Conquering Rumi

Lucy's face flushed as red as magma coming to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a boil.

"You... you saw everything, didn't you...? Th-then, don't tell me...?"

"Wait. Hold on, Lucy. Wait! Don't get up! You're a patient right now!"

"Just tell me straight. Did you do something weird to me or not? I-I really don't think I can hold back."

Mana was pouring off Lucy's body in thick, rolling waves.

This was actually dangerous. I hurried to keep talking.

"Lucy. Calm down and listen to me first."

"But my stomach... no, more precisely, that place below my stomach..."

Lucy looked at me with her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠face burning, as if begging me to give her a proper explanation.

"I reverse-engineered the arousal magic that was cast on you. I don't know a woman's body that well, but that sensation is most likely a side effect of the heat."

"R-reverse-engineered? Liar! How would you even reverse-engineer that? That's an incredibly advanced technique!"

"I'll prove it. Remember how we're learning barrier dismantling in Magical Analysis next week? I'll show you then. You can believe me after that, right?"

"...Yeah. But if you can't... no, please just do it... I'd rather that."

"Professor Lim Sol was there too. Nothing actually happened, okay? If you're really worried, you can ask her."

"Okay... I'll believe you."

Lucy finally seemed to settle down once I brought up Professor Lim Sol.

If this ever came out, I'd have to insist it had been a rescue and that I was therefore innocent. Not that I knew whether that would fly in an era where even CPR could get you sued for sexual harassment.

Well. I got through it for now.

Lucy's expression brightened again.

"Oh, right. I should let the doctor know you woke up."

I pressed the call button beside the bed and summoned a nurse. The moment she walked in and saw that Lucy was awake, she ducked back out, saying she would fetch the doctor.

"Good timing. The demonic mana infection results should be in soon. Though looking at how you've already woken up, the chances seem low."

The doctor arrived, gave her a brief examination, and said the test results would be out shortly.

Naturally, they came back clean. The moment we confirmed them, we started the discharge paperwork.

"Um... so. Want to grab a meal together before we go?"

Lucy said it the instant we stepped out of the hospital.

"You sure? You look exhausted."

Anyone could see how worn her face was. After what she had just been through, of course she wouldn't be fine.

"E-even so! I can still eat!"

"Don't force it. Just go. I forgot to call anyone in the rush to get discharged, and Rumi was worried sick."

"Ah—ah! Right, Rumi! I have to go see Rumi! Let's eat next time! Sorry!"

Lucy's face went white, and she bolted toward the girls' dormitory.

Apparently Rumi's worry mattered far more than eating with me. Well, they were that kind of twins in the original setting.

I headed for my own dorm, wondering whether Liliana was holding down the fort properly. Maybe I should just start taking her with me everywhere. Then again, who knew what kind of trouble she would cause if I did.

Getting suckered into that hellish scam of a contract... look at the mess I'm in.

Still, she made good money. I had recently come across a post titled Newbie Academy Girl Streamer's Daily Earnings.jpg, and I figured I did not need to worry about the cost of keeping Liliana around. Her upkeep ran a little over seven thousand dollars a month, but she brought in money by the thousand every single day.

She was a straight-up money printer. Liliana was out there shoveling cash at me with a damn shovel.

Ah. I should double-check the dungeon practical training schedule.

I had already looked once, but I needed to make sure nothing had changed. I arrived at the dorm while lost in thought.

Beep—

I tapped my smartwatch against the door lock and stepped inside. The dorm was dark and quiet. No sign of Liliana.

"Is she streaming in her room? No — it definitely wasn't on when I was coming over."

Creak. Slam! Thud-thud-thud-thud!

I was taking off my shoes when a door flew open and crashed shut, and then Liliana came charging all the way to the entryway.

"Hah... hah... hah... Welcome home."

Her tracksuit was a mess, and her face was flushed bright red. Was she sick or something?

"Uh. Yeah."

"Y-you're already better! You recover fast!"

"I wasn't that hurt to begin with. I'm gonna use the computer for a bit. Need to check my course registration."

"N-no!"

Liliana waved her hands frantically. Her face seemed even redder somehow.

"...? Why not?"

"I-I, um. I was in the middle of a ranked match and just came out to say hi! I'll only use it until the match is over!"

She did not even wait for my answer before disappearing back into her room.

"...?"

Kyaaah! I'm going crazy, I'm going crazy! Crash, bang, thud!

What the hell was that girl doing?

"You're really not coming?"

"...Yeah. Not today."

"Alright. Get some rest."

Liliana did not seem to be in great shape either — she said she would skip class and rest at home. Was that the normal reaction after going through something like that? Then again, I was probably the weird one for being completely fine.

Friday, the last weekday. Two days after Felix the demon who had attacked Victoria Academy was subdued by a cadet, I headed to the academy.

"Huh? Isn't that the kid who just walked by? The one from the news?"

"Hey, you're Lee Ho-yeon, right? It's an honor to be at the same academy as you!"

"Um, could I maybe get an autograph...?"

The fallout from catching Felix was bigger than I had imagined. First-years I had never met, second-years wearing blue brooches, third-years wearing black ones — even the upperclassmen were acting like they knew me.

It was incredibly uncomfortable. As a loner, I ninja-stepped my way toward the first-year building as fast as I could. But it was no different there.

When I opened the door to Class A, I found Lucy surrounded by the entire class, with Rumi standing beside her looking completely lost. The moment I walked in, a group of girls came toward me.

"Ho-yeon! Are you okay? Is it true you and Lucy took down a demon together?"

"Hey! Of course it's true, it was on the news! Don't ask dumb questions!"

"Then can you at least tell us about catching the demon? Lucy absolutely refuses to talk about it..."

Of course she wouldn't. Lucy would not remember a thing. It would look weird if I explained everything when she could not say a word, so I had no choice but to dodge.

"Well, I was given a gag order until the investigation is completely finished. If you keep asking like this, you guys could get in serious trouble, you know?"

"Ah, no, I-I didn't mean to! Sorry!"

The girl cadet who had been grilling me about the incident jumped and fled to a corner. The other cadets seemed to settle down after hearing that, and slowly returned to their seats.

I walked over to Lucy and Rumi, who finally had some peace.

"Morning, you two. Mind if I sit here?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Good morning, Ho-yeon."

I set my bag down at the seat behind Lucy. It felt like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I had returned to my rightful place, and a smile crept onto my face before I knew it.

"Ugh, I hate starting the day with a theory class!"

"Still better than practicals right after getting discharged, Lucy."

The professors at Victoria Academy were, as a rule, quite renowned in their respective fields. Because of that, the class schedule shifted week to week to match their availability. Today was Dr. Kang Hyo-rin's Modern Hunterology.

"This is exactly when you need to move your body to heal faster. You still don't know your unnie very well."

Lucy had looked mentally wrecked yesterday, but today she seemed to have recovered in her own way. I kind of wished her personality had dimmed a little, the way it did in the original story.

Rattle—

"Hello, everyone~."

Dr. Kang Hyo-rin walked in wearing a crisp shirt and jeans. It felt like I had not seen her in a while.

"Today~! I've finally graded the exam we took last time. I had way too much on my plate, so I'm late. Really sorry about that. But I'll give you a thorough breakdown of the answers, so don't worry!"

Kang Hyo-rin beep-beeped a switch, and the cadets' scores scrolled out from the hologram projector at the front of the lecture hall. A truly humiliating situation for the students at the bottom — but I was in the top ranks, so not my problem.

"Huh?"

The cadet at the very front was the first to voice their confusion. The name that should have been in first place no matter what was sitting in second.

"What the, Lee Ho-yeon? Why are you in first?"

"W-wow. Ho-yeon! First place... that's amazing!"

The two sitting in front of me reacted as well. Only then did Elise, who had been looking down at her book, lift her head and look at the scores.

"...!?"

Elise stared at the results with her mouth hanging open, wearing an expression of complete disbelief. Then she whipped her head around and locked eyes with me. She was biting down on her lip. She looked pretty pissed.

What now. Should I wave? Yeah, that was not happening. I held her gaze for about two seconds before looking away, scared.

"Man, when I was grading first-place cadet Lee Ho-yeon's answer sheet, I was so shocked I went back over it three times. Problems I designed expecting an average of forty, and he got every single one right. I swear he knows more than I do, and I'm the professor."

Dr. Kang Hyo-rin was pouring out some extremely uncomfortable praise. Compliments were nice, but saying things like that would make Elise jealous.

"Alright, shall we go over the answers? To celebrate a perfect score, let's use cadet Lee Ho-yeon's answer sheet for the review!"

God, this was embarrassing. This was straight-up public humiliation play. My face felt like it was heating up, so I buried my head and sat through the lecture. If Liliana had been here she would have teased me relentlessly. Thank god she wasn't.

After class, I was packing up my books when Lucy spoke to me.

"Want to eat dinner together tonight?"

"Tonight?"

"Yeah!"

She was definitely in much better shape than yesterday. Yesterday she had barely been able to stand. Had spending a night with Rumi healed her?

"I'm down whenever. Rumi's coming too, right?"

"...Huh? Ah, yeah! Of course! Rumi and I are two bodies, one heart!"

...She hesitated for a second just now. I was imagining it, right?

"Let's go, Rumi!"

"O-okay. Let's go together."

We finished eating at the Victoria Academy shopping district and each headed back to our dorms. Thanks to Liliana, I did not have to worry about money, so the meal was pretty decent.

Then, two hours later, Rumi and I met again at the training grounds.

"Are you alright...? You only just got discharged..."

"I'm fine. I wasn't that hurt."

"Even so..."

"Shh. Quiet, and let's get started."

I had promised to teach Rumi about barriers today. Originally I was supposed to be the one learning, but somehow it had ended up like this.

"First, you know the basics. You have to weave your mana together and make it solid."

"Yes. I know that."

"And the will to make it solid matters too. You'll be better at this than I am."

"Um... I'm not sure I follow. Is this like neural theory?"

"Neural theory...? Don't know what that is, but I mean the will to imbue your mana with the property of hardness. That seems to be your specialty, so I think you should strengthen that further."

"...? Property? Will? I don't really understand what you mean."

"...?"

Hold on. I had clearly learned the will of mana from Rumi's barrier, so why didn't Rumi herself know about it?

"Imbuing mana with will — you don't know that?"

"Nooo, I don't... I've heard of mana properties, but I've never heard of a property called hardness, and will is a first for me too... I'm sorry I'm not being helpful..."

"No, no, it's fine."

Rumi might not look it, but she was a promising talent in first-year Class A. If even she did not know, it was safe to assume nobody else did either.

Come to think of it, the game never had any lore about will or anything like that.

I had figured the magic setting was just left vague on purpose, but maybe the people of this world simply did not know you could imbue mana with will. Even if they had some sense of it, the fact that Rumi did not know meant it definitely had not been systematized.

Found it. A new research topic.

I had found a research topic I could bring to Lim Sol.

"For now, just forget what I said. It was something I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was thinking about on my own. I'll explain later."

"Ah, okay. I understand."

"Should we wrap it up for today? We only got about an hour in, but there'll be more time."

"Sounds good. But, um, H-Ho-yeon...?"

"Hm? What's up?"

Why was she squeezing her eyes shut and trembling? Don't tell me she was about to confess?

Hold on. Calm down. If she does it now, we're in trouble.

"D-do you... have time tomorrow? Would you like to go to that tteokbokki place we went to before, this weekend? And h-have a drink too..."

"..."

Feeling something off about Rumi making a proposal like this, I pulled up the heroine status window.

Something was wrong. Definitely wrong. Her libido was abnormally high.

Her face had gone apple-red from how nervous she was just saying those words. But that expression. That was definitely... the look of someone expecting something.

It overlapped with the face Rumi made in the original game when, mid-act, she would desperately beg to go again.

This girl... I think she remembers.

Rumi definitely remembered what had happened back then. There was no other way to explain that abnormal libido.

You little pervert. Look at you, remembering everything and still pulling this.

This was legally no different from saying please eat me.

I had been planning to ask her out anyway, so if she came to me first, all the better.

"Sure. Let's meet this weekend."

I sent back an affirmative, already laying out a shady little plan in my head.