The Second Night Alone (Part 4)
I still couldn’t answer her words.
The danger of letting a young man and woman sleep close together when no one else is around was something I’d heard so many times. If I voiced it now, Yuri would probably enjoy it even more.
I turned my back to her. I should have pulled farther away right then.
But we were on the second floor. There was no partition blocking the space between us.
“It’s cold. Hoo…”
Her voice reached me. Then I heard her rising behind my back—soft rustling, as if she was getting up while still holding the blanket.
It’s cold…
I had complete immunity to fire and heat. Yuri had complete immunity to cold as well.
Yet I’d heard stories of people trapped in a frozen warehouse, the temperature well above freezing, who’d frozen to death from sheer terror and confusion.
We’d drunk three bottles of vodka. Her senses as a mana-using awakener were probably playing tricks on her.
Why am I rationalizing this?
For a split second I found myself justifying her actions. It was absurd. Right now we were inside her own sealing barrier.
Even a thousand-year barrier was still the caster’s territory. Its owner’s influence was overwhelming.
It felt as if I’d been caught in her trap.
But I secretly hoped she would come closer. That was strange. I needed to snap out of it.
“Minsu-ssi, you’re a fire mage, right? Then please warm me up.”
While I was still debating, Yuri had already closed the distance completely. The wall of the shelter corner stood right in front of my back-turned body.
No escape route.
If we ran outside, it would only get worse.
The shelter was already sealed. Outside, a blizzard raged over Seoraksan.
So close I could hear Yuri’s breathing.
She placed the blanket right behind me.
My body felt heavy. Was she really using the barrier’s effect to restrain me? Or was I simply waiting for what came next? I couldn’t tell.
“It’s cold… please warm me. This is the Guild Master’s order.”
Finally her hand touched my back. My heart raced strangely.
I’d had skinship with women before, but the thrill still hadn’t faded, like a teenager’s excitement.
The Guild Master’s order…
I felt a chill radiating from her hand.
It was an absurd thought, but in this isolated deep mountain, if the Guild Master was in danger of hypothermia, shouldn’t the subordinate do whatever it took to bring her temperature back to normal?
What a ridiculous idea…
I concentrated mana through my mana heart. Soon the fire-attribute mana began to rotate and heat my body.
And that heat would, of course, reach Yuri as well, who was pressed tightly against my back.
It’s all just fire, anyway.
I told myself it was rationalization. It would help prevent a PTSD episode. Or, really, I should stop thinking altogether.
If Yuri genuinely wanted to restrain me in this blizzard-ravaged mountain shelter, I couldn’t resist with the body I had now.
Of course, if she crossed a line I would fight back. I had sworn to myself I would. But even that resolve was loosening.
Finally Yuri pulled me into her arms from behind.
“It’s warm… Minsu-ssi really is a capable subordinate.”
Her body was cold. I unconsciously made my own even warmer, as if caring for her.
“Hoo… my body feels like it’s melting… like a heater. I’m so happy it’s warm…”
I felt her breath on the back of my head. Yuri was short and slender, but right now she was trapped in my arms and couldn’t escape.
The woman hugging me from behind spoke again.
“I… I want to see Minsu-ssi’s face.”
***
Yuri’s voice sounded sweet.
I had no idea what expression I was making. Or what Yuri’s face looked like.
I can’t face her directly like this.
Yet I obeyed anyway. It wasn’t an unreasonable request—just “I want to see your face.”
Yuri moved my body easily. It turned toward her almost too easily.
Two people lying side by side. We faced each other.
“Minsu-ssi, your cheeks are flushed. Why?”
Our eyes met. Clear blue irises—the beautiful eyes I’d always known, but now they shone from a deeper place. Not the usual cold gaze. Full of emotion.
Maybe the best word was ecstasy.
“Cute…”
Saying it, she traced my lips with her white fingers, then stroked my earlobe and cheek.
It was nothing special, but the feelings she was conveying felt real.
At that moment she seemed to see me as her own.
“I want to have you, Minsu-ssi.”
She confirmed it with words, then moved her fingers to my shoulder and breathed warm breath against my ear.
“Should we kiss?”
My heart shook violently.
I knew it was wrong, but the moment our eyes met, the desire in her blue eyes was too much. I couldn’t maintain my composure. I couldn’t resist. I didn’t resist. Yuri’s face drew closer. And finally her lips touched mine.
Yuri’s lips were soft and warm.
My heart felt like it would burst. And the instant she pulled me tighter, I stood right at the edge of my endurance.
“Mmm…?”
Yuri suddenly pulled away. At the same time those seductive blue eyes lost their spark, like a fire being extinguished.
Then she closed her eyes and lay back down right there. Or fell asleep.
The wanton expression from moments ago had vanished. Now she looked like a peaceful, sleeping Yuri.
“Ha… what was that?”
Everything ended. I let out a long sigh without meaning to. Was it relief? Emptiness? Regret? I couldn’t tell.
And I felt Yuri’s mana, which had controlled me moments ago, settle.
That was why I couldn’t keep my composure before—the Yuri of today was different.
The vodka-soaked Yuri, the high-rank awakener Yuri, had unconsciously restrained me. The sealed shelter had also begun to let in the sound of wind again.
Big trouble… I almost did it.
Thankfully Yuri had simply fallen asleep. If she hadn’t, I didn’t even want to imagine what would have followed.
“Hoo… what were you thinking?”
And I found myself feeling sorry for her. Maybe the power of this mountain shelter shook hearts.
I covered Yuri with my blanket and crawled back inside my own.
We were too close. But after everything that happened earlier I was suddenly exhausted. The fatigue from sparring with her still lingered.
Just as I was about to close my eyes, I felt the shelter shake.
Earthquake?
It wasn’t a big quake. It was a short tremor that might have been a trick of the senses.
But with my mana heart replaced by Ruby and my senses sharpened, it couldn’t be an illusion.
And I knew the meaning behind Yuri’s trip to Seoraksan. I couldn’t ignore it.
Could an ancient dungeon have spawned?
In the original story, Si-woo discovered an ancient dungeon in Seoraksan and obtained a valuable legacy there.
The continent of Eyletan. A treasure passed down from the ancient empire that once existed here. Ancient Gear was part of that legacy.
The legacy Si-woo got from that dungeon was an Ancient Gear.
So this was like a protagonist’s power-up mission right before the main event. Though I couldn’t be sure for Yuri.
Unlike the original Si-woo, Yuri already possessed Nibis, an S-rank Ancient Gear.
A relic passed down through the Tarkovsky family. An extremely special Gear only the future Grand Duke Yuri could wield.
So even if we find a Gear, it won’t help Yuri much…
It didn’t make sense for an S-rank owner to contract with another Gear. I was the exception.
Ruby was an S-rank Gear, but now it was my mana heart. The contract with Wind Cutter was simply recognized as a double contract.
But I couldn’t think any further. Sleep came instantly.
***
Seoraksan, and the morning light at the shelter.
But the sound that opened the morning wasn’t that of mountain birds. It was painful.
“Uweek!!”
I stepped outside the shelter for a moment and patted Yuri’s back as she vomited on the floor.
This is a little embarrassing.
Yuri was mortified too. When she woke up that morning her condition was terrible.
Complaining of a massive headache, she suddenly turned deathly pale and ran out of the shelter.
“Uwk… I… I… Minsu-ssi, you don’t have to worry about me alone… uwk!!”
“No. If I leave you here I’ll worry too…”
I patted her back again. She looked exactly like someone suffering from a hangover.
We’d drunk three bottles of vodka like water, and we hadn’t consciously broken down the alcohol. That explained the disaster.
Looking at her writhing in pain, I was sure: all the things Yuri had done to me last night had been drunk.
So that was it.
Of course I knew it wasn’t simple drunkenness. There had been alcohol’s effect, but those blue eyes that could hypnotize anyone couldn’t be called ordinary.
For now I decided not to think about yesterday anymore. I patted her back again.
“It’s… it’s fine… Minsu-ssi, I showed you such shameful… shameful things…”
The Guild Master was suffering more from the embarrassment of making Minsu-ssi see her in this state than from the hangover.
But I couldn’t leave her alone while she suffered. I stayed with her until her stomach settled, then walked back into the shelter together.
“I’m sorry… As Guild Master, I made you do something I shouldn’t have. Taking care of a hungover boss…”
“No. When I was drunk before, the Guild Master helped me. This was only right.”
Yuri couldn’t meet my eyes. She glanced at me and said carefully.
“I… did I do something wrong to Minsu-ssi after getting drunk last night? I remember telling you about catching a boar… but after that… well…”
She’d done a lot wrong. But it seemed she’d passed out drunk on the third bottle.
So she didn’t even remember me wiping her body with a towel. Or the short kiss.
“Nothing happened. You just slept quietly.”
I should have told her about the injection, but if I did I’d have to confess everything embarrassing that had happened between us. Besides, normal Yuri wouldn’t get drunk.
“Whew… that’s a relief. I got carried away talking about old stories and suddenly… I’ve never told anyone about tearing up a tiger…”
And she would never hear from me that the terrifying woman had tried to pounce on me last night.
“Then should I make something for your stomach?”
“Stomach… not so good…”
“I brought cup ramen, mayonnaise, and sausage.”
“T-That’s fine!”
The two of us ate breakfast together to settle our stomachs. Just as I was about to tell her about the tremor I’d felt last night.
A voice called out from outside the shelter.