36. Red Snow Flower
36. Red Snow Flower
Seowol Academy is peaceful today as well.
Following my personal theory of "Do we really have to wait until the villains get strong?", I've already subdued the final bosses of the chapters that cause major incidents in the original work right at the beginning of the semester, and thanks to me deliberately hunting down and feeding various fortuitous encounters to that bastard Siwoo whose growth was lagging, his level now surpasses that of the original work.
Amidst the calm peace of Seowol achieved in that manner, a thought that suddenly popped into my head recently had been lingering in my mind.
......Doesn't this bastard get involved with any heroines?
I hadn't noticed because I didn't pay attention, but since he spent all his time that should have been spent getting involved with heroines hanging around with me instead, the progress of the relationship between bastard Siwoo and the heroines was extremely negligible compared to the original work.
The problem that arises here. Of course, there might be heroines who live well without necessarily needing to get involved with bastard Siwoo, but since some heroines in [Academy Effort One-Tool Gladiator] followed a development where they received salvation from bastard Siwoo in pitch-black darkness and found the light, it meant that there were several heroines who were scheduled to meet a bad end if they went about their lives without any points of contact with Siwoo.
A representative heroine is none other than Hong Seolhwa of Class 3.
She was supposed to live a life not her own, moving like a puppet according to her family's will all her life, until bastard Siwoo realizes that she is ultimately scheduled to be sold off to a middle-aged man who is suspiciously wealthy, rescues her, and helps her find her own life.
But what about right now in this state where she isn't even involved with bastard Siwoo, let alone having an intimate relationship with him? She is destined to be sold off to a middle-aged tycoon before long, used like a plaything, and discarded.
"......Fucking hell."
"Why all of a sudden again?"
Why, you ask? Because of you, of course. Of course, me possessing this body and making the situation turn out this way played a part, but feeling petty, I gave bastard Siwoo a knuckle-bumping flick on the head for driving a clear and pure woman into the depths of evil.
"Take this! Take this!"
"?"
Only after giving bastard Siwoo's head, whom I just disliked lately for no particular reason, a few knuckle-bumping thumps did my mind calm down. Scratching my head, I took a step toward the outside of the classroom.
"Where are you going?"
"None of your business."
Due to the characteristic of Seowol Academy where classrooms for first-years are clustered tightly with first-years, and second-years with second-years, I was able to reach the smiling and bustling Class 3 without walking very far.
"...I can't see..."
Because of my height, which was slightly, just very slightly shorter than the female average, I had no choice but to stand on my tiptoes and stick my head out, and thanks to my damnably good hearing, I couldn't help but hear the laughter of the cadets who glanced at my appearance and snickered as they passed by.
......How cute, my ass. I'm the same age as you guys.
Determining that I would thoroughly teach them a lesson if they happened to show up in the Seowol Summer Tournament, I turned my head left and right to search for where Hong Seolhwa was.
"Ah, why can't I see her...... Oh, found her."
Her long, drooping black hair that seemed to fail to live up to her surname of Hong. Her elegantly curving, refined eyes. Her expressionless face where one had no idea what on earth she was staring at.......
How should I put it? Exactly like a beauty from the Joseon era? Looking at her, who would probably look incredibly stunning wearing a Hanbok, I folded my slender fingers one by one and calculated the dates.
In the original work, the wedding between Hong Seolhwa and the middle-aged tycoon takes place right on the day before the fireworks that crown the end of the festival. Calculating with my fingers, it's roughly three weeks from now.
Along with the relief that it fortunately wasn't too late, I thought about how I could stop her wedding and grant her back her own life.
Frankly speaking, if I wanted to ruin the wedding purely through physical force, I could ruin it, but the justification is far too lacking. No matter how much of an unwanted wedding it is, if a total stranger comes along and suddenly tells you, "Live your own life!", who on earth would be happy and relieved about that?
That is why I need to find a way to cleverly bust up the wedding more secretly than anyone else, in a way that nobody notices. While devising a foolproof secret plan for a while with such thoughts, I felt as if a lightbulb went tting! on in my head, and I recalled a painfully obvious fact.
......Couldn't I just become friends with Hong Seolhwa?
If I just become friends with Hong Seolhwa, I can approach stopping her wedding with a certain degree of justification. Of course, that doesn't mean I can go on a reckless rampage with physical force, but for someone like me who knows the reason why her family is arranging a match between Hong Seolhwa and the middle-aged tycoon, I can bust up the wedding a bit more flexibly.
I am seriously freaking smart. Am I crazy or what?
Nodding to myself in praise of my flashing creativity that no one else could have thought of, right as I was swept up in confidence, a familiar-feeling anxiety crept up my spine.
......But how do I become friends with her?
.......
Me, whose only friend in the first place is bastard Siwoo, and who bats away even the occasional incoming remarks with my unique speaking style, is going to become friends with Hong Seolhwa, who is already introverted?
Having all sorts of worries and concerns along with the thought that maybe paying friend fees would be more feasible, I soon swallowed hard and made up my mind.
...I've gotta try somehow, what else can I do?
If left alone, Hong Seolhwa's fate is to become a plaything for a pot-bellied middle-aged man. Back then I didn't particularly empathize with it, but now that I've become a woman, thinking about marrying a huffing and puffing fat bastard makes me want to vomit already.
Hong Seolhwa is fundamentally a kind person. Although she is currently living with her heart's door closed and putting up walls, if there is someday someone who will demolish those walls and open that door, I'll get to see her smile a lot more.
That someone was Siwoo in the original work, and now it's me.
I won't say it out loud, but given the nature of bastard Siwoo who can't stand injustice, if something like this happens, he would help her without sparing any effort. If that beanpole bastard can do it, I can't? That makes no sense. Makes no sense at all.
To me, a veteran who has read [Academy Effort One-Tool Gladiator] 12 times over, getting involved with Hong Seolhwa through hobbies or foods she might like is a piece of cake.
Hong Seolhwa has no friends. It's not because she lacks social skills like me, but rather because even if she makes friends, her family—who would likely squeeze out every last drop of Hong Seolhwa's liver and gallbladder—would use her as collateral to suck something out of her friends, and because she experienced that once in the past, she refuses to give her affection to anyone.
Friendship is truly a wonderful word. It's quite funny for someone like me whose number of friends is a mere 1 person to say this, but thanks to that one person, I am able to enjoy academy life with this body that sleeps a whopping 18 hours a day. It's not because of simple things like supporting me when I sleep or waking me up occasionally, but rather the fact that I intensely trust someone and entrust my body to them without an ounce of doubt that puts me at ease.
I want to teach Hong Seolhwa, who currently lives day by day as if committing a slow suicide without any thought of showing her true feelings to anyone, what the sensation of firmly trusting someone and thinking, "If it's you, I can unhesitatingly entrust all of my being to you," feels like. Just like Siwoo did for me.
With those thoughts, lowering my heels, I turned my body around with the thought that I should finally devise a strategy in the dorm to make friends with Hong Seolhwa.
"I should probably go get some sleep in advance at the academy......"
......Ugh.
This is happening again.
With a slightly flushed face, I mumbled with my lips and looked down at my chest.
"......Should I swap them?"
Because of the second puberty that arrived out of nowhere—was it last week?—I purchased nipple shields and pussy shields from the academy store to calm down my sensitive nipples and clitoris.
It wasn't to show anyone, and since I just needed to cover the sensitive areas, I bought the most efficient ones possible.
In the beginning of the purchase, suffering from an inexplicable sense of incongruity, I was strangely reluctant to attach them to my body, but nowadays, without a single bit of that incongruity, it's actually more comfortable to wear them around.
It's definitely nice to wear cute little shields attached to my clitoris and nipples so they don't brush against clothing, but the downside is that an even bigger problem has cropped up.
"......Lately, they get erect at the drop of a hat...."
For reasons completely unknown to me, ever since attaching the nipple shields and pussy shields, it feels like the sensitivity of my nipples and pussy has been strangely and progressively getting more sensitive. Of course, it probably isn't because of the nipple shields and pussy shields themselves. It's likely due to the second puberty accelerating day by day. It'll definitely end someday, though. I really hope it ends soon.
It's a relief that I apply medicine to adhesive bandages and nipple patches every day to keep my nipples from getting sensitive and stick them on; if it weren't for the medicine and the nipple shields, I would have been in big trouble.
Pressing down stealthily on the nipple-exclusive adhesive bandage that had mercilessly peeled off due to a stiff erection, and the pussy-exclusive adhesive bandage that had already lost its adhesiveness because of having gone to the bathroom several times again today, I hurried with quick, tripping steps toward the bathroom. Every time I pressed down on them gguk-gguk, moans kept leaking out, but thanks to having cast a soundproofing magic, no one except maybe one person heard them. What a relief.