Lize's First Outing
Receiving an outing permit for a test subject is no easy matter at all.
It requires not only trust but also absolute responsibility for any escape, death, or accident. Therefore, the outing is a desperate card Seowoo must play, one that demands a heavy price yet cannot be refused.
"An outing?"
"...Yes."
"Coming straight here and demanding an outing permit right away is rather bold."
Seowoo knelt before Lucia.
Before entering the classroom where the Numbers children waited, he had to visit two places.
First, he had secured Balor's escort from Acid to protect their lives and intimidate the children.
Second, he had obtained the outing permit that would finally earn the children's trust.
As expected, acquiring Balor's protection from Acid had been straightforward, but Lucia remained the true obstacle.
Thud!
The foot clad in a white heel pressed down on his thigh.
"Ugh...!"
"You really..."
Disaster.
He should have anticipated the sequence of events and prioritized them properly before acting.
Recently, so many things had occurred in the past few days that his usual condition had not yet returned.
Crunch!
Lucia, irritated to the core, pressed with even greater force than when she had stepped on his head before.
"Do you know Atalanta and Hippomenes?"
"Cluck... I do."
How could he possibly not know?
One of Aphrodite's myths.
Atalanta, who sought a marriage partner through a running contest, and Hippomenes, who fell madly in love with her and borrowed the god of love's aid to win the race.
Hippomenes, who received golden apples and wisdom from Aphrodite, triumphed in the contest but failed to show gratitude to the goddess and met a tragic end.
"You know that? How utterly disgusting."
"Ugh...!"
No restraint remained.
Her foot descended slowly, like a hydraulic press.
Thud.
Thud-thud.
"Caaaaak!"
The muscles that had held their shape were pulverized together with the thigh, like dough being kneaded.
Just as tears and convulsions began to spread through his entire body.
"Shh."
Lucia's fingers slipped into his mouth.
"──!"
Before his brain could even register, the reflex movement froze in Seowoo.
In the brief moment where only slightly moistened eyes and faint tremors remained, he continued to live.
"Good."
Lucia leaned in close enough that her breath tickled his skin and whispered softly against his ear.
The voice was sweet enough to be almost unbearably pleasant, yet to him it carried only a chill.
The sensation of his mind being completely dominated left him unable to resist even if he wished to.
"Seowoo, must you go this far? You are my puppy, after all. Surely... the puppy I raise does not forget gratitude?"
Each repetition of the difference in position and stance was carefully imprinted.
Fear swelled like snow piling up layer by layer on a mountainside.
Seowoo's head slowly turned from side to side.
"From now on, there will be no more of this, will there?"
A quiet nod.
"Good. Honestly, I never intended to do this much, but I'm sorry. I also have a poor sense of controlling my emotions. Still, I managed to hold back."
Lucia gently wiped the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes with her thumb.
The soft touch was an unspoken permission to face each other.
The pitiful eyes wandered like a lost child until they met the ruby gaze.
The eyes that seemed to hypnotize simply by looking sucked the mind dry.
Had magic been cast?
Consciousness gradually faded.
Lucia's lips appeared to approach slowly.
At the instant rationality fled to the depths of consciousness, their lips met and the tongue had already begun to move.
Um.
Chuu.
Without distinguishing between willing and unwilling, he was swallowed by desire.
Coarse breathing mingled like animals drawn by pheromones, exploring only the other.
Desire surged through the body, their tongues sticking together wetly.
The sticky saliva and lewdly spread eyes became the final memory.
"Hah!"
Seowoo jolted awake, bolting upright.
Pressing his throbbing forehead, he surveyed the surroundings.
It was a familiar place.
"...Here."
Lucia's bed.
The place where he always offered his neck to her.
Lifting his gaze to the antique wall clock, he realized he had lost consciousness for about an hour.
Feeling the pain, he touched his thigh.
Fortunately or unfortunately, it had been perfectly healed.
After changing the sheets, Seowoo carefully stepped down from the bed and found a letter on the small table.
'Due to the backlash of the reward magic, you fell asleep. The wounds are treated, so if you wake up, take care of business.'
On the carelessly written note, an outing permit was enclosed.
The fact that he had barely obtained this single plastic card after humiliating himself only deepened his misery.
He had traded his pride and dignity for sex.
During that process, he had tasted the agony of bones being crushed alongside muscles and had performed sexual service while ensnared by strange magic.
"...Fuck."
Seowoo stood there in silence, savoring the wretched feeling for a long while.
***
"So, do you like it?"
"Yeah, the research institute was always so stuffy!"
Lize beamed with excitement while staring at the outing permit hanging around her neck.
It was an object she truly despised looking at, yet professionalism was professionalism.
She would simply complete the task at hand.
She had once been the kind of human who could cover up the past of being torn apart if it served a purpose.
"Before leaving, remember these points. First, do not act emotionally. Second, do not try to run away. Third, obey the two rules I mentioned."
"What~ That's not bad~."
"This is no joke. Do not underestimate vampires."
"Yeah~ Okay~."
"Haa... Is this correct...?"
Watching Lize answer half-heartedly made him want to smack her.
"Grab it."
"What?"
"My hand. I can't just let you go trusting you."
Surprisingly obedient, Lize took his hand.
It was not ice-cold, but quite chilly.
After about ten minutes of walking through countless floors, they reached the entrance.
The gate was enormous.
Seowoo had seen the portal many times, so he felt no particular excitement, but for Lize it was pure shock.
"Wow...!"
The height reminiscent of high-rise apartments and the overwhelming massiveness of the door.
There was a reason it looked impossible to open with mere physical force.
Even within Nectar, the research institute's location was top secret.
The door itself served as both concealment and a means of travel.
"Stop."
A neatly uniformed doorman blocked their path.
Seowoo bowed deeply and stepped forward in front of Lize.
"Long time no see. I am Yoon Seowoo, assistant to Lucia Earl Grey of the Ambrosia Research Institute. I am taking Eleven to 'Kamil'."
"Permit?"
"Here it is."
"Mmm, good. The outing time is six hours. As you know, even a little late and it becomes the livestock pen."
"Thank you."
For Seowoo, outings from the research institute had long since become part of daily life, so he handled the conversation with ease.
Unlike his usual habit of keeping his head lowered, the outing permit served as both identity verification and a temporary guarantee of equality with certain vampires.
He had not known that at first.
It was a memory from years ago.
When the doorman activated the gate, the surface shimmered like a blue sea.
"Your stomach might feel a bit queasy. Hold it in."
"Yeah? Hah!!"
Seowoo gripped Lize's hand tightly and stepped through the portal.
The civilian district of Kamil.
A metropolis that occupied roughly half of Nectar's population and served as the domain of low-class vampires.
Even among vampires, who maintained a strict class system as a derivative of human society, Kamil was the lowest rung in the pyramid with the largest population.
Seowoo had chosen Kamil not only for its spaciousness but also because the outing permit's guarantee of identity was recognized there.
"Ugh! Uuuu!"
"Are you all right?"
At the grand plaza centered around the portal, Lize's first meaningful step turned into retching.
"Waek!"
"It must have been too much for the kids."
Even though he could not vomit, he repeated the motion several times before he could calm down.
"Now it's better, right?"
"...Yeah. I never want to experience that again."
"Anyway, when returning, you'll have to take the portal too?"
"Ah! No!"
Lize shook her head vigorously, as if disgusted.
Unlike the first time, the way she threw a tantrum made him feel closer internally.
They were indeed annoying in some corners, but they were still cute.
"Stop acting up and look around."
"Ah, right!"
"How is it?"
"Wow...!"
Lize exclaimed in admiration at Seowoo's suggestion.
It was the first time she had seen the outside world since the day she was taken to Nectar, after always staring at the white walls of the research institute.
Under the clear moonlight, the eternal night city stretched out.
Neon signs in every color lined the streets beneath a sky where the Milky Way poured down.
Vampires hurried across the plaza.
Vampires focused on soliciting customers.
Even a vampire playing violin in the center of the square.
For Lize, it was a continuous source of freshness and stimulation.
Of course, to Seowoo they were merely monsters imitating humans.
Unlike him, who had felt disgust from the beginning, she was extremely satisfied.
No matter how bizarre it appeared to normal eyes.
Lize was indeed a victim, her mind damaged by the side effects of the experiment.
The hand that had caught her tightened without her realizing it.
"How is it? Satisfied?"
"Yeah! It was stuffy inside, but now it feels like it's opening up."
Lize placed a hand on her chest and closed her eyes.
Now that she had escaped the cramped cage, she wanted to feel the outside world even more deeply in this moment.
"Good. Since it's a rare outing, shall we walk and talk?"
"Yes!"
Lize answered energetically and took a step forward.
Seowoo, pulled along by the rough strength while holding her hand, was initially startled but soon matched his pace.
Had he ever seen a child this happy in Nectar?
A casual laugh escaped him, the corners of his mouth lifting.
As promised, he told Lize various stories.
The wandering during adolescence in the human realm.
Caring for younger siblings in the orphanage.
Her expression shifted constantly with every word, and it was truly exquisite.
"What, you had it worse than me!"
"At least I didn't call you a newbie who just stares blankly."
"I didn't make the adults suffer?"
"I'm suffering now. Don't talk back."
"Talk back~."
Whip!
The fist swung to smack her head missed.
"Wow~ Super slow."
"Haa..."
Hold it. Hold it.
Thinking about how much he had done because of this little brat.
The thigh that had been crushed like clay still felt sore.
Still, seeing her acting up, the door to his heart had opened quite wide.
Separately from his mood, the situation was promising.
After walking far from the plaza, the surroundings had become lined with shops.
Unlike the plaza full of restaurants, this alley displayed clothes and luxury goods.
Without saying it, the nauseating and lewd smell made his heart feel a little easier.
Naturally, the restaurants vampires frequented had human flesh as the main ingredient.
"Human?"
"Yeah, human."
"What smell is the girl next to you?"
Revealing the identity hidden beneath the food smell was inevitable.
Passersby glanced at Seowoo and Lize, drawn by the scent.
"What are you looking at, you bastards? Did you put honey on my face?"
Just as Seowoo had said to her at first.
Lize released killing intent along with curses.
It was clearly different from the enmity directed at him.
The ominous killing intent of the disposal unit.
Seowoo, startled and trying to stop her, could only hesitate.
The residents pressed by her killing intent fled with flushed faces.
"Hey, you're a research institute human."
"Hah! Really! Nectar is also the end times!"
"Low-class scum..."
The residents who feared the power knew.
In a world of thorough survival of the fittest, they could not ignore the level that surpassed even the difference between civilians and soldiers.
So the hand that had tried to stop them froze.
But at that moment.
"Hmph. What does a remnant of Ambrosia say."
Mockery laced with malice dug into Lize's ears.