Chapter 58
“No?”
“Y-you crazy bitch! There are things you can say and things you can’t!!”
Sonya hurriedly clamped a hand over Yusera's mouth.
Because of that, the black plastic bag in her hand swung back and forth.
“Mmph! Then what is this? Anyone can see that……. Mmph!”
“Th-this is……”
Sonya shot me a furtive glance.
“I-I can’t tell you!”
Then she hid the plastic bag behind her and fled to a corner of the waiting room.
What is that?
When I tried to approach her...
“D-don’t come any closer!!!”
She raised her fur on end and warily watched us.
More precisely, she was watching me.
“Pfft! Ahahahaha!”
Seeing that, Yusera grabbed her stomach and started laughing.
“Ah, my stomach hurts. I didn’t know our Sonya could make a face like that.”
After wiping away even the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, Yusera glanced at Sonya desperately hiding the bag in the corner and asked me.
“You really didn’t do it?”
“I have a general idea of what you mean, but I didn’t do what you’re thinking.”
“You didn’t……. You definitely have the face of someone who did.”
She stared at me intently.
Then she shook her head, looking disappointed.
“I guess you really didn’t. Then did you actually fight until you ended up like that?”
Muttering to herself, Yusera took another step toward me.
“Then could you give me a little of your time? There are quite a few things I’m curious about.”
“…I’m not important enough for a Hero to be interested in.”
“Aren’t you underestimating yourself too much? Sonya, one of the Seven Heroes, personally chose you as her aide, and you even achieved actual results. How could you not be important?”
It might have looked that way from the outside.
But I hadn’t done all that much inside the Tower.
…….
Well, I had done quite a lot.
I wondered if I might have gone a little overboard.
But it was nothing like what they were thinking.
And I didn’t think they would believe me even if I explained.
“All right.”
Before I had even finished nodding.
“Sonya, I’m going to borrow your boyfriend for a bit.”
“He’s not my boyfriend! D-don’t be rude!”
Sonya, still standing in the corner with her hands clasped behind her back, cried out anxiously.
“Fine. I’m going to borrow your male friend.”
“……All right.”
Just as we were about to leave the waiting room.
“Excuse me, Mr. Mincheol.”
“Yes?”
“When you two are finished talking, could I speak with you in the lobby for a moment? I-I have something to say……”
“Understood.”
Following Yusera, I arrived at a secluded outdoor terrace located in the Project Guild building.
The entire panorama of Taepyeong City lay visible below the wide-open sky.
Yusera leaned against the railing and spoke with a bright smile.
“The view is nice, isn’t it? I’m not a member of this guild, but I really like this terrace. Sometimes Sonya and I stand here looking at the Tower and remind ourselves of the goal we have to reach.”
“I see.”
The Tower was visible not far from the terrace.
At the center of Taepyeong City.
The very Tower I had just conquered.
Its height was dizzying.
The Project Guild building was not short by any means, but the Tower soared far higher than it did.
“It’s really tall, isn’t it? I don’t know where it ends. I’m climbing it for now……. But sometimes I feel the wall in front of me so strongly that it takes my breath away. It’s not like I have any guidebook or anything, either. I don’t know why Evo suddenly stopped at the seventy-ninth floor, either……. Haha, sorry. I did all the talking.”
After letting out a heavy breath, Yusera looked at me.
“Now, since Sonya isn’t here, tell me honestly. You two aren’t really dating, are you?”
“We’re not in that kind of relationship.”
“Hmm, then how did you two meet?”
“I was working at a convenience store when she came in as a customer. That’s how we met.”
“Huh? That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
She took a step closer to me.
And the bright smile vanished in an instant.
Saaaah.
The wind blowing across the terrace disappeared all at once.
An oppressive force that made it difficult to breathe poured from her small frame and pressed down on my entire body.
‘So this is what a Hero is…….’
It felt different from the murderous intent Sonya had emitted when she went berserk.
It was an inescapable gaze, as though the sky itself were looking down at me.
I drew a breath without realizing it.
I didn’t know what it was, but I could tell that she had used an ability.
“…So this is real, too. Huh, then are you saying Mr. Mincheol was just a convenience store part-timer? And Sonya saw that and brought you along?”
“Yes.”
“This is interesting. A convenience store part-timer having……. power like this.”
“Power?”
That couldn’t be.
Yusera’s blue eyes gleamed coldly.
“I have one blessing bestowed on me as a Hero. Eyes that see through the essence of another person. So I can recognize someone’s strength at a glance, too.”
Those eyes swept over me from head to toe.
“But no matter how closely I examine you, Mr. Mincheol, your body is weaker than an ordinary person’s. Your mana tolerance, mana reserves, and potential are all below the standard.”
“Hearing that I’m below standard hurts a little.”
“But isn’t it strange? Two opposing powers are circling around you. One is pure nature harboring life, and the other is the power of blood harboring its opposite, death.”
The nature harboring life had to be the World Tree.
And the blood power harboring death had to be the manager’s power.
“I’ve never heard of these powers existing at the same time. They’re opposites that should repel each other……. How is this even possible?”
“Is that why you called me here?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’ve been curious since the first time I saw you. I wondered why you were clearly human like me, yet so different from me.”
Yusera pushed away from the railing and approached me closely.
Her gaze sharply examined my body.
“I think I know why you’re different. The energy I sense from you is a different kind from mine. That power capable of weaving together all those opposing forces is definitely not ordinary. Perhaps you received a separate blessing as a Hero, like I did……”
A smile returned to the corners of her mouth.
“Thanks to you, Sonya cleared the seventy-fourth floor.”
“I feel sorry about that.”
“Because you were the top contributor on the seventy-fourth floor?”
“Yes.”
I felt as though I had taken her place, which made me feel a little guilty.
“Well, that isn’t particularly important. What matters is that Sonya cleared the entire dungeon with your help. The Tower must have judged your power to be that helpful.”
“……”
“So don’t let it bother you too much. Sonya probably doesn’t care.”
After laughing once, Yusera spoke.
“Sonya asked me for the first time about giving a man a present, so I wondered if there was something special about him……”
She stared at me.
“You really are special in some way.”
“Thank you for thinking well of me.”
It felt like I was in a job interview.
The Hero’s gaze weighed on me more heavily than I had expected.
I wondered if this was what Sun Wukong had felt like beneath the Buddha’s palm.
“The odds of humans encountering one another in Taepyeong City are incredibly low. Honestly, the only humans left in Taepyeong City are the children of the First Hero and the Saintess. If you think about it, that makes us related by blood, doesn’t it? Then are you and I distant cousins, Mr. Mincheol?”
She looked me over from head to toe.
“But we don’t look alike at all, considering that.”
Hmm.
That was probably because I wasn’t a human from Taepyeong City.
I couldn’t bring myself to say that.
I didn’t know what kind of person Yusera the Hero was yet, and I had no intention of blurting out my secret to her.
Unless there was no other choice.
I had to keep my secret.
“I have a favor to ask, too. Will you do it for me?”
“What is it?”
“Could you help me too, like you helped Sonya?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m a little stuck on the eightieth floor, too. If you helped me, I might be able to clear it……?”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to refuse.”
Once I’d climbed it, I knew.
The Tower was not somewhere I could climb recklessly.
If not for the collar the manager gave me, I would have been trapped on the seventy-fourth floor with her.
I would have been unable to overcome my desires and become one with the Tower.
That was when I learned my place.
Unless something truly extraordinary happened, I probably wouldn’t be climbing the Tower again.
Yusera blinked, seemingly surprised by my firm refusal.
“Oh, I didn’t expect such an immediate answer.”
“I was simply lucky on the seventy-fourth floor.”
“…I’m sorry. I think I was a little hasty. I was just as desperate as Sonya.”
“Can’t you ask one of the other Seven Heroes for help?”
At my question, Yusera shrugged.
“A Hero has pride. We can’t possibly borrow another Hero’s strength.”
After saying that, she giggled.
Borrowing the strength of an ordinary person was fine, though?
I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
I was far too weak to say something like that.
“Ah, I’ve taken up too much of your time. I’m sorry. Shall we head back? I have things to take care of, too.”
“Are you leaving already?”
“I have to return to the guild. I’m struggling in my own way……. So I’m busy with all sorts of things.”
After saying that, she climbed up onto the terrace railing.
“Please tell Sonya that I enjoyed the show today.”
“She’ll be angry.”
“That’s probably true.”
She winked at me with one eye.
“I had fun today. Thanks to you, I got to have a good laugh for the first time in a while.”
After saying that, Yusera jumped off the terrace.
The Hero fell toward the ground below the building.
But only for a moment.
Pop!
Her body vanished in midair.
As though she had never been there in the first place.
“Is she a Hero or a ghost?”
When I went down to the first-floor lobby, Sonya was waiting for me.
The plastic bag in her hand was nowhere to be seen.
“Ms. Sonya.”
“Ah, Mr. Mincheol……”
“You said you had something to tell me?”
“Ah, well. It’s nothing important……”
Sonya fidgeted with her fingers, then squeezed her eyes shut and spoke.
“When we meet next time, could you……. bring that collar with you?”
“…Pardon?”
“Ah, it’s not like that! I-I don’t mean anything strange by it. You know, when I try to overcome that strange power, it feels like I’m getting some kind of t-training out of it!”
It really is because of training, right?
It feels like there’s some other purpose behind it.
That’s just my imagination, right?
“I-I’m serious!”
Did she read my thoughts?
“Oh, your expression gives everything away. Is it really all right for someone working in customer service to show so much on their face?”
“Ahem, I’m sorry. I couldn’t control my expression for a moment.”
“I-I really mean it that way, so don’t get any strange ideas. I’m not that kind of perverted beastkin.”
“Understood. Then please let me know in advance when you come again. I’ll have it ready.”
“Y-you don’t have to go that far……”
Sonya lowered her head without meeting my eyes.
And then.
“Th-thank you.”
She said it to me while fidgeting.
“If you hadn’t been there today, Mr. Mincheol, I would have been trapped in the Tower forever, let alone clearing the seventy-fourth floor. Those voices were so cunning……”
“Not at all. We cleared it thanks to your strength, Ms. Sonya. Honestly, I feel sorry about it. It seems the seventy-fourth floor wasn’t properly cleared because of me.”
“You mean the contribution ranking, right?”
“Yes.”
“It’s fine. It’s a fact that we broke the record, and there are witnesses who know I cleared most of it, right? I don’t care about the record. What matters is that we did it.”
She pointed at me as she said that.
She didn’t care about the record because someone who had seen her skill was there.
Her self-esteem was incredible.
“And I think the contribution ranking is correct. We were able to clear it during that time slot because you were there, and I was able to escape my desires because you helped me.”
Sonya took a step closer.
“But you know……”
Her face warmed as she looked at me.
Moisture gathered in her amber eyes as she looked up at me with a slightly flushed face.
“Touching even my tail was too mean.”
“I’ll be more careful.”
“…It’s not that I disliked it.”
After saying that, she bit her lip.
A brief hesitation.
“N-next time, touch me a little more gently.”
With those final words, Sonya fled the lobby as though running away.
Next time?
Could she really mean collar play……?
I stared blankly in the direction she had disappeared for a while.
Yusera and Sonya, too.
The Seven Heroes were remarkably skilled at flustering people.
***
After fleeing the guild, Sonya returned to her own home.
“Haa……”
Standing before the bathroom mirror, she stared blankly at her reflection.
She kept thinking about what had happened inside the dungeon.
The man who had put a collar around her neck and given her commands.
Kim Mincheol’s voice kept echoing in her ears.
-Stop.
-Sit.
-Good girl.
-Lie down.
-I’ll give you a reward.
Once her imagination started, it wouldn’t stop.
The next scene kept appearing, and the version of her in her imagination continued with the next action to suit the situation.
The desire that had surged inside the dungeon.
Mincheol restraining her.
And the thrilling pain she felt each time she resisted him.
She shook her head vigorously, forcibly erasing the images that came to mind.
“Hoo……”
On the bathroom floor lay the suit and shirt she had brought home, stacked inside the plastic bag.
Normally, she would have left them with the guild’s management team to be disposed of, but today she could not bring herself to do so.
And the reason she had done that was.
“I’m crazy. Sonya, you’re seriously crazy.”
It was because of the white underwear she had taken out last.
It was damp.
No, it was soaked through, to the point that “sodden” was a more accurate description.
It couldn’t have been sweat.
A lycanthrope’s highly active metabolism would evaporate that much sweat with its body heat in no time.
A slick liquid that didn’t wipe away easily.
The cause of that dampness was obvious.
-Sit!
-Lie down!
-Hold on just a little longer. We’re almost finished.
Again.
His voice played back automatically once more.
“Ngh……”
Just recalling his voice made Sonya’s lower abdomen tingle with a sharp ache, and a strange heat rushed between her legs.
She hurriedly covered her cheeks with both hands.
Her face in the mirror was flushed bright red.
Her black ears, which should have been perked up sharply, were laid flat backward in embarrassment, and her full tail had curled between her legs so completely that it was invisible beyond the mirror.
‘I’m one of the Seven Heroes…….’
She had been completely subdued by a male far weaker than herself.
A collar had been forced around her neck, and as she lay face-down on the floor, she had been unable to move as he touched her, moaning.
The gentle hands that had repeatedly pressed down around her tailbone.
The dizzying pleasure and shame she had felt then still remained vivid on her skin.
The wet underwear lying on the floor was humiliating evidence of how aroused she had been by that man.
“I’m crazy……. Sonya, you’re really craaazy……”
Srrk.
In the end, unable to overcome the embarrassment washing over her, Sonya crouched down on the bathroom floor.
“Why did I do that? Why did I say I wanted to use that collar one more time?”
She couldn’t help it.
She had felt that if she didn’t say it, Kim Mincheol would never bring the collar again.
And she couldn’t just leave it at that.
The sensation she had felt then had been too intense.
The white nape where the collar had been fastened tingled.
His scent.
His scent—the perfume he had sprayed, the World Tree’s mana, and Kim Mincheol’s distinctive body odor—seemed to mingle into a male scent that still lingered at the tip of her nose.
-Good girl.
A single word of praise.
She felt as though the pleasure she had felt hearing that praise was greater than the pleasure of conquering the dungeon.
Her heart pounded.
Her lower abdomen grew hot once more.
“Haa……”
The breath escaping between her lips as she buried her face in her hands had become heated and dreamy at some point.
“Y-you’ll bring it next time too……right?”
Tamed by the convenience store part-timer’s touch, she spent the entire night breathing out heated sighs in anticipation of next time.
***
At the same time.
“Achoo!”
After returning home, Kim Mincheol let out an unusually forceful sneeze.
“What was that just now?”