Elena Ru
After the wave of pleasure had passed, Keira and I lay tangled together on the bed.
Her fingers circled lazily around my nipple.
It tickled.
This was her way of asking for more.
After everything we had just done, her stamina was still going strong. Our stamina stats were clearly the same, so why this difference? Was it really that men got their energy drained?
Her thigh slid over mine, entangling us further.
Ah, damn it. This is exactly why popular guys have it rough.
I turned my head slightly and found Keira watching me with expectant eyes. I slowly lowered my head to taste her moist lips. Her body rose slightly to meet me.
Just as our lips were about to touch, a message window popped up between us as if to block the way.
“Huh? Hold on.”
I gently pushed her away. Her eyes flew wide in utter disbelief. The angry expression on her face beyond the translucent message window was unbelievably cute.
But something even more surprising was happening right now.
The proficiency of Otherworld Residence Contract has been raised from ‘Beginner’ to ‘Adept’.
When borrowing abilities, you can now draw power closer to the original.
Each time you make contact with otherworldly energy through the contract, your physical potential will rise slightly.
Absorbing the accumulated energy of Dimension Archenia. Potential increases.
11/15 → 11/16
What the hell is this?
“You—what do you think you’re doing right n—mph.”
I sealed Keira’s angry mouth with my own. She immediately welcomed my tongue as if she had never been angry at all. After calming her a little that way, I pulled back again.
“Again… now I’m going to…”
“No, stop. It’s not that, so cut it out. Something new just happened to me. Want to check it out?”
“…Huh?”
Keira’s gaze swept over my face, my neck, my chest, and even lower.
“There’s nothing.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. When it comes to you, I know better than anyone.”
I almost fell for her all over again. She meant every word. Keira was not the type to fake that kind of certainty. Those words came from pure observation and research—she was a researcher at heart, after all.
Hmm… this might kill the mood a little. Does that make me her lab subject?
“Just now, the proficiency of Otherworld Residence Contract went up.”
“…Right now? Why?”
“I think it’s because of this.”
I told her about the new functions that had unlocked with the rise in proficiency.
“If the proficiency rose, being able to use better magic is only natural. And the potential increase isn’t strange either.”
“Really?”
“You’re constantly receiving new stimuli by contacting energy from other dimensions. Of course your vessel would expand.”
“So even without a contract like this, potential can still rise?”
“Probably. I think I’ve seen research results like that back in Archenia…”
Keira suddenly stopped talking. Her pupils darted rapidly from left to right, and I knew exactly what she was doing. A message must have appeared for her too.
“…Mine went up as well.”
“What? For real?”
Holy shit. Absolute jackpot.
I had hoped that when my potential rose, hers might rise too. Martial arts novels were full of that kind of thing—harmony of yang and yin energy and all that. But I never expected it to actually happen.
And her potential rising carried a completely different meaning from mine.
“My potential hit 50. I can become a Master-class mage now.”
“Whoa! Potential 50 means S-class Keeper!”
Level 50. The minimum requirement for an S-class Keeper. By Archenia standards, the minimum for Master rank. Keira had just punched her ticket to that level. Whether she could actually arrive there was another story, but still.
“Congratulations, Keira. That’s amazing.”
“It’s all thanks to you. Thank you, Jungmin.”
She gave me a bright, fresh smile. I was pretty sure I had never seen her smile like that before. Outside of sex or when something new caught her interest, her expression barely ever changed. That smile looked truly good on her. Just looking at it made me feel fresher too.
“So let’s do it again.”
“Huh?”
She climbed on top of me. That pretty face of hers now wore a completely different kind of smile—a seductive one that wouldn’t look out of place if she decided to devour someone whole.
“Do you know what the contract means by ‘contact’?”
“Don’t tell me…”
“That’s exactly it. Sex is where mana is born. It’s the best way for energies from different dimensions to mix.”
Well, I had expected it would come to this. If you wanted to talk about the harmony of yin and yang, there really wasn’t any other method, was there? Still, I felt a little tense. Now that she had a proper justification, Keira’s lust was never going to stop.
“No, but today we should still—huh?”
“What? Again?”
After the same reaction repeating several times today, Keira caught on instantly.
“Yeah. Again.”
“What is it this time?”
A new Summon Gate has been prepared.
Finally, you could say. The first cooldown was over.
“It says I can open a Summon Gate.”
“…”
Keira’s expression hardened. I could roughly guess how far her imagination had run at the words “Summon Gate.” Gate open, new otherworlder, sex for the contract, Keira getting discarded. The “discarded Keira” part was going a bit far, but she sometimes imagined things like that. She was the type with surprisingly low self-esteem.
“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”
“…It’s fine. I’m from Archenia. I don’t need to monopolize you.”
“Then why did you keep checking Soyeon so hard?”
“If you can monopolize someone and you don’t even try, that’s weird too, right?”
She had a point. Just because Archenia had polygamy didn’t mean everyone lived that way. Only a portion of the powerful did. Keira would want to monopolize me too. And I…
“I won’t summon anyone until my magic power and mana can handle it.”
I wanted to answer that feeling of hers.
“…Just words?”
“Hell no!”
I pulled Keira in and started kissing her. The part of me that had felt like it was at its limit swelled up once more. Today I was seriously giving myself a round of applause. All right, let’s go. Even if I die from this, death by orgasm would be happi—huh?
Splurt!
Blood sprayed across my face. It was coming from Keira’s chest.
What? What the hell is this?!
All I remembered was her shoving my body away.
“Blood—cough.”
She spat blood from her mouth. Instinctively I scooped her up and dropped us both off the bed onto the floor.
Ping, thunk.
Something punched through the window and buried itself in the mattress. Only after hearing that sound did I understand.
A gun. A sniper rifle, at that.
Where? Where the hell from?
But even if I knew, what could I do about it? First I had to get us out of the line of fire…
I dragged her against the wall.
Ping, ping.
I heard bullets slamming into the wall. Good. At least we had a moment to breathe.
“Cough.”
Breathe, my ass.
Keira was bleeding from both her mouth and her chest at the same time. Even when I pressed both hands over the wound, the blood showed no sign of stopping.
“Keira! Stay with me! Keira!”
“Cough, J-Jung… ugh.”
Her hand trembled as she pointed behind me, toward the wall. Why?
A mass of mana was flying toward us at high speed. There was no time or distance to dodge. I covered her with my own body.
Boom!
The explosion wasn’t large. The impact was almost nothing. The problem was that the wall had been blown open. And now she and I were probably right in the sniper’s line of sight.
“No!”
There was nothing I could do. All I could manage was to hold her tight and pray the next bullet wouldn’t punch through both of us.
Hummm.
While I sat there powerless, she moved. Blue mana formed a hemispherical shield around the two of us.
Ting!
The bullet struck the blue mana and ricocheted away.
Ting! Ting!
Two more shots came, and both bounced off the same way. The blue mana didn’t so much as waver.
“Cough, cough…”
But Keira’s condition was getting worse by the second.
“Keira… damn it…”
Think. I have to think. I have to do something, anything…
Ting!
One more bullet flew. She vomited a mouthful of blood and collapsed. At the same time the blue mana faded away like mist.
I dragged her behind the remaining intact section of wall. Please, please, please.
Whether my prayer worked or not, no further attacks came. I couldn’t exactly call that lucky. I had no idea when the shooting would start again, and Keira was unconscious, still coughing up blood. Pressing on the wound in her chest did absolutely nothing.
I called 911 and Garam. At least the phone being nearby was one small mercy. Garam said ten minutes; 911 said three. Three minutes was incredibly fast. But Keira looked like she would die before then. She had already lost far too much blood.
There has to be a way. There has to be something.
Magic was no help. She had told me she couldn’t use recovery magic. Then…
A new Summon Gate has been prepared.
This was the only option left. I had no idea who would come out of the Summon Gate, but at least this was a gamble I could take.
I’m doing it. Decision made—no more hesitation. Whatever the result, doing something is better than doing nothing.
“Gate Open.”
A blue line appeared in midair. The line split left and right, becoming a rippling blue wave. I thrust my hand into the blue wave. Something touched my fingers, and I yanked it out at once.
Thud.
The sound of metal striking the studio apartment floor. What came out of the gate was a blonde woman in white armor. Looking at the large shield and sword, the image of a holy knight rose naturally in my mind.
A holy knight!
“Please heal her! It’s urgent! I’m begging you!”
I shouted at the holy knight who still had no idea what was going on and pointed at Keira, who was pouring blood. She looked ready to die any second.
“****!”
Damn it. Because the contract hadn’t been signed yet, we couldn’t understand each other. But there was no time to form a contract. I could use translation magic, but even that would take too long. Keira was hovering between life and death while I stood here.
I gestured wildly, trying to convey that I needed her to save Keira. You’re a holy knight, right? You should be able to tell just by looking. You should know what I want.
To show her how desperate I was, I dropped to my knees, slammed my forehead to the floor in front of the holy knight, and raised my palms upward as if performing a hundred-and-eight bows.
“****!”
Maybe my desperation got through. The holy knight approached Keira. She sat in front of her and placed a hand on Keira’s chest. Red blood stained the white armor.
“****.”
With her other hand the holy knight gripped the star-shaped pendant at her chest and spoke something. A white light stretched from the pendant, traveled down her arm, and reached Keira’s chest. The light gradually wrapped around Keira’s entire body.
“****!”
When the holy knight cried out, the light intensified.
Flash.
A light so bright it hurt the eyes soon vanished. And there lay Keira, the bleeding stopped.
“Keira!”
I checked her over. Her breathing was steady, and the wound had been closed. I didn’t know if she was fully healed, but at least she had passed the critical point.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
I took the holy knight’s bloodstained hand and bowed deeply.
“****.”
At the still-incomprehensible voice I raised my head. Sweat was pouring down the holy knight’s face like rain. No wonder—she had just saved someone who was nearly dead.
I pointed at the bed, and the holy knight sat down awkwardly on the edge.
“I’m going to use translation magic.”
She couldn’t understand me, of course, but I raised both hands and said it anyway. Then I gathered mana with my magic power and cast the spell.
Did it work?
“…Can you hear me?”
“I can hear you.”
Even while breathing hard, her voice carried a solid, unshakable quality. Just like a holy knight should.
“Thank you for saving Keira. I will never forget this debt, and I will repay it without fail.”
“As a follower of the god, I merely did what was natural. More importantly—where is this place?”
Oh. A follower of the god. A real holy knight. I had no idea which god she served, but starting today I was going to worship that god too. To send a savior at such a perfectly precise moment…
“This is Earth. From your perspective, it is another world.”
“…Another world?”
It was my second meeting with an otherworlder.