Drunk on Her Scent (2)

Her breath brushed against my neck, carrying an emotion so intense it felt like it might explode. Thump— thump— thump— thump— Her heartbeat and body heat pressed against me, both rising higher and higher. Something round and glistening began to roll from her eyes, tracing a path down her cheeks. I’d heard that some women cried when their emotions peaked, even in situations like this. Was she one of them?

It was incredibly strange and puzzling that she would feel this way toward a skeleton like me. But right now, none of that mattered.

She bit her lip hard, then slowly opened her tightly shut eyes and spoke with great difficulty.

I had felt firsthand yesterday just how powerful her commands could be when backed by strong will. But this “stop” carried no compulsion at all. In fact, my instincts told me that stopping now would only cause problems.

I brought my face closer to her neck as she cried out for me to spare her, inhaling her scent. The concentration of her body odor was strikingly different from what I’d sensed as a skeleton. It coursed through me and slammed into my brain.

‘So sweet… What a wonderful scent.’

Drunk on her fragrance, I leaned in closer without thinking—and my lips accidentally brushed against the side of her neck, just below her ear.

She flinched violently. Her body jerked and trembled as she began to resist in earnest. Arms, torso, head—she struggled desperately to get away from me. The tears that had been falling drop by drop now streamed down in a single line, dripping to the floor.

Of course… If someone with little experience was suddenly thrown into a situation like this, it made sense that her first instinct would be to escape. I hadn’t meant for this to happen either. This wasn’t my fault—it was because Yeonhee was simply too alluring.

‘Hoo… Maybe I should dial it back a bit. I can’t make her reject me this early.’

The distance between us, which had slowly begun to widen, returned to the perfect range for our eyes to meet.

‘…About what?’

I genuinely didn’t understand.

She couldn’t finish the sentence and simply sobbed. If she kept making that face and crying like this, it was honestly making me want to do it for real. This girl had no idea how men’s minds worked.

I gently brushed aside her slightly disheveled bangs and wiped away the tears from her wet eyes in her place. She stared up at me, lips trembling, before finally speaking with great effort.

"??"

"......"

She was completely at my mercy, yet here she was cutely giving me orders. How adorable.

Chu—!

Even as tears poured down her face, she was trying so hard to look resolute. She was so cute that I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠unconsciously kissed her forehead.

"――!!"

Her startled reaction was exactly like a rabbit’s. It was fatally charming… almost dangerously so. Her face, which I thought couldn’t get any redder, flushed like a ripe tomato. She flailed her arms wildly and suddenly shouted a spell.

"Ehh??"

Thud!

‘Huh?’

Yeonhee had summoned three lizards at once, placing them in the space between us. Three at the same time? Had she suddenly awakened or something? No, that wasn’t the issue right now.

The three lizards that had been abruptly called forth stared blankly at me and snorted. Their massive bodies completely hid Yeonhee from view.

‘Oh… So this is how you can use them.’

Thanks to the summons, the distance between us had increased dramatically. Yeonhee bolted back into her room, slammed the door shut, and locked it.

Bang—!

‘She keeps slamming the door like that… We’re going to get noise complaints.’

I scratched the back of my head and realized that my remaining time in Mimicry was almost up.

Yeonhee had burrowed back under the blankets, twisting and turning restlessly. Her breathing was still ragged. Every now and then she’d clutch at her hair and mutter things like “I don’t know” and “What do I do?”

It looked like she’d be like that for a while.

‘Slowly… I need to guide her so she can follow without any resistance…’

I decided to steer my thoughts in a different direction for now.

‘It should be fine to step out for a bit, right? The lizard unit is here.’

The three lizardmen who had been suddenly summoned bowed to me, then—as always—gathered in the corner and began chattering away in their own language.

I pulled up the minimap in my mind.

‘Let’s see… Hmm? He’s gone that far already?’

The sinister bastard had moved more than 900 meters away. The fact that he was moving back and forth quickly on the map suggested he was using some kind of vehicle. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠good news was that he, who had been paused for a moment, was now heading in my direction. If things went well, he might even enter the range of my senses.

Seven minutes remaining.

I put on my shoes and leaped out the window with all my strength. Of course, Stealth was already active. I spread the Gliding Cloak while soaring high into the sky, then mixed in High-Speed Flight intermittently as I headed toward the target.

Below me, I could see tightly packed villa buildings. Telephone poles raced past behind me. Every time I used High-Speed Flight, a massive surge of mana erupted from the tips of my feet.

Since this was my first time, controlling my direction accurately wasn’t easy. Bang—! Bang—! Bang—! It felt as if I had become one with bullets fired into the air. That was exactly what was happening to me right now.

Every time I used the skill to tear through the air and surge forward, it felt like a giant wall was shoving me from behind.

‘Ugh… The pressure is no joke…!’

Since I was in a human body with drastically reduced stats, the impact felt far more intense. Resistance: -35(-50). A negative value I had never experienced in my life. I wasn’t sure if I could even reach my destination in this state.

On top of that, High-Speed Flight consumed 5 mana each time I used it. Using it repeatedly quickly drained my mana to less than half.

I paused in a gliding state and pulled out the Water Pitcher of the Forgotten Ancient Empire, the item that had recently become quite popular, and poured its water all over my body. It was still midwinter, so the outside air was bitterly cold.

"Ah— hah-guh. (Ah— it’s cold.)"

If I were a real person, pouring water on myself in this weather would have been suicidal, but for me it was just a mild chill. Once Irmana's Blessing applied itself imperfectly, even that became bearable. My mana recovery speed also increased, allowing me to reach the target location in under two minutes.

It was 433 meters from the house—the maximum distance I could move away from Yeonhee. I chose the most suitable spot in the middle of the city to subdue the target and drag him to a secluded area.

I waited on the second floor of a building at the corner of an alley for him to pass by.

I spotted the target rapidly approaching on a two-lane road. He was wearing the uniform of the country’s largest delivery company and was riding a motorcycle while making deliveries.

‘So delivery is his main job.’

When he got within 30 meters, he parked his vehicle on the side of the road, grabbed a delivery bag, and ran into a building.

‘Okay. That building is safe.’

I followed him inside and struck his head with carefully controlled force.

Thump—

I dragged the unconscious man ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into the bathroom located in the middle of the second-floor hallway.

‘This guy’s combat ability is pathetic too.’

He was even weaker than the woman I had dealt with yesterday. I locked the bathroom door and immediately kicked him in the stomach.

The man clutched his stomach and curled up tightly. Since I had mixed in Stagnation, his mind must have been quite disoriented.

He looked like a young man in his mid-twenties. He appeared completely ordinary on the surface. I wondered what exactly this guy had done to be marked as a “bad guy” by the system.

I didn’t have time to test him leisurely like last time, but I still needed to do the minimum amount of verification. I held up one of the notes I had prepared last night in front of his eyes.

He flinched hard. Seeing his startled reaction, it seemed he really was a member of the Blue Eye. Even with a 50% chance, I had guessed correctly. I felt pretty good. Today really was a day where everything would go my way.

I hadn’t brought the shadow cloak with me, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so I wasn’t wearing it. The guy pinned to the floor by me knew that if he spoke, he would die. He began spouting the cliché line that he hadn’t done anything.

Just as I was thinking about killing him and going home, I noticed something strange. The packaging container inside the delivery bag he had been carrying. When I focused my senses on it, there was no food inside.

I immediately opened the container. Inside were dozens of syringes and packets of blue powder wrapped tightly in plastic and sealed inside black bags.

I made a small hole in one of the powder packets to examine it. I couldn’t judge it by taste, but the filthy, tangled flow of mana was something I had seen a few times in my previous life.

"Ah-eh—"

Surprisingly, it was a drug known as ‘Inbam.’ A new type of narcotic manufactured by mixing existing street drugs like cocaine and crack with new substances obtained from dungeons. Even in tiny amounts, it provided extreme pleasure, the languid sweetness of falling into deep sleep. In reality, it was essentially a deadly poison.

Even hunters with strong bodies would die within three years of starting to inhale it—over 90% mortality rate. It was an extremely toxic substance. However, because it produced a stronger effect using only one-fifth the amount of existing drugs, its profitability was outstanding. It had spread through the underworld and risen to the surface in the blink of an eye.

‘So that’s where the money was coming from…’

Not all the Blue Eye members could be pulling their own weight. Yet the organization had shown no hesitation in expanding its scale. That would have been impossible without financial backing. To think they were making money through such dirty work behind the scenes.

‘……This is giving me a headache.’

Whoosh—!

"Aaaagh! G-get that away!"

I brought a fireball close to his face and shook another note in front of him.

Swish—!

But even as he spoke, he summoned a hand axe from his inventory and swung it toward where he guessed I was standing. The unhesitating way he swung it at head level showed he had quite a bit of experience attacking people.

Thud—

But the arm he had swung was already lying on the floor. I didn’t want to waste any more time here.

As the man screamed at the sight of his severed arm, I drove the dagger I had just used back into his throat.

……After the gurgling sound of bubbles continued for a moment, the bathroom fell silent as if nothing had happened. I shoved the corpse and the drugs into my inventory and quickly left the scene.

Watching the resistance stat rise by a tiny +1, I leisurely returned home.

Tap—

Even though I had been gone for a short while, Yeonhee was still buried under the blankets, kicking her feet restlessly. But she didn’t look particularly upset. On the contrary, the mana surrounding her was swirling more vibrantly than ever before.