The Fortune of Irua Brought by Sloth
[Sloth PIGRITIA]
The owner of the Red Dragon is not a passionate person. You are an existence that obtains everything even while acting on your desires. Waste your time.
Enjoying leisure fills the gauge. Doing so with a member of the opposite sex doubles the effect.
Caution: The maintenance condition gauge does not increase multiple conditions simultaneously.
They really come up with all sorts of things. I barely managed to buy time from the Emperor while getting beaten to a pulp, and now the System is telling me to waste my time. I let out a sigh. Even though I’m starving, I feel like I could rip my stomach open and shove a whole bottle of digestive medicine inside.
Sloth, huh? It basically means I should just eat, play, and enjoy myself. And it says the efficiency increases if I’m with someone of the opposite sex. I looked over at Irua, who was sleeping soundly. Maybe I should take her along. She needs a refresh, too.
The Red Dragon is truly a difficult creature to handle. At this rate, it might be better to unlock Level 7 as quickly as possible. Form Change. That’s clearly a power-up concept. Well, getting stronger is always good. Now, let’s see, what else...
...Hmm? I remember my Lust stat being 6, but now it’s at 10. ...Because I kissed Morgan? Normally, a kiss wouldn't raise the stat at all. It went up this much? Is it a bug? Or is it because I’m a Villain? I don’t understand the System’s criteria.
Wrath was at 7, but it seems to have maxed out after my brawl with the Dragon King Squadron. As for Gluttony, I recovered the Pegasus corpse through Irua, so that shouldn't be an issue for a while.
“Zeo? Are you awake?”
I heard Irua’s voice. Even in the pitch-black darkness, the spiral in her pupils was shining vividly.
“Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?”
“No. I’m all healed. Hans might be a drunkard, but his skills are top-notch.”
Hans is Vengeance’s medical officer.
“That’s a relief... Did things not go well with the Emperor?”
Irua knows everything about the plan to resurrect the Red Dragon. The actors, including Kim Deok-bae, and Vengeance’s subordinates know the general outline of the plan, but naturally, they don’t know that I am the Red Dragon myself. They think I’m just impersonating him.
“No, it went well. I’ll be busy hunting Villains for a while.”
“Really? Then what about those injuries?”
“Well, there were circumstances.”
Irua pouted. It seems she didn’t like that I skipped the explanation.
“Since it’s a rare opportunity to grow, I’d like to recruit members for the Evil Squadron as well.”
“Eh? You were going to add more?”
Irua looked as if she’d been hit on the head with a hammer.
“It’s always good to have plenty of talented people.”
“That... am I not enough?”
“The more the merrier, right?”
Irua’s expression was ominous. I understand how she feels. She was the one who named the group Vengeance, so she must have an attachment to it. It’s probably possessiveness.
“I should have discussed it with you first, I’m sorry. Don’t worry. You’re the best in Vengeance.”
“...Really?”
“Of course.”
“Okay. I’ll forgive you.”
Irua immediately became smug. The dark matter she was unconsciously generating made her hair twitch. The person I’m prioritizing as a candidate right now is, without a doubt, El.Lena. Irua is fine, but that woman is hard to control. Considering the case of the Dragon King Squadron, it would be safer to put shackles on her even if I recruit her as a subordinate later. Two people, Irua and El.Lena, is a bit few, and I think one more would be optimal. I have a person in mind, but it’s not the time to make contact yet. To be precise, contact is impossible.
“Zeo.”
“Hmm?”
“...This.”
Irua handed me something. A rectangular object wrapped in gift paper. A gift?
“Why the gift?”
“That... Emma said so. That you give gifts on Christmas.”
Irua avoided my gaze.
“...To... fri... to people around you?”
A smile involuntarily spread across my lips.
“The date has passed, but... is it okay?”
“Thank you.”
I took her gift and tore off the wrapping paper. A box. It was a pretty high-end brand. When I opened it, what was inside was...
“A sleep mask?”
A sleek black design. I could tell it was a luxury product because of the soft, lightweight fabric.
“That... the Dragon Form mask is hard, right? It’s uncomfortable to sleep face down.”
“Haha.”
What a cute kid. I roughly ruffled Irua’s hair.
“Ouch. What are you doing?”
She raised both hands to pretend to resist for a moment, but soon calmed down. As I petted her for a while, she became as docile as a small rabbit.
“Thanks. I’ll use it well.”
“...Yeah.”
Irua hung her head low.
“I have nothing to give you in return. It’s not much of a substitute, but wouldn’t you like to go out with me tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? Is it Villain hunting?”
“No. Let’s just spend time together, the two of us. Let’s go have fun.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Then, since it’s still dawn, I’ll get some more sleep. This is too precious, so I’ll use it starting next time. Right now, my face is a mess with sweat. It’ll be uncomfortable for you too, Rua, so go inside and sleep.”
“Okay...”
Leaving the dazed Irua behind, I lay back down on the bed and tried to sleep.
Jeong Ui-seok fell back asleep, and Irua blinked her eyes before shaking her head.
‘What, what, what?’ Am I dreaming? Irua pinched her own cheek with dark matter. It was properly stinging. Or was everything until now a dream, and I just woke up? That wasn’t it either. The torn gift and the wrapping paper proved reality.
‘That’s right. I gave it to him.’ A sense of fulfillment made her giggle. The feeling of giving something to someone was a first in her life. Because until now, she hadn’t owned a single thing of her own. The act of giving was impossible. The sensation of giving a gift, which she was tasting for the first time. When she heard about it from Emma, she questioned what meaning this behavior had and why people had such a custom. But now she knew. The moment Jeong Ui-seok burst into laughter after receiving the item she had agonized over choosing and bought with her own money. Irua understood that people exchange gifts to see that one moment of a smile.
Her heart was fluttering. A wish that this moment, this emotion, would last longer naturally seeped in.
‘I want to give him another one.’
Seeing that people even attach the name Christmas to the date for exchanging gifts, it was clear that gifts shouldn’t be given just any time. Irua thought she should ask Emma when it would be okay to give Jeong Ui-seok another gift. The feeling of giving is a flutter. Then, what is the feeling of receiving?
Jeong Ui-seok had made a proposal, saying it was in place of a gift.
‘Right! What do I do, what do I do?’ She had forgotten for a moment. Irua looked around like a rabbit that had lost its parents, but she could only see the dark room.
‘Going out? Zeo and me? To have fun?’ This was something she had only heard about in rumors from groups of runaway teenagers. ‘It must be a date!’
Irua’s pupils began to spin. There was no room for misunderstanding. He clearly said they were going to play, just the two of them. He also said it wasn’t Villain hunting.
‘What do I do. What do I do.’
The clock pointed to 4:44 AM. It could be seen as ominous, but it was a surprisingly common time. Since she had fallen asleep around 1:30 AM while nursing Jeong Ui-seok, Irua had only slept for about three hours.
‘S-sleep, I have to sleep! Otherwise, I’ll be tired tomorrow and ruin everything!’
But if she sleeps? She knows nothing about men, let alone dates. Can she just go out without any preparation? In the first place, where do they go? What do they talk about? As Irua expanded her thoughts, she realized she knew almost nothing about the world. As she rolled her eyes like that, all her sleep had already fled. Her sympathetic nervous system dominated her body, and her eyelids moved more actively than ever.
‘Se-search.’
Irua took out her phone. It was an item Jeong Ui-seok had set up for her convenience. She wasn’t used to typing, so she made typos even for the three letters of ‘date’ several times.
「How to hold hands naturally during a date」
‘...Hold hands while taking a walk?’
Irua glanced at Jeong Ui-seok’s sleeping hand. A fighter’s hand, crude and large, covered in calluses and scarred from countless battles. If she held it with her own smooth, small hand, it seemed like it would just disappear inside and not even be visible.
‘...No!!!’
There had been countless physical contacts during training or operations with Jeong Ui-seok. But to hold hands during a date, while walking down the street together? Irua turned her ears bright red as she realized something at that moment.
「How to naturally go to a motel during a date」
‘What is a motel?’
Irua checked the content of the post. She didn’t understand at first, but after reading the comments, she almost crushed her phone.
‘It’s no help, no help!’
Then she remembered. The attitude she had shown when Jeong Ui-seok covered her because of his lust not long after they met.
‘...I see.’
She understood a little bit of what Jeong Ui-seok had said back then. As he said, there were still many emotions she didn’t know, and she wasn’t skilled at handling them.
‘Still.’
Had the emotions of Jeong Ui-seok that flowed into her influenced her? Irua was certain that wasn’t it. The feeling that her whole body warmed up when she thought of Jeong Ui-seok was hers alone. That it was her own emotion that she had created. So, she vowed to cherish it carefully.
As she kept searching, morning had already approached. It was almost time for Jeong Ui-seok to wake up. In the middle, Irua felt something strange. The smell. A subtle smell of sweat was rising. It was her own body. It had been over twenty hours. Since she hadn’t left Jeong Ui-seok’s side during that time, it was natural.
‘I have to wash up.’
It would be a disaster if Jeong Ui-seok woke up and smelled her. It was the day of their date. She didn’t want to ruin it from the start.
‘Then what about nursing him in the meantime?’
Jeong Ui-seok said he was fine, but she couldn’t trust him at all. He was the type of person who would say he was fine no matter what. He might suddenly complain of pain. In the end, while she was stuck unable to do anything, Jeong Ui-seok woke up, and Irua snatched his blanket and transformed into a caterpillar Villain.