Chapter 147: 2nd Semester (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 147: 2nd Semester (1)
“But… I’m… all grown up…”
Yoon Chae-ha reached for me, her expression still dazed.
Her eyes, moist with the afterglow, shimmered.
“Heh heh.”
It seemed she didn't want me to go.
In any case, I couldn't just leave her alone in this state.
I decided that for today, I would indulge her every whim.
“Oh, really?”
“Yes…”
I carefully lifted the covers and slipped in beside her, pulling her into an embrace and stroking her hair.
“Mmm…”
As if she’d been waiting for it, the small body in my arms snuggled even closer.
I gently ran my hand down her back.
I could feel the softness of her spine through her thin pajamas, and her abnormally high body temperature.
That feverish heat transferred directly to me.
Stroke, stroke.
“Hah…”
Pat, pat.
At my rhythmic, gentle touch, she let out a languid sigh, as if all the tension was melting away.
With my palm open, I traced a path from the top of her head, down her shoulders and back, and up to the nape of her neck again.
Every time I touched her, her body would flinch and tremble.
The combined scent of her lavender shampoo and the lavender from the bedding stimulated my nose.
The two fragrances were strangely similar, yet different.
If the scent of the bedding was calming, Yoon Chae-ha’s shampoo was sweet.
Yoon Chae-ha buried her nose in my chest and let out a hot breath.
Her breathing, at first ragged and heavy, gradually became even and relaxed.
I stroked her hair a little more.
“Hoo… haa…”
Her breathing steadied, and I finally felt all the strength leave her body.
I placed a light kiss on Yoon Chae-ha’s head, then gently laid her down on her back.
I carefully brushed the hair away from her face.
She looked peacefully asleep, as if every last bit of tension had been released.
Soft, even breaths.
I caressed the cheek of the soundly sleeping girl.
“You’re definitely not all grown up.”
Whispering softly, I pulled the blanket up to her shoulders.
Then, as quietly as I could, I slipped out of bed so as not to wake her, opened the door, and left.
*
The long, grueling vacation was finally over.
It was time to head back to Gaon after a long while.
I pulled out my usual school uniform and put it on.
To be precise, it wasn't a uniform, but the dress shirt I often wore.
The moment the familiar fabric enveloped me, the past month and a half flashed through my mind.
So much had happened.
The value of solidarity, which I’d learned while covered in ash and molten iron in Bulgaram’s Workshop.
Catastrophe, reborn through the blacksmith’s touch, and Yoon Chae-ha, who had awakened to a new power by devouring Demonic Force.
The Fragment Cheon Yeo-wool obtained in the Vatican. And the bad news that the Evil God… had become aware of the Fragments.
And…
The progression of my relationships with various women.
I sat on the edge of my bed and rubbed my face with my hands.
More than one or two faces came to mind.
Rub, rub.
‘Am I trash?’
Guilt aside, there was a sense of satisfaction welling up from somewhere deep inside me.
That was an undeniable fact.
Once I’d hit the accelerator, I couldn't seem to stop.
All that talk about not seeing women that way, about maintaining boundaries…
The confident Jung Hae-in from back then was dead.
Now, I was just a madman, faithful to my desires.
To be honest, that might have been the task I’d dedicated myself to most diligently over the break.
Cheon Yeo-wool, Ha Sion, and Yoon Chae-ha.
The only ones left were Kang A-rin and Yu Hana… but I’d only missed them due to scheduling conflicts.
A part of me thought that if we had met, things might have gotten even more intense.
Packing a load of heavy luggage, I headed to the dormitory for the new semester.
But I stopped in front of the dorm building where I used to live.
A huge notice was posted there.
Then again, I hadn't stopped with the intention of going inside.
“Where would it be?”
My new dorm assignment was written on it.
[Jung Hae-in]
[Astra, First-Year Building, Room 201.]
With the start of the second semester, my dormitory had changed.
At Gaon, students with high rankings were assigned better accommodations.
And it wasn't just a matter of being slightly better.
Students within the top 10 of the rankings were provided with what were essentially penthouses.
A considerate gesture, meant to encourage them to strive for even greater heights in a better environment.
“Whoa… seriously.”
After climbing a little further up the hill than I usually did, a completely different world unfolded before me.
Pristine white outer walls that reflected the dazzling sunlight, private gardens, and even terraces.
The entire penthouse village for first, second, and third years was gathered here.
I headed for the highest point, where the first-year complex was located.
I entered through the main entrance of the building.
It was huge.
Huge, and nice.
Everything was great, but…
The problem was that there was almost no separation between the men's and women's penthouses.
The layout had rooms facing each other across a hallway.
To put it bluntly, we were practically next-door neighbors, just one room over.
Of course, there were thorough mana-based locks, so no one could come and go without permission.
However.
‘To put it another way…’
It meant that with permission, you could come and go as you pleased.
My room was 201.
Just as I was about to go in, the nameplates lined up along the first-floor hallway caught my eye.
[Room 101 - Kang A-rin]
[Room 102 - Yoon Chae-ha]
[Room 103 - Cheon Yeo-wool]
[Room 104 - Ha Sion]
[Room 105 - Yu Hana]
The only saving grace, I suppose, was that there was at least a minimal separation between genders by floor.
My only comfort was that I could get to the second floor without having to pass their doors.
The reason I had designed this structure in the original story was simple.
As time went on, the player and the characters would naturally gravitate toward the top ranks, so I had grouped them in one place for the sake of story progression and convenience.
It was also intended to encourage romance. It fit well with Gaon’s philosophy, after all.
Right, romance.
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
Honestly, it was obvious how things would turn out.
Not everyone in the top 10 used the dorms.
The students ranked 7th and 9th had declined the housing, apparently because they lived nearby.
In the end, the male students in the top 10 were Jung Hae-in, Joo Seo-jun, and Yohan.
The female students were Kang A-rin, Cheon Yeo-wool, Yu Hana, Yoon Chae-ha, and Ha Sion.
These eight were the only ones using the penthouses.
Leaving the hellscape of the first floor behind me, I took the stairs outside the corridor up to the second floor.
The second-floor hallway was much quieter than the first. There were still five rooms, but only three had nameplates.
[Room 203 - Yohan]
[Room 202 - Joo Seo-jun]
And my room.
[Room 201 - Jung Hae-in]
I opened the door to Room 201.
When I held my watch up to the door, it beeped and swung open smoothly.
The interior was revealed.
A living room so spacious it was dazzling, a panoramic view of Gaon through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and top-of-the-line furniture and the latest electronics.
Perhaps because it was newly built, it honestly looked nicer than the Vanquisher’s quarters.
I carried my luggage toward the master bedroom at the very back.
I opened the door. But the scene that unfolded before me was something I could never have predicted.
Someone was lying on the bed.
The room was dim because the curtains were half-drawn, but the silhouette was clear.
A small body, covered up to the neck with a blanket, breathing softly.
It was unmistakably the silhouette of a woman.
My mind went blank.
Did I walk into the wrong room?
Wait, did I just become a criminal?
But this was no time for such thoughts.
My body moved on instinct.
“Oh? Ah, I’m so sorry. Really.”
I spat out a rapid-fire apology, spun around, and bolted.
SLAM!
The door shut violently behind me.
I stood in the hallway, panting.
Then I checked the room number on the door again.
[Room 201 - Jung Hae-in]
“What the hell?!”
It was my room.
I tapped my watch on the sensor and entered the room again.
Come to think of it, since I’d gotten in using my watch, it had to be my room.
I must have been so flustered that I’d forgotten even that.
I went back inside.
This time, I opened the master bedroom door… very carefully.
Who are you?
Creeeak…
“……”
But there was no one there.
The bed was empty.
As if in a trance, I stepped into the room.
I hadn't seen it wrong.
There was a slight indentation in the middle of the blanket, exactly where a person would have been lying.
When I touched it, there was still warmth left.
Just then, a cool breeze from the window made the curtain flutter slightly.
The window was wide open.
It seemed she had escaped through here.
It was a second-story window, but for a student living in these penthouses, that height would have been nothing.
“……”
Without a word, I closed the window.
Click.
I engaged the lock, securing it tightly.
I could probably find out who it was if I tried.
But it seemed better to remain ignorant.
Because the terrifying thought occurred to me… that the very act of searching for the culprit might be exactly what that person wanted.