The Stage's Turning Point (4)
I reached out with the arm Kim Seyeon hadn't seized.
Grabbed her. Pulled her in hard.
"Oh my..."
I drew her straight into my arms without the slightest hesitation. A full, unreserved hug — the kind people talk about when they mean the real thing.
"Still... seeing you this honest, Jeong Hoon-ssi... it looks good on you. No — it's cute. Hehehe..."
Even after being yanked into my embrace against her will, Kim Seyeon offered no resistance. If anything, she welcomed it.
Sure, someone might complain we were being far too blatant with our affection in a public place. But so what? We'd already seen everything there was to see of each other. Skinship like this was mild stuff for two grown adults.
Besides — what public places were left these days? All of Seoul was my land now. Land I'd acquired through perfectly legitimate(?) means!
If anything, the open space was the only thing stopping us from going further, and that was a damn shame. Should I just move us somewhere else? Nowhere suitable came to mind right away. Where would be good...
"Is there something else weighing on you...? Something that makes you want to lean on me?"
Hah! That was Kim Seyeon for you. She'd zeroed in on what was bothering me in an instant. The most attentive person among us, through and through. Completely different from Yun Mina's style of mercilessly stabbing straight into someone's weak points — this was far more delicate, calm, and gentle.
Well, she'd already caught me. Might as well go all in.
I pressed a careful kiss to her cheek.
"Oh my?"
"A reward for reading my mind."
"Hmm... that alone isn't nearly enough for me."
"The setting isn't exactly ideal."
"That's true, isn't it?"
Bashful smiles spread across both our faces. This time our lips drew closer. They met in an instant, tongues slipping past each other's teeth little by little... intertwining.
We savored a deep kiss that came right up to the edge of flipping the switch — then our lips carefully parted. We stared at each other's flushed faces, faces that looked less human and more like beasts in heat... then snorted out a laugh and pulled each other close again.
It was one of those moments that left you so dazed you didn't want to think about a single worry.
Kim Seyeon no longer felt like some succubus. She felt like a lover — the kind you stayed beside and traded affection with as a matter of course. No, that was simply what she was. We hadn't publicly declared "we're dating" in front of other people (not that we needed to), but even by my own reckoning, we were a perfect couple.
The fact that two people in their late twenties and early thirties — ages when you're supposed to act mature and adult — were snuggling like they were barely past twenty did prick my conscience a little. Just a tiny bit!
"So... what kind of worry is it, our Hoonie-ssi?"
Whoa. Hearing her call me that made me flinch.
Something... something something... I nearly awakened to a weird fetish right then and there. Especially with Kim Seyeon stroking my hair on top of it...
I almost started thinking of her as Mama Kim Seyeon! Well, strictly speaking, she was a mom — Seo Minji's mom!
Ugh, get a grip, Jeong Hoon. Orderly Good only peeled off less than a day ago, and you're already sliding straight back into your old self? You've grown a lot since then, haven't you? Getting knocked around every which way.
"Seyeon, do you remember?"
"Hm? Remember what?"
"Yesterday, in the dungeon. What that merchant said."
Kim Seyeon's hand, which had been gently stroking my hair, went still. Ah. She'd remembered.
"The answers that merchant bastard gave us... they suddenly came back to me. And now my head's a mess over it."
"Hmm... so that's why your head hurt so much you craved my arms and no one else's? Hmm..."
Ah — I wouldn't say I craved them so much as she came to my side herself... but I couldn't quite get the words out. The expression that flickered across Kim Seyeon's face looked a little too triumphant.
Why did it feel like she was wearing the kind of smile only a final victor gets to wear?
"In that case... Lord Jeong Hoon? How about we head to that office of yours — your private space — and have a nice, thorough discussion while we revisit what happened in that dungeon?"
Kim Seyeon's eyes curved. A captivating aura rolled off her.
By any ordinary standard, you would have called it seduction.
"...Let's do that."
I didn't resist the temptation. There was no need to.
Kim Seyeon casually linked her arm through mine and led me down from the lodging rooftop.
For some reason, the way we were walking right now... if you'd told me we were heading to a motel, it wouldn't have felt the least bit off! Lately my office seemed less like a place for meetings and work and more like a space for clandestine encounters, didn't it? The absurd part was that those clandestine encounters only ever happened with one person — Kim Seyeon!
Not that I was complaining!
We slipped out of the lodging in no time. Walking lightly along the well-kept roads, we soon reached my castle — the former National Assembly Building. All the lights were out, but...
"Hm? Welcome, Your Excellency. Lady Kim Seyeon. Conducting business at such an early hour of the morning?"
"So it would seem. Turn on the lights in the office."
"Yes, sir. Right away."
The moment we entered the main building, I gave the order to the butler who greeted us — a man so used to this kind of entrance by now that it didn't faze him in the slightest — and he obeyed without a word of protest.
My way of speaking had completely changed overnight, and he didn't react at all. Because he was an NPC, maybe? Or did NPCs like him already have my true nature fully figured out? It was a little puzzling. Not that it mattered much.
At any rate, we followed the butler's guidance inside. We rode the elevator — back in service now that the power had returned — and climbed higher and higher.
We walked the familiar corridor, and walked some more, until we came to a stop.
I opened the door. Sure enough, the lights were already on. Bright.
Unlike before, the place was thoroughly cleaned, and the office had been simply arranged to match my tastes.
Not that any of that registered. The only thing that caught my eye was the long, plush, and considerably massive sofa.
Thump!
The instant Kim Seyeon sat down on it without a second thought—
"Mmh...!?"
I couldn't hold back the urge to claim her lips again.
Under the bright lights, Kim Seyeon was dressed so casually it was hard to picture her usual women's business suit. What I mean is — a single T-shirt was doing absolutely nothing to restrain the heavy sway of her absurdly massive breasts.
And of course, a lone pair of women's shorts stood no chance of covering those long, shapely thighs and legs either.
"Mmmh...! Nngh...!"
Squeeze... knead...!
Without hesitation, my hands rode up her thighs and kneaded her ass. Carefully. Cradling her. Packing every ounce of desire into the touch.
Ah... screw it! Discussion, agenda, whatever...! Right now I wanted to fuck Kim Seyeon until we both passed out so badly I could barely stand it!
"Haa, haa... starting off this passionate... just how long have you been holding it in, my lord?"
She drawled the words a little, calling me by a different title than before. I pressed slow kisses along the nape of her neck and gave her a brief reminder of my days of abstinence.
"Ever since we first took down that troll."
"Nngh...! That was... more than a week ago... aah...!"
Even mid-sentence she let out a heated moan. Ah — my hand had already slipped inside her shorts. The other had burrowed under her T-shirt and started peeling the clothes off from the inside.
"Hah...! Your way of speaking changed... and now you're acting on impulse... it's so refreshingly new...?"
Even so, a smile mixed with surprise and satisfaction glittered across Kim Seyeon's face as she looked at me with provocative eyes. It was enough to make a matching smile spread across mine.
I stopped kissing her nape, moved to her ear, and brought my lips close as if I meant to bite.
"You hate me like this...?"
Carefully — truly carefully, so I wouldn't leave a mark — I gave her ear the lightest nibble. A woman's sensitive body responded at once.
"Hah...! Not at all..."
"Hm? What was that?"
"Nngh...! I don't... hate it! If anything... this wild side of you...!"
I pulled my mouth away from the ear I'd been gently biting and carefully faced her.
Ah. Of course I hadn't been the only one holding back.
Her eyes, brimming with desire and pleasure, locked straight onto mine.
"I love it... so much...!"
Same here. Insanely so.
Well... whatever agenda we were supposed to discuss could wait two or three hours, right? It was still dawn. So... let's just enjoy this. This moment.
"Hah...!"
May 5th.
Right after clearing the dungeon Old Sanctuary of Education.
Seated across from each other at a table arranged as if for negotiations with the merchant,
I put a question to him in the hao-che register I no longer used.
"First question. You people—"
"Ah, please wait a moment."
Just before the question left my mouth, the merchant Storas raised a hand.
"I will give you advance notice... a warning. I will most certainly provide you with truthful answers. Truly. However, I must inform you that I do not exist here as an independent entity, but have 'descended' to this place by the grace of the one above me. Therefore, should those above determine that a piece of information is of a level that must not be conveyed to you, that portion will automatically be 'censored.' I ask for your understanding on that point. I would also be grateful if you would keep in mind that this very conversation we are having is being monitored by them in real time."
Well, I'd expected as much. Those administrator bastards and their ilk were infuriating whenever they popped up on their own whims... but coldly speaking, it also meant they were looking down on us from above with power so unknown they could appear whenever they damn well pleased. Arrogant sons of bitches, the lot of them!
But... "censored"? Meaning his mouth would just clamp shut on its own if he tried to say something?
When I asked as much, the merchant unexpectedly shook his head.
"Not quite. What comes out of my mouth, and the pronunciation itself, will function normally. However, should I attempt to speak to you about %$%$$#, it will sound to you as though it has been censored like %@#@#. Do you understand? Ah — and the question you just asked does not count toward your 'questions.' No need to worry."
Wh-what the hell was that just now...?
The instant that bastard tried to mention a certain "word," noise and weird mechanical sounds mixed in so thoroughly that I couldn't make out a single thing!
And it was exactly as if some specific "word" or "name" alone was never supposed to reach us!
"Did everyone... hear that just now? That strange dissonance..."
"Yes, I... parts of it sounded strange too. As if... I'm sorry. I can't quite find the right way to put it."
Kim Seyeon looked confused, but Yun Mina was the one who nailed the right description.
"It felt like whenever he pronounced a specific word, that part got replaced with noise. Wouldn't that be the right way to put it, Seyeon unnie?"
"Ah, you're right. That would be the correct way to describe it."
"Huuuh..."
One mountain after another. So they were going to censor every single piece of truly important information. Or else...
Was that information a decisive hint for us and, at the same time, a fatal flaw for them? Did they believe that as a result we'd get closer to an answer they didn't want — one we were never supposed to reach? He'd said they were monitoring in real time...!
"Well then, Jeong Hoon-nim. Do you still intend... to put that question of yours to me?"
...Goddamn it.