Chapter 35
“I-I’ll try Mr. Lee Seonho’s mental buff… j-just once….”
Nice!
No, calm down. Don’t get excited; act as calmly as possible.
I absolutely must not let these feelings I’m experiencing show. The moment I openly look pleased after hearing her say she’ll accept the buff, what would Kim Isabel think?
Wouldn’t she wonder whether I was trying to use her for some strange purpose under the pretext of giving her a buff?
She would obviously become wary, wondering whether this was actually a mind-controlling skill rather than a buff.
“All right. If you want it, Isabel, I’ll help you.”
As shamelessly and naturally as possible.
I answer without letting even the slightest hint of a sly smile escape.
I act as though I’m doing this for her rather than because I particularly want to. That way, Isabel will lower her guard and be willing to try again when she lets me use suggestion on her next time.
“A-and, and also….”
“Hm?”
“I-I’m really sorry to ask this, but… c-could I have it for just about ten seconds…?”
“……”
“C-could you give it to me for exactly ten seconds as a test, and then remove it immediately…?”
…Right. I had wondered why everything seemed to be going so smoothly.
There was no way that overly cautious priest girl would allow me to touch her so easily.
Of course, even considering that, bringing our relationship this far in such a short time was unquestionably a major gain, so there was no need to become impatient.
“Sure, of course.”
“Th-thank you….”
“You don’t need to feel sorry. I think a mental buff can sound frightening enough to someone hearing about one for the first time. Just saying you’ll try it, even briefly, shows a good attitude.”
“Y-yes….”
“Then, for me to give you the buff, Isabel’s head needs to touch my palm….”
“……”
“……”
Kim Isabel stood almost at the door and couldn’t bring herself to approach my bed, so there was no way it would work in her current state.
If she could just muster her courage once and place her head against my right hand, everything would be easy. But if everything went smoothly just because I wished for it, there would have been no reason to spend so much time and effort pursuing Kim Isabel.
To prove that I was completely harmless to Kim Isabel, I needed to put her at ease, at least through what she could see.
“You seem uncomfortable with me continuing to look at you, so I’ll just turn my head away and close my eyes like this. Whenever you’re ready, Isabel, you can come over and place your head against my hand.”
“Y-you don’t have to go that far….”
“It’s all right, so don’t worry about it. If it seems too difficult to do today, it’s fine to wait for another opportunity.”
“……”
I act considerate on the surface, but with my words, I keep prodding Kim Isabel’s conscience.
As if warning her that this situation won’t end unless she brings her head to my hand herself.
“……”
-Step
“……”
-Step
How many minutes passed like that?
From the doorway, the sound of Kim Isabel’s footsteps slowly approaching me, one step at a time over the course of several minutes.
I waited quietly for the right moment, neither looking toward her nor urging her on as she slowly approached over a long period of time.
-Swoosh
“Hh, hhaa….”
Along with a sobbing sound as though she were trying to hold back a scream, the crown of Kim Isabel’s head, wrapped in cloth, finally touched my right hand.
「Suggestion : Heart of a Succubus ※ Target : Isabel Maria Kim」
…It takes quite a lot of mana, more than I expected. As I thought, unlike with Cha Eun-joo, applying it from the start without resistance is pretty difficult.
Still, this was well within what my mana could handle. The amount consumed was about the same as when I used the suggestion on her amid the chaos of the practical exam.
“I’ve cast it, Isabel.”
“Y-yes…. I can feel it too….”
“How do you feel? Are you still afraid of me?”
“……”
She stood still as though checking the ‘buff’ placed on her, then cautiously turned her head toward me.
Then she slowly shook her veiled head from side to side.
“No, I’m not afraid.”
“Then how do you feel?”
“For some reason, I feel at ease around you, Mr. Lee Seonho, as though you’re someone I need.”
“…The latter part must be a side effect. Sorry. I’ll look into a slightly different buff next time.”
“No, I don’t think you need to go that far. Even this alone seems to have almost completely erased my aversion to men.”
Just having her androphobia disappear made it feel as though I were speaking with an entirely different person. It was probably because her stutter had vanished and her restless anxiety had settled down.
Even with her face hidden behind a veil, the fact that she was facing me directly made it feel as though we were making eye contact and having a conversation.
“Let’s start by using this to get you accustomed to men. If we do that, eventually you’ll probably be able to stop being afraid of men even without the buff.”
“…I suffered from this condition for almost ten years, so it feels strange to have it disappear so anticlimactically. Still, I suppose I’m fortunate that I at least got the chance to cure it through you, Mr. Lee Seonho.”
“I’m glad you’re being positive. In any case, ten seconds have already passed, Isabel.”
“Ah, ten seconds…. Come to think of it, we did make that promise.”
It was a contract the version of herself who had feared men moments ago had put in place as a safety measure, but now that her phobia had vanished, she seemed to regret it somewhat.
I wanted to go much further with Kim Isabel while she was under ‘Heart of a Succubus’ too, but for now, I had to be firm and exercise restraint.
At the beginning, building absolute trust was the most important thing. Even if she herself wanted the suggestion to continue, I had to end it decisively so I could earn her trust after it wore off.
She would think, ‘He’s someone who keeps his promises even when I’ve lost my self-control,’ and feel a little less resistance the next time she entrusted her head to me.
“Mr. Lee Seonho, could I perhaps have just a little more….”
“Even if you don’t want me to remove it, let’s remove it for now. That’s what we promised at the start.”
“……”
“Instead, we can set a longer duration next time. I think gradually extending it like that is the right way to get you used to it.”
“…Yes. I’m sorry for being unreasonable, Mr. Lee Seonho.”
Her answer sounded somehow dejected, and my own chest tightened a little, but this too was merely part of building trust.
It would probably take at least a month before I could use ‘hypnosis’ on her. Starting proper training would require even more time.
Even if it took more than a year, I didn’t care. One or two years was a cheap price to pay for turning the heroines from the original story into my sex slaves.
-Swoosh
“……”
Kim Isabel quietly brought her head to my right hand again in response to my firm attitude, so I immediately removed the suggestion without hesitation.
「Suggestion Removed」
“It’s ove—”
“Hhup…?!”
-Crash…!!
“……”
…Even though the suggestion had been removed, I hadn’t expected the difference to be this extreme.
The moment ‘Heart of a Succubus’ was removed, Kim Isabel treated me like some kind of monster and fled. I had expected it to some extent, but it was still enough to hurt even me a little.
“Haa, h-hhaaah….”
“…Um, Isabel.”
“I-I-I-I’m sorry…!!!”
-Rattle, slam!
“No, wait….”
…I haven’t received my evening treatment yet.
I hope this doesn’t end up extending my hospital stay later.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“Haa, haa, haa….”
The private hospital room where she had been alone with a man.
Kim Isabel, who had briefly been under the ‘buff’ and only came to her senses afterward, fled Lee Seonho’s room as though running away.
-Thump, thump, thump….
“Haa, haaah, haa….”
Her heart pounded as though it might burst. Her breath came in ragged gasps.
It was not the emotion one felt upon meeting someone of the opposite sex one liked. The emotion Isabel had felt toward Lee Seonho at the very end had unquestionably been closer to fear.
It was even more frightening because it was a fear that had struck at an unexpected moment. Just moments ago, she had thought she would be all right, but the instant the buff ended, every one of those emotions had vanished as though they had been lies.
‘Even though I was under the buff, how could I have accepted a man’s touch so naturally….’
His ability was definitely dangerous.
It could even casually correct her very personality as an androphobe.
What was more, while under the buff, she had wanted that time to continue rather than end, contrary to the promise they had originally made. She had even completely forgotten what she herself had said when she first received the buff.
If he had not answered so firmly, she might still be treating him with those manufactured, false emotions.
‘Even if you don’t want to remove it, let’s remove it for now. That’s what we promised.’
“……”
I’m a bad woman. A wicked woman. A worthless piece of trash.
A selfish woman who took only the sweetness she wanted and then ran away.
Unlike Lee Seonho, who had thought of her until the very end, she had bolted the moment she came to her senses—and had even condemned his ability as dangerous.
She couldn’t even consider herself fortunate that, despite how dangerous the ability was, it belonged to someone like Lee Seonho.
‘This means I haven’t improved at all since the practical exam….’
Unlike him, who always thought of others first and constantly sacrificed himself, she was doing nothing but wicked things under the excuse of her phobia.
Even just now, Lee Seonho had done nothing wrong, yet she had run away simply because she was afraid of him.
She was sickened by herself for returning his kindness with rudeness after receiving his help so many times.
Whenever she hesitated to approach him, she found herself resenting herself more and more.
‘I truly hate having this condition now….’
Until now, she had never felt this frustrated simply because she was unable to treat male patients.
But whenever she did something discourteous to Lee Seonho, her chest kept aching as though it were being pricked.
She still had not repaid all the kindness he had shown her before. If she even managed to have her androphobia treated here, how much kindness would she have to repay him?
In truth, repaying his kindness itself was not a problem. To Kim Isabel, Lee Seonho was already the man she trusted most and a benefactor who had shown her kindness far beyond what she deserved.
…What frightened her most was that this condition called androphobia would prevent her from repaying him even if she wanted to.
In other words, to repay the kindness she owed Lee Seonho, paradoxically, she would have to continue receiving ‘androphobia treatment’ from him in the future.
‘…It should be all right. He doesn’t seem like someone who would do anything bad.’
If his purpose had been to do something improper to her, as her adoptive father had, he had already had more than enough opportunities.
Even just now, when her wariness toward men had weakened, Lee Seonho had not shown the slightest sign of trying to take advantage of her.
That was why she could trust him. Unlike other men, he was someone who would never approach her with some strange ulterior motive.
…Besides, Mr. Lee Seonho already had a pretty girlfriend named Cha Eun-joo. There was no reason for him to make strange advances toward someone whose face he had never even seen.
“……”
…But why?
Now that she realized that Lee Seonho—the first man she had come to trust—already had a girlfriend, Kim Isabel somehow felt a renewed ache in one corner of her chest.