The Hospital Visit (1)
Looking down at Cha Eunju, who was docilely offering her head to be stroked, I organized the predicted results of the academy entrance exam in my mind.
Seo Woojin, that bastard probably passed the exam itself too.
Passing him openly right in front of us would have looked too suspicious, so they must have gotten him through somehow—either by letting him take a retest or by granting him some small advantage.
After all, the best way to guarantee the secret of the boss monster—the Owlbear—was to make sure anyone who knew about it was enrolled in the academy. And since ours had been the first sitting of the exam, there would have been plenty of opportunities to slot him in with the regular students for a second attempt.
That said, unlike the original story, Han Sora will probably take the top spot in this entrance exam.
It was practically guaranteed—she was the one who received the Owlbear's Heart as the subjugation reward. Roughly estimating a goblin's heart at 5 points and an orc's at around 10, an Owlbear's heart would probably be worth somewhere in the ballpark of 200.
It might look like the academy was just handing out points like it was some kind of retreat after we'd suffered for an hour and a half, but subjugating an Owlbear at trainee level was a feat that defied all common sense to begin with.
...There had been a bit of an argument over whether Han Sora or someone else should take the heart, the most valuable part of the creature, but in the end it had worked itself out.
'As I said earlier, Han Sora was the one who killed the Owlbear, so the heart should go to Han Sora.'
'What are you talking about, Lee Seonho? You worked the hardest, so you should get the heart! Everyone else is saying the same thing!'
'I only "worked the hardest" because my ability doesn't contribute much to combat. Think about it rationally—of everyone here, do you honestly think there was anyone besides you, Han Sora, who even had a 'chance' of killing that Owlbear alone?'
'Th-that might be true, but. Still, if I take the heart...'
'If you really think I worked the hardest, Han Sora, then you should listen to me right now. And don't forget—effort and contribution are two completely separate things.'
'...Haah, fine.'
She'd been unable to overcome my rebuttal—that Han Sora was the only one among us capable of killing the Owlbear—and had grudgingly accepted the material.
And truthfully, without Han Sora, the operation itself would have been impossible from the very premise. Even if her accuracy was shaky, gather enough teammates to support her shots and her raw power was the one thing you could absolutely count on.
She'd made a vaguely uncomfortable face when she actually received the material, but this was something that needed to be settled properly and cleanly.
In real hunter parties, combat support always ended up in the position of scavenging whatever materials were left over, and thinking ahead to our future relationships, I needed to perform a little extra virtue—more than strictly necessary, even.
Decisively, if I'd taken the Owlbear's Heart and somehow ended up as the top scorer of the entrance exam, I couldn't have handled that kind of aggro. Honestly, that was the biggest reason I half-pawned my claim off onto Han Sora.
'So the heart is settled. As for the brain, I think it'd be good if either Isabel or Eunju took...'
'N-no...! The brain, the brain absolutely has to go to Seonho!'
'I told you, Eunju. Materials should be distributed based on combat contribution, not how much someone suffered—'
'I-if Seonho doesn't take the brain, then I'm not taking any materials either! This, this one thing, no matter what you say, Seonho, I will never, never give it up...!!'
'Fine, fine. Sorry, Isabel. Looks like I have to take the brain after all.'
—She shakes her head.
'N-no, really... I-I have no, no complaints about... about Seonho... taking it...'
...As for the brain, the second most valuable material, Cha Eunju's fierce opposition meant I couldn't give it away in the end.
Acting the good samaritan was only ever a means of building favorability with the heroines and lowering their guard—there was no need to push the refusal so far that it dropped my affection instead. And so the brain was decided: mine.
That left the hide as the next most valuable material, with the teeth and claws and such as byproducts. All the byproducts lumped together would come out to roughly the value of the hide, so Cha Eunju and Kim Isabel split what remained between them. Their pouches had one slot and three slots respectively, so the numbers worked out perfectly.
Needless to say, Seo Woojin—who hadn't participated in the fight—didn't receive so much as a claw clipping.
—Pat, pat.
"Kuu, kuuul... Kuuuul..."
I really needed to hurry up and heal so I could get out of this bed. After all, I still had dates to take this girl on, and sex to have with her.
Watching Cha Eunju diligently fake sleeping even after I'd been rubbing her head for well over ten minutes kept pulling my thoughts downward.
Should I give her breasts a little squeeze while I have the chance?
I'd already confirmed them once before, and just as I was considering quietly copping a feel of the breasts of this girl pretending to sleep—
—Slide.
"Whoa, you really were hurt? I thought someone was messing with me."
A pink-ponytailed senior I felt like I hadn't seen in ages came barging into the hospital room.
...That would have been a disaster if I'd been feeling her up.
"Hello, sunbae. Are you here to visit me?"
"Not exactly visiting. Just stopped by on the way home after working out. Wanted to see if you were actually injured or just faking it to dodge your workouts and slack off."
"Come on now. Ah—and I'm sorry for contacting you so late yesterday. The emergency treatment ran long and by the time I was done it was past ten in the evening..."
"Forget it. You're a patient, it happens. I'm not going to gripe about something like that."
That easygoing nature, probably a product of her athletic background, was yet another of Choi Mari's virtues.
Once I've got 'Suggestion: Hypnosis' running on her, I wonder if she'll coolly wrap her mouth around my cock too, saying something like 'that's nothing' with that same easygoing personality.
Seemingly without a hint of the lewd fantasy I was entertaining, Choi Mari just looked at my injuries and made an offhand remark.
"Seriously though, you're unbelievable. How does someone get this banged up fighting hologram monsters? Did you take friendly fire or something?"
"They weren't hologram monsters, sunbae."
"Huh?"
"It seems the exam format changed to live monster subjugation starting this year. We went into an actual dungeon gate, took down goblins and orcs, and came back out."
"...Seriously? The government actually approved that?"
"I wouldn't know. But then again, it is Cheonmu Academy."
"Ah, fair. If it's Cheonmu, then sure, anything goes."
"Anyway, I feel like the exam itself went well, so there's no need to worry about me."
"...You're saying that while looking like that?"
"Just call it evidence of how hard I worked, sunbae."
"Hmm..."
Choi Mari eyed my full-body-fracture state up and down with obvious skepticism, crossed her arms, and fired off a careless remark.
"Yeah, the Support Department really is the Support Department. You've got a sturdy build normally, and one beating from an orc puts you in a hospital bed like this."
—Bolt upright!
"N-no he isn't! Seonho wasn't hurt by an orc, he was hurt by a—mmph?!"
"Geez, you scared me. She was awake this whole time?"
"...I'd say she just woke up at the sound of your voice."
"So if not an orc, then what? Did some other monster get you?"
"...I believe it was an 'Orc Variant,' not a plain orc. I got pretty badly hurt because of it, but variants are worth a lot of points, so passing is all but guaranteed."
"Ahh, an Orc Variant. Yeah, no wonder you got wrecked if something like that showed up."
...That was close. Cha Eunju, fired up by the claim that I'd been felled by a mere orc, had nearly blurted out the Owlbear's existence. It was only because I immediately shoved the head I'd been holding back down into the mattress that we escaped disaster.
The academy was still deliberating over whether to disclose that we'd subjugated an Owlbear, so holding our tongues was the smarter move. They'd almost certainly reveal it eventually, but if we blabbed first and it turned into a problem on the academy's end, that would be our heads.
Anyway, if you're going to fake sleep, commit to it. This was as good as confessing she'd been playing dead the entire time.
"You're awake, Cha Eunju?"
"Ah, mm... just woke up..."
"Then greet her properly. That's Choi Mari sunbae over there. She's a first-year senior at the same academy as us."
"H-h, hello... I'm, I'm Cha Eunju... M-Magic Department..."
"She's the friend I mentioned before, the one who's supposed to take the practical exam with me. Cha Eunju—she'll apparently be entering the Magic Department as a freshman next year."
"...Hmm, is that so. I'm Choi Mari, Shield Department. Looking forward to working with you, Cha Eunju."
Cha Eunju still seemed a little flustered by the novelty of greeting someone new, stammering her words and ducking her head.
And Choi Mari, for some reason, was looking Cha Eunju up and down as she offered a handshake.
She's not about to bring up that compliment from before, is she—the one about Cha Eunju being prettier?
If she said something like that to her face, it would be awfully hard for me to side with anyone at all.
No matter how easy Cha Eunju was to soothe, taking Choi Mari's side over something like that would be a bridge too far. I couldn't exactly hand an extra treat to the girl who already listened to my every word.
At the same time, I didn't want to tank Choi Mari's affection when she was still in the early stages of the route. It was the kind of dilemma that inevitably arose when you courted multiple women at once.
"If you enroll next year, we might end up seeing a lot of each other. If we end up in the same class, I'll be counting on you then."
"Y-yes...! I, I'll be in your care too...!"
"Well, since I've confirmed you're not some slacker faking injuries to skip workouts, I'll be off. When are you coming back to training?"
"They say I should be discharged in about three days. But actually restarting exercise will probably take another week or so after that."
"I'm not going to force you out early, so heal up completely before you show your face. A guy weak enough to get knocked out by an orc has no business overdoing it and hurting himself again."
"...It wasn't an orc."
"Hm?"
"Ah, n-nothing, sunbae. Thank you for worrying about me."
"And here—get-well gift."
—Whoosh, smack.
Something golden flew at me in an arc and I caught it on reflex—Choi Mari had thrown me a mini chocolate bar, about two finger-joints long. The kind she kept on her to munch on whenever her calories dipped mid-workout.
It didn't feel like something she'd brought specifically for me; more like she was tossing me her leftovers. Evidence: the chocolate was slightly gooey, carrying the melted trace of Choi Mari's thigh warmth.
...Personally, this version was far preferable, so I had no complaints whatsoever.
"That's not a gift, sunbae, that's just your leftover snack."
"Shut it, kid. You made your sunbae wait yesterday, so it's punishment."
"Well then, I have no choice. Still, thank you for coming."
"Yeah. Once you're better, you will be back at training. No excuses."
"Yes, sunbae. Safe travels."
—Slide, click.
It had been a bit of a whirlwind of a hospital visit, but having Choi Mari stop by, even briefly, made the whole room feel somehow brighter.
Seeing a face I looked at every day again after going without it seemed to restore my vitality.
Cha Eunju is lovely, but Choi Mari is lovely too. And naturally, having both together would be even better.
"......"
"What's wrong, Eunju?"
"...Hmph, I dunno."
Puffing out her cheeks and sulking adorably—yeah, this was jealousy, one hundred percent, no room for doubt.
I'd been talking like I'd known Choi Mari far longer, right in front of a girl who'd already trusted me enough to let me touch her breasts. No wonder she was feeling petty.
If any other woman showed even a whiff of jealousy, I'd probably feel that suffocating pressure to resolve it fast before things went wrong. But for some reason, Cha Eunju's jealousy just struck me as inexplicably cute.
Sorry about this, but you'd better get used to this feeling—it's going to be around for a while.
Cha Eunju might be more than satisfied with me alone, but I had absolutely no intention of settling for Cha Eunju alone.
Slowly resuming my gentle stroking of her head to soothe her sulk, I was waiting for meal time when the door to the hospital room opened—and yet another someone stepped inside.