Chapter 248
Chapter 248
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 248
Chapter Title: Celebration Party (4)
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“Wow! I knew it! So it was Lord Pagunseong who confessed first!”
Melissa’s eyes sparkled as she clasped her hands together as if in prayer.
Her gaze was filled with utter adoration for Isabella.
Isabella's lecture from the limousine flashed through her mind.
‘This is how you take the lead in love!’
Melissa gave Isabella a playful wink and a silent thumbs-up.
A signal that she clearly remembered Isabella’s advice.
“Th-that's right. O-Oh-jin... c-confessed first.”
Faced with Melissa’s gaze full of infinite admiration and awe, Isabella turned pale and averted her eyes.
“I should get back to cooking now…”
Isabella tried to change the subject and stand up, but…
“Where?”
“Pardon?”
“Where did he confess to you?”
There was no stopping the curiosity of a young girl just beginning to learn about love.
“Um… w-well.”
Isabella glanced over at Oh-jin and Ha-eun.
Both seemed to have grasped the situation; Oh-jin was letting out a dry laugh, while Ha-eun was covering her mouth, shaking as she tried to stifle her own laughter.
“…”
Isabella bit her lip gently and clutched the hem of her skirt.
“It was… at the beach.”
“Ah! San Fruttuoso! It was then!”
“Y-yes.”
Melissa squeezed her eyes shut, wriggled, and let out a squeal.
“A confession on the beach at sunset! How romantic!”
No one had mentioned a sunset, but the young girl’s imagination was already running wild.
“Melissa. Please calm down a little…”
“The line! What was the most important line? What words of love did Lord Pagunseong whisper to you, Lady Isabella?”
“W-words of love?”
Isabella's legs trembled.
She spoke in a voice that seemed wrung from the depths of her rising shame.
“He said… he would become my hope.”
The words he had whispered while holding her.
Of course, it was far from the words of love Melissa was imagining.
But to her, those words had shaken her heart far more than any clumsy confession of love ever could.
“Hope? Not love?”
“…Yes.”
“Hmmmm.”
Melissa narrowed her eyes, as if this wasn't quite what she had expected.
“Lord Pagunseong!”
Melissa's gaze turned to Oh-jin.
She puffed out her chest excitedly and clenched her fists.
“When did you fall for Lady Isabella?”
“Uh… well.”
“O-Oh-jin!”
Isabella turned to Oh-jin, clasping her hands as if in prayer.
A desperate gesture pleading for him to play along.
Oh-jin scratched his head and began to speak.
“From the moment I first saw her, I guess.”
“Aah! I knew it! It was love at first sight!”
Melissa caressed her blushing cheeks, shaking her head and squealing.
“Melissa. It's time we go.”
“Ah! B-butler, I still have more questions…!”
Roberto sighed and began to drag Melissa away.
The moment Melissa, who had been rampaging like an eight-ton truck with broken steering, was dragged out of the house.
“Bwahahahahahahaha!!!”
Ha-eun finally burst out with the laughter she’d been holding back, rolling on the floor.
“Well, well, well~? Has our little lady been going around telling people you're dating Oh-jinnie?”
“B-be quiet, Ha-eun!”
“Bwahahaha! Ah, this is killing me!”
“Ha-eun!”
Isabella, face flushed and fuming, turned to Oh-jin.
“Oh-jin! Please stop her…”
“Seeing you again, Isabella, reminds me of what happened that day on the sunset beach.”
“…Pardon?”
Oh-jin continued, gazing out the window with melancholic eyes.
“That was when I worked up the courage to confess.”
“Gasp.”
“Isabella… that I would become your hope.”
“N-not you too, Oh-jin!”
Isabella stumbled backward, her face pale.
Oh-jin chuckled, looking at Isabella, whose face was bright red.
Seeing Isabella, who usually carried herself with the noble and elegant air of an aristocrat, so completely flustered was naturally amusing.
“What's wrong? Weren't we lovers?”
“Agh, agh, aghhh!”
Isabella stomped her feet, her eyes welling up with tears as if she might burst out crying at any moment.
“I don't know anymore! You're both so mean!”
Isabella snatched a teacup and threw it.
Oh-jin skillfully caught the empty cup and glanced at his watch.
“By the way, is it alright for us to be lounging around like this?”
“Pardon?”
“The guests will be here in less than two hours.”
“Ah.”
Isabella's eyes widened.
Lost in the moment, she hadn't realized how much time had passed.
“I-I'll start cooking right away!”
Isabella scurried off to the kitchen.
***
“Congratulations on being chosen for the Seven Stars, Mr. Oh-jin.”
The first to arrive was Department Head Han.
“I'm here too, hyung!”
Behind him, a boy in an ill-fitting white lab coat raised his hand high.
Kim Si-hoo, the head of the Association's Sacred Relic Research Institute.
A young genius who had become the director thanks to his prodigious skill in crafting Sacred Relics.
“It's been a while.”
Before obtaining the Living Armor's spear, he used to meet him regularly for weapon maintenance, but they hadn't seen each other much recently.
“Hyung! I heard a rumor that you got a new Sacred Relic.”
“This?”
He channeled mana into the folding knife he drew from his hip.
*Shhhk, click!*
In the blink of an eye, the knife transformed into a spear.
“Ooh! So that's the rumored Ego Weapon!”
Kim Si-hoo reached for the spear with an excited expression.
*ZAP!*
A blue spark leaped from the spear.
“Only its master can touch it.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Kim Si-hoo took a magnifying glass out of his lab coat pocket.
“Hyung, can you put this on the floor for a moment?”
“Sure.”
He placed the Living Armor's spear on the floor.
When Kim Si-hoo held the magnifying glass over it, a bluish light spun out like thread and coiled around the spear.
“Hmm. Dantalion…”
“Dantalion?”
“That's the spear's name. It's engraved as a formula on the shaft.”
“What?”
Oh-jin tilted his head and looked at the spear shaft.
There was only smooth jet-blackness, as if forged from darkness itself; nothing that looked like a formula.
“Ah, to be precise, it's a formula engraved inside the shaft. You can only see it using this.”
Kim Si-hoo held up the magnifying glass-like Sacred Relic.
‘Dantalion.’
Oh-jin looked at the jet-black spear with intrigued eyes.
He knew it was an Ego Weapon, but since he rarely felt the weapon's actual ego, he hadn't considered that it might have a name.
“Dantalion.”
Oh-jin gripped the spear and called its name.
*Vwoooooom!*
The jet-black spear shuddered, emitting a powerful aura.
“Huh? It feels like the output is stronger than usual.”
Oh-jin's eyes widened as he channeled a bit of mana into Dantalion.
All he had done was call the spear's name, but the mana emanating from it was significantly denser than usual.
“It's because of the name.”
“Because of the name?”
“With Ego Weapons, the stronger the ego dwelling within, the better its performance becomes.”
Kim Si-hoo used the magnifying glass-like Sacred Relic to examine the jet-black spear once more.
“Hyung. Why don't you come by the lab when you have time? With the lab's equipment, we should be able to learn more about the formula engraved inside.”
“Alright.”
A smile spread across Oh-jin's lips at this unexpected gain.
Kim Si-hoo gave Oh-jin a playful nudge in the ribs with a mischievous smile.
“How's that? A pretty great congratulatory gift, right?”
“Eat whatever you want today.”
He chuckled and patted Kim Si-hoo's shoulder.
“Urgh. This suddenly makes my gift feel a bit inadequate.”
Department Head Han looked down at the fruit basket he had brought, a troubled expression on his face.
“Not at all. Thank you, Department Head Han. I'll enjoy it.”
“Haha. I bought this with my own money, not the company's.”
Just as he accepted the large fruit basket from Department Head Han.
“It's been a while, Mr. Oh-jin. I've been so focused on training since the Living Armor incident that I haven't been able to contact you properly.”
Lee Woo-hyeok arrived, following Department Head Han.
His presence had changed so much he was almost unrecognizable.
‘I heard he reached 9-Star recently.’
He exuded an intense aura, making him feel like a completely different person from when he was an 8-Star.
“It looks like your training has paid off.”
“Haha. Not as much as you, Mr. Oh-jin.”
Lee Woo-hyeok, too, was inwardly astonished.
He had figured Oh-jin wasn't chosen for the Seven Stars for no reason, but he hadn't expected this.
‘Is he really an 8-Star…?’
Lee Woo-hyeok shook his head, finding it hard to believe.
“Here's a congratulatory gift.”
Kim Seon-yeong, the vice guild master of Valhalla who had come with Lee Woo-hyeok, offered a bottle of champagne labeled "Dom Pérignon."
Oh-jin's gaze wavered slightly as he looked at Kim Seon-yeong.
-*What are you hesitating for! He's your brother… your only family!*
He remembered her glaring venomously at Lee Shin-hyeok, shouting that they had to go save Lee Woo-hyeok immediately.
“…”
An inexplicable irritation rose within him.
“Mr. Oh-jin?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
Oh-jin took the champagne and turned away.
He walked away, trying to cool his heated head.
‘Get a grip.’
It's all in the past.
[My child! Congratulations!]
“Grrr. Hmph, not bad for a brat.”
After that, Vega and Lyra also joined the party,
“Mister! How have you been?”
and Rebecca also came to see Oh-jin with a cheerful smile.
“Alright! Then, to Pagunseong Oh-jinnie's… Pfft! Ah, this title is so awkward.”
With everyone gathered.
Ha-eun raised her glass and giggled.
“What's with the cringey toast?”
“Just shut up and finish what you were saying.”
“Ahem! Anyway! To our Oh-jinnie becoming one of the Seven Stars! Cheers!”
With a clear clinking of glasses, the party began in a lively atmosphere.
[Delicious! This is truly incomparable to Ha-eun's cooking!]
“Huh?”
“Did you make all of this by yourself?”
Everyone who tasted Isabella's cooking had their eyes wide with amazement and showered her with praise.
As they ate and drank merrily, and the party's atmosphere heated up.
‘Hm?’
In that moment.
Oh-jin felt a strange sensation on his leg.
He looked down to see a slender, fair leg gently tickling his own.
He quickly looked up across the table and saw Isabella, pretending to be nonchalant.
“What are you doing…”
“Is there anything else you need, Mr. Oh-jin?”
Isabella, with a mischievous smile on her lips, skillfully moved her foot to gently stimulate his.
A gesture like lovers sharing a secret intimacy.
Oh-jin had no trouble guessing why Isabella was suddenly acting this way.
‘It’s because of what happened earlier!’
It seemed that being thoroughly embarrassed in front of Melissa had flipped some kind of switch inside her.
Isabella, sitting across from him, moved her long, slender legs to wrap around his.
“W-wait…”
What was she thinking, doing this with so many people around?
Just as he tried to pull his leg away in a panic.
“Stay still.”
His body froze.
Isabella slowly moved her legs up and down, tickling his shin.
No, "tickling" was too mild a word for movements that brought such stimulating pleasure.
“You had quite a bit of fun teasing me earlier, didn't you?”
As if showing no mercy, Isabella quickened the movement of her legs.
Oh-jin endured the surging pleasure, screaming internally.
‘Ha-eun did it too, so why only me!’
He glanced toward Ha-eun for help, but she was busy chugging the champagne Lee Woo-hyeok had brought and chatting with the others, paying him no mind.
“Kugh.”
Oh-jin bit his lip, trying his best to distract himself.
As if mocking his efforts, Isabella's leg began to climb higher, toward his thigh.
‘N-no!’
Almost everyone he knew was gathered here.
The fallout if this embarrassing scene were to be discovered was painfully obvious.
‘My voice… it’s going to slip out!’
Oh-jin squeezed his eyes shut and endured the overwhelming pleasure.