The Second Massage (1)

A face that looked exactly like mine from when I was twenty. The moment I saw the face of the man I'd been possessing — the man everyone had been calling Beor — a strange, muddled feeling settled over me.

Based on everything I'd learned so far, I'd assumed I'd been dropped into someone named Beor through some kind of possession. But looking at a face so similar to my own from my original world made me wonder if that was really the whole story.

Maybe, for some reason, I'd replaced the original Beor entirely — and my age had been dialed back to match his. And anyone who already knew him simply saw my face as Beor's face… It was the kind of situation that defied easy understanding, so I figured it was best to just leave it at that for now.

Of course, looking younger with my own face was still better than becoming a complete stranger I'd never even heard of. Still, after Ellin-sunbae had called me handsome, I had to admit I'd been a little curious about what this new face looked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like.

Looks aren't that important anyway.

According to her, men were so scarce that there simply weren't enough of them to compare — so women's standards had probably dropped. In that case, even my original face wouldn't have been a problem. I wasn't devastatingly handsome, but I wasn't ugly either.

Besides, there's something more important than this right now.

Namely, the current condition displayed on Ellin-sunbae's profile card. Her physical stats looked pretty rough across the board — and that mattered a lot more to me than my own face.

I'd given her a massage today, and those numbers were still a complete mess.

Muscle Tension probably meant how many knotted-up spots were still left in her body. Considering how many acupoints had remained everywhere except her shoulders during the massage earlier, that number made perfect sense.

Fatigue was likely the lingering effect of all those tight muscles. I'd at least worked on her shoulders today, so that one might improve going forward.

The low Stress reading was probably thanks to the massage I'd given her that morning — and separately, Ellin-sunbae's personality itself didn't seem like the type to carry much stress around.

And then there was that last number. Libido… honestly, I had no idea what to make ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of it.

"What the hell is going on that it's sitting at eighty percent…?"

From the outside, she hadn't seemed like the type to be that hungry for men. Were all the women in this world just like this?

If even the kind, gentle Ellin-sunbae was running at eighty percent libido, did that mean other women were even worse?

Or maybe it was because of the shoulder massage I'd given her earlier…

She did keep making those lewd little sounds the whole time I was working on her.

I wasn't sure if a shoulder massage could actually turn someone on, but what I'd given Ellin-sunbae wasn't an ordinary massage — it was my Unique Ability, Vitality Massage.

I carefully floated the theory that, under the right conditions, Vitality Massage might also affect libido. I couldn't be sure yet, but…

"If this massage really does influence libido…"

Then maybe I could use it to push things with Ellin-sunbae in a slightly more adult direction.

No — maybe not just her. Maybe I could get closer to the other female adventurers at the guild the same way. When I'd looked around yesterday, a lot of them had been pretty, and more than a few had been wearing some pretty suggestive outfits.

And if I could somehow get a chance to massage Guild Master Aisia — that cool beauty I'd been thinking about since the moment we met…

No. What am I even thinking.

Other adventurers were one thing, but Guild Master Aisia was the one who'd let me stay at the Adventurers' Guild and even tracked down my home address for me. Having thoughts like that about someone I owed that much to was just wrong.

…But according to Ellin-sunbae, Aisia was still a woman — so she probably had that same desire to be held by a man, right?

If I did something dirty with the Guild Master, wouldn't that just be "repaying the favor"? No need to feel guilty about it. Of course, that only applied if she was thinking along those lines too.

In the end, the only way to find out without asking her outright was to do what I'd done with Ellin-sunbae — give her a massage and make her one of my "clients." That was a problem for later.

"Well, I've got plenty of time ahead of me."

Besides, I still wasn't sure I could trust these numbers completely. I'd only been in this world for a day, and I'd only used my Unique Ability once — on Ellin-sunbae.

Without a larger sample size, I had no way of knowing what an eighty-percent libido actually meant. Same went for the rest of the stats. With those thoughts swirling around, I lay down on the bed, body worn out from everything that had happened, and drifted off to sleep.

"Haaaah… mm… hnn… haaah…"

Ellin-sunbae sat next to me, yawning over and over. We hadn't even finished the morning shift yet — how many times had she yawned already? She looked noticeably more exhausted than yesterday, so I carefully asked,

"You seem even more tired today than yesterday, Ellin-sunbae."

"H-huh?!"

"Did you not sleep well last night?"

"L-last night?! N-no, no, I slept fine…!"

"Really? Because you've been yawning a lot since earlier."

"S-sorry… Did it bother you?"

"It's not that it bothers me — I'm just a little worried."

If the massage I'd given her had somehow wrecked her condition, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wouldn't have been able to look her in the eye. The whole point of that shoulder massage had been to repay her for everything she'd done for me. If it had only made her more tired, that would have been mortifying.

"I-I'm fine, so don't worry, Beor. A guy worrying about me… that's a first. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ahaha…"

"…Is it because of the massage I gave you yesterday?"

"Hnnn?! W-what do you mean by that?!"

"I was wondering if maybe your muscles loosened up so suddenly that it made it hard to get comfortable in bed. If that's the case, then I'm partly responsible for how tired you are…"

"O-ohhh, I thought you meant… S-so that's what you meant…"

"Huh? Was there some other meaning?"

"N-no, no! A-anyway, it wasn't because of you that I couldn't sleep properly, so don't worry about it!"

So she hadn't slept well after all. I still didn't understand why she was so flustered, but she'd accidentally spilled the truth.

…Wasn't this exactly the kind of moment my Vitality Massage was made for? The name had "vitality" right in it — one session and she ought to perk up at least a little, right?

"Ellin-sunbae. If you're okay with it, want me to give you another massage today?!"

"Hinyat?!"

"……Excuse me?"

"Ah, th-the, the massage, right? Uh, th-that's… mmm…"

Why was she reacting so weirdly? Had yesterday's massage actually felt bad?

"Was the massage I gave you yesterday not that great?"

"N-no, no! Absolutely not!"

"Then why that look on your face…"

"Excuse me~. Can I put in a request for this quest~?"

"Aaaah, yes! Just a moment…!"

Ellin-sunbae practically fled my question to deal with the adventurer who'd walked up to the counter. Right after that, a wave of more adventurers came in, and I got pulled into handling them too — and just like that, the whole massage conversation fizzled out.

…I'd been hoping to casually work on her again and check how Vitality Massage actually functioned. A little disappointing.

Lunchtime at the Adventurers' Guild.

Not that "lunchtime" meant anything special on the menu. Our guild ran its own cafeteria for affiliated adventurers and staff.

I could have gone out and found a restaurant if I wanted to put in the effort, but there was no reason to throw away free food the guild gave its employees and waste money on something unnecessary. I still hadn't fully adapted to this world, so even spending a few silver coins from my pocket required careful thought.

By this world's standards, one gold coin was worth about a million won. A hundred silver made one gold, so a single silver coin was roughly ten thousand won.

Back in Korea, having or not having ten or twenty thousand won on hand had been a real psychological difference — and this world probably wasn't much different. Until the next payday, I needed to save every coin I could, since I had no idea what I might need to spend money on.

A red stew that looked like it had been simmered with various vegetables and meat, a piece of bread, and a little potato salad. That was today's free lunch from the Adventurers' Guild.

"You actually eat the guild cafeteria food without complaining, Beor. The guys who stop by sometimes take one look and act like they've been served poison."

"Huh? It's good. And it's free for staff — why would I turn it down?"

"Well, true. But most guys, once they're engaged to some rich noblewoman, end up eating way better than this every day."

"…Is that so? I'm not really interested in that kind of thing."

Getting engaged to a noble basically meant becoming part of that noble house, didn't it?

Sure, my original body had a family somewhere, but a commoner marrying into nobility was more or less the same as becoming their property. And once you were a noble's fiancé, you'd inevitably end up living under the weight of that person's power — and if things ever went south between you, someone with no connections like me would have nowhere left to stand inside that household.

I'd already had more than enough of being owned and dragged around in my previous life. I didn't need to put a collar around my own neck in this world too.

Besides, what I was interested in right now wasn't some engagement to a noble or a life of luxury built on male scarcity. It was Ellin-sunbae.

"Ellin-sunbae."

"Mm-hmm."

"After we finish eating, want another massage today?"

"Ngeh?!"

I still didn't fully understand what my Unique Ability did to people. I needed her help to figure it out a little more.