Ambush at the Amusement Park (2)

The classic setup: the heroine gets cornered by a pack of thugs, and the protagonist steps in to save her personally. It's a trope used fairly often, since a single staged event can rack up a mountain of favorability — but that only holds true when the protagonist's combat power has reached a certain level.

The original's Seo Woojin, at around this point in the story, was already stirring affection in Han Sora and Kim Isabel, so he could've subdued three or four thugs barehanded without breaking a sweat. Me, though? Not so much.

Combat Support has its own way of fighting. And against humans, at least, my Suggestion skill was decent enough to be useful.

Self-suggestion first. It's not good enough to be a regular in my rotation, but it beats going in raw.

As for the rest — I'd just improvise, catching whatever opening they gave me.

"Ugh, this is getting on my fucking nerves! Whatever, let's just—"

Smack!

"What ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do you think you're doing?"

"Huh?"

"Ah, S-Seonho…!"

In one smooth motion, I caught the wrist of the thug reaching for Kim Isabel's arm, wrenched it aside, and pulled her toward me. The guy stumbled forward off balance, caught completely off guard by my sudden entrance, and I didn't let the opening go to waste — I twisted his arm behind his back and pinned it there.

Crack!

"AAAGH!!"

"I said, what do you think you're doing to my friend?"

Feigning an angry question, I naturally seized a fistful of his yellow hair. Lee Seonho's body was on the taller side, thank god, which made this part a little easier.

And while he was still reeling, I hammered the suggestion home before he could gather any resistance. Strong resistance made implantation harder, sure — but burning through a target's mana didn't make it outright impossible.

I planted the suggestion in the yellow-haired man trapped in my grip, then tossed it across like a pass to the brown-haired one standing opposite.

The content of the suggestion: a hallucination. And what that hallucination would show him was…

"U-UAAAGH! F-Fuck! It's a monster!!"

"…What?"

The hallucination made the tall, well-built brown-haired man across from him look like an Ogre. Even if the guy had an awakened ability, unless it was a combat-type, an Ogre materializing right in front of his face was guaranteed to trigger pure animal terror.

Think about it coldly and he'd realize how absurd it was — an Ogre appearing in the middle of an amusement park. But this one didn't seem the contemplative type. Under these circumstances, the best a thug like him could manage was to swing a fist once and bolt. Predictably:

Wham!

"Khhagh?!"

"UAAAGH, f-fuck! Monster! There's a monster!!"

"Haah, Jesus…."

"…The hell is that guy doing?"

The brown-haired man took one desperate punch from the yellow-haired one and toppled backward, while the yellow-haired one abandoned him and fled for his life. And the black-haired one, still unable to parse the situation, muttered under his breath as his eyes flicked between the two of them.

I planted a suggestion in the dazed, flat-on-his-back brown-haired man too — he'd earned himself a beating from his own friend, after all — then took Kim Isabel's hand and slipped out through the chaos boiling at the park entrance.

"Hey, you okay? What the hell was Geop-su's problem all of a sudden—"

"Ah, FUCK! I'm gonna kill that bastard!"

"Hey—hey! Where are you going?! What's with the freak-out?!"

"Don't block me, you piece of shit!"

THWACK!

"Ugh…."

"Isabel, let's hurry and get out of here. If we stick around, we'll get dragged into it too."

"Y-Yes…!"

Since she already knew about my ability, Kim Isabel caught on to roughly what had just happened without me spelling it out, and quickened her pace. Even before I'd planted any suggestion, her hand was holding onto mine for dear life.

The park's PA announcement drifted past us about three minutes into our run, Kim Isabel's hand still in mine. I figured we were far enough by then, so I gradually slowed to a stop and turned back toward her.

"You okay, Isabel?"

"Y-Yes…."

"You were late with no message, so I was starting to think something was off. I'm glad it wasn't."

"Yes… Th-Thank you for saving me, S-Seonho…."

Getting tangled up with such trash human beings, of all things, had apparently sent her androphobia crashing back over her like a wave.

And yet her grip on my hand was ironclad — as if, in the grand census of her phobia, I alone had been granted an exemption. Instinctive fear couldn't be fully overridden, it seemed, since she still couldn't quite hold eye contact with me. But for now, this much was more than enough.

"Sorry, I didn't think it through. With your androphobia, I should've come to meet you from the church."

"N-No… Th-The other priest still drove me to the entrance…."

"And then you got swarmed by strange men the moment you stepped in. I'm sorry I didn't account for that."

"It's… it's not your fault, S-Seonho…."

Of course it isn't. I know perfectly well it's not my fault. I was only apologizing because playing the contrite savior was the easiest way to stack favorability in her book.

"B-By the way… that just now — w-was it your ability, Seonho…? Th-The man suddenly mistaking another man for a monster, I mean…."

"…Yeah. Honestly, it's not an ability I like using for things like this, but frankly, I didn't trust myself to win three-on-one."

"N-No, n-not at all…! I-I think you handled it really well…! I-If a fight can be avoided without violence, that's obviously the best resolution…! A-And you looked a little cool doing it, too…."

"Thanks for saying that. Still, if I can help it, I'd rather use my ability only for good — not like this. Mental-type buffs can cross the line into outright crime if they're misused. What happened just now was unavoidable, but."

"Y-Yes… I-It was an unavoidable situation…."

At this point, there was no realistic chance of Kim Isabel seeing my ability and deciding to guard against its dangers — but it cost nothing to be careful. Knowing her personality, the winning play in front of her was to strip away every shred of cynicism and play the good, decent boy through and through. To her, the androphobic, I needed to keep cementing the image of 'the one man I can trust.'

"S-Seonho…."

"Yeah?"

"Your ability… th-then, could you use it for the good kind of thing, just this once…?"

"Hm?"

"Th-That buff you gave me in the church infirmary a while back…. I-I was hoping that, w-while we're together, I c-could talk without st-stuttering for once…."

Not even in the church anymore — we'd met outside, and she was the one bringing up the buff first. Just like Cha Eunju, she was drifting toward me step by step, and I could feel it happening, quiet and steady.

"You sure? At this point you'd have to keep the buff maintained until we part ways tonight — that's a solid five or six hours of exposure, minimum. And the backlash when it wears off might not be pleasant."

"I-It's f-fine… R-Rather than that, I'd hate for things to get awkward because of me while you're — n-no, sorry. W-While you're with your friends, I mean…."

Apparently all that time at the church had quietly accumulated far more favorability than I'd realized. The way she unconsciously drew a line between me and everyone else — treating me as something special — only made it clearer.

If Cha Eunju hadn't interrupted back then, I honestly think I could have managed some skinship with Isabel before her discharge.

Either way, it was a proposal with no downside for me. Even if she hadn't brought it up, I'd been planning to invent an excuse and apply 'Succubus's Heart' at the first opportunity. Her raising it first just let me put on a little show of hesitating.

Right now, the man Kim Isabel feels the most affection for in the entire vicinity is me — so it should be safe to keep it running out here.

The bond she and I had built over three days in the church wasn't the kind of emotion that could be overtaken by a few hours of anyone else's company. Succubus's Heart always took precedence with the man holding the highest affection within the surrounding area.

And so, without a shred of worry, I cast it on Kim Isabel as she bowed her head toward my outstretched right hand.

"…Phew. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feel a little better now."

"There might be side effects, so stick close to us today. As close as you can."

"Yes. I'll keep that in mind and stay right by your side, Seonho."

"Even for bathroom trips, take Eunju or Sora with you. Even I can't follow you in there."

"You shouldn't bring that up with a lady so directly, Seonho."

"Sorry. I just worry."

"Of course I appreciate that you do."

Even without the suggestion she'd been quietly leaking affection, and now that Succubus's Heart was fully in effect, that affection had surfaced to a plainly visible level.

If anyone became physically involved with me after Cha Eunju, the odds were good it'd be Kim Isabel. Given her circumstances, anything truly explicit would be off the table — but a priestess's holy power could cleanse even that place, so it hardly mattered.

…Incidentally, that little piece of knowledge also came courtesy of the original novel's trash-priestess villainess.

Squeeze.

"…."

"…."

Hands clasped tight so neither of us ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would lose the buff's hold, we made our way back — and only after blowing past our meeting time by nearly twenty minutes did we finally return to the rendezvous point.

"Ah, Seonho…! What took you so long…?"

"Hey, what kind of guy spends that long in the bathroom… oh, Isabel's with you?"

"Ran into her by chance on my way back from the bathroom. She looked like she was having trouble with some men surrounding her, so I stayed to help. That's why I'm late."

"Oh, really? You okay, Isabel?"

"Yes. Thanks to Seonho, there was no real trouble. I'm sorry for being late, everyone."

Twenty minutes past the meeting time, and yet nobody showed the slightest inclination to blame Kim Isabel. Everyone here knew about her androphobia, after all.

Though there did seem to be exactly one person irritated for reasons that had nothing to do with her tardiness.

"S-Seonho… that, that hand of yours…?"

"Hm?"

"Huh? Now that I think about it, wasn't Isabel androphobic? And there she is, holding hands with you just fine."

"It's thanks to a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠buff. Among Seonho's buffs, there's one that removes the fear of men."

"…Really? There's a buff like that?"

"Yeah. You saw it last time too, Eunju."

"Mmhm…. I-I mean, yes, but… why the hand-holding…."

"Huh, interesting. And here I thought it was because Isabel doesn't even register Seonho as a man anymore, heh."

Han Sora tossed the joke out to steer the conversation elsewhere — but I saw it. The moment she heard about the buff I'd given Kim Isabel, her eyes trembled, just slightly.

She was probably thinking: could his buffs raise my accuracy too? It tracked — in the original, when she enrolled at the academy as second in her class on the back of the Owlbear subjugation, there'd been a scene of her wrestling with that exact worry.

Back then, I hadn't been an option on the table, so all she could do was drink the afterparty away at the amusement park and try to drown the frustration. But that was then. This was now.

"Mental-type buffs are only as good as how well the user puts them to work. If there's a buff you need, Han Sora, just say the word. I can't promise I'll always be available, but I'll look into what I can have ready if you need it."

"…Nah, I'm… I'm fine, really."

"Suit yourself."

Judging by her reaction, she wasn't completely uninterested.

I'd already prepared a buff called Artemis's Soul for Han Sora and her accuracy troubles. There'd almost certainly be a moment during today's ambush where I could apply it.

At first she'd feel conflicted about leaning on a buff to boost her own abilities — but once she tasted that accuracy surge even once, from then on, every time her arrows refused to land, the very first face to flash through her mind would be mine.