look expressionless, just darting her eyes around, but as a doctor of Yuriel Facial Expression Studies, I could tell. Yuriel was extremely excited right now.
Just a few months ago, she had boasted that all she needed was me and that there was no need to make friends. I felt a bit hurt, but I let it slide.
It's not that I don't want to see Yuriel having fun. However, every time we walked down the street, and every time she fell asleep saegeun-saegeun without realizing it, I couldn't help but notice even when I didn't want to. Their eyes, fixed on her as if bewitched and glistening with lust, everywhere we went.
Yuriel's body is dangerous. Not just in terms of the magical talent everyone at the academy talks about, but also in the very nature of her lewd body, which blatantly exudes that she is a female.
Ever since she became an adult.
Her body odor definitely has the power to drive males crazy. The sweet fragrance lingering on her body blurs rational judgment and makes one lose sanity. It further spurs the desire to treat her rough and urges one to spew vulgar words.
Training Yuriel's body to go into heat at my scent was part of that as well. I wanted her to feel that sensation where her body gradually grew hot and her brain felt like it was melting.
At first, I thought it was just my own sin of going crazy with sexual desire due to a late puberty. But as time went on, I could realize it. I wasn't the only one bewitched by her. Even Doil, the neighborhood grocery store owner with a suspiciously benevolent appearance; Gail, the dwarf blacksmith who made crafting superb weapons his life's work; and even Charles, a married neighborhood man with a family already rumored to be an affectionate couple, had at some point started going into heat over Yuriel, who was much younger than them, and sending gazes of lust her way.
They tried to secretly violate Yuriel's body while she slept, and I ultimately protected Yuriel's purity. Yuriel wouldn't know, but when Doil, the neighborhood grocery store owner, poked his ugly mug into Yuriel's sleeping room under the pretext of gifting her a pendant, I wanted to chop off that scumbag's neck with the longsword displayed in the living room.
Naturally, I don't think I'm a righteous human being. That is simply lust and sin born from the sticky, ugly mindset of not wanting to have my woman taken away from me and believing that her purity belongs solely to me. If I ever die, the place where I open my eyes will probably be hell.
Thus, due to an incident three years ago, I completely succumbed to the devil's whispers, and the conscience that used to painfully stab my fragile heart during my first sexual experience had long since worn away and vanished.
Now, whenever I get the chance, I simply violate her unconscious body while spewing vulgar words.
Right now, Yuriel's body has already surpassed the level of sensitivity a human being can endure.
She must be convinced that the pads she puts on every day were helpful because the sensitivity of her body has decreased specially today.
Without even knowing that, as a result of casting Desensitization Magic unconsciously behind her back—after casting Sensitization Magic all day long last night and doing milking training—if I were to lift the sensory dulling magic, just peeling off and sticking a band-aid on her nipples would turn her into a body that orgasms while drooling juices everywhere.
Of course, even now, with the sensory dulling magic cast to the fullest, it is undoubtedly a lewd body that is extremely sensitive by normal standards.
Not long after realizing that my feelings toward Yuriel were romantic love, I, too, had dreamed of that kind of romantic love like any ordinary person—accidentally realizing love in daily life, unable to help expressing it, and finally shyly confessing the feelings I had kept bottled up inside.
But now it's already far too late, and such a thing was impossible from the very beginning.
From some point on, I knew what the one and only way to have her was, and now it was just a necessary process to obtain that sweet fruit.
My plan is perfect. Even during the early part of the plan, I had doubts about whether it could succeed and fear that if I got caught, my relationship with her might be severed, but not anymore.
Thinking of her someday looking at me with a blushing face and confessing her love to me, I smiled brightly at Yuriel, who was still looking at my face and kikkik-ing.
"......Hey, what fucking weird thoughts are you having again?"
"No, I'm not."
"You are."
......How did she know? Of course, there's no way she could read my thoughts, but hearing her say something like that made my spine tingle slightly.
"Stop having weird thoughts and go fetch me some water. I'm thirsty."
"You drank all your water already?"
"Yeah."
"...You can just use teleportation."
"Our Siwoo needs to exercise. Hurry up."
......I'll let it slide because she called me "our Siwoo". Otherwise, I would've put her to sleep right now and dragged her into the room.
Glancing sideways at Yuriel, who was whining for water while gesturing with an extremely annoyed face, completely oblivious to the fact that her destiny had just changed 180 degrees with a single word, I let out a deep sigh and got up from my seat.
"That's right. Aigoo, good job, our Siwoo. Bring the water quickly!"
......No wait, you're dead tonight. Seriously.
After taking a selfie of the graffiti Yuriel had drawn on my face to keep as a memory, cleaning it off cleanly with Cleanse, I dragged my feet toward the end of the corridor where bottled drinking water prepared for the cadets was stacked in bulk.
With every step I took, gazes mixed with all sorts of emotions poured over me. Affection, envy, jealousy, inferiority, lust, adoration....... These were gazes I had already grown accustomed to.
Arriving at my destination with such thoughts, I squatted down to grab about three bottles of water just in case. That was when it happened.
"Hello?"
Along with a hypnotic voice piercing my ears, I felt the sensation of something trying to stealthily seep into my head before bouncing right back out.
"......What on earth......."
"It is you, right? Found you. Casar's heart fragment."
"......Pardon?"
"No, no. It's nothing."
Long, drooping curly black hair and orange-red eyes.
A black off-shoulder dress made of thin silk fabric reminiscent of a banquet hall stole my gaze.
......A hooker outfit?
As I was thinking, Why is she wearing clothes like that here?, she reached her arms out toward me with a smile pretending to be seductive as if she were the most beautiful thing in the world.
"Yes, slowly, slowly come here. Slowly, slowly......"
"Get your hands off Siwoo. You bitch."
At that moment, along with a slight crackling parchal sound, Yuriel's figure revealed itself in an instant. Yuriel, looking slightly angry, was also quite cute.
"Ho-oh, what a fascinating kid? Crossing through the barrier without any resistance. Having too high of a mana adaptability has become a poison. Come here. I'll stuff you and use you as an experimental subject—"
"Ah, whatever, fuck off back to wherever you lived. Asshole."
Eh ——
It was a split second. A fleeting split second that none of the numerous crowds gathered here to enjoy the festival, including myself, nor even she standing right in front of me wearing pseudo-hooker clothes, could perceive.
The woman in front of my eyes vanished with a sharp dying shriek. Without a single trace left behind, like a person who had never existed in the first place, she returned to nothingness. Yuriel watched me for a while as I was dumbfounded by the unbelievable sight, then
"Hey, are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"
"Eh, uh, eh?"
brought her face right up to mine suddenly while fondling my cheeks with her two slender hands.
"Judging by your sparkling pupils, there doesn't seem to be anything particularly wrong. Thank God. If I hadn't set up a mental barrier, you would've been fucked just like last time, seriously."
"......What was that about?"
"You don't need to know."
Yuriel took the water bottle from my arms as if it were no big deal and wet her throat. Even though she said I didn't need to know, I knew. That this had been quite a dangerous situation. And that Yuriel had saved me from it.
Others might not know, but I know that inside Yuriel's currently serene expression, worry and anger have turned into a sense of relief, completely filling her eyes.
"...Your expression earlier was terrifyingly fierce, you know?"
"What're you talking about. Hurry up and hold my hand. So we can take a telepo. I'm sleepy."
"You want to borrow my shoulder?"
"Yeah."
I clasped Yuriel's hand. Judging by how tense she had been until just a moment ago, a slight dampness of sweat could be felt on her hand.
"......You're smiling again. Ah, I'm just gonna ditch you and teleport by myself."
"Ah, you can't do that."
"Shut up and hold my hand tight. I'm counting. One, two, three —"
"Yuriel, wait a second."
At my words, annoyance seeped into Yuriel's serene face. Still, I felt like I really had to say this.
"Ah, why what again."
"Thanks for protecting me."
"......As long as you know, that's enough. Just hold my hand."
At my words, Yuriel scratched her head as if shy and squeezed my hand tightly. Yuriel's hand felt unusually warm today.
"I'm sleeping. Wake me up when the event starts."
"Got it...... She's already asleep."
Instantly teleporting back to the information desk, Yuriel leaned her body against my shoulder with those words and fell asleep immediately. But can a person really fall asleep this fast? It was nothing short of amazing.
Looking at Yuriel, who was sleeping saegeun-saegeun and breathing gently while leaning against my shoulder and exuding a sweet fragrance, I whispered a small monologue to myself.
"...I'll let it slide today."
Since she was just showing cute aegyo like "Get your hands off Siwoo" earlier, and judging by her clearly desperate expression, it seemed to have been a situation urgent enough to endanger my life.
Wouldn't it be fine to guarantee her peaceful sleeping time for today, at least, for working so hard?
That thought crossed my mind.
"Oho-o..., oho-ooo...... ♥."
"......Fuck."
...I couldn't hold it back and ended up doing it.
I successfully managed to bring the sleeping Yuriel back to her room while suppressing my insanely surging sexual desire.
But how am I supposed to hold back when she's rubbing her thighs together on the bed all by herself and letting out suggestive groans? Isn't this practically asking me to fuck her?
"This isn't my fault, right? You admit it, right, Yuriel?"
"Heu, heu-uu......."
Our omma said silence means consent. I'm going to shove it in.
"Oho, oho-ok?!?"
I rammed my already erect cock straight into her pussy, which I had ejaculated inside countless times, just by smelling her scent. Seductive groans tickled my ears.
"You won't be able to sleep comfortably tonight either, so prepare yourself."
"Hii, hii-iik......!"
"I love you, Yuriel."
Tonight is long, too. Wondering what kind of cosplay I should make Yuriel wear to make my cock even more pleasurable, I diligently thrust my waist against her pussy.