How Does Brother Namgung Know About Card Games…?
………………………………………………
“This turn I absolutely have to hit the solar plexus…!”
“No, no, that’s not how you do it….”
Smiling through the endless backseat advice pouring in from behind me only made the helpless irritation surge harder, a vein throbbing at my temple.
Damn kibitzers…!
“……With my God of Freedom, I attack the Stone Slime…!”
The moment I declared the attack, the middle-aged man across from me curved his lips into a sly smile.
“You just activated my trap card. This match is mine.”
The card he revealed was Mirror Force—also called Reflective Power—which bounced an opponent’s declared attack right back and wiped them out completely.
“D-damn it……!”
Lost again…!
“Tsk tsk…… If only you’d listened to me earlier. You only see as much as you know…….”
Once the round ended, the kibitzers—some of whom had definitely been yelling at me to attack—drained away like the tide, looking thoroughly deflated.
The card-game parlor wasn’t packed enough to call it shoulder-to-shoulder, yet it was still the busiest shop on this stretch of the marketplace.
Inside, I flipped through the beginner’s guidebook and found quite a few amusing details. First of all, this paper-card pastime had been invented far away in Haedong. People stayed up all night playing it on heated floors, so the game had been named Ondol: Heroes of Destiny’s Plan—the subtitle slapped on by the merchant house that printed and sold the cards.
After skimming the booklet I spent a hefty four nyang of copper coins on a starter deck and swaggered over to a table…… only to lose every single match.
No matter how I look at it, I’m not that bad. It has to be the difference in card power that’s forcing these losses….
“………….”
Card Packs ×10 — 3 copper nyang
So of course my eyes drifted toward the packs on the counter. It was practically inevitable.
Just ten packs. I’ll open them and see…?
A few minutes later.
“I-I opened a hundred packs and only got one legendary……?”
The paper cards—people just called them cards—came in ranks, and the legendary rank I wanted had an absurdly low pull rate.
Even so… isn’t this a bit much…?
One legendary out of a hundred packs. And it wasn’t even the one I wanted.
“……This is ridiculous……….”
Thirty copper nyang—twelve copper plus one silver nyang—meant I had flung more than two silver nyang straight into the void. Despair flattened me onto the floor. The clerk’s voice floated down.
“Ah, what a shame. Still, customer, if you return the cards you don’t need…… you might be able to exchange them for the one you actually want…….”
Return them? What on earth did that mean?
“How do I get the card I want……?”
According to the clerk, every card had a point value by rank. Once you accumulated enough points you could trade them for any card you desired. Common cards were five points, rares twenty—so four commons could become one rare of your choice, and so on.
“In short, no matter how unlucky you are, one silver nyang will still get you the legendary card you want.”
“……………..”
My heart was already hooked; the devil’s whisper only shook it harder.
“You’ve already spent the money—shouldn’t you at least walk away with the God of Freedom?”
In the end I spent even more, secured the single card I wanted, and trudged back to the inn.
“Haa…… I burned through the allowance Brother Namgung gave me in a single day, and my own money on top of that…….”
I must be out of my mind.
……Still, it had been fun. Even inside the inn plenty of guests were clustered around tables playing Ondol, so the game’s popularity needed no further proof.
“Haa……….”
I let out every last sigh I had and bit into a conch-shell bun. The crust crushed under my teeth and the sweet filling touched my tongue, yet the earlier loss was still too raw for me to enjoy the taste properly.
Once I finished I had an appointment with Young Hero Geungwang, so I would have to find my way to his house.
………………………………………………
“Ah, you’ve arrived.”
I showed up at the agreed time and found Young Hero Geungwang waiting for me, his entire body soaked in sweat.
“H-hello……?”
I calmed my thudding heart with a deep breath at the sight of those sweat-slicked, powerful muscles and stepped inside.
“Haa…….”
The thick male scent—far stronger than anything I’d smelled in the clothing shop—made my cheeks burn. I didn’t need a mirror to know my face was flushed.
“U-um… why are you so sweaty……?”
I twisted in place, not knowing what to do with myself. He scratched his cheek as if it were nothing.
“Haha, well… I wanted to finish my own workout first. And I ran all the way home so I wouldn’t be late.”
He went out of his way so I wouldn’t have to wait…?
It should have been a warm, grateful moment, yet my heart only pounded harder for reasons I couldn’t name.
Leaving me like that, Young Hero Geungwang fetched a yoga mat and had me lie face-down.
“First, shall we loosen up on the mat…? Just like a cat stretching……”
The opening pose was to stay prone and push my hips high into the air.
“Nnngh……….”
“………Gulp.”
I stuck my rear out exactly as instructed—and suddenly heard him swallow hard behind me.
“Um…… is something wrong with my form……?”
At the casual question he startled and flailed.
“……Yes?! N-no, it’s just…. Your shoes don’t seem suitable for exercise…….”
I had already asked Brother Namgung the same thing. His answer had been, “High heels are of course mandatory even during external martial training.”
“Actually, I’m learning martial arts from my sworn brother…….”
When I passed along Brother Namgung’s reply, Geungwang murmured,
“Ah, I see……. Come to think of it, I’ve occasionally seen ladies wearing high heels at the gym…… Wait—then could it be……?”
His eyes flew wide open.
“………?”
“Ah…… it’s nothing. Next, lie flat on your back…….”
The following pose was to lie straight and spread my legs wide. He took one of my legs and pressed it toward my body, claiming he was loosening the muscles. The skin-tight yoga pants left my crotch completely exposed, which was mortifying enough.
And yet……….
“……Oof?!…….”
This “loosening the body before exercise to make it more flexible”—in other words, stretching—turned out to be far less gentle than expected. Alone I would simply extend a limb and count “one two three four…… ten!” But when it came to external training, Young Hero Geungwang was dead serious. Even when I yelped that it hurt he never eased up, pressing and pulling my body relentlessly.
“……Owowow……! Your hands are so big they’re going to tear the muscle……?!”
“………Anyone listening would get the wrong idea…….”
After roughly half a gak of dedicated stretching I was left sprawled face-down on the mat, gasping.
“Haa… haa…….”
The intensity was on another level from my half-hearted solo efforts. Geungwang watched me for a moment, hesitated, then finally forced the words out.
“……Um, that is…… your pants…… ahem.”
The spot between my legs he pointed to……
Again…?
The crotch of the yoga pants was soaked through with the copious pre-cum that had been flowing ever since I started wearing the chastity belt.
“……I-it’s a misunderstanding……! This is… right…! Sweat, just sweat…!”
I hurriedly covered myself with both hands and shouted. The truth was…… it couldn’t be helped. Whenever he pressed my back to loosen the leg muscles, something hard brushed against me, and the strange feeling that produced was simply unavoidable.
“……….”
Yet he didn’t even pretend to believe me. Instead he took hold of the waistband of the yoga pants clinging to my hips and began easing them down while he spoke.
“If it’s a misunderstanding…… then you won’t mind if I check, will you…?”
“Eh, eh……?”
While I was still too stunned to keep up, he slowly lowered the sweat-damp yoga pants until the upper curve of my rear was completely bare.
“W-wait, if you take them all the way off, I can’t—!”
I snapped back to my senses and desperately clung to the remaining fabric. His hands stopped…… then abruptly offered a bargain.
“Then…… how about this. I won’t check why the crotch is wet, so long as you let me…… touch your rear a little more.”
“Whaaat……!”
Choose between having my rear fondled or having the yoga pants stripped completely off. It was the very embodiment of an unreasonable demand.