Conscience (2)
"Mmph. H-Hoyeon...?"
Filthy lust surged up through my body. I wanted to fill the hollow in my chest with the warmth of a woman's flesh. I pulled Rumi's soft body into my arms and moved the tongue that had slipped into her mouth.
"Mmph, nn... chup..."
Rumi flustered at first, then slowly matched her breathing to mine. She moved her tongue in answer to the forceful, instinctive kiss.
"Chup... haah, haah. Hoyeon... w-why are you like this today?"
Anyone watching might have thought I was some kind of freak. It might not make sense that I had just hurt Lucy and was now forcing myself on Rumi like this — but to me, it mattered.
No matter what happened, Rumi had to accept me. That was the "role" given to a passive concept heroine like her. When Rumi acted as a heroine, she never defied the protagonist. If he told her to spread her legs, she spread them. If he told her to suck, she sucked. That was Rumi.
I... wanted the Rumi who looked exactly like Lucy to be a heroine. If she were a character without personhood — someone who would do whatever I said, die if I told her to die — then maybe the guilt I felt toward Lucy would ease, even a little. I wanted to think of Lucy as a game character with programmed behavior patterns.
"Rumi, I'm sorry. But I can't hold it in."
"H-Hoyeon. At least wait until class is over... nnh..."
I undid the buttons of Rumi's cadet uniform shirt and kneaded her breasts through the thin undershirt. The soft flesh that wouldn't fit in one hand seemed to calm me, just a little.
"Let's finish quick. Just take your panties off."
"Y-Yeees..."
I suckled at Rumi's lips while massaging her chest, and with glazed eyes she hiked her skirt up over her waist and pulled her panties down.
"Yeah. Like that — put one leg up on the toilet."
"Hnnngh... y-yeheh..."
Still dressed in her cadet uniform, one leg propped on the toilet with her pussy bared — the sight was incredibly lewd.
Squish, squish.
I brought my fingers to Rumi's pussy. The moment I slowly stroked her outer lips, she grew wet almost at once.
"Haahk... hnn... hngh. Aaahn...!"
I shifted my hand higher and pinched her clit between thumb and forefinger, rubbing it. We didn't have much time, so I needed her soaked and ready for penetration fast.
"A-Aaah... hnn. W-Wait... i-it's too se-sensitive... nnh."
"Bear with it. I'll finish soon."
I deliberately spoke to Rumi in a cold tone.
"Hnnngh... H-Hoyeonnn...!"
Squish, squelch.
While I loosened her entrance with my fingers, I pulled my pants down and got ready to push in.
"Hnnngh... y-you're acting weird today, Hoyeon... mmph... nngh!"
I sealed the mouth that was starting to complain with a crushing kiss and brought the head of my cock to her pussy. The moment it caught at her entrance, I shoved inside. Even though she wasn't a virgin, a deliciously tight pressure wrapped around my cock. Rumi's pussy seemed a little startled; her inner walls squeezed and stimulated me with every press.
"Mmph! Chup... nngh! Pwah, haaah... a-a little gentler... hnnnnngh!"
Thrust, thrust.
Her school skirt kept me from slamming in with wet, slapping sounds, but I hooked one of her legs over my shoulder and snapped my hips hard and fast.
"A-Aaahn... i-it feels so gooood.... hnn! Aaahn!"
The thrill of fucking a classmate in a school bathroom, mixed with her moans, only wound me tighter — climax rushed up almost at once. Of course it did; I'd been moving with the intention of finishing fast from the start.
"Rumi, I'm cumming."
"Yeheh, yeees...!"
I didn't hold back. I poured my load deep into Rumi's pussy. She still looked like she hadn't reached her own peak. For a moment we stayed joined at the hips, panting.
"Hoyeon..."
Then Rumi took my face in her hands and drew it against her chest. A soft, warm scent of skin tickled my nose, and plush flesh cradled both my cheeks.
"I-If something's hard for you, you can always tell me. I'll stay right beside you. Or you can u-use me like you just did. Still... next time I'd like it if we had a little more time..."
Rumi stroked my hair and whispered in a small voice. That voice held a vividness and emotion no programmed character personality could produce, and only then did it truly hit me.
This place was real. I was forming relationships with living people.
"Rumi... I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to do it like this..."
My eyes trembled hard enough that even I could feel it.
"It's okay."
Squeeze.
Rumi tightened the arms holding me.
"I-In exchange, next time... you have to satisfy me once too. That's only fair between friends. Right?"
At that cute little pout, my cock started to harden again.
"W-Wait a second, Hoyeon. Class is about to start. We really can't anymore. Okay?"
"I'll finish quick."
I lined the head up with Rumi's entrance.
"No, you said that last ti— ahhn...!"
Creeeak—
The rear door opened slowly, and every cadet mid-lesson turned to look.
"You're late. Cadet Lee Ho-yeon and Cadet Rumi."
The elderly female professor's cold gaze pinned me.
"...I-I'm sorry."
"It hasn't even been five minutes, and you ran hard enough to break a sweat, so I'll let it slide this once. Go take your seats."
"...Thank you."
Thanks to the professor's convenient misunderstanding, we made it into class without a demerit. We'd slipped in before the lesson properly began.
Pinch—
"Ugh."
Rumi, seated beside me, pinched the back of my hand under the desk. Then she started scribbling something in her notebook.
This was my fault for getting worked up and going for round two. I needed to reflect.
Still, thanks to Rumi, some of the mental stress had eased. As for Lucy — I'd have to find a way to take care of her somehow.
"All right, focus up. Starting today, we'll be covering barrier dismantling and magical reverse calculation."
The professor tapped and swiped at a hologram.
Shhhrrk—
Moments later, a holographic magic circle appeared above each desk.
"First, you'll learn to reverse-calculate the magic circle right in front of you."
As she spoke, a magic circle visualized and bloomed before the professor's eyes.
"Whether it's a magic circle or a barrier, the basics are the same — you reverse-erase the circle the caster drew."
It felt like drawing mana back out in the opposite order from how you'd construct a circle. Since you weren't undoing your own work but tracing the exact route of someone else's, it demanded complex calculation and process.
And the cadet who showed the most talent at reverse calculation was...
"Then, Cadet Elise? Would you come up and give us a demonstration?"
Elise.
True to her gift as a magic swordsman, she possessed monstrous talent in both magic and swordsmanship, and in magic she was especially recognized as a genius in barrier dismantling and reverse calculation. Later she would become a monster who fired magic from range, met opponents with her blade up close, and reverse-calculated any spell flying her way.
Reverse calculation itself was such a difficult, high-level discipline that even active mages who had properly mastered it were rare. That was why Elise, who handled it so effortlessly, was rated one of the world's top prospects.
"Try reverse-calculating the circle I've manifested."
"Yes."
Elise studied the magic circle for a moment, then released mana from her fingertips.
Wuum—
The slowly rising mana erased the circle at high speed, and within a few seconds it was gone.
"As expected of Cadet Elise. At that speed, you could use it in actual combat."
Clap, clap, clap.
The professor applauded and sent Elise back to her seat.
"This time, while looking at the magic circles drawn on the holograms, let's learn how to find a circle's starting point and ending point."
And so the tedious theory lecture began.
"All right, next let's pair up and try reverse-calculating each other's work to find the problems."
The boring lecture finally ended, and at last it was time to face Rumi for practicals. We naturally turned our chairs toward each other and began.
"Then I'll go first.... Yap."
Rumi produced a defective magic circle that couldn't even cast a spell. Twisted, folded, and tangled every which way, it thoroughly concealed both its start and end points.
"Rumi. This isn't even a magic circle, is it?"
"B-But if I did something ordinary, you'd reverse-calculate it right away."
Fair enough. Honestly, if I put my mind to it, I was confident I could cut one faster than Elise, the so-called genius.
Learning the Rune Clan's Secret Art had deepened my understanding of barriers, and reverse calculation — a related field — had improved along with it.
"Still, this one's pretty hard, you know? Hehe."
Rumi spread the circle and looked at me with a smug little expression. It definitely didn't look easy. She'd built it not to cast magic, but specifically to block reverse calculation.
But it wasn't that hard, either.
"If I solve this in thirty seconds, what will you do for me?"
"Hmm, then... after class, in the club room, I'll g-give you a reward."
The way she dropped her eyes and said something that bold was nothing like the purely passive Rumi from the original.
"Then if I lose, I'll give you a reward too. Sound good?"
Rumi's face went red and she ducked her head.
"Y-Yes. Okay."
Embarrassed but not refusing — she was ridiculously cute. It felt like I was finally getting to enjoy the popular-kid school life I'd never had when I was younger, and my chest swelled with it.
And of course, I cracked Rumi's magic circle in twenty seconds.
"H-How...?"
"See you in the club room later."
I leaned in and whispered against the ear of Rumi, who was clutching her head.
"Y-Yeheh..."
Even though she'd lost, Rumi looked extremely happy.
After some secret play with Rumi in the club room, I headed back to the dorm.
"I'm home~."
"Yeah, you're back."
Liliana was sprawled on the living room floor, scratching her belly while staring at a holographic monitor. Today had been the commendation ceremony, so with a lot of people around and the risk of an incident, I'd left her at the dorm.
"What are you doing in the living room?"
"Checking my NewTube rivals' selling points. I want to make my stream even bigger."
"Uh, yeah. Sure. Go for it."
Liliana was analyzing a female streamer doing a sexy dance with a deadly serious face. Honestly, I didn't know much about streaming. I only knew Liliana made good money. If she worked that hard, she'd get somewhere.
Come to think of it, rumors about a pervert cosplay girl among the cadets had been spreading more and more lately. I hoped the academy wouldn't open some dignity investigation over it. Surely not... right?
Being in the men's dorm made it safer, but you never knew.
I left the clothes I'd worn today by the door and headed into the shower. Under the warm water, I thought about tomorrow's plan.
Tomorrow was finally the dungeon practical training. And because of a terror attack, the dungeon would go berserk — an indiscriminate strike on the academy by the Demon organization Pandemic.
In the story, the protagonist got tangled up in it and linked with a heroine... and the heroine I was aiming for this time was Baek A-young.
When the dungeon went berserk, the terrain would forcibly shift. If I stuck close to Baek A-young when the warning signs appeared, the two of us could end up isolated together. That was when I'd make my move.
It wasn't easy, though. You couldn't just jump her and expect her to like it. There were various conditions... I wondered if I could hit them all.
I washed while my mind wandered, then dried off with a towel, shook out my hair, and checked my smartwatch.
"Ah, right. ForesightCutie? I need to reply to this person."
After thinking it through carefully, I saw no reason to turn down free sponsorship. I could check the conditions, and if they were useful I might keep them as a connection later. If not, I could just drop them.
"Mm, perfect."
I tossed the clothes I'd left earlier into the washer and hit start.
"Wait — why aren't my underwear here?"
I'd taken them off last, so they should have been sitting on top. Thinking back to when I'd grabbed the pile for the laundry, I hadn't seen any underwear.
Weird. I was pretty sure they'd been on top of the clothes before I showered.
"..."
I glanced into the living room. The Liliana who'd been lying there staring at the hologram monitor was gone; only a firmly shut bedroom door greeted me.
"No way. There's no chance. What's she going to do with my underwear?"
Unless leaving her behind for one day because of the commendation ceremony had suddenly built up her lust...?
Did her sex drive spike from that and she took my panties?
"No matter how I look at it, that can't be it."
She'd obviously just gone in to play games. I needed to stop the wild speculation. Even a pervert like her wouldn't steal my dirty, sweat-smelling underwear.
The panties were probably just tangled in with the other clothes and already washing.
I put the useless worry out of my mind, lay down on the bed in the living room, and started laying out plans for tomorrow.