I-I Think It's Wrong for Master to Be Aroused… (2)
I-I Think It's Wrong for Master to Be Aroused… (2)
In truth, Aika herself realized it.
Her anger was completely unjustified.
No matter whom Yujin liked, she had no reason whatsoever to become angry.
'We'd lived together and nothing happened, so it could not be me... Perhaps my disciple preferred women his own age after all.'
'That made sense. I was thirtysomething—a thirty-two-year-old spinster. Why would my disciple notice someone like me?'
'...Still, could he not tell his master first?'
'Exactly. He should naturally have consulted his master first about something like this. Keeping silent meant disrespecting his master.'
'He dared treat his master like an old woman and ignore her? That wouldn't do. I needed to scold him severely. Yes.'
Thus, Aika subtly redirected her anger.
The problem wasn't that her disciple liked someone.
The problem was that he hadn’t consulted me, his master, even once.
Ha. Did he see his master as a thirty-two-year-old lifelong single who had never dated anyone?
That wouldn't do. She needed to teach him a sharp lesson.
Using that absurd logic, Aika relentlessly cornered Yujin.
She exhausted him until he couldn't move.
As if that weren't enough, she wrapped her entire body tightly around his legs.
"Which one of the two is it?"
'I told you to come to me first if you ever had concerns like this. What a terrible disciple.'
She pinned down the flustered Yujin and questioned him relentlessly.
Whom did he like? Which of the two?
The fact that she never suspected herself was characteristic of someone with such a severe complex about her age.
"Heeh. Thinking of that person made this happen?"
—Stare.
'He didn't move at all while pressed against me, but the moment I mentioned another woman, it began throbbing hard enough to pulse with every vein. My disciple was a liar after all. Everything he said about almost falling for me was a lie.'
That made her lose control.
Yujin displayed an entirely natural physiological response, yet she didn't even think to look away.
No. She poured mana into her eyes and even used X-Ray Vision.
No one could stop an eight-ton truck whose steering had broken...
'My disciple was at fault. I had done nothing wrong. This was merely a perfectly natural health examination by his master....'
"It is your fault for turning me on, Master!!"
"......What?"
———The runaway truck came to an abrupt halt.
What was that? What had I just heard?
Her disciple had... What?
"What did you just say...?"
"I said this happened because you keep turning me on, Master!!! Your disciple is a man too!!!"
"......!!!!!?"
When she asked again, Yujin answered with a resentful barrage of facts.
His shout rang through the room, two percent acting and ninety-eight percent sincere.
"Yet you keep showing your disciple such defenseless sides of yourself!! There is a limit to how much I can endure!!"
—Ding!
[Activating skill 'Complete Hypnosis.' Failure....]
[Failure.]
[Fai....]
[Failu....]
'As expected. The training wasn't over, so self-hypnosis still would not work... but I could use hypnosis on Master!'
Yujin hadn't suddenly gone insane.
His golden eyes continued flashing as he attempted hypnosis.
Against the S-rank No. 1, the strongest in the world: Aika Ninomiya.
'Even the weakest hypnosis would be enough. I needed only one to succeed.'
—Ding.
[Failu....]
'...But this was bad. Her guard was stronger than I expected.'
It was an extremely dangerous gamble.
He might have gained fortunate opportunities and accumulated real combat experience, but...
Yujin had entered the academy only two weeks earlier.
Even his highest stat remained merely in the mid-fives.
Aika's stats, by contrast?
Only Intelligence and Luck were below ten.
She was universally acknowledged as the strongest awakener.
Trying to hypnotize her was like throwing an egg against a boulder.
He was staking his life on an impossible probability...
'I'd somehow fluster her and create an opening. Consequences could wait!'
—Grit.
Yujin was also a veteran who had survived countless reversals.
Chasing a thread-thin hope, he tried to shake his master's mind.
His words now carried ninety-nine percent sincerity.
"Look at us even now. If I move my leg slightly, I can strip you, Master?!"
"Th-that's."
"When a woman who turns me on does this directly in front of me, how could any man endure it!? Of course I can't!!"
Aika's anger vanished without a trace.
Embarrassment flooded the space it left behind.
"T-t-turn you...."
"Acting like this means you want me to look, does it not!? Your disciple is going to see your breasts, Master!!"
"N-no!! You must not!! Nooo!!"
"You stared directly at mine, Master!!"
"In any case, nooo!!!"
Aika repeatedly denied him without even thinking to release her disciple from her embrace.
She could only tremble in fear that one of her complexes—her deeply inverted nipples—might be exposed.
That was precisely the weakness Yujin targeted.
Yet even after striking it directly...
he anxiously bit his lip.
—Ding.
[Activating skill 'Complete Hypnosis.' Failure.]
'At this point, I just needed one attempt to work!!'
Telling Master that she turned him on was a self-destruct technique.
It might solve the immediate crisis, but tomorrow's Yujin would have to face the consequences.
He wanted to land hypnosis and finish quickly, but...
good grief. Even after all this, it still failed completely.
Yujin once again appreciated the greatness of his master.
'It couldn't be helped. I'd even accept Master becoming offended and briefly returning to Japan...!!'
His gaze became even more ruthless.
Yujin spoke with grim determination.
He prepared himself to lose even his cohabitation with his beloved master.
"This is precisely why Alice called you a sow in heat!!"
"Huhk......!!!?"
"You don't even realize how much you turn me on, yet you offer to let your disciple touch your breasts and ask him to spank your bottom!!"
"Th-th-that was for my disciple...."
"Yes. If you offered your arousing body for your disciple's sake, shouldn't you forgive him for becoming aroused!?"
You were the one who turned me on, Master.
I was innocent. Master was the guilty one.
"Th-that was because my disciple spoke about other women...."
"Even now, look! If I slide my knee slightly, those huge breasts will spill from your dress. If I move my toes, they will touch your crotch. How am I supposed to endure this!?"
"Th-this is only because we are doing sit-ups."
"These are not sit-ups. They are making what is below rise!!"
Look at our position.
Blaming me for becoming aroused after doing this was like striking someone first and raging when he became angry.
"Nooo... I didn't mean it that way. My disciple...."
"And from the first day, you buried my face in your breasts and washed me while wearing only a bathrobe over your naked body!"
"That... well. I was wrong, so please calm down."
"Do you know what you did wrong?"
Wrong? Yes. What exactly had she done wrong?
After saying that much, Yujin firmly closed his mouth.
It was the secret technique Sia had once used on him: the "What did you do wrong?" attack.
His silence tightened around Aika's guilt.
"I... showed my disciple such a defenseless side of myself."
"......."
"Th-there was also... I shouldn't have become angry with my disciple. It was a natural reaction, yet I became angry."
".........."
"Please say something...."
Aika strung together those excuses.
Every word was humiliating, yet Yujin showed no intention of answering.
As though asking whether that was all, he even crossed his trembling arms.
—Ding.
[Activating skill 'Complete Hypnosis.' Failure.]
'It still failed after I cornered her this far? If I pushed any harder, she might truly cut ties with me forever!'
Despite his haughty posture, he screamed inwardly.
What if he went further?
It would no longer end with the excuse that he had endured until he exploded.
She would brand him an insolent disciple who exploited the opening to challenge his master, and her Affection would inevitably fall.
At worst, their relationship might end forever.
But what if he stopped here?
Sunk costs or not, Master would beat him to death immediately.
He had to land at least one hypnosis to survive.
In the end, Yujin...
"———Apologize. Say you acted like a wanton sow without realizing how arousing your body was and made your disciple hard. Say you're sorry for turning me on!!"
He played his strongest possible move.
The final blow meant to shatter Aika's composure.
He forced her to apologize: "I'm sorry for turning you on."
Aika's eyes spun.
"What... did you say?"
'He wanted me to apologize for turning him on? Then it wasn't that my disciple failed to see me as a woman. Rather, he saw me far too much as a woman...?'
She did not dislike hearing that her disciple found her arousing.
No. She liked it slightly.
He'd endured until he exploded like this.
Aika Ninomiya still had it, did she not?
But...
'Even so, apologizing by calling myself an arousing sow was....'
Aika possessed unexpectedly girlish sensibilities.
She still dreamed of becoming a good wife and wise mother, and secretly honed the domestic skills she called her "feminine power" toward that goal.
What? Apologize because her body turned him on?
Say she was sorry for behaving like a sow without realizing how arousing she was?
No sane person could easily say such things.
Not as the S-rank No. 1 but as the woman Aika, she found it unbearably embarrassing.
'But my disciple was so thoroughly worked up. Both above... and below.'
Still... for her disciple...
After brief hesitation, strength slowly left her hands and feet.
The restrained Yujin escaped immediately.
—Swish.
"Now, Master. Apologize."
He stood before Aika with his arms crossed, making no effort to hide his thoroughly embarrassing lower body.
Aika slowly corrected her posture.
She shifted from sitting cross-legged to kneeling upright.
Her hands gently settled on her thighs.
Her tear-filled gaze traveled upward from Yujin's lower body...
—Tremble tremble.
"I-I am sorry, my disciple... I'm sorry that my body, well... turns you on...."
When their eyes met...
Aika abandoned her pride.
—Bow.
"I did not know how arousing my body was, and I-I-I behaved like a sow... I'm sorry for turning my disciple onnn...."
"......."
As though that were still insufficient, she bent forward deeply in apology.
It was Japan's highest form of apology: full prostration.
"Hic, sob... I'm sorry I turn you onnn...."
"......."
—Ding!
[Mental Barrier check partially successful. Target....]
'I was sorry, Master. I was sorry!!'
Neither the person apologizing nor the one receiving it felt particularly pleased.
* * *
After successfully hypnotizing Master...
I immediately placed her under hypnosis.
A hypnosis that would repair this disaster, at least slightly.
"I'm sor...."
—Hug.
"......!!?"
"I'm sorry, Master. Blood rushed below and I said terrible things for a moment!!"
First, I helped Master stand, embraced her, and apologized.
Then...
"No. I-I was at fault...."
"No. You're thirty-two now, Master. It was natural to think that someone twelve years younger couldn't see you as a woman."
"......."
"But you're strong, your body is beautiful, and you're elegant and noble. Moreover, you are only thirty-two—still extremely young for an awakener...."
—Slip.
"Your disciple could not help reacting."
I drove hypnosis into the opening I had pried into her soul.
Master was an exceptionally beautiful woman.
Therefore, it was natural that I, her disciple, endured and endured until I exploded.
That was the hypnosis I applied.
Its effect was dramatic.
—Ding!
[Confirmed alignment with target's intentions. Despite the disparity in level, target falls under 'extremely minor' hypnosis!]
"Y-yes. I'm only thirty-two. It can't be helped if my disciple reacts. Yes."
Master's complex about her age eased slightly.
My sentence would surely be reduced as well.
A scoundrel who dared lust after his master was far more insolent than a disciple who couldn't help reacting to an attractive woman near his age.
Judging by how pleased Master looked...
perhaps it would end with no more than being beaten half to death.
"I apologize again. Your disciple endured and endured, but eventually exploded. I'm pathetic."
"No. It was my fault for arousing you. You did nothing wrong."
"......?"
What? She would simply forgive me?
Even so, I had forced her to call herself a sow and everything.
"No. I was the one...."
"———Rather, I should take responsibility."
"...Huh?"
Master's tearful eyes turned toward me.
Her trembling gaze brimmed with resolve.
"I know boys suffer from various serious problems. Unlike women, you're filled with youthful vigor in many ways."
"Master? What are you saying?"
"A master caused her disciple to suffer from a Heart Demon. Shouldn't she take responsibility and resolve it?"
The conversation began to sound suspicious.
I took one step backward, then another.
Master advanced by the same amount.
A different sense of danger arose.
"There is no need. Your disciple can endure it alone...."
"No. This is my responsibility as your master...."
As I continued retreating, my back struck something.
The wall.
I'd been driven into a dead end with no escape.
Then Master approached me with my retreat blocked...
"I-I don't know much about this, but I'll help you...."
—BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!!!
"Ninomiya! I don't know what you're attempting, but stop this nonsense!!!"
At that moment, the Chairwoman's pounding echoed through the dormitory.
'Big Sis Hayeon. No, Mother Seol!! Thank....'
"———Yujin, run!!! At this rate, you'll collapse while coughing blood in three minutes!!!!"
"......?"
As an added bonus, my friend who could read the future warned me.