So This Was the Practical Training?! (1)
So This Was the Practical Training?! (1)
Rewind slightly, to just after Yujin and Seol Hayeon left the lecture hall for their mission.
An odd atmosphere settled over the classroom.
Sia and Alice were largely responsible.
-Gulp.
'Yujin had somehow calmed them down... and now they were starting again?'
'Another battle of wills? No, was this about to become a whole festival of hostility?'
The cadets were terrified.
They had just witnessed the fierce contest between the two women.
They feared that the fight Yujin had barely mediated would resume.
As for the two targets of all those gazes,
Alice and Sia...
'This was so awkward I could die.'
'What was I supposed to do? This was unbearably awkward!!'
They were unexpectedly dying of embarrassment.
Earlier, during their confrontation,
what had they actually said to each other?
Yujin lent me his clothes. He hugged me inside the Gate.
Heh. I bathed with Yujin, and we were going on a movie date that weekend.
They'd been too heated to notice how those words sounded at the time.
Now that they'd calmed down, the lines seemed painfully embarrassing.
It was only natural for the awkwardness to arrive late.
'That made it look as if I had fallen for Yujin...!!'
'Did she think I was already head over heels for him?'
Their pride made the awkwardness worse.
They had only known Yujin for two weeks.
Falling in love after two weeks? Impossible.
Neither considered herself such an easy woman.
Their pride made each worry that the other had misunderstood, leaving them even more self-conscious.
'How could anyone fall in love after two weeks...? Then again, after looking at his face for two weeks, it was understandable.'
'His appearance was the real hypnosis. One smile from that face and anyone would be hypnotized.'
Everyone else merely thought they had been hit by an eight-ton truck and never stood a chance, but anyway.
The awkwardness between them finally eased once the lecture began.
"Today, hm... what Professor Seol taught you last week...."
-Slide.
[Sia, I’m sorry about earlier. I only wanted to brag because I was happy that Yujin lent me his clothes.]
The substitute instructor had hurried in and begun the lecture when...
a piece of paper slid over from the neighboring desk.
It was a note from Alice to Sia.
A small smile tugged at Sia’s lips.
'If we fought, Yujin would be troubled. I should let it go.'
[Forget it. I was childish too. Let’s pretend it never happened.]
[Thank you, Sia.]
'For Yujin’s sake, I could lower my head first. We were comrades in the Pine-Needle Squad.'
A grin spread across Alice’s face as well.
Both their reason for fighting and their reason for reconciling were Yujin. It was perfectly characteristic of them.
-Slide.
[Anyway, do you like Yujin?]
[Me? For now, I only see Yujin as a fellow member of the Pine-Needle Squad.]
[I see. He’s only a male friend to me too. Though I might consider it if he begged me to date him.]
What followed was a mutual test of their romantic feelings.
A soft, relaxed atmosphere formed between them.
[Then... what do you think about Ninomiya?]
-Freeze.
———The peaceful atmosphere shattered immediately.
The final candidate for the person Yujin might like had been raised: Aika Ninomiya.
The name of the world’s strongest had entered the conversation.
[That woman? Unlike us, she probably smiles like an idiot over him. She honestly seems easy. I can understand her falling for him and making a move after two weeks.]
[I agree. If she didn’t see him as a man, she never would have agreed to live with him.]
Sia and Alice narrowed their eyes.
A strange sense of déjà vu accompanied the thought.
'I had not noticed it alone, but being with Alice gave me a strange sense of déjà vu.'
'It felt as if Ninomiya would cut in and steal Yujin away....'
It resembled the feeling they'd experienced when they first met Yujin.
If they remained busy bickering over him,
Aika would intervene, take Yujin, and monopolize him.
For some reason, both women grew impatient.
[Come to think of it, did you know? Ninomiya once left her front door open while wearing lewd underwear....]
[Ah. So that was where Haru’s swimsuit came from?]
[So many things happened even though we only spent the daytime with him. Do you truly think nothing happened in their quarters?]
[Impossible. Something definitely happened.]
The investigative net began closing in.
Aika’s previously hidden lewdness slowly rose to the surface.
[She might have tried to seduce him in a naked apron.]
[Isn’t that going too far? What woman would do that?]
[You only say that because you haven’t seen the other clothes. There may be even lewder ones—a string swimsuit shaped like this, for example.]
[Who would wear something that insane? It would dig straight into her crotch.]
[Yujin actually chose those clothes. He is so innocent that he must have selected them without understanding how lewd they were.]
-Freeze.
'So Yujin liked this sort of... no. Even then, this went too far. How could anyone wear such perverted clothing?'
[Even if he chose them, Ninomiya would never actually wear them. She isn’t a porn actress.]
[Have you forgotten? Ninomiya is Japanese! She comes from a perverted country overflowing with lewd comics. She'd wear something like this without batting an eye!]
Alice fiercely criticized Aika’s taste in clothing.
It was a rich accusation from a British woman who was an expert in “pupils,” but that only made her sound more convincing.
Sia, who'd remained uncertain, finally accepted the theory.
[I’m not sure, but if you’re that confident....]
[Yes. When Yujin returns, we need to ask whether he likes her. If not, we need to ask whether she did anything strange to him.]
Alice formally declared that they would hold a hearing.
The previous attempt had ended inconclusively, but...
this time Sia stood on her side.
Alice intended to extract the truth from Yujin at last.
That was why they summoned him the moment he returned to the lecture hall.
"Yujin. Sit here for a moment."
"We need to talk."
"......?"
His golden eyes rounded.
Yujin was merely confused.
He'd returned to explain the Gate field practicum, already expecting to be scolded for it.
Yet they seemed ready to scold him before he had said anything.
It was understandable that he failed to grasp the situation at first.
That confusion lasted only a moment.
Once he realized the pattern, a chill ran down his spine.
'Had I done something wrong? This didn't look like a situation that would end with an ordinary scolding!?'
Come sit here. We need to talk.
Wasn't that the number-one phrase married men feared, according to ForXes?
An instinctive sense of danger overwhelmed Yujin.
He immediately began searching his memory for what he'd done wrong.
Was it the Gate?
No. There had not been enough time for them to hear about it.
Was it because he skipped class for the mission?
They would not blame him for something the Chairwoman had forced him to do.
'...What was it? No matter how I thought about it, I had done nothing wrong.'
Having no idea what he had done made the situation even more frightening.
Some might say a clear conscience should have reassured him, but...
[Heh. Yujin, did you have fun drinking with Công?]
[Yeah~ hic. He looked exhausted after catching the Necromancer, so I kept him company for three days and nights. I drank so much I couldn't remember how much....]
[You also forgot that yesterday was our wedding anniversary?]
[Guh.]
Yujin understood because he had once been a married man.
If a husband knew what he had done wrong, he could at least apologize.
If he was ambushed without knowing, there was no way to recover.
-Tremble tremble.
'Alice had stayed angry for nearly a week that time... I had only been forgiven after ten rounds of hypnosis play.'
His hands trembled from genuine fear.
Unlike his half-joking terror at Seol Hayeon’s underwear, this fear was completely sincere.
It was a natural reaction for a married man.
"What’s wrong? I told you to sit down."
"That’s right. There’s plenty of time before the next lecture. We can take this slowly...."
"......."
-Clench.
His molars clenched.
He clenched his fists until his nails dug into his palms.
Resolve blazed in his golden eyes.
And, Yujin...
-CRAAAASH!!!!
"I'm sorry!!!!!"
He immediately chose unconditional surrender.
He pressed his forehead to the floor hard enough to crack it.
A full-force prostration.
"Yu-Yujin!? What's wrong with you!!?"
"Are you okay?! I just heard the floor crack."
"I don’t even know what I did wrong, but I’m truly sorry for that too!!!"
-Thudthudthudthud.
He repeatedly struck his head against the floor like a woodpecker.
The display was so desperate that the Chairwoman might have called it the ritual of three kneelings and nine kowtows.
The effect was immediate.
-Murmur murmur.
"What, why's Yujin acting like that?"
"Did he do something wrong...? No. That wholesome boy would never."
"Did those girls start another fight with him? Are they gaslighting him?"
"My goodness. They’re making him do that in front of everyone. Terrifying."
Public opinion instantly swung in Yujin’s favor.
Alice and Sia were completely bewildered.
They had only asked to talk. Why was he doing this?
He was making us look like horrible women.
"We weren’t going to accuse you of anything, so get up! What are you doing? This is humiliating!"
"Doesn’t that hurt? Should we go to the hospital...."
"I’ve been so busy lately that I may have forgotten something! I’m really sorry!!"
-Murmur murmur.
"My goodness. He dealt with an A-rank Gate, a terrorist attack, and even helped liberate Vietnam, and they’re doing this because he forgot one thing?"
"As expected of a chaebol heiress. Terrifying."
"I didn’t think Alice was like that either. Is this because she’s British?"
"......That isn’t what’s happening!? Get up right now, you complete idiot!!"
"Why is Britain involved!?"
To an outsider, the sight of the two women surrounding Yujin made them look unquestionably guilty.
* * *
Thinking my wives were angry, I had thrown myself to the floor before considering anything else.
However...
"So you only wanted to know whether Master wore strange clothes?"
"Yes. That was all we wanted to ask, but you really are...."
"My face is still burning...."
Once I heard the explanation, I realized there had been no reason to apologize.
They merely wanted to know whether anything had happened between Master and me.
Still, Master’s dignity was at stake.
I decided to defend her a little.
"Of course not. Master is a woman too. A naked apron? Why would she wear something like that?"
"You can tell us honestly, Yujin. I definitely saw an unnecessarily lewd apron...."
"I, Seo Yujin, cannot lie until this hypnosis is released. Master never wore a naked apron."
I issued the simple denial under hypnosis.
...It was wordplay, since she had not been completely naked.
I had also released the hypnosis immediately after speaking.
Nobody watching would have known either detail.
Alice fell silent.
"Th-There's no way...."
"See? Even Ninomiya would never dress like that. Outfits that perverted only appear in porn."
"......."
'Though she had worn things even more extreme.'
That realization left me speechless as well, but anyway.
I used the lull to speak.
The topic of Master’s clothing was dangerous, so I changed it before they could continue.
"Besides that, I actually need to apologize to both of you."
"What now? If you apologize over something ridiculous again, I really will get angry...."
"From now on, each of you will participate in Gate field training once a week, paired one-on-one with me."
"......What?"
I explained what had happened.
I had promised to raid an S-rank Gate with Công.
Because it was a valuable opportunity, I recommended both of them as well. The Chairwoman responded by forcing us into Gate fieldwork until we could hold our own.
I would train four days each week; they would each train one day.
"Sorry. I wanted to surprise you, but events got ahead of me...."
"I don’t mind at all. I’m already looking forward to training with you!"
"Heh. I already wanted to enter a Gate with you. This works out perfectly."
Unexpectedly, neither woman became angry.
They even asked whether they could train more often because one day a week was too little.
My wives were so diligent that I thought I might fall for them.
They were only freshmen, yet they were already this enthusiastic.
I might truly fall for them.
"That’s a relief. I look forward to training together."
"Yes! I’ll count the days!"
"Look forward to it. I’ll show you how impressive I can be."
The matter of the Gate field practicum was resolved without further trouble.
Their current skills made the assignment somewhat dangerous, but...
Korea’s No. 1 clan, Cheonhwa, would assist us.
There should be no serious danger.
I could trust the senior clan members and simply enjoy my dates...
* * *
The next day.
—Mutter, mutter.
"This is training. Only training...."
"......."
Why were the senior members making them perform sex-education practicum instead of Gate-raid practicum?