Ttek-tteki (3)
Before I could even open my mouth, Ttek-tteki was already sidling up to me, carefully asking if there was anything she could do for me.
I caught the meaning of her words the moment they left her lips, of course, but I deliberately played dumb and probed a little deeper to see where her heart truly lay.
"Anything I can do for you? You don't have any money, so you figured you'd pay me back with your body?"
"N-no, that's not it! I-I'll pay the money back, I mean besides that, like, don't you have any errands or something I could run for you...? I-I do owe you a bit, after all..."
"A bit?"
"...A-a lot..."
Well, at least she's capable of some honest self-assessment.
That said, even a passing child could tell that her offer wasn't born of any genuine desire to repay a debt.
She just wanted an excuse—any excuse—to be around me. It was probably the same reason she'd gone along with Seo Woojin's reckless dungeon exploration back then.
Hers was the type to be proactive about getting what she wanted, but hopeless at knowing when to cut her losses, so she always ended up taking damage.
In other words, she was an easy mark, ripe for the plucking. In every sense of the phrase.
"Well, Ttek-tteki, you do owe me quite a lot."
"...I'm not Ttek-tteki. My name is Yoo Ahrin."
"Same thing."
"...Ugh, seriously."
Still, it was the least insulting of the nicknames I'd given the trio, yet there she was, resisting it like it offended her.
Not that I had any intention of changing it, whether she liked it or not. A name that had already stuck was more trouble than it was worth to swap out.
"So, since you owe me so much, you're offering yourself up as my errand girl?"
"...Yeah. I mean, if you need one."
Seeing her this docile, I figured she probably wouldn't backtalk me later.
...But then again, you never know. Better to stay careful.
"Well, if you insist, there is one thing I'd like to ask of you, Ttek-tteki."
"...Really?"
This spot happened to be a bit of a back corner of the academy, and if we tucked a little deeper in, I figured no one else would spot us. It was also Thursday, one of those days when the staff patrols were a touch more lax.
"I told you before that among combat support skills, I specialize in buffs, right?"
"Ah, yeah. I heard."
"I've been researching a new buff lately, and I need someone to help test it."
"A buff test? What kind of buff?"
"...A hypnosis buff."
"Hypnosis... huh?"
Ahrin had been on the verge of nodding along, clearly ready to agree, but at my next words she froze, tilting her head in mild confusion.
Considering everything, her reaction was only natural at this point, so I played it completely cool and continued my explanation as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
"I'm only saying this so you don't get the wrong idea—if you don't want to do it, just say so. It's not urgent enough that I actually need to beg you for it."
"...W-well, let me at least hear what this buff does. Is this hypnosis the same hypnosis I'm thinking of?"
"If you're asking whether it means the victim can't think for themselves, moves exactly as I command, and loses all memory of it afterward—then yes."
"……"
Watching her expression shift from moment to moment, it seemed she'd still been holding out a sliver of hope.
But her reaction alone left things ambiguous. This much wasn't enough for me to be certain Ttek-tteki would actually meekly obey my commands.
To be precise, I couldn't be sure that after hitting her with Suggestion: Hypnosis, she'd let the whole thing slide afterward and carry on as if nothing had happened.
It would be a pain in the ass if I took her on a whim and she raised a fuss about rape or whatever once it was over.
Given that she's the one who brought up repaying a debt, her character doesn't seem all that bad, honestly.
But from here on out, all I could do was watch how she reacted and judge accordingly.
As I said before—if this looked like it might turn into a hassle, I'd simply walk away, screw the whole plan. I had no interest in wasting attention on a background extra who was never even a heroine, villain, or side character in the original story.
"Wh-what would you do to me while I'm hypnotized? Y-you're not planning on doing anything weird, right?"
"Who knows. Depends on the situation."
"...What?"
"I want to see how far commands can go while someone's under hypnosis. That's how I'll know what I can use it for later on."
"L-later?! Y-you perverted bastard, what are you planning to do with hypno—!!"
"What nonsense. I'm talking about using it on villains and terrorists for interrogation and confessions. Or maybe at the student tournament at the end of the semester."
"...Ah. Th-that kind of use...?"
"This is exactly why I told you not to get any weird ideas, and here you are calling me a pervert and whatnot... You know what, forget it. I'll just ask someone else."
In truth, I'd already tested Suggestion: Hypnosis's effects on the main heroines more than a few times, so I knew exactly what it was capable of—but that was beside the point.
In moments like these, the most important thing was to project an attitude of complete indifference. The one desperate here wasn't me, it was Ahrin, and she'd know perfectly well that her usual squawking wasn't going to salvage the situation.
"W-wait, Lee Seonho! Wh-what's the hurry?!"
"You said no. I figured you were worried I might do something strange since I'm such a pervert."
"I never said it was that bad! I-I just thought there was a possibility, that's all!"
"Same thing. I've got no interest in dragging along a girl who doesn't want to do it and making her jump through hoops. Let's just drop it. We were never that close to begin with."
"No, well, that's true, but... I-I meant we could get closer from now on..."
Wearing an uncharacteristically timid expression, Ahrin was desperately trying to read my mood.
The moment I judged she was about eighty percent of the way over the line, I smiled to myself and took a few more steps away—
"O-okay, fine!"
"……"
"The-the hypnosis buff! I-I'll do the test for you!"
Just as I'd predicted, Ahrin came running in like a moth to a flame, utterly incapable of knowing when to cut her losses.
Ahrin was desperate.
So desperate that she couldn't even notice the fact that she was being read like a book by Lee Seonho.
I was going to do it anyway, so maybe I should have just agreed from the start...
Why on earth had she said all that useless nonsense about him doing something weird, about him being a perverted bastard?
She'd deliberately cooked up a flimsy excuse and tagged along on his night walk just to get closer to Seonho, and now she fretted that instead of getting closer, she'd only managed to stoke his irritation.
*Sigh*, seriously... If only I hadn't acted up in front of that bastard Seo Woojin yesterday...
The moment she'd laid eyes on Seo Woojin's childhood friend at the Border Hall yesterday, her impatient nature had made her slip up, so she couldn't blame Seonho for having a bad impression of her.
Looks can be deceiving when it comes to men—she'd learned that lesson the hard way. Literally to the point of losing a limb.
Having long since folded away any interest in Seo Woojin, her gaze naturally turned to Lee Seonho.
He might be combat support, but he had the responsibility and competence of a leader, and his combat ability seemed more than sufficient to pull his own weight.
True, among the men who'd saved her, there had also been that handsome Swordsmanship Department boy named Do Yoonsung... but for some reason, Ahrin found herself drawn more to Seonho than to him.
Guys who are too handsome probably have something wrong with them...
After all, Seo Woojin had sent her wariness of "handsome men" to its absolute peak.
And in actual combat, Seonho's habit of actively issuing tactical commands had inspired far more trust than Do Yoonsung, who'd been little more than just another party member.
Even the rest of it—recovering the arm she'd lost inside the dungeon under the pretext of collecting materials, making sure she could get treatment quickly, even covering the church's treatment fee she couldn't afford at the time—every last bit of it.
Grumbling on the surface while quietly taking care of everything behind the scenes—watching Seonho do just that left Ahrin feeling an odd warmth in her chest.
More than a guy like Seo Woojin with nothing but a pretty face, guys like Seonho are the real deal.
At the very least, Seonho seemed to look after his own people without fail.
Just because of the few things she'd said to Han Sora, he disliked and shunned her this much. Conversely, if she could somehow make it inside his circle, he'd probably treat her the same way.
If she became a friend—or something more—rather than a mere acquaintance, he might cherish her even more.
At the very least, he wouldn't act the way he did now, deliberately calling her 'Ttek-tteki' and snubbing her.
Honestly, my looks aren't something I'd lose to anyone over.
Granted, she did feel like she fell a notch short of that 'Han Sora' girl she'd run into yesterday—but he'd said he wasn't dating her anyway.
With an unclaimed man, the one who moved first became the owner. And by her instincts, Seonho was undeniably a man with potential.
...Though given that the first man her instincts had latched onto was Seo Woojin, those instincts didn't exactly carry much credibility.
The hypnosis test or whatever. Anyway, he probably won't do anything weird.
And well, she'd already owed the man her life more than once.
Even if something strange did happen, it would be cheap compared to the price of her life.
...And if she found out about it later, maybe she could even turn it around and use it against him. With such thoughts, Ahrin clutched her faintly trembling chest, feigned composure, and met Lee Seonho's eyes.
"So, how exactly do we test this 'hypnosis' thing?"
"I'll handle that part. All you have to do, Ahrin, is quietly accept the mana flowing out of my hand."
"...Shouldn't we go to a training ground or something? You want to do it right here?"
"It's just a buff test—why would we need a training ground? It's not like I'm planning anything strange."
"...Well, true."
Indeed, just as he said.
If he'd really been planning to hypnotize her and do something strange, he would have taken her somewhere private like a training ground, a space where they'd be alone.
In a sense, the very fact that Seonho proposed hypnosis out here in the open actually inspired Ahrin's trust.
-Shhh.
"Then... go ahead and try it."
Ahrin stood carefully before him, closed her eyes, and quietly lowered her head to present the crown of it to him.
The fear still lingered, but she had faith that Seonho wouldn't go so far as to do something strange to her.
Totally defenseless, she accepted the mana flowing from his palm.
Condition : Hypnosis
Confirming the status abnormality welling up in her mind, Ahrin quietly sank into thought.
So this is what being hypnotized feels like.
She'd imagined her memories would suddenly vanish the moment it took hold, her consciousness leaping forward to some point after she woke—but apparently that wasn't how it worked.
Or maybe the very memory she was experiencing right now would simply evaporate the instant the hypnosis ended. The thought sent a faint chill through her.
Well, still, Seonho is a guy you can trust, so he wouldn't openly do anything weird...
"Hey, Ahrin. You under hypnosis?"
"……"
"Why aren't you answering? Did it not take?"
...What is this?
She still felt like her mind was perfectly intact. So why was Seonho asking her whether the hypnosis had taken hold?
"Hey, Ttek-tteki, I'm asking if you're hypnotized. If it didn't take, I have to cast it again, so answer me already."
Ahrin found herself flustered by a development entirely unlike anything she'd braced herself for.