Weekend?
"Hngh... nnngh..."
"Haaah..."
I gave Liliana's plump ass a smack — still buried face-down in the mattress, riding out the aftershocks of climax — and climbed out of bed.
Scarlet was panting beside her. Every time I'd driven into Liliana, that tail of hers had taken revenge on Scarlet for an equal share of the pleasure.
"Scarlet. Pulling intel like this in a single day — you really are Iris elite."
"Th-thank you..."
She was roughly the same age as Professor Lim Sol or Baek A-young, and watching her twitch on our bed, soiling the sheets with her juices after getting caught by a wicked succubus, was honestly a little pathetic.
"Get yourself together and head back. Bring me something good next time too."
"Y-yes."
Scarlet started putting her clothes back in order. Now that was more like an Iris elite.
She was in the top ten percent of stealth magic users. Ten-pro, maybe?
...Must be because I burned through too much yang energy. I'm having the dumbest thoughts.
If Liliana had overheard that one, she would've cursed me out for ruining a perfectly good mood.
I stretched and left the room. The world outside was going dark — just about bedtime. No additional notices had gone out, which meant I could probably walk around freely tomorrow. I'd found them the Fiend, stopped the terror attack, and even spoon-fed them the executive. I'd done the whole job for them. What was left to investigate?
I woke my smartwatch, and every notification I'd silenced during sex hit me at once.
"Did they all make a pact or something?"
I started working through the messages one by one.
"She's really in a bad mood."
I'd never gotten a reply that cold from her. It was exactly like those fights with a girlfriend where you'd stare at a message like this and have no idea how to answer — and that was precisely the situation I was in.
I had been a little hard on A-young. But it couldn't be helped. Baek A-young was already past the point of being able to leave me. How do you walk away from someone whose affection hit 99?
Part of me wanted to go to her right now, pull her into my arms, and tell her it was alright. But the world didn't work that cleanly. I had several women I needed to conquer right now. If I ran a pure-love route with each of them one at a time, I'd get a knife in the back and die. They say there's no upper or lower hand in romance — but here, if I didn't take the upper hand and hold it, I was finished. And if I couldn't do that, I needed to stop the conquest. Slow was fine. Perfect was mandatory. That was how I survived. If each one wasn't complete, the harem route meant nothing.
"Alright. I should at least reply."
The you reply half-heartedly, I reply half-heartedly tactic. A staple of couple fights where neither side will give an inch. Translation: I want to make up, but I don't want to apologize first.
I'd play it this way with Baek A-young for a while. If I waited, she'd eventually bow her head and come back on her own. That was the moment I'd take.
"Su-rin unnie, and... Elise too?"
I hadn't so much as texted Elise since we'd exchanged numbers — and she was the one who'd reached out first. I checked Mun Su-rin's message first.
"She's gotten a lot brighter."
She had to be exhausted from everything the terror attack had dumped on her. Did something good happen?
Never turn down a beauty and a free meal. I needed to see her anyway — check on her mental state. Looking at Everyday, things were starting to get dangerous.
There it was. It had finally come.
But there was something I needed to confirm first.
"Scarlet."
"Yes?"
She was stuck to the ceiling, just about to slip outside, when I called to her.
"You know Elise is looking for a mana masseuse, right?"
"Of course. It's classified, but I am something of a close aide."
She dropped from the ceiling and came to attention, hands folded, posture perfect. Excellent form.
"Find out how far things have progressed and report back immediately."
"Understood. Shall I find out as quickly as possible?"
As expected of an ace — she read the play before I'd finished calling it. I nodded.
"Yeah. The sooner the better."
"Yes!"
Scarlet clenched a fist, stuck herself back to the ceiling, and slithered out like a lizard — shushushuk.
Everything about her was great except that. Could she not do that? Honestly, every time I had sex with Liliana the image crept in and wrecked my focus. It put the stupidest thought in my head — that she might suddenly peel off the ceiling naked and escape mid-thrust.
She was still just Liliana's support act, but... doing it together was pretty hot, I had to admit. So I'd get the urge to fuck Scarlet, and then that pose would flash through my mind and the urge would die on the spot.
"I really need to talk to her next time. Please just leave like a normal person."
Anyway. I needed solid information before I met Elise. Whether she was desperate or still had room to spare would decide how I played this.
"She talked such a big game. She'll find out soon enough, right?"
I held off on replying to Elise. Looking at the situation, I could afford to let her sit for a day or two.
Lucy had sent some MBTI thing. Apparently that was huge with girls these days.
Lucy and Rumi were the easy ones — we talked about ordinary, everyday things, so being around them was comfortable. I saw them more than anyone else, too.
"Can't let the friend vibe get too strong..."
Get too close and it becomes that much harder to take the relationship somewhere else. I wanted to do Lucy and Rumi cleanly too. The question was how.
"Hmm... ah. I used my brain too much. Headache."
I headed for the shower to cool my head.
Saturday morning.
I felt a presence and sat up. Scarlet was kneeling beside the bed.
"I've found it."
"...Already?"
"Yes. It's complete."
She lifted her head and gave me a thoroughly confident smile.
"Nn, alright. Report."
"Kyaaah...?!"
I wasn't fully awake, but I could take a briefing. I palmed the breast of Liliana sleeping beside me and looked at Scarlet. She watched Liliana's tail twitch and wander in her sleep, swallowed hard, and met my eyes.
"First, I estimate twenty-eight masseuses have made contact with Miss Elise. There may be some who were never put on record, but this figure is nearly certain."
"Twenty-eight... so how many was she seeing a day, then."
It had only been six days since Survival ended. Twenty-eight meant more than four massages a day.
"Every masseuse was a woman, and the last record appears to be a retired masseuse they brought in."
"Ohh... if they called in a retiree, they're almost out of people to call."
"Yes. They've summoned every active S-class masseuse through the upper A-class, as well as any masseuse with a distinctive specialty."
"She's desperate.... Good."
At this point I could probably walk in with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. Affection still mattered, of course, so I couldn't just say I won't do it unless you take your clothes off and kick the door down. I just needed to keep an appropriate line.
"Yes. I've compiled the materials here, so you can look over the details yourself."
"Thanks. Anything else unusual?"
"Miss Elise masturbated last night calling Lee Ho-yeon's name. Much more intensely than the night before. I have video. Shall I show you?"
"Uh... thanks. Give it to me for now."
At this rate I could just call it a massage and put it in. Not that I should conquer her that way.
"Good work. Want to stay here until Liliana wakes up?"
"Yes. I would be grateful if you would allow it!"
"Have you eaten breakfast?"
"Not yet."
"Then I'll make breakfast. Wait here."
I'd been living on delivery food lately and I could feel the grease settling into my body. Sometimes you just missed a proper Korean home-cooked meal. Sure, you could get that delivered too these days, but it had no soul. Every so often I got homesick for the feeling of my living-alone days. Today was one of those days.
"Y-you really don't have to!"
"It's fine. And why are you so stiff."
"Ah! It's a habit from reporting to my superiors!"
Scarlet sprang to her feet and started rubbing her thighs like she'd gotten a cramp.
"Ugh."
This girl was really something.
I opened the fridge and checked the ingredients. I was sure there'd been leftovers from the kimchi stew last time... gone?
"Hey. Where did it all go."
That insane succubus. Where had she put every last thing I'd bought?
I walked into the bedroom and pinched the nipple of Liliana, who was sleeping like the dead.
"Kyahk?! Aaahn! Wh-what! Are you crazy?"
"The green onions I chopped and the kimchi. Where are they."
"You weren't even going to eat it so I threw it out! It doesn't even taste good with chicken! Liar!"
"You little..."
Leave her unmanaged for five minutes and she started turning back into a delinquent. Kimchi chicken was delicious. They said you didn't fix a succubus, you just used her as she was — but it was clearly time to set some discipline.
"Come here."
I climbed onto the still-lying Liliana, straddled her, and reached down to start pulling her tail. I already knew this was her weak spot.
"Wh-what are you doing! Aah! Save me, Scout!"
"L-Lady Liliana...!"
Scarlet climbed onto the bed, froze between the two of us, and then her eyes met mine.
Hey. You take my side here or she's the one who'll punish you later.
...!
She read the look. Scarlet started pinning Liliana's arms and legs.
"I'm sorry!"
"Kyaah! Scout! You've really lost it! Aaahn! Master! I'm sorry! I actually threw it out knowing you'd come at me like this... hahp!"
"I knew it. You damn succubus. Open your mouth."
What the hell was going on in this girl's thought process.
"Ghk... slurp. Glk-glk..."
First thing in the morning, I poured my lust down Liliana's throat.
Nam Da-eun left the dormitory first thing Saturday morning. She'd bought toys her sister would like at the festival, and now her money was so tight she needed to get to the supermarket early and claim the sale items before anyone else.
"At least I have a little money. That's a relief."
Uncle Min-gyu from the Buyer Guild had sent extra allowance as a first-place prize. It wasn't much, but it had been enough to buy her sister toys, and that made Nam Da-eun happy.
"I should go see her again tomorrow."
What should she tell her this time?
Nam Da-eun's days were always the same. She woke up, sat through academy classes, and came back to the dorm to rest. The Buyer Guild had banned even part-time work, so there was nothing else to do. Honestly she didn't want to go out at all — she didn't even listen in class — but she had to attend until midterms were over. There was a minimum attendance requirement.
A training routine had been added to her days since she'd met Lee Ho-yeon, so she wasn't bored, exactly. But she still didn't have any fun stories worth telling her sister. So Nam Da-eun always made them up. Going to a cafe with friends. Playing rock-paper-scissors and getting flicked on the forehead. Going to a friend's birthday party. She was always agonizing over stories her sister would enjoy.
"Hmm... shampoo. Shampoo..."
Nam Da-eun wandered the supermarket, picking out the cheapest daily necessities she could find.
My hair's so long I go through shampoo too fast. Should I just cut it all off.
She dropped a 1,980-won bottle of shampoo into her basket and counted what was left in her wallet.
I have 8,600 won.... Shampoo and soap is 2,820... how much are the snacks?
She took the wallet out again to check. It was so old and worn it didn't even close properly.
"The coins... uh, uh, uh... no—"
Clink. Clink. Clink.
Her precious coins began spilling through a hole she hadn't even known was there, pattering across the supermarket floor.
Spatial Acceleration
Nam Da-eun even used her Authority, snatching the coins up one by one. But somehow, the money was still short.
"Uh, uh, I definitely picked them all up... uh..."
8,500 won. She'd counted several times, so it had to be right — and yet 100 won had vanished. If she was 100 won short, she would have to put back one of the snacks. Essentials like shampoo and soap were already the cheapest on the shelf. Those couldn't be cut.
"Here. A coin rolled pretty far."
A voice came from behind her, as if it had arrived specifically to save her. Nam Da-eun turned her head at once.
Lee Ho-yeon was standing there, holding out his hand with a sheepish smile. On his palm sat two 500-won coins and a single 100-won piece. Nam Da-eun swallowed.