Are You Seriously Telling Me to Do This?
"Isabelle, I called you because there's something I want to ask. Sit wherever you're comfortable."
The wet sound of sucking continued as Noa lifted her lips just enough to speak. "Or would you like to join us, sis? It's been a while for you too!"
Isabelle shook her head at the invitation. "Of course I'd love to join, but I should handle my Master's orders first. Whatever he wants to ask seems related to that unfamiliar Saintess sitting next to Noa."
"You figured that out just from one look?"
"Roughly. By intuition. This woman is a Saintess like us, yet her insides are completely hollow. I can't sense anything inside her body, so I'm guessing you used Incineration on her soul?"
Isabelle glanced briefly at Hana, then sat on the edge of the bed and crossed her legs. In that fleeting moment, she had already pierced through the woman's core. This mysterious Saintess who manipulated souls already knew exactly why she'd been summoned.
Impressed as always by her sharpness, I skipped the explanations and went straight to the main point. "Can you possess this woman the same way you did with Luna?"
Natsuki Hana's body was nothing but a puppet shell. A disposable vessel meant to approach the Japanese branch and Yumekawa Harumu. And the only one who could properly use this shell was Isabelle.
If Isabelle could possess Hana's body, she could get close to Harumu. I might finally learn something about that woman who kept nagging at the back of my mind. Using Hana's body to dig up information on both Yumekawa Harumu and the Japanese branch was my current plan.
Of course, it was a plan cooked up by Choi Woo-joo, an ordinary South Korean citizen, against a secret international organization. Deciding whether it was feasible or had any chance of success wasn't my job. That responsibility fell to the veteran in this field.
I watched Isabelle stub out her cigarette and fall into thought, chin resting on her hand.
"...There's no issue with the possession itself. Since there's no soul left to resist me, it should actually be easy."
"Then..."
"Before that, I need to confirm something."
Isabelle had somehow already picked up one of Hana's belongings. She pulled out a notebook, flipped through it, and read at high speed. Once she finished, her eyes lifted to Noa.
"Noa, I've confirmed this woman belongs to the organization. What was her purpose in coming to Korea from the Japanese branch? Tell me everything you investigated. Don't leave out a single detail. Something feels off."
"Natsuki Hana, twenty-six years old. A new recruit who only recently became an agent. The reason she came to Korea was to secure the identity of a trainee who defected from the same Japanese branch."
"...Securing the identity of a defector trainee? What is she hiding? Yumekawa Kaede..."
"...Yumekawa Kaede?"
I tilted my head at the familiar voice speaking an unfamiliar name.
"Ah, Yumekawa Kaede is the mother of Yumekawa Harumu, the one you encountered, Master. She was the eldest daughter-in-law of the Yumekawa conglomerate that runs Haru Pharmaceuticals in Japan, and served as the Japanese branch's top operative."
The revelation that she came from a chaebol family wasn't particularly surprising. The size of the settlement money I'd received had already told me she was from serious wealth.
"But you said 'was.' Past tense?"
"Yumekawa Kaede retired two weeks ago after suffering a finger amputation injury."
"Even before that, I heard she lost to a seventeen-year-old rookie in sparring, had her performance record overtaken, and basically lost all her reputation while being thoroughly humiliated. It was her own karma. Her colleagues never thought much of her anyway, but to have her entire career caught up to in just three months..."
"...That's fucking wild. Who the hell was that rookie?"
"Me."
"............"
Isabelle raised her hand slightly, wearing a smug little smile. So it was you. The look on her face seemed to say, Impressive, right? It was like a usually aloof cat suddenly acting cute on a whim.
"Wait... why did sis just mention the name Yumekawa..."
"The notebook this woman was carrying had the Haru Pharmaceuticals logo stamped on it."
Isabelle waved Hana's notebook at Noa, who was tilting her head just like I was.
"I was worried their reason for coming to Korea might involve the Master's identity, but fortunately that's not the case. Especially if Yumekawa Kaede had caught on, things would have become extremely annoying."
"...Well, if there aren't any major issues, you can slip into the Japanese branch using this body first..."
"That's impossible, Master."
Huh? Why? Was my plan really that sloppy?
"...Master, please don't make that face. It seems you've misunderstood. There's a separate reason. My next mission location is Japan. I've been on standby until now due to the accompanying agent's personal circumstances, but the order came down today. The local agent has completed preparations, so I'm to depart tomorrow."
"...Huh? The accompanying agent, you don't mean..."
"What you're thinking is correct. My companion is Yumekawa Harumu. Starting the day after tomorrow, I'll be carrying out the mission in Japan with her. On top of that, they said one more local agent will be joining this mission..."
Me, Isabelle, and Noa all turned our gazes in the same direction.
"Right here. The woman currently licking Master's cock, this Natsuki Hana, will also be going."
A dull pain throbbed through one side of my skull, like the world itself was fucking with me. Why? Not a single part of my carefully laid plan was working out. The fact that Isabelle was being deployed for a mission in two days was already a massive variable, and now this empty-shelled Natsuki Hana was apparently an agent who had to join her.
"...Um, what about something like a possession clone technique...? No good...?"
My fried brain spat out nonsense in a stutter.
"Even for me, maintaining possession while creating a clone is... difficult."
The way Isabelle seriously answered my stupid babbling only made my chest hurt worse.
What now? Should I send Hana back immediately? No, sending back only this drooling, brain-dead body would be dangerous. But if I didn't send her back, it would be like openly advertising 'Please come find me~'. Uh... um... what the hell should I do?
"...I kind of regret not holding back a little... No, this bitch threw the first low blow. I don't regret shit!"
"Master's owner seems to have broken..."
"People tend to end up like this when they're cornered. Weren't we the same right before we became Saintesses?"
I kept muttering to myself while gently shaking Hana's limp body. The sympathetic looks from both women kept poking at my sides and chest. Stop looking at me like that...
"...Ugh, forget it! There has to be a way out! Let's think, think..."
I buried my face in the bed, repeating the words to myself as I sank into thought. It felt like the despair of finishing a report only to forget to save it, but I had to overcome this somehow. Giving up on a report just meant losing credits. Giving up now would put me and everyone around me in danger.
Were there any useful characters written on the mask? Slave? Puppet? No, those could only move an empty body. Modification? There was nothing left to change on this blank slate, so it wouldn't do anything.
Was there really no character that could let me perfectly act as the person 'Natsuki Hana'?
There had to be one...
"...Huh?"
I was pressing my face against the back of the mask, reading the tiny characters, when I noticed it.
One character was sparkling in an extremely faint jade color. A character I had never been able to read before. Had this been engraved on the mask from the beginning?
It felt unfamiliar, but this was definitely related to Isabelle's...
"...If it's this one, then certainly..."
"Master? What's wrong?"
I understood the power of this character. If I used it, I could move 'Natsuki Hana' without the Japanese branch noticing. The mission two days from now should go off without a hitch.
But...
"Master...? You're sweating buckets. What exactly are you looking at... Hm? This character... Master, don't tell me... You're actually planning to use this?!"
"...It doesn't look like there's any other way."
No matter how many times I looked at it, the character was so absurd it only made me laugh bitterly. The method of using it was equally ridiculous. It was a dangerous, grotesque character I really didn't want to use. I had no idea what kind of side effects it might cause. But if this was the only breakthrough available...
I had to make a decision.
"...Isabelle. Noa."
"Yes?"
"......"
Noa, who hadn't read the character yet, answered brightly. Isabelle, on the other hand, wore a complex, subtle smile I'd never seen on her face before.
"You two... are going to have to help me out a bit..."
"To think you would vanish without so much as a word. Where exactly did you go, Hana?"
In a hanok hotel that perfectly blended antique elegance with luxury, I took the hand offered by Lady Harumu, who had just finished bathing, and led her into the room.
"...My apologies, my lady. I was briefly speaking with a Korean branch agent I encountered yesterday..."
"Was it such an urgent matter that you couldn't even stay until the end of my coming-of-age ceremony?"
"...I am truly sorry."
Lady Harumu's body, wrapped in a large towel, was both delicate and breathtaking. Her skin was so pure and white that it overshadowed even the scars left by her harsh ordeals. A narrow waist, a plump peach-like rear, and breasts shaped like falling droplets of dew. It was almost too much beauty for my eyes to bear, so I looked away as I draped a robe over her shoulders.
"It was a joke. Actually, I was relieved you weren't there, Hana. I didn't want to show you the sight of the hands you once called beautiful stained by my blade."
"........"
"...Did Mother say nothing?"
"...Yes. Lady Kaede conveyed no messages..."
Her wet white hair, even the strands faded by endless 'education,' looked beautiful. I had no way of knowing what thoughts lay behind those deep gray eyes.
"...Tomorrow I will become Mother's successor. My heart is racing. Is this excitement? Or is it fear? My brothers and Mother would tell me not to harbor even such emotions... What do you think, Hana? Have I become a fine adult today? Am I allowed to feel excitement? Am I allowed to feel fear?"
"...My lady."
"Hehe, I'm sorry. That was a joke as well. Today's version of you is so gentle that I ended up talking too much without realizing it."
The lady dried her white hair, lay down on the bedding, and followed the sound of my voice with her faded eyes.
"...Please take good care of me tomorrow as well. Good night, Hana..."
"...Yes."
I watched her gently close her eyes for a moment before opening the door and stepping into the hallway.
This was 'Natsuki Hana's' speech pattern and lifestyle. Fortunately, even Harumu, who was close to her, showed no sign of noticing anything amiss.
"...Hoo."
Letting out a sigh, I entered the room next to Harumu—no, next to Lady Harumu's—and looked at myself in the mirror.
Sweat trickled down my stiff facial muscles. The sharp eyes that had been honed by intellect and dignity softened. I removed the glasses in my dizzy vision, wiped away the sweat, and let out a deep breath.
"Haa... Fuck, my heart's pounding so hard...!!"
The character sparkling on Natsuki Hana's forehead read Possession.
I was seeing that character through Hana's eyes. Touching it with Hana's hands.
"...Haa, why the hell did it have to come to this..."
Choi Woo-joo, a healthy Korean man in his twenties, had become the female secretary of a Japanese conglomerate family.
Fuck. I never wanted to end up like this either.