The Young Lady's Tantrum
"I'd like to come along. The Azure Dragon Hall may have business there that needs my help..."
"No. Can you imagine how odd it would look, a classmate trailing behind me going 'Master, Master'?"
"...Hm."
It wasn't that I'd mind having Cheonghwa along — I simply didn't want to lean too heavily on the Azure Dragon Hall. I intended to settle this on my own terms.
"Same reason applies to you, Yeoryeong. And Seoyeon, not you either."
"But I'm your guardian, Leehyun..."
"And you're the Academy Chancellor. I'm not about to push my way through with raw connections."
"...Very well. I'll consider support at the institutional level, then."
I was grateful that she'd wanted to come along to ease my guilt, but each of them had their own roles to fill within the Academy, and none of them were in a position to leave.
"Then I'll go with you!"
"You, Harin?"
"Yes. Would that not be fine? Nobody here knows I work as a maid, after all."
"Hmm... that's true enough."
If she came along, it would be nothing short of a blessing for me.
"Oh, wonderful! If Mother goes with you, then on the surface it looks like a maid-master relationship... ah!"
Jinyul had been grinning ear to ear as she started to speak, then suddenly froze and clamped her mouth shut.
What was that about?
"...Jinyul. You will apologize to our Master. How dare you strike at Master's sore spot with such a disrespectful remark."
"Huh? What?"
"W-well... Master is... uhhh..."
Why couldn't she spit it out now of all times?
"It's simple. The Master's parents are dead, are they not."
"Oh. That's what it was?"
So that's what Jinyul had said to nearly insult me?
"Stand up straight, Mu Jinyul!"
"Ah... yes, Master!"
Jinyul came scurrying over to my side, standing at rigid attention.
"Uuuu... Master, I'm sorry..."
"It's fine. It wasn't like you genuinely meant to insult my parents."
"B-but still..."
"Just don't do it again. Understood?"
"Yes...!"
Everyone else looked visibly rattled, so I figured I needed to make the point firmly, if nothing else.
"So, Harin will be coming with me?"
"Yes."
I had nothing but gratitude for Harin. She devoted herself tirelessly to everyone living in this house... she'd given me Jinyul... and she'd promised to give me children of my own someday... ahem.
"Thank you. Once finals are over, should we go on a little date together?"
"I'd love that!"
The least I could offer in return was some time alone with her, just the two of us.
"Uuu... I'm jealous..."
Yuryeon looked envious beside me. Actually, no — though she hid it well, every one of them was looking at Harin with those eyes.
"What, jealous?"
"Of course I am! I know it can't be helped, everyone knows that, but I still think about how nice it would be to spend some cozy time with you, just the two of us."
Well, fair enough. One man, and this many women hanging off him — it was only natural.
"Then let's do this. Whoever scores the best in the practical exam gets a date with me too."
"Ooooh~ that's my darling! Now that's fairness! And that's peace!"
The moment the words left my mouth, Elena burst into a standing ovation.
"Hey! How are any of us supposed to beat the actual saint here?"
"Agreed. Sounds grand and all, but isn't the winner already decided?"
Hmm, good point.
"Then how about everyone except Elena..."
"NOOOOO!!!"
This time it was Elena, shrieking.
"Calm down. I'll go on a date with you regardless."
"S-scolding me is one th... you really mean it?"
"...Yeah. Of course."
She wasn't an easy one to soothe.
"Did everyone hear that? In order to boost our morale, Master has offered his own cock as the prize. Let us all do our utmost to live up to Master's expectations in the practical exam."
Cheonghwa was kind enough to summarize for everyone.
...Though I feel like something in the middle got badly garbled there.
"Boost morale... his cock... tsk. No matter how I think about it, that Yu Cheonghwa is not a well woman either."
I found myself nodding along to Seolhwi's faint muttering beside me.
"Then I'll see you at the arena in a little while."
Cheonghwa and the girls headed off early to watch the practical evaluations. It was currently another class's period — a different grade, even — so arriving a bit late wouldn't matter in the slightest.
"Harin! Shall we head out too?"
"Yes! Just one moment... aaah?!"
A faint whimpering drifted out from deeper inside the room. What on earth was she doing back there?
"Right then, shall we go?"
"...Whoa."
After a short wait, I understood exactly why Harin had taken so long to come out.
Her shirt was evidently far too small to contain her enormous chest — a few buttons had flat-out burst off, and the survivors were struggling valiantly to hold her breasts in place.
"Are you really planning to go out like that?"
"Hmm... does it not look pretty? Yeoryeong unnie dresses this daringly all the time..."
"No! That's not it at all! It's just... isn't it uncomfortable?"
Ugly? Not even close. She looked so gorgeous I wanted to drag her right back inside and dote on her. Since she was stepping out with me, Harin had apparently wanted to dress up as nicely as Yeoryeong always did.
Realizing that made her seem all the more endearing and admirable to me.
"Hehe... how is it? Do I look a bit more like a proper working woman?"
"Mmmh..."
And so, hand clasped tightly in Harin's, I stepped outside with her.
"Lord Hyun, you really will only apologize, as you said earlier — correct?"
"Of course. Why, don't you trust me?"
"No, I trust you, Lord Hyun... but that girl worries me. What if she feigns illness and tries to play on your sympathy?"
Harin narrowed her eyes. That jealous glint in her expression was so cute that I chuckled and gave her hand a gentle pat.
"Don't worry. With you at my side, there's no chance my eyes will wander to another woman."
"Hehe... you'd better keep that promise, you know?"
We strolled along chatting quietly, and before I knew it, we'd arrived at our destination.
"What business do you have here?"
Sinister-looking men in black suits blocked our path at the door. Agents of the Prometheus Guild.
"I'm Hwan Yihyeon. I've come to visit my fellow student, Kang Sera."
"Ah... so you're the one the Guildmaster mentioned. Go right in."
Kang Muhyuk must have tipped them off in advance — the moment I showed my credentials, they stepped aside without protest.
Creeeak.
I eased the hospital room door open, and a pitch-black interior greeted my eyes. Despite it being broad daylight, every curtain was drawn, leaving the room dark as a cellar.
"GET OUT!!! I told you nobody comes in!!"
On the bed, I could see a figure trembling under a blanket pulled all the way over her head.
Kang Sera.
"It's me. Hwan Yihyeon."
"...!"
The moment she heard my voice, the movement under the blanket stopped dead. Then, after a beat, the covers were flung back, revealing Kang Sera with her hair a wild, tangled mess.
Her eyes were puffy and swollen, and her face was contorted with rage, shame, and sheer disbelief.
"You... how dare you crawl in here? Do you even know where you are?!"
She snatched the crystal vase off the nightstand and hurled it at me.
Crash!!
I ducked my head lightly to the side. Shattered glass sprayed across the floor.
"I came to apologize. During the match... I think I went too far."
"Apologize? Too far? Ha... hahahaha...!"
Sera burst into hollow, incredulous laughter — laughter tinged with something dangerously close to madness.
"Hey, Hwan Yihyeon. Don't flatter yourself. You think a bottom-feeder like you gets to pity me?"
"...?"
"You defiled my noble body with some filthy lowborn trick, and you thought a single apology would wrap it all up? The entire school saw it! I, the heiress of Prometheus... because of a piece of trash like you, I pissed myself and had my most private parts exposed to... the WHOLE WORLD saw it!!"
She was screaming with pure spite. For a woman welded together from pride and a supreme sense of chosen-ness, being defeated and humiliated before a commoner like me must have been an unbearable insult.
A heaviness settled in my chest. Granted, it was a sparring match — but seeing it from her side of things, I had to admit I'd gone too far.
And that was when it happened.
"Miss Kang Sera. Please compose yourself."
Harin, standing behind me, took a step forward.
"Yihyeon came here because he was worried about you. Please calm your anger a little, and..."
"...And who are you?"
Sera's sharp gaze snapped onto Harin. She looked her up and down, then wrinkled her nose in disgust and covered it with her hand.
"I've come in my capacity as his guardian. My name is Mu Harin."
"Guardian? Ha! Now that's a joke."
Sera staggered down from the bed. Her bare feet nearly landed on the shattered glass, and she couldn't have cared less.
"Guardian my ass — you're a bargain-bin prostitute, aren't you? I can tell just by looking."
"...I beg your pardon?"
Had I misheard that? What had she just called Harin?
"...That is going too far."
Harin's brow twitched. But she kept her composure and continued speaking.
"I am Yihyeon's..."
"Shut it. Don't open your mouth in front of me — you reek of the gutter."
Sera's venom had blown clean past every line and was barreling off the rails entirely. She strode right up to Harin's face and spat at her with contempt in her eyes.
"You reek of someone raised with no parents. Skipped the home upbringing, did you? barging into someone's hospital room uninvited, and not even lifting a finger when your own trash household comes shoving its face in."
"..."
"Flashing those tits and spreading your legs to land men is the only survival skill you've got, isn't it? How much? If you need money, just say so. I'll throw you about as much as our family dog's food costs — so bark."
"...That's enough, isn't it? Don't cross the line."
"Shut your mouth, you orphan bitch. Oh — I get it now. You wanted her to act like your mommy, didn't you? Must've cost you a pretty penny, hmm?"
Sera didn't stop. Kang Muhyuk had surely given her some kind of warning about me, but she seemed to have blotted it entirely from memory. No — more than that, her father's warning had simply never mattered to her in the first place.
Because she was special. Because she was chosen.
Rotting from the inside with the elite-hunter's sense of superiority, she'd never even bothered to learn who she was talking to before opening her mouth like that.
"What? Nothing to say, since it hit the mark?"
"You... worthless. You truly are beyond saving."
"How DARE you presume to judge me?!"
CRACK!!
A sharp percussive sound split the hospital room.
Harin's head was turned to the side, and a red handprint was blooming vividly across her white cheek.
"......"
What followed was a stretch of dead silence.
A suffocating quiet hung over the room.
Sera stood panting, her hand still raised, showing no sign of lowering it. Without even a flicker of awareness of what she'd just done, she looked outright proud — arrogant, as if she'd just delivered a long-overdue lesson.
"Look at me like that again, you gutter trash, and see what happens."
"Harin...!"
I rushed to her side in alarm. The red handprint stood out against her pale cheek like a scar.
"Whew..."
Harin exhaled a long, deep breath with her head bowed. Her fists were clenched so tight they'd gone white.
I could feel it. In that instant, a killing intent had surged up out of Harin's body, straining to burst free. She was a woman who, with nothing more than a flick of her wrist, could have torn Sera limb from limb if she'd so chosen.
But Harin held it back.
For my sake. For my dignity, and for the relationship I would need to build with Kang Muhyuk going forward. She knew that if she killed Sera on the spot, it would put me in an impossible position — and so she endured that absurd, grotesque humiliation alone.
"...Lord Hyun."
Harin lifted her head. She forced a smile as if nothing had happened, but tears were welling and brimming at the corners of her eyes.
"...I'm quite alright."
The moment I saw that face —
"She's merely throwing a tantrum, the spoiled little rich girl. Raised so preciously, I suppose she simply doesn't know how the world works."
Thud.
Inside me, I heard something snap.