Chapter 203
Stop being so damn cool...
"Alright, Seol-ah, Round 1 eliminated~"
Lee Seo-yeon's perky voice echoed in my head. Her voice was so clear and precise that she could've been a perfect announcer, but right now, it was just fanning the flames of my frustration. I immediately decided to reactivate my mana circuits and protest over there. I needed to vent my grievances, or this stuffiness in my chest wouldn't go away.
But for now, things weren't going my way.
"...Ngh."
Baek Sion's signature prickling killing intent was still lingering in my body, making it impossible to control my mana freely. Among all the powerhouses out there, most relied primarily on mana for combat, so someone like Baek Sion who wielded killing intent was a rare breed. That's exactly why he stood at the pinnacle of Astasia's strongest—he excelled at dismantling magic with his killing intent. Reversing spells, shattering them outright, infiltrating mana circuits to disrupt future casts... In mobile game terms, he was a total counter pick.
Using magic in this unstable state would be like asking for a self-destruct, so I started slowly expelling the foreign energy still swirling inside me. Sure, I was caught off guard this time, but if I hadn't panicked, who knows what would've happened—I tell myself that, anyway. Still, showing even a split-second opening against Baek Sion was game over.
His killing intent didn't harm my body directly, but it wasn't easy to recover from. Come to think of it, since we got back to Earth, I don't think he's ever gone this serious on me before.
Was he that desperate to see me in a maid outfit...?
"Hey, could you maybe dispel this already...? This thing?"
Then it hit me—why was I struggling to push it out myself? All Baek Sion had to do was retract the killing intent he'd unleashed. I'd dealt with demons who wielded it before, so it wasn't that alien a sensation, but his had this weird, sticky quality to it. Hard to put into words... viscous, maybe?
But Baek Sion just stood there staring at me before suddenly addressing... not me, but the empty air.
"A maid using casual speech? What should we do about that?"
"What are you even—"
I snorted and took a step toward him, but Lee Seo-yeon's voice rang out in my head again.
"Sticking to maid duties today is mandatory~"
...No. There's no rule saying maids have to use formal speech. Isn't wearing the outfit enough?
But when the "staff"—aka Lee Seo-yeon playing director—says it like that, that's the final word. We'd agreed on the penalty before the fight even started, so I couldn't exactly throw a tantrum.
Baek Sion's piercing gaze was begging for a slap, but I gritted my teeth and forced the words out slowly.
"...Please get rid of this quickly... ngh, sir..."
My pride wasn't just shattered—it was ground to dust. Formal speech to Baek Sion, of all people? He was my husband, sure, but also my closest friend and rival. Begging him like that? My ego was screaming.
He's probably keeping the killing intent up on purpose just to make me do this...
But I needed my body back to normal first if I wanted to argue or whatever. Baek Sion smirked, scraping at my pride one more time, but he cleanly retracted the killing intent.
"So?"
I blanked for a second, not getting what he meant. Then it clicked—protesting would be tough in my current spot. How do you explain to others that "master play" threw me off? Even if I swallowed my shame and spoke up, he obviously wouldn't give me a rematch.
I racked my brain, but there was no way to flip the results.
"...Hah."
Sticking around Baek Sion would just lead to more formal speech disasters, so I left him behind and headed to the kitchen where the other three were.
...I'm so pissed. Always trying to win with cheap tricks. That perfectly tuned teasing tone of his. And the most infuriating part? Even buried under defeat and helplessness, a faint tickle was starting in my lower belly.
Remembering last time when he infiltrated me with killing intent and locked me out of climaxing... Is my body reacting to him like this again? But this isn't some erotic situation—it's just a group-agreed penalty. No matter how you slice it, this goes beyond mere perversion.
Get a grip, Yoo Seol-ah...
"Ah, good work~"
Thankfully, by the time I reached the kitchen, I'd regained some composure. The anger was still there, though.
Once Baek Sion followed me in, Lee Seo-yeon clapped lightly to welcome us.
"Wow, but that was seriously cool, right? Check this out."
I'd already severed all connections to the puppets, so I peered at the tablet Lee Seo-yeon was holding. Probably footage from Doyun oppa's camera. It showed the royal combat unit member and Ruinele unnie.
I figured SD characters—basically 2-head-tall chibis—could only look so impressive in a fight, but seeing Baek Sion's synced Liana changed my mind.
"See that? The part where he deflects the bullet mid-fight?"
"......"
On screen, the bullets were marked as little red dots. I'd wondered how he'd dodged the third one I'd left as a trap, but one of those three shield-breaking slashes was actually to knock it away.
...I thought I'd hidden it well. How'd he spot it?
From a third-person view, the fight undeniably looked badass. Baek Sion, now playfully swinging a styrofoam sword, had this effortless coolness in real combat.
...If he was only moderately cool, I could've denied it out of spite and pettiness. But no, so I just clamped my mouth shut.
"To pull off combat motions this fluid on a computer? The cost wouldn't be cheap."
Doyun oppa's excited tone drove it home. I'd never seen SD characters in a mobile game move this naturally and smoothly in battle. He'd mentioned before that fewer joints make expressive motion harder.
"But in a game, shouldn't there be spins and stuff?"
Baek Sion was chatting game dev with Doyun oppa.
...I figured he'd tease me the second he got here, but nope. Sneakily diligent like that—it's even more annoying.
"This has a nice, concise feel. We can go flashy when a flashy character shows up, right? You can handle it all anyway."
"Oh, like this?"
Earlier, Liana's sword strikes had that restrained coolness matching Baek Sion's style—flashy simplicity was useless in real fights anyway. But now, as he amped up his killing intent slightly, spun his body, and swung the sword? It was like a game character come to life. Less practical, sure, but "sword dance" fit perfectly.
...Why does everything he does look so cool...?
At least make it awkward. Top-tier action stars couldn't even pull off what he did with body enhancement, and from my angle, his looks outshone any actor. No room for nitpicking.
"Even I can tell combat quality like this means no worries there. Considering most games are cross-platform phone-PC now, this beats the competition."
Yuna unnie's words left me no room to argue. As I silently acknowledged Baek Sion's skills, he dropped a curveball.
"Seol-ah's puppet hit 100% sync rate. That's the only way it'd move like that."
"......"
...Suddenly?
I stared at him blankly, but he kept going.
"I saw it before—the real proportions look way higher quality."
"True, without Seol-ah, it'd be pointless from the start."
Even Lee Seo-yeon joined in, and suddenly all eyes were on me.
...Why the sudden praise fest...?
"Plus, linking them up took a ton of mana anyway."
"...Why are you suddenly like this...?"
Creating and syncing the puppets did drain a fair bit of mana—not negligible, and it did affect the fight somewhat—but his sudden ego-boost had me suspicious.
Seol-ah, looking a tad smug, stared right at me.
"...What's with the sudden change...?"
"'What's with' is casual speech."
"......"
But seeing her lips twitch at the praise? No letting that slide. Win's a win, process be damned. Time to enjoy my day-one maid.
I turned to the coat rack with the maid outfit. Seol-ah, looking exasperated, snatched it up with gritted teeth and stormed off somewhere.
'Hit me then heal me—what the hell...!' she grumbled to herself. Bonus.