Chapter 24
Kim Isabel collapsed feebly, unable to withstand the fatigue that had built up in her body. And Seo Woojin coldly abandoned her and ran away.
Seeing everything unfold exactly as in the original story, I nearly let a smile escape my lips.
‘No, I can’t. I mustn’t get excited already.’
No matter how well things were proceeding according to plan, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down. In any case, the fact remained that I had to subjugate the Owlbear right in front of me alongside ‘my women.’
And although I had temporarily frightened Kim Isabel to set up the situation, I didn’t feel particularly good about that, either.
“Hey, Seo Woojin! Hey!!”
Han Sora shouted while watching the protagonist’s back as he disappeared into the distance, but that panicked fool probably couldn’t hear her at all.
In the original story, Kim Isabel and Han Sora would struggle to hold out in isolation before the protagonist reflected on his actions and returned to save them from the crisis… But of course, I had no intention of letting the story proceed so conveniently for him.
“Damn it, seriously! Now that it’s come to this….”
“Han Sora, you run away with Cha Eun-joo first. I’ll go get Kim Isabel.”
“What?!”
“Eun-joo, go on ahead!”
“N-no, Seonho! You can’t go!!”
I set Cha Eun-joo down from my arms, then changed direction and ran toward the fallen Kim Isabel.
My heart ached at Cha Eun-joo’s voice calling for me from behind, but rescuing Kim Isabel from the Owlbear came first.
‘Grrrrrrrr!’
“……”
-Splat!
Startled by the approaching Owlbear, Kim Isabel hurriedly tried to get up, only to fall over again.
At a glance, it looked as though she was in danger, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case. This monster had been designed to capture her, not kill her, in the first place.
…Being captured would probably lead Kim Isabel to an even worse future in its own way, so I still had to rescue her.
“Isabel, get up quickly!”
“……”
Seeing the Owlbear approaching from behind and me approaching from the front, Kim Isabel was frightened by both of us instead.
Considering her trauma, it couldn’t be helped, but for now, I had to move Kim Isabel along by force, more or less.
…Besides, I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to use Suggestion on Kim Isabel amid the confusion.
“Isabel, get up quickly!”
“……Mmph! P-please, don’t come….”
-Grab!
“Hic…!!”
I had only grabbed her wrist, but Kim Isabel trembled and made a sound as though she were about to burst into tears.
I felt as though I could hear her terrified heartbeat all the way from where I was. I thought I had built up some favorability with her, but simply being a man was enough to make her this terrified.
It might actually be better this way. If fear prevented her from thinking clearly, it would also make it a little harder for her to resist the Suggestion I cast on her.
「Suggestion : Succubus’s Heart ※ Target : Isabel Maria Kim」
“Hh, h, gasp…! H-haah, haah, haah…?”
There were several Suggestions that could temporarily eliminate her fear of men, but the one I chose was Succubus’s Heart, which made her feel affection for a man in an instant.
There wasn’t another man around besides me, for one thing, and this made it easy to have her mistake the pounding emotion caused by fear for her own affection.
Unlike Cha Eun-joo, who had completely accepted my Suggestion, this one consumed nearly half my mana, but the important thing was that it had worked.
“This won’t do. Sorry, Isabel!”
-Flash.
“Haa, w-wait, please….”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to grant your request right now! I know you’re afraid of men, but please bear with it for just a little while!”
“……Y-yes.”
What exactly was Kim Isabel feeling toward me right now?
Did it feel as though her fear had disappeared and been replaced by affection, or was she confused because she was feeling fear and affection at the same time?
…Or, true to her nature as a succubus, was she feeling lust as she looked at me, a man?
“Hold on tight!”
“……Yes.”
-Squeeze.
One thing was certain: Kim Isabel’s fear of men had been temporarily suppressed.
After making sure that her slender hands had wrapped around the back of my neck, I moved away from the Owlbear as quickly as possible.
‘Grrrrrrrrrr!!’
-Boom!!
“Kyaaaah!!”
Not long afterward, the Owlbear’s massive arm came crashing down on the spot where I had been standing.
Seeing the mark it had left after striking with enough force to leave a handprint, the fear I had momentarily forgotten amid my desire began to rise again.
‘I’ve been showing off long enough. It’s time to take this thing down.’
There was no way I, with the physical abilities of an ordinary person, could hold out against the Owlbear for long. Above all, we had to finish the entire battle before Seo Woojin returned.
First, we had to reorganize our formation, using the positions Seo Woojin, Han Sora, and Kim Isabel had occupied when they defeated the Owlbear in the original story as a reference.
When the runaway protagonist returned and the three of them were together again, Seo Woojin confronted the Owlbear alone at the front, using his temporarily enhanced swordsmanship.
While Seo Woojin held it off, Kim Isabel memorized ‘Holy Chains,’ which could bind the Owlbear’s body, while Han Sora prepared ‘Careful Shot’ from the rear, a skill capable of bringing down the monster.
In other words, Cha Eun-joo and I had to divide the role Seo Woojin had played in the original story between us. Somehow.
-Wham!
‘Grrrrrrrr!!’
“Get away from Seonho, you monster!!”
Fortunately, Cha Eun-joo had drawn the Owlbear’s attention toward herself at just the right moment.
Her magic couldn’t inflict direct damage on the Owlbear, but it could interfere with its movements and buy us some time.
…Of course, one mistake would still put Cha Eun-joo in danger, so I would have to back her up.
“Han Sora!”
“What?!”
“You said you’re in Archery! Have you ever hunted an Owlbear before?!”
“Do you think I have?! There’s no way I can hit something that moves that fast!”
“If we bind its movements somehow, can you kill it?!”
“…I-I can, but how are we supposed to….”
“You said you could, didn’t you?!”
“How exactly are you planning to do that?! You’re not a vanguard—you’re in Support!”
Now that Han Sora had confirmed that she could do it, it was Kim Isabel’s turn.
“Isabel!”
“Y-yes…!!”
“Can you use Holy Chains?! Binding Light or Dim Flash would work too!”
“I-I can use Holy Chains! B-but it’ll take about a minute to memorize the spell….”
“It doesn’t matter! Use Holy Chains on that thing and bind it somehow! And you, Han Sora, get ready, then drive an arrow between its eyes the moment it’s bound!”
“Are you insane?! You’re seriously planning to kill that thing?!”
“We don’t have any other choice! Please, just trust me this once!”
“Almighty Aither, god of light, grant me the holy power to stand against my enemy….”
“…Ah, seriously! D-don’t blame me if I miss, okay?!”
Perhaps thanks to Succubus’s Heart, Kim Isabel was able to speak comfortably even with me, a man, as she prepared Holy Chains, while Han Sora memorized Careful Shot, driven by the responsibility that kept her from running away alone while Isabel and I prepared for battle.
While Isabel memorized the spell, Cha Eun-joo ended up getting too close to the Owlbear, so I pulled her into my arms again and widened the distance between us.
-Screech!
“Hyaaah?!”
“Keep firing magic at it, Cha Eun-joo! We have to keep its attention on us somehow!”
“I-in this state?!”
“You’re the only one who can do it right now! Please, Cha Eun-joo!”
“O-okay! D-Dark Spear!”
-Thrust!
‘Grrrrrrrr!!’
-Whoooosh!
Though it wasn’t injured, the Owlbear had grown furious after being constantly pestered by those irritating attacks and began wildly swinging its arms at Cha Eun-joo and me.
I wanted to leap over that enormous hand and dodge it stylishly, but that was impossible for someone like me who didn’t possess a physical enhancement ability. On top of that, I was carrying the extra weight of a woman in my arms.
-Whoooosh!!
“Hyaaah!! D-Dark Spear!!”
Thanks to Adrenaline Explosion, I was somehow holding out, but an ordinary human body naturally had its limits.
The fatigue building up in my limbs could no longer be concealed even by the overflowing adrenaline, and I was nearly at my limit as well.
‘Please, just finish it somehow!’
If possible, before Seo Woojin arrived.
After going this far, if that bastard returned and stole the spotlight from me, I felt I would be too indignant to sleep.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“Huff, huff, huff.”
After running blindly for several minutes, desperately forcing out the breath that had risen to his throat,
Seo Woojin finally recovered from the panic caused by encountering the massive monster and realized that not a single person was running alongside him.
“Han Sora…?”
His childhood friend Han Sora, who had been nagging him at his side throughout the practical exam, was nowhere to be seen. Neither were the girl named Cha Eun-joo whom he had met in the waiting room earlier, nor the male student from the Support department.
He had assumed that they would be running from the Owlbear just like him, even if they had fallen a little behind, but for some reason, he was the only one left.
…Although the nameless girl who appeared to be from Recovery had probably already been dealt with.
“……”
He belatedly remembered what he had done earlier: ignoring the girl who had fallen beside him and running away.
If he had only kept his wits about him, he could have saved her easily enough. But he had been paralyzed by fear at the sight of the massive monster and had been unable to do anything.
And Han Sora probably… couldn’t have ignored that fallen girl. He knew Han Sora’s personality better than anyone, having watched her since they were children.
“Damn it….”
What the hell was he doing calling himself a Hunter hopeful?
He hadn’t even been able to protect his most precious friend, nor a single frail girl. What was he hoping to accomplish by calling himself a Hunter hopeful?
What meaning was there in running away alone like this?
“If only I had more strength….”
He was growing impatient with the desire to become stronger quickly.
He had looked into ways to become a popular Hunter so he could make use of his ‘ability to grow stronger the more he is loved by the opposite sex,’ and he had mingled with people on websites where Hunters and Hunter Academy students gathered.
For someone as introverted as him, he had no other choice. No matter what kind of ability he possessed, meeting people in person was still frightening.
So he had built up favorability with various people online and gradually grown stronger. By now, he was strong enough to comfortably kill a single goblin.
But the fact remained that he had ultimately done nothing when it mattered.
…Both on that day five years ago and now.
‘…It might not be too late yet.’
Although he had fled in such a pathetic manner, and although there was no guarantee that he could defeat that terrifying monster even if he returned,
…he didn’t think he could forgive himself for running away so cowardly.
-Grip.
“……”
-Patter, patter!
Clutching the sword in his hand tightly, Seo Woojin retraced the path he had run along alone.
For the first time in his life, the courage he had summoned burned fiercely in his eyes.