Elena Ru
“...We need to make physical contact.”
Elena’s eyes went round as she glared at me.
The translation must have worked perfectly.
“A kiss on the back of the hand, then touching the arms and... the chest. That level of contact.”
Clank.
Elena covered her chest in an instant. The armor made a heavy, metallic sound.
“I have to send my mana from the back of your hand all the way to your heart, but my skill is still crude, so I have to guide it with my hand as well. There is absolutely no impure intent.”
Her gaze softened a fraction, yet her hands stayed firmly over her chest. The bare hands that had shed their gauntlets were now almost invisible.
“We don’t have time. You can hold me accountable later—right now you need to get that armor off. Quickly.”
“(...Understood.)”
Just removing the gauntlets, pauldrons, and breastplate took a considerable amount of time. Once the thick padded gambeson underneath came off as well, only a single thin layer of cloth remained.
Gulp.
I had zero intention of looking with impure thoughts, yet her body made those thoughts rise unbidden. Goddess of mercy and love, they called her—and her chest truly lived up to the title. I couldn’t even imagine how she fit those into armor. Was there spatial magic woven into the plates or something?
“We’re short on time, so I’ll begin at once. Give me your left hand.”
I pressed my lips to the soft back of Elena’s hand. I could feel the skin, but my eyes could barely see it. I had to move fast.
Smack.
I felt her flinch and tremble. Through my lips I poured the mana I had prepared in advance into the back of her hand. I lifted my mouth and replaced it with my palm, then slowly began to move while sensing my mana writhing inside her body.
Back of the hand, wrist, forearm...
It was far smoother than before. Keira had told me that practicing mana control this way would help, so for the past three weeks I had done it with her once every single day.
“Hah...”
Huh?
The sound of her moan was strange enough that I looked up—only to find Elena already half-vanished. I had no leisure to worry about anything else. I focused harder. The mana responded by moving faster.
Shoulder, chest.
I was concentrating so fiercely that I didn’t even notice when my hand sank fully into the soft flesh of her breast. Maybe because Elena hadn’t said a word. Or rather, she couldn’t have. By the time my hand reached her chest, the sensation of her physical form dissolving was already overwhelming.
The mana touched her heart. A portion of it settled there. But that wasn’t the end. This wasn’t a simple recharge—this was the first contract.
“...I’m sorry. I’ll have to be a little more forward. I need to send the mana lower.”
Elena gave no answer, but I couldn’t wait for one. I slid my hand downward. Past her stomach, it arrived at her lower abdomen—the place where her womb rested. Every last drop of remaining mana settled there.
Shrrk.
A wing-shaped pattern bloomed across the back of her left hand as though wings were unfurling. Blue light poured from the mark, traveling up her arm, across her shoulder, through her chest and heart, and finally into her womb.
Whoosh.
Color began returning from Elena’s heart outward. Not transparent, but a translucent flesh tone. Rosy cheeks. Blue eyes that mirrored the sky. Golden hair that looked as if the shining sun itself had been transplanted onto her head.
“Wow...”
The wondrous transformation and her wondrous beauty drew an involuntary gasp from me.
“(Is it... finished now?)”
“Hm? Ah, yes. It’s done.”
“(Th-then... that hand of yours...)”
“Ah—ah, sorry—”
My hand was still resting on Elena’s lower abdomen. Startled, I tried to pull it away and instead slid it even lower by mistake. My fingers brushed lightly against the space between her thighs, beneath the remaining armor of her lower body.
“Kyaaaah!”
Her scream erupted at once, followed by a heavy fist slamming into my gut. The sheer force launched my body into the air; my hand came free on its own. In that dizzy state I saw Elena’s foot flying toward me—a steel-armored boot that would hurt dozens of times worse than any combat boot. Taking that hit would kill me for certain. But I was already airborne with nowhere to dodge.
I’m dead!
Thud.
Instead of dying, I crashed onto the floor. It still hurt, but it beat dying. Elena’s foot hung frozen in midair. She must have regained her reason at the last second. Truly fortunate.
“(...I’ll let it slide this once. Next time I will not forgive you.)”
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t intentional—it was an accident...”
I scrambled up, dropped to my knees, and bowed my head.
“(An accident? Would you still call it an accident if you killed someone by accident?)”
“No—no, of course not. I’m truly sorry.”
“(...Because you said it was an accident, I’ll overlook it this once. Stand up now.)”
I rose slowly. Elena had turned her face away from me, yet the mirror showed her expression clearly. Her face was completely scarlet. A face that red meant one of two things: fury or embarrassment. Right now it felt much closer to the latter.
“In a proper contract the mana is supposed to descend all the way to the lower abdomen. I apologize for not explaining beforehand. That was my fault.”
“(Enough. It’s already over, so let’s leave it.)”
“Yes.”
“(...So in one week I can return home?)”
“No. You’ll need a mana recharge once every hour.”
“(What? I-I have to do this once every hour? All the way down here?)”
Elena spun around and pointed at her own stomach. My eyes naturally followed. Picture-perfect abs. From the faint memory of touching them, they had felt incredibly firm. In that instant a murderous aura prickled my skin and I snapped my head up. Elena was glaring at me with eyes blazing blue.
“...Next time it only needs to go as far as the chest. The chest—no, the heart.”
“(...You’re certain? Claims of ‘I was lying’ or ‘it was an accident’ won’t work. I’d rather... simply disappear.)”
Gulp.
The killing intent felt sharp enough to sever my throat. I had thought she only excelled at healing, but she was a black blade as well. Leaving any talk of sexual intercourse completely unmentioned had been the correct call. That sort of thing only worked on the utterly dense Keira; with the girlish Elena it was absolutely impossible. And I had no desire to force myself on someone who didn’t want it either.
Recharging once an hour would be exhausting, but there was no choice. I only had to endure for one week. If the price of saving Keira was a week of hardship, I would do it a hundred times over.
“No lies, no accidents—so don’t worry. More importantly, you should put some clothes on.”
Elena was currently covering her upper body with nothing but that thin cloth. Having just come back from the brink of death, the fabric was soaked with sweat. That only made her chest assert its presence even more boldly. If anyone walked in right now, the misunderstanding would be perfect.
“(What? Ah—ahh!)”
“Jungmin, are you all right?”
Elena realizing her state and covering herself, and the door opening with Garam walking in, happened at almost the exact same moment.
“...Whoops, sorry. Looks like I interrupted.”
Garam glanced back and forth between the two of us, then bowed his head and retreated.
“No! Garam-hyung! It’s a misunderstanding!”
In my panic I called him “hyung” for the first time and rushed out of the hospital room after him.
After the commotion settled, four people sat facing one another in the hospital room.
“This is Garam and Kim Nayeon. This is Elena Ru.”
The three of them exchanged awkward greetings.
“Elena won’t understand a word either of you say, and the same goes for you two. I’m the only one who can communicate with her.”
“Got it. You’re going to explain, right? Including the lady over there.”
After the earlier incident, Garam and I had decided to call each other hyung and dongsaeng. It was something I’d wanted for a while but never found the right timing for.
“Yes, I’ll explain everything. Hyung, could you go first? Any traces?”
“None. We found the sniper’s position, but no idea where they went after that.”
“I see...”
“At the scene we only found ordinary bullets. People said there was an explosion—what was that? Did you get hit by a shell or something?”
“No. It was a gun. Only...”
What had that been? A bullet, yet one that carried both mana and magical power.
“...We have to assume they used magic along with it. Call it a magic bullet, maybe... There was only one shot, so I survived. If there had been more...”
“Magic, huh... So the enemy is connected to Park Changsik after all?”
On the way to the hospital I had thought it over carefully. The only person who would target me was that bastard.
“Probably the same person who sold him the scroll. Same one who sold the goblin scroll too. I never expected them to come after me. They must have decided I was an obstacle.”
“Sorry. The crew should’ve watched your back better...”
“It’s fine. Who could’ve known I’d become a target?”
“No. This means information leaked. I can’t be sure from where, but the odds are high it came from inside the crew.”
“Maybe, but the moment I got involved I was already prepared for that much. This time I just got unlucky.”
Keira and I had taken our own precautions. We always kept alarm magic active around us so we’d know the instant an enemy approached. What I never imagined was a sniper attack from long range using non-magical means. Keira was a medieval person, so of course that possibility never crossed her mind. I should have prepared for it... All my fault. Still, I survived, so next time I’ll do better.
“No—surviving means I was lucky. I won’t get caught next time. And I’ll definitely catch that bastard.”
“The crew will help too. At the very least Nayeon and I will. Right?”
“Of course. I can’t forgive some bastard who pulls strings from behind the scenes.”
Flames kindled in both of Kim Nayeon’s eyes. This was her own business as well. That same criminal had nearly killed her once.
“I’ll be counting on you.”
“We’re the ones counting on you.”
Now the important part remained. Originally I had wanted to keep it hidden for as long as possible—until something unavoidable happened during crew activities. I never expected that unavoidable day to arrive this soon.
“Then I’ll tell you about my companions’ true identities. First, the person who was lying over there is the unidentified Keeper you two saw—Keira Mustang.”
“Huh? That was a guy.”
“Because of this.”
I draped the robe over Elena. Both of them went wide-eyed.
“It’s a magic robe. Expensive as hell.”
“Whoa, so it’s basically all-purpose.”
“Not all-purpose. I nearly died today, remember?”
“Right, yeah. Nothing in the world is all-purpose. So is that the end of her identity?”
“No. First, don’t freak out when you hear this. Keira is not Korean.”
Both of them stared at me as if I had lost my mind.
Come on, you’re supposed to throw in at least one joke at a moment like this.
I cleared my throat and continued.
“Ahem. And she isn’t from Earth either.”
This time they looked properly startled; their eyes burned hot.
“Not from Earth? What the hell does that mean?”
“She’s an otherworlder.”
“What?”
Both of their mouths dropped open so wide I half-expected their jaws to unhinge. That’s why I told them not to freak out.