Chapter 28
Looking down at Cha Eun-joo, who was obediently letting me stroke her head, I sorted through the expected results of the academy entrance exam in my head.
‘That bastard Seo Woojin probably passed the entrance exam itself, at least.’
They probably couldn’t openly pass him right in front of us without arousing suspicion, but they must have found some way to get him through, whether by having him retake the exam or giving him a slight advantage.
To keep us from mentioning the existence of the boss monster—the Owlbear—the best way to guarantee our silence was to admit us to the academy. Since the exam we took was the first round, they would have had plenty of opportunities to make him retake it later alongside the regular students.
‘Even so, unlike in the original story, Han Sora will probably be the top scorer in this entrance exam.’
The fact that Han Sora received the Owlbear’s heart as a reward for subjugating it left almost no room for doubt. If a goblin heart was worth about five points and an orc heart about ten, then the Owlbear’s heart was probably worth around 200 points.
It might look as though they had handed out points like prizes at a school retreat after making us suffer for an hour and a half, but having applicants subjugate an Owlbear was an absurd feat in the first place.
…There had been a bit of an argument over whether Han Sora should receive the most valuable material, the heart, but in the end, everything had worked out.
‘As I said earlier, Han Sora was the one who killed the Owlbear, so let’s have her take the heart.’
‘What are you talking about, Lee Seonho? You suffered the most, so you should take the heart! Everyone else is saying the same thing!’
‘I only suffered the most because my ability isn’t very useful in combat. Think about it objectively. Do you really think anyone among us besides you, Han Sora, even had a chance of killing the Owlbear alone?’
‘Th-that may not be true. But me taking the heart….’
‘If you really think I suffered the most, Han Sora, then you should follow what I’m saying for now. And don’t forget that suffering and being useful are two completely separate things.’
‘…Haa, fine.’
In the end, she had been forced to accept the material because she couldn’t overcome my counterargument that Han Sora was the only one among us who had been capable of killing the Owlbear.
The plan itself would have been impossible without Han Sora. Although her accuracy was low, once she had allies who could support her, she was someone whose firepower could definitely be trusted.
Han Sora wore an uneasy expression after receiving the material, but this was something we had to settle fairly.
Even in an actual Hunter party, combat support was stuck with whatever materials were left over, and considering our future relationship, I had to pretend to be kind even more than necessary.
Most importantly, if I received the Owlbear’s heart and somehow became the top scorer in the entrance exam, I wouldn’t be able to handle the attention. Honestly, that was the main reason I had shifted half that burden onto Han Sora.
‘Then the heart is settled. I think either Isabel or Eun-joo should take the brain….’
‘N-no…! The brain, the brain absolutely has to go to Seonho!’
‘I told you, Eun-joo. Materials should be distributed based on how much someone contributed to the battle, not how much they suffered….’
‘I-if Seonho doesn’t take the brain, I won’t take any materials either! I-I absolutely, absolutely won’t give in on this, even if it’s you, Seonho…!!’
‘All right, I understand. Sorry, Isabel. I guess I’ll have to take the brain.’
-Shake, shake.
‘N-no…. I-I don’t mind L-Lee Seonho taking it….’
…I had been unable to give up the second-most valuable material, the brain, because of Cha Eun-joo’s fierce opposition.
Pretending to be kind was meant to build favorability with the heroines and lower their guard, so there was no need to refuse so excessively that my favorability would drop. In the end, it was decided that I would take the brain.
That left the hide as the most valuable of the remaining materials, with the rest consisting of by-products such as teeth and claws. Since all the by-products together were worth about as much as the hide, Cha Eun-joo and Kim Isabel divided the remaining materials between them. Their pouches had one and three slots, respectively, so the numbers worked out perfectly too.
Naturally, Seo Woojin received nothing—not even a claw clipping—for not participating in the battle.
-Stroke, stroke.
“Kuh, snooore…. Snooore….”
I really need to get better and get up soon. That way, I can take her on dates and have sex with her too.
Watching Cha Eun-joo pretend to sleep so diligently even after I had been rubbing her head for more than ten minutes kept making my thoughts drift south.
‘Should I sneakily fondle her breasts while I have the chance?’
I had already gotten a look last time anyway, and I was just considering whether to touch Cha Eun-joo’s breasts while she pretended to sleep like this when—
-Rattle.
“What the hell, you really were hurt? I thought you were just joking around.”
A senior with a pink ponytail, whom I felt I hadn’t seen in quite some time, barged into the hospital room.
…It would have been a disaster if I had been touching her breasts.
“Hello, Senior. Did you come to visit me?”
“Not exactly a hospital visit. I stopped by on my way home after working out. I thought maybe you were pretending to be hurt so you could skip training because you didn’t feel like exercising.”
“Of course not. Ah, I’m sorry I contacted you so late yesterday. By the time the emergency treatment was over, it was already past ten at night….”
“It’s fine. You’re a patient, so these things happen. I’m not going to scold you over that.”
Perhaps because she was an athlete, that cool personality was another one of Choi Mari’s strengths.
Later, with 「Suggestion : Hypnosis」 active, would she coolly put my thing in her mouth, saying that sucking dick was no big deal?
Choi Mari seemed to have no idea I was entertaining such lewd thoughts as she simply looked over my injuries and spoke.
“By the way, you’re pretty incredible too. How did you manage to get that badly hurt fighting a hologram monster? Did you accidentally get hit by friendly fire or something?”
“It wasn’t a hologram monster, Senior.”
“Hm?”
“It seems they changed the exam this year to involve subjugating real monsters. We really entered a dungeon gate, fought goblins and orcs, and came back out.”
“…Seriously? Did the government approve that?”
“I don’t know either. But it’s Cheonmu Academy.”
“Ah, true. If it’s Cheonmu, then I suppose….”
“Anyway, I feel like I did well on the exam itself, so you don’t need to worry.”
“…Even after getting hurt like that?”
“Just say I worked hard enough to get hurt, Senior.”
“Hmm….”
Choi Mari surveyed my fractured body suspiciously from head to toe, folded her arms, and casually muttered,
“The Support department really is the Support department. You’re normally sturdy, but one beating from an orc left you this badly hurt.”
-Jerk!
“N-no! Seonho wasn’t hit by an orc, but an O—?!”
“Good grief. She was awake?”
“…She must have just woken up after hearing your voice.”
“So, not an orc, but what? Did you get hurt after being hit by some other monster?”
“…It was a ‘variant orc,’ I think. I got hurt pretty badly because of it, but variant orcs are worth a lot of points, so I’m almost certain I passed.”
“Ah, a variant orc. If something like that showed up, then I can see how you’d get hurt.”
…That was close. Cha Eun-joo, offended by the suggestion that I had merely been knocked out by an orc, had almost mentioned the Owlbear. Fortunately, I immediately pushed her head back down onto the bed.
The academy was still considering whether to reveal that we had subjugated an Owlbear, so it was better to keep quiet. They would probably reveal it in the end, but if we mentioned it first, the academy might take issue with it.
By the way, if she was going to pretend to be asleep, she should have kept it up until the end. At this point, she had practically admitted that she had been pretending the entire time.
“You’re awake, Cha Eun-joo?”
“Ah, y-yeah…. I just woke up….”
“If you’re awake, say hello. That’s Senior Choi Mari over there. She’s also one year ahead of us at the academy.”
“Ah, h-hello…. I-I’m Cha Eun-joo…. M-Magic department….”
“She’s the friend I told you about last time, the one taking the practical exam with me. This is Cha Eun-joo, and she’ll probably be entering the Magic department as a freshman next year.”
“…Hmm, I see? I’m Choi Mari from the Shield department. Nice to meet you, Cha Eun-joo.”
Cha Eun-joo still seemed a little flustered when greeting new people, stammering as she bowed her head.
For some reason, Choi Mari looked Cha Eun-joo up and down before offering her a handshake.
‘She’s not suddenly going to mention that compliment I gave her last time—saying she was prettier than Cha Eun-joo—is she?’
If she brought something like that up to my face, it would be incredibly difficult for me to take either person’s side.
Even though Cha Eun-joo was relatively easy to placate, siding with Choi Mari for that reason would be a little strange. I couldn’t exactly reward the well-behaved one with an extra treat.
At the same time, I didn’t want to lower Choi Mari’s favorability when I was still only in the early stages of winning her over. It was the kind of dilemma that arose when courting several women at once.
“Once you enter the academy next year, we might see each other often. If we end up taking the same classes, I’ll be counting on you then.”
“Y-yes, yes…! I-I’ll be counting on you too…!”
“I’ve confirmed you aren’t faking your injury, so I’ll get going. When will you start coming back to training?”
“They say I can probably be discharged in about three days. But I think it’ll be about a week before I can start exercising again.”
“I’m not going to make you come back before you’re ready, so only show up once you’re completely healed. Don’t overdo it and get hurt again when you got knocked flat by an orc.”
“…It wasn’t an orc.”
“Hm?”
“Ah, it’s nothing, Senior. Thank you for worrying about me.”
“And this is a get-well gift.”
-Whoosh, smack.
Something gold came flying toward me in a parabola, and I caught it reflexively. What Choi Mari had thrown me was a mini chocolate bar about two finger-joints long.
It was the kind she carried around to eat when she ran low on energy while exercising.
She hadn’t brought it specifically for me; it felt more like she had tossed me one she had left over. As proof, the chocolate was slightly soft, with traces of having melted from the warmth of Choi Mari’s thigh.
…Personally, I much preferred it this way, so I didn’t particularly mind.
“That isn’t a gift, Senior. You’re just giving me one you already started eating.”
“What, punk? It’s punishment for making your senior wait yesterday.”
“Then I can’t help it. Still, thank you for coming.”
“All right. Once you’re healed, make sure you come back to training.”
“Yes, Senior. Take care.”
-Rattle, thud.
It had been a bit of a whirlwind hospital visit, but Choi Mari’s brief visit had somehow brightened the atmosphere.
Maybe seeing a familiar face again after going without it every day had given me a boost of energy.
I liked Cha Eun-joo, but I liked Choi Mari too. It would obviously be even better to hold them both at once.
……
“What’s wrong, Eun-joo?”
“…Hmph, I don’t know.”
Her cute puffed cheeks and sulking expression… this was unmistakably 100% jealousy.
She must have been annoyed because Cha Eun-joo and I were close enough for her to let me touch her breasts, yet I was talking as though I had known Choi Mari longer than I had known her.
If another woman showed signs of jealousy, I would probably feel pressured and anxious to resolve it quickly, but for some reason, Cha Eun-joo’s jealousy just seemed cute.
‘I’m sorry, but this is an emotion you’ll have to get used to from now on.’
Cha Eun-joo might be perfectly satisfied with just me, but I had not the slightest intention of being satisfied with just Cha Eun-joo.
As I waited for mealtime while slowly stroking her head again to soothe her sulking mood, the hospital-room door opened and yet another person entered.