The Girl With Androphobia (2)
“…So, I was thinking—maybe we should give the leftover goblin heart to her.”
“Oh, to Isabel?”
“So her name is Isabel?”
“Yeah. Kim Isabel, to be exact. …Ah, wait—her surname is Kim, not Kimi, so don't get confused, Seonho, okay?”
Coming from her, that meant she'd already mixed it up once herself. It was so very Cha Eunju of her.
Considering she'd managed to exchange introductions in the short time I'd left her alone, it seemed they'd gotten at least somewhat acquainted. That made sense—Kim Isabel was only pathologically terrified of men; with another woman, she could hold a perfectly ordinary conversation.
“Anyway, strictly speaking, Isabel had a hand in driving the monsters all the way here. It happened by what looked like pure chance, sure, but she still went through the trouble. Sending her back empty-handed felt a little wrong, you know?”
“Y-you really are kind, Seonho…. I never even thought that far….”
“By the way, where's the companion she came in with? Don't tell me a Recovery Department student entered the dungeon alone.”
“Ah, right, about that. Apparently there was an accident right before they entered the dungeon….”
As it turned out, she'd lost her handhold—the supporting student from the Spear Department—right at the entrance and been transferred in solo. Up to this point, everything had followed the original story exactly.
The traitor was probably Min Yewon from Myeongwol Hunter Academy, no doubt about it. I'd already confirmed her loitering beside Kim Isabel in the waiting room earlier.
'I'll deal with Min Yewon's punishment separately, later.'
Looking at the big picture, she had given me my opening to conquer Kim Isabel—but that changed nothing. The price for putting my woman in danger was a price she would pay.
That settled, my priority right now was building rapport with the girl isolated alone inside this dungeon.
However bad Kim Isabel's androphobia was, she wouldn't tell me and Cha Eunju to get lost and go wandering the dungeon by herself.
“Then I'll go talk to Isabel. I'll tell her there's one goblin heart left, and if she needs it, we'll fill her material pouch for her.”
“I-I'll go!”
“Why?”
“She said earlier that she's not used to men, so talking to one is hard for her.”
“Ahh, so that's why she couldn't get a word out when I tried talking to her earlier.”
I already knew this, of course, but I nodded along, feigning fresh discovery.
“Oh, and she asked me to pass along her thanks for saving her, Seonho. She said she couldn't manage saying it herself.”
“I didn't really do anything, but sure. You were the one who killed all the goblins, Eunju.”
“S-still, Isabel was someone you found first. And honestly, without your buff I can't even fight properly.”
“Right, let's go with that. Anyway, go pass the message along. One heart for her pouch and… ah, actually, since her partner's gone, we might as well throw in some extra materials too, don't you think?”
“We're not collecting the brain or the ears ourselves, so add it all up and we could probably fill about seven slots at once for her. They're cheap materials, sure, but still better than walking away with an empty bag.”
“Oh, that's true! Then I'll ask about that too!”
“Good. Go ask, and bring back Kim Isabel's material pouch with you.”
“Yeah!”
…The truth was, so many students had already dropped out of this practical exam that the Recovery and Support Departments would practically pass just by setting foot inside the dungeon. But there was nothing bad about banking a little goodwill over small things like these.
“Have you located the target?”
「Yes. We've just found her.」
“Good. That's a relief. Current position?”
「She's stopped for the moment in Zone 14.」
“Drive monsters toward her and herd her into Zone 25. That's where we'll take her alive.”
「Um… there's a problem, though.」
“What problem?”
「The target has made contact with another examinee party. One of the two is a mage.」
“So what? Drive a few ogres at them and scare them off. They're just examinees—a couple of ogres popping up and they'll drop everything and run.”
「That's the thing… the mage appears to be quite skilled. She's been multi-casting Shadow Ball from the very start, so I doubt she'd run just because they're ogres….」
“……Tch.”
…What luck. After all the trouble of finally isolating her and shoving her into the dungeon, she runs into another examinee there and is getting help from them.
I'd hoped to take her quietly, without drawing attention, but if I wasted more time here, the whole plan would start falling apart.
“You still have the summoning circle I gave you for emergencies?”
「Yes. I have it.」
“Use it. Make the thing run for Zone 25. It's a monster tuned to track her holy power—it'll move on its own.”
「Is that wise? If a monster-summoning reaction shows up, Cheonmu Academy will notice.」
“We're blown either way at this point—it's only a matter of time. We move to secure and extract the target as fast as possible.”
「Understood.」
Pity for that other party trailing along with her.
Well—if they didn't want to get dragged into this, they shouldn't have taken an interest in something that wasn't theirs to begin with.
“C-can we really accept this…? What if it ends up costing the two of you…?”
“No, no. Seonho was the one who suggested it, and I had no reason to argue with him.”
“But if our being here lowers your practical exam scores….”
“Making full use of the time you're given is one of the exam's evaluation criteria. …That's what Seonho said.”
“Still, I really didn't do anything during the goblin hunt….”
“Driving the monsters right up to us was already doing your part. …That one's from Seonho too, so you don't need to worry!”
The three of us moved on to another area once the goblin dissection was finished.
Kim Isabel, whose material pouch had gone from zero slots to seven in one stroke, had questioned us the whole way in a worried voice, and Cha Eunju had patiently reassured her, telling her over and over not to fret.
It had been a bit of an ordeal relaying everything through Cha Eunju, given that Isabel couldn't speak to a man directly—but I did find it rather interesting that the 'Courage Potion' seemed to affect communication skills too, judging by how smoothly Cha Eunju chatted with the girl she'd only met today.
'No harm in the two of them getting close, anyway.'
Sooner or later, both of them would be crawling under my cock. If I ever planned to have them service me on either side of it at the same time, it was best to strip away any lingering awkwardness between them in advance.
And so, while we were wandering the dungeon in search of Han Sora (+Seo Woojin)—the final piece of this event's puzzle—
'Grooooooar…!!'
…An eerie, unidentifiable cry began echoing from somewhere nearby.
'Is it starting?'
A cry that was heavy and ponderous, yet carried a long, long way.
It was the roar of a monster that announced its presence with sound alone—and naturally, it wasn't just me. Cha Eunju and Kim Isabel couldn't hide the tension creeping onto their faces either.
“W-what was that…? You heard it too, right, Seonho?”
“…Yeah, I heard it.”
“Could it be an ogre…? But do ogres cry out like that…?”
“I don't think it's an ogre…. When we took down those ogres earlier, they never made a sound like that…?”
“Yeah, true. I've never heard anything like it either.”
…We still hadn't found Han Sora, and this might be getting dangerous.
For now, I kept myself ready to bolt at any moment and picked up the pace. I held tight to Cha Eunju's hand, terrified of losing her in the scramble.
“Let's get out of this area first. Whatever that thing is, I don't like our odds against it in the forest—we're slower in here than it is.”
“O-okay….”
“…….”
I gripped Cha Eunju's hand, Kim Isabel took the other one, and just as the three of us broke into a light jog—
'GRROOOOOAAAR!!'
The cry that had seemed distant only moments before closed in another notch.
“Damn it—run!”
“…O-okay!”
“……!”
Meeting an Owlbear with our current lineup was far too dangerous.
Cha Eunju's magic could pin the Owlbear down temporarily, but she lacked the raw firepower to finish it outright. Killing the thing for good required Han Sora's arrows and her ability—that much was non-negotiable.
My own power was poorly suited for use against monsters, and Kim Isabel's healing was equally useless here.
Until we were fully equipped to face it, running was the only answer. More important than earning favor with the heroines—more important than anything—was keeping them alive.
-Patter, tap, patter!
“Hah, h-hah….”
-Thoom, thoom, thoom!
The sound of three people crashing through the forest undergrowth. And from somewhere behind us, the massive footfalls of something enormous.
-Crack, craaack.
…And woven through it all came the sound of thick trees snapping like twigs, and every time it wrapped around us, my heart hammered harder.
I'd more or less expected something like this the moment I started moving with Kim Isabel, but facing it head-on in the flesh, fear still seeped into me all the same.
If even I, who knew what was coming, was this scared, then how hard must Cha Eunju and Kim Isabel be trembling inside?
-Kraaaak.
I squeezed Cha Eunju's hand, the girl running beside me, just a little tighter—determined not to lose her for any reason.
“Let's make for open ground first! I don't know what that thing is, but in the forest it's faster than we are!”
“G-got it…!”
In the original story, the place where Han Sora and Seo Woojin had been was a wide, open plain—broad enough that the Owlbear fight wouldn't be hampered by the terrain.
Not that I was gambling on that one detail alone. Still, an open field was objectively better than a forest for escaping the thing.
If we could just reach the plain somehow—or if, even by pure luck, we could run into Han Sora—
-Shuffle, shuffle….
“Hah, hah, haaah…—urp!!”
…Oh no.
Come to think of it, I'd completely forgotten about Cha Eunju's stamina.
Kim Isabel, for all her shut-in tendencies, wasn't quite as far gone as Cha Eunju and had at least some baseline endurance—but Cha Eunju was such a hopeless exercise invalid that anything physical left her struggling for her life.
And on top of that, running with those enormous breasts bouncing along was no small ordeal in itself. I should have factored that in from the very beginning.
'GRROOOOOOWWLL!!'
“Hah—hurry…!! Hurry, uhp…!!”
The Owlbear's roar drew nearer and nearer, and Cha Eunju's exhaustion had progressed all the way to dry heaves.
We couldn't afford to lose another second. Reaching Han Sora was our top priority, and every step Cha Eunju cost us was a critical blow to all three of us.
…Sorry, Cha Eunju, but there's no other way.
Suggestion: Adrenaline Explosion ※ Target: Lee Seonho
-Flash.
“…U-uehk?!”
“Sorry, Cha Eunju. I'll carry you—just until we're out of the forest.”
Cha Eunju started in shock as I suddenly scooped her up into both arms mid-stride.
I'd worried for a second that her chest might make her too heavy to carry, but she was short enough that hauling her along turned out to be no trouble at all.
“Hahh?! S-Seonho?!”
“Get your arms around my neck and hold on tight. Getting out of here even one second faster is what matters right now.”
“O-o-o-okay! It—it can't be helped right now, yeah…!”
With the flustered Cha Eunju scooped up princess-style, we hurried out of the forest.
It was the moment all that consistent strength training under Choi Marie's brutal regimen finally paid off.