Studying in the Club Room (2)

Sebas Chan, an executive of the Iris Guild, made no effort to hide his surprise.

He had been dispatched to Korea to assist Lady Elise, the Guild Leader's daughter. After everything he had endured up to that point, the assignment had felt more like a well-earned vacation than actual work. The Academy was safe, after all — aside from seeing her to and from class, there was scarcely anything for him to do.

Of course, once the Academy came under terrorist attack, the hours he spent secretly protecting his lady had stretched considerably, so calling it a vacation was something of a stretch. Still, attending to the young woman he had watched over since she was a child was hardly a duty he resented.

Satisfied enough with the arrangement, he had accepted her orders and begun investigating a certain cadet. The boy was an orphan with no family in the world, which meant there was little background left to dig through. So Sebas Chan had taken to tailing him instead, watching for anything out of the ordinary — and soon enough, he caught Lee Ho-yeon in a peculiar act.

The boy had told his friends he was heading to the convenience store, only to slip right back into the club room. Deciding to keep watching just in case, Sebas Chan found himself confronted with a reality he had never imagined.

"Slurp. Mmph..."

"Does it taste good?"

His investigation target, Lee Ho-yeon, was enjoying himself with a girl.

"Young people these days really do move fast..."

Sex inside the Academy? It was something he never would have pictured. Still, he had found something that could serve as leverage, and from an investigator's standpoint that was more than enough reason to cheer. Sebas Chan filed the information away in his mind: Lee Ho-yeon's girlfriend was Rumi.

He was about to take his leave when it occurred to him that their conversation might yield something useful, so he lingered and listened. This was no bed, but pillow talk happened everywhere. He concentrated mana into his ears, straining to catch every word passing between them.

That was when it happened.

"Hold on a second, Rumi."

Lee Ho-yeon pulled his clothes on and strode quickly toward the door.

"...!"

Like the seasoned intelligence operative he was, Sebas Chan instantly erased every trace of his presence and threw himself out the window. Ho-yeon's club room was on the second floor, so he executed a silent landing and pressed himself flat against the wall. Holding his breath like that, not even someone with the sharpest senses in the world could have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠detected him.

Thud.

A moment later, he heard Lee Ho-yeon going back into the club room. Only then did Sebas Chan quietly move his feet and slip off the Academy grounds.

"...Did he notice me?"

Once he was well clear of the club building, Sebas Chan muttered to himself, a strange unease settling over him. Something was off. Every year of his career as an intelligence operative was screaming it at him. He could not dismiss it as coincidence — not that timing. The instant Sebas Chan had used mana, Lee Ho-yeon had sensed something.

"The young lady really did inherit the Guild Leader's blood. She picked a big fish on pure instinct, it seems."

Sebas Chan was astonished by Elise's talent. At the same time, he resolved to investigate Lee Ho-yeon even more carefully from now on.

I walked back into the club room without showing the slightest hint of alarm and approached Rumi.

"Ho-yeon... mmph... slurp. Hah."

I kissed the startled Rumi slowly, easing her back into the mood.

"Ahhh... a-aahhn..."

One hand teased her clit while my tongue pushed into her mouth.

"Nngh... haah... Ho-yeon..."

The passionate caressing made Rumi's body grow hot all over again.

"Sorry for killing the mood. I'm putting it in."

"Y-yes. Please put it in."

Schlick.

The head of my cock pushed into Rumi's pussy. It had been a while since I had last tasted her, and she still felt incredibly tight. The sensation of sinking into that narrow heat was a pleasure that never got old.

"Haahn, nngh..."

Kissing Rumi while she lay on the table was awkward, so I rubbed her clit with my fingers as I thrust into her. It had already slipped free of its hood, standing at attention, waiting to be touched. I rolled that soft little nub beneath my fingertips as I rolled my hips.

"Hnnngh! H-Ho-yeon, s-stop. Stop! Haahn, it's too much...!"

When a girl says stop, what she really means is that she is embarrassed. Every experience I had ever had pointed to the same conclusion.

I looked at the status window, thoroughly convinced, and pushed my cock in even deeper. Rumi was so small that the head of my cock pressed against her womb long before I could bury myself to the hilt. I thrust harder, pounding against it. That spot was her weakness.

"Ho-yeon. Ho-yeon. I— ah. Aahhn...!"

Caught between the stimulation of her clit and her womb at once, Rumi's body shuddered violently as she climaxed.

"Haah, ah... aahhn.... nngh!"

I started moving again before the aftershocks had even faded.

"I-I just came... Ho-yeon..."

"I haven't come yet. Shouldn't secret friends finish together?"

"Th-that's... aahng."

I sped up to keep her from saying anything else.

Plap. Plap.

Rumi's ass, pinned against the table, slapped against my hips. My cock pistoned through a pussy overflowing with her juices, filling the room with wet, filthy sounds. That tight pussy squeezed down around me, pressing in from every side.

"Ah— I'm about to come."

"Y-yeees... hnnngh..."

The urge to finish surged up through me. I drove into her womb even harder, determined to take her over the edge with me. Her womb had drawn itself deeper, the way it always did right before she came, and that let me bury myself to the root and savor every last inch of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her.

"Ahhhmpf. Nngh. Aahhn... haah..."

I came inside her just like that. Rumi went limp across the table, all the strength gone from her body — but even then, her pussy kept contracting, milking my cock in slow, greedy pulses.

"Hoo..."

Schlick.

When I pulled out, ropes of cum followed, spilling from her and dripping down.

"You did well, Rumi."

"Hweeeh..."

I gave her a light kiss. The dazed, pleasure-drunk look on her face was so adorable I could barely stand it.

"Rumi. Today was good too."

"M-me too."

Rumi twitched faintly as she started gathering her clothes. I used magic to clean the cum still leaking from her pussy.

"Thank youuu..."

Should I ask her to train today? The exams were coming up, so I really ought to look over her technique at least once. But suggesting a training session right after sex felt painfully awkward.

"Rumi. I know it's getting a little late, but do you want to go train?"

"Huh? Right now?"

Rumi paused in the middle of fastening the buttons on her cadet uniform and looked up at me. Sex, then training — she seemed a little thrown by it too.

"Yeah. You seemed worried about the practical exam earlier, so I figured I'd take a look."

"I-I mean, I'd be grateful, but..."

Right. I vaguely remembered that Rumi was written as being terrible at offensive magic. Was it really that bad?

"It's fine. I'll teach you properly. You know I'm good at magic."

"If that's the case... okay. I'll do it."

Rumi finished putting on her cadet uniform and started tidying the club room. I helped, casting a cleaning spell as I went.

"It's really dark out. Training will probably run past ten."

She was right — the sky was already fully dark by the time we stepped out of the club building.

"It won't take that long. I'll just get the basics down for you."

Rumi's defense was outstanding as it was. If I could just shore up her offense a little, she would be more than capable of holding her own in a fight. It was not as though she would be completely unable to attack.

There was a time when I believed that.

"I-I'm so sorryyy..."

Rumi truly could not use offensive magic. It was not that she was incapable of casting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it at all — the problem was that her spells came out at less than a quarter of their proper power.

"I-I don't know why it's like this either. It's been this way for as long as I can remember..."

"Hmm..."

"I'm sorry.... I guess I just don't have the talent.... And after you went out of your way to look at it yourself..."

"No, no. That's not it at all. Just calm down."

I cut her off before Rumi's self-deprecation could kick in. In truth, I had a fairly good idea of the reason.

It had not been made public yet, but Lim Sol was preparing a paper on a method of reinforcing magic by imbuing will into a spell's core circuit. Rumi instinctively rejected the act of attacking another person. Because of that, a defensive will settled into her mana whether she was conscious of it or not. That was why her barriers had always been so unnaturally sturdy, even without her knowing anything about the core-circuit method. Against offensive magic, though, that same instinct worked like a poison.

"I think I have a rough idea why."

"Really? Th-then what should ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I do...?"

But how am I supposed to explain this? Lim Sol was a genius — she understood the moment I opened my mouth. Walking Rumi through it was going to take a little more time.

"Can you draw a magic circle? I'll point out what's wrong."

"O-okay..."

Rumi traced an ice-spear circle into the air above her palm. I stepped behind her and rested my hands on her shoulders.

"Eh? Ho-yeon?"

"Relax your body. Don't block my mana — let it in."

"Huh?"

Rumi looked puzzled, but she let the tension drain from her body all the same. She was allowing another person's mana into herself without a second of hesitation. Affection really did matter.

I repaid that trust by sending a faint thread of mana into her. It rode her circuits all the way to the magic circle and rewrote the core. I could not erase the will already sealed into the strokes, so I had to wipe the strokes themselves and replace them with my own mana. It was not easy work — but with Mana Sense, I could do it.

"Alright. Fire it."

"Okay."

CRACK!

If the ice spear from before had been an icicle, this one was the real thing. A lance of ice radiating bitter cold shot across the training ground and buried itself in the far wall.

"W-whoa! Ho-yeon, how did you do that?"

"When you attack, you have to mean it. You have to want to hurt the other person. That's how the magic gets its bite."

"Ahh... I didn't know there was a method like that."

Fortunately, showing her with her own body instead of just talking at her seemed to make it click much faster.

"Let's keep practicing. We've still got about an hour."

"Yes. Understood, teacher!"

The Hunter Association President's office.

A middle-aged man had a hold of a woman who looked to be in her twenties and was refusing to let go.

"Wait, A-young! What on earth is going on? The Academy, all of a sudden?"

"Thank you for everything you've done for me. Something has come up that I absolutely have to handle at the Academy."

Baek A-young bowed her head deeply to the Association President. He would have grabbed her by the pant leg if he had to — but Baek A-young was wearing a skirt and stockings, so he seized her shoe instead.

"I don't care what the circumstances are. Who turns in a resignation and walks out the same day? A-young, think this through. You won't find another workplace like this. Whatever the Academy offered you, I'll double it, okay? Please..."

"The Academy didn't offer me anything. I'm the one going to make them an offer. As if they would turn down the Saint."

"There's got to be a reason for this! A-young — no, Saint! Please, don't do this. Let's talk it out. What's the problem? Who made our Saint angry, huh?"

"I'm sorry."

Baek A-young answered without a flicker of hesitation and shook her shoe free. The handover had already been finished in a single day. Of course, the Association had no one who could actually replace her — but that was hardly her problem.

The Healing Team had been overstaffed for a long time precisely because of Baek A-young's abilities. She had been the one covering every site, rotating from scene to scene, and the rest of the team had grown lazier by the day. She had kept working quietly simply because she liked helping people. Now, at last, she had found something she actually wanted to do.

She had already said her goodbyes to the people she had grown close to. Her desk was cleared and her bags were packed. Her mind was made up.

The Association President was not the kind of scoundrel who would physically stop someone from leaving — but this was Baek A-young, and that was why he had thrown dignity aside and clung to her like this. He knew exactly how devastating the loss of even one talent like hers would be for the Association.

Her healing ability mattered, of course, but that could be patched over by hiring a few more recovery-type hunters. What truly mattered was the image. A hunter with the reputation of a Saint walking away from the Association to go somewhere else... the damage was incalculable. Knowing that full well, the President's expression management finally collapsed, and his face took on the look of a man who had just watched his country fall.

Baek A-young felt a twinge of guilt over the abrupt resignation, and she could not quite ignore that look.

"I wasn't going to say this, but... you look so miserable, President. I'll be back before long, so don't worry."

The President lifted his head as though he had found a single thread of light in the middle of his suffering.

"Ah— when, exactly? A month?"

"Well. About three years, give or take? Just think of it as a little vacation."

"Th-three years..."

Three years was long enough for the entire hunter industry to turn upside down. The Saint's image would not fade in that time, of course — but three years of the Academy marketing that image however they pleased... the President felt like his stomach was going to tear itself apart.

"President. I know you're a good person. But let's be honest — you've been milking the Saint image for all it's worth. I'll come back in three years. Not a day more."

"Ahem. Th-there's no need to put it like that. Fine. I don't know exactly what this is about, but... go do well."

"I will. I had a good life here thanks to you, President. Thank you."

Baek A-young bowed and left. The office fell silent.

The President staggered over to the telephone.

"Whoever it is, they've got some serious balls. Stealing the Association's own child, of all things."

Heh heh heh....

The laugh of an old tiger rolled through the quiet of the President's office.