Chapter 190: Return (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 190: Return (5)
“…What is this?”
Why is it so good?
– Slurp.
I was already on my second bowl of the dried pollack soup Yu Serin had made.
The milky broth, so rich it was almost like a bone broth, had a deep and refreshing flavor.
It felt like last night’s hangover was melting away.
“How is it?”
Yu Serin asked, smiling brightly as she sat across the table, her chin resting in her hand.
Yu Serin, wearing nothing but a dress shirt, was a rather provocative sight…
But right now, the dried pollack soup was hitting me harder than her body was.
“…Why is this so delicious?”
I finally asked after emptying the bowl.
“I’m quite the domestic type. Hmph.”
She boasted, proudly making a V-sign under her chin.
I chuckled at the sight of her and said.
“You’ll make some husband very happy.”
“Are you offering to be that husband?”
“…Excuse me?”
“Heh. Just kidding.”
Without waiting for my reply, Yu Serin just shrugged. Then, as if nothing had happened, she picked up her water glass and changed the subject.
“Are you not going to school today?”
I turned my head to check the time.
8:00 AM.
There was still time before school started, but… it didn’t really matter.
I wasn’t going anyway.
“Yeah. They said it’s fine if I don’t come in yet. I’ll probably start going back next week.”
“Hmm, is that so? Then what are you doing today?”
“Probably just go home and rest.”
“That’s a shame.”
She pouted, looking genuinely disappointed.
“If I had the day off, we could have hung out.”
Says who?
I retorted inwardly but didn’t bother to say it out loud.
She glanced at the clock once, then stood up as if it was time to leave.
As she stretched, the loose shirt rode up, revealing the dizzying curve of her slim waist and body.
“Well, I should probably… get to work~”
“Have a good day at work.”
I replied, trying my best not to look in her direction.
As if sensing my effort, Yu Serin chuckled and began clearing the dishes we’d left behind.
– Clatter.
“Leave them, you should get ready. I’ll do it.”
I’d already gotten a free meal; making her do the dishes too felt wrong.
“It’s fine.”
She ignored me and started washing the dishes with practiced ease.
With her slender, pale hands, not even bothering with rubber gloves.
“This kind of thing should be done by the woman… Ah, is that a bit of an old-fashioned thing to say?”
She continued, her back to me as she washed the dishes.
Her mindset was incredibly old-school.
If I had to label it, I guess she was the ‘Wise Mother and Good Wife’ type.
A different vibe from a certain someone I know.
“I don’t know. I grew up alone, so seeing things like this in dramas… doing something like this was always a dream of mine.”
Yu Serin’s voice was calm, but it was tinged with a deep loneliness.
I stood beside her, took a dry cloth, and started wiping the moisture from the dishes she washed.
“Anything’s easier when you do it together.”
I said with a smile.
“……”
At that, Yu Serin looked at me and smiled faintly.
“Together… I like the sound of that.”
And with that, she fiddled with a dish in her hands.
*
Yu Serin left for work.
I left her super-fancy apartment and headed home.
Thanks to the soup she made, my hangover was almost gone.
The problem, however…
“So I ended up staying out all night without a word…”
I lifted the watch I had hastily plugged into the charger this morning.
It must have died overnight, because it was off when I woke up.
And the moment I turned it on.
– BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!!
The watch screamed, vibrating as if it were about to explode.
Dozens of holographic notification windows flooded the space above my wrist.
[Missed Calls: 28]
[Unread Messages: 69]
The senders were a varied bunch.
Kang A-rin, Yu Hana, Cheon Yeo-wool, and even Ha Sion.
Messages had come in from all sorts of people.
Only the last message was faintly visible at the top of the notification window.
[1000_y]: I wanna do it ㅠㅠ……
Oh, boy.
I was in for a serious earful.
Still, it was well past the time school started.
They were probably all at the academy.
First, I should get back to the penthouse and think of an excuse.
I headed home, filled with such hopeful thoughts.
However.
– Ding.
Just as I was about to head to the Portal Clearance Office, a message arrived.
[Kang A-rin]: Mr. Jung Hae-in, who stayed out all night~ Come to the Maengju building~
[Kang A-rin]: I’m not gonna chew you out, the research results for Flapper’s wavelength are in.
Flapper?
Who’s Flapper?
[belief_]: Who’s Flapper?
[Kang A-rin]: The name of that bird you’re raising.
Ah.
She meant my guardian spirit.
Is it like a nickname or something?
Well… should I stop by the Maengju building first, then?
The timing was actually a little tricky.
If I was even slightly off, I could run into a nagging wife.
It seemed like a good idea to kill some more time at the Maengju building before going back.
Having made a rational decision, I turned away from the Gaon-bound Portal Clearance Office.
And headed straight for the Maengju building.
The Maengju building is incredibly tall. But once again, my destination was the basement.
I got off the elevator and opened the door to the underground lab with a familiar ease.
“You’re here? Mr. Stay-Out-All-Night.”
Kang A-rin saw me, walked over, and gave my butt a couple of pats.
“…Yesterday, I couldn’t help it…”
Before I could even make an excuse, she buried her nose in my neck.
– Sniff, sniff…
“…Hold on.”
And Kang A-rin started sniffing me.
“……Yu Serin?”
– Flinch.
I flinched involuntarily.
Seriously, she’s not a dog. How can she smell that?
“No wonder Team Leader Yu Serin was late today, for once…”
She shot me a look as if she understood everything.
Then, she blatantly squeezed the same butt she had just been patting.
“Hmm… Surely not… right…?”
Kang A-rin pressed her body close to mine, asking playfully, as if interrogating me.
I just chuckled at her, grabbed the back of her neck, and pulled her toward me.
And I pressed my lips to hers.
“Of course not.”
– Chu.
Kang A-rin’s face instantly turned red.
I pulled away from her and turned toward the hologram screen behind her.
She stood there blankly for a moment before clearing her throat.
“Ahem, ahem.”
She coughed, then followed me.
I asked her about Flapper.
“So, what are the results of the wavelength analysis?”
“It’s nothing huge, really. It’s just that Flapper’s wavelength is very, very, very similar to this.”
She first brought up a stable, black graph on the screen, the analysis of Bam’s mana wavelength.
Then, she overlaid a purple graph of a wavelength I’d never seen before.
I couldn’t perform any kind of expert analysis, but…
In any case, the shapes of the two looked remarkably similar.
“I get the first one. What’s the second?”
“Don’t be shocked.”
Kang A-rin said, displaying the name of the purple graph before my eyes.
[Apostle 3rd Seat, Belial’s Mana Wavelength]
“Whoa.”
I let out a short gasp.
“It seems it really was born after swallowing Belial’s mana.”
She said, bringing up a few more graphs.
The conclusion was this:
It was clearly a distinct, pure, high-quality mana, but…
Its fundamental quality was similar to Belial’s.
In other words, my guardian spirit had filtered out all of Belial’s wicked impurities, sucking out only the essence of his power to be born as a kind of superior, upgraded version.
“Flapper’s amazing, right?”
Kang A-rin said with a smirk.
“Yeah, it is.”
It was truly incredible. Mana with a purity on par with Belial’s would undoubtedly be a huge help.
“But here’s something even more amazing.”
She showed me an additional graph.
This time, the black wavelength was overlaid with a blood-red one. The amplitude of the waves was very different, but their fundamental shape was vaguely similar.
“What’s this one?”
“…The wavelength graph of the Fragment in the Pentagon.”
She said, turning to look at me.
“So that trip to the US… when do you want to go?”
“Ah…”
So this was the real reason she called me here.
I chuckled, playing along with her intentions.
“Well…”
I replied with a smile.
“Anytime.”
At my words, Kang A-rin beamed.
*
Meanwhile.
That morning.
Yoon Chae-ha’s room.
She was packing her bag, getting ready for school.
Yesterday, Cheon Yeo-wool had caught her during one of her secret study sessions.
But she wasn’t particularly embarrassed or anything.
If anything, she was a little envious.
Because Yoon Chae-ha, too, had her eyes opened to knowledge.
She couldn’t even begin to imagine how good it must feel.
Last night, Cheon Yeo-wool had sat Yoon Chae-ha down in her room and given her a very, very long sex education lesson.
‘So… you’re still young, so you should refrain from such stimulating videos…’
‘The indiscriminate pursuit of sexual pleasure might not be helpful for forming healthy sexual bonds later on…’
She remembered it proceeding just like a sex-ed class at school.
Well, she understood some of it, so Yoon Chae-ha had nodded and accepted it.
Cheon Yeo-wool had left with a satisfied expression after the talk was over.
“……”
After leaving the front door of the penthouse…
Yoon Chae-ha thought long and hard.
But how could a sparrow just pass by a mill?
Gaon’s classes could no longer provide her with any sort of pleasurable or intellectual stimulation.
What she craved now was not something so dull.
Without hesitation, she climbed the stairs of the penthouse once more.
“So what if I’m a little late.”
Yoon Chae-ha’s morning class schedule was…
A viewing session for morning sex-ed audiovisual materials.