If There's Something You Want, You Can Tell Me
The door clicked shut.
Kyle slipped out of the room that now belonged to the woman called Sera and into his own, drawing a long, careful breath to keep the impulse rising inside him in check.
The scent of a female had hung thick in the air between them. Before he knew it, he had nearly reached out and taken her body for himself.
He could have forced her anytime he wanted. He didn't. Do that, and all he would ever have was her flesh.
He wanted everything. Her body, her heart — all of it made his, so that three years from now she would still choose to stay at his side.
If she tried to leave him after three years, he was prepared to wipe Korea off the map. But when he pictured her smiling only for him, offering herself up of her own will with that look of genuine pleasure on her face... winning her heart within those three years was clearly better for them both.
The way to win her didn't seem difficult. He had already had her background investigated. He knew exactly how she had been treated.
A useful ability, and nothing but persecution from everyone around her. Because of that, she undervalued herself to a staggering degree.
The conversation they had just had said as much. She had been bristling at him, all thorns and wariness — but the moment he offered a word of encouragement, that guard of hers had softened, and she had gone slack-faced, dazed.
He would give her nothing but recognition and praise. Not empty words invented out of consideration — his genuine feelings. Slowly, he would open her heart and defile everything inside it with his own color.
Imagining that future, Kyle wrapped a hand around his cock.
"Sera... ngh... "
That night, Kyle worked himself through the heat in his own room until well past midnight.
A high ceiling swam into view as her eyes opened.
"Ah..."
She sat up, and the past few days came back to her. She had become an American hunter and was living in Kyle's house. An unwanted cohabitation.
She had expected to toss and turn in a strange place. Instead, she had slept more deeply than she had in a very long time.
She climbed out of bed and put on her bra. When she had first become a woman, she hadn't known how the thing worked and had fumbled with it for ages. Now she fastened it with practiced ease and pulled on a comfortable set of sleepwear.
When she had lived alone, she had gone around the house without one. Having someone else under the same roof made that more than a little awkward. From now on, she would have to wear it except when she slept.
With that thought, she opened her door and stepped out into the living room. A massive man sat at the dining table, drinking coffee.
He seemed to sense her presence. He turned, and greeted her.
"Good morning, Sera."
"...Good morning."
Kyle looking at her and calling her Sera. She did not like that name.
She could not understand why he insisted on calling her Sera when she already had a name — Kang Yu-eul, the name she had used even before she had come into this world.
The contract was already signed, so she would operate as Sera for three years. That did not mean she had any intention of truly accepting the name.
I don't care what anyone else says. I'm Kang Yu-eul.
Holding onto that thought, she looked at the man in front of her again. He had been watching her. Their eyes met. She looked away from that persistent gaze, but he did not take his eyes off her.
Intimidated by the frightening weight of that stare, she ventured a careful question.
"Is there... something you need?"
"..."
Kyle's lips parted as if he were about to speak. Then he swallowed the words.
"No. Nothing like that. I'll be heading out — take it easy today and look around the guild."
With that, he left.
For the next several days, a manager walked her through the guild's facilities.
The cafeteria, the training hall, the shop, the recovery rooms, the equipment vaults — size and quality befitting the world's top-ranked guild.
She toured them with sparkling eyes, used them, and little by little she adapted to Ares.
Except for the part where she lived in the same space as him...
The door opened with a clack.
She stepped out into the living room, and there he was again — Kyle, staring at her the same way he had on the first morning. Yesterday, too, she had asked him what was going on under the weight of that burdensome gaze.
...It's nothing.
He had clenched a fist, given her that answer, and then removed himself from the room.
Living with her workplace superior was uncomfortable enough. Having him do this every single morning was driving her out of her mind.
Today, she decided, she was going to put an end to this daily ritual. She walked toward him.
"Um... you've been staring since the first day... if there's something you want, you can tell me..."
What she had wanted to do was shout at him to explain why he stared at her every morning. Given who she was talking to, she kept her voice careful and watched his face.
"..."
He looked at her with an expression she could not read and said nothing. Just as she thought today would be more of the same, a low, powerful voice cut through the silence.
"Hah... it's not that. Today you're coming to a dungeon with me. We'll take the private jet, so get ready."
"Understood."
She wondered, briefly, if that was what he had been trying to say since the first morning. Then she followed his instructions and prepared to leave for the dungeon. She had eaten well and rested well. It was time to work.
Monsters burst apart before they could even scream.
Each one was a High Orc, with abilities comparable to an A-class hunter. Crimson-skinned, standing an average of three meters tall, packed with muscle that looked ready to split their own hides — and they were being slaughtered by a single man without landing a single blow.
Kyle Andre, befitting the world's strongest hunter, tore through the High Orc horde at a speed the eye could not follow, her buff burning through him the entire time.
When they had first entered the dungeon, she had been anxious. It was just the two of them. Then she watched him walk toward her after wiping out an entire High Orc tribe in twenty-seven minutes, and she realized her worry had been completely unnecessary.
She had known his strength before. Feeling that overwhelming power again still drew a breath of genuine awe from her. She offered the words that seemed appropriate.
"Good work."
"It went smoothly thanks to you. I appreciate it."
"Yes, good wor— wait, what?"
Kyle answering her. Kyle thanking her.
In all the time she had spent running dungeons, people had marveled at her ability. No one had ever thanked her for it. Hearing gratitude for the first time in her life, she fumbled.
"Um... there's no need to thank me..."
She pushed the thanks away. His gratitude was probably just novelty — surprise at what her ability could do. Why thank someone for doing the job they were supposed to do?
"Sera. I told you last time. I don't make things up. You used your special ability for me, so thanking you is only natural."
He did not back down from her rejection. He thanked her again, and as he did, he closed the distance between them.
"Eek!!"
Then both of his hands settled on her shoulders. Physical contact she had not allowed even once since becoming a woman.
The sensation was so unfamiliar, so strange, that rejection rose in her on instinct, and she tried to knock his hands away. That was when his voice reached her.
Those calm words, acknowledging her. The moment they reached her ears, the resistance vanished as if it had never existed, and she found herself looking up at his face.
His black eyes did not look away. They held hers, steady and unflinching, and that gaze planted something in her that felt like trust.
Trust that he meant what he said. And at the same time, the unfamiliar sensation of his hands on her shoulders grew sharper, clearer. The places where they touched seemed to grow hotter. She pulled away in a rush.
"Th-th... y-yes. Shall we g-go now?"
She stammered her way toward the dungeon exit, acutely aware of the man walking quietly behind her, and stepped out into the open air.
"Good work. Get some rest, Sera."
"Yes..."
She was home. She had no memory of how they had gotten there. She answered his greeting in a daze and went into her room, and the moment the door closed behind her she threw herself onto the bed and shut her eyes.
It went smoothly thanks to you. I appreciate it.
Thanking you is only natural.
Take pride in yourself.
Even with the blanket pulled over her head and her eyes squeezed shut, his voice kept ringing through her mind. Was it because no one had ever thanked her before? She could not calm down at all.
Whenever she replayed that moment, her shoulders grew hot on their own. She understood the version of herself who had not been able to push his hands away — and she resented her for it.
The first recognition she had received since coming to this place. The first gratitude. And she had not rejected the touch of the man who had given them to her.
Like a puppy fawning and offering up its body at its master's praise.
She shook her head hard, left and right, denying the thought the instant it formed. It was not that it had felt good. She had just been flustered. Her body had frozen because she had been shocked by the first thank-you of her life. That was all.
To get her tangled thoughts in order, she stepped out onto the balcony and leaned against the railing, thinking of the man who had done this to her.
Kyle Andre. The man who had threatened her into changing her name, who was trying to control her ability, who had confined her in his own residence.
A thug of a man who used his power to get whatever he wanted. The thought that she had been swayed by praise from someone like that dragged a hollow laugh out of her.
Get a grip.
Three years. Just three years, and then she would go back to Korea. She would live comfortably, alone, as Kang Yu-eul.
Holding onto that future, she came back inside, lay down on the bed, and tried to sleep. His voice found her anyway.
I appreciate it.
"..."
In the end, she stayed awake until dawn, his words rising in her mind again and again, and she could not sleep at all.