Chapter 167
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Side Story - Park Sihu(2) ༻
“Fuck.”
Sihu… or rather, Sirin, was experiencing some stressful stomachaches these days, why you may ask? The reason was none other than her first love.
“Wow, Mielle, your cake looks amazing. Let me try one.”
“Nn? Sure. Thanks for saying that. Here you go~. I'll give you one more.”
“Awesome. Not only is the cake delicious, but you’re also incredibly nice, it looks like!”
“Oh please. Stop with the flattery! Fufu.”
Fuck.
“Senior Riel. Where are you going with all that stuff?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m in the middle of carrying materials to the laboratory.”
“How are you going to carry that all the way there as a frail mage? Give me half.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“If you really are grateful you can just treat me to a meal as thanks.”
“Are you hitting on me right now?”
“Ehng? My mind is as pure as snow. Do you want to open it up for a look?”
“Hahaha! You’re funny~. Let’s decide on a date later. I’ll take you out to the town.”
“Lucky~”
Fuck.
“Oh~ Professor Deina! Are you still eating some patches of grass?”
“Uhk… You can’t tease professors, okay? You have no idea how much I’m struggling after the King of Iron Mountain incident…”
“I got some sandwiches from Senior Elza. Would you like some?”
“...I will. Thanks as always. And this isn't just some random grass. I’m taking herbs to cook at home.”
“Hoh, so you were having something good the whole time. Can you share it?”
“I, if you come over to my place then… I guess I can give you some.”
***
“Knight Ahjussi~. Do you want to drop by and see Navi?”
“Sure. Is Navi being good these days?”
“Yes! He never goes near the sewers anymore!”
“Of course, he shouldn’t. By the way, Lady Anna? Miss Anna McMillan? Didn’t I tell you to call me ‘Oppa’ and not ‘Ahjussi’?”
“Korin Ahjussi!”
“Sob sob…! Call me oppa just once, and this oppa will buy you one of those popular marinated chickens. You see, I’m a very close friend of Boss Yoon.”
“Hmm~, when I become an adult!”
“Do I need to wait 10 years to be called ‘oppa’...?”
“Can I call you ‘Honey’ when that time comes? My parents said that’s what you use after getting married!”
“That’s one hefty plan you have in mind… Am I not allowed to have a girlfriend then?”
“You cannot! If you do, I’ll call you ahjussi your entire life!”
What the fuck is with this guy.
Korin Lork - the man that I fell for, had an ingenious talent at something.
He was a genius at hitting on girls.
After just sharing a few words with him, for some reason, all the girls started to harbor good feelings towards him.
Honestly, it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand it as a girl myself.
His face was beyond decent, and his personality was well-known across the campus for being great regardless of who he was talking to. On top of that, his manner of speech was also special - each and every one of his words put the other person in a good mood.
What was even more difficult to understand, however, was…
“Hey, Professor Deina gave me some food. Do you want some? It tastes like something I had back on Earth.
“Senior Jenna wanted to grab a meal for dinner. Do you want to come together?
“A while ago, I went to watch a play with Ms. Juri and it was fun. I was kind of looking down on it because it’s like the Middle Ages right now, but damn, they’re using magic for special effects and stuff, and it’s incredible.
“Huh? Nah, dude. Haha, what are you saying? We’re just friends. I’ve never dated anyone before, so don’t you go around teasing me like that.
“Ah~, but I do miss Younghee-noona. She used to invite me for breakfast every day for a sandwich. I miss those.
“I wonder what Hanbyul is doing. Oh right, she used to do Personal Training like me, and was such a nice girl. She gave me a free massage and even brought my lunch when I told her I was starting to get sick of chicken breasts. She was such a hard worker as well.
“Hnn? Why do I know so much about desserts? Have I not mentioned this before? You know, ‘Seyoung’? She was the one that had to be match-fixed because of the coach. We became friends after that and went around the city together. She was always so apologetic that I had to tell her it was fine every time.”
This guy. He's clueless.
It was extremely surprising, but he didn't have a single ulterior motive.
Because he kept flirting without any ulterior motives, the girls accepted his approach comfortably, which naturally escalated to them having feelings for him.
In fact, listening to his stories, it seemed that even ‘guys’ were into him, but he was under the impression that they were his best friends.
What kind of normal male would ask their male friend to go to Hokkaido for hot springs and go to a gay bar together? Korin himself seemed to be thinking that his friend accidentally stumbled upon the bar because he was too drunk, but that certainly didn’t sound like it.
Even though he went down the route of all-boys middle school, all-boys high school, physical education college, and the military, which should have close to zero relations to females, there were so many females around him that it was insane.
And yet he was saying he had never dated anyone let alone gotten close to it, which must be the proof of his horrifying denseness.
“Haa…”
After dropping some sweat in the training room, I went into the sauna and sighed after seeing my muscular body.
There was no longer a single leftover trace of the top celebrity of Yonsei’s Maths Department, Park Sirin.
Back on Earth, I was a popular female college student. The future ahead of me was bright, and there were a bunch of men coming after me.
And yet now, I was forced to physically train myself with a guy who used to be a Personal Trainer at a gym. I wanted to decline, saying that mages had no use for muscles, but there was no other way around it in order to be next to Oppa, who swung his spear the entire day at the training room.
Besides, this guy was bound to attract girls if he was left to his own devices, and I had to avoid him ending up with a woman from this world.
Because Oppa has to go back to Earth with me.
He was already a very affectionate person, so there would be no hope if he ended up with a fake woman from this world and created a family.
“Phew~. These saunas feel amazing~. As expected of a Korean game.”
Until then… I had to make sure this guy wouldn’t turn somewhere else.
“Stop saying that all the time. You sound like an old man.”
“I am an old man if you think about it. I’m over 40 years old if you add my current age with how old I was back on Earth.”
“...Why would you even add those up?”
It seemed that these days, he was having an identity crisis as Korin Lork. I tried to make him think of himself as a different persona than the one in this world, but he was such an optimistic and non-cynical person that it was hard to do so.
“Huu~. I can’t even bulk up anymore. Is this the limit?”
“Well… you look great already.”
Haa… Look at that line coming down from his collarbone to the chest and those abs… Just look at those muscles.
Haa… How can a guy be so handsome? No wonder these bitches are constantly after him.
“By the way, Sihu, you have all these muscles but your face hasn’t changed a single bit.”
“It’s the playable character so there’s no way my face would change that easily.”
Although I had a six-pack thanks to Oppa, my face was still leaning more towards the beautiful side of the spectrum. It was thanks to Park Sihu being a rather femininely handsome character in the game.
“Sihu.”
“N, nn?”
His face came closer in the blink of an eye. Damn it… My heart started to race the moment he closed the distance.
Calm down, my heart… Calm down…
“You know how there’s an event at the start of the 3rd year.”
“...There’s more than one or two so I have no idea what you mean.”
“The cross-dressing one. How about you try that?”
“Ah, like… Come on!”
“What’s wrong? The rewards from that are pretty good, aren’t they? Besides, I can assure you it will work out with your face.”
“Shut your nonsense. There’s no way guys can look like girls.”
“No, like trust me. You’re really pretty, okay? Your eyes are big and you have a beautiful jawline. Honestly, I swear people will mistake you for a girl if you wear a skirt.”
“...Really?”
This wasn’t my real face - it was just the face of Park Sihu from the game. On top of that, I was a guy and yet it felt great when Oppa was giving me compliments about my appearance.
Haa… this is bad.
“...Haa. If you are the one dressing me up, bro, then I’ll think about it.”
“Ohh~. Good stuff. I’ll get you everything starting from a hat to tights.”
“Whatever. Do you have time tonight? I happened to get 2 meal tickets for Holy Panda…”
“Ah, not today. One of our juniors called Yuna said there was something to consult about. She said she’ll buy me a meal.”
“Hah, fuck.”
“Why are you swearing?”
“Haah…”
What was fortunate was that this oppa was unaware of everything despite being one hell of a player.
I had been doing a great job stopping everyone until now, and there was only 1 year left. By then, everything would be over - the final war as well as the main scenario.
***
“Shoot me down~ I won’t fall…! I am Tit—anium~~!”
The only downside to Oppa was that he tended to sing when drunk. It was rare for him to get this drunk but today, he drank without an end and this was the result.
“Ah, please. Can you stop singing? Are you trying to make an announcement to the city or what?”
We couldn’t head back to the Academy in this state. I carried him by the shoulder, thinking that we should head to a nearby motel but that was when he flopped onto the ground.
“I’m… I’m, so fucking sorry…”
Oppa mumbled while shedding drops of tears for some reason. It was hard to tell what he was apologizing for.
“Marie… Hua Ran… Kranel, Yuel… Fuck fuck. Fuck all this shit…”
Whenever he was drunk, he recalled the people he couldn’t save and wept. He was such an idiot though.
Who cares about those NPCs?
“Fuck, fuck… Fuccckkk…! Why did that fucking dam! Why… Why did it explode for no goddamn reason…?!”
Ah, so today it was about Roteon River, huh? It was me who did that though.
“It can’t be helped. No one knew that would happen.”
“We… we lost way too many people, Sihu… Fuck… What the fuck have I been doing…? I fucking knew everything… I… I knew everything and yet…”
We had been together for a very long time, but it was really difficult to understand what was going on in his mind. Why did he grieve for those fakes? Weren’t they just NPCs of a game? Why did he want to treat them like humans so badly?
All he needed to do was look at me. We were the only real ones in this world after all.
“How is that your fault, bro? It’s all because of Tates Valtazar and his vassals. You at least killed Fermack that fucker, right?”
“...Yeah. Fuck. I, I killed him. That son of a bitch. That mother fucker who killed Kranel…”
“There’s still a lot who we need to kill. It’s going to be the demi-human village episode soon; we need to rip those wolf siblings and Dun Scaith. You and I can do this Bro.”
“It’s not enough… Maybe not you… but I’m too weak. I, I need to be stronger…”
Oppa’s achievements were remarkable, to say the least. Unlike me, who had all the systems and the hidden pieces for myself, Oppa had nothing but a spear.
I fed him all the good elixirs and tried my best to help him grow, but there was a clear limit for the feeble side character, Korin Lork. In fact, it was shocking that he was able to reach this far despite those restraints.
Although I wasn’t an expert at martial arts, I could still tell how much time he must have spent when looking at his manipulation of the spear and footwork.
“Haa…”
I knew of a way that would let Oppa become stronger. All I had to do was introduce him to her.
Being an innate master of heroes… that woman would probably help Oppa grow to new heights, but the only problem was…
‘What if Erin Danua also falls for him?’
It was a concern that this innate player might even make his master develop a crush on him.
………
……
…
Korin Lork hitting on girls was a very natural and inevitable turn of events. The important thing was to make sure the women’s favorable impressions were never portrayed to Korin by making it so that the party was composed of only men.
Another important thing was to ensure Korin Lork wouldn’t find out he was popular.
In that sense, Park Sihu… or rather Park Sirin did a fantastic job with her defense. She had been able to stop all sorts of approaches for two straight years, after all.
Love letters? She ripped them apart before they reached him.
The party? She even chased out Lunia, an incredible addition to the party, and filled it with men.
In terms of actual personal interactions in the Academy, that was actually the easiest to prevent out of them all. Korin was always busy training in the training rooms, and Sirin took him out for a mission whenever he was free.
Unable to relay their feelings to Korin, the girls naturally couldn’t help but give up.
‘Saintess, that bitch was a bit of a nuisance though.’
Saintess Estelle Hadassa El Rath. She was a very powerful supporter even in the game, and her prayers were remarkable as a buff. Her prayers were essential to clear the scenario so Sirin couldn’t get rid of her either.
But still, she found a way. It was by putting the New Faith in utter confusion, by fueling Pope Sicarii Iscariot’s charge for heresy.
It was an incredible incident that involved not only the pope but also 12 out of the 18 cardinals. The long fight between the high priests of the order, who denied their charges, and the Saintess was bound to last all the way till the final battle.
Even though it was a shame that her buff wouldn’t be available until then, it didn’t really matter as long as they could get a buff for the final war against Tates Valtazar.
“Sihu…”
With a serious look on his face, Korin said to Sirin, who boasted of an insane defense rate that even managed to fend him off from the most cumbersome woman.
“What’s wrong? Is it something big? Do you want to chat at Holy Panda?”
“I got a kid.”
“...What?”
“Aiya~ you see. Like… it’s a bit funny to say it because it’s with a boss character, but I became close with Princess Miru at the royal banquet. But anyway, I’m a daddy now! Now’s the time for your best wishes!”
“...”
“Sihu?”
“You freaking mother fucker.”
“???”